Title: A Campus On Fire
Author: Patrick O’Dowd
Pages: 271
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Publication Date: 4/29/2025
Publisher: Regal House Publishing / Publisher Instagram
Categories: Thriller, Mystery
When a shocking death rocks the exclusive writing program at a prestigious campus, a student journalist, Tess Azar, sets out to discover the truth. Rumors abound of the writing program’s cultish atmosphere and its zealous members, who will stop at nothing to ensure the sanctity of their own secrets. As an extreme right-wing student group swells in numbers, Tess finds herself in the crosshairs, dangerously at the center of the growing chaos. Simmering with tension, this provocative novel portrays the nation’s current-charged political climate, highlighting the immovable structures of our society and the dangers of navigating a post-truth world.
Book Excerpt:
1
Tess Azarโs notes on Rose Dearborn:
Tall. Sharp green eyes. A small, pointed nose. Pale. Red hair, worn down, falls just below her shoulders, framing her compact face. Her posture is pristine, and she appears to be flexing, though that may be her natural state. Her hands are folded, left over right. She sports an unblemished French manicure and light pink lipstick that youโd never notice unless you were looking for it. She has two earrings on her left ear, both in the lobe, and one on her right. Theyโre all diamonds, and Iโm sure theyโre real. She wears a light blue Oxford shirt. It looks like it was designed for her frameโtowering and athletic, without succumbing to bulk. Over the shirt, she wears a light jacket, tan and slim fitted, with bronze buttons. It looks like it was born to be a manโs jacket but changed its mind when it met her.
She had me from the start. It was her wave. It showed the world she came from, the sophistication, the poise, the casual superiority. It was a wave that had been passed down, refined, choreographed. A stiff hand, a pirouette, a fold. It was elegant in its learned simplicity.
She paired it with a vacant, performative smile. It wasnโt for me. It was for the watchers. It told the world that she wasnโt, despite appearances, one of those people. She was, in fact, a normal person, perhaps even a kind one.
I nodded my acknowledgment and matched her smile. Mine was professional, a journalistโs smile, continuing the performance we were engaged in.
We were meeting at an outdoor cafรฉ on campus. One of those places where students bring their laptops and pretend to work. Itโs not a place to work, not true work. Itโs a place to be seen to be working.
She stood as I sat, a prosaic gesture that nonetheless endeared her to me.
I felt the cool spring breeze and heard birds singing in a tree nearby. A woman shouted in the distance, and I didnโt even turn to look. I assumed it was playful. I used to be able to assume that.
โTess,โ she said, not a question but a statement of fact. โAnd youโre Rose?โ
โYes.โ She smiled and took a sip of her coffee. She placed it down, and I noticed it was uncovered, no lid in sight.
I looked at my own cup, a lipstick-stained plastic lid of shame sitting atop it. I felt her eyes on it, felt the judgment. I shouldnโt have had a lid. I shouldโve told them I didnโt want one. Lids were plastic, single-use plastic. They were death. They were climate change. They were a stain upon you as a person.
I tore it off, and the steam burned my hand. I didnโt flinch, too afraid it would be another strike against me. Rose looked like the type of person who never flinched, who never got sick or hurt. She looked like she went to the cape on the weekends and played tackle football with her brothers and more than held her own.
I pulled out my notebook, almost knocking over my coffee as I did so. The cup rattled, but I grabbed it before it tipped and smiled an apology. I opened to a fresh page, and, as I always did when beginning an interview, I took down a description.
โAre you writing a novel?โ Her voice was cold and clipped, formal and challenging.
I blushed, and my skin turned a few shades darker. Iโm sure she noticed. Rose looked like she never blushed. Or at least never out of embarrassment. I imagined she did on occasion, but with a purpose.
I hid in my notebook. โNo, I, uh, wellโฆโ
I hated myself. It was odd for me. I wasnโt like that. I wasnโt a stammering, stumbling fool. I wasnโt often awed. I was the one in a relationship who was distant. I was the one who was unaffected by the end of the affair, the one who needed to be wooed.
But there was something about her, an aura, a magic. Some- thing that changed me, disrupted me. I both hated and loved it. Longed to be free of this pull and to never leave it. One could chalk it up to the difference in ageโRose was twenty-one to my nineteen, but it was more than that. She had something. Something I wanted.
I twirled my pen around a finger and clicked it. It was a nervous habit, one that would take years to tame. Rose watched, a cryptic smile in her eyes. I placed my phone on the table and set it to record. โDo you mind?โ
She shook her head, but I could feel her quiet disapproval. โI just like to get the setting down,โ I said and motioned to
my notebook. I calmed myself by sipping the spring air, a slight scent of grass being cut somewhere in the distance. โโI was taught that if you have the time, you should overwrite, even in journalism. Easier to cut later. โNever trust your memoryโ is what my professor says.โ
This wasnโt true. My professors would be appalled by my long, florid notes. They advocated direct, blunt ones. But I wasnโt writing for them. Not anymore. Iโd already developed my own strategies, my own style, and my notes were part of that.
She met my eyes, an intrigued look cresting across her face. Iโll never forget that look and the feeling that accompanied it, tracing up my spine and nesting in my skull. I felt my embarrassment disappear. I remembered who I was. I remembered that I was someone, and she knew it.
โWell.โ She drank her coffee. I followed her lead. Mine was still too hot, and it scalded my throat. โI guess whatever youโre doing, itโs working.โ
And there it was. The reason sheโd come. It was a hint, a slight lead, but we both knew where she was taking the conversation. I may have my objective, my questions, my story, but she didnโt care. She wanted to discuss it. She met me so she could discuss it.
โI still have a lot to learn โโ
โBut to have an article receive national attention as a sophomore.โ She cut me off with the ease of someone used to doing it. โMy guess is it wonโt be long before the job offers start coming.โ
They already had, but she didnโt need to know that. Not yet. You need to save things. You need to build a relationship with patient precision if you want it to last.
I nodded and went back to my notebook. I shouldโve steered the conversation, transitioned from my success to the work- shop. But I couldnโt, I wanted to press on, I wanted to talk more about my article. I wanted to astonish her and luxuriate in that astonishment.
Thatโs all it took. A little acclaim, a little attention, and, as Iโm sure sheโd planned, Iโd forgotten my questions, my story.
โNow.โ She unstacked her hands and moved one toward mine. โIโm not a journalist, just a fiction writer, but I felt your piece transcended the subject and demonstrated an uncanny ability to be informative, engaging, and unique. I couldnโt put it down, and more to the point, I found myself rereading it even after knowing the story, which I feel is a true test of great writing. Your work doesnโt read like journalism. It reads like fiction, good fiction.โ
I felt the familiar warmth of praise pulse through me.
Her assessment was pretentious and vapid, it said nothing. It raised my own work by comparing it to the vaunted heights of fiction and, in doing so, denigrated journalism, but I didnโt care. โThank you.โ I tried to temper my grin. โI appreciate that.
It was a good article, and I was pleased with the exposure it received. Thatโs an important issue that I think will continue to pervade our society.โ
I was trying to match her. Her intellectual snobbery, her placid distance, her broad generalities.
โSo.โ She leaned forward, and I found my eye tracing down to the opening of her shirt. I caught a glimpse of lace and looked away, landing on her forearm. It was exposed, and
I could just make out a pale purple bruise. She noticed and dropped her arm beneath the table. โI have to ask. How did you get the interview? How did you get him to agree to that? To say all that?โ
I nodded and leaned back. This was what they always asked. This was what made the article. This was why it garnered national attention, why everyone was talking about it, why I was someone.
Hearing her ask the same, tired question settled me.
I ran a finger along the seam of my pants and looked around, debating whether to do it, whether to take the leap. I felt the brief flutter of nervous excitement that we all come to know at some point.
I paused and felt my heart rattle. It felt wrong. She should be the one to ask me out, not the other way. I didnโt even know if she was gay. But somehow, I did. I could tell. I could feel an opening. This was my chance. She was curious, everyone was. I had a story, I had cache, I was someone, if only for a moment. So, I leapt. โHow about this? You have dinner with me tomorrow night, and Iโll tell you how I got the interview. Deal?โ
The question hung in the air as it always does, time elongatingโheavy and thick with anxiety but exhilarating. All the world is packed into that pause between the question and the answer.
โWhat, like a date?โ She tilted her head, a smile leaking out of the side of her mouth, a slight hue dampening her cheeks.
I nodded.
Someone shouted at a table not far from us, and chairs scraped against the ground.
โAll right,โ she said, her smile spreading. โDeal.โ
And just like that, the anxiety exploded into a million shards of light. I was ebullient. I was phosphorescent. I was invincible. After that, I tried to stay present, tried to listen to what she said, to not think about the future that was already being crafted
in my mind.
But it was no use, I was gone. My mind was adrift. There were winters skiing and summers sailing. There were literary arguments and good coffee. There was an initial frigid period with her family. A tense scene with her grandfather where he reverted to his old prejudices, dismissing the whole of me based on the half that was Lebanese, but I won him over by talking history and baseball. I became one of them. And later, there were galas and houses full of antiques and rich wood.
โI guess youโre not here to talk about your article, are you?โ She shifted back. โYouโre here to talk about Jack.โ Her face fell, her hands fidgeted in her lap. The color left her cheeks. The radiance of our previous conversation still lingered, but it was just a residual taste. Weโd moved on.
I nodded but said nothing. Being a journalist is a lot like being a therapist. You need to draw them out. You need to make them comfortable and then let them talk.
โTerrible, just horrible.โ She looked like a different person, like an actor trying to play Rose in a marginal play. โSuch a waste.โ
I let the silence linger, hoping sheโd continue. When she didnโt, I eased into it. โDid you know him well?โ
She nodded, and took her forefinger and thumb and pinched the bridge of her nose as if that could stop the tears and the pain. โYes, of course. We allโฆ I mean, you know about it, right? About the workshop? Dr. Lobo?โ
I did. Everyone knew about the workshop. It was a creative writing group on campus, not an official workshop, whatever that means, just a group of students whom an acclaimed professor had taken an interest in.
Dr. Loboโs workshop. Sylviaโs kids. The Creative Writing Cult.
Sylvia Loboโs second novel, A Wake of Vultures, was an instant classic. She was teaching here as an associate professor when she wrote it, and after its publication, she became an instant celebrity. Now she teaches creative writing and gives few lectures. I took one during my first semester. Someone had dropped right when I was registering, otherwise, Iโd have never
gotten in. It was on the erosion of the past in literature. Novels set during times of change with characters who are stuck in the past and grappling with the future. It was an eighty-person class, and I donโt think I said more than three words all year.
โYeah,โ I said. โI know about Dr. Lobo.โ
โHave you read any of her work?โ The energy that had left us returned.
โIโve read A Wake of Vultures and Jezebel.โ
Rose tried to hide her excitement and nodded to herself. I could tell Iโd passed a test. โIโll give you Chariot Races and Bubblegum. If you like those, we can go from there. If notโฆโ
More tests. But that was all right. For her, I would take them.
โYouโre all very close, right?โ
โYes, Sylviaโs big on that. Weโre all working toward the same goals and have the same interests, and itโs essential that we spend time together. She says it makes for better writing. Look at Paris in the twenties. Do you think it was an accident so many great writers were there at the same time?โ
I took my time and wrote this down verbatim. It sounded rehearsed.
โSome people evenโฆโ She laughed. โโฆsay weโre a bit of a cult.โ
Her laughter stopped, and I made sure not to smile. This wasnโt a joke. This was a repudiation of a nasty piece of gossip. Iโd have to be careful with that. Iโd have to watch that I never hinted at the cultish atmosphere of the workshop.
People had good reason to call them a cult. They took all the same classes, not just Sylviaโs, but everythingโhistory, science, even phys ed. They got coffee together at the same time every day. The same table, the same cafรฉ, the same black coffee, the same far-off look while they drank. They ate lunch together. They ate the same things for lunch. They ate with purpose. Refined but rapid. They walked the same, hurried steps announcing their presence, clearing a path. They talked the same. The same talking points, the same articles referenced, the same political issues discussed, same positions held with fervor. They used the same words. They spoke at the same frantic pace. Their hands moved with their every word, painting a mute portrait of their argument. They used the same pens, same notebooks, read the same books, watched the same movies, chewed the same gum, smoked the same colorful French cigarettes, not because they were addicted, but because it stoked conversation and helped with the writing process.
They were the same. They were like her.
That was how she drank her coffee, how she ate, how she walked, how she spoke, how she thought.
They idolized her. They forced her works into their conversations. They cited her. Not just her published comments and writing but personal ones from conversations theyโd had with her. They attributed immense weight to these citations as if mentioning her name ended all debate. If Sylvia said it, it wasnโt to be questioned. It was fact.
The cultish atmosphere of the program was why I decided to write the story. Why I was sitting there, interviewing Rose. Jackโs suicide was a part, but not the whole. I hoped to expand it, turn it into a piece on Sylvia and the workshop. Get a glimpse behind the curtain. See what was fact and what was fiction.
Rose stared at me after the cult comment. Judging me, reading my reaction. I met her stare and held it. โWell, these days, I think gossip is the sincerest form of flattery. As for Jack, Iโm sorry for your loss.โ
She nodded and raised a hand to her chest. โYes, he was, well, very talented. We came in together, same class. We were both in her freshman seminar on literatureโs obsession with the past.โ
โI took that class.โ
โReally? Not the same one though? Iโm sure Iโd have noticed you.โ
โNo, you wouldnโt have. But it mustโve been a different year,
youโre what, a senior?โ
โShe teaches it every other year. Youโre fortunate you got in.โ
โI could say the same to you,โ I said, unable to avoid the
opening to flirt.
โHah.โ She rolled her head back. She didnโt laugh. She said, hah. Spat it. โNo, I sent her my writing from high school, two awful short stories aboutโ Oh god, I donโt even want to sayโฆ one was about my high school friends and a teacher of ours, and the other was about a ski instructor. They were dreadful, but she saw something in them, something in me.โ
She looked over at the sprouting trees that lined the walk, feigning to hide her satisfied smile. โShe reads the work applicants send in, as do her current students, and selections are made. If she picks you, youโre assured a spot in her freshman seminar and the creative writing major and some other class- es. See, where most creative writing programs donโt really get serious until graduate school, she starts right away. Freshmen year. She believes that you need to get to a writer early, before they learn those bad habits and become just a poor imitation of some famous writer. She wants you raw, unadulterated, malleable.โ
โI thought you said she teaches that seminar every other year?โ
She shook her head as if I was a mistaken child. โOh no, just that one class on literature and the past. She teaches that in even years. She teaches a different one on female writers and the diaspora in odd years.โ
I nodded and smiled and waited.
She rubbed the bruise on her arm, caught herself, and dropped her hands, resuming her practiced pose of mourning. โYes, I was close to Jack. We were in all the same classes. I was his shadow, as we called it. Like a peer editor, you read everything they write. He was my shadow too. Sylvia thought our work complemented one anotherโs. He was a genius, and I donโt use that word lightly. Itโs a true tragedy. Not just for him and those of us who knew him but for the world. The world lost a great writer.โ Another tear, she lifted a napkin to stop it. โI edited his book. The one that weโSylvia and Iโare helping to finish. You know about that, right?โ
โYeah.โ
โSylvia worked to get it published, not that it was all that difficult, itโs a brilliant novel. But she took it on. She wanted toโฆ She knew it was what he wouldโve wanted. And now, at least, that part of him will live on. A tribute of sorts.โ
โI hear the moneyโs going to charity?โ
โA suicide prevention charity. And some will go to the creative writing program here as well, help to make it official, and I think some is going other places, but I donโt have the details on that.โ
โAny to his family?โ
โHe didnโt have family. An uncle upstate somewhere, whom he grew up with, but they werenโt close, and I think he passed away. His parents werenโt in the picture.โ
โAnyone else you think I should talk to?โ I was afraid to push too hard too soon. You can always come back with more questions. You can always have a second interview, provided, of course, you remain on good terms.
โPeople in the workshop. I can give you some names. Intro- duce you.โ
โThatโd be great.โ I looked down at my notebook, pretending to scan it, knowing what I needed to ask. โLook, Rose, Iโm sorry to ask this, but I have to. Do you have any idea why he wouldโve done this? I heard he didnโt leave a note.โ
A writer not leaving a note. Seemed off.
She shook her head and forced another tear. โHe wasโโ she ran a fingernail around the rim of her now-empty coffee cupโโtroubled, like many writers are. Itโs true what they say, โgenius and madness flow from the same source.โ Good work often comes from pain, and I think, not to be unkind, but I think some can court it. Wallow in it. Again, I donโt mean toโฆ I loved Jack, and itโs a tragedy what happened, but he lived in that pain. Itโs what his work was about. Heโd go into it and be down there and write, and after he finished, heโd come back up. Heโd live in joy for a bit. But this time, with the novel, he was down there too long. He couldnโt surface.โ
This, too, felt rehearsed. Maybe not quite scripted but planned. She knew Iโd ask about it, and she was ready. Thereโs nothing wrong with that. Meeting with a journalist is stressful, and people like to be prepared.
But still, it felt off.
โWell,โ I said, โI think thatโs all Iโve got for today. I might have some follow-ups, but Iโm sure youโre busy.โ
โYes, I have to decide what Iโm wearing for our date.โ I blushed and withdrew to my notes.
โI hope we wonโt have to muddy that up with this?โ she said. โNo, I wouldnโt think so.โ
We both stood, and I stared at her, straining my eyes, as she retreated into the falling sun.
Excerpted from A CAMPUS ON FIRE by Patrick OโDowd ยฉ 2025 by Patrick OโDowd, used with permission by Regal House Publishing.
About the Author:
Author Bio:
ABOUT Patrick OโDowd:
Patrick O’Dowdโs work has appeared in a variety of publications, including Quagmire Literary Magazine, The Write Launch, and Sequoia Speaks, where he served as fiction editor. Born and raised in New Jersey, he studied at Montclair State University. A Campus on Fire is his debut novel.
ADVANCE PRAISE:
“Patrick OโDowdโs vigorous debut is a prescient and perceptive tale, a compelling examination of a world in which fact and fiction have become blurred and weaponized. The novel portrays a deeply divided college campus rife with clashing ideologies, power imbalances and misguided passions. Would you lie to see your version of the truth win the day? And how far would you go in the pursuit of a dream? A Campus on Fire asks the best kind of uncomfortable questions.”
โChristopher J. Yates, author of Black Chalk and Grist Mill Road
“This vivid debut wrestles with essential questions about the role of personal ambition in the fight for social change. Blending richly drawn characters with timely themes, OโDowd has written a novel about and for our tumultuous era.”
โWil Medearis, author of Restoration Heights
“Patrick OโDowdโs A Campus on Fire is timely, urgent, and thrilling. Set at a campus uncomfortably close to all of us, the novel adroitly mixes a quasi-fascist student faction, a cult-like writersโ group, a love story, and a student reporter trying to maintain objectivity in the face of crisis. OโDowd works with complex characters and presents no easy resolutionsโlike life itself.
โDavid Galef, author of How to Cope with Suburban Stress
โPatrick OโDowd has gifted readers a phenomenal debut using a university campus setting as a microcosm of our national politics and the epicenter of clashing ideas around consent, class, gender, race, and privilege. The storyโs journalistic lens through its protagonist Tess cleverly allows for varying angles of storytelling, while the interpersonal connective tissue of the plot is utterly irresistible. At the heart of this novel is the concept of power: who has it, who wants it, and the extremes that people will go to to get it. With A Campus on Fire, OโDowd has cemented himself as a forceful new literary voice.โ
โKerri Schlottman, author of Tell Me One Thing
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