Coming out in October is Lancelot Schaubert’s BELL HAMMERS: The True Folk Tale of Little Eygpt. This is a tale full of interesting and sometimes quirky characters. It can be serious or laugh out loud funny. But throughout I was impressed with Schaubert’s style and craft of writing. He is a beautiful writer, able to create vivid depictions through his use of imagery, and is the type of writer that adds a few carefully chosen words to round out and develop a character.

I will admit that I am unable to provide a complete review of the story because at the halfway point my electronic ARC turned to nothingness on me, hence I’m providing a spotlight. But – what I did read I enjoyed!

Thank you for sending me an electronic copy of your book (publishing in October 2020).

Here’s the overview:

PRANKS. OIL. PROTEST. JOKES BETWEEN NEWLYWEDS.

AND ONE HILARIOUS SIEGE OF A MAJOR CORPORATION.

Remmy grows up with Beth in Bellhammer, Illinois as oil and coal companies rob the land of everything that made it paradise. Under his Grandad, he learns how to properly prank his neighbors, friends, and foes. Beth tries to fix Remmy by taking him to church. Under his Daddy, Remmy starts the Bell Hammer Construction Company, which depends on contracts from Texarco Oil. And Beth argues with him about how to build a better business. Together, Remmy and Beth start to build a great neighborhood of “merry men” carpenters: a paradise of s’mores, porch furniture, newborn babies, and summer trips to Branson where their boys pop the tops of off the neighborhood’s two hundred soda bottles. Their witty banter builds a kind of castle among a growing nostalgia.

Then one of Jim Johnstone’s faulty Texarco oil derricks falls down on their house and poisons their neighborhood’s well.

Poisoned wells escalate to torched dog houses. Torched dog houses escalate to stolen carpentry tools and cancelled contracts. Cancelled contracts escalate to eminent domain. Sick of the attacks from Texaco Oil on his neighborhood, Remmy assembles his merry men:

“We need the world’s greatest prank. One grand glorious jest that’ll bloody the nose of that tyrant. Besides, pranks and jokes don’t got no consequences, right?”

BELL HAMMERS is a hilarious post-war historical novel about four generations of carpenters who chase a major oil company out of Illinois using practical jokes. More here:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/48731251-bell-hammers

If you’re interested in Lancelot as a person, I think his blog gives you a good insight into his creative thinking: http://lanceschaubert.org/about-lancelot/