River Rat

by Reeve Thomas

One hundred years ago, a father threw his pregnant daughter from a bridge. The baby swam free of his mother, and the first river rat was born. Most folks in the little river town do not believe in such fairy tales. But to sixteen-year-old Floyd Lebus, it's simply his family history.

Floyd lives with the entire clan of river rats in a cluster of ramshackle houses on the cliffs overlooking the Kentucky River. The Lebus family is tolerated by the townsfolk, as long as they stick to their own kind.

Mandy O'Dell is not Floyd's kind, but she is drawn to the river and to Floyd that summer. His love for Mandy causes him to test the boundaries of family tradition. Their forbidden union unearths buried secrets, and Mandy may suffer the brutal consequences.

River Rat is a novelette of approximately 12,000 words, and 36 printed pages. It contains some mild adult language and adult situations, but nothing graphic or gratuitous.

36 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 9, 2012

About the author

Hi, there. I'm an indie author and lifelong Kentuckian. Writing is my passion. It’s not a hobby; it's my life's work. And it is hard work, too, but I love it.

When I say, I’ve always been a writer, I mean it. I've been telling stories since I could talk. I was seven when I wrote my first story. It was about a wizard. I guess a lot of kids write stories. At least, I hope they do. But I’m pretty sure I’m the only kid who wrote her first collection of stories at age ten, titled “Satan’s Children and Other Stories.” Yep. Disturbing. I know. I’m also sure those stories were bad on many levels. But, hey, I was ten.

I earned a B.A. in Journalism a long, long time ago, did a little bit of reporting, and decided: nah, not gonna happen. I’m a creative cube monkey (AKA frustrated novelist) by day. By night, I write fiction and poetry.