It was the Memorial Day weekend, 1963, and James, a nearly fourteen year old, relatively shy, moderately nerdy, horny, soon-to-be ninth grader in a small central Florida town of 40,000 people, had to start mowing yards that weekend to earn money to buy his first car when he turned sixteen. That was the beginning of a bizarre summer that introduced James to Mrs. Root Beer Lady, Monica (the knock dead gorgeous blond woman with ample breasts), Mrs. Chyspo, and the old man, Mr. and Mrs. Kiches and their son Kelvin (who was bigger than James and a bully), James' best friend Roger and his grandmother (Mrs. Maleway), Mr. Morgan (who runs the "burger joint" across the street from James' dad's service station) and Cookie (Mr. Morgan's daughter), the police, and a horde of reptilian alien things that tried to kill and eat him at every turn. James did a lot of dreaming that summer including dreaming in his dreams and as it finally turns out, he worked too hard that first day mowing yards and slept for sixteen straight hours dreaming everything that happened that summer in 1963.
YOU CAN PURCHASE MY BOOK FROM THE FOLLOWING ONLINE SELLERS:A-Argus Better Book Publishers LLC. and Amazon.com.
On Amazon.com enter the following ISBN number in the search box: 9780984134229.
Read the review on Digital Giraffe
Thanks, and I hope that you enjoy the story!
Jim Meaders
Hi. My name is Jim Meaders. I'm 60 years old, have been teaching art to college students for over 30 years, and after thinking about it for 25 years or so, I've written my first novel - actually completed in December of 2007. The Summer of My Fourteenth Year is a story in which the main character is based on me. The part about me mowing yards to earn money to buy my first car and some other aspects of the story are also based on fact. Some of the characters and events in the story are roughly based on real people and events from that time in my life.
A Little More About Me
I am a
Professor of Art at a university in Nashville, Tennessee. I have been a practicing artist for over 40 years,
primarily creating paintings, drawings, and mixed-media pieces. Please visit my artist web site. I taught in South Carolina from 1979-82; in Georgia
from 1982-86; in West Virginia from 1986-92; and since 1992 I have been teaching in Nashville. I earned my B.A. degree
in Art from Florida Southern College (1976) and my M.F.A. in Visual Studies (emphasis in Painting) from Clemson
University (1979). I also attended Ringling School of Art from 1967-69.
Yes, That's Me at 13
I grew up in Lakeland, Florida, and would like to hear from people who live or lived there
(my parents moved to Lakeland in 1954 when I was five years old; I left in December of 1976 to attend graduate school
at Clemson). If you attended Webster Avenue Elementary (now gone-- I was there from 1955-61), Lakeland Jr. High (now
gone--I was there from 1961-64), or Kathleen Sr. High (I was there from 1964-67) in Lakeland I would love to hear from
you.
|
|
