Additional information
by Jim Nichols (Author)
At forty, Cal Shaw has seen better days, that's for sure, but it wasn't always like this. He grew up with his brother, Alvin, and his sister Julia, in the small Maine town of Baxter, confident in his own capabilities, especially regarding music. He took his happy life for granted, as lucky children often do. But everything changed when he was ten and his dad died in a freak accident. Soon, trouble, mostly in the form of a violent stepfather, found a home-his home. As an escape, the Shaw kids turned to music lessons with family friend Uncle Gus, but it turns out no one can escape the violence and grief that rains down on the Shaws. Blue Summer is the story of the Shaw family's undoing, and Cal's struggle to grow up in a world determined to break him. Even his music threatens to take him down with booze-filled nights and one-night stands. As Cal tries to make sense of his existence, living as far away from his family as he can, a snippet of melody comes to him-timeless and haunting. But before he can finish it, his past asserts itself with a phone call that Uncle Gus is dying and it's time to come home and face an altogether different kind of music. In this story, author Jim Nichols writes a riveting coming-of-age novel that examines the melancholy fate of a boy torn apart by loss and domestic abuse, and the justice he eventually delivers, all the while writing a beautiful melody to counter it all, a song he calls 'Blue Summer.'
Author Biography
Jim Nichols became interested in writing fiction while working as a ticket agent for a commuter airline in Rockland. Born in Brunswick and raised in Freeport, Maine, Nichols has worked as a bartender, pilot, skycap, taxi driver, fence builder, orange picker, ramp and ticket agent for a commuter airline, travel agent, and dispatcher for an air taxi service. His work has appeared in Esquire, Narrative, Zoetrope ASE, December, Paris Transcontinental (FR), From The Ashes (BR), Elimae, Germ, The Clackamas Review, American Fiction, Downeast, River City, Conversely, and Night Train. He has been nominated several times for Pushcart prizes, and his novel, Hull Creek, was the runner-up for the 2012 Maine Book Award for Fiction. In addition to his prolific short story work, he is the author of two previously published works of fiction: Slow Monkeys and Hull Creek.
