The act of writing is an arrogant thing to do; it supposes you have something to say and that others want to hear it.
Literary Portfolio
THE WRITING OF
JEFF RICE
New Release next Summer
A middle-aged newspaper editor faces a crisis of faith when his younger brother, an Episcopal priest, announces his apostasy, then dies in a drug- and alcohol-caused accident. The first-person narrator realizes that his own faith in journalism is exhausted for many of the same reasons his brother enumerated. In a self-destructive act of conscience, he publicly denounces his own newspaper as unethical and hypocritical. Facing a future devoid of the thing he loves most, he makes a decision he thought he'd never make.
'Apostate,' coming July 11, 2026
Deadline
In the exciting, anything-can-happen 1980s, Lisa Avery and her best friend, producer Nancy Padilla, are plucked from obscurity to be the new stars of Denver’s top-rated TV news team. But when photographer Rand Oliver shows up to take promotional photos, their lives and those of their news team take an abrupt turn into the deadly world of international terrorism.
The Snake Patch
On a summer night in 1963, four pre-teen boys are talking baseball and girls in their sanctuary, a tree house in the middle of a vacant lot called the "snake patch." Their idyllic bull session turns to horror when a teen-age sexual predator rapes his girlfriend under the tree house, unaware the four boys are watching. When the girl later kills herself, the boys – one of whom is the son of the police officer assigned to investigate the case – struggle to reconcile the rape-suicide with their own burgeoning sexualities. As the boys contend with these coming-of-age experiences, their lives are overshadowed by the criminal case that is developing around them, and the power struggles among the adults who must protect them and still use their testimony to prosecute the rapist. Along the way, childhood concepts of ethics, heroism and justice are challenged and, eventually, redefined
A journalist recounts his loss of faith and how a chance visit to a local church helped find new meaning in the oldest story of western civilization. It is an unapologetic look at his journey into atheism - what he calls "the desert" and how he found his way out the other side. Part memoir, part treatise, it explains how one man came to embrace Christianity as a modern mythology and see ancient scripture as the best roadmap to negotiating life in the 21st century.
Available for book signings and events
Jeff is available for lectures, book signings, guest appearances and other events. Just scroll down to the "Contact" section and drop him an email. He'll respond within 24 hours.
ABOUT ME
Jeff Rice is a retired journalist who has spent most of his adult life in small and medium size newspapers and has won numerous awards for his features, columns and editorials. He also has taught literature and English classes in Colorado's small colleges. He and his wife of 50+ years live on three acres in eastern Colorado with their dogs, cats and the occasional prairie toad.
CONTACT
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