About
In his first novel, Please Don’t Be Waiting For Me, Todd Stadtman introduced us to Scott, Bridge, Benny, and Micah, a tightknit band of teenage punk rockers trying to track down the murderer of their friend in the face of staggering indifference from the San Francisco Police Department. In that book’s follow-up, So Good It’s Bad, set in 1981, the group’s bond is tested again when they have to rescue Scott from a psychotic family who are holding him hostage in a remote part of Nevada.
Now, with Never Divided, the last book in his SF Punk Trio, Stadtman moves the action forward to 1984, when San Francisco was taken over by the Democratic National Convention and the thousands of protesters who took to the streets in opposition to the policies of President Ronald Reagan and the Democrat’s perceived ineffectiveness in combating them. This time, the group’s efforts to clear Micah of a false charge of assaulting a police officer puts them on the wrong side of a criminal gang of corrupt cops working inside the SFPD. As a result, they find themselves hunted throughout the dark corners of Nocturnal San Francisco in a tale that, like its predecessors, is every bit as terrifying and exciting as it is unexpectedly hilarious.
Cover artwork by Andrew Nahem
Events
NEVER DIVIDED Book Event at Green Apple Books
I will be signing books and reading excerpts from NEVER DIVIDED at San Francisco’s venerated Green Apple Books on the evening of Thursday, August 29, 2019. Admission is free and libations will be served. Please drop by and say hello.
Commentary
Praise for the SF Punk Trio
“Captures the unique, bitter pathos—and dark comedy—of a vanished world: Bay Area youth culture at the dawn of the Reagan era.”
-Andrew O’Hehir, Executive Editor, SALON.COM
“A slamming séance summoning early Eighties San Francisco, a never-never land of mosh pits, thrift shopping, divorced dads, police raids, and white punks on dope.”
-Grady Hendrix, Author of MY BEST FRIEND’S EXORCISM
“SO GOOD IT’S BAD is absolutely electrifying. Stadtman cranks up the suspense he created so skillfully in Please Don’t Be Waiting for Me, but this time he latches on and doesn’t let up for 250 pages.”
-Ed Glaser, NEON HARBOR
“Gritty and engaging.”
-Nancy Davis Kho, MIDLIFE MIXTAPE
“Captures the fun, desperation, grime, confusion, and joy of being a teen punk weirdo.”
-Keith Allison, TELEPORT CITY
Hear “Mommy Was A Commie”
“MOMMY WAS A COMMIE” is a song that Scott and Micah’s band Strife (fka Fist Music) play at the Sound of Music in Chapter Five of NEVER DIVIDED. It’s a tongue-in-cheek song that also serves as a tribute to Scott’s family’s proud history of political dissent, as well as to those many of Scott’s friends who are Red Diaper Babies—i.e. children of card carrying members of the American Communist Party. All in all, it’s a reminder of a time before the Cold War when being a communist was just one of a a number of legitimate political choices open to American citizens and not a cause for condemnation or persecution.
Mommy was a commie And now I'm a commie too. And if you knew my mom She'd make a commie out of you. She taught me not to sell myself For blood or for gold. And never underestimate The value that I holdMommy was a commie And on this I cannot like. She became the target of The local F.B.I. They broke into our house one night When we were not at home. They tore up all our books And they tapped our telephone.
The way they treated mommy You would think it was a crime. To question authority And value your own time. She taught me that a commie Was a noble thing to be. And to never compromise My honor and integrity.
Copyright 1983 Fist Music Publishing