About this item
Spur Award Finalist for Best Western Contemporary Novel2016 Nautilus Award Gold Winner for Young Adult Fiction This first novel tells the story of Alice and Tucker, the young stewards of Jasper Spring. Tucker's family has lived on the ranch for generations, and the two look forward to filling the homestead with children of their own. After two miscarriages, their hope of a family is fading quickly and they feel farther apart than ever before. The only living thing that either one of them feels truly connected with is their border collie, Tommie, a dog with an uncanny sense of their needs.Enter Ray -- an ill dressed 11-year-old boy sorely neglected by his single mother. Ray stumbles across the gorgeous and isolated valley while out on an aimless spin with his dilapidated bicycle.
About the Author
James T. Hughes' first novel "Jasper Spring" originated from his preteen and teenage youth. Jim grew up in a famously scenic ranching valley along the base of the Colorado front range. Much of his early years were spent rambling about the country side with the family dog, later he also rode horse. The freedom he knew was unsurpassed by modern comparison. As he matured he acquired jobs on some of the most beautiful and secluded places at the head of the drainage. His parents were on the well-to-do side - his home was an acreage from which he wandered - it was not even remotely an enterprise that produced food. He became interested in forms of art, three dimensional works particularly attracted him. For his senor year in high school he was a student in Grenoble France. He came home speaking fluently in French. Jim attended the College of Engineering at Colorado University in Boulder. He completed one year with excellent grades but did not continue. Jim began to read voraciously. The desire to write, communicate feelings, overtook him. Before he was twenty years old he had completed a manuscript.
He married Pamela Curtis, daughter of a long time ranching family. He made a living for his bride and himself, first selling metal sculpture then bronzes. The most reliable income was from selling fire wood. Pamela worked equally hard at his side cutting and delivering the wood. More ambition struck and he put together a small portable sawmill. They began to make and save money. Before they were 30 years old the couple (and their dog) acquired a contract for deed for a homestead in the Black Hills of South Dakota. Over the years they expanded their holdings, built a permanent sawmill and ran cattle. Jim slowly learned to train border collies. In 1998 they adopted a blonde blue eyed boy that they fell head over heals in love with. They named him Tyler. When Tyler was four years old Jim began his first draft for "Jasper Spring."
