Southern Fiction Novelist

Perspective
Literary fiction feeds the soul. Human relationships, man's relationship to nature, and the relentless struggle in the wilderness of human consciousness are the backyard hiding places yearning to be peeked into like a child's secret fort discovered on printed pages. But, of course, only questions can be found, or hints of answers that change with the seasons of life. And so I must read and read, and write. And so life trudges on as temporary but filled with the magic of an eternal connection we sense but can't touch.
My first novel published in 2017, What the River Wants, follows a southern family but focuses on an estranged grandfather and his grandson. An old man grappling with the vagaries of time merges with a coming-of-age quest for a teenage boy. Multi-generational, a story of friendship and love, and family doubts wrapped around old treachery, these characters of fiction still haunt me now even years after I set them free. But on I search the uncertainty of self, the tenuous connections to family and friends. Come search with me.
My second novel to be published in summer 2023, CROSSING LAKE PONTCHARTRAIN, follows a 40-year-old Mississippi man's journey of self-discovery as he ventures through the despair of a mid-life mess to find the inspiration and purpose he's yearned for yet denied himself. A prism of artsy, worldly friendships, a loyal mother, and the healing creativity of New Orleans recovering from Hurricane Katrina paint this portrait of the artist as an everyman grappling with the mystery of human connection. Contact me if you'd like to see the first chapter. Here's an excerpt from a Reader's Favorite 5-star review:
“Fantastic... Even after I finished the novel, I kept returning to it. . .a sense of mystery and intrigue that makes it addictive. . . Crossing Lake Pontchartrain is a deeply gripping narrative. . . family, Eastern philosophy, psychology, and art . . . will inspire you.”
LEAF RIVER DAYS will complete my trilogy of perspectives centered around the phases of life. Here, a 1950s young boy's confusion about life and his place in a discomforting world. Due in 2024.

Story of arthurbyrdbooks.com
Who Is arthurbyrdbooks.com?
I've been a college/high school English teacher, a technology CEO, and a real estate agent in the Dominican Republic selling beachfront property (even did a few HGTV shows), but now I'm following my lifelong dream of writing southern fiction novels. Join me (and my occasional blog about life and literature, "A Byrd's-Eye View." Welcome; let's walk.

A Byrd's-Eye View
A blog about life and literature
“Real life, life finally uncovered and clarified, the only life in consequence lived to the full, is literature. Life in this sense dwells within all ordinary people as much as the artist. But they do not see it because they are not trying to shed light on it.”
― Marcel Proust, Time Regained
Previous Publications
Amazon link to my 2017 novel, What The River Wants as well as two short stories, Kitten Raylan and Under the Lights: https://amzn.to/3K2vD6j
A sampling of Amazon verified customer reviews:
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Quote
“To be an artist means never to avert one’s eyes.”
Akira Kurosawa, filmaker
New Jersey