The book, entitled “Fathermucker,” is set to come out on Oct. 4 from Harper Paperback. Columnist Lenore Skenazy of the blog Free Range Kids, describes it as “Ulysses on a playdate.”
“I’ve been writing since I was in grade school,” Olear said. “I completed my first novel while a senior at Georgetown, where I went to college, and wrote several more in my twenties. I would say I became serious about it around age 22.”
Olear is the senior editor of the literary website, The Nervous Breakdown, author of Totally Killer (2009) and a professor of fiction at Manhattanville College.
He draws his inspiration from the village and uses this unique setting for his story.
“I live in New Paltz, and the novel is set here, quite explicitly so,” said Olear. “New Paltz is the only place I’ve lived as a parent and its parenting community – its communal, inclusive, crunchy, liberal, nurturing, awesome parenting community – is the only one I’ve known.”
Olear sheds light on the very secretive world by combining witty humor and popular culture to create an interesting storyline about one hectic day in a stay-at-home father’s life and all the different emotions that go along with it.
“Parenting can be a lonely line of work, and I mostly wanted to connect with and entertain other parents,” Olear said. “They say you’re supposed to write what you know, and I did that in my first novel, which is about a professional assassin. This time, I decided to tackle something a bit further from home. Oh, wait, I think I got that backwards,” Olear joked.
His humor plays a large role in his writing as well as in his daily conversation. He wrote this novel so he could lend a helping hand to other parents in a similar situation. He wants parents to know how to handle every annoyance, fear, worry and obsession that may arise in this modern age. Olear hopes “Fathermucker” will become a sort of stay-at-home handbook for fathers age 25-60.
Olear is currently working on a new novel and a few screenwriting projects.
“But I haven’t had much time to write, because it’s the summer,” he said. “And I’m a Fathermucker.”
He currently runs a parenting site called Fathermucker: The Blog at Fathermucker.com, which features guest essays about modern parenting and the blurring of traditional gender roles.