Cloudbreak, California
by Kelly Daniels.
ISBN: 978-0-9834764-5-0
Release Date: May 1, 2013
Price: $16.95
Pages: 230
Also available for Kindle and Nook
One day during his ninth-grade Speech class Kelly Daniels’ outlaw, soul-surfer father appears at school unannounced and pulls the boy from class. Speeding down the freeway, Daniels’ father admits that he has been involved in a crime, but he does not remember how it happened. He’d been up for days on cocaine and booze, he explains, and the next thing he knew he woke up in jail with a bad feeling. It was almost a relief when the guard told him he’d killed his cousin Barkley, a drug kingpin of sorts. “I’m sorry to lay this on you,” he tells the stunned boy, “but I’m not going to be around to watch your back. Barkley has a son your age…and this kid might come after you someday. You’re going to have to learn to look after yourself.” A few days later, the father skips bail and flees the country. “Forget about him,” everybody says. But the boy doesn’t forget. Someday, he believes, they’ll find each other, the fugitive father and the dreamy son, and together they’ll surf perfect, far-away waves. The reality, he learns when his father is captured a decade later, is less glamorous.
Hard-hitting and off-beat, Cloudbreak, California is a coming-of-age story, a father and son drama, a cautionary tale, and a travel adventure. At its core, Daniels has created an admirable reflection on the power of imagination to transform us into who we are meant to be.
Click here to listen to an excerpt from the audio book, now available from Amazon, Audible and iTunes.
About the Author
Kelly Daniels grew up on the road, living for stints with his parents in a Hawaiian commune, a waterless, powerless cabin in the desert, and in an old step-van outfitted with bunks. As an adult, he set off on his own, traveling extensively through Europe, Mexico and Central America. Along the way, he picked up odd jobs when he could find them, jobs such as production manager of a furniture factory (Guatemala), newspaper reporter (Mexico), and bartender (all over). For additional information about Kelly, please visit his website at www.authorkellydaniels.com.
His short fiction and nonfiction has appeared in Puerto del Sol, Cimarron Review, Third Coast, Sonora Review, South Dakota Review, Santa Clara Review, GSU Review, Orange Coast Review, Eyeshot and other journals. Among other awards, he recently won first prize in Creative Nonfiction at the San Miguel Writers’ Conference. He lives with his wife and young son in Rock Island, Illinois, where he teaches creative writing at Augustana College.
Distributed by:
| Ingram Book Company 1 Ingram Blvd La Vergne, TN 37086 800.937.0152 | Baker & Taylor
| YBP Library Services 999 Maple St. Contoocook, NH 03229 800-258-3774 | Brodart Company 500 Arch Street Williamsport, Pa. 17701 570-326-2461 |
