The Past Ever Present

by Debra Coleman Jeter

A fly-on-the-wall account of making a television show, and a great examination of country living in the first half of the twentieth century, The Past Ever Present revolves around the relationship between a boy and his grandfather.

When Clay is cast as a regular in the TV series Christy, his grandfather Clifton serves as his on-set guardian. The series is set in a poor farm community, which is eerily similar to the one where Clifton grew up. Being on the set of the show provides a dramatic transformation for both, as Clay comes of age and Clifton comes to terms with his past.

Paperback

First published December 27, 2006

About the author

Debra Coleman Jeter has published both fiction and nonfiction in popular magazines, including Working Woman, New Woman, Self, Home Life, Savvy, Christian Woman, and American Baby. Her first novel, The Ticket, was a finalist for a Selah Award, as well as for Jerry Jenkins’ Operation First Novel.

Song of Sugar Sands (Sugar Sands Book 2) was a 2020 Next Generation Indie Book Awards Finalist in the category Christian Fiction. Each book in the Sugar Sands series stands alone, though some characters recur. Book 3 is scheduled to be released in June 2021.

Her story, “Recovery,” was awarded first prize in a short story competition sponsored by Christian Woman; and her nonfiction book “Pshaw, It’s Me Grandson”: Tales of a Young Actor was a finalist in the USA Book News Awards. She is a co-writer of the screenplay for Jess + Moss, a feature film which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, screened at nearly forty film festivals around the world, and captured several domestic and international awards.

Reviews

[Terry · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thoroughly enjoyed this look into the similarity between a young boy growing up in rural Kentucky during the Great Depression of the 1930's and his grandson's exploits in the early 1990's on the filming set of the TV series "Christy", based on the novel by Catherine Marshall. The series was filmed entirely on location in the hills of East Tennessee and was set in the early part of the 20th century. Both Cliff, the young boy, and Clay, his actor grandson, are like two peas in a pod and the author does a great job jumping back and forth between the adventurers set nearly 60 years apart.