After Sarah Burning arrived, I couldn’t put it down. It’s a recently-published family story that needed telling and sharing. It must have been challenging to experience the scenes while writing them. The reader is drawn into the fire, the disaster, the day-by-dayness of the aftermath.

Sarah herself, the author’s grandmother, was such an amazing woman, hopeful and resilient in spite of her tough journey, even enduring clinical trials to help advance burn treatments. A riveting and incredible story.

Author Tim Ritter was born in Springfield, Missouri, the third of four children in a blue collar family. He dreamed of being a writer when he was nine years old, realizing that expressing myself on paper was as much a part of him as his swollen tonsils. Over the years the desire to write has yielded poems, stage productions, books, technical articles, speeches and my own comic strip. Tim has become a highly sought featured speaker, with many entertaining and informative presentations.

Here’s a recent Ozarks Live interview of Tim about the fire.

Tim Ritter resides near Fair Grove, Missouri, with his wife Lisa on their wooded property which they affectionately (and laughingly) call Frog Acres. Here’s his website.

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I’ve also appreciated his book of poems, Soul Sketches,  an eclectic gathering of memories and passions. From the amusing “Candelabras and Scarlet Tights” to lying in the dirt with his son as Civil War reenactors for a film in “State Blood and French Fries,” it’s a fascinating collection.

My favorite is the surprising and transcendent “Joseph’s Prayer.” A laudable collection.