The Best Laid Plans

Disillusioned by politics and lacerated by romantic betrayal, Daniel Addison, a young political speechwriter, wants out. But it’s not that easy.

Forced to barter his lost idealism with one last obligation, he must cajole a sacrificial candidate to contest the election for the Liberal Party in a riding that is a hive of Conservatives.

Resourceful, Daniel persuades his landlord, Angus McLintock, a curmudgeonly Engineering Professor to allow his name to be used, provided Daniel will teach English to engineers. It will be an election campaign with no signs, no rallies, no speeches, and no budget. The campaign headquarters is Daniel’s jalopy. His committee is a savvy political operative, now a resident of a senior citizen’s home, and a pretty student.

But politics is filled with surprises. No one expected their popular Conservative opponent would be caught in a hilarious sex scandal. Suddenly Angus is catapulted to victory and he and Daniel must examine their political principles.

Emerging from the slapstick antics of innocents in a nest of vipers are serious questions about ethical and social responsibility, and how to survive the political process, the roughest game around.

The Best Laid Plans may be set in Ottawa, but its themes are universal.

 Terry Fallis, like his charming protagonists, managed the impossible. Unable to find a publisher for a novel categorized as political satire, he published it himself first as a podcast and then as a book. The iUniverse edition won the prestigious Stephen Leacock Memorial Medal for Humour. It sold more than 1500 copies before it was signed by a major publisher, McClelland & Stewart—the home of Alice Munro, Margaret Atwood and Michael Ondaatje.  

http://www.terryfallis.com/