Worldwide Hippies Book Nook

Worldwide Hippies – Book Nook will appear every Sunday here at WorldWide Hippies. We want to bring you some of the best writers and poets–whether they are new writers, weary older writers, experimental, funny, romantic, and innovative and energetic writers. You’ll find them here, each and every Sunday.

“A book is the only place in which you can examine a fragile thought without breaking it, or explore an explosive idea without fear it will go off in your face. It is one of the few havens remaining where a man’s mind can get both provocation and privacy.”
- Edward P. Morgan

Alex Bledsoe is the author of six novels, including the Eddie LaCrosse high fantasy/mystery series and the first book in the Tufa series.

His most recent novel, “The Hum and the Shiver,” introduces the enigmatic Tufa, an isolated group of people living in contemporary east Tennessee. Bronwyn Hyatt, wounded in Iraq and rescued on live TV, returns home to nurse her injuries and find her place in the world, and in the Tufa community. Everyone is willing to tell her what to do, but Bronwyn insists on choosing her own path. However, omens of death surrounding her mother may force her to make decisions before she’s ready, and before she’s reconnected with the music that supernaturally binds her people. The Wall Street Journal says, “A rustic version of ‘urban fantasy,’ with its suggestion that there’s mystery just around the corner, hidden behind even the dullest small-town façade.” Kirkus Reviews named it one of its Best Fiction Books of 2011.

The unexpected delivery of a coffin in the dead of winter kicks off the most recent novel in the Eddie LaCrosse high fantasy mystery series, “Dark Jenny.” It forces LaCrosse to reflect on a bygone chapter in his past…and the premeditated murder of a dream. Ruled by the noble King Marcus Drake, the island kingdom of Grand Braun was an oasis of peace and justice in an imperfect world, at least until the beautiful Queen Jennifer is accused of adultery and murder. In the wrong castle at the wrong time, Eddie finds himself drafted at sword’s point to solve the mystery. With time running out, and powerful nobles all too eager to pin the murder on Eddie himself, he must untangle a web of palace intrigues, buried secrets, and bewitching women before the entire kingdom erupts into civil war. It received starred reviews from Publishers Weekly and Booklist; the Literary Omnivore says, “Bledsoe’s blending of hard-boiled detective fiction and fantasy remains unique and funny.”

Upcoming works include the next Eddie LaCrosse novel, Wake of the Bloody Angel, in 2012 and the second Tufa novel, Wisp of a Thing, in 2013.

Alex Bledsoe grew up in west Tennessee an hour north of Graceland (home of Elvis) and twenty minutes from Nutbush (birthplace of Tina Turner). He’s been a reporter, editor, photographer and door-to-door vacuum cleaner salesman. He now lives in a Wisconsin town famous for trolls.

Poetry Pad:

Psalms of Experience

doctor, I said,
I had a near-life
experience

no, he said, you had
an hallucination

it was real

hallucinations are real experience, yes,
he said, but experiences of the unreal

no, doctor, I said, you don’t under-
stand. I had a near-death—

no, son, you don’t under-
stand; you had an hallucination

but another doctor explains to me,
in the velvet voice of sir Anthony Hopkins
quantum cohesion at the Planck level
some call it quantum entanglement
within the microtubules of your brain
it’s the rudiment of consciousness
and perhaps a prelude to afterlife,

though science has no means, as yet,
to either gage or quantify such . . .

either way, I’ve come to accept
that experience is a doubtful thing
though I was there and saw it all
it perhaps, as poe supposed, a dream
within a dream of waking was

David Pitchford

If you would like to be featured in our Book Nook, please send your information toNewsreport9@frontiernet.net and please put, “Book Nook” in the subject line. Happy Reading!