Praise for Sins of Liberty
Seybold’s addictive melodrama is a tale of sin, redemption, forgiveness, love, and loss, with a soupçon of tragedy. An intriguing story of the brutal battle for women’s rights. – Kirkus Reviews
“Sins of Liberty takes women’s rights and immigration and intertwines them in a love story that you won’t soon forget.” – Jillian Forsberg, author of the historical novel The Rhino Keeper
This solid work of high dramatic embellishments, and the growing motivations of women to find new places and roles for themselves in America, could not have come at a better time. Enlightening, empowering, and entertaining, all in one.- Midwest Book Review
“Effortlessly summons an era and conjures characters whose lives and tidal swings of fate and fortune will thoroughly invest readers. What a ride.” —C. B. Bernard, author of Ordinary Bear and Small Animals Caught in Traps
Sizzles with high-octane drama yet unfolds the threads of history so compellingly. Replete with subjects of women’s and immigrant experiences that will certainly fuel book club and women’s reading groups with fresh perspectives and thought-provoking insights, Sins of Liberty’s compelling characters drive a story that explores the idea of “doing the right thing” against all odds. – Midwest Book Review
Seybold’s tour de force in Sins of Liberty claws open the reality of how women desperate to have a say in their own lives and march for the vote come to literal blows with early 1900’s patriarchy. Brutalized, confounded, and thwarted at every turn, our heroine Anna rises up from the ashes because of her belief in love and the friendships that guide the way to her independence. – Carole Bumpus, author of the historical novel A Cup of Redemption
An intriguing, complex turn-of-the-century immigration story intertwined with Anna’s involvement in the suffragette movement and the brutal battle for women’s rights. A bounty of secondary characters provides enough villains and protectors to keep things engaging, written in Anna’s hopeful, occasionally humorous, and always determined voice. – Kirkus Reviews
A hidden family history comes to life as Sins of Liberty pulls the reader through a complex, emotional, and powerful story.” – Jillian Forsberg, author of the historical novel The Rhino Keeper
With its stories of women’s suffrage as well as corruption in the early U.S. Catholic Church, this novel is an interesting take on history. Sins of Liberty skillfully weaves historical facts in an interesting, informative way that kept this reader invested throughout the novel. The role of the women’s suffrage movement is strong. Women who marched and fought for the vote faced violence and resistance from many fronts – and the Catholic Church was one of those that insisted women had no place in the voting booth. This novel brings that to life in many stories and examples. Loved it! – Reedsy Discovery
Praise for Stealing Home
“Stealing Home shows us a father-son road trip to the shrines of baseball. Fueled by Seybold’s determination to become a better dad, the journey becomes a quest to reconcile the past and future. Part baseball, part fatherhood, and all boyhood, this memoir plays out the mystery of love and family. The magic lies in the storytelling that travels the road to something perfect.” — Donna Johnson, author of the award-winning Holy Ghost Girl: A Memoir
“Authentic, emotional, and brave, Ron Seybold’s memoir is a timeless journey of the universal struggle to rise above the past. Stealing Home is a beautiful testament to the power of a father’s love.” – Claire Ashby, New York Times best-selling author of When You Make It Home
“A beautifully written, touching memoir about family dynamics, revealed in the bonding of a father and son.” — Larry Brill, author of the award-winning romance Deja Vu All Over Again
“Ron Seybold mines memories of the prickly relationship with his father to excavate nuggets of wisdom for his own relationship with his son. Baseball is the shared language he uses to mend familial wounds from a divorce. Evocative and masterfully written, Stealing Home is a winner.” — Scott Semegran, award-winning author of The Benevolent Lords of Sometimes Island
Foreword Clarion Review: Five Stars
Former sportswriter Seybold’s affecting memoir is about using sports to break negative family cycles and become a better father. Steady in its narration, the book captures everyday scenes through a father’s eyes, picking out and highlighting details that indicate his deep love for his son and his difficulties when it comes to pursuing a perfect outcome. The text is evocative and careful, and even scenes that are filled with sports jargon or inside jokes resonate.
Stealing Home is a poignant memoir about the intersections of sports and fatherhood.
Focused on Seybold’s efforts to connect with his son Nicky, the book follows their rigorous road trip. Seybold is seen struggling with fatherhood thanks to the memory of his disastrous relationship with his own father, who was stoic and erratic. Hoping not to repeat those mistakes, he plans his father-son trip with meticulous detail, moving across eight states to see nine baseball games. The pair cross state lines, stay in sketchy motels, and eat at White Castle on their trek to visit iconic stadiums including Wrigley Field. As they bond, Seybold reflects upon the past.
While another impetus of the road trip is the hope of witnessing a perfect game—a rare event in baseball—Seybold’s account of the trip includes revelations and goes in unexpected directions. His sense of his own fatherhood drives him, and he worries that his divorce will result in his losing Nicky. Their shared camaraderie around sports and pop culture references is a guard against this. Even poor decisions, like yelling at Nicky over trivialities, are driven by a passionate desire to be a better father.
The text is dynamic as it balances scenes in the present and the past. The distances between games are covered, but so too are troubles with Seybold’s father, his broken marriage, and the recent past. Events in the present prompt memories, rounding the narration out and drawing out negative and positive aspects of how fathers might act. This storytelling method is engaging and satisfying.
Though they are few and far between, photographs are punctuate the text’s events. They family members and stadiums help to ground the story in its realism. Seeing the joy on Nicky’s face, or the stoic nature of Seybold’s father, hammers home the book’s points, complementing scenes and layering in emotion.
Kirkus Reviews
“A beautifully stirring reflection on the joys and challenges of fatherhood. Tenderly poignant, wise and affecting, and ably capturing the excitement of live baseball, the writing is always lucid and can be moving. A writer recounts a summer trip with his young son and his shot at redemption.
The memoir seamlessly tracks three storylines: Seybold’s upbringing, his failed marriage, and the journey, all of which seem to find a narrative confluence in the last two games he and Nicky attended at Wrigley Field. The author’s remembrance is a profoundly touching one, especially given his forthcoming candor and willingness to dispense self-criticism.”
Indie Reader
“Five Stars. It’s so much more than a memoir. It’s a grand road trip story as well as a real-life family saga. At its heart, Stealing Home is the consummate baseball story. An enthralling memoir, most highly recommended.”
Reader’s Favorite
“Rich with sports metaphor, Stealing Home offers a touching and complex look at how, experience by experience, individuals repair generations of fury-fueled despair.”
Midwest Book Review
“A jaunty yet introspective story about an evolving relationship between father and son. The meat of any family exposé lies in tracing intergenerational patterns. Seybold does a fantastic job of integrating experiences with his own father and their connections through baseball–very different scenarios than those he more mindfully cultivates with his son. It will especially appeal to male readers seeking enlightenment and ideas for their own approaches to fatherhood.”
Reedsy Discovery
“This book is about much more than baseball. It explores the father-son relationship on so many levels. The writing is outstanding, and I enjoyed the easy, baseball-game-like pacing. The extraordinary thing about this memoir was how it happened, not that it happened. As a baseball fan, a writer of baseball stories, and a parent, I couldn’t have been more pleased. A must-read.”