• About Stephen Roth

A Place for My Stuff

~ The hopes, dreams and random projects of author Stephen Roth

A Place for My Stuff

Tag Archives: amazon

A Book Club for Pridemore

19 Friday Feb 2016

Posted by ghosteye3 in A Plot for Pridemore, author, fiction, humor, stephen roth, Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

a plot for pridemore, amazon, mercer university press, missouri, southern fiction, Stephen Roth

Over the past few months, I have been delighted to speak with a couple of book clubs that took the time to read A Plot for Pridemore. The most recent engagement was conducted via conference call with a friend’s club in North Carolina. The ladies drank wine and peppered me with questions about the book while I paced around my basement trying to summon intelligent-sounding answers. As far as Saturday night conference calls go, it was a lot of fun, and I was flattered that the book club would want to talk with me about my novel.

If you have a book club, or are thinking about starting one, let me provide you with five compelling reasons why A Plot for Pridemore would be an excellent selection:

1. The book is funny.

2. The plot is fast-moving and engaging.

3. The characters are colorful.

4. There are some dark, chilling moments that should spark interesting conversation next time your club gets together.

5. I would be happy to talk with your group about my book, whether you are in Kansas City or Kathmandu. Obviously, if you are based in Nepal, we might have to converse over the phone.

These books aren't going to sell themselves.

These books aren’t going to sell themselves.


Want to know what the book’s about? Here’s a summary:

For five heart-churning days, the world turns its attention to tiny Pridemore, Missouri, where rescue teams work around the clock to free a mentally challenged man from a collapsed cave.

That’s how Mayor Roe Tolliver envisions it, anyway. Weary of watching the town he’s led for more than forty years slide into economic oblivion, the mayor hatches a devious and dangerous plan-trap a local man in the bowels of nearby Dragon’s Ice House cavern, start a massive rescue operation, and prompt a media vigil that puts Pridemore on the map for decades to come.

Over the course of a year, the mayor and his cronies carry out the convoluted scheme, which involves everything from bilking state money for a bogus tourist attraction to hiring a militia “ballistics consultant” to detonate the limestone cavern. Their success hinges on unassuming pawn Digby Willers, whose simple-minded likeability provides human interest in the made-for-television crisis. As events unfold, however, forces beyond even the mayor’s control turn Digby’s rescue into a real, life-or-death drama.

Get ready for a fast-paced romp filled with quirky characters, hilarious twists and turns, and a small town that just might get its fifteen minutes of fame.

You can find more information about A Plot for Pridemore on the Mercer University Press website, as well as Amazon. If you’re interested in reading the book with your club, please send me a comment and let me know.

A Promo for Pridemore

18 Friday Apr 2014

Posted by ghosteye3 in A Plot for Pridemore, fiction, my life, Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

a plot for pridemore, amazon, author, barnes & noble, fiction, georgia, humor, kansas city, literary, mercer university press, missouri, novel, satire, southern fiction, Stephen Roth

As has already been exhaustively reported in these pages, my novel, A Plot for Pridemore, will be released in a few weeks. The book went to press on April 9, so we are right on schedule for publication at the end of May.

If you want to read my book but you aren’t too keen on buying a copy, you can enter a “giveaway” contest right here on GoodReads.com. Just click “Enter to Win” and you will be part of a digital raffle that will determine the winners of six copies of my book, which I will ship out along with a thank you note on June 14.

PlotForPridemore (2)If you ARE interested in buying my book, you can pre-order it on any of the following websites: Amazon.com, BarnesandNoble.com, and MUPress.org. Once the book is published, you can order it in digital form as a Kindle book or a Nook book.

If you happen to live in the Kansas City area or you plan to travel here soon, I am lining up a few book signings and readings over the course of the summer. I’m having a book launch party on June 14 at The Writers Place in midtown Kansas City. On June 21, I’ll be signing books at the Barnes & Noble in the Zona Rose shopping center. And on Aug. 15, I will do a 20-minute (gulp!) reading from my book at a special evening event at The Writers Place.

I am hoping to schedule more events soon to help promote the book, including a few gigs in the South this fall. I’ll keep y’all posted. Let me know if you have any thoughts on booksellers that might welcome A Plot for Pridemore to their stacks. I am willing to try anyone and anything (as long as it doesn’t cost too much).

Excerpt from A Plot for Pridemore

30 Thursday Jan 2014

Posted by ghosteye3 in A Plot for Pridemore, fiction, humor, my life, satire, Uncategorized

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

a plot for pridemore, amazon, author, barnes & noble, fiction, mercer university press, southern fiction, Stephen Roth, writing

My book doesn’t come out until May, but you can pre-order it on Amazon for the very appealing price of $17.63. If you’re more of a Barnes & Noble fan, you can find it here for the even lower price of $17.27.

“But Stephen,” you might ask. “I don’t even know what this book is about, and I’ve never read any of your work.”

PlotForPridemore (2)I thought you might say something like that. Below is an excerpt that sets up the central dilemma of the story, and should inform your decision of whether or not this kind of fiction is your cup of tea. Please let me know what you think.

Chapter One

The man in the charcoal suit gave a thin smile that barely registered a blip on the sincerity meter. His handshake was cool and soft. Maybe he was easing his grip because of the mayor’s advanced age. Or maybe he was just a wimp. Either way, the mayor knew right off he didn’t like this guy. And he didn’t feel too swell about his decision to come all the way to St. Louis to meet him.

“Trent Dodge,” the man said, “VP of North American Operations.”

“How are you, Trent? I’m Roe Tolliver, mayor of Pridemore, Missouri.”

Dodge led the mayor into a conference room that overlooked the glass towers of a suburban office park. He invited the mayor to treat himself to some coffee in one of the tiny Styrofoam cups that lined a nearby tray, but Roe politely declined.

“So Mayor Tolliver, how can we help you today?”

“Well, sir, as you know, my fair city was honored to be considered among the top five candidates for the new plant that Sunnyside Farms is going to build.”

Dodge nodded.

“But we didn’t make the next round. And I just wanted to follow up to see if there’s anything I can do to make you feel more comfortable about keeping Pridemore in the running for this wonderful facility you’re going to create.”

He paused to allow a response from Dodge, but none was forthcoming. You pudding-headed fool, the mayor thought to himself, you should have accepted the damn cup of coffee.

“It’s no secret that Pridemore has fallen on some hard times,” he went on. “We were hit pretty hard by the farm crisis and have had a few big companies leave town. But I think our situation could work to your advantage. As your people know, we have a 500-acre industrial park that’s just itching to be developed – prime commercial real estate where you can build and expand as you please. And you’d be Pridemore’s largest employer right off the bat.”

Still no response. But Dodge was kind enough to offer one of his thin-lipped smiles.

“The people of Pridemore have an incredible work ethic and a great passion for agriculture,” the mayor added. “I’m sure that was plain to see when your team came to visit us.”

Dodge suddenly stirred. “You mean the light show?” Actually, it was a twilight ceremony the mayor had carefully orchestrated in which Pridemore residents lined Old Highway 54 and held up candles as the Sunnyside executives drove out of town. It made for a hell of a front page photo in the next day’s Evening Headlight.

“Yes, I heard about that,” Dodge said. “That was a nice touch.”

“Well, thank you. And I can assure you, it came from the heart. Because the people of Pridemore—”

“—Let me stop you.”

The mayor let out a tiny hiss, but smiled politely. He wasn’t accustomed to being interrupted.

Dodge opened his leather binder and pulled out a map of central Missouri. Pridemore and four other towns of similar size were circled in red ink.

“Just bear with me a second, because I want to show you something that I think will address your concerns.”

He ran a pale index finger across the map until it found Pridemore.

“You guys are here, right?”

The finger ran an inch or so to the east.

“And the new Highway 54 is here, eight miles away. Correct?”

He peered at the mayor through designer glasses that were probably worth more than the average Pridemorean’s paycheck.

“Those eight miles are why you didn’t make the cut. Wherever we decide to put the new harvesting center, it is vital that it be along the Highway 54 corridor. We’re going to have trucks coming in and out of the center every single day and night. We’ve got to be on the highway.”

The mayor nodded grimly. This was nothing new. Highway 54 had been a burr in Pridemore’s ass since the state decided to redirect it 10 years ago.

Dodge moved his finger up the highway a couple of inches.

“Now here’s Farley, which, between you and me, stands a very good chance of winning the bid. They’re similar to Pridemore in size and all the other factors. Except they’re on the highway, which makes all the difference.”

He closed the binder and ran his hand across it like it was a dear pet. “Make sense?”

The mayor tried to collect his thoughts, seething at the arrogance of this man at least 30 years his junior trying to treat him like some junkyard dog, condensing his city (his life’s work!) down to some arbitrary dot on a map. Arthritic knees or not, he felt like taking this Trent Dodge fellow by the collar and tossing him and his wingtips onto the parking lot seven stories below.

Thankfully, the nimble coolness that had served the mayor well in his many years as a trial lawyer took over.

“We’ve offered you a generous incentive package,” he said. “One I know the other towns can’t match. And we can get even more generous if need be. It won’t be easy, but we’ll do whatever it takes.”

He paused for dramatic effect. “We can make up for those eight measly miles.”

Dodge frowned and looked at his binder. “Well, we have other concerns about Pridemore that kept you from being a serious candidate for Sunnyside Farms.”

The mayor was losing his patience. “Like what, exactly?”

The vice president of Sunnyside held back for a moment, as if he really didn’t want to throw this final punch because it was going to hurt. But he did anyway.

“Well, for instance, we feel you have a glaring shortage of skilled labor.”

That did it. Screw this garden party, the mayor thought. He slowly rose and slapped both hands on the oaken table.

“We are talking about a hog processing plant, right, Mr. Dodge? You take hogs and you cut them up and you shrink-wrap the pieces, correct? You can call it harvesting or whatever bullshit thing you want. But it’s basically a filthy, fly-infested slaughterhouse, isn’t it? So exactly what kind of skilled labor are we really talking about here?”

Dodge nervously eyed the door. But the mayor wasn’t done.

“The people of Pridemore have harvested soy beans and corn, they have built houses, they have built roads, they have manufactured computer chips and automobile parts. I’m pretty damned sure they can hang a pig upside down and bleed him into a garbage bin.”

“Okay, I think we’re done.” Mr. Dodge stood up and held out his hand.

“No thanks,” the mayor said as he turned away. “I don’t care for cold fish.”

He slumped into the back of his Chrysler New Yorker and beat his fist a few times against the leather upholstery.

“Went that well, huh?” Rufus Stodemeyer asked as he started the car. The Pridemore City Council president often acted as the mayor’s chauffer when there was out-of-town business to be done.

“That Godforsaken highway is going to be the end of us. Maybe it already is,” the mayor said.

Stodemeyer shot him a concerned look through the rearview mirror, no small feat for a man who most days had about as much compassion as a Burmese Python.

“You want some Italian food?” he asked. “I know a good place on the Hill.”

“Just drive.”

The mayor said nothing for two hours, until they veered off the four-lane Highway 54 and onto the two-lane blacktop now known as Old 54, which dissected Pridemore and had served as its economic spine for generations. In its heyday, the highway was the main route for travelers headed from the cities to The Lake of the Ozarks. Back then on summer weekends, Pridemore’s downtown swelled with people dressed in loud Bermuda shorts and loafers with no socks, flashing credit cards around, indulging their kids with sugary treats and smiling easy because they were on vacation. They hailed from exotic places like Ames, Nebraska City and Sioux Falls. They left ten-dollar tips on the restaurant tables. They made a big deal about “bargaining down” for ridiculously overpriced heirlooms and yard ornaments. The out-of-towners, for a few months at least, made Pridemore a little oasis of big-city bustle.

That was one hell of a long time ago, the mayor thought as he gazed out his car window at the empty storefronts and boarded-up buildings lining Main Street. Sad as it was to imagine, Sunnyside Farms and its filthy, sewage-belching hog plant – and its 300 jobs – were the last chance at a better life for the town he had led for nearly 50 years.

“Hey Rufus.”

“Yeah?”

“What happened to us?”

“To us?” The councilman looked at him, eyebrow arched.

“To this town. What happened to this town?”

“Oh,” said Rufus, lowering his shoulders like it was a question he got every day.

“I don’t know, Roe,” he said after a minute. “I guess we just outgrew our usefulness.”

The mayor thought about this a second, then cleared his throat with the same low, guttural grunt he used in city council meetings when he wanted people’s attention. For the first time in his life, he was officially out of ideas.

Follow My Stuff!

RSS Feed RSS - Posts

RSS Feed RSS - Comments

Blog Archive

  • May 2022 (1)
  • March 2022 (1)
  • February 2022 (2)
  • March 2021 (1)
  • December 2020 (1)
  • June 2020 (1)
  • May 2020 (1)
  • April 2019 (1)
  • March 2019 (1)
  • March 2018 (3)
  • February 2018 (3)
  • February 2017 (3)
  • January 2017 (3)
  • December 2016 (2)
  • November 2016 (4)
  • September 2016 (2)
  • August 2016 (6)
  • July 2016 (1)
  • June 2016 (4)
  • May 2016 (3)
  • April 2016 (5)
  • March 2016 (4)
  • February 2016 (5)
  • September 2015 (1)
  • August 2015 (1)
  • July 2015 (4)
  • June 2015 (2)
  • May 2015 (1)
  • April 2015 (1)
  • March 2015 (3)
  • February 2015 (3)
  • January 2015 (4)
  • December 2014 (2)
  • November 2014 (1)
  • October 2014 (5)
  • September 2014 (6)
  • August 2014 (5)
  • July 2014 (6)
  • June 2014 (6)
  • May 2014 (4)
  • April 2014 (6)
  • March 2014 (5)
  • February 2014 (6)
  • January 2014 (7)
  • December 2013 (7)
  • November 2013 (7)
  • October 2013 (6)
  • September 2013 (5)
  • August 2013 (7)
  • July 2013 (7)
  • June 2013 (4)
  • May 2013 (5)
  • April 2013 (6)
  • March 2013 (6)
  • February 2013 (7)

Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 335 other followers

Blogs I Follow

  • So Many Miles
  • Jolie and Piper's Writing
  • Deidra Alexander's Blog
  • Five More Minutes.....
  • Daily Inspiration Blog
  • The Shameful Sheep
  • LITERARY TITAN
  • Grateful and Authentic
  • Stuff White People Like
  • Storyshucker
  • 8 Hamilton Ave.
  • SO... THAT HAPPENED
  • TruckerDesiree
  • Mercer University Press News
  • BookPeople
  • A Place for My Stuff
  • "Write!" she says.
  • TwistedSifter
  • André Bakes His Way Through Martha Stewart's Cookie Book
  • The Dimwit Diary

Posts Categories

advertising A Plot for Pridemore author book review current events entertainment fiction growing up humor media movie reviews music my life observations parenthood photo fiction president satire social media sports stephen roth Uncategorized

My Facebook Fan Page

My Facebook Fan Page

Goodreads

Blogroll

  • Discuss
Follow A Place for My Stuff on WordPress.com

Categories

  • A Plot for Pridemore
  • advertising
  • author
  • book review
  • current events
  • entertainment
  • fiction
  • growing up
  • humor
  • media
  • movie reviews
  • music
  • my life
  • observations
  • parenthood
  • photo fiction
  • president
  • satire
  • social media
  • sports
  • stephen roth
  • Uncategorized

Blog at WordPress.com.

So Many Miles

Thru-hiking. Truck-driving. Miles.

Jolie and Piper's Writing

Deidra Alexander's Blog

I have people to kill, lives to ruin, plagues to bring, and worlds to destroy. I am not the Angel of Death. I'm a fiction writer.

Five More Minutes.....

I am a mother of five active, sometimes aggravating children that drive me crazy, provide me with lots of entertainment and remind me constantly about the value of love and family. I am married to my best friend. He makes me laugh every day (usually at myself). I love to eat, run, write, read and then eat again, run again…you get it. I am a children's author, having published four books with MeeGenuis (The Halloween Costume, When Santa Was Small, The Baseball Game, and The Great Adventure Brothers). I have had several pieces of writing published on Adoptive Families, Adoption Today, Brain Child, Scary Mommy, and Ten To Twenty Parenting. I am also a child psychologist, however I honestly think that I may have learned more from my parents and my children than I ever did in any book I read in graduate school. This blog is a place where I can gather my thoughts and my stories and share them with others. My writing is usually about kids and trying to see the world through their eyes, a few about parenting, adoption (one of my children is adopted) and some other random thoughts thrown in… I hope you enjoy them! So grab a cup of coffee, or a glass of wine, depending on what time of day it is (or what kind of day it is) and take a few minutes to sit back, relax and read. Please add your comments or opinions, I know you must have something to say, and I would love to hear it. Thanks for stopping by. Anne Cavanaugh-Sawan

Daily Inspiration Blog

The Shameful Sheep

LITERARY TITAN

Connecting Authors and Readers

Grateful and Authentic

Shift Your Perspective, Change Your Life

Stuff White People Like

This blog is devoted to stuff that white people like

Storyshucker

A blog full of humorous and poignant observations.

8 Hamilton Ave.

Reading, writing & other mysteries

SO... THAT HAPPENED

TruckerDesiree

Offering Opinions and Insights

Mercer University Press News

Our Mission: Mercer University Press supports the work of the University in achieving excellence and scholarly discipline in the fields of liberal learning, professional knowledge, and regional investigation by making the results of scholarly investigation and literary excellence available to the worldwide community.

BookPeople

Howdy! We're the largest independent bookstore in Texas. This is our blog.

A Place for My Stuff

The hopes, dreams and random projects of author Stephen Roth

"Write!" she says.

Tales from the car rider line and other stories

TwistedSifter

The Best of the visual Web, sifted, sorted and summarized

André Bakes His Way Through Martha Stewart's Cookie Book

175 cookie recipes - 175 stories to tell

The Dimwit Diary

A humorous website of assorted madness

Privacy & Cookies: This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this website, you agree to their use.
To find out more, including how to control cookies, see here: Cookie Policy
  • Follow Following
    • A Place for My Stuff
    • Join 335 other followers
    • Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
    • A Place for My Stuff
    • Customize
    • Follow Following
    • Sign up
    • Log in
    • Report this content
    • View site in Reader
    • Manage subscriptions
    • Collapse this bar
 

Loading Comments...