It’s here. It’s in bookstores. What a ride it’s been to get to this point.

Fifteen years ago, I listened to stories from a man who grew up in the 1930s in North Dakota. After a few nearly unbelievable anecdotes, I asked him if I could take notes while he talked. I filled a notebook with his stories.

Ten years ago, I wrote the first chapter of this book. Now that’s become chapter four of Slider’s Son. I used the stories my friend told me, and I added the fiction writer’s perpetual question: “What if?” I gave Grant O’Grady his own personality, which is quite different from the original storyteller’s. I added elements to tie everything together, and most of all, I made Grant a baseball pitcher who wants to be the next Bob Feller.  Grant’s dad, Slider, is almost entirely based on my storyteller’s real dad, who was indeed a sheriff in North Dakota. He was recruited to play ball on the local town team, but he needed a job. To get him to come, the townsfolk made him sheriff. 

This is fiction, and Grant O’Grady has a life of his own, but there are lots of roots in real history and events (including the murder) that really happened.