Why “Mud Season” is the season’s hottest read

A former reporter with the Los Angeles Times and Boston Globe, Jeff Kramer’s new novel, ‘Mud Season’ (Köehler Books) tells the story of Atwood ‘Woody’ Hackworth, a journalist laid off after accusations of inventing a source in one of his stories.

Which, as Kramer tells The Post, has never happened to him. “Incredibly, I’ve never been fired,” he says, “but there were probably a few jobs where I should have been!”

Set in rural Vermont, ‘Mud Season’ explores the conflict between family relationships and the pursuit of personal success. 

With his marriage and livelihood dangling by a thread, Woody attempts to write an online novel and hopes it will be a hit. “Woody Hackworth will write a novel, a great one, one that is three hundred pages or longer and not padded by oversized print,” writes Kramer. 

“And it will be commercially successful – perhaps even a Netflix adaptation – yet of undeniable critical merit.”

‘Mud Season’ also examines the changing face of publishing, from the decline of print to the new, online world, where acclaim is instant but so too is disapproval. 

“Social media fuels the story,” adds Kramer. “It gives Woody an opportunity to publish his book in real time and the immediate reaction he gets influences his behavior and his emotional state, not to mention his book.”

With social media taking over Woody’s work, he begins to lose control of his real life, alienating his wife, Mandy, and his family. “Mandy has no interest in a keystroke-by-keystroke account of his return to non-newspaper writing,” writes Kramer. “Her husband has a history of diving into fiction projects and quietly abandoning them.” 

Soon, though, Woody’s new fiction, published chapter by chapter online, starts to mirror his own existence, with disturbing consequences. “It’s a cautionary tale of internet doom,” he adds.

For Kramer, the object of writing ‘Mud Season’ was two-fold. “My first goal in writing the book was to make people laugh, but I was also striving for themes of dislocation,” he says.

“But no one who knows me will believe that, and with good reason.” —Gavin Newsham