It is my pleasure to announce that White Cat Publications will be by Monday publishing Havelock, the Great American Novel by author Tom Frye! Here is a preview of what the novel is about.

Thirteen-year-old, Reason Nelson, attends a party that is busted by the local police. As he flees, he collides with a detective and a black drug dealer. He snatches up what he believes to be his leather jacket and drunkenly crawls into a doghouse, dragging the jacket with him. In the pocket of this coat, Reason discovers a key that opens a safe-deposit box. The box contains evidence that will solve the murder of a young female informant.

In a coming of age story reminiscent of The Outsiders, the book is based on the unsolved murder of State Patrol informant, Patricia Webb, that took place in Nebraska in 1976. First published by Media Productions in 1982, the book sold 5,000 in schools, alternative schools, and institutions. In 2020, a revised edition was released. It is this revised edition that the stage play is based on.

The second theme of the book involves the fact-based event which took place in 1966 on the outskirts of Lincoln. Mary Partington, a retired school teacher, who lived at 44th and Havelock, shot and killed an intruder climbing in through her kitchen window. For twenty years, kids had been driving out to the Partington farm to terrorize Mary. It became a rite of passage for kids to sneak onto her property. After the shooting, Mary was known as Bloody Mary.

In this fictional account, Reason Nelson witnesses the fatal shooting on the Partington farm. He is trespassing by riding his motorcycle along the banks of Salt Creek. He watches the home invasion take place. He is adamant that Mary acted in self-defense. However, he is reluctant to call the police to report what he witnessed.
Reason Nelson:

Thirteen-year-old, Reason Nelson, lives in the Irish-Catholic suburb of Havelock in Lincoln, Nebraska. Reason, a long-haired scrawny white kid, attends a party that is busted by the local police. In the aftermath of the chaos, Reason’s oppositional defiance disorder kicks in and he stubbornly refuses to cooperate with anyone in regards to the key.

Vince Patrick:

After the bust of the party, 13-year old Vince Patrick discovers Reason crawling out of the doghouse, dragging the jacket with him. Vince urges Reason to clear out of there, warning him that drug courier Nate Holland is looking for him. As Vince attempts to examine the key that Reason discovered, the boys’ fumble and the key accidentally drops into a drain sewer. Before he can retrieve it, Nate Holland comes barreling up in his car. Reason hops on Vince’s bike and madly pedals away.

Nate Holland and Brooks:

Soon after Reason is confronted by Nate, who pokes Reason in the left cheek with a knife. Before Nate can seriously harm Reason, he is rescued by Brooks, the dealer who lost his jacket during the bust. Suspicious as to why the notorious dealer is so bent out of shape over the loss of his jacket, Reason claims he doesn’t have it. He then pushes things further by asking Brooks if there is a finder’s fee if he does reclaim it for him.

Boone Nelson:

When he arrives home, Reason’s older brother, Boone, sees the knife wound on his face and demands to know what happened. While Reason is reluctant to tell Boone he has been to a party, Vince explains what led up to the knifing incident. Boone, who considers the Nelson house a “drug free” zone, is upset over Reason risking having his probation revoked.


Private Detective Jessie Dalton:

Jessie claims the key belongs to a safe-deposit box at an unknown bank. Jessie, the former VP of the Outlaws biker club once led by Reason’s father, is now a private investigator hot on the trail of Daws Holland. Jessie tells them that there is a surveillance tape which would prove who did the actual shooting, and he asks Reason to turn the key in to him.  

Collin Young:

The next night, Reason meets with 13-year-old Collin Young and Vince at the park. Collin’s brother vanished several years back by hopping a train down at the train yards, which has impacted Collin in a profound way. Collin is the voice of reason throughout the story.

Julie Ellis:

Reason’s 13-year-old girlfriend is wise beyond her years and always trying to steer him in the right direction. Despite her drug-free stance, Reason is attracted to her, often using her as a lifeline to maintain his own sanity due to his behavioral disorders.

In the end, Reason is forced to deal with the demons of his addictions, and although the real-life murder of State Patrol informant, Patricia Webb, was never solved, Reason helps Jessie Dalton solve the murder of the fictional informant, Kelly Drake. 

Wounded Arrow: 

In this Mythic Fantasy series, the Havelock Emerald is an Irish pub located in the small suburb of Havelock, Nebraska. The Emerald’s iconic stained-glass window, depicting a black dragon carrying a bright green emerald in its talons, was gifted to  Billy Connors by a Gypsy Chieftain back in Ireland years ago. In the pub is a gateway to an alternate reality. Old Billy is an Irish gunrunner and the gatekeeper linking this world with the alternative realms beyond.  The first two books in the series sets the stage for the main characters’ interaction with Billy and his “waystation” to the Otherworld.

Enter the main character, 11-year-old Lucas Holland, a foster kid with a real bad disposition, who meets a foster dog with an even worse attitude than his. When Lucas, the son of the president of a notorious biker club, is placed in foster care due to an altercation between his dad and his mom, he ends up in the home of a police officer. The turmoil of living in a home with boundaries stresses him out. When his family support worker, Ben Black Bull, escorts him to anger management, Lucas races to a downtown parking garage, where he threatens to jump to the street sixth stories below.

While Ben performs crisis intervention, Lucas looks down to a car stopping in the street far below them. When the driver of the car tosses two pit bulls out onto the downtown sidewalk, Lucas switches out of crisis mode and saves Goblin, the pup. He and Ben are both confronted by the larger pit, Grunge, a legendary fighter. Ben drives Lucas and the two dogs to Wounded Arrow, his dog rescue ranch where the Lakota dog handler works with some of the most damaged dogs on the planet. Ben incorporates a company of veterans who suffer from PTSD, pairing each dog with a wounded warrior. It’s there that Lucas learns that dogs and people all need healing of some sort.