About the Books
Rocket Man -- coming December 2008
Dale Hammer is trying to find his part of the American Dream. But he just can't keep up. In a story of hilarious consequences, we find Dale in one week accused of cutting down the sign to his subdivision, plagued with a father who has come to live over his garage, and on the hook for being the Rocket Man of his son's Scout troop. While the price of the American Dream has become nothing short of being rich and famous, Dale heads for the catastrophe of Rocket Day with one mission -- to give his son a sense of independence, and in the process, find himself. December 2008, Pantonne Press, ISBN: 978-0-615-21307-1 Price: $19.95 Read the Prologue and the First Chapter on the publisher's website. ORDER FROM THE PUBLISHER
 Ripples is the story of two young men who meet for the first time when they are twelve and then again when they are eighteen. It is story of youth of course, but it is really about all those moments that become so crystalline clear when we are growing up and stand as touchstones for the rest of our lives. Brenton and Christian, while having long waspy names, are really just two guys who want to find out the secret of life before they go away to college. They spend a summer together in a beach resort out east and find themselves locked in a struggle for nothing less than their collective identity. There is a girl of course and there are the normal competitive moments between young men, but ultimately they have to answer the central question of the book-what does one do with one's life and where is there meaning. It is a coming of age. March 1992, Pantonne Press,
ISBN-10: 0963005294, ISBN-13: 978-0963005298 High school teachers, click here. ORDER FROM AMAZON
 Tobacco Sticks is really about a south that no longer exists and a way of living that vanished probably a few years after World War II ended. The family in the book is a large respected clan headed by the patriarch who is the hope and the catalyst for the family's ultimate dissolution. A lawyer's tale told by a twelve year old, this novel will bring up memories of To Kill A Mockingbird, but I like to think that while Scout's story told of the South between the wars, my story finishes up with the beginning of the Civil Rights Movement. There is a political campaign and an African American Maid wrongly accused of crimes that could destroy her and there are the changing tides of Southern tradition bashing against the shoals of a looming Civil Rights Movement. Ultimately, there is the love between a father and a son and a courtroom trial that shows that while right may not triumph, it is really the only thing that will outlive the very short time we have in this world. July 1997, Bantam, ISBN-10: 0553575597, ISBN-13: 978-0553575590 Read a review from USA Today ORDER FROM AMAZON
 Mica Highways picks up where Tobacco Sticks left off twenty years later. 1968 brings Martin Luther Kings assassination and a crime that is hushed up for twenty more years. When a young man decides go down South and find out about the mysterious circumstances of his mother's death-we are led into a sort of who done it mystery. But Mica Highways is really about love triumphing over tremendous pain. Charlie Tidewater stays with his old grandfather who is on the last weeks of his life and we see his life spin out during his nocturnal journeys. We follow granddaddy as he races bootleggers, start a business, lose everything, then we watch as his wife slowly goes mad. Through it all this there is a central crime, a central wrong that was committed during the worst of the Civil Rights movement. But granddaddy perseveres and puts forth his simple ode to life-it is what we make it. So it is. November 1998, Bantam, ISBN: 0553762397 Read a review from Pioneer Press, and one from USA Today ORDER FROM AMAZON
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