Publications
STAR LATE RISING
Star Late Rising is both a novel and a theatrical performance focusing on four characters, an ensemble cast of three actors and a narrator who has written a play based on the events following the January 6, 2021, insurrection. This tour de force—a play within a novel—uses drama, comedy, reverence for history and literature, and a touch of surrealism to engage and challenge the reader on many levels.
"Star Late Rising: A new novel by Ron Luce provides a reading experience rarely found in current American literature. In a bold, experimental, genre-bending, meta-narrative approach, Luce challenges readers to reflect upon what has happened to us as a people since the onset of the MAGA movement, the pandemic, and the 2021 insurrection. Sandwiched between a surrealistic prologue that tackles the issues and an epilogue that dramatizes the clearly implied meaning is the narrator describing a play which focuses on four major characters: two young gay men, a middle-aged actor dealing with alcoholism and trying to rebuild a career, and the narrator/author/puppet master who skillfully manipulates the strings. Luce tackles the trauma of our times, and provides our only solution to the chaos and lack of control over the forces aligning against enlightened humanity: either succumb to the ugliness and the dumbing down of America or make choices to carry on as individuals clinging to hope, values and ethics simply because they are as close to altruism and spirituality as we are likely to get—Act! Do something! Anything is better than nothing!"
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The Millfield Mine Disaster is a work of nonfiction. On Wednesday, November 5, 1930, Sunday Creek Coal Company Mine #6 at Millfield became the unenviable site of Ohio’s worst coal mining disaster. Within minutes, 82 men were dead, 56 women became widows and 137 dependents found themselves fatherless. Approximately 120 men not in the direct line of blast and flame escaped. Miraculously, 19 others were found barely alive many hours after all were presumed dead. The tragedy could have been prevented if proper procedures had been followed and profit were not put before worker safety.
The Millfield Mine Disaster is now available from national retailers and local businesses, or can be ordered directly through The History Press.
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ON SHELVES NOW!
Athens County, Ohio, came out of the pioneer spirit of a new nation expanding westward after the Revolutionary War into the Northwest Territory. Upon declaration of the Northwest Ordinance of 1787, the Ohio Company of Associates bought millions of acres of land to sell to land-hungry easterners. In 1788, the first boat of new settlers arrived in Marietta, Ohio. By 1797, wars with the Native Americans had ended and more land became available. When they got here, settlers found some rich farmland, but more importantly they discovered salt, coal, clay and a need for industry to provide for the needs of the people. Opportunities abounded to make fortunes in other places from the resources readily available locally. Central to the development of Athens County was the vision people had years before the first settlers arrived; they dreamed of and made provisions for a university in the new territory. Today, more than 200 years later, Ohio University thrives in the city of Athens.