Red Cloud Pistachios

2011 Readers Favorite Gold Award Winner for General Fiction, and prizewinner in the Arizona Statewide Writers Contest. ＂Heslop captured the essence of a small town. [He] allows the reader to peek in the windows and witness their grief, guilt, love...This book is a must read!＂ Debra Gaynor, ReadersFavorite.comBroke and out of work, Joe Johnson abandons his 17-year old lover and ultimately the son she would have. And though the two remain friends and sometime lovers over the years, the boy is never told the truth about his father. But time and conscience are catching up with Johnson and a traumatic event in Mexico will finally force him to confront his guilt-and the truth.Set on a pistachio farm in Southern Arizona and drifting for a time into Sonora, Mexico, Red Cloud Pistachios is part meditation on estrangement and acceptance, part pastoral of contemporary small town life. In it we find the capacity to hope for the best in others-and in ourselves.＂[The author} has created characters that are injured and conflicted but with warmth that made me cheer their successes.＂ Gail M., Boston, MA＂I was particularly impressed with Heslop’s ability to describe in detail each situation in a way where you could see the sites, smell the smells, and feel the world that is being described.＂ Paul B., Santa Cruz, CA

The Author was born in North Carolina and grew up in small towns in Iowa and California. He is formerly an award winning Associate Creative Director/Copywriter. In 2000, he and his wife moved to Arizona. A companion novel to Red Cloud Pistachios entitled These Barren Hills was completed in 2011.