The Grass Sweeper God

In the 1950s Appalachia coal fields of Solitude, VA… Smiley Hanlon is placed in the “Mentally Retarded” Class… Because he is different…

Being different in America has never been easy; being born different and in the wrong body in Solitude, Virginia in the 1950’s, is brutal. Smiley Hanlon lives day to day trapped in a Coal Miners town, buffeted by the Appalachian’s and generations of hate and mistrust. Any hint of being different, or being a ‘Freak’ is enough to ostracize you, pigeon hole you and make you a target for bullying – or worse. Backed by his best friend and protector, Lee Moore, Smiley made it through the days…until the night everything shattered. Chosen as the lead in a new town production called Dorothy of Oz Coal Camp, it seemed to be the beginning to acceptance and maybe even happiness, but the world is cruel and mankind even crueler. The triumph of the play decayed into a Coal Miners version of “Carrie” culminating in a tragic and horrific moment that would change both Smiley and Lee, forever…In the autumn of 1950, his father, Ted, viciously attacks precocious, effeminate 16-year-old Smiley Hanlon. Smiley, his friend, and Protector, Lee, keep the attack a secret. Because of their sexual identity, Lee and Smiley are banished from their family in Solitude, Virginia, and find refuge in New York…
This is their story and the story of so many others who suffered under the psychology of the day that their sexual identity is a sickness…

“What I like is the riskiness, the cutting edgeof the narrative voice we hear.He has an ear forthe rhythm of the story, a natural sense of when to end–hangs fire with a newway of looking at someone or something, turning the entire chapter on itsear. I like the way he makes it impossiblefor the reader to stop reading at the end of the chapter.” Suspense author, Maggie Grace

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