Friday, January 3, 2014

The Southside Cavaliers Finally Grow Up Review Tour

Blurb:
Every group of friends can laugh about the stupid things they’ve done together. Unfortunately, to enjoy most such stories you ‘had to be there’, or you ‘have to know so-and-so’. Well, have no fear, because these stories were written specifically to take you there and introduce you to so-and-so. That way you can share our misadventures.

My friends and I are the Southside Cavaliers – a crew of misfits and trouble-makers lucky enough to have fallen into each other’s company. In the decades we’ve been kicking around this dusty planet together, we’ve instigated more than a few memorable shenanigans, like attempting to set off a ‘harmless’ little homemade bomb during French class, sharing a light-hearted stabbing, hunting for a legendary long-lost classmate, getting cosmically busted for academic fraud, serving up tainted baked goods, and investigating the mystery of a decades-old defecation. Share a laugh at our expense with this collection of embarrassingly true stories.



Excerpt:
Not that I considered walking out of a bad movie much of an act of courage, even back then. It was certainly a far cry from say, finding the balls to throw a few punches at a bully, or daring to talk to that hot girl at the mall. However, if you toss enough pebbles into a river you’ll eventually change its course. Being willful and impatient for the things cowardice had perpetually held out of my reach, I became addicted to little acts of sedition like this – pebbles into my own river. The more I got away with, the more confident and insubordinate I became, until I gradually outgrew my childish timidity altogether. And I’ll always remember marching out of Sliver with Tom in this context.

Soon afterward, high school ended. Our crew got together a few times that summer and then in August we all dispersed for college. Two members of our misfit gang, Neil and the soon-to-be-vanishing Tom, were both headed to Purdue and had decided to become dorm-mates. For the next twenty years, Neil’s anecdotes from he and Tom’s rapidly disintegrating friendship in that dorm were some of the last tales we’d ever hear about our former classmate.



My Review:
Coming soon!



Ken will be awarding a $25 Starbucks GC to a randomly drawn commenter during the tour. So the more you comment, the better your chances of winning.

November 15: Writer Wonderland
December 13: Room With Books



Author Bio and Links:
Ken was born and raised in the Southside of Saint Louis. After earning a degree in World Literature, followed by a degree in Culinary Arts, Ken soon made the obvious career move and went to work in medicine, because a little taste of reality can suddenly turn a healthy paycheck, normal working hours, and long-term job security into sumptuous delicacies. Despite the change in his employment trajectory, Ken never turned away from his dream of writing. He’d nurtured a lifelong creative ambition, which had gained direction when a funny true story he wrote for a high school English class became so popular with his classmates they traded copies of it in the hall and passed them up and down the bus. Ever since that catalytic moment, Ken has been writing as a hobby and a passion. Thus far, he’s published eight books, along with several other tidbits, all of which are available on his website.

The book on Amazon and Smashwords.

My Twitter Handle: @SouthsideKen

3 comments:

  1. Aw, what a precious little girl! We've got three young boys, with our fourth on the way. Maybe one day we'll get a little girl! Anyway, thank you for sharing the excerpt with us, sounds very interesting! Can't wait to check it out. Best of luck with your book!

    cloud.weaver.girl AT gmail DOT com

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  2. Is that a picture of you and your baby? It's precious!

    capefearlibn at gmail dot com

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