In a divided, politically polarized world, sometimes we need to take a closer look at the other side. What at first seems a monochrome rural town, may have more variety and color than you would suspect. Come on a trip, a trip to a small southern town on the edge of the Okefenokee Swamp, a town filled with eccentric and delightful characters, some good and some bad, but most a delicious swirl of both, all a part of the kaleidoscope that is Crowley Stories: Swamp's Edge.
Story after story, separate and shining, lighting up corner after corner of Crowley. Story after story, slowly interweaving together, revealing a progressive undercurrent in this very conservative town. Characters dance through each other's lives. A young teenager decides how to handle an unanticipated pregnancy. Another young man can't choose how and when to come out to his wealthy but bigoted father. A grizzled veteran Sheriff struggles to represent all the people in the town, not just the elite. There are people in the grips of new romance, of unraveling relationships, and some who've comfortably meshed together for decades.
Inside the swamp, there is a plant that could change the world, but whether it will be found or plowed under by developers, only our stories will tell. And there is a growing murder mystery, one that only the odd combination of the very Southern Sheriff and a Crowley newcomer, a very Connecticut Yankee CPA, can resolve.
The book is set in the fall and winter of 2013/14, very much a part of its time and place, including dealing with the extremism of the Christian right and the emerging domination of Tea Party values and prejudices.
Take a trip to Crowley and stay a spell. Enjoy the dance. You'll be glad you did.
