Some of Tim's Stories (Oklahoma Stories & Storytellers #02)

Short Stories from the bestselling author of The Outsiders, plus exclusive interviews.

A teenager when she first gained fame, now a seasoned writer, S. E. Hinton takes her trademark themes to a new level in Some of Tim's Stories — fourteen original stories depicting adults trapped in lives of missed connections and opportunities. The stories in this collection merge into a larger narrative about two cousins, Terry and Mike, whose lives and families are intertwined but whose paths lead to very different futures: one in prison, the other enduring a guilt-ridden existence working in a bar.

The tales are made especially distinctive in the telling. The "author" of the stories is a bartender named Tim — the "Mike" of his own narrative — whose idiosyncrasies are perfectly captured in Hinton's intriguing use of metafiction.

The book also features exclusive interviews with Hinton conducted by Teresa Miller, host of public television's Writing Out Loud. Hinton allows readers into her world as she never has before — speaking openly about her life and career. Complementing the book are line drawings that illustrate the stories and photographs that document the author's life.

In one interview, Hinton calls Some of Tim's Stories "the best writing I've ever done." These stories capture the feel of the earlier books that won her fame while demonstrating an adult edginess and a more disciplined talent. Some of Tim's Stories is sure to captivate Hinton's long-time fans as it shows new readers that her soul-searching fiction extends masterfully to adult themes as well.

"Author of the 1967 YA bestseller The Outsiders and its sequels, several children's books and the adult novel Hawkes Harbor (2004), Hinton offers a thin collection of 14 connected short-short stories that explore the divergent lives of two close cousins whose fathers are killed in car accident when the boys are adolescents. When the cousins are both 25, a drug deal goes wrong: Terry is imprisoned, while Mike gets away, living a fugitive life in Oklahoma as a bartender and bouncer. The tales move back and forth in time: 'The Sweetest Sound' describes nine-year-old Mike's being awakened during the night when his father, a war vet, cries out in his sleep; while 'Full Moon Birthday' finds the boys sharing Mike's first legal drink and a friendly older woman. Later stories delve into Mike's dead-end, often dangerous job at the bar, and his attempt at striking up a friendship with his pretty adult-ed instructor. Finally, Terry gets out of prison to a tense homecoming. Hinton is clearly aiming for terse, but what's here feels bare bones; interviews with the author take up more space than these plainspoken tales." Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)

"Although the appended discussions are the primary draw here, readers curious about a beloved writer's mature output won't want to skip the novella, aimed at an adult audience, where linked vignettes about male cousins form a smooth continuum with Hinton's gritty, guy-dominated YA novels." Booklist

Short stories from the bestselling author of The Outsiders, plus exclusive interviews.

S. E. Hinton's publishing career began at the age of eighteen with the release of The Outsiders, one of the best-selling young adult books of all time. Her six novels have won numerous awards, and four have been made into major motion pictures. She and her husband, David, reside in her childhood hometown of Tulsa, Oklahoma.