The Runner-Up

by John Sheppard

By the author of Small Town Punk In John L. Sheppard's darkly humorous The Runner-Up , alcoholic ex-sailor Ray reviews his lonely childhood trying to discover why he ended up on his father's couch sipping gin. Was it his mother abandoning the family when he was only nine? Was it his father's insistence on not being a father to him? Was it the lack of siblings? Or was it that he was always coming in second? Praise for Small Town Small Town Punk is brutal, honest, funny, and acerbic. It's also ... pretty dead-on accurate about what life in Central Florida for disaffected, low-to-middle class outcast teens was like. --Julio Diaz, Ink19.com

86 pages, Paperback

Published May 18, 2003

About the author

A veteran of the U.S. Army, John Sheppard's short stories have appeared in Bridge magazine, the2ndhand and Exquisite Corpse. He is a frequent contributor to ParagraphLine.com and B2L2.com.