Join John Ames on ‘Adventures in Nowhere Virtual Book Tour 2011’

Join John Ames, as he tours the blogosphere March 1 – April 29 2011 with Pump Up Your Book to talk about his new coming of age novel, Adventures in Nowhere (Pineapple Press). John will be on a nationwide blog tour giving interviews, giving away copy of his books and meeting and greeting new and old fans!

John has a master’s degree in English from the University of Florida, where he was a Ford Fellow. After graduation, he built a rustic house and lived for several years on the edge of a spiritual community located near Gainesville, Florida. John’s search for enlightenment ended when he decided that he was too far from a movie theater. He moved inside the Gainesville city limits and taught English and film for thirty years at Santa Fe College.

He has produced and acted in numerous short films and videos, including the cable TV series the “Tub Interviews,” wherein all the interviewees were required to be in a bathtub. For ten years he reviewed movies for PBS radio station WUFT. He has appeared as a standup comedian and has designed and marketed Florida-themed lamps. He coauthored Second Serve: The Renée Richards Story (Stein and Day, 1983) and its sequel No Way Renée: The Second Half of My Notorious Life (Simon & Schuster, 2007), and Speaking of Florida (University Presses of Florida, 1993). You can visit his website at www.johnamesauthor.com.

Adventures in Nowhere is an absorbing story of the search for self, allowing a reader to live for a while in the mind of a remarkably thoughtful and intense boy caught at the final edge of childhood.

Adventures in Nowhere is told from the wry perspective of ten-year-old Danny Ryan whose realm is 1950s Florida, long before theme parks crowded out the possibility of real magic. Danny refers to his neighborhood as Nowhere, because it seems trapped in time, some parts on the verge of rebirth and others slowly falling apart. Among the things falling apart is the Ryan family, which is dominated by a schizophrenic father who makes every day an adventure, yet Danny keeps his good humor, seeking escape on the nearby Hillsborough River or in the little community of Sulphur Springs with its puzzling mix of the glorious and the shameful. These outings provide Danny a diverting blend of comedy and drama.

But Danny’s adventures take a fateful turn when he begins seeing a mysteriously changing house across the hyacinth-choked Hillsborough. Is he going crazy like his father? Though he feels terribly alone, Danny comes to realize that he has faithful allies among Nowhere’s eccentric inhabitants: Alfred Bagley, a quirky youngster whose fondest desire is to become a junk dealer; Abigail Arnold, an intellectual eleven-year-old with a penchant for blunt talk and red candy lipstick; Donna, a young woman of supernatural beauty and unfathomable motives; Al Gallagher, proprietor of Al’s Swap Shop, a business that is more than it seems; and Buddy Connolly, a confident teenager who prompts Danny toward an odd but powerful salvation.

“John Ames has written a superb coming-of-age novel in the tradition of J. D. Salinger’s Catcher in the Rye and Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird. Ten-year-old Danny Ryan wrestles with clashes between his keen observations and deep sensitivities on one side and the cruelties and complexities of adult life on the other. With the Hillsborough River as his trusted companion, the imaginative Danny plunges into adventures, some life threatening, that force him to change, creating a narrative that is dark and delightful at the same time.”

—Bill Maxwell, Syndicated St Petersburg Times Correspondent, author of Maximum Insight

For more information about John Ames’ Adventures in Nowhere Virtual Book Tour, you can visit his official tour page here.

Pump Up Your Book is an innovative public relations agency specializing in online book publicity for authors looking for maximum online promotion to sell their books. Visit our website at www.pumpupyourbook.com to find out how we can take your book to the virtual level!