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Pieces
Every action a person takes creates a reaction in another person’s life. But can something so small really shatter the world into a thousand pieces and change one’s future?
Dougan desperately wants to get home to give his dying wife one last kiss, sensing her suffering will soon be over. Ray longs for a healing touch in his relationship with his distant children, but focuses every ounce of his love on Edna—his one security in this world. Christina hides from her past, while starting a bright future with her fiancé Mel. And Holly … oh, how the past year has brought her into womanhood. Her relationship with Hayden marked so many firsts in her life, and her friendship with Eric ... poor Eric.
A breeze wafts from the woods and nudges at the yellow flower, rolling it over. The flower yawns at the touch. The breeze blows harder until the flower brushes against Holly’s knee. She picks it up and stands it against the cross in front of her. Her mind rushes over the past events of this year, as if the breeze were swirling her thoughts, touching the stories of these people that mingled with her now broken life. They were all so connected by the tiny pieces that Holly grasped at to put together with her own. How did all this happen?
Each person made a choice, out of love, and as their lives unfold they begin to understand why that choice was made. Is it possible that fate brought them together to create a lasting bond—to take that single puzzle piece and create something so beautiful and fragile—to present it to the world as a masterpiece?
Dougan desperately wants to get home to give his dying wife one last kiss, sensing her suffering will soon be over. Ray longs for a healing touch in his relationship with his distant children, but focuses every ounce of his love on Edna—his one security in this world. Christina hides from her past, while starting a bright future with her fiancé Mel. And Holly … oh, how the past year has brought her into womanhood. Her relationship with Hayden marked so many firsts in her life, and her friendship with Eric ... poor Eric.
A breeze wafts from the woods and nudges at the yellow flower, rolling it over. The flower yawns at the touch. The breeze blows harder until the flower brushes against Holly’s knee. She picks it up and stands it against the cross in front of her. Her mind rushes over the past events of this year, as if the breeze were swirling her thoughts, touching the stories of these people that mingled with her now broken life. They were all so connected by the tiny pieces that Holly grasped at to put together with her own. How did all this happen?
Each person made a choice, out of love, and as their lives unfold they begin to understand why that choice was made. Is it possible that fate brought them together to create a lasting bond—to take that single puzzle piece and create something so beautiful and fragile—to present it to the world as a masterpiece?
333 pages, Kindle Edition
First published August 22, 2014
180 people want to read
About the author
Donald Stidham
5 books4 followersAbout this author
Donald Stidham has been writing since 2006 in various genres. What started as a passion for unique storytelling has turned into a crusade for inspirational work. Breath of Life is about re-discovering love and fighting for it...at all costs. The Adventures of Bubba and Sissy: Daddy Does the Same Thing is a children's book about developing a strong bond between children and their fathers.
Donald is currently working on Pieces, which will be release in the summer of 2014. Pieces spins a tale of four families and fate that binds them closely.
Facebook.com/breathoflifedonaldstidham
Facebook.com/bubbaandsissy
Donald Stidham has been writing since 2006 in various genres. What started as a passion for unique storytelling has turned into a crusade for inspirational work. Breath of Life is about re-discovering love and fighting for it...at all costs. The Adventures of Bubba and Sissy: Daddy Does the Same Thing is a children's book about developing a strong bond between children and their fathers.
Donald is currently working on Pieces, which will be release in the summer of 2014. Pieces spins a tale of four families and fate that binds them closely.
Facebook.com/breathoflifedonaldstidham
Facebook.com/bubbaandsissy
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Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
December 3, 2014
I would like to start out with the disclaimer that I won a copy of this book as a giveaway. Thank you to the author Donald Stidham and thank you Goodreads. I would like to address this review on two levels; technical and literary.
First, the Technical Review.
This is a paperback book from Brave Stallion Publishing consisting of 331 pages. The author is Donald Stidham III who currently resides in Tennessee. Donald also hosts a blog @ http://donaldstidham.blogspot.com.
There were a number of what I consider to be avoidable mistakes in the book. These consisted of misspelled words and omitted words. A good proof reader can eliminate most of those and there is really no excuse for these types of errors. Another inexcusable mistake is the "mixing up" of characters' names. In Part Three, I was particularly confused when the name Christian was substituted for Christina at the beginning of the first chapter. Turns out Christian and Christina are brother and sister, but that was not made known until later and does not explain why Christian's name was used when clearly referring to Christina. I would humbly ask that all authors should respect their intended audience/readers by eliminating as many of these mistakes as possible before "going to print".
Now, the Literary Review.
Pieces is a story about four separate families that is divided into five parts. Parts one through four each tell the story of a different family at different stages in their lives; four separate stories, four separate sets of characters, four separate situations. Here the author, Donald Stidham III, does a better than adequate job of character development as he relates the situations for each family. Each part acquaints the reader with the characters and leaves the reader with a general feeling of well-being at the end of each part.
Part five is where the author ties all of the other four parts together. The premise of Part Five, somewhat reminded me of the book "The Bridge of San Luis Rey" by Thornton Wilder. In Pieces, as in "The Bridge...", all of the stories come together and meet at a common place and time for a final conclusion. A powerful ending causes the reader to stop and think of "the pieces" that led each of the families to their fate, their final circumstances.
First, the Technical Review.
This is a paperback book from Brave Stallion Publishing consisting of 331 pages. The author is Donald Stidham III who currently resides in Tennessee. Donald also hosts a blog @ http://donaldstidham.blogspot.com.
There were a number of what I consider to be avoidable mistakes in the book. These consisted of misspelled words and omitted words. A good proof reader can eliminate most of those and there is really no excuse for these types of errors. Another inexcusable mistake is the "mixing up" of characters' names. In Part Three, I was particularly confused when the name Christian was substituted for Christina at the beginning of the first chapter. Turns out Christian and Christina are brother and sister, but that was not made known until later and does not explain why Christian's name was used when clearly referring to Christina. I would humbly ask that all authors should respect their intended audience/readers by eliminating as many of these mistakes as possible before "going to print".
Now, the Literary Review.
Pieces is a story about four separate families that is divided into five parts. Parts one through four each tell the story of a different family at different stages in their lives; four separate stories, four separate sets of characters, four separate situations. Here the author, Donald Stidham III, does a better than adequate job of character development as he relates the situations for each family. Each part acquaints the reader with the characters and leaves the reader with a general feeling of well-being at the end of each part.
Part five is where the author ties all of the other four parts together. The premise of Part Five, somewhat reminded me of the book "The Bridge of San Luis Rey" by Thornton Wilder. In Pieces, as in "The Bridge...", all of the stories come together and meet at a common place and time for a final conclusion. A powerful ending causes the reader to stop and think of "the pieces" that led each of the families to their fate, their final circumstances.
September 15, 2014
I won this in a goodreads giveaway.
I thought this was a good book. Very heart warming and family oriented. We all need a little love and compassion at times.
I thought this was a good book. Very heart warming and family oriented. We all need a little love and compassion at times.
September 30, 2014
I won a copy of pieces from a Goodreads giveaway. I should also warn you that had I known this was a Christian novel I would not have entered the giveaway, because I tend to be a bit biased on the subject. So just throwing that out there so that everyone knows. Other then that my main impression of the novel is that it needs more time on the editing block.
Pieces is the story of several people all in their own world, discovering different things and all of them coming to terms with their own lives in different shapes and sizes. Every one of the characters have God on their side and with that they grow stronger.
I need to address the main reason this needs to go back on the editing block, there are bad grammatical errors throughout the novel. Now even the big publishers let a few get by but you could find one every couple of pages. It made it really hard to get into the novel. So yes, this needs to go back on the editing block, because most of them were simple errors and others were things like switching characters names. Something like that is big and detrimental to the novel.
I love what the author did with the novel. Showing all of the little pieces of us that can be brought back together, and how things will almost always be alright in the end, it was really beautiful. Especially the ending.
The first bit of this novel with Holly and Hayden was not really accurate with high school. I understand that Hayden was supposed to have been more mature then other students, but he sounded like an old man who was thinking of what he should have said in high school, and as a side note he came off as a less then appealing person. Holly is often described as a Goth, and often describes herself as such but actually as described she would be emo. I know it’s a technicality but I had to throw it out there, and in fact it probably doesn’t even matter it just bothered me while I was reading.
Some of the novel I spent confused about what was going on, because their was a lot of jumping around and characters were hard to follow during dialogue. I eventually got what was going on, though I had to reread more then one part of the novel.
Pieces is the story of several people all in their own world, discovering different things and all of them coming to terms with their own lives in different shapes and sizes. Every one of the characters have God on their side and with that they grow stronger.
I need to address the main reason this needs to go back on the editing block, there are bad grammatical errors throughout the novel. Now even the big publishers let a few get by but you could find one every couple of pages. It made it really hard to get into the novel. So yes, this needs to go back on the editing block, because most of them were simple errors and others were things like switching characters names. Something like that is big and detrimental to the novel.
I love what the author did with the novel. Showing all of the little pieces of us that can be brought back together, and how things will almost always be alright in the end, it was really beautiful. Especially the ending.
The first bit of this novel with Holly and Hayden was not really accurate with high school. I understand that Hayden was supposed to have been more mature then other students, but he sounded like an old man who was thinking of what he should have said in high school, and as a side note he came off as a less then appealing person. Holly is often described as a Goth, and often describes herself as such but actually as described she would be emo. I know it’s a technicality but I had to throw it out there, and in fact it probably doesn’t even matter it just bothered me while I was reading.
Some of the novel I spent confused about what was going on, because their was a lot of jumping around and characters were hard to follow during dialogue. I eventually got what was going on, though I had to reread more then one part of the novel.
August 21, 2014
Review by Bettie Marlowe, Staff Writer at the Cleveland Daily Banner.
"Pieces is well named as the puzzle comes together. The book is four parts-stories of young love, relationships and family-which begin separately, yet moving closer together to create a fifth puzzle part when they converge in tragedy and hope. Who knew what the finished picture would be."
"Pieces is well named as the puzzle comes together. The book is four parts-stories of young love, relationships and family-which begin separately, yet moving closer together to create a fifth puzzle part when they converge in tragedy and hope. Who knew what the finished picture would be."
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews