New Release Tuesday

My new novel is available, and it’s free (kind of).

Let’s get to the good stuff right away. Last week, I sent the files everywhere, and now my sixth novel, The Heart Before the Course, has been published (in paperback and eBook, available almost everywhere online, and soon to be in select* bookstores).

* Sadly, THEY do the selecting, not me. I’m pretty sure the local shop will take it; I’m working on the others.

For a limited time, and for a limited number of readers, the eBook version is “free.” Yes, there’s a catch. There is no cost to getting the book from BookSirens (see link here), but they will “encourage” you to write a review of the book (so would I, but they’ll do the nagging). It’s available online in two digital formats: epub and PDF. Sorry, no free paperback, but I can save you a little money…see the last paragraph if you really want to spend cash on this.

About the book—this is the one I mentioned a couple of times in the last two months. I wrote most of it almost three years ago, and while it tested well with my beta readers, I wasn’t satisfied, so it sat, incomplete. Inspiration hit me in May; it’s now a “two-person narrative,” the first time I’ve tried that in a novel. Most of the story comes from the viewpoint of Robert, the seventh-grader who is a stranger/neighbor to Carlton, a recent widower. The rest comes from Carlton, “speaking” to his wife.

There’s part of me in both of them.

In the story, Carlton reminisces to Robert about a job he had in the seventies, before he launched his career with the telephone company, working (and playing) at a local Putt-Putt golf course. When I say Putt-Putt, I don’t mean just any mini-golf course, but the then-popular franchise with its easily recognizable orange bumpboard on holes that were designed as “no frills, all skills” (they were all par two, ergo: “Putt-Putt”), but anyone out on date-night who’d had a few too many can tell you they were anything but easy. Inspired, Carlton decides to fill his newly-found free time (instead of taking care of his bedridden wife) by making an 18-hole Putt-Putt in his backyard, enlisting Robert and Robert’s friends to help. It goes well…for a time. Seems not everyone is excited about the project.

As a kid, I loved mini-golf. It was the #1 activity for me when my parents would suggest that we do something together (which wasn’t often). There were three courses in town, and I played ‘em all. But when the Ypsilanti (MI) Putt-Putt opened up when I was in college…I was drawn like moth to flame. I had just finished my junior year (and was considering dropping out). I went out to play in one of the local tournaments…and finished third, my first time playing competitively.

I was hooked.

I started working there shortly thereafter, made manager within two weeks, dropped out of college, turned pro, and “went on the Putt-Putt tour.” Yes, such a thing really existed. I won some money (nothing life-changing, but it bumped me into a higher tax bracket), and qualified for the World Championship twice, in 1975 and 1977 (top prize was $50K).

I only managed there for a year, but like Carlton, it was my favorite job. We were selling fun! I loved getting on the microphone and making the “hole-in-one” announcements (I can still recite them from memory more than 50 years later). Yes, frustrated disc jockey syndrome. Even though I was working seven days a week, twelve (or more) hours a day, I loved it.

And the idea of putting a course in the backyard? I had that idea, too. However, unlike Carlton, my wife is still alive and put the kibosh on the deal, even when I told her it would mean less lawn mowing would be needed. Ah, well.

It’s a fun and heartwarming story, it’s already received a 5-star review, and you should add it to your summer reading TBR pile. See the link above for a free digital copy (all you’ll need to do is finish it within 30 days and leave a review).

Now, if you really want to buy the book in paperback form, I won’t stop you. It’s at Amazon and Barnes and Noble, but…you can save a dollar if you buy it from Bookshop.org. Here’s the link.

Thanks, and comment?

PS: This past Sunday was the 72^nd anniversary of Don Clayton’s magical franchise, as the first Putt-Putt opened in Fayetteville, NC, on June 21, 1954. At one point, there were more than 1500 Putt-Putt courses worldwide. They still exist, but as Putt-Putt Fun Centers, a mere shell of their former selves.

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