coming soon!
LIES I'VE YET TO TELL
by David P. Staggs
A pro wrestler dealing with the loneliness of life on the road. A man dealing with imposter syndrome in a town he's not sure how he ended up in. A struggling writer trying to navigate post break up waters. Addicts trying to find sobriety. Sons trying to find peace in what their fathers were and were not. Lies I've Yet to Tell is a collection of stories in two parts. Side A, stories inspired by songs and Side A, non fiction pieces all dealing with the struggle to live up to ideals of "good" manhood.
Praise for Lies I've Yet to Tell and David P. Staggs
“In Lies I’ve Yet to Tell, David P. Staggs writes, ‘Am I my father’s son? What do we inherit? I am not his choices, but I still flinch at the crack of leather.’ This is a book about familial inheritances, traumas, and the messy business of trying to separate the two. Staggs captures other hardscrabble elements as well, from busted relationships to alcoholism to the itinerant life of an old school pro wrestler. It’s the kind of book that will break a reader’s heart with just enough gestures toward hope to keep turning pages. The characters herein persevere for another day. Staggs teaches us all that we might do so as well.”
–Michael Chin, author of Sense of Direction
“Staggs renders characters who have been driven to the end of their tether, and sits the reader beside them as they let go. A heartbreaking collection about the heartbroken and the heartbreakers.”
–Amanda Bales, author of Fair U
“You will not read a better collection of stories that so perfectly captures the contradictory struggles of what it means to be a ‘good man’ in the contemporary world, a struggle that is often self-inflicted and passed down from generations of men who profess to love you and want you to be the best man you can, a struggle that is at once tragic and also tough to defend.”
–Benjamin Drevlow, editor-in-chief of BULL, author of The Captain’s Been Drinking
Cowboy Jamboree Press
good grit lit.