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Ranch Boy              

It will be a summer and fall filled with changes for fifteen-year-old Robbie Duncan. He and his family are newcomers to rural Sebring, Florida where Robbie has just started his new job at the Flying R Ranch. Though the work is physically grueling, Robbie is excited at the prospect of really learning how to be a cowboy. But the grater (though unspoken) benefit of his hours spent at the ranch is the respite it provides him from the tyrannical control of his sternly abusive disciplinarian father–a man hardened and embittered by his experiences as a fighter pilot during World War II. Under the tutelage of kindly owner, Ron Summers, weather-beaten foreman Doug Marcy, and ranch hand Dwight Hopper, Robbie comes to understand the ways of horses and cattle, how to rope calves, drive a herd–and how to put in the satisfying full day's work of a man. Whether tending to the animals or toiling in the orange groves, Robbie proves himself equal to any job. Meanwhile, his summer isn't all work. Robbie has also embarked on the tender adventure of first love with his beautiful neighbor, Jane Dunlap. But the two young lovers must be circumspect in their joyous exploration of sexual pleasure–as each is closely scrutinized by strict parents. Finally, Jane's mother becomes concerned about her daughter's virtue, and Robbie's father suspects the infatuation might interfere with his upcoming performance on the football field, to the point where both families are compelled to drive a wedge between Robbie and Jane. However, when in a climatic scene Robbie rescues Dwight and Doug from a rampaging bull, he proves to his father and coworkers that he possesses the maturity, courage and resourcefulness to decide the course of his own life. Ranch Boy movingly chronicles Robbie's coming of age in an engaging narrative that resonates with authentic sentiments. As Robbie struggles against his authoritarian father, he learns self-reliance, independence, and the truth of his own heart. Undergoing formative experiences that will define the character of the man that he is destined to be, author H. Steven Robertson writes in an engagingly unadorned style to paint a vivid and sensitive portrait of a boy on the brink of adulthood.
                     293 pages, $22.95


Bottom Time       
In Bottom Time by H. Steven Robertson, we find a young Robbie Duncan - who was introduced to us in "RANCH BOY", is now a graduate teacher who loves scuba diving. He dives not only for pleasure, but has just started working part time as a salvage diver on his favorite boat, captained by his older friend Bill.

While Robbie spends most of his time on the boat with Captain Bill and other friends, he has a lot of time on his own to reflect on his pre and post college years, the pranks and the girls, as well as the sports he enjoyed.

Whether you have been to Florida or not, Robertson gives a picturesque view of Florida's A-1-A Highway, including scenes at Jax ( Jacksonville) Beach Sambo's (a defunct nationwide restaurant) from the early years, and includes scenic's from below the ocean, as well as food preparation. In some parts of the book you can smell the musky, rotten odors emanating from the earth and shorelines. You get a good idea of the smell of rotting fish and birds that occupy the beaches, with or without human inhabitants.
                     328 pages, $18.95


Acorns of love and Wisdom, Poems for the Everyday Person       

A book of poems for the 'every day' person. It is divided into five chapters, Poems for Lovers, Poems of Nature and Love, Poems of Family and Friends, Poems of Drifting Apart, and Poems of Wisdom and Philosophy. It is an excellent and original work.

Excerpt
A POEM

A poem is a picture in words, sounds and thoughts that rings the bell of emotion, of psychological harmony and of discord that exists within us all. It is a recording of physical sensation that gives us (the vicarious perceiver reader) the revived consciousness from our memories of past experience or anticipation of events yet to come. A poem forms the squeezing of our beings so that droplets of nostalgia and pleasant emotional experience reveal the environmental building blocks that are the source of ourselves. It is an empathy; a sharing of similar experience with another who exists or has existed. It is a symphony in sounds and words and form that creates its own music. A poem is the verbal and sonorous appreciation of nature and existence as perceived and interpreted into the semantics of human psyche.

Most importantly, a poem is a sharing as both writers and readers are of the same body the poem. If any poet could be granted just one wish, it would be that you, the reader, not only enjoy sharing our poems but, that you share a humble comprehension of the underlying beauty of existence which brings us together through the medium of poetry.

                     119 pages, $14.95


Soccer Made Easy For Americans
Soccer Made Easy For Americans is designed to meet the needs of many different types of readers. It can be given to youngsters in elementary school or it can be used at the university level for students studying to be physical education teachers. It will delight middle school players and high school players. Many of them have never had access to such detailed information. It can be used by the myriad of moms and dads who have a youngster sign up for youth league soccer and who want to learn about the game and maybe give some advice to their sons or daughters. It would be excellent to hand this book to a coach, especially those wonderful souls who volunteer for youth soccer leagues but have no experience. It has in-depth information about goal keeping that a coach who has mastered the field skills but who would like some additional information about tending the goal and coaching it.

                     204 pages, $14.95


The Stream
With a style resembling Hemmingway and a theme echoing Melville, The Stream narrates a young boy's internal and external battle with society and nature. Set in a time before technology wooed teens away from their love of outdoors, this tale merges images of one adolescent's fear, maturity, and courage with a dynamic account of a lost-at-sea saga. Offering both sensitivity and gripping action, Robertson weaves a story of a boy fighting for survival in both the cruel mainstream of middle school and the dangerous current of the Gulf stream. Every bit as intense as Gary Paulsen's Hatchet, The Stream is destined to become another classic coming-of-age novel.

                     96 pages, $14.95




8 exquisite postal cards with envelopes in the box.
Pen and ink drawings by H. Steven Robertson. 8.5" X 5.5" on light tan, textured 65 lb. card stock.
             
       $19.95



Pen & Ink Posters
Unframed artwork from the Jettyman series, Ranch Boy, and Acorns of Love. 11" x 17"
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''In no way does Steve Robertson, at 6'4'' tall and 250 lb., fit the stereotypical image of the sensitive, soft-spoken poet. In fact, there's nothing delicate about the rugged, hulking frame of the coach/athlete, educator/author, except his heart. The compassion in Steve's heart is reflected in his poetry and his art. In ''Acorns of Love and Wisdom,'' a lifetime of experience is described in words of beauty, wonder, tragedy and triumph. With threads of love, humor, irony and elegance, Steve weaves a spell-binding tapestry of life.''
Susan D. Brandenburg, Journalist







Copyright 2003-2008, H. Steven Robertson. All Rights Reserved. Images may only be used with illustrators express permission.


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