200 pages, 6 in x 9 in
Publication Date: Oct-2009
This book has been shortlisted for the annual SIBA book award in nonfiction from the Southeastern Booksellers Alliance.
Down on his luck, a farmer raffles off a dead mule. While preparing a Sunday dinner, a woman finds her lost diamond in a chicken gizzard. A litter of orphaned baby possums finds a home. These fifty country tales are about Kirk Neely's neck of the woods-the Blue Ridge Mountains, the rivers of the Piedmont, the cotton mills, and the lumberyard. Just like his blue jeans after an adventure in Dead Horse Canyon, Neely's tales are caked with red clay.
Neely, a much beloved pastor from Spartanburg, writes about the ordinary -- casseroles and sweet tea, black bears and beagle dogs, WD-40 and Duct Tape, Tabasco Sauce and fatback. Accompanied by striking pen and ink sketches by his nephew, Emory Cash, these stories will make you laugh out loud; others will bring a tear to your eye.
A Good Mule is Hard to Find should be a fixture in every mountain cabin and every beach house. Steeped in Southern charm and down-home lore, this volume promises to be a keeper.
About the Author
Kirk Neely
Neely is the author of Comfort & Joy: Nine Stories for Christmas (Hub City Press, 2006) and When Grief Comes: Strength for Today, Hope for Tomorrow (Baker Publishing Group, 2007). He is pastor at Morningside Baptist Church in Spartanburg.
Accolades are pouring in for Hub City Press. In 2012, our books won four IPPY Awards: Philip Gerard received a Gold IPPY as the top essay collection by an indie publisher for The Patron Saint of Dreams; Michel Stone's The Iguana Tree received a Bronze IPPY in literary fiction; Matt Matthews' Mercy Creek won Bronze for best regional fiction of the Southeast; and Ron Rash's Waking received a Silver IPPY in poetry. Waking, an Okra Pick, also has been nominated for the Weatherford Award, the top prize in Appalachian fiction. Hub City Press won 6 previous IPPY Awards, including a Gold IPPY for Brian Ray's Through the Pale Door as the top novel in the Southeast. Lou Dischler's My Only Sunshine received a Silver in the same category, as well as an Okra Pick from the Southern Independent Booksellers. Expecting Goodness & Other Stories, edited by C. Michael Curtis, received a Silver IPPY as the top short story collection in North America. Out Loud, edited by Ed Madden and Candace Chellew-Hodge, received a Bronze in the GLBT nonfiction category. Kirk Neely's A Good Mule is Hard to Find was nominated for the SIBA Book Award in nonfiction, and Tim Peeler's Checking Out in poetry.
