The Foark River Salon & Bait Shop

Tom Fanning starts his day at the Foark River Tanning and Hair Salon and Bait Shop with a sense of foreboding that his life as a retiree is about to change. Juanette Jones applies for a job as the sole stylist in the salon that morning, unaware of what she's getting herself into at the unimposing business. Roger Lindman, a biologist, doesn't know that hie safe, quiet daily rotation of breeding worms for the bait shop is about to be exploded. The owner of the business and their employer, Bill MacKenzie, appears and announces that the shop will begun the setting for a cable TV reality show, replete with a hired actor to provide "local color," a camera crew, an overconfident director, and an assertive showrunner. Foark River, a town south of Tennessee's Smoky Mountains, is unsure about this new media project in their backyard. Most are curious and want a little piece of the action-some time on the show-but a few, including the city leaders, feel the show will portray the town in a bad light. But how do the employees-Tom, Roger, and Juanette-feel about it? Tom wants to life a quiet, stress-free life after a life-altering illness. Juanette is leaving a bad marriage, and Roger's anxiety levels are already too high to handle television exposure? To say nothing of their humorous and serious run-ins with director Duffy, showrunner Andrea, and professional actor John Avery Smith who wants them to seize the opportunities of the show rather than bemoan its presence in their lives. And how does it change their lives of three people trying to keep their pasts a secret or at least out of the public eye? This is a story that combines an Appalachian setting, Southern humor with the media industry as the target, and the transformation of three unsuspecting people's lives. A novel that starts humorous and ends poignant. A book you'll want to pass on or recommend to others for laughter and tears.