American Jukebox follows a young boy and his father, Dancer, a baseball pitcher whose life takes an unexpected turn, leading them to a small town where he learns life lessons about shattered dreams and the challenges of growing up. What was the inspiration for the setup of your story?

My first novel, American Past Time (published in 2014) is the prequel to American Jukebox. American Past Time is primarily Dancer Stonemason’s story – his fall from grace, and his recovery. It ends in 1973 when Clayton Stonemason has just returned from Viet Nam.  American Jukebox, revisits those early years, but from Clayton’s perspective as a boy growing to adulthood. The second half of the novel follows Clayton on his journey.

Were you able to achieve everything you wanted with the characters in the novel?

I think so. Clayton was a challenge.  He had idolized his father as a young boy, and when Dancer was disgraced that wounded Clayton, and he didn’t want anything to do with his father. He didn’t want to be compared to him, but as he grows up it is obvious that he is much like his father and despite his protests he doesn’t hate him. He loves him.  The challenge was showing his evolution from wounded child to an adult who through his own bad choices and failures comes to understand that no one is perfect.

What were some themes that were important for you to explore in this book?

All of the Stonemason stories – not just American Jukebox, but also the prequel, American Past Time, and the third book in the trilogy, Everyone Dies Famous are about people making bad decisions and their struggle to overcome those decisions.  In Jim Stonemason’s commencement address to his high school, he finishes with this exhortation:

“When we fail, it doesn’t have to be forever. We have to forgive ourselves. Let me repeat that. We have to forgive ourselves. As long as we’re still breathing, we have a chance to make things right. But we can’t if we’re spending all our energy blaming ourselves. So when you stumble, give yourself a break.”

Forgiveness. Perseverance. The opportunity for redemption if we keep trying. If we stay in the game. I guess I would call those the themes I explored in all of these novels.

What is the next book that you are working on and when will it be available?

The novel I am working on now is titled, “Nothing Left to Lose” and it is the sequel to my novel, “Freedom’s Just Another Word…”  which are lines from the late, great Kris Kristofferson’s classic song, “Me and Bobby McGee”.  I am hoping it will be available next fall, but I have a lot of work to do.

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