Wise-cracking Wiley Cantrell is loud and roaringly outrageous -- and he needs to be to keep his deeply religious neighbors and family in the Deep South at bay. A failed writer on food stamps, Wiley works a minimum wage job and barely manages to keep himself and his deaf son, Noah, more than a stone’s throw away from Dumpster-diving. Noah was a meth baby and has the birth defects to prove it. He sees how lonely his father is and tries to help him find a boyfriend while Wiley struggles to help Noah have a relationship with his incarcerated mother, who believes the best way to feed a child is with a slingshot. No wonder Noah becomes Wiley’s biggest supporter when Boston nurse Jackson Ledbetter walks past Wiley’s cash register and sets his sugar tree on fire. Jackson falls like a wet mule wearing concrete boots for Wiley’s sense of humor. And while Wiley represents much of the best of the South, Jackson is hiding a secret that could threaten this new family in the making. When North meets South, the cultural misunderstandings are many, but so are the laughs, and the tears, but, as they say down in Dixie, it’s all good.

Shaking the Sugar Tree

Noah went to his room and I followed. He wasn’t interested in Xbox or watching a DVD.


I don’t feel good,he said, turning to me.


I helped him undress. He crawled into bed and I sat down next to him.


Tell me the story about Mom again, he said.


She was my friend when I was young like you, I said. We went to school together.


When I came home for summer the second year, we hung out together. That’s when she got pregnant with you.


She was scared. It’s not easy to have a baby.


I took her to the doctor many times. I tried to help her.


Then you were born. You came too early. You were supposed to wait for another month, but you came early. You had a lot of problems because you were too small. Your mom got scared and she left, so Memaw and I took care of you.


Chapter 73