Posted on Fri, Sep. 16, 2005


'Godfather' saga back in hands of FSU prof

By Mark Hinson
DEMOCRAT SENIOR WRITER

The mob keeps pulling him back in.

Florida State University writing professor Mark Winegardner, who was thrust into the national literary spotlight when his best-selling "The Godfather Returns" was published in November, has inked a deal to write the next novel in the mafia saga. "The Godfather's Revenge" will be published by G.P. Putnam's Sons in the fall of 2006.

"I definitely always thought of this as a two-volume novel," Winegardner, 43, said Thursday. "There's a big block of time there in the middle of this multigenerational saga that's very fertile ground. ... With 'Returns' I was always writing toward a great cliffhanger ending. Now I'm writing a novel with the intention of really resolving things."

Mario Puzo published "The Godfather" with G.P. Putnam's Son in 1969. To date, it has sold more than 20 million copies.

"The Godfather" became part of American mythology with Francis Ford Coppola's screen version of the book in 1972. Coppola also directed "The Godfather, Part II" (1974) and "The Godfather, Part III" (1990).

In February 2003, after soliciting book proposals from numerous well-known writers around the nation, Random House announced live on "The Today Show" that it had hand-picked Winegardner to write the sequel to Puzo's novel.

"A writer at my stage of my career can't lose," Winegardner said at the time of the announcement. "If people like it ('The Godfather Returns'), great. If people don't like it, they'll just say, 'I can't believe they hired this idiot.' Whatever happens is that you move on and write more books, which I plan to do."

Obviously, people - and publishers - liked it.

"The Godfather Returns" filled in the blanks about what happened to the Corleones between 1955 and 1962. He also introduced readers to the new character Nick Geraci, an ex-boxer and brainy enforcer who became suspicious of Michael Corleone's motives as he expanded the Corleone crime empire west into Las Vegas and Lake Tahoe. "Returns" ended as Geraci was forced into hiding.

"The Godfather's Revenge" will cover the '60s and "maybe into the early '70s," Winegardner said. Geraci will be back, and adopted Corleone brother Tom Hagen will figure prominently in the plot. He said he also will address the mob's involvement in President Kennedy's assassination in 1963.

"I'm really not 100-percent sure where it's going to go, but that's part of the fun of writing a novel," Winegardner said. "I really want to write the book fast. As you get older, you get a little more precious with your writing, and I don't want to do that. There's something to be said for just letting it rip."

This fall, Winegardner is on a research sabbatical from his teaching post at FSU. He was hired at the university in 1997 as the director of the Creative Writing Program. He stepped down as head of the program to research and write "The Godfather Returns."

Winegardner said he plans to keep teaching at FSU in the spring even as he writes to meet deadline with "The Godfather's Revenge."

"I love my job. I love FSU ... I love what we've built (with the Creative Writing Program)," Winegardner said. "I'm planning to stick around."

Winegardner declined to say how much he was being paid by Putnam's.

"I'm not going to say what or how much it was, but everyone was pleased," he said.
To boot, Winegardner has written the script for the interactive video-game version of "The Godfather" that is expected to hit shelves early next year.

"I think they're really trying to do the game right, and it's taking longer than expected," Winegardner said.