Christopher Murphy

Settling in Sandspur: from the Author of a Sea of White Impatiens Christopher Murphy

It's 1995 everywhere but Sandspur, Florida, where Sylvia Enman and her sister-in-law Elaine are running what will likely be the town's last Renaissance Festival. Others soon out of a job include Sylvia's much younger beau, Jeff Brenner; his father and the fair's occasional dark queen, Roger; brilliant and wasted Michael and Jacqueline Dempsey; and a trio of minstrels who would be rich men if they sold as much marijuana as they smoked. Collateral damage includes Sandspur's most well-known and loneliest resident, Julie Kitzmiller; Sean Keogh, its prettiest, and ugliest; and Elaine's adopted and terribly scarred son, John, who finds some real joy as his family loses its fair, and its livelihood. Everyone is forced to make career and life decisions, and everyone quits settling-even those who settle in Sandspur.