New Releases by Jeffrey Hickey

There was once a campground on the Northern California coast where a fresh, bubbling stream met the vast Pacific Ocean. The sandy beach was large, the grasses were tall and soft, three ducks had a problem, one man had a cold, and a horseshoe pit was in the middle of the solution. This is the story of a trip my family took to Wages Creek.

As a professional storyteller and teacher, Griffin Donnelley has a mesmerizing way with words. In fact, it has enabled him to cut quite a swath through the small towns in California where he teaches in schools and performs in bookstores and town halls. Nonetheless, he just can''t seem to catch a break, and is chugging along in his Camry from gig to gig, heading straight for utter burnout. Is there still time to reroute his faltering existence, or is his future looking decidedly scary? Droll and dead-on in its sizing up of contemporary culture, Scary, Man is author Jeffrey Hickey''s wry and singular story of one man, his wife, and their daughter. Together, they embrace a new normal at the turn of the twenty-first century in America, while trying their hardest in the land of the free, and the home of the afraid. An absorbing work of literary fiction peppered with gay themes and social commentary, this humor-inflected take on small towns, small minds, rumor mills, and rampant paranoia will strike an all-too-familiar chord with readers trying to make their way through the shaky American landscape, while keeping marriage and morals intact, and mayhem at bay.

Morehead is an explicitly adult novel, about Dave Morehead, a young man living in San Francisco during the height of the sexual revolution, in the late 1970''s to mid-1980''s. It was a time of sexual, evolutionary, and political change, with both glorious and nearly catastrophic consequences. San Francisco was teeming with diversity, and an evolving political base that forever changed the landscape of what had always been a progressive city. Harvey Milk, Halloween in the Castro, college classes where heterosexuals are in the minority, the first Gay Games, and spiritual cults comprise just part of the terrain Dave must traverse in order to get from where he was, to what he will become. Along the way, he is challenged, assaulted, and forced to defend himself, while relying on an expanding and surprising variety of friends. At the same time, a mysterious “gay cancer” is beginning to afflict some of his new friends and the community at large. Dave has to grow up, and he has to make choices. Will he be there for his friends, or will he let them go? Morehead is a coming of age story in the first person. It is told from the perspective of journals, classroom assignments, and transcribed audio recordings. Morehead comically, bluntly, graphically, and poignantly tells the tale of a straight young man living in a gay old city. Morehead--the second novel by Jeffrey Hickey

Have you ever felt that your presence at a sporting event influenced the result? Are you certain your team could not possibly succeed without you at the game? Do you believe your adherence to a precise routine on game day, whether at the stadium or in your own home, is the key to winning or losing? And if you don''t hold to these rituals exactly, do you believe in your heart that your team is doomed? If you are a sports fan, you know about superstitions, curses and hexes. The sporting world is littered with these legends. Some, like the Curse of the Bambino, the Curse of the Billy Goat, or being on the cover of Sports Illustrated, are well known and documented. More recently, there has been a rising swell of evidence supporting the Madden Curse. But there are other stories similar to these that have never been told. This is one of those stories. It is the story of a boy named Mark O''Bern. Jeffrey Hickey is an author, composer, performing artist, teacher, coach, father of twins and arguably the happiest married man on the planet. Those close to him know him as Chef-Boy-R-Jeff for his exquisite cooking. He is a relentless advocate for blood donation. He would like all live sporting events televised without commercials. He and his family live in Inverness, California, with five ducks, two parrotlets, one cockatiel, one lop bunny, one geicho lizard, and are often visited by such a varied assortment of critters (human and animal), they call their home Der Zoo. His previously published works include a book and audio recording, Wages Creek, and a CD of stories with music, Bats and Bones, both of which garnered great critical notice.