Martin, Lee

"On a night no one will ever forget, Della Black and three of her seven children are killed in a horrific fire in their trailer. As the surviving children are caught in the middle of a custody battle between their well-intentioned neighbor and their father and his pregnant mistress, new truths about what really happened the night of the fire come to light. When the fire marshal determines the cause - arson - rumors quickly circulate as the townspeople search for answers. Ronnie Black is the kind of man who can leave his wife and children for a younger woman, but is he capable of something more sinister? Ronnie and his girlfriend, Brandi Tate, maintain his innocence - he's a loving, caring father who wants to do everything he can to protect his family. But as the gossip continues, Ronnie feels his children (and, eventually, Brandi) pulling away from him. Soon enough, he finds himself at a crossroads - should he allow gossipmongers to seal his fate, or should he fight to prove that he's not the monster people paint him to be? In Late One Night, Lee Martin examines the devastating effect of rumors and the resilience of one family in the face of the ultimate tragedy. "--

"The American memoir of Lee Martin, born into a farming family the same year his father unexpectedly lost both of his hands. Lee's father, once known for "doing a good turn for his neighbors," changed that afternoon in the cornfields to become an embittered, hardened man. "All our lives have private truths," Martin writes, "and the truth about my father was that after his accident he brought a deep and abiding rage into our home. I knew his hooks as intimately as I ever knew anything about my father." Lee's mother, called Beulah for the idyllic land at the end of John Bunyan's The Pilgrim's Progress, never gave up hope that salvation might one day find their home."--BOOK JACKET.

The question "Can creative writing be taught?" has generated intense debate, with equally vocal partisans on each side. And yet little attention has been paid to what beginning writers might actually learn from established writers who teach for a living. Passing the Word addresses the sometimes ineffable relationship between writing student and teacher. In these pages distinguished writers explore the relevance of mentors in their education and development as writers. Each author contributes an essay and a story or poem, which together give a unique sense of the forces that shape a writer's craft and vision. What emerges is a new and rich definition of mentor, as it applies to the deeply human art of writing.

On an evening like any other, nine-year-old Katie Mackey, daughter of the most affluent family in a small town on the plains of Indiana, sets out on her bicycle to return some library books.This simple act is at the heart of The Bright Forever, a suspenseful, deeply affecting novel about the choices people make that change their lives forever. Keeping fact, speculation, and contradiction playing off one another as the details unfold, author Lee Martin creates a fast-paced story that is as gripping as it is richly human. His beautiful, clear-eyed prose builds to an extremely nuanced portrayal of the complicated give and take among people struggling to maintain their humanity in the shadow of a loss.Reminiscent of books such as The Little Friend and The Lovely Bones, but most memorable for its own perceptions and power, The Bright Forever is a compelling and emotional tale about the human need to know even the hardest truth.From the Hardcover edition.

Disaffected teenager Laney has no one in the world but the older Delilah. When the police start asking Laney questions, she finds herself reconstructing a story of suspense, deceit, and revenge... a story that links her to the sadder-but-wiser Miss Baby, seven hundred miles away in Texas.

"Based on the true story of a shameful episode in North Texas history, Quakertown draws on the rich texture of the South - of the Pecan Creek running along the edges of Quakertown, the remarkable and rare white lilac, and of the rising tensions marking each nod and greeting."--BOOK JACKET.