Will you be my beta reader?

I will ask you two questions: (1) Are you an avid reader of fiction? (2) Will you be able to get me your feedback within 30 days of receiving the manuscript? If you answer Yes to those, then there’s a good possibility that you can be a beta reader. Your feedback will help me find problems and fix them before the book is published.

This can be fun, and you’ll be a reader even before the first buyers. Interested or need more information? Please send me an email: BetaReader@MichaelThomasTower.com.

Beta readers will receive an autographed copy of the book when it’s published with your name in the  acknowledgments.

I look forward to being in touch with you.

THE STORY OF A BOY, THE SAGA OF A TOWN

Savagery, Prejudice and Heroism

Tibbitt, Texas, 1949. Cooley Junior is a teenager fight­ing for sur­vival in a world that’s against him. Bur­dened with the care of his ailing father, the misunderstood young man scrambles to make ends meet, enduring what­ever jobs come his way—even when that means put­ting up with Joe Don, the lecherous stock boy bragging about his sex­ual intents. When a young woman is found dead, Cooley Junior's suspicions turn to Joe Don, and soon his worst fears are confirmed.

Joe Don makes a chilling promise: keep your mouth shut or die. Desperate to protect his father and himself, Cooley Junior strug­gles to find help he’s been prom­ised, only to discover he’s on his own. Deter­mined to con­front the darkness that haunts his little town, he has to out­­wit a cunning killer and summon courage he didn’t know he had. When Joe Don’s bloodlust surfaces again, Cooley Junior is forced to take matters into his own hands—fast. What follows is a gripping battle that tests the limits of brav­ery, truth, and conquest.

If you love tenacious yet misunderstood heroes, evoc­a­tive glimpses into history, and unflinching confrontation with life's toughest challenges, Michael Thomas Tower’s One Time a Stranger will take you on an unforgettable journey through one boy’s fight for jus­tice in a world where innocence and savagery collide.

a gripping story of friendship,

family, determination & triumph

• To review or comment about a book*, send an email to Comments@MichaelThomasTower.com

• To apply to be a beta reader, send an email to BetaReader@MichaelThomasTower.com

• For anything else*, send an email to Michael@MichaelThomasTower.com

*ANY SUBMISSION MAY BE QUOTED ON THIS WEBSITE IN PART OR IN FULL UNLESS YOU STATE YOU DO NOT WANT THE MATERIAL PUBLISHED WHEN SUBMITTING THE MATERIAL.

• You will be the first to know about new books in the works and the release dates. You can be the first to buy.

• You will occasionally receive bonus material of various kinds that nonsubscribers will not have access to. It may be a short story, a novella, or an excerpt from a new book.

• I may ask for your help if I hit a rough spot when writing a story. Sometimes, a reader can see the solution when it’s escaping the writer.

• We’ll chat. It could be about almost anything, but it will most likely involve books and reading.

The reason that fiction is more interesting than any other form of literature, to those who really like to study people, is that in fiction the author can really tell the truth without humiliating himself. ―Eleanor Roosevelt

The me and now of things

Even as a kid, I was writing at stuff. I didn’t know much about what I was doing, but I tried. Besides writing, I always “did” theater, from silly little improvised plays in the garage with other 10-year-olds to work on the professional stage. In the mid-1980s, it finally occurred to me to combine those passions, and I took up playwriting. Fortunately, I had a most encouraging mentor with roots in the Broadway stage. Eventually, I had plays staged in Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York, and a good many other places.

Then something inevitable happened. I got older—too old for available roles, too old to do it the way I once did. Plus, my husband and I moved miles from the city, making it  challenging to keep up with theater life. So I switched to narrative writing, and I’m having more fun than a plump old ’possum at a picnic. There’s an elderly kitty sleeping nearby who lets us live with her in rural east San Diego County, up in the mountains where life is good.

I plan for One Time a Stranger to be the first of at least three books set in the mid-20th century in Texas or nearby. The second book, The Things We Didn’t Intend, is almost finished. I expect publication by April 2025. Ideas for the third book are germinating tenaciously. Seeds for a fourth book have been planted. (This is not a series; the stories have no connection.)

If you stick with me, we’re in for some amusing, surprising and uplifting times together. Subscribe to my newsletter, and we’ll be ready to go.

Michael’s words are paint brushes brilliantly portraying a poignant world few of us have seen, and a boy for whom the word “hero” falls far short beside his immense per­se­ver­ance and courage. You will be drawn into this world, and you won’t want to stop reading. I hope this is made into a movie!

—Tim Sledge, Editor and Publisher,

Insighting Growth Publications Inc.