Stevie Blankenship

Shell Point Stevie Blankenship

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You could call this a tour-de force -
an excellent story that held away throughout -

- Lee Maynard
Screaming with the Cannibals,
Pale light of Sunset
Crum, Cinco Becknell.

The mixed verse and prose is called prosimetrum. It is found in Indo-European literature from ancient Sanskrit on. Irish medieval stories mix verse and prose with poetry interspersed in the prose narrative. Tolkien used it. Now this writer tries his hand at it- successfully I think.
T. S. Pelzel- Critic

Young men in most cultures have some kind of rite of passage. The Maasai tribe of Africa, in generations past, had to stalk and kill a lion with only a spear before they were considered warriors. In another part of the world, in the Vanuatu tradition, a male teen jumps from a high place with only vines attached to his ankles. The goal is to brush his head on the ground without breaking his neck. If he survives he is considered a man.

Tiki Morton's rite of passage was achieved as teen deep in the coal mines of West Virginia. But now, a few years later, he was looking for adventure. Wayne Black was just along for the ride trying to find himself in the bottom of a bottle. And the great Pierre la Rue? He'd been a man for a long time, he thought.

This is the true story of three 'good ol boys' from West Virginia who come face with to face with adversity in the Gulf of Mexico and ultimately face to face with themselves. They weren't looking for their rite of passage- they were just trying to survive.

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