AMAZING

By Bill Rausch

Young BILL BRADFORD (Beebe) learns early in life that in order to be successful, risks must be taken. Opportunities exploited. The precocious adventurer leaves home at the age of 16 and sets out to seek adventure and fortune in the wilds of the Oklahoma panhandle. He strikes it rich as a wildcatter in the early days of the Oklahoma oil fields.He meets, falls in love with, and marries ELIZABETH KAVANAUGH, an equally precocious, newly-graduated Vanderbilt business major who is rambling across the country in her canary-yellow Duisenberg, a graduation gift from her wealthy indulgent father. With the Depression fading, Beebe spends the next five decades single-mindedly focusing on building his wealth in the real estate development business. As Beebe nears retirement Lizzie is stricken with cancer and dies, crushing him emotionally. After her funeral, he reflects on his unexamined life. He is devestated by the realization that he has narcissistically wasted his years. Greed and an unrelenting desire for power and success have made him an emotional and spiritual shell of a human being. While he was creating his business empire, he selfishly ignored his family. His two children, SUSAN and RICHARD, sever all ties with their father at an early age and become self-centered trust fund socialites. He decides to embark on a mission to hopefully discover what his cavalier risk-taking has caused him to miss in life. His peripatetic adventures take him to the snowcapped grandeur of Montana's Bitterroot Mountains where he stays with his old friend and business associate JAKE ARNOLD and his wife. While there he establishes a ranch for underprivileged boys. Following that, he meets a nearly bankrupt family circus making the season's last stop in Dillon, Montana. He becomes fascinated with the intriguing circus culture and accompanies them to their winter camp in Deland, Florida. While he is experiencing a lifestyle that he never knew existed he discovers what he has been searching for. Five years after beginning his adventure he returns once again to Tulsa. With the end of his life on the not-too-distant horizon, he is desperate to pass on his recent enlightenment to his dysfunctional family. His emotionally scarred adult children petulantly reject his overtures at reconciliation. He decides to write a letter to his two grandchildren, WILL (23) and KAT (18). He instructs his attorney to attach the letter to his will. The two grandchildren are provided with cryptic clues that Beebe has written for them to help them retrace his adventure-filled journey across the United States. But more importantly, as they relive his experiences and come in contact with the people touched along the way, he challenges them to discover his insight. They have six months to repeat his steps and report back to Simon before Christmas Eve. Their adventure begins. Will they make it back to their family in Tulsa by the Christmas Eve deadline? Have they truly found what their grandfather had challenged them to discover? You will find the ending to Amazing to be just that...amazing.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1520473982
• ISBN13: 9781520473987
• Release Date: January 2017
• Publisher: Independently published
• Length: 374 Pages
• Weight: 1.40 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.0" x 0.8" x 6.0"