Aron Beale is the unacknowledged son of Elvis—and a Black mother, Clara Mae Beale—the result of a chance meeting one night at New York’s Warwick Hotel in the summer of ‘56. Few know Aron’s secret, and his mid-life plan to publish a revealing memoir brings out lawyers from Graceland, religious fanatics, and death threats aiming to silence him. But his decades old chart-topping song, MIDNIGHT CANDY, catches the ear of a young journalist, Odelia Jane Phillips, triggering an unlikely love affair and a partnership in writing and adventure—a shared mission to confront and expose the conspirators who would bury Aron’s controversial book.
Available in bookstores, from online retailers, and from Dreamfield Press on September 15th.
Listen now to MIDNIGHT CANDY, an original song featured in The Prince of Memphis and composed by Coulson, Bob Schleeter & William Relling Jr. (lead vocal by Greg Scott). Digital download and a limited pressing on 7″ vinyl coming soon.
Joseph Coulson is a novelist, poet, playwright, and teacher. His first novel, The Vanishing Moon (2004), published as a Harvest Book from Harcourt and in German and French translations, was selected for the Barnes & Noble Great New Writers series and won the Book of the Year Award, Gold Medal in Literary Fiction, from ForeWord Magazine. His second novel, Of Song and Water (2007), was a finalist for the Great Lakes Book Award and enjoyed both critical and commercial success in France, fueled by an award-winning translation by Judith Roze and reviews in leading publications, including Le Monde.
Books
A Drama in Two Acts,
Co-written with William Relling Jr.
