Every Sept. 1, readers of “Thirty-Three Cecils” gather at a neighborhood pub to remember two men who never existed — and to celebrate the strange way a novel became part of a city. BINGHAMTON, N.Y. — On Sept. 1, people make their way to the Belmar Pub, order drinks and raise their glasses to two men who died years ago. There is only one complication. Neither man ever existed. They are characters from Thirty-Three Cecils, a novel by Everett De Morier whose fictional world is r

For much of his career, author Everett De Morier pursued the goal shared by many writers: publishing his own work and finding an audience. By most measures, he succeeded. By Jim Keegan Reporting from Austin, Texas, USA July 2, 2026 Updated 7:48 p.m. ET His novel Thirty-three Cecils won the London Book Festival Fiction Prize and is currently in feature film development, with Matthew Modine and Dustin Hoffman attached. His true-crime book In the Ghost Shadows: The Untold St