Bøger af Rhett Devane

Karen Fletcher, alias Mary Elizabeth Kensington, has everything: haughty British-born façade, successful public broadcasting career in Atlanta, beautiful home, and devoted fiancé. Following her breast cancer diagnosis, Karen returns to her southern hometown of Chattahoochee, Florida, to garner support, seek treatment, and unravel the tangled fabrication she has so carefully woven. Karen embarks on the long and often painful journey to claim the rest of her life.

How does one middle-aged woman juggle her roles as wife, mother, coworker, and caretaker and resist the urge to drive, one-way, from town? Hannah Olsen daydreams of such an escape.Hannah belongs to the sandwich generation, one of many women wedged between nurturing children and caring for aging parents. Her elderly mother Mae-who lives nearby in an assisted living facility-is at times profound and funny, or bullish and ill-tempered. Hannah balances her reality with Mae's often demented view, with hilarious and bittersweet results. Though Hannah allows her two siblings to contribute, she shoulders the majority of Mae's care as they negotiate a maze of hospital rooms and rehab units. "Cathead Crazy" is the poignant, amusing, and truthful story of one woman's determined journey through love, loss, and the surprises of mid-life.

When Elizabeth first meets Simon at Westside House, he is angry and scared. She's ten and he's eleven, and like her, Simon is a war orphan. As the revolution tears through New Haven City, the two flee toward the mountains with meager food and a hand-drawn map to an old cabin. Dodging soldiers and gunfire, Elizabeth and Simon make the long, dangerous trek to reach the Emerald Mountains. The first night in the cabin, the hearth bursts into flames and they barely escape. Roused by the fire, a scruffy dwarf pops from a nearby tree hollow. He introduces himself as Taproot, then, after much complaining, decides to help them secure basic food and shelter. He renames them Elsbeth and Sim. Under the mountain man's care, Elsbeth and Sim learn about nature and survival. Taproot shows them how to gather wildwood honey and takes them to a nearby landfill where he teaches the fine art of "dump-diving". They meet Benjamin Pensworthy, an owl that has long been Taproot's ally. After an angry mother bear threatens to maul Elsbeth, Taproot issues an ultimatum. If Elsbeth and Sim wish to remain in the Emerald Mountains permanently, they must change. The hard winter looms, and the old magician fears for their welfare. Taproot uses his powers to shrink them to a size much easier to feed and hide. When they learn of the invading government's plans to destroy the valley to build a military base, Elsbeth and Sim choose to remain with Taproot and Benjamin to protect their new home. "Elsbeth and Sim" follows two children on a classic hero's journey with a twist-one that will forever change their lives.

In the Deep South, the grinding summer heat is enough to make people stupid. Four small town Southern women-each with distinct reasons to consider her life total crap-band together to forge "the easy way out." But life has a way of turning out opposite of misdirected plans. Abby has no husband, no children, no living kin, and a painful family secret. Loiscell is a two-time breast cancer survivor facing recurrence with dwindling faith and courage. Sheila is a meek abused wife hiding behind a religious, volunteer-queen veneer. Estranged from her only child, Caroline "Choo-choo" Ivey desperately misses her late husband. As the relentless summer heat continues, conditions deteriorate for the women. Initially in jest, they propose group suicide: a nice meal, followed by a quick death courtesy of a paid assassin. Choo-choo offers to pay, and Sheila figures a way to enlist her husband to acquire a contact name. Then plans go haywire. The Suicide Supper Club was a finalist in the 2012 Florida Writers Association RPLA contest. The Suicide Supper Club tackles tough subjects-abuse, cancer, aging-but with humor. In the South, humor is as essential as breathing and often filters life's harsh realities.

Fifty winters ago, Elizabeth and Simon fled war-torn New Haven City into the Emerald Mountains, where a dwarf named Taproot used his powers to shrink the two children. These new "one-spirit" beings, Elsbeth and Sim, master that same magic and create others like themselves. They live in underground burrows, dump-dive for supplies, and chat with animals. All, under the watch of Taproot and the regal Pensworthy owls. But Sim The First Father believes rules don't apply. One rash decision leaves him and three clan members wandering the treacherous, icy passes. Can Elsbeth The First Mother dig within to help Sim, herself, and the clan?

With the arrival of a new generation of the Davis-Lewis family, and the opening of an upscale day spa, confidence is finally returning to the small Florida town of Chattahoochee. The triumph over the vicious hate crime that crippled Jake Witherspoon has become a subtle right of passage, hardly mentioned in the day to day hustle and bustle of birthdays and business plans. People are smiling again, the evening news happens to someone else, and the gossip under the Triple C's hair-dryers is finally getting good. Yet, before Piddie's last batch of Cathead Biscuits has a chance to cool, something new is crawling through the tall grass. A prominent citizen is hiding a dirty little secret; one that will shake the community to its roots and leave a legacy of doubt and mistrust that may never heal. Return with us to Chattahoochee, where Southern hospitality, strong family ties, and small town values collide with the darkest side of human nature in a story told with unflappable Southern charm.

Chattahoochee, Florida, a town with a state mental institution on its main drag, seldom slips from its usual relaxed pace. Detached from the tourist havens farther south, everyone here knows everybody else. Senior citizen Elvina Houston, head of the little-ole-lady hotline, keeps her nose wedged in the middle. October typically brings three well-attended festivals and a break from the oppressive summer. But this year, the relentless heat and humidity continue and a parade of horribles cranks up for Jake Witherspoon, his best friend Hattie Davis Lewis, and her older brother Bobby, one that will affect their intertwined families, friends, and the entire town. The incidents Jake perceives as a replay of his horrible assault are every bit as real as the twisted man who inches into Hattie's family. How this group of small town folk handles the clash with hate and crime is a tribute to resiliency, friendship, and hope.

Mary-Esther Sloat is a woman with a patchwork past-three failed marriages, misspent youth, and a series of dead-end jobs. When she attempts to donate a kidney to her dying mother, she learns a life-altering truth: Loretta Boudreau Day is not her biological mother. After Loretta dies, Hurricane Katrina destroys Mary-Esther's only tie to New Orleans-her beloved Nana's house. For a while, Mary-Esther lives in a battered Chevy van. Armed with a faded birth certificate, she finally corrals the courage to unravel the mystery of her birth at a small hospital in the panhandle of Florida.When she finds the site of the hospital, she is dismayed to learn it now houses the Gadsden County Sheriff's office. Sergeant Jerry Blount befriends Mary-Esther and helps her locate a retired nurse who once worked at the small hospital. After meeting with the senior in a near-by assisted living facility, Mary-Esther visits the county courthouse to research records for children born on the same date. She discovers a baby girl with a similar last name-Sarah Davis of Chattahoochee, a small town in the same county.Hattie Davis Lewis lives with her husband Holston and adopted child Sarah Chuntian Lewis in the old family homestead three miles south of Chattahoochee, Florida. She often thinks of her older sister, a child also named Sarah who died shortly after birth. Hattie's older brother Bobby Davis, wife, and son live nearby on the family land. Bobby battles his own demons that threaten his hard-won sobriety.Mary-Esther camps out in her van at a lake near Chattahoochee, hesitant to confront the family she suspects to be her own. She takes a server job at the Homeplace Restaurant in town. Hattie Davis worries about a series of anonymous phone calls and the frequent sightings of a strange van circling her driveway. Is someone casing the house?Instead of welcoming arms, Mary-Esther finds a clannish community and a brother determined to keep her from claiming her birthright.The strange and twisted journey between her old life in New Orleans and her new life in Chattahoochee forces Mary-Esther's darkest fears and deepest longings to the surface.Is it possible to blend the person she believed she was with the person she never had the chance to be?

Welcome to the town of Chattahoochee, Florida. Imagine living down the road from a mental institution and growing up in a world still drenched in the traditions of the Deep South. Hattie Davis couldn't wait to get away. Returning home for her mother's funeral, she reconnects with a dear and flamboyant friend, Jake Witherspoon. Despite the unfortunate situation that brought them together, the penned memoir of a deceased and beloved mental patient inspires Hattie and Jake to join forces and take the town by storm. Yet their new entrepreneurial lives stall when Jake is kidnapped and beaten by two local teenage boys. Apparently, the discovery of Jake's homosexuality comes easier for Hattie than some others. Interwoven with a sprinkle of magical realism, The Madhatter's Guide to Chocolate is rich with small town humor, tragedy, and extraordinary twists of fate, a touching tale of a Southern town's revival you will laugh, cry, and cheer over.