Tuttwyler, Ohio, is the perfect Midwestern town. Beautiful square. Gazebo dripping with gingerbread. Leafy streets lined with big white houses.
Even the town’s annual summer festival is perfect. It commemorates the unfortunate clubbing death of the Indian princess Podewedka, by the town’s founding fathers, John and Amos Tuttwyler, back in 1803.
The only thing that’s not perfect is Howie Dornick’s house. It’s right on the parade route and it hasn’t been painted in years. But that’s going to change, now that D. William Aitchbone is chairman of the Squaw Days Committee. You can bet on that!
But Bill Aitchbone has to tread carefully. Howie, after all, is the illegitimate son of local war hero Artie Brown. Howie finally does paint his house. But not white like all the others. He paints it the most obnoxious shade of green imaginable. Howie’s really in hot water now.
Then Hugh Harbinger sees Howie’s green house. Hugh was once New York City’s most famous color designer. Before going off the deep end, he created 300 different shades of black! He’s determined to make a comeback. Determined to make “Serendipity Green” the most popular color ever.
Serendipity Green not only lampoons America’s small town festivals, it lowers the boom on big city trendiness as well. It is irreverent and iconoclastic and simply irresistible.
Rob Levandoski was born June 5, 1949, in the Bennett’s Corners area where Hinckley Township, Brunswick, Strongsville and North Royalton converge. His father, Clyde, was a storekeeper and Edna (Wildenheim) was his mother. Rob Levandoski, author of Fresh Eggs, tapped into his Medina County roots in penning his novels and mysteries. Levandoski attended a few local colleges (Lorain County Community College and Cleveland State University) after graduating from Brunswick High School in 1967. He pursued a career in journalism. He covered police and schools, wrote for the entertainment department and snapped pictures during his four years with the Medina County Gazette. Afterwards, Levandoski took a public relations job with Brunswick schools and edited political science textbooks for a Brunswick publishing company. He served as managing editor of Beverage Industry Magazine from 1985 until 1993, when it was sold to a Chicago company. Levandoski did some freelance work while writing his first novel, Going to Chicago. The book, published in 1997, told the story of two boys from rural Ohio going to the Chicago World’s Fair in the 1930s. He continued spinning tales based on people and places in Northeast Ohio with Serendipity Green in 2000 and Fresh Eggs in 2002. He wrote the three books for the Morgue Mama Mystery Series under the pseudonym C.R. Corwin. Levandoski also wrote book reviews that appeared in The Plain Dealer and taught writing courses at the University of Akron. Rob Levandoski died of a brain aneurysm and heart attack in Akron on September 8, 2008, at age 59.