Showing results by author "J Hirtle" in All Categories

Oleta Greene was born on the banks of the Yockanookany River in 1912. She has never known her father, who abandoned her mother before the baby took her first breath. Her youngest son, Otis Alexnder Bell, is rebellious and resentful in a world where the color of your skin ascertains justice or injustice.

Looking for a collection of short stories that will move you to tears of sadness and sentiments of joy? Add laughter and pillow-pondering to this list, and you'll get an idea of the magic of A Red Dress Night.

As the Spanish Flu pandemic promenades through the streets of East Boston, quarantined inside the brownstone tenement, Jimmy Quinn, eyes pressed against the keyhole of a forgotten door, watches her. The mysterious girl dances silently. The only sound is his beating heart. There is no music. She knows he is watching. A relationship will begin.

From the magical imagination of a young boy, to the delusional fear of an old man. From the protective love of a father, to the surreptitious revenge of a neglected wife. J Hirtle carries the listener into a land of stories and poetry, born in morning moments spent on his back porch with a cup of coffee, gazing at a world filled with people who will never be heroes, places that will never appear on the cover of travel magazines, and things...things without lore...until they meet The Storyteller.

In a small, Texas town where tradition reigns supreme, 14-year-old Grayson has always been told who he is supposed to be. But the world inside his heart doesn't match the world he's been born into. Struggling to embrace his true self while living under the watchful eye of his conservative, opinionated grandfather, Grayson finds himself caught in a tug-of-war between identity and expectation. As secrets unravel and courage takes root, Grayson discovers allies in unexpected places—and challenges his own perception of love, family, and what it means to live authentically.