About American Past Time: After the Cheering Stops:
He’s a baseball player with dreams of pitching in the major leagues, but he also needs to make ends meet and take care of his family. It’s America in the 50s and change is coming fast.
1st Place Top Shelf Book Awards Fiction – General
Gold Medal Winner – Readers’ Favorite Sports Fiction
Finalist – Beverly Hills Book Awards
September 1953…
Dancer Stonemason is three days from his major league debut. With his wife and son cheering him on, he pitches the greatest game of his life. And then loses everything.
Told against the backdrop of America’s postwar challenges from Little Rock to the Bay of Pigs to Viet Nam, American Past Time is the story of what happens to a man and his family after the cheering stops.
Order your copy now and read a heartfelt story during an intriguing period in American history.
What readers are saying:
“Darkly nostalgic story of an American family through good times and bad. A well-crafted novel that will appeal to sports and history aficionados.” – Kirkus Review
“Len Joy has an eye for the humble, utterly convincing details of family life. This is 20th-century America seen neither through the gauze of nostalgia nor with easy cynicism, but rather with clear-eyed tenderness.” – Pamela Erens – author of The Virgins
“An all-American story that goes beyond the scope of the domestic and into the realm of history. A very engaging read.” – Chinelo Okparanta – author of Happiness, Like Water
“America Past Time is not only a baseball lovers’ novel, but one that history buffs will enjoy as well. Men of all ages will love this book.” – Eileen Cronin – author of Mermaid: A Memory of Resilience.
“Here is a ‘baseball novel’ that transcends sport and offers an in-depth portrait of a family and an era. For me the most poignant moment happens near the end when a scene related to the end of the Viet Nam war echoes against our present moment. Len Joy does write about a Past Time in America’s history, but everything he details feels prescient now.” – Kristiana Kahakauwila – author of This is Paradise
“…a timeless classic.” – Jersey Girl Book Reviews
“In this impressive debut, Joy deftly emotionally explores the many ways in which our relationships, hopes and dreams can alter the course of our lives.” – Mary Akers – author of Bones of an Inland Sea
“Don’t miss this book. Easy to buy, easy to read. You’ll finish it fast because to you won’t want to leave these characters.” – Debbie Ann Ice – author of Find Sam
Buy the book:
Author Bio:
Len Joy had an idyllic childhood, growing up in the gem of the Finger Lakes, Canandaigua, New York. As a typical small-town boy, he had a wide range of interests, most involving sports. He lettered in four sports in high school and went off to the University of Rochester with dreams of becoming a football hero and world-famous novelist.
When he awoke from those dreams, he switched his major from English to Finance and quit the football team, but started dating one of the cheerleaders – Suzanne Sawada. Three years later they were married, and four decades later, they still are.
They moved to Chicago where Suzanne became a corporate lawyer and Len, with his MBA and CPA, became the auditing manager for U. S. Gypsum. Despite the thrill of auditing gypsum plants, Len found himself wanting a different challenge.
He bought an engine remanufacturing company in Arizona and for fifteen years commuted to Phoenix. Despite the travel, he managed to stay married and have three kids. While flying, he read hundreds of novels, which renewed his dream of becoming a world-famous author.
In 2004 he wound down his engine business and started taking writing courses and participating in triathlons.
While world fame remains elusive, Len has made advances in his writing career.
Len’s 4th novel, DRY HEAT was published in April 2022. New Yort Times bestselling author Nickolas Butler described it as “…a page-turner with heart. A tale of star-crossed lovers and best-lad plans run amok, this smoothly written novel is full of friendship, family, and redemption. It is a Book Excellence and Literary Titan award winner.
His third novel, EVERYONE DIES FAMOUS, was published by BQB Publishing in August 2020. KIRKUS described it as a “…a striking depiction of small-town America at the dawn of the 21st century.” It won 1st Prize in the 2020 Top Shelf Book Awards for Southern Fiction and a Silver Medal in the IBPA Ben Franklin Awards for Midwest Region fiction. It was also a Book Excellence Award winner in the category of Aging, and was the 2021 Readers Favorite bronze medal award winner for Fiction – Sports.
Kevin Wilson, NY Times bestselling author of Nothing to See Here and The Family Fang had this to say: “Len Joy’s Everyone Dies Famous is a clear-eyed examination of how we live in an uncertain world. By creating imminently understandable characters and skillfully linking them to a specific landscape, one that is so evocatively described, he shows us all the ways in which we’re connected, how fragile those threads are. In clear prose, Joy does real work here. I’m grateful for it.”
Joy’s first novel, AMERICAN PAST TIME was published in 2014. KIRKUS praised it as a “darkly nostalgic study of an American family through good times and bad, engagingly set against major events from the ‘50s to the ‘70s as issues of race simmer in the background…expertly written and well-crafted.” It was the 2019 Readers’ Favorite gold medal award winner for Fiction – Sports and took 1st Prize in the Top Shelf Book Awards contest for Fiction – General.
His second novel, BETTER DAYS (2018) was described by FOREWORD Reviews as “a bighearted, wry, and tender novel that focuses on love and loyalty.” KIRKUS called it “a character-rich skillfully plotted Midwestern drama.” It was the 2019 Readers’ Favorite silver medal award winner for Fiction – Sports and was a finalist in the Indie Excellence Book Awards in the category of Fiction: Midwest.
Len’s latest novel, DRY HEAT will be published by BQB in March 2022.
Today, Len is an All-American Triathlete and competes internationally representing the United States as part of TEAM USA. His three kids (a son and two daughters) have grown up and moved away, although the daughters return frequently to Evanston to do their laundry and get legal advice from their mother.