R. Paul Tharp

Rust in the Wheat R. Paul Tharp

After my publisher passed on this book I decided to self publish it. Here's why. I wrote my manuscript with a very strong dialect that was,and is prevalent in East TN, the Carolinas and Georgia,in the more rural Appalachian regions like i grew up in. My publisher thought it might only appeal to "a small Appalachian reader base". So, I sat down to "un-regionalize" it, to strip away the dialect and unconventional grammar from it, but I couldn't. I felt I wasn't being true to it. I realize not many people will "get it", but for those who will, it's worth it to me. Set in the Mid-80s, and told through the remembrances of 14 yr old Early Prichard,this is how Perky County found itself caught in the grip of corruption. How whiskey makers and runners,backroom dealings,and cold blooded murder led one man to start a county-wide war. The costly toll on the Prichard family,more specifically on Early, who really only wanted a normal life, may be more than it was worth in the end.