Chasing Jubal by Bill Thompson | Eastern North Carolina Now

    Publisher's note: Please join me in welcoming Author Michele Rhem, who presents us with her poignant memoirs of the Rabbit Patch, where her diaries weave tales of a simpler, expressive life lost to many, but gathered together in her most familiar environs - the Rabbit Patch.

    The cover of this book is quite appropriate for what lies inside. Chasing Jubal, by Bill Thompson is a story about the journey of Jubal Simpson, a young boy growing up in the rural south, in the 1950s. Jubal embarks on a journey, early in the book, to join his brother, who has just enlisted and stationed in North Carolina. Jubal, in utter brotherly devotion, takes off without a clue of where Fort Bragg is or how to get there. He is that determined to help his brother fight, for whatever enemy shows up. The adventure unfolds with every paragraph. Jubal has his fair share of companions on his journey. Rich dialogue ensures, they are everyone memorable-and the journey, is nothing short of an epic adventure.

    In a bit less than 300 pages, Jubal Simpson evolves from a young and gullible boy to a noble young man while he is wandering. Nothing that happens is predictable. What does happen, influences Jubal for the rest of his life.

    Jubals' small hometown in Virginia sends out a search party , who in reality, are chasing Jubal from one strange destination to another. They don't know where they are going either, but they do not escape getting caught up in the same sort of escapades, that Jubal experiences. Somehow, Bill Thompson, weaves all the journeys in to one exciting tale. This is a story where things unravel and then bind up again-and you won't see it coming.

    There is mystery, drama and fantasy in Chasing Jubal, and the elements combine in a seamless way. Raymond, Jubals' best friend records, the accounts- and he can't tell the difference either. Raymond, like everybody else, had his own encounters with all sorts of oddities, as he is chasing Jubal.

    I started reading Chasing Jubal and was hooked right off. Bill Thompson is an artist with words. He paints pictures with them, and will make you choke on the dust of the back roads and smell the rain that falls on the way. If you are looking for a book that you won't be able to put down, for love nor money, this is the one. It is a good thing to read a well-written book with a good story- and Chasing Jubal is all of that.

    * Chasing Jubal is available at Amazon.com-barnesandnoble.com - the Indigo Sea Press website -or for an autographed copy, contact Bill Thompson at 3815 Sam Potts Hwy, Hallsboro NC 28442