Between the Rows

About the Book

Life seldom turns out the way we design it.  We can plan wisely and sow with skill, but how we handle what comes up between the rows defines our character and ultimately our lives.  In Ray Paul’s sequel novel, Between the Rows, his protagonist, George Konert, has settled into a peaceful co-existence with his new wife Catherine.  This afterglow lasts until life’s inevitable nettles force him into action.

Between the Rows is yet another wonderful novel about George Konert, who finds himself in endless trouble as usual.  What I love about Ray Paul’s storytelling style is that he allows his characters to be real in every way.  They’re well-drawn, faults and all, and therefore it’s easy to connect with them.  George, his family, and his neighbors and their children go through a lot in this story, including grief when a shocking event occurs.  This author’s books never fail to make me laugh and cry, and above all, fall in love with the gentle wisdom George always finds by the end.

Christine DeSmet, a fiction teacher at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, is the author of the novel, Spirit Lake, and novellas in the Tales from the Treasure Trove series by Jewels of the Quill.  She also directs writing retreats and conferences in Madison.

About the Author

Ray Paul was born in St. Louis, Missouri but has been a resident of Rockford, Illinois since he was four.  He attended Rockford public schools. Majoring in finance and insurance at the University of Wisconsin, Ray graduated with a Bachelor of Business Administration degree.

Following graduation in 1958, he declined an offer to play minor league baseball choosing instead to marry his college sweetheart and begin a career with Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company.  Today, he is still smitten with Jo Marie and proud of his ongoing relationship with Mass Mutual.

Ray’s writing career had its genesis in college.  Though this period primed his heart for writing, success in the financial services industry and being a good father to three daughters precluded any serious involvement.  His hiatus from fiction writing lasted nearly forty years.

Several years ago Ray reached a plateau where the demands on him had diminished.  Their older daughters had established their families, and he and Jo Marie had weathered the crisis of losing their youngest daughter to meningitis.  With his golf scores soaring and time on his hands, he needed a new challenge.  Two college writing classes and a couple of workshops later, he had found a new avocation.  With the first click of the keyboard, he began writing himself toward retirement.

In the past seven years, Ray has written Cabbage Requiem, his sequel novel Between the Rows and approximately forty short stories.  Twenty-two of his short fiction pieces have been published in a variety of literary and commercial magazines, such as Potpouuri, AIM Magazine, and The Acorn.  He has compiled a short story collection currently titled Shards and has begun a third novel in his George series.  Ray also finds time to teach writing classes at the Center for Learning in Retirement at Rock Valley College.