I have three works in progress. I’ll soon be seeking publication for Riversbend Elegy. I’m in the process of revising Riversbend Jazz. And I’m well into the first draft of Flying Through the Air with No Particular Ease.
Riversbend Elegy, for saxophone, harp, and seven guns, is the story of two families grieving the loss of a young soldier. It’s December 2
004 in a small town in Indiana, and Tom is the first local kid to die at war in Iraq. He leaves behind a saxophone, a fragile wife, and a baby boy.
We join these families as they gather in Riversbend for Tom’s funeral. In this choral novel, we hear the voice of each of the folks who must learn to live without him. They are singular people coming together, and the mourning song they create is often a dissonant one, but the underlying chords carry a familiar American tune.
Riversbend Jazz, for saxophone, bass fiddle, and claw hammer is set in 2020 America. The story follows a politically-diverse extended family, as they live and love and fight their way through that history-making year.
It’s been sixteen years since these folks came together for Tom McBee’s funeral, as chronicled in Riversbend Elegy. Many of them still make their homes in tightly-knit small-town Riversbend, Indiana. Others have scattered to the coasts, settling in New York City, Jacksonville, Florida, and Portland, Oregon.
Their ties have become strained over recent years, and 2020 may break them. It’s the year when singing together as a chorus is forbidden and family travel can be deadly.
Flying through the Air with No Particular Ease is a novel about breasts, faith, and knowing who to call when you have to kill a mouse.
June, Meg, and Avis are sisters. They grew up during the 50s and 60s in the foothills of South Carolina. Though they lead very different day-to-day lives by the year of their Lord 1999, they each drop their solo acts to join in the fight when June is diagnosed with an aggressive form of breast cancer.
Now, flying together again, swinging high without a net, the Bigsby girls will try to remember the saving grace they thought they’d never forget, how to simply let go and trust one another to catch.