The New Harmonies

by Adam E. Stone

Overview

Sometimes a second chance appears when you least expect it. Divorced and frustrated with his life, Chris Laingowski has just about given up on his dreams: a career in music, happiness, love. But when childhood friend Skip Stepmeyer comes back into his life after a six-year estrangement, and introduces him to an amazing singer named Franklin Simpson, the three men embark on a musical odyssey. The result is The New Harmonies - an uplifting look at the lives of three working-class Southern Illinois musicians seeking fame and fortune in their professional lives, and love and harmony in their personal ones.

"In The New Harmonies, Adam E. Stone takes readers to the geography and culture of Southern Illinois; with Cheeveresque precision, he builds memorable characters, and his empathy with the frustrations and aspirations of the working class makes this novel both a good read and accurate social commentary."

- Phil St. Clair, author of Acid Creek

"You may not be able to write a hit song by the time you finish The New Harmonies, but with three vividly-drawn characters you will navigate the sometimes-tortuous creative process. Adam E. Stone immerses the reader in the daily routine of Southern Illinois, where music can also be a way of life."

- Richard Goldstein, co-author, Enjoy Southern Illinois: A Complete Recreational Guide

Product Details

BN ID:	2940012956484
Publisher:	Global Dialogue Press
Publication date:	09/10/2009
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	250
File size:	277 KB

About the Author

Adam E. Stone was born in Madison, Wisconsin, and lived there until he was six years old, when his family moved to Athens, Georgia. When he was 10, the family moved to Carterville, Illinois, where he spent the remainder of his childhood. After high school, he attended Southern Illinois University at Carbondale, graduating summa cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts degree in English, specializing in Creative Writing. He studied with the Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Richard Russo, and with the poets Rodney Jones and Philip St. Clair.

Mr. Stone's first novel, Xamon Song (Global Dialogue Press, 2006), explores the dangers of corporate control of government, and examines human rights issues in the context of globalization and the rights of indigenous persons. Xamon Song has been used as a human rights learning tool in high schools and colleges in the United States and Canada. Individual copies have been sold in the United States, Canada, Belgium, New Zealand, and South Korea.

His second novel, Kingston Fugue, (Global Dialogue Press, 2007), examines the role of the nonconformist in contemporary American society, the relativity of many of our conceptions of mental illness, the gritty economic realities of the working poor, and the complex, often contradictory, relationship between memory, personality, will and reality, all within a literary structure that mirrors the musical form of the fugue, in which the theme of a piece is extended and developed mainly by imitative counterpoint.

Mr. Stone's third novel, The New Harmonies (Global Dialogue Press, 2009), follows three working-class musicians in Southern Illinois as they seek harmony in their personal lives and their professional ones.

His fourth novel, Cache Girl Saves the World: A Novel in Visions (Global Dialogue Press, 2010) introduces a new medium for literary fiction: the "novel in visions," which combines audio of the novel's text with still photographs of some of its action, packaged in DVD format. The novel tells the story of Ta'li, a young runaway whose Cherokee ancestors died on the Trail of Tears. Searching for peace for herself and the world, Ta'li finds herself in the swamps of Southern Illinois' Cache River, where, with the help of the Swamp Asp and the legendary Big Muddy Monster, she embarks on a daring quest to bring her vision of empathy, empowerment, unity, social justice and ecological wisdom to a humanity seemingly bent on self-destruction