Brief

When a Texas cowboy leaves enlisted life for a liberal New England college, he falls in love with a flower child who opens up his mind and challenges his heart.

What We Liked

- The well-crafted relationships between the characters and their emotional journey over a span of years makes this an engaging story.
- The theme is timeless, accessible and will resonate with audiences, making it extremely marketable.
- The strong character development makes this an ideal candidate for adaptation into a feature.
- The evolving love story between Jim and Trish (not unlike Forrest Gump and Jenny) could be adapted successfully into a television miniseries.
- Key points: Character driven; Expansive timeline; Explores universal values; Strong love story; Appealing characters.

Synopsis

Jim Davis grew up in Texas as the second son of Baines Davis, an erasable rancher. He has his heartbroken when his school crush moves away. Later, he breaks another’s heart when he ultimately rejects Linda Sue. To make Jim jealous, she ends up marrying his brother, John Henry. After leaving home for college, Baines calls Jim home and suggests that he drop out of school and enlist to fight in Vietnam. Always trying to please his father, Jim agrees.

Jim enrolls in officer training where he meets Jack “Potts” Potter, who is from a wealthy military family. Jim and Potts quickly become best friends. As Jim moves through the ranks, he becomes close with a general and gets engaged to his daughter, Michelle. Jim soon realizes that he doesn’t want to continue on this path. He plans to leave the military and use money provided by the GI bill to finish college. Michelle is not supportive and they break off their engagement.

Jim enrolls at a liberal college in Connecticut. He quickly finds a place to live with a group of roommates and he becomes good friends with doctoral student, Joel Zippen. During an encounter group, Jim meets a charming girl named Trish Wallace. The two soon become inseparable. Trish introduces him to marijuana and LSD. He misses a lot of classes because of his substance abuse. Jim falls in love with Trish, but she becomes skittish and gets back together with her old boyfriend Alec. When she nearly dies from bad drugs, Jim rescues her and saves her life.

When she is well again, Jim wants to take her with him back to Texas. She makes an effort, but ultimately she can’t commit and moves back home with her parents in Boston. Jim goes back to Texas on his own, reconciles with his family and goes back to school to finish his degree. After some time away, Trish realizes that she is in love with Jim and ready to commit to him. She travels to Texas where she meets his family and consents to marry him.

They plan to start their new life together as the book comes to an end.

About The Author

Bob Holt is an acclaimed storyteller, raconteur, sailboat skipper, and guitar picker living with his wife and friends in the Texas Hill Country. Educated at Texas Tech University in Lubbock, the Harvard of the High Plains, he is the product of every small-town west of the Trinity River. After a twenty-five-year business career in New York City, he returned home to discover the fatted calf had prematurely died of arteriosclerosis.