JULY/AUGUST 2020 | TAMPA BAY MAGAZINE 143
It is sometimes said that
we all have one good
book in us. Clearwater
High School graduate
George Fleming, who
has made his living as
a journalist and college
professor, believes he has
at least 20 in him. So after
40 years of marriage and
working in the world of
words, he has written
his first work as a fulltime
novelist. Bad Habits
is the first in a series he
calls Tampa Bay Tropics
thrillers.
This fun mystery about
the murder of Catholic
priests capitalizes on
George’s knowledge of the
Tampa Bay area, where he
has grown up and worked
since his family brought
him here from upstate
New York. There is nothing
believable about his main
protagonists, attorney
investigator Reed O’Hara,
who is based on his real-life
wife, and Reed’s husband,
athletic club co-owner Jake Dupree,
except that this is how the author
images her as well as himself in a
fictional fantasy world.
George has no illusions about his
writing. He does not see himself
as Ernest Hemingway or even
Mickey Spillane. He is probably
more like the creative daydreamer
Walter Mitty, basing his characters
on people he has been inspired by
or known.
The Bad Habits title is a play
on words, and other than that, I
won’t say more. I don’t want to
give away any of the plots in this
simple, but interesting tale, which
has the elements that George has
been talking to his students about
for years. The lines between reality
and fiction are blended. You will
recognize certain names and
locations, while others exist only
in the author’s imagination.
Great literature is often debated
and Bad Habits will not be used as
an example. But with Bad Habits,
George Fleming has begun a
new chapter of his life that he is
surely enjoying. It will
be interesting to watch
his style evolve, while he
continues on his path as a
full-time novelist.
His second novel,
Don Coyote, is about to
be published. So at 63,
George is 10% on his way
to writing 20 novels, each
with a picture of his wife Linda on
the cover. Their two daughters and
three granddaughters probably
have never pictured George
and Linda in this fictionalized
way, since these adult novels are
somewhat erotic, yet strongly
moral. 9
EDITOR’S NOTE: Bad Habits
by George Fleming is published by
St. Petersburg Press and can be
purchased on amazon.com and
at better booksellers such as Barnes
& Noble.
BOAORKT S
THE FIRST OF A SERIES
Bad Habits
By Aaron R. Fodiman
For the cover of Bad Habits, author George Fleming
used a photo of his wife Linda. He also plans to use
her images on the covers of his next 19 novels.
Author George Fleming
earned both of his degrees
in English – his bachelor’s
at Florida State University
and his master’s from
Purdue University.
/amazon.com