East Quogue Resident Makes Switch from Screenwriting to Novel Writing

Jason Hefter grew up in Riverhead and has made his way from North Carolina, to Australia, to New York City to Los Angeles - and is now an East Quogue resident - on the strength of his screenwriting abilities.

But now, the former screenwriter is looking forward to releasing Hump Day, his first novel, which derives its inspiration from the big screen.

Hefter originally wrote the concept as a screenplay, but Hollywood thought it was "way too weird to make into a movie," he said.

Written non-chronologically, a la Pulp Fiction, the novel follows six thirtysomethings through a not-so-mundane Wednesday - a day that typically comes with the same goal for many: just making it through, to get one day closer to Saturday.

But not this Wednesday.

"We're always told we can be whatever we want to be, and then we get to this place in our lives where that's actually not really true. If that were the case I'd be Derek Jeter," said Hefter.

"So I had this idea of hump day, being the middle point in the week, and this crisis being the middle point in your life. And it's one 24-hour period where a bunch of characters get one last chance to change the lives for the better. And whether they do or not dictates what happens next. So it's sort of a ride toward karmic justice."

That ride, in the form of Hump Day, wasn't an easy sell to publishers, Hefter said.

"I got letters back from publishers saying they literally laughed out loud when they read the book," he said. "But the general consensus was that I had written a book for people who don't read."

Enter publishing company Cerro Chato, which will release the book on March 23 (pre-order on Amazon is available next week). This Wednesday marks a book signing at Sidewalk in New York City's East Village, and March 28, he comes back to Riverhead for a signing at 

"The first time I read it, I was constantly laughing out loud. I thought it was a great book to publish and want to get people to read it," said John Nicosia, founder of Cerro Chato Publishing.

"This book is for guys like me and Jason, guys in their 30s and early 40s who have a sort of overabundance of knowledge of pop culture. Who grew up watching Tarantino movies, Scorcese movies, the comedies like Blues Brothers. It's knowledge that a men of a certain age have that, whether we want it to or not, has seeped into our subconscious."

Hefter is now married with two kids. With those "days of angst" behind him, able to write having made it through his own Hump Day, he said raising his family on the East End is a chapter in his life he's enjoying as he continues to work toward another novel with occasional studio work.

"By the time I hit 30, I had wanted to have a movie made and a book published," he said. "I didn't have any of that stuff. I was single and living like a vampire in New York City. That was all great but you can't really do that stuff forever. Or maybe you can. What do I know?"