"Seven Bridges Road" in "The Botleys of Beaumont County"

https://www.blurb.com/b/10799783-the-botleys-of-beaumont-county 

"The Botleys of Beaumont County" is available on Blurb! My first novel's genre is literary fiction.

     When the Beatles appeared on the scene, I was one of many who grew their hair longer and tried to play the guitar. The hair was easy, but I could only push my parents too far. As for the guitar, that was to to be. I wrote a poem in Accents about that.

    So what to do when I gave up trying to play the guitar and realized I was not cut out to be a vocalist? I listened, as did millions, but I tried to write lyrics, memorizing a lot along the way.

     Seven Bridges Road I first heard on Ian Matthews;' cover version. The Eagles made it famous, and it has been covered many, many times since. Steve Young wrote it and appeared near me a few years back. Sadly, I was unable to go. I admire singer/songwriters.

     In my book, Slerd and Jessica (Main Characters) attend a Steve Young concert and hear this song. Jessica even plays it in her classroom while students read. That concert and its aftermath play a significant role in the plot. Slerd and Jessica enjoy music. She sings, he writes poetry. 

     There's more about it in the book, of course! 

     

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZpV83ovYAyY

The Botleys have landed! "The Botley of Beaumont County" Now Available on Blurb

https://www.blurb.com/b/10799783-the-botleys-of-beaumont-county 

   It is available either as a softcover book or a pdf File! Read about how a once-prominent family copes with the 21st Century!

   Many thanks to Carol Worthington-Levy for formatting and a fabulous cover (as usual) and to those fellow writers who gave me advice. Your names are included int he book.

The Narrator of "The Botleys of Beaumont County"

      Somewhere along the way, I thought it would be useful to have a narrator tie the story together. Having the main character or another prominent character in the role did not make sense to me. Then it hit me that having Ashley Violet Botley, daughter of Slerd and Violet was a perfect choice.

      Why?

      She experienced everything that went on, directly or indirectly. 

       As a Botley, she had a role to play, but she did not want to be a typical Botley female.

      The time frame of the plot was pivotal for her as well, even if she did not realize it at the time.

       After all, the title includes more than one Botley!

      Coming soon on Bkurb!

    

Interim Rector? What's That Doing in "The Botleys of Beaumont County"?

 

     A lot of the story in the novel takes place in St. Clement's Episcopal Church. In the South, that was the denomination of prestige and of the leading social class. That was a carryover from colonial days when the Anglicans dominated. These days the denomination is more progressive, but there still is the lingering aura of prestige in some parishes. 

     In a decently-run parish, the clergy serving is called the rector. An interim rector is not intended to be there permanently. He or she comes for a fixed period or to fulfill a task. Perhaps there has been a long-tenured rector, and a new face is needed. Or maybe there has been some upheaval, and someone has to clean up a mess.

     Enter Father Michael Bertoni, retired US Army chaplain. He is from Philadelphia, a member of another diocese, and comes to St. Clement's after Father Jonathan Stallworth protested changes in the denomination. Eventually, he joined a non-canonical Orthodox group and set up a chapel in town.

     Interims are not there to be popular, but to make some hard decisions and to clean things up. Some members of St. Clement's love him, others, like Eustacia Botley, do not.

     I have been an interim pastor in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, usually in less tumultuous situations. Since we are partners with the Episcopal Church, I was going to be an interim rector in Pennsylvania, but later that week I learned I was being deployed to Germany. 

     Fr. Bertoni's sermons in the novel set the tone for what St. Clement's and its members need to be. What happens in the holiday services shows the tensions and the joys in the community. The main characters find out a lot about themselves there, and that carries over to their everyday lives. 

So Why a Cement Block Plant in "The Botleys of Beaumont County"?

    That is a good question. When I envisioned Beaumont County, I put some limestone quarries there, which are common to where I live now and where I used to live. Heavy industry would not work, and I wanted something other than agriculture.

    Years ago my father was a metallurgist, which was a declining steel industry in the US. He and a friend talked about setting up a business. Dad subscribed to the Wall Street Journal, adding to the newspaper clutter in the living room.

    One day he told me that he and his friend planned to start a cement block company in South Carolina. "It'll be something for you one day," he told me. My older brother's career was planned, or so they thought. But what to do about me? 

     I protested that I knew nothing about cement blocks. He replied I didn't have to. I did not tell him that I would NEVER live down there. 

    But I have since 2004!

   The plans did not come to anything. I would have managed things better than Dexter Botley, but not by much!

    Dad eventually became a foreman in an industrial cement plant near Philly. I worked there as a manual laborer after high school and during breaks from Penn State. That was the only time I benefited from nepotism. 

    Some of that experience shows up in the book, which will be out soon on Blurb. Very soon!

Introducing Jessica Sinclair Cavendish from "The Botleys of Beaumont County"

 

     Jessica has a lot going for her. Her students adore her, most of her colleagues admire her, her principal is another story. Her daughter Lauren earned a scholarship to the university that pays for most everything. That is good because Jessica's husband Randy has a hardware store in Marion that like the town, has seen better days. Their marriage is more like a partnership, but life does not always work out for people.

     The Sinclairs and the Cavendishes live in the Rivertown section of Marion. It is not a bad neighborhood, and the people there are mostly decent folks. But they are not, and never will be, "movers and shakers" in the community. No one from Rivertown belongs to the Country Club, but a few work there. Anyone wanting something more out of life has to leave the county, even the state.

     At the old Marion High School, Jessica and Slerd wanted to date. His family pressured him to avoid Jessica because she was "not of their kind." She was unable to leave when younger through no fault of her own. In her early 40s, she is professionally secure, but wonders what might have happened if she and Slerd could have become closer. Then the time comes when she no longer has to wonder.

Marion is not Mayberry!

      Andy Griffith based Mayberry on his hometown of Mt. Airy, NC. The TV version was a friendly place where everyone got along and life slowed down. Mt. Airy was idealized of course, but the town was probably not too far off the mark. What it is like now I cannot say. It is not too far off of I-77, which was not there when Andy grew up.

     Marion is a county seat in the southeastern US. It is set between the Atlantic coast and Piedmont. Williamstown is the cultural center of the state. The movers and shakers are there,m and venture out only when necessary. No longer the state capital, the city nonetheless exerts a major influence and lets everyone know it.

     Since Marion is in the hinterlands, it struggles. They have chosen to be a big fish in a little pond. Everyone gets along since everyone knows their place. People generally are kind to each other, but there are limits to the kindness. African Americans do not face overt discrimination; individually, they may become friends, but old tensions linger. Outsiders move in but experience the stigma of being newcomers who really of course have no roots.

     Things change in the first decade of the 21st Century. The Internet, talk radio, and combative politics wear down the facade of politeness. As the filters fall off, Marion and Beaumont County change for the worse. The question is whether the trend will be checked or allowed to continue, shattering the old ways. And what will replace it? What role will the Botleys have?

    Coming soon on Blurb!