Get to Know Me
I was born in Saint Albans, West Virginia, and moved to Hinton, West Virginia, when I was a year old. From there, the family moved to Charleston, West Virginia, and in 1963 to Sarasota, Florida. After graduating from school, I spent time in the Army until 1973. The following twenty-seven years, I spent at the wheel of an eighteen-wheeler crisscrossing the fruited plains of America. I came off the road and taught adventurers how to master the big trucks, teaching them driving theory. After that adventure, I returned to trucking as a dispatcher for drivers on their journeys. I retired and am now an Associate Pastor at the First Baptist Church in Durant, Florida.
Almost Heaven by Thomas Kirkpatrick
Short Stories Rooted in Memory, Morality, and Small-Town Life
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About the Book
Almost Heaven is a collection of short stories from the small country town of Ballengee, West Virginia. It mirrors memories from early adolescence in Hinton, West Virginia, to my early teenage years in Charleston, West Virginia. Each character is inspired by associations of those years. People influence us all, and their stories reflect my memories. Each story opens with a thought of a past day, presents the adventure, and closes with a moral lesson I have learned. My Father, Dr. Robert W Kirkpatrick, was a minister of the Gospel for forty years. I have grown through the years following my Father’s moral teaching and found good in the least of these and peace of spirit from each challenge. I was an eighteen-wheeler navigator for twenty-seven years, and I wrote these stories to give moral guidance to my sons in my absence. They have encouraged me to share, and Almost Heaven is my contribution to the larger community.
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