Welcome to Connor, My Hometown is a novel about a small town in Ohio and, more importantly, its various people, their lives, loves, failures and successes, and their interactions with one another.

It employs a device, first seen in Thornton Wilder's Our Town, whereas, in that play, the stage manager would talk to the audience several times throughout the play. In this case, the town's editor of the Connor Gazette speaks to the reader. He himself is one of the strongest characters in the novel, and his love of the town and its people becomes readily apparent.

There is romance. Jenna, owner of the Chit Chat Cafe, which is the public gathering place for many of the town's locals, meets Brian, an engineer and contract specialist from Sedwick Electronics, and they fall in love and get married. Both of them are in their mid-thirties.

Pastor Barry Yoder and his wife, Sherry, are among the most beloved of the town's inhabitants, and they minister to the people. They come alongside a couple who have separated and help restore the lost love from their marriage.

Jim and Bessie Benson are loved by everyone. He owns the town's Marathon gas station, and Bessie makes the best pies in the town, but she finds out she has cancer, and the whole town comes together and prays for her.

There is Miss Ruth Hennessey, principal of Marshall Middle School, who is a no-nonsense woman on the outside but has a heart of gold on the inside. There's Jim Morrison, general contractor, and Randy Colthirst, the town's dentist. All three hang out nearly every weekday at the Chit Chat café, and their interactions and banter make for some lively discussions. And that's what makes the Chit Chat Cafe seem more like a home than a restaurant.

There are many more memorable characters, including the mayor, police chief, fire chief, other pastors. You will grow to love the town and its people. The editor, who used to be a columnist for a major Chicago newspaper for twenty years, brings it all together. I would love to live in Connor myself!

--Roger Stephen Smith

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