Book description
Meet the Corleys: Mom and Pop and their three grown kids--Jeff, Ida,
and Junior--a zany but lovable family living in a changing neighborhood
in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Mom wants to fix each of her children's
problems--Jeff's gambling, Ida's promiscuity, Junior's drinking--and to
create a normal family. She convinces Pop to sell the family land and
give 0,000 to each of their children, believing the money will solve
their woes. However, hundreds of prairie dogs and the City Council's
animal ordinance stop the sale. blowing them up, rounding them up and
trucking them away--but they all fail. Immersed in conflict, humor, and
irony, the prairie dogs come up out of their holes and into each of the
Corleys' hearts, mysteriously softening their hard edges, helping them
to find healing deep in Mother Nature. As disease befalls the prairie
dogs, and just as it seems the Corleys will get rich, they discover that
it is love, not money that is the true wealth of their family. MARK
CONKLING--teacher, homebuilder, realtor, finance manager, retired
Methodist pastor--returns to his writing career with this first novel.
Mark lives in Rio Rancho, New Mexico, works with his wife Patricia
(Meadowlark Family Healthcare), walks his dog in the Bosque near the Rio
Grande, frequents the recovery community (AA), writes fiction, and seeks
daily peace of mind. His short fiction was published in the “Minnetonka
Review and Diverse Voices Quarterly.” Years ago, as a university
professor (PhD, philosophy and psychology), Mark published several
academic articles in existential philosophy and psychology, including
“Consciousness and the Unconscious in William James' “Principles of
Psychology,” (Human Inquiries),” “Sartre's Refutation of the Freudian
Unconscious,” (“Review of Existential Psychology and Psychiatry”), and
“Ryle's Mistake About Consciousness” (“Philosophy Today”).
