Sherman, Dayne 1970(?)–

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Sherman, Dayne 1970(?)–

PERSONAL: Born c. 1970, in Hammond, LA; married; wife's name Kristy; children: one son. Education: Southeastern Louisiana University, bachelor's degree, 1993; Louisiana State University, master's degree, 1997.

ADDRESSES: Agent—c/o Author Mail, Edwin Mellen Press, P.O. Box 450, Lewiston, NY 14092.

CAREER: Librarian and novelist. Southeastern Louisiana University, Hammond, LA, librarian, 2001–02.

WRITINGS:

Hard to Remember, Hard to Forget (story; chapbook) Transom Publishing Company, 2003.

Welcome to the Fallen Paradise (novel), MacAdam/ Cage (San Francisco, CA), 2004.

Short stories have appeared in numerous publications, including Fourteen Hills: The San Francisco State University Review, Distillery, Powhatan Review, Country Roads, Louisiana Cultural Vistas, Jabberwock Review, and SoMA. Also contributor to Stories from the Blue Moon Café III: Anthology of Southern Writers MacAdam/Cage (San Francisco, CA), 2004.

WORK IN PROGRESS: A collection of short stories; another novel featuring the town of Baxter Parish.

SIDELIGHTS: In his first novel, Welcome to the Fallen Paradise, Dayne Sherman tells the story of Jesse Tadlock, who has left the U.S. Army and returned home to Baxter Parish, Louisiana, after a fifteen-year absence. Seeking to start a new life with the money his mother left him after her death from cancer, Jesse buys a farmhouse sitting on ten acres and is getting a job as a deputy sheriff. Then his neighbor, Cotton Moxley, turns up with a shotgun and a claim that the house and land rightfully belong to him. Moxley is cruel and vengeful, but Jesse will not back down despite receiving warnings and advice from the local sheriff that he would be better off letting Moxley have his way. With the help of his Uncle Red, Jesse is soon engaged in a life-and-death battle with Moxley.

A Publishers Weekly contributor commented: "Weaving his way through a series of complex characters and a terrain fertilized with a proud but bloody history, [Sherman] tells a spirited and engaging tale." Danny McKenzie, writing in the Daily Journal of Tupelo, Mississippi, felt that Moxley might be one of the most menacing characters in literature, noting, "In the annals of Southern literature there have been some bad, really bad, guys. Mean, evil people … folks who'd hurt you just because they could…. Then there's Cotton Moxley." A Kirkus Reviews contributor cited the novel as "a very slick debut tale, colorful and taut, that takes us into a crazy world and, at the close, brings us out alive," while in Booklist Frank Sennett called Welcome to the Fallen Paradise "pitch-perfect" and added that it "will go down easier with fans of rural crime stories than a juicy pork steak steeped in redeye gravy."