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The Independent Voice Celebrates Roy L. Pickering Jr. Tell us about you

Roy Pickering was born on the idyllic island of St. Thomas and currently resides in a quaint New Jersey town with his wife and daughter. His novella "Feeding the Squirrels" is published by SynergEbooks in electronic format.  He is currently hard at work on a second novel (Matters of Convenience) along with a series of children's books being illustrated by his exceptionally talented wife. Anthologies that house Roy's short stories include Proverbs for the People (Kensington Books), Role Call (Third World Press), The Game: Short Stories About the Life (Triple Crown Publications), Prose to be Read Aloud: Volume One, and Forever Travels.  Many of Roy's stories can also be found on his web site and blog.  Patches of Grey is his first novel and so far people have had kind things to say about it.  He is exceedingly grateful for this.
Tell us 5 random things about you the person, not the author:
I can touch my nose with my tongue.
I am a former infomercial exercise product purchasing addict.
I've had hundreds of fresh water fish over the years and long to one day upgrade to a salt water aquarium.
I would be the world's greatest tennis player if only the racquet and ball obeyed my reasonable commands.
I may be learning more from my 5-year old daughter than she's learning from me, but I continue to fight the good fight.

John Irving, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Toni Morrison, Cormac McCarthy, Tom Robbins, Ernest Hemmingway, John Updike, there are more but this is as good a place to stop as any
Where to connect online
Twitter : http://twitter.com/AuthorofPatches
Facebook : http://www.facebook.com/PatchesOfGrey
Website : http://www.roypickering.net
Blog : http://lineaday.blogspot.com
Goodreads : http://www.goodreads.com/mplwdscribe
Tell us about your book
Name : Patches of Grey
Genre : Literary Fiction / Mainstream / Contemporary
Length : 332 pages
Formats Available : print, Kindle, Nook
Tony Johnson is a studious young man planning to soon graduate from much more than high school. Although his zip code places him in a Bronx tenement pre "rise of Obama", his sights are set far beyond the trappings of a humble upbringing. Collegiate dreams combined with falling in love with a white classmate put him strongly at odds with his father. He incurs Lionel Johnson's wrath for the sins of ambition and daring to be with Janet Mitchell. Seeing unrealized goals reincarnated in the eyes of his eldest son remind Lionel of what once could have been, and of what went wrong. His own upbringing in a segregated town established a bitter, prejudiced outlook that is the only legacy he has to pass down to his children. When his job and role as primary breadwinner are lost, Lionel's authority erodes and he drowns disappointment one drink at a time. This affords Tony an opportunity to assert independence rather than allowing history to repeat itself and his fate to be set by chance and circumstance. Throughout the course of a tumultuous year, Tony comes to learn that the world is not as black and white as he and his father's opposing mindsets would suggest.
 Posted by Carolyn Arnold at 12:01 AM Labels: Contemporary, Literary, Mainstream Fiction, The Independent Voice Type of Post Come be part of the group - Celebrating Authors Come "Like" Us and stay current