Barbadum Books
BOOKS
THE FEEDSTORE CHRONICLES
Author: Travis Erwin
Genre: Memoir
Welcome to Pearl's Feed and Seed
Most coming-of-age stories are fraught with symbolism, hidden metaphors, and a heaping mound of other literary devices. Not this one. Not mine.
You see, I came of age while working at a dusty Texas feed store. A place where To Kill a Mockingbird involved a twelve-year-old and a BB gun. Of Mice and Men was a problem easily solved with rat poison. And David Copperfield was nothing more than a dude that made shit disappear.
In the spring of 1989, I went to work at Pearl's Feed and Seed for a man named Doyle Suggs. On the surface Doyle and I had little in common: I was a rosy-cheeked boy of sixteen; he was a twice-divorced, thirty-year-old high school dropout. I had yet to go on my first date; he was trading sex for horse feed in the back room. Sure, Doyle was a lout, a liar, and a lecherous derelict. To this day, he remains the most morally bankrupt man I've ever met, yet my life wouldn't be half as blessed, had I missed out on his misguided education.
The Feedstore Chronicles is a mostly true account of those days and when murderous ex-wives, well-hung bulldogs, and feed room fornication were all part of a normal day at Pearl's.
TWISTED ROADS
Author: Travis Erwin
Genre: Contemporary, Women's Fiction
A tarnished name and a bitter heart.
That's all Angela Ross owned when she fled Texas. Forced to return after fifteen years, she knows in a town like Grand, some sins are never forgotten ... Much less forgiven.
Shelly Sampson is the reigning queen of Grand, but her crown is tarnished and nothing threatens to knock her tiara off faster than a chill wind from the past ...Like the return of Angela Ross.
Lucas Cahill writes love songs for a woman he can't have. Lucas has a plan to change that, but heart strings prove tougher to tune than the old guitar his dad left him. Turns out love ... is no easy song to write.
Waiting on the River
Author: Travis Erwin
Genre: Contemporary, Women's Fiction
Up and coming rodeo star, Blue Riggins, was a cowboy champion in the making until a tragic death left him face down in the dirt. Turning his back on the arena and his family in Texas, Blue walked away from fame and fortune to become a nomadic, risk-it-all gambler.
Lindsay Parker has always been a runner. As a young girl she ran to feel free and alive. In high school she ran for track glory. At seventeen, she slowed down long enough to be sweet talked into the tattered backseat of a Trans-Am. A decade later, she’s still running from that fateful night back in Oklahoma.
Blue and Lindsay’s lives collide on a darkened stretch of Idaho highway. Unaware their pasts are deeply intertwined, he reluctantly takes her on a cross-country trip to face down her past. Their newfound relationship is soon faced with painful truths. Leaving them to wonder, is it too late to turn back?
Hemingway
Author: Dan Johnson and Travis Erwin
Genre: Short Story Collection and Music Album
A modern-day soldier, running from the confining paradise of the Florida Keys, finds himself crushed by guilt and unable to acclimate to the civilian world around him.
A reluctant Texas outlaw makes his living on gunpowder and lead, selling his only real talent across the Old West, until a hit turned tragically wrong makes him face what he has become.
A privileged teenage girl's first love abandons her, leading her to a heartbreaking, coast to coast journey of self-discovery.
A jaded smuggler succumbs to the Siren’s Song, but his last chance at love and redemption threatens to rip him apart like a ship on the jagged rocks.
And a half Native-American love child of a Pentecostal preacher is wagered in a deal with the Devil, chasing his mother's soul through a battleground of conflicting cultures and his father's rage.
Hemingway, a collaboration by singer-songwriter Dan Johnson and acclaimed novelist and journalist Travis Erwin, is a collection of stories, inspired by Johnson's album of the same name. The gripping narrative follows five unique tales and five wildly diverse characters, whose lives are unpredictably interwoven across time. The stories serve as a companion to the music and expound on the dialectical impact of decisions made or passed up. What is Good? What is Evil? And can we ever really know the difference until years, even generations have passed?
The book includes a forward by legendary Texas songwriter, Walt Wilkins, as well as a download code for the digital, mp3 version of the album.
