The Grindstone

by Don Maker

Tommy Lerner is seven years old and is struggling to cope with the craziness of school, Little League Baseball, uncomprehending peers and incomprehensible adults. The normal problems of little boys growing up in a small Arizona town during the 1950s can be daunting. In Tommy’s case, they are exacerbated by his innate intelligence and uncontrollable temper. Tommy is very disruptive, verbally as well as physically, and most children and adults have little patience with him. Although small and thin, he is always ready to fight. Fortunately, his family is loving and supportive.

Also an orphan from the age of nine, Frank Lerner had to drop out of school to literally fight for survival. Maria Lerner is a very good and devout woman, but only graduated from high school. Maria’s widowed mother, Abuela, offers Tommy as much advice as he will allow, drawing on her background as a teacher in Mexico.

As Tommy struggles with school, racism, bullies, and himself, Frank tells him to fight back thoughtfully, not destructively. His own personal experience has shown that life is a constant, painful struggle, but he tells Tommy to “keep your nose to the grindstone if you want to succeed. They can’t keep a good man down, Son.” Realizing he needs help dealing with the boy, Frank faces his fear of failure and his mistrust of teachers to attend community college to study child psychology. Complicating Frank’s efforts is the fact that he must hide a ‘deep, dark secret’ from everyone related to Tommy’s real parents.

Just as Frank is succeeding in his studies, coming to grips with his own internal devils as well as helping to calm Tommy down, he develops cancer from a lifetime of smoking. As he is dying and Tommy is struggling to be admitted to college, Frank finally confesses his role in the deaths of Tommy’s father and mother. In despair, Tommy sets out to commit suicide. Ultimately, the young man must come to grips alone with the knowledge of how totally Frank Lerner affected his life, for better or for worse.

280 pages, Paperback

First published September 9, 2015

About the author

I spent 20-odd years (well, some of them were certainly odd) as a marketing and communications executive. After an early retirement, I obtained teaching credentials to teach English and Public Speaking at the secondary level, as well as a Small Business Management class at an adult education center. During all of those year, I tried my hand at writing on and -- mostly -- off.

I'm now a retired teacher and a freelance writer. I'm an active member of the California Writers Club, Mt. Diablo Branch of (meaning I actually make some money from my writings), where I serve as Chair of the Luncheon & Workshop Committee. Most of what I do for pay is non-fiction.

Early in my writing career I wrote poetry and short stories. Now I write screenplays and novels; most of these are historical or comedy. The latter is difficult when you have no sense of humor, so I have to fake it. I just pretend I'm Robin Williams, only taller and without all the money. The historical is easy: all history is fiction anyhow, so I just do what the "real" historians do, only try to make it more interesting. I also do editing for others and on my own work. As a former English teacher, I'm a bit like the lawyer who defends himself in court, but it's a lot cheaper that way ....