To Catch a Fish

Davey Simpson, a fisherman, is charged with the murder of a powerful Alabama politician's son. His childhood friend, Ben Johnson, is well-qualified to act as his attorney, but Ben would have to resign as the first black lieutenant governor of Alabama to take the case. Davey does not want Ben to make such a sacrifice. While in the Mobile County Jail awaiting trial, Davey has a unique method of surviving confinement. Since he can't endure living in the present, he lives in the past, recalling memories of his two childhood friends --his lost love, Pokey, and his best friend, Ben. Even though those memories are also a reminder that Ben and Pokey both moved away from Mobile, they allow Davey to escape the unbearable loneliness of incarceration. Years before, when Ben was shunned and mistreated because of his race, Davey stood up for him. Now, despite Davey's protests, Ben insists on representing Davey. Though they had been separated by time and space, loyalty prevails. However, it is Davey's plight that causes childhood friends to reunite and renew their relationships. Unexpected twists reveal the many complications involved in the case and in Davey's personal life as well. This book was awarded Second Place in the Sandhill Writer's Conference for Novels in 2009. One of the judges, Milam McGraw Propst, author of Adventures of Ociee Nash (also a movie), expressed her "high regard for this manuscript." She compared it to The Help saying, "It is writing from the same heart." Calling the work amazing, she said she "loves these three characters; most especially Pokey and her triumph" adding that "these beautifully drawn, rich memories of the South bring back a place and time we all need to remember."