NEW BERLIN – Local writer and author, Bill McLaughlin, is happy to announce the publication of a new work of fiction, “Breakfast and a Cigarette: A Novella in Four Directions.”

McLaughlin, a resident of New Berlin, worked as a freelance writer and environmental journalist before locating to the area about six years ago. “Breakfast and a Cigarette” was originally published in serial form, in the literary magazine, The Red Fez.

“Breakfast and a Cigarette” is a loose interpretation of the classic hero’s journey. It speaks to the growing dissatisfaction in our society and suggests that there are indeed other, more elemental, ways in which we can live.

In “Breakfast and a Cigarette,” the protagonist, Ray Waldron, a dissatisfied man in his mid-30s, loses his wife, his job, his home, and his car. Instead of using the last of his savings to make one more mortgage payment or yet another car payment, he takes that money, buys a Greyhound bus pass, and abruptly leaves his former life behind.