Before the first snow : stories from the revolution

PRAISE FROM WRITERS, JOURNALISTS, EDITORS

"An exceptional writer"                                                                                      

             — Michael Blake, Oscar® winner for the script, Dances With Wolves    

"First-rate fiction that explores and contemplates modern American history, culture, politics and journalism. A rare combination of excellent fiction-writing and deep thought. Wonderful story-telling interwoven with sharp insights about our times and culture. There are so many fresh sunbursts of thought in this book that I lost count. What Brasch and his characters have to say about the intermingling of corporate and government power alone makes this book worth reading—but it is rich in illumination of many other important issues we all should be pondering. You can’t put it down while reading it, and can’t forget it after you’ve finished it."

— Dan Rather

"Walter Brasch has a winner here, with strong characters, great writing, and an engaging plot. You won't regret starting it. You'll be sad when you've finished because you'll be wanting more."  — Rob Kall, editor, OpEd News

“Brasch is an articulate and entertaining writer, whose own life and research establishes credibility to his story.” —Regina Huelman, editor, Liberal Opinion Week

“A very creative mind that grapples with the most basic of political problems and emerges with a feast of ideas and insight that will stay with you for a long time.”

—Joe Shea, Editor-in-Chief, The American Reporter

“A sweeping perspective of America between 1964 and 1991, when the nation was indeed undergoing much change. [The book is defined by] unforgettable and interesting characters.”   —Mike Reuther, Williamsport Sun-Gazette

“Before the First Snow is provocative and edgy, sparing no institution, including the media, but it is also first-rate entertainment and a literary masterpiece that magnificently captures a three-decade period in American history, and asks the readers to reflect upon their own lives and values.“  —Sunbury (Pa.) Daily Item

“For too long much of society lived as second class citizens. Before the First Snow: Stories from the Revolution is a compilation of stories that was born out of the 1960s and the revolutions that called for equality among race, gender, and sexuality, staring down the United States government entering a war viewed as utterly pointless and without value. A time of social turbulence, Before the First Snow is an intriguing piece of history from the personal stories that put it all together” —Midwest Book Review

 “Brasch slowly and meticulously builds a scenario of greed, corruption, and intrigue, set against the backdrop of social protest. In so doing, he weaves a compelling story of history and contemporary American values between 1964 and 1991, every bit as powerful and timely today as they were more than two decades earlier.” —Independent Publisher

"This is an outstanding novel. The even numbered chapters are journalistic literature at its very best, as Apryl Greene, the embodiment of the hopes and dreams of the young boomers, makes her way through the second half of the twentieth century. In the odd-numbered chapters, we learn that she did not lose her way, as many did, but instead had to find a way to pursue her dream in a world that was rotating out from under her. This is a timely message of hope that many of us have almost lost. The characters are well drawn and sympathetic. Even the villains are not evil people; they are just lost; they are very real, very human, and very believable. Dr. Brasch has brought back many memories, fond and otherwise, and raised again in my mind the old question—What happened? Where did the '60s go? And why?" — Norm Phelps, author, The Longest Struggle: Animal Rights from Pythagoras to Peta and The Dominion of Love: Animal Rights According to the Bible

PRAISE FROM SOCIAL ACTIVISTS

"A beautifully-written and powerful look at humanity and the reverence of life as seen through the lives of a social activist who never lost hope, and the reporter who covered her story." 

 —Heidi Prescott, senior vice-president, Humane Society of the United States

PRAISE FROM PROFESSORS AND LITERARY CRITICS

"Walter Brasch is the master of the literary vignette."

                                    — Dr. Donald Bird, former chair, journalism, Long Island University

“This is a brilliant book that touches the nerve of where political decisions intersect with the pulse of what it is to be human. The characters and events are vivid and the momentum is never lost. The layers of the plot and characterization work because the writing style is so fresh and clear.” — Dr. Ron Primeau, professor of English, Central Michigan University

"A good story layered with nostalgia for the way things were and the way they are."

  —R. Thomas Berner, professor emeritus of journalism and American Studies, Penn State;                author, The Literature of Journalism