Own Words In His

A Paducah book club invites a guest with a very particular insight to discuss their recent read

by J.T. CRAWFORD

got serious and wrote the guts of this book.”

ONCE A MONTH, PADUCAH’S B&B BOOK CLUB DOES AS MOST

book clubs do. They gather, have a drink and some food, and discuss their latest read. Recently, however, they turned the page on their normal nights by inviting a special guest—the author of their chosen novel. “I’d heard about this book that was authored in our region,” said Nancy Powless, “and I loved that someone local was successfully published. I thought it would be cool if we read it and he could come to speak with us. I sent him a message on Facebook and told him we were proud of his success. I didn’t know if he would come, but he was so kind and gracious to join us.”

The author was Jason Holland, an attorney from Hopkinsville, and his book is Honor Thy Father, a murder mystery. “I actually wrote this book about 15 years ago,” Jason said to the book club. “My father had Alzheimer’s and passed away in September of ’98. The following summer, I was mowing my yard, and it occurred to me that statistically speaking I am more likely to have Alzheimer’s since my father had it.” Jason had been a voracious reader since he was a child and had passing thoughts of authoring his own book. After facing the truth of his mortality, he decided to finally start. He wrote in fits and starts until 2004 when he read Stephen King’s book On Writing. “I had learned to write by reading,” says Jason. “So that was there. My instincts were right. But King said he wrote at least 2,000 words, which is five pages, a day, even if they were the worst pages he ever wrote. He does that because it is easier to go back and fix things than to create. So I

Upon completion, Jason began submitting his manuscript to various agents for publication. Some showed interest, but none made an offer. Jason’s first problem was the book’s length. “It was about 700 pages,” he says. “They all said the same thing. The shelves in a bookstore are expensive real estate. They are fine to let Stephen King or John Grisham or whomever write a whopper and put it on their shelves because they know they will sell it—Holland from Hopkinsville, not so much. I got about 30 rejection letters. It was west Kentucky’s War and Peace. Then it sat, and sat, and sat. But it started to get passed around. I had these binders with this great big book in it. It was the crudest form of self-publishing.”

Then, in 2018, a friend of Jason’s passed the book to Charlotte Hendrcks, a retired magazine editor who volunteered to take on the editing process. Charlotte then mentioned the book to her friend Teresa Medeiros who owns a publishing company and whose own books have been a staple of the New York Times bestseller list. “We met at a small restaurant in Hopkinsville, and she said she’d publish it,” recalls Jason. “I’ve been using the word ‘serendipity’ more lately than I ever thought I would.”

The charm of the book, especially for local readers, is that it takes place in western Kentucky, a fact that Jason says brings the story a certain level of authenticity. “I went to high school in Lyon County,” he adds. “And I am very familiar with Paducah. And there are all kinds of places that are fun to talk about. Possum Trot is even mentioned in there.” Many of the characters are based on people Jason knew, drawing on the culture he grew up with. “I don’t know how you could be a writer of fiction and not be a people watcher. People and events that have been a part of my life are woven into this book. And part the undercurrent of this book is the relationships between fathers and their children. And keep in mind what inspirited me to write it was my father.

“Location gave me a comfortable base,” Jason adds. “These are things I know about it. I know about Ferrell’s down the street. I know about Calvert City Drive-In. I know about places along Lake Barkley. And people in Hopkinsville have told me how much it means to them to acknowledge our town. I hadn’t really thought of it like that.” Jason is intent on keeping his work focused on western Kentucky in a follow-up novel that is already in the works. “This is vitally important to me.”

Honor They Father features the character Cassandra Warren, the wife of one of the wealthiest business tycoons in Kentucky. When she is murdered at her lake home, criminal attorney Hunter Cameron’s own nightmare begins. Cassandra’s death is the precise echo of a murder that occurred over forty years before—a case that nearly destroyed Hunter’s attorney father. Only this time, it is Hunter’s best friend Kirk who is the prime suspect in the vicious slaying.

Honor Thy Father is available via Amazon as both an e-book and in paperback.