Two local authors will sign their books Dec. 15

Stan Crader of Jackson turned memories of his years growing up in Marble Hill into a novel that isn't exactly a Christian work, but is one that Christians will enjoy reading.

"I did not set out to write a Christian book," Crader said. "It has Christian principles. It could be called uplifting."

Crader's book, "The Bridge," will take readers Crader's age, 52, and older back to the days of small town living when people sat on their front porches to cool off. If they had air conditioning, it was only in the bedroom.

Back then, people knew almost everyone in town. He recalls lyrics from songs popular in the late 1960s broadcast over KXOK radio from St. Louis and brings back memories of popular products wished for back then -- a bottle of Jade East men's cologne, a treasure back then at $5 a bottle, but sure to make an impression on the girls who caught a boy's interest.

"The Bridge" begins and ends on a bridge based on a Bollinger County bridge over Crooked Creek that has since been torn down. The central character, Tommy, is unlike 12-year-old boys today: Video games didn't exist in 1967, so Tommy and his friends spend their summer days stocking shelves in a grocery store, throwing a paper route and mowing yards, saving up for a minibike and for the lawn mowers that will earn them the bikes.

Stan Crader, pictured Nov. 15, made complex characters in his first novel, "The Bridge." From those characters, the story built itself, he said. (Kit Doyle ~ kdoyle@semissourian.com)

Tommy is growing up in Colby, Mo., based on Marble Hill. Many of the people in Crader's book are recognizable to some extent, he said, but not exact replicas of people he knew. The events of Tommy's life come from Crader's imagination more than his memory.

"I wanted it to be a novel," Crader said. "I did not want it to be a historical book at all. I want people reading it to be reminded of someone they know and let it take them back. I want people to laugh out loud while reading it."

"The Bridge" is full of references to the time: the Vietnam War, a changing world and the constancy of good people who help each other in time of need. It's a trip back to rural America and a slower, but changing, period of time.

"I wrote it for people who did not have the experience of growing up in a small town," Crader said. "My wife grew up in St. Louis. When I got to the University of Missouri, I did not realize that not everyone grew up in a small town and knew their neighbors. You have to know your neighbors to know if they need something. Today people don't help because they don't know the need.

'Jesus: The Pattern Son'

On a more serious note, Harry James Mills of Sikeston, Mo., has published and will sign copies of "Jesus: The Pattern Son."

Mills also came of age in the 1960s, and, like many young men, got involved in rock and roll and all that went with it.

A singer and guitarist, Mills played in bands that opened for Chicago, Ted Nugent and other well-known rock musicians.

"I made a lot of money and did a lot of stupid stuff," he said.

While working in Nashville, Tenn., he was putting together a band for RCA when, he said, "I got saved and got out of the music business. Then I was healed of epilepsy and asthma."

He went into the ministry after that, and the Michigan native began pastoring churches in Shelbyville, Tenn., then in Sikeston, then to Michigan and now at the Church at Berea, a nondenominational church in Sikeston where he uses his musical talents along with teaching people how to find Jesus.

In between assignments, he became affiliated with Koinonia, a Nashville Christian bookstore where contemporary Christian music began in the late 1970s.

"Jesus: The Pattern Son" is written for people who do not have a close connection with Christianity and who feel the need. Mills guides the reader along the way to Christ as their life's foundation.

"I went into churches and started teaching the foundation, and most of the people in the churches didn't have a clue about the foundation," Mills said. "A lot of people know about their denomination, but they don't know Jesus. My book is primarily to get people into the word of God, to get their foundation built upon him."

lredeffer@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 160