0
Skip to Content
Mary Smathers
Home
Books
News & Events
Book Clubs
School Visits
About
Contact
Mary Smathers
Home
Books
News & Events
Book Clubs
School Visits
About
Contact
Home
Books
News & Events
Book Clubs
School Visits
About
Contact
All Books Fertile Soil: Stories of the California Dream
fertile-soil-wide-1000px-portrait-2-top-WEB.jpg Image 1 of
fertile-soil-wide-1000px-portrait-2-top-WEB.jpg

Fertile Soil: Stories of the California Dream

$25.00

In Fertile Soil: Stories of the California Dream, Mary presents the light and dark sides of contemporary California, the perseverance of its residents and the richness of its culture across a grand sweep of history. Mary focuses on those who demonstrate tenacious resilience as they tackle adversity, accepting challenges they could more easily shirk.

The characters you’ll meet in these pages include:
• an elementary school principal who provides leadership for his impoverished Central Valley neighborhood
• a teenager whose father locks her out of her own apartment
• a minimum wage earner with three jobs who battles the shrinking value of her dollar in the Bay Area
• a suburban working mom forced to add cancer treatments into her busy schedule
• a homeless man and a finance whiz whose lives intersect on the streets of downtown LA
• two little boys who confront wildlife danger on the way home from school

Mary concludes with five intertwined stories, drawing a loosely connected line from Mexican era and Gold Rush pioneers to their descendants at the development of Silicon Valley and on to today. The collection portrays the state’s innovative, hard-working residents and quintessential landscape, a never ending target for dreamers.

Publisher: mks publishing
Publish Date: August 6, 2016
Pages: 278
Available in paperback & ebook

Add To Cart

In Fertile Soil: Stories of the California Dream, Mary presents the light and dark sides of contemporary California, the perseverance of its residents and the richness of its culture across a grand sweep of history. Mary focuses on those who demonstrate tenacious resilience as they tackle adversity, accepting challenges they could more easily shirk.

The characters you’ll meet in these pages include:
• an elementary school principal who provides leadership for his impoverished Central Valley neighborhood
• a teenager whose father locks her out of her own apartment
• a minimum wage earner with three jobs who battles the shrinking value of her dollar in the Bay Area
• a suburban working mom forced to add cancer treatments into her busy schedule
• a homeless man and a finance whiz whose lives intersect on the streets of downtown LA
• two little boys who confront wildlife danger on the way home from school

Mary concludes with five intertwined stories, drawing a loosely connected line from Mexican era and Gold Rush pioneers to their descendants at the development of Silicon Valley and on to today. The collection portrays the state’s innovative, hard-working residents and quintessential landscape, a never ending target for dreamers.

Publisher: mks publishing
Publish Date: August 6, 2016
Pages: 278
Available in paperback & ebook

In Fertile Soil: Stories of the California Dream, Mary presents the light and dark sides of contemporary California, the perseverance of its residents and the richness of its culture across a grand sweep of history. Mary focuses on those who demonstrate tenacious resilience as they tackle adversity, accepting challenges they could more easily shirk.

The characters you’ll meet in these pages include:
• an elementary school principal who provides leadership for his impoverished Central Valley neighborhood
• a teenager whose father locks her out of her own apartment
• a minimum wage earner with three jobs who battles the shrinking value of her dollar in the Bay Area
• a suburban working mom forced to add cancer treatments into her busy schedule
• a homeless man and a finance whiz whose lives intersect on the streets of downtown LA
• two little boys who confront wildlife danger on the way home from school

Mary concludes with five intertwined stories, drawing a loosely connected line from Mexican era and Gold Rush pioneers to their descendants at the development of Silicon Valley and on to today. The collection portrays the state’s innovative, hard-working residents and quintessential landscape, a never ending target for dreamers.

Publisher: mks publishing
Publish Date: August 6, 2016
Pages: 278
Available in paperback & ebook

 

Buy the Book

 
Amazon
Your local Bookstore

Applause for Fertile Soil

 
Reviews

“In Suburban Epidemic, a heart wrenching tale of a working suburban mom forced to stop and consider her own mortality in the midst of her hectic lifestyle, the main character Amy grabs your imagination and lingers with you long after setting the story aside.”

--Tracie White, Award-winning Science Writer, Author of The Puzzle Solver

“These stories remind you that everyone you pass on the street has an intricate story beyond what's visible to the eye. Mary has a great gift in painting a picture of these lives and weaving them together to tell the larger story of the California community.”

—Anonymous verified Amazon Customer

“…most memorable for the utterly compelling evocation of the prelapsarian years of the 1970s, when children could still run free through the apricot orchards and plunge into the tangle of Blackberry Creek.”

--Ann Saab, Professor Emeritus, UNC Greensboro

“Smathers writes beautifully. She shares each of her characters and their worlds so fully. I felt like I was there with each of them. My heart went out to Paz, Connie, the boys who saw the coyote, Salvador Rodriguez and Heels.  I cried for Amy in Suburban Epidemic. I look forward to her next book.”

--Kathy Nielsen, Genealogist, retired Librarian, Monterey Public Library

 

View fullsize FS_CityStreets_Page_03.jpg
View fullsize FS_EarthquakeWeather_Page_3.jpg
View fullsize FS_LandGrant_Page_03.jpg
View fullsize FS_ValenciaPaz_Page_03.jpg

HOME BOOKS NEWS & EVENTS BOOK CLUBS SCHOOL VISITS ABOUT CONTACT
contact@marysmathers.com

©2024 mks publishing.
All Rights Reserved.

Design by Reagan Aerial Design

fertile-soil-wide-1000px-portrait-2-top-WEB.jpg