Books
Oldest San Francisco
Oldest San Francisco features stories of the institutions that helped make San Francisco the place it is today, a forward-looking city with a strong sense of its past. Published by Reedy Press, the book details certain American firsts: found here are the stories of the oldest American senior center, community-run suicide hotline and athletic club.
It speaks of civic fabrics: the oldest extant blue jeans and rainbow flag.
It talks about food firsts: here are the stories of the oldest chocolatier, bakery, restaurant, vegetarian eatery, diner, candy shop and the two origin stories for the Mission Burrito.
It has pieces on the city’s oldest book store, bike shop and building; the oldest mattress-maker, auto shop and scientific institution; the oldest Cathedral, synagogue and recording studio; the oldest department store, movie theater and opera company; the oldest hotel, funeral home and hat-maker.
Throughout, the book focuses on people: those who've founded these long-lived concerns, and those who've helped them survive, often against great odds. Through these small stories, a larger one, maybe, emerges – here, distilled, is some sense of San Francisco's spirit. More information.
Until It Shimmers
My first novel is a coming-of-age story set in Toronto and London in the 1980s and ’90s, and was published, in 2022, by Ace of Swords. This review, from Kirkus, calls it “a potent and vigorous coming-of-age tale.” The book’s blurbs and a synopsis follow:
“Beautifully realized, Until it Shimmers holds the reader right to the end with grace and quiet empathy” — Eibhear Walshe, The Last Day at Bowen’s Court
“With an acute sense of place and remarkable skill, Alec Scott captures the intense and transformative pull of first love and how familial and societal expectations can sometimes swallow us whole. London at the height of the AIDS crisis, the dynamics and history of an Ontario family, and the nuances of a loving mother-son relationship — all are rendered in evocative, gorgeous detail. An atmospheric and immersive debut” — Marjan Kamali, The Stationery Shop
“Wry, diamond-hard, vigorously alert, Until It Shimmers is a moving coming-of-age story, at once heartbreaking and wickedly sly. A past defined by cool constraint comes up against the fevered heat of London, a place of transport, desire and painful self-discovery. Alec Scott’s writing is so precisely observed, it’s easy to fall into its rhythms, to submit to the book as if it’s a lost memory, one you want desperately to hold onto, protect and live by” — Heidi Sopinka, The Dictionary of Animal Languages
“Until It Shimmers is a compelling and transporting contribution to the literature documenting the AIDS era. I enjoyed discovering London alongside Ned, our affable hero, as he wrestled with love, sex and friendships, and tries to make sense of his complicated relationship with his family. This is a rich and satisfying debut"— Christopher Castellani, Leading Men
Synopsis
A part of Ned Baldwin has always known this day would come. That he would, at last, tell the truth to the people who mattered most to him. It is only when he moves to London, to figure out what, precisely, he wants to do with his life, that he manages to blurt it out in the immediate aftermath of a minor car crash. There is relief in the fact that it is done, even if badly done.
Born and bred on the inside, Ned finds himself, for the first time, on the outs, alone, with many questions and few answers. When he looks back, he does so with a mix of anger and affection. And when he looks forward? Nothing seems clear. In the books he's read, there are no happy endings for people like him.
Until It Shimmers looks at honor, faith and the pursuit of love.
Until It Shimmers
Publisher: Ace of Swords
ISBN: 978-1-7775139-9-3
260 pages