Brockton native turns troubled childhood into creative adulthood
By Teri Borseti.
For The Patriot Ledger

Paul Stone could not have been more shocked to learn that his mother had hung herself from a steam pipe in the basement of the family home. Her suicide left Stone and his siblings searching for answers. It was a search that would uncover much more than he was prepared to learn.

Because his mother suffered from migraines and depression, the family accepted the many long hours she spent in her room alone. It wasn't until after she died that Stone learned what she was really doing in there.

After her death he found a letter she left for him. The letter contained information that would be more shocking than the news of her death. The detailed letter written in his mother's own handwriting explained a secret family legacy, one which Stone had a hard time accepting at first. The secret of time travel had been passed from mother to son and was to be used as a gift - or a curse.

She explained that for generations Stone's ancestors, whom included Nostradamus, Taylor Caldwell and H.G. Wells, all time travelers, have regularly traveled to both the future and past, where they were able to occupy their own bodies and relive part of their past lives, or peek at the future.

So begins Paul Stone's adventure. This highly imaginative story was written by John Stover, a Brockton native. ‘‘It is about seeing the past as it really was, not as we remember it. Paul Stone also learns that the future can be changed by altering the present,'' Stover said.

Like Stone, Stover's life is like a roller coaster. At 54, the writer is about to release his third book, ‘‘In-Sight.'' The story of Paul Stone and time travel is a tale that is generating ‘‘good buzz,'' out on the West Coast. His two earlier books are ‘‘Road Runner'' and ‘‘Common Cents.''

While most authors find a particular genre and stick with it, Stover takes a different path with every book.

The writer, who now makes his home in Los Angeles, had a childhood full of trauma, dysfunction and a cast of characters he will never forget.

But as an adult, armed with an inexhaustible imagination, Stover has faced down his demons and come out on top.

‘‘I grew up at a tenement hotel in Brockton owned by my father. My father was an angry man who rented rooms to veterans, many of which I found dead while still in elementary school,'' Stover said.

His first book, ‘‘The Road Runner, an American Odyssey,'' is a coming-of-age story, which parallels Homer's ‘‘Odyssey'' and takes a poignant look at what it is like to be on top only to suddenly crash and burn. The book includes first-hand accounts with Tom Cruise, the Doobie Brothers and Courteney Cox. ‘‘Courteney was at my wedding, which was on an 85-foot yacht. Unfortunately, Courteney missed the boat and had to be ferried out,'' Stover said. The author also met Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan while working for the Democratic Party. The book details the time Stover spent on a private island in Hawaii with the likes of Jackie Onassis, former California Gov. Jerry Brown and Meredith Willson, who wrote ‘‘The Music Man.''

His second book, ‘‘Common Cents,'' takes a hard look at the homeless problem in America today and Stover cleverly compares the homeless problem as the way society had come to view slavery in the United States before the Civil War - remaining detached and uninvolved to the many atrocities going on in their own cities, he said. ‘‘It's like the traffic outside our high-rise windows, we just get used to it.''

Stover will return to his hometown of Brockton this week to appear at the Brockton Library and a sizable crowd has promised to attend, he said.

Librarian Laurie Cavanaugh said the library recently added ‘‘Common Cents'' to its collection and in addition to discussing writing and publishing, Stover will host a question-and-answer period for aspiring writers.

‘‘We showcase local authors and John spoke about ‘The Road Runner' last year,'' Cavanaugh said. ‘‘We have ordered that book as well and both will be placed in our archive room.''

Not many students stay connected to a teacher for 40 years, but Stover still credits his high school English teacher, Francis Garcea, for recognizing and nurturing his talent.

Garcea, who plans to catch his old friend at the library said, ‘‘He was always very bright and inquisitive. He really didn't need any inspiration from me, he had it within,'' he said.

Last summer, while here for a book signing at Walden Books in Brockton, Stover and his daughter, Katy, 14, took a tour of Harvard. Since age 9, Katy, a certified genius, has had a full-tuition scholarship to the college of her choice. So gifted is the youngster, the ‘‘Tonight Show,'' called Stover to book her. She also has had numerous appearances on the syndicated radio show, ‘‘Mark and Brian,'' who often call her to do bits. One of her many talents is talking backward. ‘‘But it is her giant heart, not her brains or beauty, that I am proudest of,'' Stover said.

‘‘When I do TV and radio interviews they spend more time talking to her than me,'' Stover said.

He has appeared locally on ‘‘Urban Update,'' and will speak at a Los Angeles 12-step meeting for writers.

‘‘Some of the notables who speak there are quite accomplished. I am very flattered to have even been asked,'' Stover said. ‘‘I have almost two years sober this time around. It seems my time is near.''

This past November Stover, whose niece is married to Red Sox pitcher Tim Wakefield, attended his 35th Brockton High School reunion. While home, Stover said his family ‘‘snubbed'' him, so he ate Thanksgiving dinner with a number of homeless and a group of recovering alcoholics at St. Edward's Church in Brockton.

‘‘I had a great time and was truly very thankful to be there and to be sober. My family can't understand my writing about the family. Best to leave those ‘Paul Stones' unturned,'' Stover said.

His father's hotel is long gone, torn down to make a parking lot for the courthouse, but Stover still gets nostalgic about coming home. ‘‘I can't tell you how much time I spent at the YMCA and next door at the library as my routine was always to work out and then hit the books.

‘‘While I was donating a book last year, I asked Laurie (Cavanaugh) if they still had the glass floors, which I always marveled at as I stood on them to choose my newest book. She took me into the reading room and showed me that the smokey floor glass had been taken out, but remained in the form of several coffee tables,'' Stover said.

Besides a visit to George's Pizza in Brockton Stover will head to Cape Cod while he and Katy are in the area.

‘‘Katy and I need to eat some fried clams,'' he said.

Meet John Stover

— John Stover will read from, sign and discuss his novels at 7 p.m. Aug. 22 at the Brockton Public Library, 304 Main St., Brockton. Call 508-580-7890 or go to brocktonpubliclibrary.org/ for more information

ENTERPRISE SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

BROCKTON- Brockton-born author John Stover's life reads like a novel- so it only seemed natural to him to turn it into one.

"I found my first corpse when I was 6 years old ... graduated from Brockton High in 1969, hitchhiked all over the south; joined the carnival, sold blood, hopped freight trains, lived on a private island in Hawaii ... and ended up addicted to alcohol and a bunch of drugs, including heroin," Stover said.

Stover, 53, who said he is currently sober and living in, Los Angeles , will re­turn to his hometown Saturday to pro­mote his novel "The Road Runner: An American Odyssey" at Walden Books at Westgate Mall. He will sign books from 5 to 6 p.m.

Although Stover wrote his story as a novel, he said it's based on his life events. "A lot of the book is based on my wild life when my dad owned the West Elm Ho­tel in the 1950s and 1960s," said Stover. "It was filled with VA patients. I probably found about half a dozen dead bodies in the hotel."

He recalled once walking through the halls and finding a trail of blood. "I followed it to Room 32 and found out that one of the vets had jumped out of a third-floor window," Stover said.

Stover. said he wrote the novel in six weeks in a stream of consciousness after undergoing therapy for a traumatic child­hood.

"I had repressed memories of being locked in closets and of my family's sexu­ally dysfunctional behavior," Stover said. Stover said he titled his novel an "odyssey" because he feels his life is like the journey of the Greek herb Odysseus. "I was tempted by the siren song of girls on Harley-Davidsons; I met the `one­eyed Cyclops,"which are the gay guys who tried to spick me up; and, like the lotus eaters, I ended up addicted to drugs," Stover said.

After graduating from Brockton High, Stover said he studied pre-med at Boston University and attended the University of California at Los Angeles , where he majored in English literature and writing. He said he was forced to leave Boston University after waking up restrained in a hospital straitjacket after having run naked through the streets of Boston on Christmas Eve during a bad LSD trip.

In 1975, Stover moved to Nantucket Is­land , but said he was "exiled": "I worked at Nantucket Cottage Hospital as an orderly in 1974 . ... They fired me for loaning a bed to my friend Jake. I lost my house; was told to leave the island, and someone fed my dog a poisoned steak: I watched him die."

Stover left for 'California in 1976, where he said he worked as an aide for Democratic party treasurer Edwin W Pauley in the late 1970s.

He also said he partied in California with "the rich and famous, who can drink more than anyone."

Stover said he met his first wife, Joni, when he ran his own clothing business in California in 1984. They had one daugh­ter together, Katy, 13.

"The Road .Runner" was Stover's first book. It was published in 2002. His other books include: "Common Cents," a Civil War, novel; and "In-Sight," a science fiction story about a dysfunc­tional time-traveler.

Stover's books can be ordered at www.booklocker.com and are sold at Barnes and Noble bookstores.

Lauren Daley can be reached at ldaley@enterprisenews.com

Arthor returns to city to talk about new historic novel

By Laurie Cavanaugh.
SPECIAL TO ENTERPRISE

BROCKTON- City native John Stover will return to his hometown Monday to talk about his new book "Common Cents: A Civil War Story" at the Brockton Public Library.

Stover's book is a novel dealing with the plight of homelessness.

A 1969 graduate of Brockton High School, Stover spent his youth at The West Elm Hotel in Brockton, a temporary shelter for veterans owned by his fater. There, Stover observed men who were "down on their luck" before his college experimentation with illicit drugs eventually led him into homelessness himself. Stover's first book, "The Road Runner: An American Odyssey," is a memoir of his actual experience of homelessness

He transforms his observations into fiction in "Common Cents" a futuristic tale about a possible second Civil War related to the condition of America's Homeless.

"In six months, I logged over 20,000 miles on my thumb... hitchhiking around the country, sleeping under bridges, accepting the hospitality of strangers and living by my wits." Stover says of his days on the road.

After getting his life back onto a slightly more conventional track in 1975, Stover worked successfully in various fields, gathering more unusual experiences along the way.

In 1998, he decided to devote himself to writing books.

"I sold everything I owned to concentrate on my first love, writing." he said.

Stover currently lives in Venice, Calif., and has a 14-year-old daughter named Kaitlyn.

His talk at the Brockton Public Library, 304 Main St., will take place Monday at 7pm.