Bøker av Paul Willcott

For most potential buyers, Franklin Manor was just a huge run-down old house, a former monastery and tuberculosis sanatorium, half buried in Adirondack snow. But to erstwhile professor, Butch Regent, Franklin Manor was a beacon of hope. It would make his bland and unsatisfactory life meaningful. He would buy it, renovate it, and turn it into an artists' retreat. Lack of money, broken pipes, and pitiless cold almost defeat him but for the help of former patients, angels, a growing group of "temporary" guests, a long-dead altar boy, and a mysterious bell. In the end, the arists' retreat is beginning to take shape - but not in a way Regent recognizes. It's a deep snow, feel-good story in the tradition of Miracle on Fifth Avenue and The Bishop's Wife.

During the season of good cheer between Christmas and Epiphany, erstwhile professor Butch Regent becomes increasingly burdened by lack of money and failing spirits. His dream of turning his dilapidated former sanatorium/monastery into an artists' retreat seems out of reach. Nurse, Scap, Sister Julia, and Jane from A Franklin Manor Christmas are joined by a free-lance writer with a prodigious memory. Together they keep Regent from despair. Liam, the long-dead altar boy, makes a timely return visit, and the mysterious bell that rang on Christmas Eve now sounds its benison from the collar of a cat who becomes invisible when approached. On Epiphany Day, Professor Regent's grumpy skepticism gives way to grudging acceptance of the transcendental, and the possibility of the artists' colony is revived. It's a deep-snow, feel-good adventure in the tradition of Miracle on Fifth Avenue and The Bishop's Wife. 106 pages

When an elderly Texan couple and their dying cat set out to have some fun by driving a vintage VW camper from Austin to Puget Sound, they find answers to questions they didn't know they were asking and are compelled to move to New York City.This travel narrative/memoir "is funny, sad, exuberant.... I am almost giddy with pleasure." Carolyn Osborn, author of Durations, A Memoir and Personal Essays."One thing a writer can do is create a life into which the reader can slip for just a while and think it would be pleasant to stay. That's what Willcott does." Award citation, National Association of Newspaper Columnists.