Saturday, May 30, 2015

Author Feature: Burton W. Cole

Author and humor columnist Burton W. Cole grew up on a small farm outside of Conneaut, Ohio, and attended a small-town church with a slew of cousins and buddies. That boyhood inspires his colorful and comical novels today about a bunch of adventuresome kids and their goofy antics on a farm in northeast Ohio.

His debut novel, Bash and the Pirate Pig (2013), was a finalist for the prestigious 2014 Selah Award for Best Children’s Book and a finalist for Christian Retailing’s Best Award for Children’s Books. Bash and the Chicken Coop Caper (2014) won the 2015 Selah Award as Best Novel for Middle Grade Readers. The third book, Bash and the Chocolate Milk Caper (2015), just released May 1.

“I love sharing the silliness and pure joy of the goofy escapades I remember my siblings and cousins pulling growing up in the country, and how the love and discovery of God was such a natural part of all those awesome adventures."

The series of “faith, fun and farm pranks” novels for tweens (and adults who haven’t quite grown up) is published by B&H Kids (LifeWay Christian Resources).

Cole is assistant metro editor at the Tribune Chronicle in Warren, Ohio. His award-winning humor column, “Burt’s Eye View,” has been appearing weekly in the Star Beacon, Ashtabula, Ohio, for 22 years and in the Tribune Chronicle for 19 years. He has earned more than 50 writing awards, including a nomination for a Pulitzer Prize. He and his wife, Terry, live outside of Garrettsville, Ohio.




ABOUT THE BOOKS

Bash and the Pirate Pig:
Cranky city kid Raymond "Beamer" Boxby can't imagine what good could come from cousin Bash Hinglehobb’s so-called country fun that includes riding cows to the dairy drive-through, rafting on a pond with a pig, and smuggling a skunk into Sunday school. But Bash's zany exploits—often involving his "Farmin' and Fishin' Book" (The Bible)—are about to spin life toward a weird and wonderful adventure!


Bash and the Chicken Coop Caper:
While Mom offers “anything” to get Bash and cousin Beamer out of the house, she really isn’t expecting them to use her good sheets to sail-snowboard off the top of the chicken coop, to put a pig in ice skates, use undershorts for a snowball slingshot. Bash uses the most misadventurous methods ever imagined by a couple of cooped-up kids to harvest the Fruit of the Spirit. Beamer’s more concerned about the disappearing pink, purple, and orange paisley sleeping bag,and the mysterious footprints in the snow.
  
Bash and the Chocolate Milk Cows:
Chickens dripping in strawberry-rhubarb pie run amok in a fire station. A goat gets painted in an explosion of circus colors. And the cows give chocolate milk on April Fool’s Day. Just the typical weirdness Beamer encounters when visiting cousin Bash on the farm. Meanwhile, somebody’s holding up stores and feed mills. Beamer finds himself face-to-face with the robber with only his crazy cousin, pesky neighbor Mary Jane, and Morton, the goat of many colors.


Find Burton on his Facebook page
 
 

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