A novel about friendship, buried secrets, and the price of uncovering the truth.
Welcome
Every town has stories beneath its streets.
Some are buried beneath abandoned mines.
Others beneath baseball fields, family tables, and memories that refuse to disappear.
Bespoke is where I share those stories.
Featured Book
Seven Hills
A novel by Brent Taylor
In the fictional mining town of Jasper, Oklahoma, three childhood friends come of age beneath the shadow of the Seven Hills—towering remnants of a mining boom that brought prosperity to their community while leaving scars that will outlast them all.
Grace Ryan, Percy Walker, and Clay Boyd share a childhood shaped by baseball, friendship, faith, and the rhythms of small-town life. But as they grow older, Jasper begins to change. The mines that once sustained the town have left behind poisoned streams, buried dangers, and questions few people are willing to ask.
When Grace returns home from college, she sees Jasper differently. What once seemed permanent is disappearing, and the truths hidden beneath the town’s familiar landscape become harder to ignore. Percy dreams of becoming a writer and searching for a life beyond Jasper, while Clay remains deeply rooted to the place and its people.
As their paths diverge, each must decide what loyalty means—to one another, to the past, and to a hometown that has given them both belonging and loss.
Seven Hills is a story of friendship, memory, courage, and the complicated love we carry for the places that made us. It asks whether the past can ever truly be buried—and what happens when someone finally begins to dig.
Books for Sale
Seven Hills will be Available to purchase October 2026
Stories
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reminiscence draws us back to a place when feelings were intense and the world was our oyster. As Nathaniel Hawthorne once wrote, “Time flies over us, but leaves its shadow behind.”
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There has been much to bear this year. People ask me how I’m doing. Mostly I reply, “One day at a time.” I can’t count the number of times friends have said to me that they want to help us, or they wish they could do more to help. I’m reminded of something C.S. Lewis…
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Thanksgiving requires work: changing linens, cooking and baking, laundering, housecleaning. With Karen unable to do her typical hosting, the family stepped up to do all those things Karen typically does. My brother the doctor repaired Karen’s raised garden bed. Delicious foods were prepared by all. Every time I walked through the kitchen, someone else was…
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14,000 days we have spent together, round numbers, but who really counts things like that until you get news that cannot be true. These past few days have been the hardest of days. I am numb. My heart aches. But we walk on together. I’ve never loved you more than I do now. In the…
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I volunteered at Kiddie Park recently and ran the truck ride. A young staffer handed me a stopwatch and said “Three minutes per ride, and oh, here is a walkie talkie just in case it breaks down. It’s from Italy and the instructions are in Italian so, just saying.” What a fun time watching all…
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I loved Brooks Robinson for the obvious reasons. He was a wonder to watch as he played the hot corner. But here is another reason to love him. In 1966, Frank Robinson joined the Orioles, and the two would often call themselves brothers. Brooks came of age in Little Rock, Arkansas in the 1950’s, a…
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I still cannot fathom your absence. For the five Taylor children, Debbie was the center, the middle child of five, the one who brought balance to our carelessness and style to our awkwardness. She is in the mutual assessment of her siblings, the singular best expression in each of us wrapped in one person. She…
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When my son was small enough to sit on my lap we read bedtime stories next to his window looking out at an ancient oak tree. Beyond the oak to the west, there was a row of houses which backed up to Silver Lake Road, and then a flood plain and timber where the Caney…
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For 38 years, Karen has drawn floppy-eared dog cartoons on restaurant tablecloths worldwide. She drew this one at Nautile in Ft Collins celebrating birthdays of Liz and Brandon and our grandson Romeos birth and that time when i married a Jersey Girl in 1985. I know a place where the dancing is free Now baby…
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