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
Seven towering hills of chat ring the town—waste rock from the mines, pale and glassy in the sun. In 1954, twelve-year-old Grace Ryan arrives and quickly learns that Jasper is not a quiet place, and that danger lingers just beneath its surface.
Drawn by an old survey map, a brass tag marked B6, and questions the adults refuse to answer, Grace, Percy, and Clay uncover hidden tunnels, poisoned water, buried records, and a silence that has protected powerful men for years.
Seven Hills will be Available to purchase October 2026
Stories
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We are in our third home. We have been to Houston four times in the last 10 months. We decided to do something fun between visits to the doc. Here are some photos of our guided walking tour of the downtown Houston food scene. Me: “what did you think?” Karen: “Best mexican food ever.” Included…
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I’ve always wanted to be a famous writer, not prolific like John Grisham, but rather famously obscure, like J.D. Salinger, only with less baggage and regrets. Being famous seems like a lot of trouble. Fortunately, like most people, I’m famously not famous, not unlike another writer, Flora Macdonald Mayor, who wrote The Rector’s Daughter 100…
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The Story Dad Told to Me Only Once It is remarkable what lies within our memories, lying dormant, unobtrusive, but suddenly lit up and part of us like no time has passed. I was thinking about the stories we tell each other. Karen and I are so familiar with one another’s stories that our eyes…
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1935 The story Dad told that I had never heard was about his dad and Mickey Mantle’s twin brothers. It wasn’t so much a story as it was a brief wistful lament. Koufax and Gibson were both born in 1935, the same year Dad was born. We were coached by dads born during a hardscrabble…
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“What you see in a total eclipse is entirely different from what you know.” Annie Dillard
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In the wake of a strange Oscar Sunday night, I was thinking about the films I really watch and enjoy versus those that win best picture. I have seen two films from 1967, In the Heat of the Night, (Best Picture), and Cool Hand Luke (George Kennedy, Best Actor in a Supporting Role). I love…
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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…
Bespoke 