Five bodies, five intersecting storylines, five lives... each searching for hope and redemption Wayne County Medical Examiner's Office, Detroit, Michigan. October 31, 1999. Five unidentified bodies are brought in to the Wayne County morgue on Halloween night. Although each character is on a separate journey, fate leads each of the five victims to cross paths on the streets of Detroit en route to their tragic demise. NYC Girl: a former dancer arrives back home from New York City to make amends with her mother and begin to rebuild her life. Leaf Man: a musician and part-time DJ is on the cusp of his big break with one final, unexpected drug deal to complete before he can go totally straight. R.I.P.: a career criminal must come up with a large sum of money to pay for his father's medical expenses, despite his yearning for a crime-free life. The Zealot: a religious fanatic on a mission from God to rid the city of filth. Cat Man: a kind and trusting homeless man wanders the city looking for new friends. Like the city in which it takes place, Awaiting Identification is a story of hope, identity, and above all, redemption.
R.J. FOX is the author of Love & Vodka: My Surreal Adventures in Ukraine, published by Fish Out of Water Books in 2015. He is also an award-winning writer of short stories, plays, poems, and screenplays. Two of his screenplays have been optioned by Hollywood studios. His work has been published in numerous journals and magazines. Fox is the writer/director/editor of several award-winning short films. His stage directing debut led to an Audience Choice Award at the Canton One-Acts Festival in Canton, MI. Fox graduated from the University of Michigan with a B.A. in English and a minor in Communications and received a Masters of Arts in Teaching from Wayne State University in Detroit, MI. In addition to moonlighting as a writer, independent filmmaker and saxophonist, Fox teaches English and video production in the Ann Arbor Public Schools, where he uses his own dreams of writing and film making to inspire his students to follow their own dreams. He has also worked in public relations at Ford Motor Company and as a newspaper reporter. He resides in Ann Arbor, MI. Visit http://www.foxplots.com or follow him on Twitter @foxwriter7.
At first, reading R.J. Foxs Awaiting Identification, I had intimations of Elmore Leonard meets Donald Goines. But that impression was fleeting and soon I was caught in Foxs own unique lyrical style and a scenario that keeps you engrossed. Seeping between his lines as well as background to his ensemble of doomed characters is Detroits industrial pulse, which Fox expresses with a profound intimacy. Throughout Awaiting Identification there is a cinematic quality that is enhanced by fresh, spiky dialogue and literary cachet. Herb Boyd, author of Black Detroit: A Peoples History of Self-Determination
Cinematic, lyrical, and unflinchingly raw, Awaiting Identification is both a love letter to Detroit and a cautionary tale. If youre looking for a fresh new voice in fiction, R.J. Fox is the real deal.
Camille Pagán, bestselling author of Life and Other Near-Death Experiences
In these pages, Fox deftly intertwines stories of the tumultuous last hours of several desperate Detroiters. Though from the start he makes no secret of their deaths on Devils Night, he makes their harrowing journeys through the city streets fascinating and their unwillingness to abandon hope compelling. Fox also makes the Detroit of another era into a lively, struggling character in its own right. John G. Rodwan, Jr., author of Holidays & Other Disasters and co-author of Detroit Is: An Essay in Photographs
In Awaiting Identification, R.J. Fox has composed a cinematic ode to the gritty streets of Detroit, while seamlessly weaving together the doomed journeys of an entire cast of downtrodden characters. At once, Fox proves he is deeply in tune with the chaos and the glory of the Motor City, and that he is decidedly adept at tying together delightfully loose strands of character until they culminate in a unified package that is both haunting and powerful. Frank Morelli, author of No Sad Songs
A triumph! Awaiting Identification is the keen-for-a-brawl bastard child of Last Exit to Brooklyn. Superbly crafted characters and a fetid Detroit I could sniff from the page. Ian Thornton, author of The Great & Calamitous Tale of Johan Thoms
Told from the perspective of five victims awaiting identification at the Wayne County Medical Examiners office in Detroit, this fast-paced, enervating novel, pays homage to the city, while telling the stories of characters who long to rise from the ashes of their own lives, some with more success than others; all with moments of much-needed hope and redemption. Kelly Fordon, author, Garden for the Blind
