[Back to Member Index]
[Jump
to CBW Home]
| iii |
P.O. Box 82, Gwynn VA 23066 Tel: (804) 725-5925 Born in
Richmond, VA many moons ago, John Atkinson now lives on Gwynn’s Island
with his wife, Renee. John’s days are devoted to writing. His short
story entitled "Voodoo
Man" won first place in adult fiction at the 1998 Chesapeake Writer’s
Conference. Since then, he has authored a novella (Mercy Me), and two novels.
Timekeeper and Dark Shadows Red Bayou.
Click
here and read the Review .
And for even more about the future of this book on the literary
landscape of America, read the review from Amazon.com's critic:
Grady Harp,
(Amazon Top 7 Reviewer).
Play "Timekeeper" interview with Atkinson on XTRA 99.1FM
"It's more humane to face a firing squad than a classroom, humiliated because of illiteracy**. One is swift, the other leads to a lifetime of isolation and hardship. Timekeeper is my triumph over letters. Parts of my journey are no longer clear. Forty-eight years later, I have re-imagined events that seem most consistent to my memory. In 1959 ground swept under my feet like a starving man scrambling for his next meal. I'd fled a dysfunctional family in Virginia. I met many people along the way, but no one could compare with Chief in Oklahoma. He filled a void in me and taught me how to join together the many pieces of life. Chief wasn t surprised that I'd crossed the country at the age of fourteen. I was a big kid and had become hardened to the ways of the streets. Right away Chief understood why I didn't fit in. The main thing was, I couldn't read. He looked into my soul and saw the suffering I'd endured in the white man's world. He also saw into my future. Anyone with a lick of sense would ve been frightened of Chief, an old medicine man with strange powers. But after everyone else had given up on me, he saw how I could help myself. At first I thought he was foolish as a fish flopping on a riverbank when he said I should go north to a place he'd visited as a boy. Hell, that was back before we had automobiles. But he said I would go with a great power. I couldn't imagine where the power would come from. I thought it had to be a strong car, a big Buick Road Master. Every boy my age wanted a car. But the old man gave me a name, Timekeeper. I was no longer Johnnyboy, the affectionate name my Mama had called me. But the gift of the new name stayed a mystery for forty-eight years, the time it took me to figure out Chief's predictions. For all those years I've searched for his meaning, and now I know." ** [Ed. Note: Dyslexia was a learning disability often mistaken for illiteracy at the time Atkinson was enrolled.]
|
|
|
NEW RELEASE: DARK SHADOWS RED BAYOU Atkinson Interview with Neal Steele (XTRA 99.1FM) about this book Johnny Boy Atkinson is at it again, but he comes at you from a completely different direction. In Timekeeper he gives you the moving story of a young man’s difficult journey to overcome illiteracy and the mean-spirited abuse of one’s own dysfunctional family. In Dark Shadows Red Bayou—with his masterful storytelling ability— Atkinson brings you the murder mystery thriller par excellence. “Bull’s-eye! Simply
amazing! John Atkinson nails it once again in Dark Shadows Red Bayou…” “Atkinson’s first language is metaphor and alliteration. Painting with words is what he does best, and he proves it again in Dark Shadows Red Bayou. . .” —Jackson Fisher, The Fisher King Review. “Spellbinding! From cover
to cover Dark Shadows Red Bayou had me riding the edge of my seat. . .” “Dark Shadows Red Bayou is impossible to put down. Atkinson wraps his characters in brilliant suspense all the way through.” —Greta Ward, author and entertainer. “With an uncanny grasp of what makes people tick, John Atkinson’s latest thriller keeps nerves frazzled as the fast paced plot unfolds. The unsavory, quirky characters pull unwilling participants into the sinister events. . .and won’t let go. The aura of the Bayou is compelling. . .” —Margaret Sibley |
[Back to Member Index]
[Jump
to CBW Home]
John
Atkinson
