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Holy, Hemingway, what next?
So, last summer, I notice in Texas Monthly magazine, tacked on and practically hidden away at an article's end, a listing for a few small Texas publishing houses. Like tossing a dart, I choose one. Why not? I had a manuscript. I'd had years of turn-downs and non-replies. I've got rhino-skin. What's one more? In the Fall, I got a call from Stoney Creek offering me a contract to publish my manuscript submittal. Holding the phone, anyone could have bowled me over with a marble. Like many writers, I suppose, finding an agent or publisher is an illusionary trick of the trade. In my case, four previous tries with the Great American Novel led straight to self-publishing. Not to negate SP. I was more than happy to join up. Still. Despite seeing stop signs at every base, the process of giving life to the Mad March rolls and rocks on. There is a pre-order sign-up set up now at Amazon. As a first-timer, I can say working with a publisher has run the gamut from exhilaration to self-doubt then back again and back again, again. But I wouldn't have missed it for the world. rob 2-6-2025 
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In a tight spot during his combat tour in Vietnam, Henry vows, “If I survive this insane war, I will live out my dream.” That dream of playing in a rock ‘n’ roll band slowly fades as five years pass. He is closing in on thirty. He’s married. He runs a service business, with customers that include a state-run halfway house. On the job there, by happenstance, he encounters two young convicted felons. The three play a song together and Henry’s long dormant vow awakens.
Thus begins the turbulent rise of what becomes the Mad March. A guitar slinging debutant from Grosse Pointe joins, making the quartet as unlikely a rock band imaginable. Angst and anger fuel their fast, furious songs. Trials abound. Self-doubt spreads like a brush fire. The band quickly unravels, splitting like an atom. Apart, all that’s left are questions. Henry: How far does one go to keep a dream alive? How difficult is it to keep the faith? Christine: How much backbone does one need to overcome convention. How do you get to do what you love? Gretchen: How do you reinvent after giving up? How do you know when to trust? Melissa: How do you grow up? How do you spread your wings? Henry won’t let the band die. From the start he is convinced that “there is something there” in the music they make. In a last gasp reinvention, they regroup. Helping hands reach out, an entourage as offbeat as they are: an aging talent scout, a grieving widow, a motorcycle outlaw, a thirteen-year-old fan. Together, the Mad March take to the road. Doubters (what the hell was that?) and haters (girls can’t play guitar) jeer them at every gig. But magic reigns, too – showstoppers that transcend their wildest expectations. Rob Espenscheid, Jr. weaves a humorous, irreverent, and heartwarming tale of rock ‘n’ roll ambition, obscurity, and a final shot at greatness. One band, one tour, one month — New York to LA and all the stories in between. |
2020: coronavirus raging world-wide
"My own world longed for a heartwarming story: chances taken – happenstance – a win out I sat down to write one." |
"Our family's past is a battleground, Big Ten."
"No, it's not, Oliver, it's a romance." The quotes above kick off a story line that details twenty tumultuous years in the life of the Sedgewick clan. 1981 Three daughters – torn apart from discord and broken relationships. Three Army vets – fighting to salvage their lives shattered by jungle warfare. The Harley-Davidson Motor Company – on the road to ruin. Three falling stars. By chance they intersect Yikes! Eros has a lot of work to do |
5 roller coaster years in the making
the new (and I swear last) novel lands with a... well - who knows 'Magic' is full of old Mormons, hogs, outlaw bikers, and flickering romance Who might possibly resist I joke with friends that the two most powerful entities in Iowa are the pork producers and organized religion... and that Magic City will no doubt leave them both a wee bit testy So... probably quite a few rocking on... rob... March 2020 |
Plot synopsis
1846: The town of Garden Grove, Iowa begins as a wilderness rest stop on the Mormon Trail. Brigham Young acknowledges the way station: a magic city in the woods. 2014: 29 year old Maxfli Redding and 5 lifelong friends descend upon Garden Grove intent to develop an organic small farm cooperative and rebuild the decaying rural community back to its 19th Century early 20th Century grandeur Max has money, energy, and a plan. So does HST United Foods, a multi-national Ag corporation that holds the Garden Grove vicinity ideal for their Hog Containment Factory Farm expansion. HST United holds every legal advantage. Max and his friends are left with pluck, Mormon history, and... magic. |
A rebel yell of triumph - H. Wechsler The Human Museum
_________________ Forsake worry. I am surrounded by hundreds
of Iowa's sons, the safest place possible. What might go wrong. It was April 1, 1862. Five days prior to the bloody battle of Shiloh. |
Plot synopsisSeriously wounded in 2006 from a bomb explosion in Mozul, Iraq, Rita Ambridge, a young national guardsman from Iowa, is transported to Ward 57 at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington D.C.
Recovering without hope, depressed and angry over the terrible turn her life has taken, she is visited by her grandmother who bequeaths to her a journal and letters written by Rita's great great great grandmother in 1862. Emma Mackenzie had fought at the Battle of Shiloh. Shiloh Firefly is Emma's story to include the dramatization of historical events leading up to the battle, army generals, and others from the Civil War Record. At it's core, the book is a love story. Here too are the wartime accounts of Elijah Robet, a young lieutenant in the 22nd Alabama infantry. Emma and Elijah's tale is one of fortitude, having found one another within the most horrific military clash ever fought in the Americas. Across generations, a blood bond is born, as Emma's fight for survival in April of 1862 allows for a glimmer of light to enter Rita's dark world in 2006. |
Blurb city
Couple years ago I was working on the second draft of JA and got to daydreaming what the blurbs might be for my finished novel. You know...You see a book that sparks interest, check the price, then open the cover and there they are! Critics weighing in from all the usual suspects - sometimes pages and pages of them. I love blurbs. I couldn't wait ... and ... I figured critics would never even know JA exists anyway... so i made up my own. 'Sentimental balderdash. But why not.' - Redbook Redux 'Dylan, The Donnas, Walt Whitman! How did it all go so wrong?' - ROCKGIRL 'Somewhere in this confusing, disjointed, here-there-and-everywhere first novel is a good cause. Nice Try.' - The Old York Times Book Review ' TOSS IT WITH THE KINDLING.' - The Goths M/C 'This is not the way we behave.' - Girl Scouts of America 'Sweet' - teencool.net 'We've read it all before. Never quite this scatterbrained, though.' - Newstweet 'We loved it.' - O.T.A. (Oak Trees of America) |
Plot synopsis
To save time and money, Heartland Ironworks hastily approves a plan to carve out a new plant access road through a stand of old growth oak trees.
Fourteen year old Madison Weber gets wind of the project and enlists her fellow Girl Scouts in a conspiracy to protest and scuttle the construction. To save the trees, Troop 822 need help and combatants arrive at the last minute from unexpected sources. Pretty much all hell breaks loose. Taking center stage is the mother of all Iowa thunderstorms whose destructive fury brings the confrontation at Wildnut Park to a calamitous end. On the spot media reportage blows up the small town face-off into a state wide sensation. |
About the Author
Where to begin:
Maybe around 2008. I was past 60. If I was going to take a shot at fiction writing, I had better snap to. Brain cells diminishing and all that.
I sat at the typewriter with a short story in mind. That was then. Now, here I be some fourteen years and four novels on. I never quit my day job running Robert's Piano Tuning service. Four novels. How was that possible? The answer is simple. I fell in love, in love with the process, in love with the creation of a story line; the characters, especially the characters.
Surely one of the great joys in writing is having a character take on a life of his or her own. As the writer, you feel you are being channeled by your own creation. Oh golly, the horse, Mona, in Shiloh Firefly. I can still recall coming down for breakfast and laughing to my wife,Sharon, " A horse has taken over my story. Completely." What fun, and all to the good.
Maybe around 2008. I was past 60. If I was going to take a shot at fiction writing, I had better snap to. Brain cells diminishing and all that.
I sat at the typewriter with a short story in mind. That was then. Now, here I be some fourteen years and four novels on. I never quit my day job running Robert's Piano Tuning service. Four novels. How was that possible? The answer is simple. I fell in love, in love with the process, in love with the creation of a story line; the characters, especially the characters.
Surely one of the great joys in writing is having a character take on a life of his or her own. As the writer, you feel you are being channeled by your own creation. Oh golly, the horse, Mona, in Shiloh Firefly. I can still recall coming down for breakfast and laughing to my wife,Sharon, " A horse has taken over my story. Completely." What fun, and all to the good.
