Updated: Readings and Reviews

    April and May are shaping up as busy months on the book tour, as nice reviews for "The Half-Life of Home" start to roll in from newspapers and the first readers. 
    Rob Neufeld of the Asheville Citizen-Times had kind words for my book in Sunday's review:
      
    "The family’s place at the center of the “Half-Life” universe is one of the novel’s beauties. There’s a perfect balance within its structure: the middle-class unit under great pressure at the center; the Appalachian past tugging, with its history of displacement, poverty and folkloric horror; the Appalachian present pushing, with real estate imperatives; and the no-borders world of current media drawing Royce’s teenage son, Dean, into its disaffection."


     And my old pal Lewis Buzbee had this to say on GoodReads:
      
      "Like the best novels, this is the story of the past colliding with the future, where the characters struggle to find some order in the inevitable chaos of change. If you love a good novel, you need this book.
       "The story is set in the deep woods of North Carolina, where the land, poisoned by those who've owned it, now threatens every one that's been left behind. But the land will prevail, as it always does. Along the way, readers will meet an unforgettable cast of characters, from Witch Woman to Snakebit Girl, and those modern demons, businessmen. This isn't just a great Southern novel, but a great American novel. And the writing, well, it's pitch perfect and absolutely seductive. You won't put it down; you won't forget it."

     And do come on out for a reading. I would love to see you: 
    Malaprop's, Asheville,  7 pm April 13
    City Lights, Sylva, 6:30 pm, April 19
    Accent on Books, 3 pm, April 27
    Quail Ridge, Raleigh, 7 pm May 3
    McIntyres, Pittsboro, 11 am May 4
    Park Road Books, Charlotte, 2 pm. May 12
    Pomegranate Books, Wilmington, 7 pm May 21
   Blue Ridge Bookfest, Blue Ridge Community College, Flat Rock, May 18