“Tenderly poignant, wise and affecting. A beautifully stirring reflection on the joys and challenges of fatherhood.” Kirkus

In an epic road trip with his Little League son, a divorced dad’s eight-ballpark journey tries to rescue his fatherhood–and learn how his dad’s suicide might not doom him to repeat a father’s mistakes.

The rarest outcome in sports is baseball’s perfect game. One team does everything right, forcing the other to accomplish nothing. In 150 years of baseball, there have only been 23. Perfect is nearly impossible. As a divorced dad, Ron was trying to redeem his fatherhood with a road trip with his son. Their odyssey of crossing eight states in a rented convertible was supposed to salvage Ron’s life as an unsure father.

“Part baseball, part fatherhood, and all boyhood, Stealing Home plays out the mystery of love and family. Fueled by his determination to become a better dad, Seybold’s journey becomes a quest to reconcile the past and his future. The magic lies in the storytelling that travels the road to something perfect.” Donna Johnson, author of Holy Ghost Girl: A Memoir

“A must-read. This book is about much more than baseball. It explores the father-son relationship on so many levels.” Reedsy Discovery

“Rich with sports metaphor, it offers a touching and complex look at how, experience by experience, individuals repair generations of fury-fueled despair.” Indie Reader

“A poignant memoir about the intersections of sports and fatherhood, its text is evocative and careful. Dynamic as it balances scenes in the present and the past, this memoir’s storytelling method is engaging and satisfying.” Clarion Foreword

“Authentic, emotional, and brave, Stealing Home is a timeless journey of the universal struggle to rise above the past. It’s a beautiful testament to the power of a father’s love.” Claire Ashby, NY Times bestselling author of When You Make It Home

Viral death battles love and faith in a time when a pandemic makes touch fatal. Rogue reporter Dayton Winstead juggles all these, after a viral pandemic of HIVE-5 and AIDS Ultra drives out full-contact sex. When millions die in less than a year, new VR SimSuits on a network give the world the technology to experience passions in simulations as real as any now-deadly embrace. But love takes a beating in Viral Times. Casualties of loved ones mount in a pandemic that spreads through simple touch. Dayton's lost wife haunts his heart and drives his work through a losing battle.

Although SimSuits keep the virus at bay, they also open the door for attack. Nobel-winner Jenny Nation's evangelistic faith sparks the geneticist's mission to erase the SexNet, the lure of the Suits, plus any sinner who wears one. On the seventh day after her ultimatum, Nation's engineered virus Mighty Hand will sweep through the net and into the Suits to infect the millions who believe they are safe.

Humiliated and broken by a counter-attack against his investigations, Dayton meets Angie, a naturopath with her own losses of love to bear. Spreading the medicine of natural immunity through ageless practices and cures, she finds herself on a head-on course with Mighty Hand's death and Dayton's love. Mighty Hand threatens to change their world forever — unless Angie and Dayton can find and forestall the first biological virus to attack over a network. Only faith in immunity and courage to risk infections can recover love in Viral Times.

"It's a tale full of danger and love and hope, and infused with a weird steampunk glamour. Think William Gibson meets Raymond Chandler--better yet, experience this world of fear and faith for yourself."
-- DONNA JOHNSON, author of Holy Ghost Girl

"I loved this book. Viral Times is very Crichton-like and certainly a cautionary tale for the future of public health. I used to scare people in my field by telling them the implications for a pandemic, and how easy it would be to get it started."
-- Laurel Sharmer, Emeritus Professor of Public Health, State University of New York

"It's Andromeda Strain meets 1984, a world where Big Pharma invokes divine influence and deadly viruses spread via machines. Viral Times makes Armageddon look desirable by comparison."
-- GUY SMITH, author of Afterlife

This edition of stories, poems, and prose from the Writer's Workshop is a 56-page anthology from more than 20 Workshop writers. The stories and poems were launched during the Workshop’s Creation Nights.  A portion of the book’s proceeds goes to support the Austin Bat Cave literacy in schools program.