See You Next Year
A New Novel from Jackson Gray Books
COMING SOON
My Favorite Color is Hot Dog
Think about someone you’ve lost . Maybe you didn’t have a chance to say goodbye.
Think about how much you miss seeing them, talking with them, spending time together.
What if there was a way to be with them again, but for only one day each year?
A Lot Like Fun -
Only Different
Author Jack Livingston Describes the Book
“It’s a story about friendship, about being there when it’s needed the most.
Clearing out the high school with a smoke-bomb prank in our senior year, raising a family of pigs in a village yard, saving a drowning man in Singapore, and overcoming the trauma of a childhood abduction are part of my friend, Chris Kelley’s past. I knew little about them. To me, Chris was the guy who was always up for doing two fun things in one day (sometimes three).
When Chris was diagnosed with Pick’s disease (a rare type of dementia) in his mid-fifties, it signaled the end to what we had taken for granted. It changed our friendship. No longer would I follow him on epic adventures he planned. These days, I take him for hikes, hold both sides of our conversations, and help him across a two-foot stream. But because I didn’t want to forget the times we’d had together, I started to write, and as a result found out there was more to my friend.
In A Lot Like Fun ― Only Different I share incredible stories of our improbable friendship where Chris met life head on while I asked, “Are you sure we want to do this?” It contains dozens of stories and photos from our past that contrast ‘current day’ Chris, diminished by Pick’s, with the Chris I knew so well. No longer are we barreling down the 219 to ski or mountain bike the Bent Rim Trail, and celebrating with a ‘couple tree’ beers. We aren’t breaking trails with our snowshoes in the Adirondack High Peaks or cruising through Appalachia on the way to a 24-hour mountain bike race.
We still get together every week. And I look forward to those times. It’s a lot like fun ― only different. Chris greets me with a smile and a hearty laugh. He doesn’t speak, but I know if he could, he’d tell me, ‘Thanks for coming out, Jack. Today was great.’ And then it breaks my heart when he stands next to my car, wanting to ride home with me and I have to tell him, ‘Chris, you're riding with your brother. I’ll see you next week, okay buddy.’ And I hear his words from the past. ‘Good deal.’”
Jack Livingston lives and writes in Western New York. He's thankful for friends that have stayed connected over five decades. They helped make this book possible.
What People Are Saying about A Lot Like Fun
“Heartwarming and heartrending: A Lot Like Fun ― Only Different is a wild journey of enduring friendship, love and hilarious escapades led by the irrepressible and unforgettable Chris Kelley. Each adventure from the past is contrasted with the harsh reality of Pick’s disease that is robbing Chris of his words, his can-do, his uncensored humor, and his ability to do what he’d done for so many years ― two fun things in one day.”
Barbara Gibson Taylor, author of Particularly Peculiar People
“At the time I picked up A Lot Like Fun ― Only Different there were a few unread books on my nightstand. I read a couple of pages ― in twenty-four hours I finished it. It’s a well-crafted book of adventure, friendship and unconditional loyalty ― exciting and heartwarming. I was deeply moved.”
Robert Herrmann, author of Shoes and Other Stories
“A Lot Like Fun ― Only Different is filled with laughter, tears, and at its heart, love for a friend. Yes, this book is fun, but it will also break your heart.”