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I’m writing from the afterglow of a few recent Arkansas literary events.
First stop, Mountain Home.
It’d been a while since I’d made the drive up Highway 7, headed toward Yellville where I fished the cool, clear waters of Crooked Creek with my father as a boy. Making that trip, I was reminded of how much that landscape inspired the setting for my second novel, Ozark Dogs.
I was on my way to ASU Mountain Home to talk about that very book, thanks, in large part, to a woman named Terre (pronounced Terry) Ware.
I didn’t know much about Terre, but as soon as I pulled onto campus and heard a woman shout, “Be still my heart!” I knew Terre was my kind of people.
Turns out, Terre was a Delta girl too. Just like my momma, and all my extended family. Right from the start, that’s what Terre felt like — family — and she treated me as such, along with all the fine folks at ASUMH. We dined on the beautiful campus’ lawn, we had a rollicking chat in front of a capacity crowd, and then I took off back down the windy highway that had brought me there.
A week later, I was the one in the audience, and Kevin Brockmeier was on stage.
For those unfamiliar with Kevin’s work, I’ll skip the laundry list of awards, fellowships, international translations, and just say this: Kevin is one of Arkansas’s best writers, ever.
“Best” is subjective, of course, just like art, but for my money, it’s hard to beat Kevin’s body of work.
Kevin came to Arkansas Tech University to read from The Ghost Variations, his collection of (extremely short) short stories. The library hummed silent as he read. Outside, the sky stood October dark, the air chilled — the perfect setup for a reading of “ghost” stories.
I employed quotes above because Kevin’s stories aren’t really ghost stories. There are elements of the supernatural — undead parakeets, haunted mirrors, and a young man who hears numbers in his head — but there’s more than that, too. So much more.
What sets Kevin’s work apart is heart. Here is a writer who knows a thing or two about the human condition, and that knowledge was on full display over the course of our evening together.
Before he took center stage, Kevin was kind enough to meet me at a nearby Mexican restaurant. Over the course of our meal, I was treated to a master class on living the writer’s life. Kevin even went so far as to gift me a copy of his favorite crime novel, Black Wings Has My Angel by Elliot Chaze.
As I was flipping through the slim book, Kevin asked me about my reading routine. I admitted it hadn’t been so great lately. I told him I’d been juggling being on the road while also trying to pen my next manuscript. I told him the only real reading I’d done felt more like “homework.”
Kevin bit into a tortilla chip and nodded before explaining how he balances his writing and reading. In short, Kevin said one should read to fill their soul, and then let that same soul spill out onto the blank page.
I didn’t think much of his advice, not until his event was over and it was time for us to part ways. When I slipped out of the library, my mind was already jumping ahead to the rest of the week’s activities, that is, until I felt the weight of the slim crime novel cradled in my left hand.
The air was still crisp, the night sky dark. Tree limbs shimmered like ghosts above me. Sitting in my truck, with the windows rolled down, I cracked that book and started to read, just for the fun of it. Something I hadn’t done in far too long.
Don't Know Tough
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Commissions Earned
In Denton, Arkansas, the fate of the high school football team rests on the shoulders of Billy Lowe, a volatile but talented running back. Billy comes from an extremely troubled home: a trailer park where he is terrorized by his mother’s abusive boyfriend. Billy takes out his anger on the field, but when his savagery crosses a line, he faces suspension.
Without Billy Lowe, the Denton Pirates can kiss their playoff bid goodbye. But the head coach, Trent Powers, who just moved from California with his wife and two children for this job, has more than just his paycheck riding on Billy’s bad behavior. As a born-again Christian, Trent feels a divine calling to save Billy—save him from his circumstances, and save his soul.
Then Billy’s abuser is found murdered in the Lowe family trailer, and all evidence points toward Billy. Now nothing can stop an explosive chain of violence that could tear the whole town apart on the eve of the playoffs. |
Ozark Dogs
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Commissions Earned
In this Southern thriller, two families grapple with the aftermath of a murder in their small Arkansas town.
After his son is convicted of capital murder, Vietnam War veteran Jeremiah Fitzjurls takes over the care of his granddaughter, Joanna, raising her with as much warmth as can be found in an Ozark junkyard outfitted to be an armory. He teaches her how to shoot and fight, but there is not enough training in the world to protect her when the dreaded Ledfords, notorious meth dealers and fanatical white supremacists, come to collect on Joanna as payment for a long-overdue blood debt.
Headed by rancorous patriarch Bunn and smooth-talking, erudite Evail, the Ledfords have never forgotten what the Fitzjurls family did to them, and they will not be satisfied until they have taken an eye for an eye. As they seek revenge, and as Jeremiah desperately searches for his granddaughter, their narratives collide in this immersive story about family and how far some will go to honor, defend—or in some cases, destroy it. |
| Previous columns: |
• Writing from Cyclone Stadium
• Writing from Creative Writing Class
• Writing from Mom's Knee Surgery
• Writing from Buffet-less World
• Writing from an airplane
• Writing from Mississippi Book Festival
• Writing from Bed
• Writing from Witherspoon Hall
• Writing From: Coco
• Writing from the Beach
• Writing From: Crooked Creek
• Writing from a Nursing Home
• Writing from a Firework Tent
• Writing from a Boat
• Writing from the Stars
• Writing from the Pool
• Writing from the Kitchen
• Writing from Summer
• Writing from Kindergarten
• Writing from Mom
• Writing from a Plane
• Writing from Home
• My second novel’s publication
• A New Marriage Milestone
• An Invitation to the Party
• Writing from a Thunderstorm
• Writing from a Soundbooth
• Writing from “Jazz Beach"
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• Writing from the Sabbath
• Writing from somewhere between Little Rock and Russellville
• Writing from my back deck
• Writing from the morning of my thirty-fifth year
• Writing on the day of the college football National Championship
• Writing from the space between breaths
• Writing from 2022
• Writing from the glow of a plastic Christmas tree
• Writing on a rollercoaster of triumph and disaster
• Writing from the drop-off line at my daughter’s elementary school
• Writing with Thanksgiving on my mind
• Writing from the crowd before the start of a Shovels & Rope show
• Writing from the depths of a post-book-festival hangover
• Writing from the Ron Robinson Theatre
• Writing to you on Halloween Eve
• Writing from my bed on a Saturday morning
• Writing from my office with two darts clenched in my left hand
• Writing from the shade of my favorite tree
• Writing from my desk on a Tuesday morning
• Writing from a pirate ship
• Writing from the airport
• Writing from the hospital
• I'm writing from the water
• Writing from my wife's Honda Pilot
• Writing from my office |
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