MARTY'S MOM by Jim Fuller

MARTY’ S  MOM   by  JIM  FULLER  Jenny struggles to regain her identity and her destiny. In an attempt to save her sanity after a very traumatic experience, Jenny leaves her son and her mother and joins a troupe of traveling musicians. After a second devastating experience, she is left without a past, a future or an identity. As she tries to rebuild her life, every time she gets near a goal it is snatched away from her by fate or by greed. Will she ever get her life back? Instead of wild, chaotic action, this story is very realistic and believable with lots of human nature and emotion.
From the Author
As you read this story you will be discovering each new development and each new event the same as I did. I did not have a plan or an outline for the story. Instead, I started out from the very beginning, putting myself in her shoes and trying to imagine what would be likely to happen next in real life. Real life is not a preplanned, smooth-flowing chain of events. No, it is unpredictable and sometimes cruel. What I am trying to tell you is that, when I began the story, I didn’t know how it was going to end any more than you will. As I wrote each event I was trying to imagine what would be likely to happen next if it were real life. No doubt my real life experiences influenced my decisions. That is not to imply that I had any of the experiences that occur in the story. Actually, I conscientiously avoided putting any of my own experiences into the story but circumstances and attitudes that I saw during my life gave me a basis for most of what I wrote. The only way I can write is to be there, in the story, mentally and emotionally. I have to put myself in the shoes of the character I am writing about or nothing comes out. I sometimes would get so immersed and so engrossed that I would be surprised to find that the real world was not the same as the one I was writing about. For example, if Jenny was struggling in a pitch dark night, I would be surprised if I looked out the window and saw sunshine. I never knew anyone that I could say was like Jenny so I guess I would have to say that I made her to be someone I would like to have known. Since I walk in the shoes of the characters I invent, I feel like I know them and I want my readers to feel that way too. Can you believe that I learned to like some of the characters so well that I wished I could actually meet them in person?

 COULD THIS BE MARTY’S MOM?      

  An excerpt from the book reads;

Two days later when Melody pulled into the barnyard with the last load of hay she saw an unfamiliar pickup backed up to the yard gate. When she had taken care of the horses and was approaching the house, she saw that it carried Nevada license plates. Entering the house, she found boxes and odds and ends of things scattered here and there and a stranger emerging from Baxter and Nora’s bedroom.

“What are you doing?” she asked.

“What’s it look like?” was the sarcastic reply, “I’m moving in.”

“I don’t think so,” she told him firmly but mildly, “I still live in this house and I have no intention of sharing it with a stranger.”

“Well, I guess you can either get used to it or move out,” he said with a smirk on his face, “I was sent here to take over and that’s what I’m doing.”

He shoved past her and went to his pickup for another load but when he returned to the house he came to an abrupt halt and the smirk vanished from his face. He found himself face to face with the business end of Nora’s shotgun.

First, he backed up a couple of steps but then he began to look confident again as he said, “You don’t have the guts to shoot a man. I’ll bet that thing isn’t even loaded.”

Without wavering or taking her eyes off him Melody  challenged, “I guess you won’t know the answer to either one. Either you back off and go spend the night in town or you die right here in this doorway. Either way, you aren’t going to know.”

“You can’t shoot me and get away with it. They’ll have you up for murder.”
“All I have to do is say you were attacking me. Time’s running out Mister, I think you better get in your pickup and head for town.”
In response, he took a step toward her and she countered by raising the shotgun to point directly at his face and pulled the hammer back. Panic blossomed on his face and he began backing slowly away.

  READER’S COMMENTS

Liz Mills wrote, “Thank you for the books – finished both in one weekend.  Great stories. I look forward to the next one, please put me on the mailing list for #3 when it comes out.”

Ron Burns wrote to the local newspaper, “I have known Jim Fuller for years but I never thought he could bring me to tears or put me on my knees.  What a powerful story – very suspenseful and emotional!  What I also found so interesting  was the vast amount of history that is written between the story lines.  How western families lived in the 1940′s and 1950′s is accurately portrayed to the finest detail.  Taking care of the thrasher canvas drapes, saddling and harnessing the horses and driving a car in the snow without 4-wheel drive are just some of the experiences that we get to witness.  Note how much labor was involved in preparing the meals and feeding the cows.  This book is a drama beyond expectation.  It follows his first book ‘SOCKS’ and we anxiously await for the story to continue.”