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The front and back cover of William L. Alton's novella Lies, Fibs, and Fabrications

 

 

 

 

 

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“Highly recommend Lies, Fibs, & Fabrications. I read an early draft of the manuscript—a unique voice, melancholic, with a real sense of place and time.” —Nathan Oseroff-Spicer, Copy Editor, Lies, Fibs, & Fabrications

Lies, Fibs, and Fabrications by William L. Alton is a novella about the Carters, a proud and broken family living in Izard, a town in the Ozark mountains. The interrelated stories are a visit to the well of the Ozark tradition of “spinning yarns” and filled with whispered gossip and subtle tension. Billy examines and finds his identity in a part of the country where neighbors often disapprove and are sometimes dangerous, where family leaves him feeling like an outsider. Search for faith and redemption along with Billy, and insight and inspiration among multiple generations of Carters: Grandpa who gave up on God during the war, Grandma who loved to dance with him before the metal in his hip, and Billy finding comfort in spite of an intolerant family and town.

Pre-Order: Lies, Fibs, & Fabrications (a novella) by William L. Alton

Click HERE to pre-order Lies, Fibs, & Fabrications (a novella) by William L. Alton.

Lies, Fibs, and Fabrications is a novella of interrelated stories about a family in a small Ozark mountain town. Billy searches for his own identity in a part of the country where neighbors often disapprove and are sometimes dangerous, where family leaves him feeling like an outsider. The stories weave deep revealing autobiography with the Ozark tradition of ‘spinning yarns,” offering readers insight and inspiration to search for their faith and redemption along with Billy.

Book Price: $17

Release date: May 2023

Excerpt from Lies, Fibs, & Fabrications

“Old Story”

Every morning before the sun rose, Grandma started the coffee and sat at the kitchen table for a moment. Alone. She read from the Bible. Slowly. Tracing the words with her fingertips. Her lips moved with every syllable. Thick glasses that she wore only for reading made her eyes huge. After a verse or chapter, she went to the kitchen and turned on the radio. Old fashioned country music. She put the biscuits in the oven and turned to the gravy.

Word had it Grandma wanted to be a missionary. She wanted to go to Africa or South America. Maybe China or India. She’d grown up on stories of souls saved and martyrs welcomed into Heaven. Sometimes, the Holy Spirit moved her. It left her motionless. Her eyes wide and empty. Struck silent.

Somehow, no matter where she was, Grandma never seemed to fit in. But she wanted to be a missionary. Until she met Grandpa. I couldn’t imagine Jesus coming up short to the likes of my grandfather, but the story stood.

“He used to dance,” Grandma said once. “He was a wonderful dancer, your grandfather. Not that he dances anymore. Not with that hip of his.” Her voice was so thin it nearly didn’t exist.

Grandpa came back from the war with metal in his back and hip. The doctors took some out. They left some in. Every step seemed to hurt but Grandpa said nothing. In our family, pain was a secret. Not to be spoken of. He dragged his leg around like a column of glass.

They met at a Grange dance. Grandma went with a cousin. Grandpa, fresh from Basic, went with friends. Grandma was shy. She stood in the door, waiting. Impatient and out of place. Grandpa, a little drunk, pulled her to the dance floor. All night, they danced and talked. Nine months later, Mom was born.

After the war, Grandpa gave up on Jesus. “You can’t watch yourself kill a man,” Grandpa said. “You can’t do that and still believe God loves you.” He came back with metal in his hip and a hitch. “I loved dancing with that man,” Grandma said. Her sadness sat thick on her tongue.

“I’ll dance with you,” I said.

Grandma looked at me with blurry blue eyes. “You’re a sweet boy,” she said. She stopped for a moment to look out the window at the mountains rising dark in the distance. Every morning, she stared at the same mountains and made the same breakfast. All my life, the same window, the same sadness in her old face.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Where to Buy Touching the Elephant

“Nancy Thompson doesn’t set out to make the book about her, but one can’t help feeling as they progress from chapter to chapter that Thompson has suddenly, yet quietly, become a good friend.” –Telly Halkias, Bennington Banner

Touching the Elephant: Values the World’s Religions Share and How They Can Transform Us is a unifying meditation on common values stemming from the world’s major religions.

Available at an independent bookstore near you and the following online booksellers:

Powells powells.com

Mysterious Galaxy mystgalaxy.com

Zio Apollo Press zioapollopress.com

Bookshop bookshop.org

BCH Distribution bookch.com

Barnes & Nobles barnesandnoble.com

Amazon amazon.com

Book Giveaway: Touching the Elephant

In 2009, Nancy Thompson and I taught at a community college and shared an office. When she mentioned she was writing a book about shared values of the world’s religions and how they can transform us, I asked to read it.

Over the following 10 years, we edited the book, Touching the Elephant: Values the World’s Religions Share and How They Can Transform Us, and published it in October 2019. Since publication, Nancy spoke at 3 book signing events in early 2020 but had the 11 remaining book signing events canceled since the COVID-19 pandemic.

Because Nancy’s book signing events are canceled, we decided to give away 10 books to continue encouraging us to find the shared values that help us become kind, compassionate, patient, and humble; and to make efforts to internalize them. Send an email to zioapollopress [at] gmail [dot] com with “Book Giveaway” in Subject and your shipping address, then I’ll send the book via USPS Media Mail (5-7 days). Your private information will only be used for shipping purposes only.

And if you email a receipt of a donation to the following *charities Nancy and Zio Apollo Press support, I will ship a second book.

*The American Himalayan Foundation; International Rescue Committee; American Civil Liberties Union; and the American Immigration Council

Also, the book is available for purchase at zioapollopress.com/shop and it’s on sale for $22 through the end of May 2020.

~Cosimo Giovine, Editor & Publisher

PRE-ORDER *Touching The Elephant: Values the World’s Religions Share and How They Can Transform Us* by Nancy J. Thompson

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Religion in America, at times, does more harm than good. Nancy Thompson in Touching the Elephant: Values the World’s Religions Share and How They Can Transform Us elaborates on the confusion religion tends to produce when hypocrisy leeches into the church pews:

“Additionally, if we read or listen to the news and preachers and politicians on the topics of God and religion, we might feel as if we’re going crazy, and for good reason: America is a Christian country, but religion is responsible for all the evils in the world. God loves us, but God hates us. God and religion are stories made up by people to control other people, but angels guard and protect us. All religions are equal paths to God, but there is only one true religion. What should people think? What do people think?”

As a college professor, Nancy also knows the value of questioning social and religious mores. In her classrooms and in her writing she asks the questions no one wants to ask and the first one in Touching the Elephant is poignant: What do people think about living in a world that recognizes a God but often act as if they live for the Devil? Are we okay with hypocrisy and lying from the top government officials who also say they live a Christian lifestyle?