Ten Connected Tales Bring 1950s Cuba to Vivid Life in Newly Released Santa Rita Stories

Online, June 13, 2014 (Newswire.com) - From Andrew J. Rodriguez, award-winning author of Adios, Havana: A Memoir, and The Incredible Adventures of Enrique Diaz, comes the new coming of age fiction, Santa Rita Stories, published by Outskirts Press. The collection of tales from a fishing town is populated by a colorful cast of saints and sinners, con men and fishermen, athletes and hunchbacks, politicians and priests … where everyone eventually knows everyone else's business and the collective memory reaches backward for generations.

To help him unravel the deeply rooted traditions and gossip of this tropical melting pot, 15-year-old Carlos turns often to his friend Pedro, a foul-smelling, cigar-chomping vagrant who lives on the docks and is affectionately known as el Viejo - the Old Man. Over the course of 10 linked stories, Rodriguez brings to vivid life the rhythms of daily life in mid-1950s Cuba and the transition from Carlos' carefree, nurturing childhood to his awakening to the responsibilities - and possibilities - of young manhood.

Carlos resists authority, but he can't resist the Old Man's sage advice about everything from the proper method of romantic kissing, to how to avoid judging a book by its cover - dramatized by a tale of Ernest Hemingway and an encounter with a Nazy spy. These and other aspects of the connected tales in the book are engaging readers and garnering praise from reviewers:

Rodriguez must have done much planning and preparation in crafting this work especially the way he has thought out the characters and movement that happens in the story. The prose is very nicely written with details that enraptures the mind. More often than not it is easy to have too much going on too soon—not in this case.

Characterization is one of the most important elements of any successful story and right from the start, Rodriguez doesn't rush or force anything. The slow and methodical plot is quite engaging and the proper use of dialogue moves it along quite nicely.

By the final story, just as Carlos longs to escape the restrictions of a small town and spread his wings in the big city of Havana, readers will long right along with him to linger forever in the magical, love-filled world of Santa Rita.

Santa Rita Stories is available online through Outskirts Press at www.outskirtspress.com/bookstore. The book is sold through Amazon and Barnes and Noble for a maximum trade discount in quantities of 10 or more, and is being aggressively promoted to appropriate markets with a focus on the action/adventure and coming of age categories.

ISBN: 978-1-4787-3698-1 Format: 5 x 8 paperback white Retail: $17.95

Kindle: $9.99 Nook: $9.99 iPad: $9.99 eBook: $9.99

Genre: Fiction/Action & Adventure/Coming of Age

For more information about Santa Rita Stories, visit the book page at the author's webpage, www.OutskirtsPress.com/SantaRitaStories.

About the Author: Andrew J. Rodriguez is a student of the human condition who views the writer's craft as a means to enrapture the mind and touch the heart. Santa Rita Stories is his fifth book, following Helen's Treasure: Odyssey of a Ladies' Man, The Incredible Adventures of Enrique Diaz, a finalist for both the Book of the Year Award sponsored by Foreword Magazine and the Best Books Award sponsored by USA Book News. His second book, Adios, Havana: A Memoir, won the prestigious Colorado Independent Publishers Association EVVY Award in 2005, as well as the Allbooks Reviews Editor's Choice Award. His first novel, the highly acclaimed The Teleportation of an American Teenager, is a time-travel adventure that moves from Mongolia to Medieval Venice along the fabled Silk Road. The author and his wife live in Colorado and Florida.

About Outskirts Press, Inc.: Outskirts Press offers full-service, custom self-publishing and book marketing services for authors seeking a cost-effective, fast, and flexible way to publish and distribute their books worldwide while retaining all their rights and full creative control. Available for authors globally at www.outskirtspress.com and located on the outskirts of Denver, Colorado, Outskirts Press, Inc. represents the future of book publishing, today.