River Rock Books publishes literature by writers living in and contributing to the Greater Sacramento Region.
Born in the Dust Bowl, Pinky Wollerman migrates to the foothills of California’s central valley to become a bachelor cattle rancher. The isolation of his hard-working ranch life in the 1950s leads his neighbors to view him with suspicion. However, despite his social awkwardness, Pinky nourishes friendships with misfits, helping him share his love of wide open spaces. Seeking adventure, Pinky travels to the Australian Outback where he falls in love for the first time in his life, while unaware that he is suspected of murder in California. Pinky's story is an ode to expansiveness, the mystery and hope of the heart in love, mystical places, and the beauty of open space on two continents—empty, but timeless and wild.
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Available June 1, 2019: $18.00
About the author, Ed Cole:
Ed Cole lives on his small walnut farm in Northern California. After a lifetime of jobs as disparate as fruit picker, executive officer and walnut farmer, Ed Cole came upon the art and craft of writing and discovered the delight of storytelling. Wending one’s way through a good story, he believes, can be as stimulating as searching through vast, wild and ancient places, and both are much like losing oneself within the landscape of love.
His enthusiasm for the outside was formed in his childhood, as his parents, ranchers in Oklahoma, escaped the Dust Bowl by becoming Okie fruit tramps, following the fruit as it ripened from Southern California to Washington state, living for the summer in an oiled canvas tent.
A lifelong outdoorsman, Ed has hiked and backpacked throughout the western United States, and has backpacked the Pacific Crest Trail from the Mexican border to Washington.
Book Release and Reading: See invitation below.
Saturday June 1, 2019; 2-4 pm (reading starts at 2:30)
2121 Ranch: 2121 Catlett Road, Pleasant Grove, California
Books for sale (cash or card): $18
Refreshments Provided
Praise for Marie Reynolds’ poetry collection, Seaworthy:
“My praise for Seaworthy, Marie Reynolds’ wonderful first book of poetry, is fairly simple: “Hungry as a newborn,” her poems “search for the sweetness/for the darkness that opens, ample and yielding.” Like the cherry wardrobe in the poem of the same name, these poems are “built to last.” If I could take only ten books with me to the proverbial desert island, Seaworthy might very well be one of them.—Susan Kelly-DeWitt, poet and author of Spider Season and The Fortunate Islands
“The poems of Seaworthy carry a precious cargo, nothing less than the precisely observed and lovingly rendered exhalations of the human heart. Such a gift Marie has given us all. In reading her words and images, you can’t help but feel a shivering numinosity run through your being. Marie’s poetry confirms: “everything belongs,” everything is holy.—Dennis Hock, poet and author of The Secret Cup and Bringing Birds Through Stone
“Marie Reynolds’ poems compel us to climb inside a cherry wardrobe, three different well-crafted wooden boats, and the appetite of a hungry squirrel, each opening to the exquisite beauty of sadness. With the confidence of a ball-peen hammer, her precise imagery nails human experience in place, while her music soothes our troubled souls. Her poems, like Marie, are brave, heartbreaking, luminous, always reminding us what a gift it is to walk this earth.—Susan Flynn, poet and psychologist, author of Seeing Begins in the Dark
About Marie Reynolds:
Marie Reynolds facilitated Amherst Writers & Artists writing groups for individuals coping with illness or loss through Sutter hospitals, where she worked as a nurse. Her poems have appeared in Prairie Schooner, Ars Medica: A Journal of Medicine, the Arts, and Humanities, Tule Review, Ekphrasis, Rattlesnake Review, Poet Lore, and The Writer’s Almanac. She received a Pushcart Press nomination for her poetry.
For Sale: $15 plus shipping. To purchase, click on “Books” on the header and it will take you to the cart. Thank you!
"'Til Death or Dementia is a love story above all else, a wonderful account of the relationship that Marilyn Reynolds celebrated with her husband, Mike. It is beautiful to read and an example of what I hope for all my patients’ families—a deep reflection on memories representing all that was wonderful before the diagnosis of dementia. These memories can bring joy amid the struggle with the realities of the disease.
In a most courageous way, Marilyn shares her feelings, doubts, fears and regrets as she recalls Mike’s personality and cognitive changes, both before and after his dementia diagnosis. Her words convey the emotional roller coaster in a way that the reader can feel every turn, loop, climb and free fall. Her remarkable ability to share serves as a road map for all those who care for someone with dementia, as I have witnessed among hundreds of families.
I would hope that everyone would read this story, not just those who find themselves caring for someone with dementia. This beautiful book reminds us that life is finite and worth living to the fullest. It brought a renewed mindfulness for me that every moment counts, and despite all life’s challenges, love reigns supreme and can carry us through the darkest of times. Our legacy lives on in those we leave behind. Read this book, then think about the life soundtrack you want, and start singing!" -
-Christopher Lillis, MD FACP, Medical Director for Primary Care Transformation UC Davis Health, Sacramento, California.
For Sale: $18.99 plus shipping. To purchase, click on “Books” on the header and it will take you to the cart. Thank you!
“There is another alphabet, whispering from every leaf, singing from every river, shimmering from every sky.”
― Dejan Stojanovic
Submissions are currently closed.
Jan Haag and Katie McCleary offer writing workshops in Sacramento to writers of all ages and backgrounds. They are both trained facilitators in the Amherst Writers and Artist Method. Workshops are generative, focused on craft or revision, and inclusive of all genres.
For more information visit:
Jan Haag: https://janishaag.com
Katie McCleary: www.katiemccleary.com
“Putting words onto paper—when it is done as an honest act of search or connection, rather than as an act of manipulation, performance, self-aggrandizement or self-protection—is a holy act.”
The Amherst Writers and Artists Method's philosophy is a simple one: every person is a writer, and every writer deserves a safe environment in which to experiment.
