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Click HERE for a Book Club kit | Fire Conditions Genre: Fiction, coming-of-age, historical fiction Themes: Midwestern history, mid-twentieth century family, rural life Release Date: October 20, 2024 306 pages Paperback: 979-8-9863365-9-6 Hardcover: 979-8-9863365-8-9 Ebook: 979-8-9863365-7-2 Library of Congress: 2024941667 Ordering information: Contact Wisconsin Writers Association Press, wwapress@wiwrite.org Bookshop.org LINK Available through Ingram and wherever books are sold Retail:
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Fire Conditions by Thomas C. Malin In the bittersweet summer of 1958, two young brothers discover the true meaning of family love and friendship. With their parents needing a break from a troubled marriage and a budding arsonist youngest son, Mike and Jimmy are sent north to Wisconsin to stay with their maternal grandmother, a widowed tavern owner. Eccentric doesn't begin to describe the warm-hearted people of the town called Friendship. There's Aggie's Tap, where the boys will sleep, as Grandma's house is reserved for her spoiled dogs. Amidst the quirky characters like Beau, a Hollywood stuntman, and adventures with the Big Fish People, the brothers uncover family secrets, experience first love, and lend a hand to acting Sheriff Tuttle. Throughout it all, they constantly wonder if they will return to an intact family. The stakes heighten when Jimmy is kidnapped, forcing Mike and Beau to team up for a daring rescue. Trust and healing broken faith become the key to either restoring their family or watching it go up in flames. Dive into the unforgettable journey of Mike and Jimmy in Fire Conditions. Praise for Fire Conditions A captivating depiction of young Mike’s coming-of-age in the naïveté of 1950s rural Wisconsin. You can almost hear the jukebox blaring in the local tavern and smell the Friday night fish fry as you help Mike, and the local citizens of Friendship, search for his missing brother. Fire Conditions is a must-read, paired with a brandy old fashioned. ~ KD Allbaugh, Face Down in the Rising Sun Thomas Malin does an excellent job of showing us what happens when a marriage begins to fall apart, and two little boys seem to be in the way. Mike is 13 and Jimmy is 7. Their mother puts them on a train in Evanston, Illinois—destination: their grandmother Calloway’s home in Friendship, Wisconsin. Arriving in Friendship, they quickly learn that their grandmother is a quirky character, with a house full of dogs. She also owns a tavern and their bedroom is on the second floor of the place. The book is a page turner. ~ Jerry Apps, Author of In a Pickle and several other novels and nonfiction books Fire Conditions carries the reader away to 1950s small-town Wisconsin, with its Hamm’s beer signs and Timex watches, the Lone Ranger on TV and a pink Nash Rambler in front of the tavern. Our main character, Mike stands on the threshold between childhood and young adulthood, trying to protect his kid brother Jimmy from dangers without and within. This tender story brings together puppy love and polio, abduction and addiction, deep friendship and familial love—imperfect as it sometimes is. Malin has an eye for detail and a gift for dialogue. This story sings! ~Kim Suhr, Author of Nothing to Lose and Close Call |
Tom Malin spent the first five years of his life in Adams County, and his family returned frequently to visit the quirky and loving relatives there. Fire Conditions honors a fictional Adams County that might have been. A former administrator at the Medical College of Wisconsin and USC Children’s Hospital in LA, Tom was also a visiting professor in the US and Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. His short stories have been published in the Kansas Quarterly, Rosebud, and others. He’s a Jade Ring and Hal Prize winner. He’s a member of Wisconsin Writers Association and attends workshops at Red Oak Writing Studio. Tom is married to his childhood sweetheart, Shelly, and has three adult children and six grandchildren.
Wisconsin Writers Association is proud to help keep these memories alive as part of our mission to provide a structured fellowship of amateur and professional writers who support and assist fellow writers with all phases, types, and categories of writing. We strongly encourage documentation of personal, family, regional, and cultural stories both fiction and nonfiction, and offer informational educational services to writers and to the general public. Find more at www.WiWrite.org. |
