Join us at Page & Palette for Signing Saturday! On Sunday, July 27th at 11AM, Mark L. Brooks will be here with his book, Laying Autumn’s Dust. Enjoy a cup of coffee or a glass of wine as you visit Mark's table. We hope to see you there!
LAYING AUTUM'N’S DUST
Mark L. Brooks hits a homer with this first novel if you love family dynamics, how each member plays on each other with the good, the bad, the most ugly, and how they can arrive victorious. Laying Autumn’s Dust is a novel told in three first-person voices. Donny, the father—you can feel sorry for him at first—is a man repressed, with a low moral compass, who can’t seem to rise above his worst instincts and doesn’t seem to care. He spreads his wounding to wife Abigail, who isn’t perfect but gives an unfortunate life her best shot. As for son Jesse—how much of Donny will affect him, and how much will Abigail’s soft resonance of strength steel him?
As the family grows and changes, you see each developing autonomy as the only answer when Donny’s shortcomings become a wedge. More like a backdrop for these highly dimensional characters, the plot features murder, suicide, mystery, and vengeance, as well as love, hope, and charity.
The pace is southern, like an evening breeze gently moving Spanish moss on an oak tree in Low Country. Brooks isn’t forcing readers to move too fast. But upon reaching the end, readers will feel part of this family and akin to the idea that Brooks is looking into us all.
Also at play is Brooks’ gift for one-liners: “So I sat and watched the leaves fall in the yard and float across the field—and I realized death come in all colors”.
MARK L. BROOKS
Mark grew up in northeast Alabama on Puddin’ Ridge. After earning an M.A. in English from The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, he lived in Colorado for several years, then returned home in 2016. For personal interests, he enjoys reading, creative writing, breweries, college football, scuba diving, rock climbing, snow skiing, trout fishing, and—foremost—trail running. He has instructed writing and literature courses for a handful of colleges.
Laying Autumn’s Dust is his debut novel.
To learn more about the author, visit MarkLBrooks.com.