As a child, Peter O'Banyon's life changed irrevocably when his family was killed in a car accident. He was sent to live with his Uncle Billie, the keeper of the Port Hope Lighthouse in Massachusetts. From Billie, he learns the secret of keeping love alive -- even when tragedy strikes -- and he discovers how Billie himself was put to the test as a young man. World War II takes Peter away from the lighthouse and his beloved wife Anna, but he isn't prepared for the ravages of war and the brutality, that can kill a man's soul. Peter is tested even further when he returns home and faces a tragedy that almost destroys him. Can he learn the lesson of the lighthouse keeper...and at the end of his life, can he pass it on to his own daughter?
James Michael Pratt is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling fiction author. Jim recently completed research and co-writing for the documentary and Rex J. Pratt Film, Between Iraq and a Hard Place. He is currently writing a screenplay taken from his regional bestseller, The Good Heart. Called "... a master of moral fiction," by Booklist, his novels are filled with history laden plots, conflict, mystery, and romance.
People Magazine billed Jim's breakout novel, The Last Valentine (1998-1999) "...a return ticket to Bridges of Madison Country territory." It is scheduled for a Hallmark Hall of Fame television "Movie of the Week" in early 2007. The Lighthouse Keeper, (2000-2001) and Ticket Home (2001-2002) hit bestseller charts across the country. Kirkus Reviews called the trio "...the fictionalization of The Greatest Generation," for the vivid portrayal of life and love before, during, and after World War Two.
Paradise Bay, (2002-2003) is a coming-of-age story geographically set between LA and an abandoned fishing hamlet just north of Santa Barbara, CA. Paradise Bay holds secrets for a present day musician son who never knew his Vietnam War hero-father. Sweeping back to the 1950s-60s with social changes, music, horrors of Vietnam, we see a young aspiring "piano man," drafted into the Marines and then seriously wounded. His music sleeps with him for thirty years. He will awaken from a battle induced coma to a strange world with new music, a son he never knew, and a love he had thought lost forever.
The Good Heart, (2005) depicts the entrapping of three troubled lives, one beating heart, and an unsolved mystery. Set in the fast-paced, power-hungry climate of the nation's capital and Tallahassee, FL. Jim's newest novel combines political and medical intrigue with passion and danger while unraveling the mystery behind a brotherly pact that has lain hidden for forty years.
Jim cultivated story-telling from his earliest days of carefree 1960's boy at play in the fields and hills near the old Corriganville Movie Ranch sets in Simi Valley, CA. His father's World War Two combat and two older brother's Vietnam service influenced Jim, at an early age, to study history in gen eral and military history specifically. Fluent in Spanish, he often uses the language and settings of old California and the Southwest where he grew up to add color, realism, and flavor to his stories.
In memoirs created as tributes to everyday parents, Jim reminds the reader in MOM, The Woman Who Made Oatmeal Stick to My Ribs, and DAD, The Man Who Lied To Save the Planet of a time and place when seemingly complex matters of life had simple, straightforward answers colored by time honored and traditional virtues and values. He recently finished two novels in the inspirational category, both available at Amazon.com; The Christ Report and As A Man Thinketh, In His Heart.
As well as author, James Pratt serves as Chairman of PowerThink Publishing, LLC. For more on James Michael Pratt and his writings see: www.jmpratt.com and www.powerthink.com.
