Pinch Hitter: Baseball Fantasy Becomes Reality

Reviewed by Stuart Nachbar

Pinch Hitter

But David also has a secret that is a driver to the story. His older brother Danny was also a baseball protégé. Unlike David, Danny is an over-confident pitcher with quality stuff, good enough for a scholarship or a major league contract. However, Danny’s promise ends when he is hit above the eye by a line drive—off the bat of his younger brother. Immediately after that fatal incident, David ends his own baseball dreams, and years later, Danny disappears from his life, crippled by lingering pain and lost dreams. At the start of this story David has not seen his older brother for nine years.

Pinch Hitter is a moving story and I could see that Whitney spent a lot of time around a major league baseball team. The clubhouse and front office scenes are more detailed than I would expect to find from an author with no personal day-to-day connection to major league baseball, and Whitney also shows a strong knowledge of the situational game, where managers have to strategize again each other, using mind and matter to win. It’s no surprise that his main character is a pinch hitter, since that is a situational position in a game, as opposed to an everyday star. Reading Pinch Hitter, I was reminded of Rudy, the Notre Dame football movie, where a 26 year old college senior has overcome dyslexia to earn a degree and have a chance to play for a national championship team. Rudy is carried off the field at the end of his only game, just as David is heralded by his teammates at the end of this story.

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An Interview with author Erik Quisling

...another great interview brought to you by the Virtual Book Review Network 

Fables from the Mud

Erik Quisling:  I initially came up with the idea for Fables from the Mud shortly after I graduated college.  In the course of my soul searching and trying to figure out my place in the world, I was struck with the idea of a clam who was trying to do the exact same thing. For some reason it struck me as extremely amusing.  This is how The Angry Clam, the first fable in my book, was born. 

Lauren Smith: Do you see Fables From the Mud as a satire, cultural commentary or something more?

Erik Quisling:  Fables From The Mud is about three little creatures – a clam, an ant, and a worm – all of whom are struggling with very human problems.  The stories are satirical but in many ways are simply a cultural commentary on the human obsession with finding meaning in the world.  All in all, they are designed to be amusing and to get you to see somewhat the absurdity of taking life too seriously.

Lauren Smith: How did you develop each of the fables? 

Erik Quisling:  Each fable was born from its own separate bout of inspiration. In each case, it was a single line of text that came to me that was like lighting a fuse that set the story on its course.  Once the fuse was lit, the stories pretty much wrote themselves – I simply had to go back and edit them a little bit.

Lauren Smith: Are any of the characters based on anyone – or any type of person - you know?

Erik Quisling:  I can say that the more I read the stories, the more I learn about myself.  But I truly think each character is a reflection of some deeply common human experience – not of any human in particular.

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An Interview with the author of Why Won’t Anyone Play with me?

Lauren Smith: What is your book about?

Joy V. Smith: Kallie Kitten wants to play, but all the animals run away from her; now she's left the barn and the farm animals and has wandered down to the pond, where she tries to play with other animals. The turtle goes into his shell; the frogs and salamander swim away in the pond; the tree frog jumps up onto a tree leaf. On another level, I think children may learn a lesson about playing more gently. 

Why Won't Anyone Play With Me?

Joy V. Smith: I enjoy writing about animals. Sammy's Beautiful Tail was about an anole (lizard) who lost his beautiful tail and had to get over it.  He had an attitude, but also a good friend ...If I can write a story with a deeper meaning, I am happy. 

Lauren Smith: What do you hope children will learn from your book?

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