A Good Mule is Hard to Find By Kirk H. Neely Illustrated by Emory Cash ISBN: 978-1-891885-69-4 Paperback 200 pages, 6 x 9 Publication Date: October 2009 $15.00

Down on his luck, a farmer raffles off a dead mule. While preparing a Sunday dinner, a woman finds her lost diamond in a chicken gizzard. A litter of orphaned baby possums finds a home. These fifty country tales are about Kirk Neely's neck of the woods-the Blue Ridge Mountains, the rivers of the Piedmont, the cotton mills, and the lumberyard. Just like his blue jeans after an adventure in Dead Horse Canyon, Neely's tales are caked with red clay.

Neely, a much beloved pastor from Spartanburg, writes about the ordinary -- casseroles and sweet tea, black bears and beagle dogs, WD-40 and Duct Tape, Tabasco Sauce and fatback.  Accompanied by striking pen and ink sketches by his nephew, Emory Cash, these stories will make you laugh out loud; others will bring a tear to your eye.

A Good Mule is Hard to Find should be a fixture in every mountain cabin and every beach house. Steeped in Southern charm and down-home lore, this volume promises to be a keeper.

Neely is the author of Comfort & Joy: Nine Stories for Christmas (Hub City Writers Project, 2006) and When Grief Comes: Strength for Today, Hope for Tomorrow (Baker Publishing Group, 2007).