Showing results by author "Craig Lancaster" in All Categories

Just before Christmas, Jane Sperling is headed from Montana to Texas, to the hometown she once abandoned, in a car she doesn’t fully trust, for a job that’s a leap of faith and the only line she has on a better life for herself and her eleven-year-old daughter, Claire. In Texas, Jane puts a long-dormant teaching credential to use at the middle school she once attended. She navigates a fraught relationship with her widower father and the growing pains of her daughter.

A 39-year-old with Asperger’s syndrome and obsessive-compulsive disorder, Edward Stanton lives alone on a rigid schedule in the Montana town where he grew up. His carefully constructed routine includes tracking his most common waking time (7:38 a.m.), refusing to start his therapy sessions even a minute before the appointed hour (10:00 a.m.), and watching one episode of the 1960s cop show Dragnet each night (10:00 p.m.). But when a single mother and her nine-year-old son move in across the street, Edward’s timetable comes undone....

That’s the flummoxed state of Edward Stanton, a 42-year-old with Asperger’s syndrome. His job, his therapist, and his best friends are all gone. Even his nightly ritual of watching Dragnet reruns has short-circuited. But a call from his friend Donna in Idaho, telling him that her son Kyle is in trouble, launches Edward from his rigidly scheduled existence in Billings, Montana, to the open road. He and Kyle, a sweet little boy turned sullen adolescent, debate football, music, and bodily functions (“Why do you pee so much?” Kyle asks).

Jo-Jo Middlebury is done with love. Linus Travers wants one more shot at it. Mr. Blue Sky, their 1970s-loving guardian angel, offers perspective on both when he's not busy diving into reruns of Happy Days and Barney Miller.

More than a decade into the 21st century, Nate Ray is down and in the final throes before he's out for good. He has burned through jobs and the goodwill of others, including his son, Brandon. When Nate's dad, Ronnie, summons him for a trip from Texas to Montana to bury Ronnie's sister, Nate's self-destruction is put on hold but new and long-simmering issues arise.

Max Wendt has a family...but it's sliding sideways, and he has been complicit in its faltering. His wife and his daughter have pulled away from him amid his frequent absences, leaving him to bridge the distance between what he remembers and the way things are now. Max Wendt has a job...but it carries him away from home most of the time, and its dynamics are quickly changing. There's a surprising new hire on his pipeline crew, strife among coworkers, and a boss whose proclivities put everything in peril.

Carson McCullough has given his career to a singular pursuit - putting out a small daily newspaper that keeps his employees engaged and his hometown informed. But as time and technology conspire against him, Carson's Argus-Dispatch is shuttered by a new owner with a different view of its future. Stung by the abrupt end of his career and burdened by regret and grudges, Carson and his one true companion, a yellow Lab named Hector, set out on a road trip.

Change keeps stalking Edward Stanton. He and his new wife, Sheila, have retreated to his small house in Montana after an unsuccessful attempt at operating a motel in Colorado. That failure has left wounds, especially for Sheila, and now they face a bigger challenge: pregnancy and impending parenthood. Edward begins penning notes to the child (ever precise, he refers to the gestating being as "Cellular Stanton"), as he navigates married life with Sheila, who is unhappy and unfulfilled in Montana; a work partnership with his friend Scott Shamwell, and more.

In the sweltering heat of a Montana July, the small town of Grandview readies for its annual Jamboree. The event is meant to celebrate community, but this year tensions boil over, threatening to tear the town, and a family, apart.

Edward Stanton, ein 39-jähriger Mann mit zwanghafter Persönlichkeitsstörung und Asperger-Syndrom, lebt allein und nach strengem Zeitplan in der Stadt seiner Kindheit in Montana. Zu seinen sorgsam ausgearbeiteten Routineabläufen gehört es, dass er täglich seine Aufwachzeit notiert, um die häufigste zu ermitteln (7:38 Uhr), seine Therapiesitzung niemals auch nur eine Sekunde vor dem vereinbarten Termin beginnt (10:00 Uhr).

Er schuldete einer Menge Leute etwas, aber ich war der einzige der noch übrig war, um die Schulden einzutreiben. Ich sagte mir, dass ich mich nicht um ihn schere. Nur darum, was er mir schuldet, was auch immer das genau war. Das habe ich wirklich versucht zu glauben. Als Mitch Quillens Leben aus den Fugen gerät, fürchtet er, dass es keinen Ausweg gibt. Seine Ehe sowie seine Karriere scheitern und die Beziehung zu seinem Vater ist seit Jahrzenten ein Desaster.

Für den zweiundvierzigjährigen Edward Stanton mit Asperger-Syndrom war es ein aufregendes Jahr. Er hat seinen Job verloren. Seine geschätzte Therapeutin ist in den Ruhestand gegangen. Seine besten Freunde sind weggezogen. Sogar sein allabendliches Ritual, eine Folge der alten Fernsehserie "Polizeibericht" zu sehen, musste er aufgeben. Durch all diese Veränderungen ist Edward, der sich auf ein Leben mit geregelten Abläufen verlassen will, höchst irritiert.

Hugo Hunter, a would-be champion who never quite made it, is on his last legs. Thirty-seven years old, soft around the middle, and broke, he’s plummeted from his glory days of title fights to small-time bouts against brawlers and punks. Watching ringside for nearly twenty years has been Mark Westerly, a sportswriter who has struggled to keep a professional distance from the man whose life and career have become enmeshed with his own tumultuous trajectory.