The Monsters of Templeton

　　One dark summer dawn, at the exact moment an enormous monster surfaces in Lake Glimmerglass, twenty-eight-year-old Willie Upton returns to her hometown of Templeton, New York, in disgrace. So begins The Monsters of Templeton, a novel of mystery, hubris, obsession, passion, and revenge spanning two centuries, where the dead rise up to tell their sides of the story and the living are haunted by the sins of the past.

Dramatis Personae

Willie (nee Wilhelmina) Upton: The prodigal daughter of Templeton. Smart, ambitious, headstrong, and reckless, she comes home to Templeton in the wake of a disastrous affair with her much older archaeology professor. She expects to be able to hide in her hometown, but her mother, Vivienne, has a surprise for her.

Vivienne (Vi) Upton: Hippie-turned-born-again-Baptist, Vivienne has always told her daughter that Willie was the product of a free-love commune in San Francisco. Later, she admits that her father wasn't the one-night stand Vi had led her to imagine, but someone else entirely, someone from this very town. But she won't tell her daughter who he is, and will give Willie only one clue to discover him.

Ezekiel (Zeke) Felcher: The class of 1992 Homecoming King. A bit older and paunchier now, he still lives in Templeton, and has his eye on Willie.

Dr. Primus Dwyer (aka "Mr. Toad" or "The Great Buffoon"): Willie's archaeology professor. He seduces Willie on an expedition in Alaska, and though Willie hijacked a bush plane to get away from him, she still hopes to hear his voice every time she picks up the phone.

Marmaduke Temple: A self-made man, rising from illiterate barrel-maker before the Revolutionary War to creator of Templeton and landowner. Enormous, red-headed, with a laugh that rings in the hills, he is first in a long line of Temple ancestors that ends in the present time with Willie Upton.

The Running Buds: A band of middle-aged male joggers who have been running the same loop in town for almost thirty years. They tow Glimmey into shore on the day the monster dies and provide the story's running (so to speak) commentary.

Glimmey: The Glimmerglass Lake Monster, the ancient carp-bellied, lonely-eyed lake beast that dies and surfaces on the day that Willie comes home.