An untold story is a terrible waste. A story that's relegated to only being published after the author's death is even worse.
Dear Reader,
The Jolly Lobster is a story I've been trying to tell for awhile. Or rather, the characters and their stories have been percolating in my brain and on pieces of paper for years trying to assemble themselves into a cohesive novel. And then a funny thing happened...I visited Nova Scotia and everything started falling into place. Turns out, part of my problem was that the initial location was totally wrong. I've recently written an article on this topic: How I Conquered Two Years of Writer's Block and Wrote My First Novel.
After writing The Jolly Lobster I then set about the painfully long and arduous task of searching out, querying and submitting the manuscript to prospective publishers that might take submissions. Thus far, this activity has proven fruitless. So, I took matters into my own hands and have published this story myself. Currently, The Jolly Lobster is available as a Kindle eBook.
Hopefully in the near future, this site will serve as the place to find out about all the great things that are happening with my novel and what I'm up to. Currently, this site is serving as a glorified bio site/online synopsis.
So that dear reader is the gist of what this site is about. If you would like to know a bit more about me, check out my mini-biography page.
— Robin Anderson-Forbes
About This Story
The Jolly Lobster is a very gay adventure featuring rum runners, speakeasies, brothels, life and love in Halifax, Nova Scotia during Prohibition.
It's the summer of 1920 and Edward (Ed to his friends) Stevenson, is lost and flat broke in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Fortunately for Ed, his lover Charles Sinclair, who had served with him during the war, has been searching for him in all the local juice joints, speakeasies and blind pigs. Reunited, the two prepare to embark on the new life together they planned during their time in the trenches. Little did Ed know that in order to earn a living, he'd end up working in a speakeasy; but this was not any old speakeasy, this was The Jolly Lobster.
The Jolly Lobster was one of the more popular speakeasies in Halifax, catering to all types and run by two lovable woman trying to make ends meet; Dorothy and her large lover, Rose. Dock workers, fishermen, university students, and colourful men and women of the homosexual persuasion all mixed and mingled at The Jolly Lobster, in order to sate their thirst for rum, whiskey, suds, and to have a bowl of The Jolly Lobster's famous lobster chowder; not to mention to partake in the many pleasures that awaited them in the rooms upstairs. They also came for the music provided by the beautiful and talented Bobbie Smith, a mean fiddle player who loves to dress in the fashion of the flapper, play bawdy songs on her fiddle and also play with the men upstairs in the brothel.
All in all, The Jolly Lobster is a close little family type business; and like many family businesses there's bound to be a few secrets and intrigues; which there are, and in plentiful supply. And given that they're in the booze business during Prohibition they find their little operation having to stay one step ahead of the law and a few more steps ahead of the competition.
The Jolly Lobster's chief competitor is a banished crime boss from Montréal, by the name of Pierre Dumont, whose instructions are to take over the booze business in Halifax. Dumont executes his instructions ruthlessly and soon takes over most of the joints in Halifax in short order. The Jolly Lobster and its family are made of tougher stuff though and it takes all of Dumont's cunning, to bring about their downfall.
Things begin to look quite grim for the hard working boys and ladies of The Jolly Lobster; it's going to take an army to get rid of Dumont and his gang. Fortunately, there's no shortage of volunteers.