Writing Lighting the World
In the mid-1980s a student brought a shotgun to
Concord N.H. High School, where I taught, and took two hostages. In the aftermath, conventional explanations,
none of them accurate, smothered the resulting
death. A month later the Challenger blew up, killing its crew,
including Concord High teacher Christa McAuliffe. That event overwhelmed the earlier tragedy,
which was soon all but forgotten. In Lighting The World I wanted to give
meaning to an ordinary life gone horribly wrong.
Lighting the World is now available at the following retailers. Click to order:
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Advanced Praise
“Like a good Greek tragedy the story
moves swiftly and deadly… its style is both terse and greatly evocative…this is
a wonderful work of art.”
— John G. Cawelti, Emeritus Professor of University of Kentucky and author of
The
Six Gun Mystique
*** “Grounded in the cold, hard realism of tragedy, the writing is as beautiful and whimsical as the fantasies that compel young Wade Rule to pick up his shotgun and head to his high school… Merle Drown is a writer of incredible compassion, and Lighting the World… reflects how little we understand about the troubled and tortured souls who live among us.” –Wiley Cash, New York Times best-selling author of A Land More Kind Than Home and This Dark Road to Mercy *** “Drown is a master of dialogue, simile and metaphor … his down home tales of a hidden Americana, of people trying to keep pace with a world moving way too fast for its own good, are literary masterpieces. --Charlie Stella, author of Shakedown and Rough Riders Read the entire review here. *** “To my knowledge, there has never been a book written so poignantly from the world view of a boy who does something terribly, terribly wrong… He is our child. He is us.” --Jacquelyn Mitchard, author of The Deep End of the Ocean and originator of the Twitter blog Today’s School Shooting News *** “[Lighting the World] reflects the dark side of Catcher in the Rye. I am greatly impressed with [Merle Drown’s] ability to capture the mind and heart of the adolescent experience.” –Phil Goldfarb, Motion Picture and Television Producer *** “Intriguing, heartfelt and insightful, Lighting the World is a rich and complex novel filled with fascinating characters and genuine moments of surprise.” –John Searles, best-selling author of Help for the Haunted and Strange But True ***“ Wade isn’t a kid with a gun in a school. He’s like a million other people who get twisted around by dreams that have no chance of ever coming true.” --Jon Greenberg, staff writer for PunditFact/PolitiFact *** “This raw, gritty portrayal of a boy desperate for love and belonging provides a window into a reality we so often want to draw the curtain on and hide from view. Here, Drown explores the brutal consequences of doing just that–with wit, wisdom and above all, heart.” –Jo Knowles, author of Living with Jackie Chan *** “A searing and sympathetic portrait of a troubled teen searching for hope in a seemingly hopeless life, Merle Drown takes us inside the mind of an angry young man, showing just how easily desperation and despair can curdle into tragedy. ” –Robin Wasserman, author of The Waking Dark and The Book of Blood and Shadow |