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From The Marina Aronaut April 2, 2014

Rescued by love and letters Posted April 2, 2014 by The Argonaut in This Week

 

    Delving deep into a wellspring of determination, author John Stover has overcome drugs and alcohol, a paralyzing accident and homelessness to finish his latest novelsBy Michael AushenkerJohn Stover was not only a man on a mission, he was a man in a mission.

    His “Love Rescue Me” trilogy, a series of quasi-autobiographical adventure novels, was written two hours at a time on Los Angeles Central Library computers while living out of downtown’s Midnight Mission.The novels are the culmination of three decades of a rollercoaster life that has seen success in the clothing industry fade to homelessness due to alcoholism, drug abuse, and an accident rendering him briefly paralyzed from a broken neck.

    The former Marina del Rey resident reads from his “Love Rescue Me” series on Thursday, April 10, at Book Soup in West Hollywood.As Stover tells it, he arrived in California from Boston in 1976 and worked as an aide to then Democratic Party treasurer Edwin W. Pauley, who had been chair of the University of California Board of Regents.“While with Big Ed Pauley, I met Presidents Ronald Reagan and Jimmy Carter,” Stover said. “At one presidential dinner, I was so drunk, Chip Carter had to drive me and [Pauley] home.”  After Pauley died, Stover “got married, bought a house and a lot of commercial real estate.

    I owned the building where my clothing factory was housed,” he said.Things were looking up in 1989, the year he became sober and opened a clothing business. His daughter, Katy Stover, was born a year later.

     In 1994, Dr. Clark Espy met Stover at a party. From 1996 to 2000, Stover lived with a girlfriend in the same Marina del Rey building as Espy, who remembers Stover making an eye-opening statement at one of their frequent get-togethers.“All of us were drinking wine,” recalled Espy, who tried to coax Stover into partaking. “John wouldn’t drink. He said, ‘If I have a glass of wine, I’ll end up in the gutter taking heroin.’”

     Despite his struggles, Stover found continued success, donating clothing to homeless missions and writing his first book, the memoir “The Road Runner,” in 1998.

     Katy Stover became an academic child prodigy and earned a scholarship to UC Santa Barbara.“Growing up, I was a lot more aware because of those [substance abuse] issues,” said Katy Stover, who draws a connection between her father’s alcoholism and her current work as a teacher at a rough-and-tumble inner city school in Washington D.C.

     A few weeks before Katy Stover left for college, John Stover’s life took a hard left turn.  “He was boogie boarding and the board was broken and it took him down to the bottom of the ocean,” Katy Stover recalled of that fateful day at a beach near Marina del Rey. Her father emerged from the water bloodied and collapsed.

     During her first year of college, Katy’s mother temporarily went missing during a schizophrenic breakdown, and Stover’s addictions worsened.  “His girlfriend kicked him out. She dropped him off at the Midnight Mission one day,” Espy said.

    Meanwhile, Espy had segued from John Stover’s friend to his doctor.“I helped get him off of heroin,” recalled Espy, who said he had prescribed Suboxone to block Stover’s withdrawals.Stover wound up seeking shelter at Midnight Mission and L.A. Mission, the very downtown locations, Stover said, “where I had donated so much clothing, time and money. Ironic, huh?”

     Elements of Stover’s traumatic life are woven into the “Love Rescue Me” trilogy.Comprised of three books ”Love Hurts,” “Love Scars” and “Love Is All You Need”—

     Stover’s novels chronicle the globe-trotting adventures of Jack St. Clair, who, while a student, is wrongly accused of participating in a terrorist plot. Forced to go on the lam, St. Clair leaves behind true love Diane Dante. Unbeknownst to him, Dante is with child. She flees to Paris to raise her daughter as St. Clair escapes the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center.

     Surviving 9/11 haunts St. Clair into a relapse into alcoholism, he loses everything he has, and winds up living in a downtown mission. That’s when St. Clair’s life intersects with the daughter he never knew.

     “He’s a real authority on the street life. It’s brilliantly described in his books,” Espy said.“My father is honestly a genius. He knows every single song lyric, cross-reference, poem, writing. The references he can remember are amazing,” Katy Stover said. “Everyone knows what my dad is capable of, and it’s really frustrating.”

    The years 2012 and 2013 became a particularly rough patch for her father.“  Three times the paramedics found him dead and had to resuscitate him,” said Katy Stover, who flew back and forth from D.C. to L.A. for each of those emergencies.  “With my aunt passing away last October, my mom going through her schizophrenic break, and [working with] Teach for America, I kind of shut him out of my life.  ”Her father’s self harm was simply too much to bear.“

    Everybody has a breaking point. He has a daughter who really cares about him,” she said. But “I’ve learned that unless he wants to be sober, he won’t be sober. No one can stop my dad.”

    As of the past year, “I am fine now — drug- and pain-free,” said Stover, who has moved into a government-subsidized unit downtown but hopes to one day return to Marina del Rey.Tapping his firsthand experiences,

    Stover will be moderating a panel discussion about homelessness at the Central Library’s Mark Taper Auditorium in August.

    Though his trilogy of novels is now complete, Stover’s life remains an open book.“I read a lot, and his stuff is as good as anything I’ve seen. I’d like to see him succeed,” Espy said.

    But “If he goes down again like this, he won’t survive it.”

 

    John Stover’s reading is at 7 p.m. on April 10 at Book Soup, 8818 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood. Call (310) 659-3110 or visit booksoup.com.

 

                              

michael@argonautnews.com

 

A Reader's Reaction to Love Rescue Me

 

 

    OMG...JOHN!!!!!!  I finally took a sabbatical from all of my thoughts, worries, anxieties, work and all else that life entails and made myself read all of you book preview!!!  I am so glad that I did!!!  OMG, once again is all that I can say!!! While I was reading your story line on "Love Rescue Me," I took notes so that I could ask if certain events HAD ACTUALLY happened to you and as I read the end of your review most of those questions were answered with you unadulterated, incredibly honest decisiveness on what was indeed real life adventures for you and what was so authentically turned into fiction, by you, through so many awesome, personal experiences, based on other people's experiences. 

 

   I am truly amazed at your time at the Midnight Mission, where you actually wrote this book!!!  At a time, when I assume, you were at your lowest, you produced a work of art in book form through sheer determination to lift yourself up to a higher level!!!  KUDOS TO YOU FOR DOING THAT FOR YOURSELF AND THE MILLIONS OF READERS THAT WILL RELATE SO WELL TO THE STORY THAT YOU ARE TELLING!!!!  I feel that you will reach so many people that have been to the highest of heights in their lives, only to have their world, as you put it..."turn on a dime." 

 

    I know that I have definitely been there and not only has that experience made me stronger, less judgemental, and more empathetic towards everyone, no matter where there life is or how strange they may seem to me, but it has basically given me a different outlook on humanity all together!  Some who I viewed as friends became acquaintances only who had touched my life is different ways...then again, some that I viewed as true friends all of a sudden meant the world to me and made me treasure them more than I ever had before. 

 

    Life is such a boot camp for the next level after this life...call it Heaven, Nirvana, a different plane of existence or whatever...To make a long story short...you truly touched me with your story, (at least what I did read) your life lessons and above all your incredible words!!!  I actually teared up when I read your interpretations or whatever you want to call the end of your review.  Your life!!!  You are unstoppable...mainly because like so many people don't do...you have really experienced life in all different kinds of situations and like me, also...you would never have learned more about yourself or you never would have been able to write like you do and project life into fantasy/real based people unless you truly saw each one of those characters "for real," based on your experiences.  I don't know if that makes sense but, believe me I can relate to what you have been through because of my incredible journey through life!!! 

 

    Some day I will tell you my story but I know you are probably incredibly busy so I will just leave you with this...from my heart...sometimes certain people are brought into your life so that you can learn even more about yourself...no doubt in my mind that we are ALL connected and until you reach a high level of despair or a high level of awareness you are sleeping and just don't see what is going on around you or inside of you!  I only wish that everyone could go through what you have been through to open their eyes up to what is really...truly important in this world!!!  I don't think that I ever "quite" hit the bottom..but then again, I may have.  What the bottom is to some people is only where some people have existed all of their lives and to them that is normal. 

 

    I can't believe how emotionally you have struck a chord in me!!!  Whoa!!!  Thank you John for sharing your story and a small part of your journey with me!  You are going to be a huge success with this book!!!  I feel it!!!  REALLY!!!!  If anyone deserves respect it is you who has strived so diligently to pick yourself up again after "the fall!"  I don't even know you personally...then again I do...because your word and your actions after "the fall" denote exactly who YOU ARE!!! 

 

                                                               With all the sincerity that I can give to you!  Holly

 

 

John Stover returns Saturday to promote his new novel,

a story he says is based on his life.


By Lauren Daley.

ENTERPRISE SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

BROCKTON- Brockton-born author John Stover's life reads like a novel- so it only seemed natural to him to turn it into one.

 

"I found my first corpse when I was 6 years old ... graduated from Brockton High in 1969, hitchhiked all over the south; joined the carnival, sold blood, hopped freight trains, lived on a private island in Hawaii ...  and ended up addicted to alcohol and a bunch of drugs, including heroin," Stover said.

 

Stover, 53, who said he is currently sober and living in, Los Angeles, will return to his hometown Saturday to promote his novel "The Road Runner: An American Odyssey" at Walden Books at Westgate Mall. He will sign books from 5 to 6 p.m.

 

Although Stover wrote his story as a novel, he said it's based on his life events. "A lot of the book is based

on  my wild life when my dad owned the West Elm Hotel in the 1950s and 1960s," said Stover. "It was filled with VA patients. I probably found about half a dozen dead bodies in the hotel."

 

He recalled once walking through the halls and finding a trail of blood. "I followed it to Room 32 and found out that one of the vets had jumped out of a third-floor window," Stover said.

 

In his press release, Stover described his book as "a frank account of growing up with a sexually addicted father ... and an honest account of my drug and alcohol problems".

 

Stover. said he wrote the novel in six weeks in a stream of consciousness after undergoing therapy for a traumatic childhood.

 

"I had repressed memories of being locked in closets and of my family's sexually dysfunctional behavior," Stover said. Stover said he titled his novel an "odyssey" because he feels his life is like the journey of the Greek herb Odysseus. "I was tempted by the siren song of girls on Harley-Davidsons; I met the `one eyed Cyclops "which are the gay guys who tried to pick me up; and, like the lotus eaters, I ended up addicted to drugs," Stover said.

 

After graduating from Brockton High, Stover said he studied pre-med at Boston University and attended the University of California at Los Angeles, where he majored in English literature and writing. He said he was forced to leave Boston University after waking up restrained in a hospital straitjacket after having run naked through the streets of Boston on Christmas Eve during a bad LSD trip.


In 1975, Stover moved to Nantucket Island, but said he was "exiled": "I worked at Nantucket Cottage Hospital as an orderly in 1974. ... They fired me for loaning a bed to my friend Jake. I lost my house; was told to leave the island, and someone fed my dog a poisoned steak: I watched him die."

 

Stover left for 'California in 1976, where he said he worked as an aide for Democratic party treasurer Edwin W Pauley in the late 1970s.

 

Stover said he ended up living on a private island in Hawaii; called Coconut Island, and that he met Ronald Reagan and Jimmy Carter in Los Angeles at political functions.

 

He also said he partied in California with "the rich and famous, who can drink more than anyone."

 

Stover said he met his first wife, Joni, when he ran his own clothing business in California in 1984. They had one daughter together, Katy, 13.

 

"The Road Runner" was Stover's first book. It was published in 2002. His other books include: "Common Cents," a Civil War, novel; and "In-Sight," a science fiction story about a dysfunctional time-traveler.

 

Stover's books can be ordered at www.booklocker.com and are sold at Barnes and Noble bookstores.

 

Lauren Daley can be reached at ldaley@enterprisenews.com

 

 

 

The critics speak out....

 

 

As both a fellow writer and reader, I really appreciate John’s work in The Road Runner. I think writers read books differently from most casual readers, because we know the hard work and crafting that goes into creating a great novel. As such, I really loved the sheer, gut level, story-telling genius that John demonstrated. He’s mastered his craft and, in doing so, led me through the emotional spectrum, all the way from hilarity to heartbreak, from envy to full flight.

 

It never ceases to amaze me the lives that some people lead, which seem to roll from one incredulous situation to another. Yet, not only has John has done that, he’s done it without apologizing for it, and has steeped his story line and characters in the vestiges of his own rich, personal experiences.

 

I’d love to have met some of his characters, and am glad not to have met others. One universal quality the all have, however, is that they’re distinct, easily identifiable, memorable, and thought provoking. If there’s something I’d like to see happen next, it’s someone bringing them to life on the screen.

Great job, John, and thanks for a great read!

 

                                 All my best you, Bruce Fitzpatrick

 

 

 

Author returns to city to talk about new historic novel


By Laurie Cavanaugh.


SPECIAL TO ENTERPRISE

 

BROCKTON- City native John Stover will return to his hometown Monday to talk about his new book "Common Cents: A Civil War Story" at the Brockton Public Library.

 

Stover's book is a novel dealing with the plight of homelessness.

 

A 1969 graduate of Brockton High School, Stover spent his youth at The West Elm Hotel in Brockton, a temporary shelter for veterans owned by his father. There, Stover observed men who were "down on their luck" before his college experimentation with illicit drugs eventually led him into homelessness himself. Stover's first book, "The Road Runner: An American Odyssey," is a memoir of his actual experience of homelessness

 

He transforms his observations into fiction in "Common Cents" a futuristic tale about a possible second Civil War related to the condition of America's Homeless.

 

"In six months, I logged over 20,000 miles on my thumb... hitchhiking around the country, sleeping under bridges, accepting the hospitality of strangers and living by my wits." Stover says of his days on the road.

After getting his life back onto a slightly more conventional track in 1975, Stover worked successfully in various fields, gathering more unusual experiences along the way.

 

In 1998, he decided to devote himself to writing books.

 

"I sold everything I owned to concentrate on my first love, writing." he said.

Stover currently lives in Venice, Calif., and has a 14-year-old daughter named Kaitlyn.

 

His talk at the Brockton Public Library, 304 Main St., will take place Monday at 7pm.

 

 

 

  Brockton native turns troubled

   childhood into creative adulthood

 

By Teri Borseti.
For The Patriot Ledger

 

Paul Stone could not have been more shocked to learn that his mother had hung herself from a steam pipe in the basement of the family home. Her suicide left Stone and his siblings searching for answers. It was a search that would uncover much more than he was prepared to learn.

 

Because his mother suffered from migraines and depression, the family accepted the many long hours she spent in her room alone. It wasn't until after she died that Stone learned what she was really doing in there.

 

After her death he found a letter she left for him. The letter contained information that would be more shocking than the news of her death. The detailed letter written in his mother's own handwriting explained a secret family legacy, one which Stone had a hard time accepting at first. The secret of time travel had been passed from mother to son and was to be used as a gift - or a curse.

 

She explained that for generations Stone's ancestors, whom included Nostradamus, Taylor Caldwell and H.G. Wells, all time travelers, have regularly traveled to both the future and past, where they were able to occupy their own bodies and relive part of their past lives, or peek at the future.

 

So begins Paul Stone's adventure. This highly imaginative story was written by John Stover, a Brockton native. ‘‘It is about seeing the past as it really was, not as we remember it. Paul Stone also learns that the future can be changed by altering the present,'' Stover said.

 

Like Stone, Stover's life is like a roller coaster. At 54, the writer is about to release his third book, ‘‘In-Sight.'' The story of Paul Stone and time travel is a tale that is generating ‘‘good buzz,'' out on the West Coast. His two earlier books are ‘‘Road Runner'' and ‘‘Common Cents.''

 

While most authors find a particular genre and stick with it, Stover takes a different path with every book.

 

The writer, who now makes his home in Los Angeles, had a childhood full of trauma, dysfunction and a cast of characters he will never forget.

 

But as an adult, armed with an inexhaustible imagination, Stover has faced down his demons and come out on top.

 

‘‘I grew up at a tenement hotel in Brockton owned by my father. My father was an angry man who rented rooms to veterans, many of which I found dead while still in elementary school,'' Stover said.

 

His first book, ‘‘The Road Runner, an American Odyssey,'' is a coming-of-age story, which parallels Homer's ‘‘Odyssey'' and takes a poignant look at what it is like to be on top only to suddenly crash and burn. The book includes first-hand accounts with Tom Cruise, the Doobie Brothers and Courtney Cox. ‘‘Courtney was at my wedding, which was on an 85-foot yacht. Unfortunately, Courtney missed the boat and had to be ferried out,'' Stover said.

 

The author also met Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan while working for the Democratic Party. The book details the time Stover spent on a private island in Hawaii with the likes of Jackie Onassis, former California Gov. Jerry Brown and Meredith Willson, who wrote ‘‘The Music Man.''

 

His second book, ‘‘Common Cents,'' takes a hard look at the homeless problem in America today and Stover cleverly compares the homeless problem as the way society had come to view slavery in the United States before the Civil War - remaining detached and uninvolved to the many atrocities going on in their own cities, he said. ‘‘It's like the traffic outside our high-rise windows, we just get used to it.''

 

Stover will return to his hometown of Brockton this week to appear at the Brockton Library and a sizable crowd has promised to attend, he said.

 

Librarian Laurie Cavanaugh said the library recently added ‘‘Common Cents'' to its collection and in addition to discussing writing and publishing, Stover will host a question-and-answer period for aspiring writers.

 

‘‘We showcase local authors and John spoke about ‘The Road Runner' last year,'' Cavanaugh said. ‘‘We have ordered that book as well and both will be placed in our archive room.''

 

Not many students stay connected to a teacher for 40 years, but Stover still credits his high school English teacher, Francis Garcea, for recognizing and nurturing his talent.

 

Garcea, who plans to catch his old friend at the library said, ‘‘He was always very bright and inquisitive. He really didn't need any inspiration from me, he had it within,'' he said.

 

Last summer, while here for a book signing at Walden Books in Brockton, Stover and his daughter, Katy, 14, took a tour of Harvard. Since age 9, Katy, a certified genius, has had a full-tuition scholarship to the college of her choice. So gifted is the youngster, the ‘‘Tonight Show,'' called Stover to book her. She also has had numerous appearances on the syndicated radio show, ‘‘Mark and Brian,'' who often call her to do bits. One of her many talents is talking backward. ‘‘But it is her giant heart, not her brains or beauty, that I am proudest of,'' Stover said.

 

‘‘When I do TV and radio interviews they spend more time talking to her than me,'' Stover said.

 

He has appeared locally on the television show ‘‘Urban Update,'' and speaks regularly at a Los Angeles 12-step meeting for writers. as well as various junior high and high schools.

 

‘‘Some of the notables who speak there are quite accomplished. I am very flattered to have even been asked,'' Stover said. ‘‘I have almost two years sober this time around. It seems my time is near.''

 

This past November Stover, whose niece is married to Red Sox pitcher Tim Wakefield, attended his 35th Brockton High School reunion. While home, Stover said his family ‘‘snubbed'' him, so he ate Thanksgiving dinner with a number of homeless and a group of recovering alcoholics at St. Edward's Church in Brockton.

 

‘‘I had a great time and was truly very thankful to be there and to be sober. My family can't understand my writing about the family. Best to leave those ‘Paul Stones' unturned,'' Stover said.

 

His father's hotel is long gone, torn down to make a parking lot for the courthouse, but Stover still gets nostalgic about coming home. ‘‘I can't tell you how much time I spent at the YMCA and next door at the library as my routine was always to work out and then hit the books.

 

‘‘While I was donating a book last year, I asked Laurie (Cavanaugh) if they still had the glass floors, which I always marveled at as I stood on them to choose my newest book. She took me into the reading room and showed me that the smokey floor glass had been taken out, but remained in the form of several coffee tables,'' Stover said.

 

Besides a visit to George's Pizza in Brockton Stover will head to Cape Cod while he and Katy are in the area.

 

‘‘Katy and I need to eat some fried clams,'' he said.

 

Meet John Stover

 

— John Stover will read from, sign and discuss his novels at 7 p.m. Aug. 22 at the Brockton Public Library, 304 Main St., Brockton. Call 508-580-7890 or go to for more information

 


About the Book


As seen on Entertainment Tonight!


Through a rough childhood, drug and alcohol addictions, the author takes us on a journey of recovery and renewal.


John Stover, author of The Road Runner has appeared on the nationally syndicated Entertainment Tonight as well as Clean and Sober and Hope Street which air on United Artists, Continental and Cablevision cable programming. The author was also featured on Clean and Crazy, KROQ radio with April on the Rock and Jed the Fish.


The Road Runner contains several amusing and touching stories concerning the author's connection with Jackie Onassis, Jerry Brown, Courtney Cox, Tom Cruise, Meredith Wilson (author of the Music Man), as well as many other touching and heartwarming anecdotes.

 

Just wanted to let you know I'm still reading your book. Damned hard to put that sucker down! I spent the entire dinner last night telling Richard the best parts of it. Right now you're fixing to leave for California.

 

The best part about your writing is that you manage to smoothly jump around to give the complete story about individual people (i.e. right now you're out together yet at the end of the chapter you tell us what happens to that person -- dies, gets married, etc. -- without making us wait till the end of the book to learn what happens to everyone).

 

Also, your humor is awesome! I can just see you coyly telling these stories, being funny but with a straight face. 

  

You are immensely talented. Do you want me to send your book to my agent? No promises, but it deserves a peek. 

 

Yours is the best book I've read in quite some time and we're honored to have it on Booklocker.

More hugs,

 

The best part about your writing is that you manage to smoothly jump around to give the complete story about individual people (i.e. right now you're out together yet at the end of the chapter you tell us what happens to that person -- dies, gets married, etc. -- without making us wait till the end of the book to learn what happens to everyone).

 

Also, your humor is awesome! I can just see you coyly telling these stories, being funny but with a straight face. You are immensely talented. Do you want me to send your book to my agent? No promises, but it deserves a peek.  Yours is the best book I've read in quite some time and we're honored to have it on Booklocker.      More hugs,  Ang     BOOKLOCKER.COM and WRITERSSWEEKLY.COM

 

 

Mr John Stover


456 S Main St # 603


Los Angeles, CA 90013

 

Dear John,

Okay, okay, so the "A"'s I gave you in junior and senior English really w-e-r-a harbingers of future S-U-C-C-E-S-S!!!! The Road Runner - An American Odyssey is a fantastic read! When I taught you the classics, I was a young and very naive "kid" myself. As I lectured the "lessons of life" which every reader finds in great literature, I hadn't found many myself, so how could I ever hope that my very young students would ever see them clearly? Well, over the past decades, I guess at least two of us have found out truly that every one of us is Odysseus, that we all leave Ithaca to meet our Troy, that we all seek to "go home"; meet all kinds of challenges and trauma on our way, and get home only to realize the neither "home" nor we are in any way the same!!

 

While the journey is so simple, the complexities all lie within each one of our individual experiences. Certainly, your journey has kept you "road running" and has taught you a great deal about who and what you really are. I am especially proud of this journey you have taken, because as a fifteen year-old, I saw so much real potential in you... I just did not have the age, wisdom, or experience to be able to demonstrate it to you. I clearly remember the sparkle in your eye, the exuberance you displayed when that epiphany of understanding hit you in a discussion or in a paper. I could see the gift; now I read the gift and understand the circumstances so much more clearly!! The sass which I saw in you as a kid transforms on the pages of your writing into a humor and an attitude which gives every reader a means with which to understand and to empathize and to deal with life on its own terms.

 

Clearly, John, the ability to find humor in every single idiotic and sad circumstance of life is a gift; one which you clearly provide to every reader.. But for me, the single most outstanding gift is YOU. The accomplishments heralded by The illustrate that John Stover has indeed found out that he is a worthy, accomplished, talented, savvy and still sassy guy who has gotten it together and truly "come home". Man, am I P-R-O-U-D of YOU!!!

 

Oh, and just for the record... Now that you're a dad, you must know that "Penny's" mother doesn't hate you, nor does her father; in fact, I'm sure Charlie even accepts your apology ........ : and were you really her first??????????

 

With much love and admiration and respect and PRIDE,

As always,


Francis David Garcea CEO


27 August 2003

 

 

 

 

 

 

July 26, 2003

To Whom It May Concern:

 

I have been editing and critiquing John Stover's manuscripts for six plus years. Though I have not met John in person, I find his work very creative in that he has a unique skill of bringing together several worlds-worlds that generally would crash and burn, never to rise and "tell." John artistically adapts several genre within one story by exceptional use of time travel. He is a storyteller. Many writers do not possess that simple skill and have to fight themselves for the words. John's words flow poetically and with a message crafted in humor, though sometimes dark; analogies never softcoated; and always a point, though again, sometimes dark. His words and his stories, if read deeply are poignant, but strong. Humorous, but lonely. Most of all, his words ring a sense of self and acceptance-not just of himself, but genuine need, whether that be in a society or within a person.

 

Again, John is a gifted storyteller. One can read Road Runner and see a man's life unravel. I found myself, while editing, having to read first, and then edit-I became so caught up in his story. John has the mastery of visual writing. I "see" his books before me as I read. His style is very pronounced and he is extremely articulate. John is also well read in the classics and in history, which are very defined in his manuscripts.

 

Though I am not paid as an editor, I have done this for many, which include several published romance authors and one published action genre author. I am currently employed by Texas Tech University (see card below) and have worked at Texas A&M University as well. In these positions I have edited, proofed and read for content many grants for monies as well as manuscripts for publication. I feel I am qualified to know a good writer as well as writing skills. In addition, I write fiction, nonfiction and screenplays. Though not published, I know what is acceptable and accepted in each genre.

 

John is gifted. John is a writer. John is a storyteller. Another thing I might add, I am as different from John as night and day in every way imaginable. But I know and see his talent. The content may not be my "usual" but a writer he is!

 

If further information is needed, I can be reached at texpeso@aol.com.


Sincerely,

Alisa Dollar

 

 

 

 

 

Hello Mr.Stover,


      I just finished reading your book The Road Runner. It only took me two days, I couldn't put it down. It's a very good book. It's real, not like the Brady Bunch where everything is perfect and in order.

     

The movie you were in, History of the World Part 1, My mom saw it and  she said she remembers seeing you. She was like "That was him?!" I think it's cool that you got to meet so many people. It was odd though, your dad died in february, and so did mine. I mean, not the same year, but only 5 days apart. My dad died February 18th. I was wondering too if you ever wrote any more on that story about Tandem? I liked that.

 

      Ok, now I know this'll sound corny but, thank you for signing the book....I actually have been

writing more. Not a whole lot cuz there's not a lot of time for me to write, but I am still writing. My brother always tells me it's stupid to write, you'll never get any money cuz your writing sucks. But then I read the "Critics Agree" in the back of your book. The one from your brother reminds me of what my brother says. So I figure, if you could do it, I might have a chance. So thank you very much Mr.Stover. I really did enjoy your book. It kind of made me realize maybe my life isn't so bad...even though it does get hard sometimes.



Sincerely,
Kayla Balboni

 

 

   Some photos of family and friends

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