Jim Brown

Dear Reader,


The novels featured on this website (Black Valley and 24/​7) were written just for you.


Oh sure, others can read these books - in fact I want them to (wake the kids, phone the neighbors, don't worry about shopping for birthdays, Christmas or Arbor Day -- books make the perfect gift). But in your secret heart of hearts, know dear Reader, that they written for, specifically for you.


It's only fair, since every good book I've ever read was written specifically for me. It had to be. How else could the writers so successfully snatch me from the trauma and tedium of true life?


For that matter, how else could a two dimensional medium of paper and print compete with the power of television or the majesty of movies? Books come without special effects, flashy promos or fast food restaurant tie-ins. (Imagine getting a Holden Caulfield action figure with your happy meal).


Reading is a uniquely personal experience.


Remember the first novel you ever read? I'm not talking about required reading - I mean the first book you read just for fun. Remember that sense of discovery? As if you, and only you, had uncovered a secret source of entertainment unlike any other.


I was in the fourth grade when I read my first novel. And - here's a confession - although I savored every word, I never finished it. I never read the last chapter. The reason? I couldn't bear for the story to end.


At first I thought it was a fluke, just sheer luck that I happened to pick the one book in all the world that would appeal so strongly to me. Then I read a second and a third, and a thousand books.


There was no getting around it. Someone had to be writing these things just for me. Not only writing but having them printed, bound nicely and then filed alphabetically on shelves at the Putnam County Library to wait my discovery.


So, as you read these words rest assured that I am hunched over my computer at this very moment working away on yet another story for yet another day - a novel crafted just for you, dear Reader.


Unless of course it's eight o'clock in the morning, in which case I'm still in bed snoring like a 1985 Dodge Dart with a busted muffler. (After years of anchoring the eleven o'clock news - I don't turn the lights out until four or five AM).


But don't forget to wake the kids and phone the neighbors -- encourage friends, family and even strangers to read away. But you and I will know it's really your story.


One day I'll finish reading that much loved first novel, but not today and not tomorrow. I'm still not ready for the story to end.


-- Jim Brown