Karlyle Tomms
Author
Sunrise Over the Pumpkin Patch
It’s 1967, and promiscuous small-town girl Lovella can’t wait to get away from her controlling mother to make her own life. She hooks up with Earl, an ugly hippie rebelling against his rich father. At a time of severe racial tensions and the burgeoning Civil Rights Movement, Earl whisks her off to San Francisco to experience The Summer of Love. Acid trips, a gay love affair, and deep betrayal eventually lead to Lovella’s pregnancy with a bi-racial child that Earl will accept, but which Earl’s father won’t. Lovella quickly discovers there is more to her mother’s control than she ever could have imagined. Sunrise Over the Pumpkin Patch is a rich family saga by Karlyle Tomms, author of The Calling Dream and Edge of Smoke.
Author’s Note :    There are words and phrases in this book that would be considered offensive by today’s standards. However, the terminology was common during the time frame of the story. These words and phrases are not intended to be offensive toward any person or social group but to portray the time’s language accurately. All characters in this book are fictional, and any resemblance to any person or persons other than the author is purely coincidental, as these characters are not drawn from any person known to the author.    Of course, this is a fictional story; the characters are made up in my head. I first encountered Lovella in 2008 when I was joking with a friend about a burned-out hippie woman. That character, Lovella, guided me to completing my first novel, Confessions from the Pumpkin Patch, which was published by Tiger Eye Publishing in November 2014. However, Lovella told an entirely different story than I expected when I sat at the keyboard and allowed her to speak through me. That first novel, and every novel since then, was completed the same way by simply allowing the protagonists to tell their own stories. It felt like I was taking dictation of what they had to say rather than making stuff up as I went along, but I know well that it all came out of my mind.    Sunrise over the Pumpkin Patch is a second edition of Confessions from the Pumpkin Patch and a revision. I have revised it slightly because I’ve learned a lot since then. However, the story remains the same. Initially, that novel was endorsed by Marideth Sisco, known for her work on Winter’s Bone starring Jennifer Lawrence. Winter’s Bone was based on a novel of the same name by Daniel Woodrell. The film won the Sundance Film Festival Grand Jury Prize and was nominated for four Academy Awards. It was an honor to have Marideth Sisco review my book, especially as it was the first novel I ever completed, and an even greater honor that she had so many positive things to say about it. Confessions from the Pumpkin Patch also won a New Apple Awards medal for general fiction in 2016. I hope you enjoy this updated version.
Photo courtesy of Justin O'Keith
Marideth Sisco
Author, songwriter, and composer whose credits
include the music and an appearance in Sundance winner and 4-time
Oscar nominee “Winter’s Bone;” starring Jennifer Lawrence.
Endorsement By
"She is so much in your face that it is at first difficult to scope what this first novel’s heroine is up to; she is so brash and self-confident, but no, now she is spiteful, but no, indifferent. Crazed, maybe. All that, and damaged. Honest. Able. And here to tell you about it. In doing so, the author has handed us a clear and unique view of how one might have experienced directly and viscerally the major issues of the times, through her interaction with a small group of individuals with whom she is entangled but from whom she is alienated by her passion and her pain. Throughout this rollicking romp, she is smart, and making do with what she has, which is an overabundance of wit, cunning, guile and conscience, packed into a dervish of a girl who means to get her way, get outta town and figure out what she’s doing in this world. What is she good for, and what should she be doing about it? And, by the way, what’s all the big to-do about sex, anyway? In some worlds it’s currency, in others a tool. The main thing is to make sure you are the one who says what happens, and when and to whom. Sex is useful in leading the order of play, so long as you make sure you’re the one doing the leading, and that you’re not being led. She’s a tough cookie, and she’ll need to be as she charges headlong into the changing landscape of the 1960’s in small town middle America. This chronicle of a young girl’s coming of age and into her wisdom is a masterpiece of a character’s evolution through experience and insights into an adult, shown through both the people of the time and the circumstances that formed them; led them through war at home and overseas into a maturity they never expected to find. With a skill surpassing what one might expect from a first-book novelist, Tomms guides us through the labyrinthine twists and turns of one person traversing those changing times with a deft appreciation of personalities and a sweet degree of patience for those whom life is tossing about like a large unwieldy dryer load. Never feeling staged, it’s a tale that rings true to those of us old enough to have been witness to that ever changing landscape, in those pivotal times. For those younger ones who wonder about the events and circumstances that shaped their parents and grandparents’ world view, this is an open window. And for the rest of us, it’s a darned good read, and a remarkable telling."
Jarod Kintz
The story flows as smooth as water, and is as voluminous as Niagara Falls. The main character’s name is Lovella, and how can you not love that?
It is good, very engaging, well-written quite colorful. Karlyle Tomms has a talent and a way with words.
Sue Anne Sherry
The author with honesty and humor opens the door to reveal the life of a precocious teenage girl, who, overcoming many obstacles, embraces truth and gains the wisdom of age.