TEMPORARY GODS (Draft 6)

 a novel by Troy Farah

73.000 words. — literary / transgressive fiction
“What doesn’t kill us, makes our existence inevitable.”

“A fantastical representation of life in Phoenix through the lens of a young person searching for answers against their will. A slice of chaos, the mind’s warping of the world to fit so many lenses.  The main character seems to want everything and nothing to happen all at once.  I relate because I’ve felt that. Maybe that’s part of why I like it so much.”

— Alec Borchardt, artist

After a wild night of heavy boozing and hard drug use, Micah blacks out, loses his job, his mom kicks him out and his friends go missing. Now squatting with a pair of burnt-out pot dealers, Micah must piece his life together while plagued with a defective memory, staggering pill addiction and overwhelming pyromaniacal urges. But when his friends do turn up, they’ve got bigger plans for Micah, including establishing an underground acid cult and taking down the city’s power grid in the middle of a brutal summer heat wave.

Temporary Gods savagely drags you through the underbelly of the Valley of the Sun, connecting the way psychedelic drugs, cultish religion and modern technology shape the infrastructure of our cities – and our minds.

Troy Farah is a freelance journalist and photographer from Phoenix, Arizona. He has written in VICE, Noisey, LitReactor, Phoenix New Times, Every Day Fiction, Sleeping in a Torn Quilt, Bastards and Whores and Flag Live. Temporary Gods is his first novel. For more info, email the author at [email protected]

 

 

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Author’s note: You are free to share this story and this link with anyone. You just aren’t allowed to sell it. I think you know the drill.
This novel was started in 2009 as part of a half-assed attempt at a National Novel Writing Month entry. Since then, it has taken many forms, but the sixth draft is the one I am most happy with so far. I thought about contacting an agent directly, but said screw it. This just needs to be out now. Still, I am looking for agent representation or a publisher that is interested in taking my story to the next level. Email me at [email protected]