About The Author

Mr. LaPerle was born in Worcester, Massachusetts, and attended 14 schools from 18 residences during his first 12 years of public education, which took place, he would say, during the two most contrasting decades in our country’s history. If the youth of America was napping in the “Happy Days” era, they were awake and in the streets soon after JFK was killed, forced to take a side on the big issues and increasingly cynical of ‘the system’. 

More influenced by the stories told in folk music than the catchy radio tunes of the time, the early R.R. LaPerle was more likely to be found at the “Y-Not” Coffeehouse than the “Comic Strip” dance club across town, all the while filling notebooks with songs and poems of his own creation. It was a passion set aside through the years of military service, one marriage, two graduate programs and three beautiful daughters. Eventually, though, inspired by a local writer’s conference, and a project involving the co-writing of a set of children’s stories with a lifelong friend, the desire to complete a full length novel was reignited.

“This is a story”, Mr. LaPerle would explain, “spawned from a real life connection with a Foster child, and the indelible impression this boy made in my life. It is about relationships, coping with life-changing losses and, most of all, the mystery Elijah creates in his connections to the other characters.
There are interesting tidbits of philosophy, art, science and history throughout this emotional journey, with both laughter and tears almost a certainty along the way."

Although there are retrospective references to a few Worcester area landmarks in this first novel, a deep appreciation for the western landscape is evident, as the story begins in New Mexico (“Land of Enchantment”) in the late 1980s and eventually moves to the open farmland of the mid-west.

For those that have enjoyed and those that will enjoy this book, the good news is that a prequel is expected to be available soon.