Frog Hospital, the book, at 196 pages and costing $14.95 is on sale at the Next Chapter bookstore in LaConner, and also at amazon.com and at bn.com, the Barnes & Noble website.
On Friday, at 5 p.m. The Next Chapter will host a book-signing. Please come if you're in town.
On Saturday afternoon, I will be reading at the Robert Sund Whoop-Tee-Doo on Guemes Island. That should be fun. I might read a very dramatic episode titled. "Lunch with Bob Dole."
This is what the book is about:
Frog Hospital is a story about LaConner, a small town at the mouth of the Skagit River, where it flows into Puget Sound. In LaConner, there was once a grocery store in a quonset hut, run by Mr. Grobschmidt. Clyde, an old drunk who lived out on the river, thought that Mr. Grobschmidt looked like a frog, so he took to calling the store the "Frog Hospital." That became a local joke. Now the quonset hut, Mr. Grobschmidt, and Clyde are all gone, but that's how I came up with the name.
Frog Hospital begins in LaConner and leads out to America and the places I've seen in the past ten years. Then it comes back home. That's the theme of the book, coming home. You will find it easy to read and very likable.
The introduction was written by Gary Bornzin of Fairhaven College who had some very nice words to say:
Somehow, amidst all the noise and clutter and artificial urgency and perpetual responsibility that regularly fills up my email box, I continue to receive and read Frog Hospital. Realistically, it’s a small part of my life, yet I occasionally print out a paragraph or two to share with my wife because of the insightful or moving way you expressed something. I often find your words refreshing and reassuring. Even when you’re down, your “everybody hurts” honesty helps me carry on, sometimes even with a bit more hope and courage.
I enjoy your insights, the connections you make, your shared feelings, your ability to see good in the commonplace, your longing/grieving for a better world, and especially your honesty, your lack of phoniness. I appreciate that you allow your readers to see things and experience things vicariously through your eyes that they themselves might never encounter -- like living in South Texas, or joining the Mexican laborers in field work.
You’re a good man, Fred Owens. I wish you well
I should have the book at Watermark Books in Anacortes and at Village Books in Bellingham by next week.
If you buy the book on Amazon or at Barnes & Noble online, please be sure to write a review. Unfavorable reviews are especially welcome. My book is deeply flawed, and it will be child's play to point out the more obvious errors in composition. However, keener minds will discover more subtle faults -- ones I haven't yet realized myself.
Nevertheless I am more proud than embarrassed in presenting this work.
The best way to buy a copy is to order a signed copy directly from me. Make out a check to "Fred Owens" for $25 and mail it to P.O. Box 1292 LaConner, WA 98257. I will promptly mail you a copy of the book. Or you can pay $25 in the PayPal on my Frog Hospital blog. But be sure to email your mailing address to me.
Thanks a lot,
Fred Owens
cell: 360-739-0214
send mail to:
Fred Owens
Box 1292
LaConner WA 98257
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
Some passages just kept me going and I didn’t want to stop devouring the words. Of course, I've read Fred's writing for years -- ever since I first "met" him online and eventually in person. I've always enjoyed the way he can take a subject, however simple, and add controversy and, conversely take a complicated subject and make it simple! Like taking the war in the Middle East and concluding that "The common people throughout the world – you and I – we have to talk or fight. It’s up to us." Complicated issue; simple solution. That's Fred. It's a good read!
Post a Comment