Pumping gas and dripping sweat in the hot summer of 1964, Bobby Masters and his rock ‘n roll bandmates can’t help daydreaming they’re on American Bandstand with wide-eyed girls screaming for them. And if pretending to be The Romeos, a better-known band with a hit record, gets them there, who’s to stop them? Well, there’s Terry Garcia, the pretty but ferocious older sister of the bass player. Mile by mile, she torments Bobby about everything from his girlie magazines to his honesty. And there’s the police chief who is determined to prevent the band from playing that dirty song, “Louie Louie.” Not to mention the fraternity boys who want to cut the band member’s long hair. What Bobby and his friends aren’t expecting in this coming-of-age saga are the hard truths of the road. And nothing could have prepared them for Susie Mitchell, the go-go girl who teaches them it may not be a man’s world after all.
“Jackson Browne may have been runnin’ on empty but these boys are runnin’ on guile, vibrations, and hormones as they take their masquerading musical act on the road. Enjoyed the ride from start to finish.”
-Art Boden, Long Island, N.Y.
“You can practically feel the hot air on your skin – top down, wind blowing – as Bobby Masters and his band mates go on a road trip in 1964 seeking fun, fame and just enough law-breaking to keep things interesting.”
– Julie Finigan Morris, author of the novel “Exit Strategy.”
Coach George Abbott’s football teams at Longstreet High School were unbeatable, but he couldn’t stop cancer from taking his beloved wife. It’s 1970 and George is trying to rebuild his life despite his everyday disgust with a changing America. The tear gas and violence of anti-war protests. Kent State. My Lai. Psychedelic drugs. Woodstock. Afraid of becoming a recluse, George agrees to return to coaching but only Longstreet’s freshman team. Once again walking the sidelines, he finds himself confronting the costs of Vietnam through a young war widow and her son.
“Morning’s Gray Light” is an evocative, gentle masterpiece about the turbulent 1960s. It is the story of a grieving high-school football coach returning to the gridiron after the death of his wife. It grabs you by the heart and never lets go.
-Robert Mitchell, author of “Congress and the King of Frauds: Corruption and the Credit Mobilier Scandal at the Dawn of the Gilded Age.”
Newly Released: It’s the tumultuous autumn of 1968 and Rob Masters has just finished four years of unwanted military service. The young guitar player wants nothing more than to make it in the rock heaven of Los Angeles music clubs. But his grandfather’s death brings him home to find his oldest friends have also been tested and scarred by Vietnam and discrimination. And the young woman he loved has been changed most of all. “Start of the World” takes up the story of Rob and those young men first introduced in “The Romeo Boys: A Rock ‘N Roll Odyssey.” This sequel follows them as they try to recover friendship and love during a time of war and violent social change.
“I loved it. It was a great coming-of-age story of the 60s, life’s changes and relationships. It is the sequel to the author’s first book, The Romeo Boys. Great stories for a fun time of reading.”
-Dave Howe
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Peter Roper Books 