Author’s Introduction ‘The Adventures of the Home for Supper Kids’

Author’s Introduction

I wrote the three stories in this book to read to my children. At the time, I didn’t think they were quite old enough to read my more adult (PG-13) Western and Spy Trilogies, but I wanted to introduce them to the world of the Fortner Family.

So I decided to tell some stories from the childhood of Ethan Fortner (Cowboy Tom’s great grandson, and the future father of Spy Jeff). Ethan is eleven years old in the summer of 1930, and the Great Depression has just begun. He and his siblings and friends have adventures that I believe are in the vein of ‘Our Gang’, (‘The Little Rascals’), ‘The Waltons’, ‘The Hardy Boys’ or ‘Encyclopedia Brown’. All of these were childhood favorites of mine, and great influences, along with Norman Rockwell illustrations of Americana.

Ethan (in future books) will one day grow up to face tragedy, fight in World War Two, and become one of the first Agents of the C.I.A.; but at this point in his life, he is just an adventurous boy, having the most interesting summer of his life.

While this was originally done for my kids, ranging in age from 5 to 12 over the years I wrote these, they aren’t ‘little kid’ books. I use pretty much the same vocabulary I’d use in a book for ‘grown-ups’. I believe the stories will be equally appropriate, and entertaining, to anyone from about age 7 to 107….anyone that ever had a great summer, and a bit of an adventurous spirit. Anyone that is a kid, or misses the time when they were a kid.