Not so far fetched

One of the themes in my NASCAR-based novel HIDING BEHIND THUNDER is that of the first-time winner. The excitement, the beating of the odds against the far more experienced senior drivers on the circuit. The kid out of nowhere who makes his mark. But, is it all that far-fetched? Not at all.

The 2011 Sprint Cup season is barely past the half-way mark, and we've already added 4 first-time winners into the NASCAR record books. Today it was Paul Menard who etched his name into NASCAR history with a win in the Brickyard 400.

Menard's name is added to this season's list of first-timers, all of whom earned their victories at some of the toughest tracks on the circuit; the tracks and races that are rightly viewed as NASCAR's most prestigious. Trevor Bayne and his season-opening win at the Daytona 500, Regan Smith and his hard-fought win at Darlington, David Ragan and his long-time-coming victory in the Coke Zero 400 (historically the Firecracker 400) at Daytona, and now Paul Menard with a win at none other than Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Twenty races in the books. Four new names in Victory Lane. At the average of one first-time winner for every five races run so far this season, dare we hope to see three more first-timers over the remainder of the 2011 Sprint Cup season?

Don't laugh. It's these kinds of "miracles" that make stock car racing such a great sport. Check out my 1960s-era novel HIDING BEHIND THUNDER, which effectively blends such NASCAR fact and fiction into an entertaining coming-of-age story. Then take a quick glance back at this year's races and results. Maybe it's not all so far-fetched after all...

HIDING BEHIND THUNDER can be purchased through my CreateSpace website, downloaded to Amazon's Kindle reader, and purchased for downloads for Nook, Kobo, and many other ePub formats through Smashwords.com.

You found me!

Welcome to my blog for my recently self-published novel, HIDING BEHIND THUNDER. I'm a little behind here and must embarrassingly admit that I signed up with Blogger, and promptly lost my sign-up information. Go figure; I write a 137,000-word novel and somehow lose the intelligence to write about it.

HIDING BEHIND THUNDER is a coming-of-age novel of love,loss, death and revenge, set against the backdrop of 1960s NASCAR. It is a work of fiction that incorporates a significant dose of NASCAR history and fact, but it is not a "book about NASCAR." There are many reference books out there that are written specifically about NASCAR and stock car racing that will give the reader a lot more details about the sport's origins.

Still, readers new to NASCAR, along with those that have followed the sport for years, will come away from the book with a perspective the drivers of the time, and of two of the toughest years in Grand National history.

Please check out the official website at http://hidingbehindthunder.com. The paperback book is available through my page at CreateSpace, via Kindle download on Amazon, and for Nook, Kobo, and other e-formats on Smashwords.com.

More to come as I re-learn some of my misplaced web experience. Until then...