Gerry Ringwald - Novelist

Everybody Lies is a darkly humorous novel that comedically traces the history of civilization through multiple generations of the Mulligan clan. The Mulligans were eyewitnesses to some of planet’s most stupid, funny, and tragic moments of its existence. From the early days of prehistoric man to present day Los Angeles, members of the Mulligan family have had a front row seat to mankind’s stupidity through the ages. Mulligans have been present at major American events of previous  centuries, including: The Civil War, Custer’s Last Stand, the Great Depression, World Wars I & II, the Vietnam War, and more. 

This story is seen through the eyes of Billy Mulligan, a sixty-year-old writer, who is looking back on his life, while struggling to survive a recent string of mental and physical setbacks during the first year of the COVID pandemic. His grandfather was a rumrunner for mob in the thirties and his father smuggled hash for a Mexican cartel in the sixties. The novel flashes back to various pivotal moments in Mulligan family history that shed light on what led to Billy being close to death as our story begins. 

Throughout history, the Mulligans have been the epitome of anti-establishment, non-conformity. But they were always rebels without a clue. Billy is a 21st century Mulligan, who is making major physical and mental adjustments in his senior years. At age sixty, he is presently dealing with cancer, repressed memory, ageism, political correctness, cancel culture, and worst of all, living in Los Angeles. Born in Brooklyn, Billy has never really adjusted to a place where “sixty is the new ninety.”

Through a series of unfortunate events, Billy moved to Los Angeles in the early eighties, trying to leave his past behind. He was feeling quite directionless, until his uncle offered him a job at his public relations firm, Mulligan Stew. While there, Billy received a crash course in the "Art of Bullshit". Over the next few years, he saved many of the firm's client from bad publicity and public disgrace. Eventually, he was made CEO of the firm.

Soon, Mulligan Stew became the most success public relations firm in town.  Many awards and accolades followed.  With his newfound fame as a "P.R. fixer" came the usual side effects, including an overblown ego and an uptick in hubris. These negative traits...and a massive cocaine habit...finally cost him the love of his long-time girlfriend, private eye, Samantha "Sam" Donovan.

But then, fate struck again when Billy was stricken with cancer. His cancer was only recently traced to exposure to "Extermacon", a highly toxic chemical compound.  A herbicide chemical that his father used in his landscaping business back in Brooklyn years prior.  And to add insult to injury, "Extermacon" was manufactured by Dyno-Agra, a long-standing client of Mulligan Stew.    

Now at age 60, Billy is desperately trying to regain his humanity and health before it's too late.  At the same time, he was also trying to win back Sam's love. He needed her. She was the only girl he knew that could fire a .45 auto blindfolded and looked hot in jeans.

The climax of the journey takes Billy and Sam on a secret illegal undercover mission south of the border to bring the Dyno-Agra CEO to justice. The mission is complicated due to the presence of a certain notorious Mexican drug lord who was protecting the CEO for his own reasons. 

Everybody Lies humorously uses the history of the Mulligan clan as a mirror into the history of America itself.  After all, many major moments of our country's past had a Mulligan lucking in close proximity.

[Novel completed and seeking publisher.]

Aim Low is the sequel to Everybody Lies, continuing the history of America through the eyes of the dysfunctional and inept Mulligan clan, that has been screwing up mankind for over ten centuries. The novel continues the story of Billy Mulligan, a semi-retired P.R. executive in Los Angeles, who recently has been diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. 

Billy gets tasked by a mysterious client to go to Castonia, an ex-Soviet bloc nation, who recently broke away from Russia’s reach. It seems that the country recently discovered huge deposits of lithium in its mountains. The metal is the key ingredient of the batteries that run every smartphone and computer in the world. Within weeks, the United States, Russia, and China have expressed intense interest in this new lithium motherlode. 

At age sixty-three, Billy is desperately trying to keep his head above water with all the changes that have taken place in a post-Covid America. He can barely afford to keep up with all his medical bills and the corporate greed which seems to be ripping the middle class into shreds. Billy is also dealing with the culture clashes between the Boomers and the Zoomers, including the recent uptick of political correctness on steroids, which has made simple communication pretty problematic.

The other main storyline revolves around Billy’s great aunt, Molly Mulligan, who is presently writing her memoirs about her early years in Hollywood. We see how Tinseltown went from a sleepy little berg with oil wells, to the home of moviemaking in just a few years. From silent films to sound pictures, the reader gets a front row seat on the journey. The cranky octogenarian also looks back on her father, an Oscar-winning director, whose career came to a grinding halt after he was blacklisted in the nineteen-fifties. She tells her father's story, from making silent for Thomas A. Edison in Fort Lee, New Jersey, to his journey to Hollywood and fame and fortune. Molly describes Aidan Mulligan’s adventures in South of the Border to make a movie with outlaw Pancho Villa and his return to Mexico decades later to make the film that ruined his career. She also tells the story of how she herself became a top Hollywood writer and eyewitness to many seedy scandals of the time. Molly also begins an affair with the son of a famed movie studio mogul, whose family used its vast fortune to hide many hideous crimes. 

Another player is Sam Donovan, a L.A. private eye who was hired by Molly to investigate a mysterious death that she believes was covered up to protect a well-connected person in town. Meanwhile, in the present day, Billy and his wife Samantha "Sam" Donovan - the daughter of the late private eye - go to Castonia and encounter a web of spies and espionage mischief that the couple was unprepared for. Within a short period of time, World War III seems actually possible. All because of those damn lithium deposits. Washington is leaning on Billy to get Castonia's mineral rights for America, before Russia or China can. 

The exciting and hilarious conclusion satirizes the global obsession with social media, smartphones, cable news, and our unhealthy dependence on technology that can be as addictive as any mind-altering drug.

[Novel completed and seeking publisher.]

Mystery to Me is the third chapter of the Mulligan trilogy, which began with Everybody Lies, then followed by Aim Low. The new novel continues the adventures of ex-P.R. executive, Billy Mulligan and his private eye wife, Samantha “Sam” Donovan. 

While Billy is in the hospital undergoing a stem cell transplant to combat his Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, Sam abruptly re-opens a decades-old cold murder case that was once investigated by her late father. In the nineteen-fifties, her dad, a famed L.A. private eye, was hired to solve the murder of a handsome actor who was the star of a long-running radio program, “The Crimson Spider”. His naked body was found in his convertible on Pacific Coast Highway, near Malibu. The killer was never found. Sam’s dad spent decades trying to solve the crime, but to no avail. 

The murder case exposed the seedier side of Hollywood in the post-World War II era, where some young actors first got their start by doing things that took them to a dark place. Some of these regrettable events involved members of organized crime and other denizens of the L.A. underworld. From pimps and pushers to amoral attorneys and debased businessmen, both Donovans became knee-deep in corruption, deception, and moral decay. 

Mystery to Me paints a vivid picture of Hollywood after World War II, which includes labor unrest, race riots, pornography, multiple murders, illegal narcotics, and more. Back then, the City of Angels was filled to the brim with venal politicians, violent cops, sleazy studio executives, desperate Hollywood talent, and other infamous types with criminality on their minds. 

While Billy struggles to make a comeback from cancer, Sam fights to stay alive while attempting to solve one of the most infamous, unsolved murder cases in Hollywood history.

[Novel completed and seeking publisher.]

God Hates Me is the final chapter of the Mulligan Quartet, which began with Everybody Lies and continued with Aim Low and Mystery to Me. God Hates Me wraps up the comic misadventures of ex-P.R. executive, Billy Mulligan and his private eye wife, Sam Donovan. The story also focuses on Billy’s cousin, Thomas and his son, Ronan, in a steamy, sex-filled tale of how Simi Valley became the porn capital of America. 

Even though Billy has survived a stem cell transplant and is back home, he is currently knee-deep in melancholy. His wife, Sam, suggests he see a therapist. During these sessions, Billy struggles with his long-repressed guilt from his childhood and teenage years.

The other major storyline revolves around two other members of the Mulligan clan. Thomas Mulligan – son of Brandon Mulligan (original owner of famed Los Angeles P.R. firm, “Mulligan Stew”) and Billy’s cousin – became a famed porn director in the seventies, and his son, Ronan, who didn’t want to follow in his father’s footsteps. Generational familial conflicts ensued.

We see the growth of the adult entertainment industry through the eyes of Thomas, from the sixties to the present, from B-movie director to porn mogul. From super-8 peep shows...to the explosion of the home video market...to porn-on-demand on smartphones, Thomas was at the epicenter of it all.

By contrast, Ronan survived the stigma of being the son of a porn king to become a T.V. writer. In many ways, his journey through the mainstream Hollywood entertainment industry mirrored the creative obstacles and challenges that his father went through in the adult entertainment industry, located in nearby San Fernando Valley. 

Ronan also falls in love with a beautiful woman who has a mysterious past. But when he tries to find out more about her, Ronan is thrown into a maelstrom of deception that takes him south of the border to uncover the truth.

God Hates Me is a funny and nostalgic look at Hollywood over many decades, and wraps up the journeys of the Mulligan, Byrnes (a famous movie studio dynasty) and Flores (a famous drug cartel) families. All three clans come together to create a compellingly comical conclusion.

[Novel expected to be completed in 2027.]