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.

Seven Hills book cover

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. Her hometown seems to be changing. Percy dreams of becoming a writer and searches for a life beyond Jasper. Clay is deeply faithful to his home and family.

As their paths diverge, each must decide what loyalty means 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.

Books for Sale

Seven Hills will be Available to purchase October 2026


Stories

  • Wind Dancer

    My granddaughter, Holland, just got a new pair of sneakers. She looks down at her feet and marvels that just fourteen months before her feet were tucked in the fetal position. Okay, maybe she can’t recall those moments in the womb before she burst into the world like shimmering sunlit foil. So I imagine for…

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  • Happy Birthday Karen! Thanks for having a birthday so I could enjoy a large slab of coconut cream pie. Although, I knew there was trouble on our first date. What could go wrong with a large shared pizza? I once heard of a college girl who ordered a single biscuit for her meal on a…

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  • Finding a Happy Age

    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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  • A Christmas Prayer

    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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  • Beyond Work

    Beyond Work

    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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  • Treatment begins

    Saw this quote and thought how appropriate for Karen’s life. “If every single person who has liked you in your lifetime, were to light up on a map, it would create the most glitteringly beautiful network you could imagine. Throw in the strangers you’ve been kind to, the people you’ve made laugh, or inspired along…

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  • A Thousand Years

    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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  • Sauntering Around Town

    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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  • Brooks Robinson

    Brooks Robinson

    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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  • Debbie

    Debbie

    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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