Markman's Home

Markman's Home is a journey in modern Magical Realism. Using multiple narrative accounts with a mix of history, philosophy, story and essay, Ronald R. Van Stockum, Jr. blends the present and past with a possible future after the world's destruction. The action takes place in familiar settings, fertile plains, palisades of stone towering above rivers, caves, waterfalls and trees. Freedom against tyranny and slavery are at stake when humans turn against their own kind. They control Warts, wolf-like packs of wild dogs, and Mutans, human variants seeking to rise and dominate. Arrayed against these forces are the Great Ones, highly intelligent giant horses, and Triads, furry chattering, vicious little creatures that transmit their collective memory through mind pictures. Van Stockum's novel proceeds at a riveting pace as he engages the reader with hidden chests, ancient scripts, glass-plated body tubes, and the words of Markman recorded on a hidden device. Tension and wonder fill every scene in his created world of progression and conflict as Markman's Home is found again.

Ronald R. Van Stockum, Jr. is a lawyer, teacher, biologist, writer, guitarist, and recently an actor living on his family's old farm in Shelbyville, Kentucky. He has a B.S. in Biology from Santa Clara University, and an M.S. and PhD. in Biology from the University of Louisville. He also has his Juris Doctorate in Law from the University of Louisville and practices law from offices in Shelbyville, Kentucky. He concentrates his legal practice in environmental law, and his biologic research in historical phytogeography. Dr. Van Stockum has published numerous articles in the area of law, science and creative writing. He has published two novels of magic realism. The first is entitled "Markman's Home," (2014) and the second, "Cosmos, the Stellar Stalker." (2015). He has also published a number of short stories including, “The Great and Terrible Wilderness,” and “Ollie Deaton and the Breathitt County Silver Mine.”