<p>Fifteen-year-old Weston Newcomb is fairly surprised when he passes the early entrance exam into the university at Chapel Hill, North Carolina, in May of 1943. But the escape from his home in Loris is welcome. Skipping his senior year at a small town high school, West is now somewhat at a disadvantage, both in youth and in education at this large university. </p> <p>In his first class, he encounters a strangely antagonistic professor, a specialist in Thomas Wolfe, who complicates his life. However, his classmates give him a much broader education. Each new acquaintance seems to have lived a life startlingly different from his own. Self-centered and solipsistic but hungry for skills to serve others, West encounters a gamut of friendships as he stumbles, fumbles, and struggles toward social and sexual adulthood. </p> <p>Counterpoint to his progress are the guns of World War II. Nazis have invaded Poland, the Japanese have struck Pearl Harbor, and atrocities engulf the planet. Only gradually does West perceive the importance of the war. He integrates personal growth and a discovery of authoritarianism at its worst. He experiences the dark midnight of FDR's death and the bright noon of war's end. He finds his chance for manhood in a world he must help to rebuild. West learns that war is hell, but so is growing up.</p>
Allison Gregory Daniels has been performing in the areas of television, radio and stage for several years. She debuted her first poetry and inspirational book signing at Adelia's Restaurant in Takoma Park, Md in 1999. Allison G. Daniels is a native Washingtonian. She received her early education from the D.C. public school systems. She has been captivated by poetry virtually all of her life and has been writing poetry since age eleven. She is the author of 10 collection of poetry books, Revitalizing Your Spirit, Black Man I Love You, Yearning For Love, Jesus A Joy To Call My Own and an inspirational book entitled, Facing Tomorrow. Over the past few years, she has authored over 1000 poems and had several published. She is also a Distinguished Member of the International Society of poets and was elected into the International Poetry Hall of Fame on March 3, 1997. Her poems have been well-published throughout the United States. Mrs. Daniels poems were created for the purpose of healing and comforting the spirit by means of expressive art poems. These poems are used in pictorial designs and appear on T-shirts, book marks, and greeting cards. Allison enjoys sharing messages of hope and love through her poetry. She has dedicated her life to the art of poetry. She has also donated several of her poems to the local newspapers throughout the Washington D.C. area. She envisions a progressive Christian and counseling center that will enable the youth of today and tomorrow to grow and develop spiritually and creatively.
Haley Emerson is a survivor. After enduring a childhood filled with the pain of a family thrown in turmoil by her alcoholic, womanizing father, Haley leaves Tennessee to establish a career on Wall Street, where greed and pragmatism are a way of life. But for Haley, the two evils serve as a refuge from her dysfunctional family. Haley views her success at a New York brokerage firm as a sign that she is finally free of her past and convinces herself that she will never be reckless and selfish like her father. Before long, however, she finds herself quelling her persistent inner demons with alcohol and doing anything and everything she needs to succeed even if it means others suffer as a result. When she returns home for Christmas where she plans, as always, to secretly measure her success in New York she is once again forced to face the chronicle of her family's failures, fortunes, and self-inflicted madness. But when the consequences of her unscrupulous behavior on Wall Street come back to haunt her, Haley soon discovers just how tight a grip her family still has on her. The Emerson Gospel is the poignant tale of one woman's journey to freedom and a life worth living as she slowly discovers the power of unconditional love.