Downtown Dreams

Advertising, often called a game, is in fact a tough and unforgiving business. It devours its young and abandons its old. Yet, the allure of being creative and endlessly challenged attracts the young, the vital, the energetic, the rebels, and the naïve. They all labor tirelessly on the treadmill of the mind, captives of their own ambitions and dreams. But truth be known, dreams travel the same paths as nightmares.

Downtown Dreams is an intriguing and imaginative look at this exciting world of contradictions and creativity and what happens when passion for an art collides with unbridled greed. It offers a fascinating look at what makes people tick and what makes them explode.

Minther & Sklar, a small advertising agency

in downtown New York City, can best be described as an oasis in a world of turmoil, however, it is not immune to the vicissitudes of life that enter in the most unexpected ways.

The opportunity of a lifetime presents itself in the form of Tanaka Motor Works, a Japanese automobile manufacturer with plans to introduce into the United States. Although there is no logical reason why Minther & Sklar should be invited to pitch against the mammoth uptown agencies that dominate the industry, an unexpected invitation plunges this small shop into a world filled with dreamers, deceivers, and despots.

John Minther, the eccentric and idealistic president of Minther & Sklar, sees TMW as the key to a long sought after dream without realizing that same key also opens

Pandora’s box. Kara Williams, a young black woman who inadvertently entered the industry, finds herself transformed from observer to architect due to circumstances totally beyond her control. Hans Reinholdt, president of one Goliath, is a reflection of the greed and avarice that far too often motivates those in power in this high-energy, ego-driven, intensely competitive world. And, how do an actress from Hollywood, a college professor, and a mugger that haunts the night in New York City come into play? There is a price attached to this glorious prize and sometimes the obvious is the least to be worried about.

This highly unpredictable story offers drama, pathos, humor, insights, and enough twists and turns to keep any reader interested from page one through the final sentence.