In his first book "Moral Ambiguity," Patrick Brown told the story of world-famous singer Kevin Gregory who harbored a lurid secret that he had shared for decades with famous televangelist Jimmy Standridge. This time around, we encounter the world of daytime television just as Sheila Wozniak gets booted from the long-running soap opera "The Edge of Conflict." No longer America's Sweetheart after a forty-year run, and with no foreseeable plans to return to the small screen anytime soon, Miss Wozniak decides to write her memoirs and engages the ghost-writing services of her show's head writer who happens to be named Patrick Brown. As Wozniak pours herself a drink or two and tells her story, things get confused when she mixes up her reality with that of her character Regina Knight Harrison Donavan Taylor Donavan McDonald McDonald Woodward Merriweather Todd and a host of other memorable characters from film and television. Dive into "Tossed Off the Edge," and you'll read how Miss Wozniak got her start, about her difficult marriages, ungrateful children, her deep spiritual devotion, and an unparalleled servant problem. Brown keeps the story straight through footnotes without Miss Wozniak realizing she's been corrected. She's never been known to read the fine print.
About the Author: Patrick Brown skewered the religious right in his first book "Moral Ambiguity" and he continues to laugh with (and at) the world around him. "Tossed Off the Edge" is his second "faux biography," as he calls them, and his subject is a beloved soap star who's just been fired from her show after 40 years. Trained as a musician, Brown was born into a family of storytellers, and he comes by this talent naturally. He discovered his love of writing at an early age, starting with his first creative writing class at the age of nine. He also has a great sense of humor, and has appeared on stage as a standup comedian in the Los Angeles area, including the world-famous Comedy Store on Sunset Blvd. "When it comes to writing stories, I love to make things up, and I love to make people laugh," he says. "There is so much going on in the world today, and if we can pause for a few moments to find the humor-there is humor everywhere-our days are so much better. We deserve a great laugh!" As for how he came to write "Tossed Off the Edge," Brown writes: When I was a kid, our summers had a certain routine. There might be swimming lessons or something in the morning, but afternoons were spent indoors in front of the TV to get out of the sweltering heat. After the game shows went off, my sister would watch her soap operas. Eventually, I watched with her a couple of afternoons, and before I knew it, I was hooked for decades! Several years ago, the sad news came that ABC was bringing an end to "One Life to Live" and "All My Children." The announcement happened around the time that I was working with a very difficult person at my job. I was constantly being met with, "We've always done it this way." I kept wondering how long the rest of us were going to endure a diva who was grasping at anything to stay in the leading position well past her prime. Out of frustration, I wrote the first chapter to "Tossed Off the Edge." I had thought it would be a few pages of a piece that would remain unshared. A few months later, I passed by a bookstore in Studio City. In the window was a celebrity biography, and it occurred to me to take that first chapter and weave it into a tribute to daytime TV while having a bit of fun with the self-indulgent celebrity tell-all. Two weeks later, I had three more chapters, and it wasn't long before I was writing every evening when I got home.