{"id":2378,"date":"2011-11-21T21:00:15","date_gmt":"2011-11-22T05:00:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.orcutt.net\/weblog\/?page_id=2"},"modified":"2026-07-12T18:50:59","modified_gmt":"2026-07-12T18:50:59","slug":"about","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/about\/","title":{"rendered":"About Chris"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

Chris Orcutt is an acclaimed American novelist with 35 years of professional writing experience. He is the author of the Bodaciously True & Totally Awesome<\/em> coming-of-age epic and the Dakota Stevens Mystery Series. Beyond novels and short stories, Chris has written journalism, scripts, plays, and speeches.<\/p>\n

The Books
\n<\/b>Since 2015, Chris Orcutt been working exclusively on his magnum opus. <\/span>Bodaciously True & Totally Awesome: The Legendary Adventures of Avery \u201cAce\u201d Craig<\/span><\/i> is a 9-episode novel about teens in the 1980s. It\u2019s <\/span>about<\/span><\/i> \u201980s teens, but <\/span>for<\/span><\/i> adults (in other words, it\u2019s decidedly <\/span>not<\/span><\/i> YA literature), and he\u2019s applied this epic storytelling approach to the least examined, most misunderstood, most marginalized narrative space in American literature: the lives and inner worlds of teenagers.<\/span><\/p>\n

The 9 episodes or books of <\/span>Bodaciously<\/span><\/i> tell the story of Avery and his high school friends against the vibrant backdrop of the Reagan era with seminal events including the return of Halley\u2019s Comet, the Challenger explosion, the Chernobyl accident, the Reykjavik conference, the \u201cGarbage Barge\u201d fiasco, and President Reagan\u2019s Berlin Wall speech. Over the course of two years, Avery goes on adventures across the United States and to Europe; interacts with a variety of \u201980s celebrities and political leaders; navigates the perilous, tempestuous seas of sex and romance; learns the nature of true love; endures death, loss, and hardship; and transforms from a teenage boy into a young man.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"Like other groundbreaking novels, Orcutt\u2019s new work transcends existing labels. It\u2019s a coming-of-age story, a love story, historical fiction, and an odyssey, offering readers a truly <\/span>immersive<\/span><\/i> experience: immersion in the music, culture, fashion, lingo, customs, and everyday details of teenage life in the \u201980s. Truly, what he\u2019s offering readers is a time machine<\/i> back to this magical era\u2014possibly the greatest time ever to be a teenager in America.<\/span><\/p>\n

In order to create this time machine for readers, for over a decade Orcutt wrote and lived in the 1980s as much as possible. With virtually no contact with the internet or current events, Orcutt immersed himself in the music, TV shows, movies, and culture from 1985-87. <\/span>Indeed, one 1980s cultural historian has dubbed him \u201cLord of the \u201980s\u201d because of how deeply immersed in \u201980s culture he was during the decade of writing his magnum opus, and the wide-ranging knowledge he developed about 1980s music, TV, movies, fashion, and cultural and historical events. <\/span>The result is that Orcutt has created a new genre in American literature\u2014what he\u2019s calling an \u201cepisodic novel\u201d and \u201cteen epic.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201c<\/span>Regardless of whether it\u2019s a commercial or critical success,\u201d Orcutt says, \u201cthe work is undeniably monumental , and it required a unique combination of gifts to write, including facility with language, yes, but also persistence, stamina, self-discipline, and self-direction. I know that <\/span>Bodaciously<\/span><\/i> is my magnum opus, and I know I was born to write it.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"\u201cTo people who haven\u2019t embarked on something that the rest of the world considers impossible, what I\u2019m about to say is going to sound immodest or outright arrogant, but here it is: I consider the writing of <\/span>Bodaciously<\/span><\/i>\u2014a 1.2-million-word, 9-episode novel\u2014to be a literary accomplishment on par with summiting Mount Everest,\u201d Orcutt says. \u201cHowever, because I wrote, edited, typeset, proofread, and polished every draft on my own, I consider what I\u2019ve done analogous to mountaineer Reinhold Messner<\/a>\u2019s climbing of Everest in 1980\u2014when he did it solo, without bottled oxygen, and without a support team.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Throughout the decade of writing\u00a0Bodaciously<\/em>, three quotes on his office whiteboard have kept him motivated:<\/p>\n

\u201c<\/em>It always seems impossible until it\u2019s done.\u201d
\n<\/em><\/strong><\/span>\u2014 Nelson Mandela<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cYou can\u2019t train for something all your life and then have it fall short because you are hurrying to get it finished<\/em>.\u201d
\n<\/em><\/strong><\/span>\u2014 John Steinbeck<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201c<\/em>There are just certain human beings able to put one foot in front of the other relentlessly, psychologically able to do it, whereas other people would fail.\u201d
\n<\/em><\/strong><\/span>\u2014 from the Mt. Everest documentary Beyond the Edge<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Orcutt\u2019s earlier fiction, including Dakota Stevens Mystery Series; One Hundred Miles from Manhattan<\/i>; The Man, The Myth, The Legend<\/i>; and Perpetuating Trouble,<\/i> has received critical acclaim from a variety of professional reviewers: Publishers Weekly<\/em>, Midwest Book Review<\/em>, and Kirkus Reviews<\/em>, among others.<\/p>\n

The Bio
\n<\/b>\"\"Born in the State of Maine, Orcutt lived the majority of his childhood and early adulthood in Dutchess County, New York. He attended college in Boston, Massachusetts, graduating <\/span>summa cum laude<\/span><\/i>, Phi Beta Kappa with a degree in philosophy. Orcutt\u2019s first job after college was for the now-defunct Taconic Newspapers (including <\/span>The Millbrook Round Table<\/span><\/i>, where he was awarded by the New York Press Association), and later on writing as a freelance reporter for <\/span>The Poughkeepsie Journal <\/span><\/i>(New York\u2019s oldest newspaper) and as a freelancer for magazines. Through his 20s into his early 30s, after journalism and before becoming a full-time novelist, Orcutt earned his living as a high school American Studies teacher, corporate communications executive, college writing instructor, and speechwriter.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Process
\n<\/b>Throughout his career, Orcutt has written with one guiding principle: \u201cI write books that I would want to read,\u201d he says. \u201cWhen I\u2019m reading a novel, I\u2019m always looking for surprises\u2014the plot twist, the beautiful scene, the quirky character, the memorable line of dialogue, or the gorgeous, picturesque sentence. So those are the things I want to give to my readers.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Like a samurai sword-maker who forges, folds, and hammers a length of steel until it becomes both a perfect weapon and a piece of art, Chris Orcutt invests thousands of hours in every one of his novels\u2014writing, researching, rewriting, and editing\u2014to make them the very best they can be.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

An old-school novelist who writes his first drafts with a Palomino Blackwing 602 pencil or one of his many vintage typewriters, Orcutt believes in hard work over talent, substance over hype\u2014rising every day at 4 or 5 a.m., making coffee, and pressing on with his latest work in progress. If you are a young or aspiring writer, you have come to the right place. Based on his wide-ranging writing experience, Orcutt has written a number of pieces on his blog about the writing process\u2014including hints, tips, and instruction. These blog entries have been curated on his Thoughts on Writing<\/a> page.<\/span><\/p>\n

Orcutt\u2019s favorite writers (in alphabetical order) are Jane Austen, Bill Bryson, Raymond Carver, Raymond Chandler, John Cheever, Anton Chekhov, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ian Fleming, Charles Frazier, Ernest Hemingway, Henrik Ibsen, John Irving, David Mamet, Vladimir Nabokov, Robert B. Parker, William Shakespeare, John Steinbeck, Leo Tolstoy, and E.B. White. His goal as a writer is lofty, but one that keeps him motivated:<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Author\u201cThere are lots of\u00a0good writers out there, but I hold myself and my work to a higher standard. I want to become a\u00a0great writer. I want to summit Mount Everest as a writer and stand up there with Tolstoy, Chekhov, Nabokov, Hemingway, and Fitzgerald. And I\u2019m going to make it up there, or, like George Mallory on Everest, die trying.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

For more on Orcutt, check out this extensive interview with WorldClassPerformer.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

—<\/p>\n