About the Book
Seven months ago, Carol Parker left a note on the kitchen counter and walked out on her life, leaving behind a husband of nearly forty years and two adult children to navigate the silence she left behind.
In three days, Clayton is convinced his wife will return. It will be their fortieth wedding anniversary, and he believes she’ll come back to celebrate and rebuild what’s been broken.
Clayton’s children, Frankie and Jules, aren’t so sure. Frankie has gone numb in the wake of his own relationship’s collapse, and Jules is barely holding a fragile marriage together. As one Iowa summer weekend unfolds, each of them must face an invitation to rethink the future they were expecting.
Told with sharp insight and quiet compassion, Before Closure is a tender portrait of love stretched thin, the burden of unspoken truths, and the messy grace of daring to live.
The Story Behind the Story
Before Closure started as a screenplay in 2010, written to showcase Central Iowa in a way that is rarely seen on film. Hollywood usually focuses on the vast cornfields and open plains rather than the cities and culture. This story opens on a farm before moving on to spotlight downtown life and various neighborhoods in and around Des Moines.
One of the main characters is also processing heartbreak as a nearly 40-year-old gay man, so it explores the LGBTQ+ experience in a subdued way through a lens rarely explored.
At the height of the pandemic, Shadley was called back to Iowa from Los Angeles to care for his mother during what would become the last year of her life. On Christmas Day 2020, their home caught fire, forcing them into a hotel for eight months. In those quiet nights after his mother fell asleep, Shadley dusted off the old screenplay and reimagined it as a novel.
The result is Before Closure, a tender exploration of how one family faces an uncertain future.
Before Closure
Kingbird Press LLC
Paperback: 9781965629000
Ebook: 9781965629062
Shadley Grei
shadleygrei@gmail.com
515.229.6835
shadleygrei.com