Here's as closer look at John Blossom
I was born in Milwaukee Wisconsin and learned to love reading and writing at The University School where I was lucky to attend because of a need-based scholarship. There I discovered the joys of acting and, although I didn’t know the significance of this at the time, I had the privilege of being Mark Rylance’s first leading man! Now, of course, I admire Marks’ work greatly, but at that point in my life I was more enamored of my uncle, Roberts Blossom, whose poetry, acting, and artwork I found phenomenally inspirational.
Because a group of my good friends all decided to go to Carleton College, I applied as well. There I needed to leave my passion for art and drama behind to take advantage of Carleton’s amazing English department offerings. You mean one can really get a college degree for reading and writing about literature? I was hooked. My favorite professor was Vern Bailey.
In that era, there was no such thing as post-graduate counseling, so it never dawned on me to apply to graduate programs in English. I just knew that I had school loans to pay off, so I followed the advice of my favorite high school art teacher, Gerald Landt, and took a job teaching 9th grade English at Fountain Valley School in Colorado Springs. What followed was a long career of prep school English teaching in many different wonderful schools with forays into art and a brief stint of marketing an invention of mine called Magpots – tiny hand-thrown ceramic vases with powerful magnets for putting fresh flowers on your fridge.
My first book was written toward the end of my career in an apartment overlooking Alki Beach in West Seattle. A lifetime of running, and a teenage accident in which I was stepped on by a horse, required an ankle fusion that laid me up for six weeks. After Horse Boys was published, I went on to write a memoir, Trespassing, about the many near-death experiences I have miraculously survived and what those experiences made me think about humans’ foolish and disrespectful relationship with nature. The Tunes of Lenore and its sequel, Lenore and the Problem With Love, came next about a young teen’s magical experiences at boarding school and college, and now, in my retirement, The Last Football Player, Mahina Rises, and To Be or Not To Be because I just can’t seem to slow down despite the encroaching challenges of semi-graceful aging.
What spurs me on is the obligation I feel to confront the issues facing our young people today. It’s never easy to grow up, but it’s clearly not as easy to be young as it used to be. Time is shortened due to instant communication, anxieties are accentuated by isolation and social media, and the general confusion the adult world models about how to navigate this ever-changing and consequential world is nearly impossible for young people to experience without developing some measure of disappointment, hopelessness, and sadness. There are no pie-in-the-sky easy answers any of us can offer our children about such nightmare things as abuse, inequality, and climate change, but I’m dedicating my final years to creating compelling stories that recognize and honor their ability to deeply grasp the changes happening in our world and hopefully inspire the next generation to use love and creativity to make it better.
Because a group of my good friends all decided to go to Carleton College, I applied as well. There I needed to leave my passion for art and drama behind to take advantage of Carleton’s amazing English department offerings. You mean one can really get a college degree for reading and writing about literature? I was hooked. My favorite professor was Vern Bailey.
In that era, there was no such thing as post-graduate counseling, so it never dawned on me to apply to graduate programs in English. I just knew that I had school loans to pay off, so I followed the advice of my favorite high school art teacher, Gerald Landt, and took a job teaching 9th grade English at Fountain Valley School in Colorado Springs. What followed was a long career of prep school English teaching in many different wonderful schools with forays into art and a brief stint of marketing an invention of mine called Magpots – tiny hand-thrown ceramic vases with powerful magnets for putting fresh flowers on your fridge.
My first book was written toward the end of my career in an apartment overlooking Alki Beach in West Seattle. A lifetime of running, and a teenage accident in which I was stepped on by a horse, required an ankle fusion that laid me up for six weeks. After Horse Boys was published, I went on to write a memoir, Trespassing, about the many near-death experiences I have miraculously survived and what those experiences made me think about humans’ foolish and disrespectful relationship with nature. The Tunes of Lenore and its sequel, Lenore and the Problem With Love, came next about a young teen’s magical experiences at boarding school and college, and now, in my retirement, The Last Football Player, Mahina Rises, and To Be or Not To Be because I just can’t seem to slow down despite the encroaching challenges of semi-graceful aging.
What spurs me on is the obligation I feel to confront the issues facing our young people today. It’s never easy to grow up, but it’s clearly not as easy to be young as it used to be. Time is shortened due to instant communication, anxieties are accentuated by isolation and social media, and the general confusion the adult world models about how to navigate this ever-changing and consequential world is nearly impossible for young people to experience without developing some measure of disappointment, hopelessness, and sadness. There are no pie-in-the-sky easy answers any of us can offer our children about such nightmare things as abuse, inequality, and climate change, but I’m dedicating my final years to creating compelling stories that recognize and honor their ability to deeply grasp the changes happening in our world and hopefully inspire the next generation to use love and creativity to make it better.
John's latest release is The Last Football Player. It just won a bronze medal in Sports Fiction in this year's Readers' Favorite Book Award Contest. Read here to learn more about this award. Below are a few prerelease & current reviews of the book.
Available 7/14/23 and on Audible.com
Award-winning author, John Blossom brings us Dude McPherson’s dramatic near-future quest to make football safe enough to play again after it is universally banned for injuries and violence.
Desperately pursuing his love for football, Dude finds help inside Honeycrisp School’s state-of-the-art Tech Lab where fellow star-athlete, organizational genius, and potential first girlfriend, Tomly Newton helps him assemble a think-tank of creative techies who use AI and everyday household robots to hatch a masterful scheme to revive the game. Smart women, futuristic technology, bots, and artificial intelligence, are they strong enough to oppose the corrupting forces dead set on destroying what’s best about football forever? Dude is willing to risk everything to find out.
Read what reviewers are saying about The Last Football Player…
“The story is easy to read and follow, which makes for a comfortable reading experience. John Blossom certainly has a creative imagination! ”
★★★★★ Natalie Soine for Readers’ Favorite
“It entertains. Blossom's book is a really fun read that engages sports enthusiasts and those interested in the evolving dynamics between tradition and innovation. My teen daughter also thought it was “pretty cool.” And frankly, her approval is really hard to get! This novel is eerily well-timed in the age of artificial intelligence and goes even further to explore the conflict between tradition and mechanized sports. What would happen if artificial intelligence was the new normal for America's favorite pastime? Very highly recommended.”
★★★★★ Jamie Michele for Readers’ Favorite
“Forced to spend his time at the school's Tech Lab, Dude meets Tomly Newton, the center's student proctor, who introduces him to the advanced AI, Master, and the latest technological tools of the lab. Feeling inspired, Dude and his teenage friends work toward creating a football team of robots, only for the project to be taken over by his father and Circle Corporation. With a championship against their biggest rivals, Dude must now put everything on the line for what might be his last football game ever.
“The Last Football Player is a must-read for young adult sports fans and sci-fi lovers. At its core, John Blossom's absorbing sports drama is a coming-of-age story flavored with sci-fi elements. With the recent advancements in AI technology in the real world, the sci-fi elements of the story feel within reach. Add Blossom's realistic integration of futuristic tech into the plot, and you find yourself thoroughly invested in the story's stakes. The expository scenes are organically embedded into the narrative. Each character has distinct strengths and personalities that create compelling interactions and scenes. I especially enjoyed the friendship and camaraderie between Dude, Tomly, Adam, Master, and Allison. Recommended!”
★★★★★ Pikasho Deka for Readers’ Favorite
“Children are living in the age of technology, which impacts their daily lives. There are some important lessons for parents, children, and teachers when it comes to modern schooling and education.”
★★★★★ Natalie Soine for Readers’ Favorite
This is a near-future, young adult, science fiction, sports drama featuring an upcoming 9th grade wide receiver who is denied the opportunity to be a star because his influential Silicon Valley father leads a successful movement to ban football. Deeply disappointed and now highly unpopular among his fellow football players at school, protagonist Dude McPherson sets out on a desperate quest to make football safe enough to play again. Relegated to an after-school program in his school’s state-of-the-art Tech Lab, Dude would rather be back on the football field, until his new team of teen techie geniuses suggest a highly innovative solution to his problem, a solution that not only transforms Dude, but the world of sports as well.
This highly-anticipated novel by award-winning author, John Blossom, was released on July 14, 2023 and explores creativity, AI, and technology in highly imaginative ways. What will football be like in the near future? The Last Football Player offers some surprising and intriguing predictions in an easy-to-read and compelling story of compromise, friendship, and triumph in the face of the tsunami of changes headed our way.
★★★★★ Amazon & Audible Customer Review
Whether you’re a Young Adult or an Aging Elder … it doesn’t matter. The Last Football Player by talented author John Blossom is a wonderful read (and a great listen as well) for any lover of the written (or narrated) word! Are you a young buck still in high school? … a middle-aged empty-nester wondering where all the years and kids went? … Or a certain-aged doddering forebear pining for the good ole days? Whatever you are, this story was made for you. Never played football? No problemo; the gridiron plays, strategies, and scoring are all well explained. You don’t even have to like the game, although a proclivity for the sport wouldn't hurt.
The scene is a kinda-sorta near-future Silicon Valley where two large tech corporations, Zeta (Meta?) and Circle (Apple/Google?) vie for dominance in the all-consuming world of technowizardry. Zeta and Circle families tend to send their offspring to competing local schools — Zeta kids go to a down-to-earth “PC-based” “Zinkerburg Academy” and Circle kids attend a somewhat more artsy/fartsy “Honeycrisp School.” The curricula of both schools emphasize technology but Honeycrisp’s advanced TechLAB is more than a few cuts above Zinkerburg’s. It sports a giant universal 3D printer which can print virtually anything conceivable, an enclosed Battlebot Arena where near-human Bots of every ilk are built, tested and refined, and numerous classrooms/studios where students only (sorry, no parents allowed) can explore and develop their technical dreams.
Enter the world of phone glasses, gravity beds, helicars, universal 3D printers, Lithium powerpaks, Tikflash, Instasnap, scannerbots, and minidrones. Take a flyer and dive into the deep-end of Dude McPherson’s teenage pool of tech hormones, raging acne, and wide-eyed enthusiasm. And if you dare, take a sip of a delicious bowl of technological alphabet soup, teeming with little while pasta letters like VR, AI, IRL, U3D, USB and, like um, all the other hip jargon of the awkward, growing-up years.
It seems that Dude’s dad, Dudley McPherson, Sr. is an anxious helicopter parent, hovering over his son and his entire generation to protect them from the scourge of contact sports with all its consequent injuries and lifelong trauma. As an influential parent on the board of Honeycrisp School, he’s hell-bent on banning football and other contact sports altogether. “They are very risky and frankly unneeded in the modern world,” says McPherson. But son Dude thinks otherwise. He’s an eighth-grade star wide receiver at Honeycrisp who absolutely loves football with a passion. He just doesn’t understand his Dad’s unreasonable stance on the matter; not even when he is badly injured and hospitalized as a Freshman in Honeycrisp’s first big game of the season against Zuckerberg.
Enter Dude’s coterie of newfound besties including Tomly Newton, an attractive female volleyball athlete who has given up sports in favor of becoming the TechLab’s student proctor, (and soon becomes a star virtual football quarterback!); Adam Angelou, a downright serious geek who can build, program, and repair just about any conceivable digital-electro-mechanical device; Allison Albright, a liberal arts-oriented student who has developed an artificial intelligence capability which transforms human thoughts and feelings into various art forms. Finally, there is “Master,” the sort of chargé d’affaires of Honeycrisp’s TechLab, a superannuated female AI with a love of unbridled liberalism and a penchant for communicating in iambic pentameter.
The story proceeds apace with the Honeycrisp kids’ drive to develop a realistic and authentic robotic football game sans all the violence and injuries. No wonky or passé video games for these kids; they develop and build real “live” robots to man the scrimmage line, imbuing each players with real “live” human thoughts, feelings, and sensibilities to drive them toward victory on the gridiron. The final big contest between the good Circle guys and the baddies of Zeta ends with a tied score, but it’s clear who the real winners are. Altogether, The Last Football Player is a solid, satisfying read or listen for the ageless masses. And the older ones might even learn a thing or two!
Desperately pursuing his love for football, Dude finds help inside Honeycrisp School’s state-of-the-art Tech Lab where fellow star-athlete, organizational genius, and potential first girlfriend, Tomly Newton helps him assemble a think-tank of creative techies who use AI and everyday household robots to hatch a masterful scheme to revive the game. Smart women, futuristic technology, bots, and artificial intelligence, are they strong enough to oppose the corrupting forces dead set on destroying what’s best about football forever? Dude is willing to risk everything to find out.
Read what reviewers are saying about The Last Football Player…
“The story is easy to read and follow, which makes for a comfortable reading experience. John Blossom certainly has a creative imagination! ”
★★★★★ Natalie Soine for Readers’ Favorite
“It entertains. Blossom's book is a really fun read that engages sports enthusiasts and those interested in the evolving dynamics between tradition and innovation. My teen daughter also thought it was “pretty cool.” And frankly, her approval is really hard to get! This novel is eerily well-timed in the age of artificial intelligence and goes even further to explore the conflict between tradition and mechanized sports. What would happen if artificial intelligence was the new normal for America's favorite pastime? Very highly recommended.”
★★★★★ Jamie Michele for Readers’ Favorite
“Forced to spend his time at the school's Tech Lab, Dude meets Tomly Newton, the center's student proctor, who introduces him to the advanced AI, Master, and the latest technological tools of the lab. Feeling inspired, Dude and his teenage friends work toward creating a football team of robots, only for the project to be taken over by his father and Circle Corporation. With a championship against their biggest rivals, Dude must now put everything on the line for what might be his last football game ever.
“The Last Football Player is a must-read for young adult sports fans and sci-fi lovers. At its core, John Blossom's absorbing sports drama is a coming-of-age story flavored with sci-fi elements. With the recent advancements in AI technology in the real world, the sci-fi elements of the story feel within reach. Add Blossom's realistic integration of futuristic tech into the plot, and you find yourself thoroughly invested in the story's stakes. The expository scenes are organically embedded into the narrative. Each character has distinct strengths and personalities that create compelling interactions and scenes. I especially enjoyed the friendship and camaraderie between Dude, Tomly, Adam, Master, and Allison. Recommended!”
★★★★★ Pikasho Deka for Readers’ Favorite
“Children are living in the age of technology, which impacts their daily lives. There are some important lessons for parents, children, and teachers when it comes to modern schooling and education.”
★★★★★ Natalie Soine for Readers’ Favorite
This is a near-future, young adult, science fiction, sports drama featuring an upcoming 9th grade wide receiver who is denied the opportunity to be a star because his influential Silicon Valley father leads a successful movement to ban football. Deeply disappointed and now highly unpopular among his fellow football players at school, protagonist Dude McPherson sets out on a desperate quest to make football safe enough to play again. Relegated to an after-school program in his school’s state-of-the-art Tech Lab, Dude would rather be back on the football field, until his new team of teen techie geniuses suggest a highly innovative solution to his problem, a solution that not only transforms Dude, but the world of sports as well.
This highly-anticipated novel by award-winning author, John Blossom, was released on July 14, 2023 and explores creativity, AI, and technology in highly imaginative ways. What will football be like in the near future? The Last Football Player offers some surprising and intriguing predictions in an easy-to-read and compelling story of compromise, friendship, and triumph in the face of the tsunami of changes headed our way.
★★★★★ Amazon & Audible Customer Review
Whether you’re a Young Adult or an Aging Elder … it doesn’t matter. The Last Football Player by talented author John Blossom is a wonderful read (and a great listen as well) for any lover of the written (or narrated) word! Are you a young buck still in high school? … a middle-aged empty-nester wondering where all the years and kids went? … Or a certain-aged doddering forebear pining for the good ole days? Whatever you are, this story was made for you. Never played football? No problemo; the gridiron plays, strategies, and scoring are all well explained. You don’t even have to like the game, although a proclivity for the sport wouldn't hurt.
The scene is a kinda-sorta near-future Silicon Valley where two large tech corporations, Zeta (Meta?) and Circle (Apple/Google?) vie for dominance in the all-consuming world of technowizardry. Zeta and Circle families tend to send their offspring to competing local schools — Zeta kids go to a down-to-earth “PC-based” “Zinkerburg Academy” and Circle kids attend a somewhat more artsy/fartsy “Honeycrisp School.” The curricula of both schools emphasize technology but Honeycrisp’s advanced TechLAB is more than a few cuts above Zinkerburg’s. It sports a giant universal 3D printer which can print virtually anything conceivable, an enclosed Battlebot Arena where near-human Bots of every ilk are built, tested and refined, and numerous classrooms/studios where students only (sorry, no parents allowed) can explore and develop their technical dreams.
Enter the world of phone glasses, gravity beds, helicars, universal 3D printers, Lithium powerpaks, Tikflash, Instasnap, scannerbots, and minidrones. Take a flyer and dive into the deep-end of Dude McPherson’s teenage pool of tech hormones, raging acne, and wide-eyed enthusiasm. And if you dare, take a sip of a delicious bowl of technological alphabet soup, teeming with little while pasta letters like VR, AI, IRL, U3D, USB and, like um, all the other hip jargon of the awkward, growing-up years.
It seems that Dude’s dad, Dudley McPherson, Sr. is an anxious helicopter parent, hovering over his son and his entire generation to protect them from the scourge of contact sports with all its consequent injuries and lifelong trauma. As an influential parent on the board of Honeycrisp School, he’s hell-bent on banning football and other contact sports altogether. “They are very risky and frankly unneeded in the modern world,” says McPherson. But son Dude thinks otherwise. He’s an eighth-grade star wide receiver at Honeycrisp who absolutely loves football with a passion. He just doesn’t understand his Dad’s unreasonable stance on the matter; not even when he is badly injured and hospitalized as a Freshman in Honeycrisp’s first big game of the season against Zuckerberg.
Enter Dude’s coterie of newfound besties including Tomly Newton, an attractive female volleyball athlete who has given up sports in favor of becoming the TechLab’s student proctor, (and soon becomes a star virtual football quarterback!); Adam Angelou, a downright serious geek who can build, program, and repair just about any conceivable digital-electro-mechanical device; Allison Albright, a liberal arts-oriented student who has developed an artificial intelligence capability which transforms human thoughts and feelings into various art forms. Finally, there is “Master,” the sort of chargé d’affaires of Honeycrisp’s TechLab, a superannuated female AI with a love of unbridled liberalism and a penchant for communicating in iambic pentameter.
The story proceeds apace with the Honeycrisp kids’ drive to develop a realistic and authentic robotic football game sans all the violence and injuries. No wonky or passé video games for these kids; they develop and build real “live” robots to man the scrimmage line, imbuing each players with real “live” human thoughts, feelings, and sensibilities to drive them toward victory on the gridiron. The final big contest between the good Circle guys and the baddies of Zeta ends with a tied score, but it’s clear who the real winners are. Altogether, The Last Football Player is a solid, satisfying read or listen for the ageless masses. And the older ones might even learn a thing or two!
Only days after publication, The Last Football Player received a starred review from Blue Ink Reviews. Only 5% of books qualify for that honor. Click the image below to read it.
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Booklife has recently weighed in with an Editors Pick Lightning Review of The Last Football Player |
Blossom’s thoughtful and engaging near-future novel centers on Dude McPherson, a natural athlete with a single-minded love of football, living in a time with exciting tech breakthroughs like flying “helicars,” eyeglasses with peripheral messaging capabilities, and 3D printers that can instantly produce robots. His father, who works for the tech giant Circle Headquarters, is adamant that playing football puts players’ bodies at risk, and when Dude is minorly injured playing for his school, his dad gets contact sports banned for every kid, demanding Dude take up after-school activities in the school’s tech lab instead—a lab run by an AI called “Master” and funded by Circle.
Despite the cool advancements at the lab, which help keep the pages turning, Dude is reluctant to take up the AI mantle for reasons Blossom (author of The Tunes of Lenore) makes clear and relatable. Dude is still angry that his dad banned real football, his friends are furious and feel like he’s responsible, and the tech lab’s use of bots as avatars to play sports without human contact feels empty. “Don’t you remember the sound of the ball landing in your hands, the smell of the grass?” he asks in one resonant moment. To preserve his love of the game, Dude joins in on a project to make bot football as real as possible—but when the higher-ups at Circle get wind of the project, the potential profit blinds them, and soon Dude and his new lab friends, who only wanted to preserve the joy of traditional football, find themselves in their crosshairs.
Blossom deftly manages the debate about AI versus human experience for a young audience—and probes the boundaries of AI’s creative and emotional capacity, plus the urgent tactile qualities of actual athletic competition. The stakes get high for Dude and the bot football program, but eventually they’re able to meld creative expression, emotional knowledge, and technology into a winning (and safe) combination. Dude’s dilemma—and pressing questions about humanity and machines—will entertain sports lovers and tech whizzes alike.
Takeaway: Compelling sports-centric story of the AI future and human achievement.
Comparable Titles: Jason Segel and Kirsten Miller’s Otherworld, Len Vlahos’s Hard Wired.
Production grades
Cover: B+
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: N/A
Editing: A
Marketing copy: A-
Despite the cool advancements at the lab, which help keep the pages turning, Dude is reluctant to take up the AI mantle for reasons Blossom (author of The Tunes of Lenore) makes clear and relatable. Dude is still angry that his dad banned real football, his friends are furious and feel like he’s responsible, and the tech lab’s use of bots as avatars to play sports without human contact feels empty. “Don’t you remember the sound of the ball landing in your hands, the smell of the grass?” he asks in one resonant moment. To preserve his love of the game, Dude joins in on a project to make bot football as real as possible—but when the higher-ups at Circle get wind of the project, the potential profit blinds them, and soon Dude and his new lab friends, who only wanted to preserve the joy of traditional football, find themselves in their crosshairs.
Blossom deftly manages the debate about AI versus human experience for a young audience—and probes the boundaries of AI’s creative and emotional capacity, plus the urgent tactile qualities of actual athletic competition. The stakes get high for Dude and the bot football program, but eventually they’re able to meld creative expression, emotional knowledge, and technology into a winning (and safe) combination. Dude’s dilemma—and pressing questions about humanity and machines—will entertain sports lovers and tech whizzes alike.
Takeaway: Compelling sports-centric story of the AI future and human achievement.
Comparable Titles: Jason Segel and Kirsten Miller’s Otherworld, Len Vlahos’s Hard Wired.
Production grades
Cover: B+
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: N/A
Editing: A
Marketing copy: A-
And here you can listen to a short sample of the audiobook read by Joshua Martin:
Here are some market reactions to The Tunes of Lenore, published 2019
In the process of being re-released
2019 National Indie Excellence Awards Finalist
Ella is sixteen and her ex-hippie parents are getting a divorce. Reluctantly, she is headed to a boarding school on a remote ranch where things are so rustic that she is required to chop her own firewood just to have hot water. Surprisingly, the boys are hot there too, and soon Ella's troubles at home are not nearly as compelling as her romantic adventures and the challenging adjustments she faces in her vastly more organic school. On her team is Jenny, a quantumly-altered golden retriever who can communicate like no other dog in the world, and Lenore, her grandfather's old fiddle who provides comfort and needed cosmic guidance. Ella battles loneliness, sadness about her parents' divorce, confusion about sex, a troubled mentor who is not who he seems, and a camping trip that goes incredibly awry. Tragedies and triumphs shape all of us, but especially Ella who, after all her struggles to know herself and fit in, learns that setting free the spirit of someone who means everything to you can be the only way to find true love.
What Editorial Reviewers are saying about The Tunes of Lenore:
One normally does not start at an ending when writing a review, but the last pieces of imagery and the beautiful accompanying illustrations perfectly capped this captivating, creative piece of juvenile fiction. Unique is the author's use of illustrations, and I found myself guessing and anticipating what treasure may be around the next turned page, and how it matched with the text. ★★★★★ HGSR: Great Choice for Young Readers! March 3, 2019
The Tunes of Lenore is a beautiful book encompassing music, physics, dogs, ecology, farming, ranches, mechanics, nature, boarding school, sustainable living, farming, biology, research, and literature. It is a beautifully written book and one that I really enjoyed reading, and I'm sure you would too. ★★★★★ Margaret: It was amazing! Feb 24, 2019
The writing and storytelling grabbed me from page one and I finished it in less than a day. Excellent read that I will remember. I will definitely be looking for other books by J.T. Blossom! The Tunes of Lenore is a fascinating look at the near future from the perspective of a young high school student who is sent to a rustic boarding school in rural California. It explores survival and getting along as well as climate issues, animal rights and care issues, population, and natural resources. ★★★★★ Maggie T. I will remember this one!
Ella is sixteen and her ex-hippie parents are getting a divorce. Reluctantly, she is headed to a boarding school on a remote ranch where things are so rustic that she is required to chop her own firewood just to have hot water. Surprisingly, the boys are hot there too, and soon Ella's troubles at home are not nearly as compelling as her romantic adventures and the challenging adjustments she faces in her vastly more organic school. On her team is Jenny, a quantumly-altered golden retriever who can communicate like no other dog in the world, and Lenore, her grandfather's old fiddle who provides comfort and needed cosmic guidance. Ella battles loneliness, sadness about her parents' divorce, confusion about sex, a troubled mentor who is not who he seems, and a camping trip that goes incredibly awry. Tragedies and triumphs shape all of us, but especially Ella who, after all her struggles to know herself and fit in, learns that setting free the spirit of someone who means everything to you can be the only way to find true love.
What Editorial Reviewers are saying about The Tunes of Lenore:
One normally does not start at an ending when writing a review, but the last pieces of imagery and the beautiful accompanying illustrations perfectly capped this captivating, creative piece of juvenile fiction. Unique is the author's use of illustrations, and I found myself guessing and anticipating what treasure may be around the next turned page, and how it matched with the text. ★★★★★ HGSR: Great Choice for Young Readers! March 3, 2019
The Tunes of Lenore is a beautiful book encompassing music, physics, dogs, ecology, farming, ranches, mechanics, nature, boarding school, sustainable living, farming, biology, research, and literature. It is a beautifully written book and one that I really enjoyed reading, and I'm sure you would too. ★★★★★ Margaret: It was amazing! Feb 24, 2019
The writing and storytelling grabbed me from page one and I finished it in less than a day. Excellent read that I will remember. I will definitely be looking for other books by J.T. Blossom! The Tunes of Lenore is a fascinating look at the near future from the perspective of a young high school student who is sent to a rustic boarding school in rural California. It explores survival and getting along as well as climate issues, animal rights and care issues, population, and natural resources. ★★★★★ Maggie T. I will remember this one!
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Next in line in John's prolific writing queue is Mahina Rises, due for publication later in 2023. Here's a peek at its cover, and soon there'll be a review available.
Mahina Rises: “To make the extraordinary ordinary, so that ordinary has the chance to become extraordinary again.” - Mahina Rises
We are all worried about climate change, or at least we should be. We’re all on the same jet headed for engine trouble and a disastrous crash, and we have to do more than just sit in our seats and put on oxygen masks before we help our children put on theirs.
In fact, children are the ones we should be most worried about, not just because of the lessened future they are likely to face because of damage to the environment, but also because of the despair they are facing right now anticipating it.
There are a number of great non-fiction books out there that encourage teens to mitigate that despair through climate action. Indeed, encouraging the next generation to spearhead recycling efforts, planting gardens and trees, and urging parents to consume less can very much help them feel more optimistic about the future. And their efforts do make a difference.
Mahina Rises is a novel’s attempt to inspire change for the future in young people on a deeper, more psychological level. William Wordsworth reminded us that the “child is father to the man,” and what I feel his poems meant by that is how in touch children are with their natural and effortless connection to the wonder and magic of being alive. That, I hope, is the feeling Mahina Rises will engender in its readers.
We all dream about a better world, but what if a sensitive teenage Hawaiian girl’s dreams could actually make a difference? What if they had the power to change us all? What if they had the power to save us from ourselves?
Can a compelling story make a difference in the face of the tremendous challenges teens face in the world today and in the future? I don’t know, but my dream is that the beauty of Mahina Rises will inspire hope in our children and an appreciation in the rest of us for just how amazing the world is and how lucky we are to live in it, not just in Hawaii, but everywhere.
This Y/A novel is presently slated to be released in late 2023 or early 2024.
“There’s not a single superfluous character in this novel, and that’s partly because each of them does their part toward building the plot and the thematic argument. I believe your readers will appreciate your commitment to telling not only a story that’s just plain cool, but also a story that truly means something.” – Kahina Necaise, (Senior editor, The Fable Planet)
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Here's a Pre-publication Review by Frank Mutuma
5 Stars - Reviewed by Frank Mutuma for Readers’ Favorite
Koa's energy hadn't diminished like Mahina's, and he was looking forward to the climate change presentations, but his optimism didn't last after hearing how people were destroying Mother Earth. But who was responsible? Was it individuals or large corporations? Could individuals make a difference, and was healing the planet profitable? Mahina had brilliant ideas and dreams. With the help of Koa and his father, her input helped rebuild her school after the devastating hurricane that had caused so much damage. She was hard-working and lived on the ranch with Tutu, who was becoming increasingly paranoid about Mahina's dreams. She told Mahina to ignore the dreams because they could be dangerous. Can dreams and reality merge, and why was Tutu so worried? To find out, get a copy of Mahina Rises by John Blossom.
I could not have read Mahina Rises by John Blossom at a better time. The cleverly woven story captures the prevailing dialogue on the thorny issue of climate change and our responsibility to care for the environment. I loved other themes encapsulated in the book, primarily through the character of Tutu, such as morals and values. The vivid description of places and characters kept me intrigued and entertained. I also loved the plot twists concerning Mahina's flying ability and dreams. They created suspense and held my attention throughout the book. The characters were also well-developed and easy to relate to. The author used them effectively to pass on the intended message. The reader will also appreciate the easy-to-understand language used, which makes the book accessible to all. I cannot wait to read more from this talented author.
About John's memoir, Trespassing
Harrowing true experiences of Award-Winning Author, John Blossom.
“As a civilization we seem to be tumbling headlong into a cataclysmic conflict with nature, and Blossom’s writings can be a useful guide as we struggle to decide to what extent our own lifestyle and relationship with nature is indeed harmful to the planet as well as ourselves.” ★★★★★ Reviewed by Jerry Bleckel
It is a privilege to grow old; not all of us get to do it. The author is lucky to still be alive for all the mistakes he made. Same with the human race. Can we learn the necessary lessons to save life on earth as we know it?
“It's surprising that all these adventures happened to one man and that he survived. It was a very fun read, especially since all the stories were true. I also appreciated the conclusions the author made at the end, tying all the threads together and making sense of it all.” ★★★★★ Reviewed by Allison Gibbons
Must-read adventures from Vermont to the Big Island of Hawaii, including nail-biting stories from Wisconsin, Colorado, California and Alaska. A head strong and truly lucky man experiencing the world as it may never be experienced again.
“As a civilization we seem to be tumbling headlong into a cataclysmic conflict with nature, and Blossom’s writings can be a useful guide as we struggle to decide to what extent our own lifestyle and relationship with nature is indeed harmful to the planet as well as ourselves.” ★★★★★ Reviewed by Jerry Bleckel
It is a privilege to grow old; not all of us get to do it. The author is lucky to still be alive for all the mistakes he made. Same with the human race. Can we learn the necessary lessons to save life on earth as we know it?
“It's surprising that all these adventures happened to one man and that he survived. It was a very fun read, especially since all the stories were true. I also appreciated the conclusions the author made at the end, tying all the threads together and making sense of it all.” ★★★★★ Reviewed by Allison Gibbons
Must-read adventures from Vermont to the Big Island of Hawaii, including nail-biting stories from Wisconsin, Colorado, California and Alaska. A head strong and truly lucky man experiencing the world as it may never be experienced again.
About John's other upcoming novel, To Be or Not To Be
“… but I also know you were in love with someone else just as important, your higher love, Shakespeare. Shakespeare means more to you than anything…” - To Be Or Not To Be
Hamlet is a play about the paralyzing nature of difficult choices, and this novel is about a teen actor’s difficulties pursuing his passion to play Hamlet on the stage. Inspired by a heart-breaking true story, the novel follows fictional Duncan Pepper as he navigates the treacherous world of how to become a man in a body that won’t let him, and how to divide his love between those who love him and the artistic creativity that obsesses him.
This novel is slated to be released in 2024. Although it is a novel about a teenager, its genre is still to be determined due to the mature nature of its conflicts.
“At the heart of this manuscript is one of those rare story concepts that feels inherently profound even to someone who hasn’t actually read a single page of the book.” – Kahina Necaise (Senior editor, The Fabled Planet)
List of All Publications
Blossom, John 2015. Teaching generation z: a progressive pedagogy for today’s connected learners. Location: Unpublished (Masters Thesis - available upon request)
Blossom, J.T. 2017. Horseboys. Location: Amazon, et al (novel)
Blossom, J.T. 2017. Trespassing. Location: Amazon, et al (memoir)
Blossom, J.T. 2019. The tunes of Lenore. Location: Amazon, et al (novel)
Blossom, J.T. 2019. Lenore and the problem with love. Location: Amazon, et al (novel)
Blossom, J.T. 2020. Three days: a pandemic short story. Location: Amazon (Short Story)
Blossom, John. 2023. The last football player. Location: Amazon, et al (novel)
To be Released;
Blossom, John. 2023. Mahina rises. Location: TBD (novel)
Blossom, John. 2023. To Be or Not to Be. Location: 7/14/23 (novel)
Blossom, John 2015. Teaching generation z: a progressive pedagogy for today’s connected learners. Location: Unpublished (Masters Thesis - available upon request)
Blossom, J.T. 2017. Horseboys. Location: Amazon, et al (novel)
Blossom, J.T. 2017. Trespassing. Location: Amazon, et al (memoir)
Blossom, J.T. 2019. The tunes of Lenore. Location: Amazon, et al (novel)
Blossom, J.T. 2019. Lenore and the problem with love. Location: Amazon, et al (novel)
Blossom, J.T. 2020. Three days: a pandemic short story. Location: Amazon (Short Story)
Blossom, John. 2023. The last football player. Location: Amazon, et al (novel)
To be Released;
Blossom, John. 2023. Mahina rises. Location: TBD (novel)
Blossom, John. 2023. To Be or Not to Be. Location: 7/14/23 (novel)
