Jeff Kramer — Yeah, that Jeff Kramer — Just Published His First Novel

By Mary Beth Roach

 

Central New Yorkers got to know humor writer Jeff Kramer as a highly popular columnist for the Syracuse Post-Standard and the Syracuse New Times and then as a playwright.

Now, he’s taken his brand of wit and his writing skills into a new genre with his debut novel, “Mud Season.”

Although it was released just this past spring, it was actually about 25 years in the making.

“It’s a monument to procrastination,” he joked.

“Mud Season” is a story inside a story. The main character, Atwood “Woody” Hackworth, is a former reporter who was let go from a local newspaper but is now trying to achieve some sort of fame — and get some revenge on his one-time employer — by writing a book titled, “Fear as Mud.” Woody’s main character is Cus, also a reporter, who is working on exposé on an illegal toxic waste dumping operation in his town being run by his wife’s family, who happens to be in the concrete business.

Woody has been releasing installments of the book on social media, inviting readers to make comments and suggestions. It doesn’t take long for Woody’s readers and others in his hometown of Icarus to assume that his wife, Mandy, and her family, who are in the construction business, are involved in some illegal toxic waste dumping of their own. Rifts develop within the family, forcing Woody to re-examine his life’s priorities.

“I wanted to write something that was funny.  But on a deeper level, I think it’s about that classic family versus ambition, the choices that have to get made. He puts himself in that position, having to ultimately make a choice.  He avoids it as long as he can and I think that’s the central drama of the book — how is he going to get out of this mess.”

The book’s title, in part, alludes to that mess Woody finds himself in. Mud is slang for cement. It’s often joked that in the Northeast, where the book is set, there are five seasons — spring, summer, fall, winter and mud season. And then there’s the “existential mud that Woody is in,” Kramer explained.

Kramer explained that when he first started writing the book, he got about 80 pages in but then found himself stonewalled. He put it aside for about six months, picked it up again and although he liked the dialogue, he was underwhelmed by the prose. When he discussed this writing dilemma with a novelist friend of his, she suggested he write plays. So, he wrote three plays. The Golden Bitch in 2017; Reaching For Marsby in 2012 and Downlow Lies, in 2007.

He likened playwriting to a train cresting the hill, struggling to get up to the top. “But then you hit this top, the momentum starts to build behind it and the characters start talking to you. It’s really a fun part of it,” he said.

Despite the success he found as a playwright, he couldn’t get the book out of his head, he said.

In the 25 years since first starting the manuscript, social media evolved and Kramer came up with the idea that his main character would write in real time, post the book as he goes and then handle, possibly incorporate, the feedback.

Readers may wonder how much of Kramer is in Woody or vice versa?

“Woody’s circumstances are somewhat similar to mine,” he said. “I’d like to think I have more spine.”

Although Kramer said he can understand Woody’s feeling of the need to do something, but now, at the age of 63, he said he has gained a little more perspective on the importance of fame compared to other of life’s aspects. “Now I just want to get up and feel good,” he said, laughing.

While Woody comes to rely on social media in putting together his book, does Kramer consider that an effective tool in writing?

“I think it could be, if you were maybe a little more impervious to public opinion than Woody is. He’s so suggestible and that gets him into trouble. I think if you had a clear vision of what you wanted to do and weren’t going to let yourself get disrupted by the bad stuff and maybe incorporate the good stuff,” he said.

And speaking of similarities, are there any between Central New York and Woody’s hometown of Icarus, which is located at the corner of Rundown and Revitalized nearby Lake Ranswill?

Kramer responded to that question with a chuckle.  “If you happen to see some parallels, I’m not going to get in the way.”

And while there maybe some similarities (or not) between Kramer and Woody and between Syracuse and Icarus, he is quick to point out that his wife, Leigh, is not at all like Woody’s or Cus’ wives.

He called her a “co-conspirator” in helping him write the book and he dedicated it to her because she was so much help. He would read passages to her; sometimes, she’d love it and laugh out loud, other times she might not agree with a character’s reaction and Kramer said he’d take another swing at it.

Going from writing a column to plays to a book, he said “worked like steppingstones,” he said.

“The columns are self-contained. They taught me brevity and the economy of language. I wrote primarily a humor column, which means it’s not necessary. It’s an appendage to the paper. I think my column could be compared to potato chips, not good for you particularly, but hopefully hard to resist,” he said.

It’s the wit that winds its way through the book. The sharp dialogue and short chapters give the story energy and keep the reader engaged.

Still promoting this book, Kramer isn’t sure he’s quite ready to take on another just yet, although he’s got some ideas for a couple of plays and perhaps a historical novel.