Forget the other new book...check out this one

The other new book start sounded too angry so I've turned to a fiction book based on a real situation. The present title is Tarnished Pulpit. First pass at a synopsis.
Ironton Corner Parish Church is dying. Matthew Henry Stiles, 26 year old working on his Masters of Divinity from Harvard hears of the parish. Being from a wealthy family he comes to Ironton Corners. He refuses to take a salary and lives in two rooms of the church. His ambition is to build Ironton Corner Parish Church into the most prominent Unitarian Parish in the country. Some in this quiet dairy farm and residential community welcome him and the changes he makes; others are irritated by the changes he does to the town.
At the end of his second year at the church the Unitarians refuse to ordain him. The parish ordains him. He agrees to stay for years if he is made the president and sole person in charge of church trusts and other moneys.
The various Trusts amount to $394,000 when he takes charge in 1968. By 1975 the Trust balances are zero and the parish is indebted to local banks for another $250,000.
A lawsuit looms over his head for $474,000 brought my seven families of the New England Academy for defrauding parents and other sealed charges in regard to the students.
Stiles sells government artifacts and other loaned collections and is arrested and convicted.
A lawsuit looms over his head for $474,000 brought my seven families of the New England Academy for defrauding parents and other sealed charges in regard to the students. He is found guilty but then disappears.

New Book

The work has begun in earnest, at least on most days, on my new book. The book is fiction but based on my experiences with church...the joys, the sorrows, the power struggles, the politics, the clergy, the wars, the peace, the struggle with 'isms', and... I've been thining about the book and sketching ideas in my mind and on yellow lined legal paper. I've found it is one thing to play with it in my mind; another to put it on paper. So stay tuned. The first four chapters are in first draft: Chapter 1. A Love Hate Relationship, Chapter 2. The Deacon's Meeting, 3. October Welcome Dinner, 4. Men's Breakfast. Several conflicts are in the making...gum chewing in church, church member arrested for sexual abuse of students and his presence at church, those people you sat at our dinner table. I'll keep you posted as time goes on. Marcia

what's new

My book is doing well through the work of marketing. I'll be traveling to the Boston Area for signings in April and then off to Ohio in May and the midwest in June.
I've started a new book that concerns my love/hate relationship with the institutional church. The church is something that gives me comfort but also great frustration.