Writers Tricks of the Trade Issue 2 Volume 8 | Page 29

R EVIEWS BY M ARTHA -
M ARTHA C HEVES R ESIDENT R EVIEWER
T HE A CORN S TORIES (A CORN , T EXAS B OOK 1)
D UANE S IMOLKE , A UTHOR
Pages: 172 pages
Publication Date: December 13, 2007
Sold by: Amazon Digital Services LLC
Language: English
ASIN: B0011E5LZ8, ISBN: 978-0595288649
Martha Cheves always manages to find books that may have been out for a while, some by self-
published authors, but always an honest review. Maybe you will find a gem you wouldn’t have
found without Martha.
M
y name is Aragon Carsons, and
I'm just going to state some
facts. People tell me a little
more than they should. Well, a lot more
than they should. Actually, people tell me
way too much. Or they say too many
things where I can hear them, which is
just the same as telling me, as far as I'm
concerned. Do they really think I won't
share what I heard with anybody? I
mean, stories like these can't just sit on a
shelf in somebody's brain.
The more I think about it, the more
sure I am that my neighbors want some-
one to tell their Acorn stories, that they
don't want to be just a small part of a
small town in a big state in a big country.
People aspire to leave something behind
other than babies, a mortgage, and a nasty
rumor or two. And they certainly want
someone reliable tell it, like what my
grandmother did when she chronicled the
early folks of Acorn.
S UMMER 2018
So maybe I'll serve you up a few slices
of Acorn pie. There are enough words in
my kitchens, enough stories in my cup-
boards - I'd like to work closets into this
paragraph, but I certainly wouldn't want
to strain a metaphor so early in my narra-
tive - that I could find ingredients for sev-
eral pies. But I'll be choosy an pick out
some of my favorites.
And that is exactly what Aragon does
in The Acorn Stories.
When I was young we lived in a small
town outside of Atlanta. Everyone knew
everyone and everyone knew everyone's
business. Way back then we even had
what was called 'Party Lines'. These were
phone lines where several houses had the
same phone line with each having a dif-
ferent number of rings so you would
know when the call was for you or some-
one else. But... if you quietly picked up
the phone you could listen to all the gos-
sip running around the neighborhood.
This book reminds me of that time.
P AGE 24
W RITERS ’ T RICKS OF THE T RADE