Give Me Shelter
Over time, the connections between them create the shelter they need for their common journey.
Book Description:
The dual challenges of the 1962 Cuban missile crisis that threatens the world and the unexplained loss of parents that threatens a family are the driving forces behind the lives of two boys and their grandfather.
Willie, Denny and their grandfather, Pop, have lived together for nine years, ever since the boys’ parents died in an accident that remains a mystery to the boys. Denny reluctantly leaves for college, while Willie enters sixth grade, fearful of the menacing missile crisis and curious about his parents’ fate.
Willie’s best friends are Lucy and Preston. Lucy wonders about the ‘man in the suit’ who seems to be everywhere she goes. Her mom, Trish, grapples with unemployment. Preston is burdened by the trauma his father is experiencing due to his military service. Denny meets his first-ever girlfriend at college, Lucy, who has one leg that’s shorter than the other. Good neighbor, Robert, is building a bomb shelter in the back yard. Muriel, his mother is a shoot-from-the-hip older adult with dementia.
Over time, the connections between them create the shelter they need for their common journey. Seaburn again tells a story of human vulnerability, endurance, secrets, truth, loss, humor, resilience and love.
Reviews for the Book
"Give Me Shelter by David B. Seaburn is a beautiful story about human connection and condition... Seaburn's character development was outstanding... such a humorous story told in such a turbulent time...Give Me Shelter is a well-written coming-of-age story that will have readers of family life fiction turning the pages to see what happens to all the memorable characters. This is one of those books that will leave the reader thinking about the characters after the book is finished, remembering things they have done or said, just like an old friend." Literary Titan "Seaburn again tells a story of human vulnerability, endurance, secrets, truth, loss, humor, resilience and love." Reedsy
About the Author: David B. Seaburn
Give Me Shelter is my ninth novel. The others are: Broken Pieces of God (2021), Gavin Goode (2019), Parrot Talk (2017); More More Time (2015); Chimney Bluffs (2012); Charlie No Face (2011); Pumpkin Hill (2007); and Darkness is as Light (2005).
A little about myself. I have been a country preacher, a community mental health therapist, an academic family psychologist working in a medical center and a director of a counseling center in a public school setting. In 2010 I retired.
I was an Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and Family Medicine at the University of Rochester Medical Center for almost twenty years. During my tenure there I taught in a Family Medicine Residency Program, practiced family therapy and was the Director of a Family Therapy Training Program. My primary interest was working with families dealing with illness and developing partnership between mental health professionals and medical professionals.
I am also an ordained Presbyterian minister. I graduated from seminary (Boston University) in 1975. I served a church full-time from 1975-1981 before entering the mental health field permanently. Initially I worked in community mental health before going to the University of Rochester Medical Center.
My educational background includes two master’s degrees and a PhD.
I started writing seriously in seminary. But it wasn’t until I entered academics that I wrote in a disciplined manner. During my career at U of Rochester Med Ctr, I co-authored two professional books and over 65 papers and book chapters. I also wrote creative nonfiction and personal essays.
It wasn’t until 2001 that I started writing fiction. My first novel, Darkness is as Light, came out in 2005. I have written six additional novels since then.
I also write a blog, “Going Out Not Knowing,” for Psychology Today magazine (http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/going-out-not-knowing).
I am a writing instructor at Writers and Books in Rochester, NY. (wab.org)
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