Pinhead: A Love Story

by Timothy Bazzett

That Reed City Boy is back! Fresh out of the army in the fall of '65, Tim Bazzett feels like he has fallen behind his former friends from high school, many of whom are already married and working, or nearly finished with college. Older than most of his fellow freshmen at Ferris State, Tim feels out of step and flounders about trying to find his proper place as he immerses himself in a work-study routine which only leaves him more isolated and lonely. Then, in his sophomore year, he joins the Ferris Vet's Club and re-enters that world of rough camaraderie of the shared military experience. Tim's social life improves, but his grades slide, until he meets the girl, and starts straightening out his act and turning his life around. The Ferris State campus and the sixties from a small-town perspective are vividly evoked throughout this alternately hilarious and poignant narrative. Sex, booze, rock and roll, and spring break on the Florida beaches - it's all here, along with first cars, making new friends, scrub crew shenanigans, grassers and the excitement of first kisses and coppin' that first feel. An eloquent and irreverent paean to the joys and uncertainties of lookin' for love - and finding it - Pinhead will take you back to a simpler and more innocent time of life. So dig out your favorite old albums and set the needle in the groove. Pour yourself a tall cool one, kick back, open up this book and get ready to remember.

320 pages, Paperback

First published March 21, 2008

About the author

I was a college English teacher for 5 years. That was long enough. Spent 8 years in the army and then 21 more years with the Dept of Defense. I've lived in MI, MO, MA, MD, CA, TX, Turkey and Germany. My wife and I have been married over 44 years. We have 3 kids and 5 grandkids. I retired in 2001 and returned to my home state of MI. For the past several years I have been writing my memoirs and other stuff. Five books published so far and I'm currently working on another volume of memoirs. My best selling book thus far has been SOLDIER BOY: AT PLAY IN THE ASA, Since its initial publication in 2005 it has been read in all fifty states and several foreign countries and continues to sell steadily, and I get letters and emails from veterans of all ages, telling me that my story was their story too. Go figure, huh?

Although RatholeBooks is my own "cottage industry," my lifelong love of good books and reading has enabled me to make contact with many other writers, some of them bestselling and award-winning authors who have read my books and provided some very nice blurbs. You will find these comments at the "reviews" section of my website. You will also find comments by faculty, current and retired, of various colleges and universities, including Princeton, Harvard and Yale.

I try to review most of the books I read. I call my reactions ABE reviews - "Awkward But Earnest." The truth is, I've been reading way too much lately (if that's possible). It's time I got back to my own writing. I hereby do so resolve.