Ovoid, Illinois (ePub)

'Ovoid, Illinois' is set in a microscopically small town in the American Midwest of the late 1960's. The tale tells of the final high school year of Cheryl-Jean Billingham, cheerleader, aspiring journalist and daughter of the ambitious ex-mayor and Duncan Reynard, singer, musician and eldest son of the town barber. Although of different social circles and circumstances, the two are brought together in a bitter-sweet romance by controversy resulting from faculty in-fighting regarding the high school musical. Cheryl-Jean takes it upon herself to fight on behalf of Duncan, who she feels has been slighted. She quickly finds herself embroiled in faculty politics, small town political wrangling and the larger societal picture of the tumultuous 1960's. She is faced with the dilemma of creating a rift between herself and her loving yet patronizing father, undermining her own social status and taking a principled stand in defending both Duncan and the high school's music director, Gordon Lehmann. Mr Lehmann, a closeted homosexual, is the target of a witch-hunt lead by the self-righteous and self-promoting, drama teacher, Mrs. Thalia Beaudelaire, who hopes to gain social prominence by threatening to 'out' him.

Ovoid, Illinois is further populated by quirky, small-town eccentrics, religious fanatics, religious iconoclasts, fractious immigrants, drunks, war heroes, war protestors, cheerleaders, football jocks, nascent hippies, novice fascists, a teen megalomaniac, an over-weight and over-bearing sheriff, a sexually over-active vice-principal and a hard rock band which makes music so loud and so bizarre that it drives domestic animals to a primal frenzy.

Ovoid, Illinois; a place of quiet, pastoral tradition.

Ovoid, Illinois; a real nice place to raise your kids.

Ovoid, Illinois; a place and a state of mind that most of the kids are frantic to escape from.