02 Oct Fortunate Son Thomas Tibor The Coffee Pot Book Club Blog Tour #HistoricalFiction #BlogTour #CoffeePotBookClub @thomastibor57 @maryanneyarde @cathiedunn

FEATURED AUTHOR: THOMAS TIBOR

It is my pleasure to welcome Thomas Tibor as the featured author in The Coffee Pot Book Club Blog Tour being held between October 3rd — October 7th, 2022. Thomas Tibor is the author of the Historical Fiction, Fortunate Son, which was released by Zahav Brothers Publishing on February 2022 (338 pages).

Below are highlights of Fortunate Son, Thomas Tibor’s author bio, and an excerpt from his novel.

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HIGHLIGHTS: FORTUNATE SON

Fortunate Son

By Thomas Tibor

(Blurb)

A powerful, evocative novel that transports the reader to a tense period in America, Fortunate Son is set on a southern college campus during the turbulent spring of 1970. Reed Lawson, an ROTC cadet, struggles with the absence of his father, a Navy pilot who has been Missing in Action in Vietnam for three years.

While volunteering at a drug crisis center, Reed sets out to win the heart of a feminist co-worker who is grappling with a painful past, and to rescue a troubled teenage girl from self-destruction. In the process, he is forced to confront trauma’s tragic consequences and the fragile, tangled web of human connections.

Trigger warnings:

One aspect of this story dramatizes instances of self-harm and makes references to suicide.

Buy Links:

This book is available to read on #KindleUnlimited

Universal Buy Link  ♦  Amazon UK  ♦  Amazon US   ♦  Amazon CA   ♦   Amazon AU

Barnes and Noble: Not available yet; should be available soon.

AUTHOR BIO:  THOMAS TIBOR

A veteran writer and video producer, Thomas Tibor has helped develop training courses focusing on mental health topics. In an earlier life, he worked as a counselor in the psychiatric ward of two big-city hospitals. He grew up in Florida and now lives in Northern Virginia. Fortunate Son is his first novel.

Social Media Links:

Website  ♦  Twitter  ♦  LinkedIn  ♦  Amazon Author Page  ♦  Goodreads

Instagram: thomastibor2

EXCERPT TWO: FORTUNATE SON

…An hour later, Adam watched with amusement as Reed drenched himself with Brut cologne, rubbed most of it off, and tried on different outfits.

First, he tried the hippie route—faded jeans, one of Adam’s worn-out flannel shirts left untucked. Nah, too affected. Next, the country-club look—light-blue button-down oxford, chinos, and Bass Weejuns. Too square. Finally, he settled into his comfort zone—polo shirt, jeans, and white Adidas.

“You’ve never spent this long getting ready for a date.”

“Yeah, well. This is different. She’s different.” Late the night before, Jordan had called and asked him to pick her up at six.

Driving to her house, he recalled the fantasy that had kept him aroused the night before.

He rolls up to Jordan’s house.

Dressed in skimpy cutoff jean shorts and a low-cut T-shirt, she greets him with a deep kiss.

As the Mustang rumbles along country roads, she tosses her windblown hair, laughs at Reed’s witty jokes, and praises his well-rehearsed left-wing propaganda.

And when they arrive at a lover’s lane deep in the woods, they waste no time.

Naked, she straddles him as they make passionate love in the front seat.

Reed waited on her doorstep in the glow of the sinking sun. Despite his fears about Annabel’s state of mind, perpetual anxiety about his father’s possible fate, and trepidation about talking to his mother on Easter Sunday, life was looking up in his small corner of the universe.

That is, until Olivia opened the door, blew her nose into a handkerchief, and glared at him as if he were a Bible salesman.

“Oh, it’s you.” She retreated, replaced by Jordan, who was looking sexy in tight jeans and the raised-fist feminist T-shirt.

“Hi, do you mind if Olivia tags along? She’s been psyched to see this flick.”

Reed managed a polite smile. “Yeah, no problem.” But it was a problem. Three’s a crowd. What was she thinking? He wanted to hold hands at the movie, share milkshakes afterward, drive somewhere and make out—your basic, grade A, All-American Date.

Olivia reappeared in her usual baggy overalls and work boots. “Let’s split. I want a good seat.”

Like air slowly hissing from a punctured balloon, his hopes for the evening dissipated on the way to the theater. Jordan sat in the passenger seat. Olivia sprawled lengthwise in back, the soles of her boots rubbing dirt on the immaculate vinyl.

Reed glanced back a few times before saying anything. “Sorry, but do you mind keeping your shoes off the seat?”

Rolling her eyes, Olivia reluctantly moved her long legs.

Jordan turned on the radio news.

“Yesterday,” the announcer was saying, “President Nixon announced further troop withdrawals from Vietnam over the next year, contingent on progress at the Paris peace talks.”

“What a load of bullshit,” Olivia said.

“Why is it bullshit?”

“Simple. Because the peace talks are bogus, a cover for Tricky Dicky to keep the war going.”

Reed scoffed. Everything Nixon did was bogus or outright evil to Olivia. “Why the hell would he do that?”

She leaned forward, head between the front seats, frizzy hair brushing his shoulders. “How naive can you be? Because it’s an imperialist war. We claim to defend democracy but undermine it instead. Do you realize the U.S. has supported the French colonialists in Vietnam since World War II? Do you realize Ho Chi Minh would have won eighty percent of the vote had elections been held in ’56? And do you realize just who prevented those elections from taking place? We did.”

“So let me get this straight . . . according to you, we’re the bad guys, and the North Vietnamese are the good guys?”

“That’s exactly right. Vietnam’s been fighting for its independence for decades, first against the French and now us. Ho Chi Minh is like, you know, their George Washington.”

“You have got to be shitting me!”

Jordan switched off the radio. “Enough already. It all sounds like a broken record. By the way, I think you missed the turn a few blocks back.”