Meet Jerry James McMurry!

Jerry's one of our newest authors. He tells us that he was born in 1934, in Stillwater Oklahoma, though he adds he was raised mainly on the North side of Chicago. After a number of adventures (including a bout of polio!) he became an engineer and worked for a variety of companies and government agencies in Illinois and California. Though his work has included everything from the development of advanced radars to space-based weapons systems, he says the most fun he's had professionally was working on an "Automatic Mini Rhizotron (a "rhizotron" is a name given by botanists to any device that allows them to view plant roots as they're growing in the soil.)

He brings us two new works. The first of these is The Ice Cream Counter. This is a collection of remarkable little essay/short stories/prose poems in which he explores life from the vantage of a traditional ice cream counter, the kind you find (or used to find) in most drug stores. He used to work in one, he notes, specifically D. B. Dunbar's Drugstore on Chicago's North side.

His ice cream vignettes are fascinating slices of life. In them we meet men and women, some quite remarkable, some quite ordinary. Or, as Jerry seems to hint, maybe the mundane and the amazing are somehow very much alike, with the judgment about which is which left up to the viewer.

His second work is actually the beginning of a series for young adults. Gwendolyn is the first chapter of what we hope will be a long and fabulous series involving the titular character, or, as she calls herself "Gwen."

Gwen thinks she's a pretty ordinary person. She's a high school student. She does well enough in her classes to keep the authorities off her back. She is reasonably popular. Basically, she thinks, she is just like anyone else.

Except…she isn't.

She has, she learns, "a falcon's eyes."

And this will make all the difference in the world.

 

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00JSCR6NA

 http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00J2AUSZG