The Sons of Starmount

Memoir of a Ten-Year-Old-Boy

By: Mark Elliott

Narrated by: Mark Elliott

Length: 7 hrs and 51 mins

Publisher's summary

The Sons of Starmount: Memoir of a Ten-Year-Old Boy is the story of a wild band of boys living on a once-in-a-lifetime street. Most of us have a time and place in our childhood that sets the course for the adult we grow up to be. I found mine: Starmount Drive, Tallahassee, Florida,1977.

Starmount is filled with poignant, hilarious, and soul-stirring stories of adventure and friendship, uniquely told through the prism of 1977. We were blood brothers on homemade rafts, defying alligators, water moccasins, and common sense. Muhammad Ali fought on the TV while we built boxing rings in the backyard. The Space Shuttle Enterprise shot through the heavens as we launched wooden spacecraft down metal guy wires from high atop our fort.

The campfire-like glow of our streetlight hosted weighty conversations that ranged from remaining friends forever and finding all the best fishing holes on the planet Mars to Ted Bundy's murderous rampage through the Florida State campus.

Starmount is in the tradition of other coming-of-age standards, such as The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid by Bill Bryson, Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sadaris, and Manhood for Amateurs: The Pleasures and Regrets of a Husband, Father, and Son by Michael Chabon. It also captures elements of Southern life in a style akin to My Southern Journey: True Stories from the Heart of the South by Rick Bragg and The World's Largest Man by Harrison Scott Key.

©2019 Mark S. Elliott (P)2020 Mark S. Elliott

Critic reviews

"In this debut memoir, a songwriter and performer recalls a year of his childhood when friendship, imagination, and adventure combined perfectly, leaving an indelible impression on the author’s soul.... Elliott’s graceful prose is filled with the philosophical musings that come with the passage of four decades... And the joyful book is permeated with gentle humor that brings to life the exuberance of youth... Cheerful, more thoughtful than most reminiscences, and quite enjoyable." (Kirkus Reviews)

"The Sons of Starmount: Memoir of a Ten-Year-Old Boy by Mark Elliott is a tantalizing memoir that filled me with nostalgia for the child I once was and for the connection with a place in my own life that once was home and a wide door for adventure. In telling the story of a wild band of boys growing up in Starmount Drive, Tallahassee, Florida, the author compels readers to look back at their own origins and to the children they once were." (Romuald Dzemo, Reader's Favorite)

Time Machine!

Those ideas more than a story... it's a time machine! Listening to Mark's account of his childhood took me back to my own childhood. I relived my childhood adventures in the woods and creeks of middle Tennessee. I felt as if I were 10 again!

Keep writing Mark!

This Book brought me back to my own 1977 childhood.

I have to admit that I binge listened to this in two evenings. Mark has written a wonderful story about his year on Starmount Drive. Listening to his voice read the book, leaves you feeling like you are there!

This wonderful story of friendship, bonding and adventure in 1977 brought me back to the neighborhood I grew up in. While my stories are not exactly the same. The bonds formed with my neighborhood “brothers” were so present listening to, Sons of Starmount. I could instantly put myself back in those moments and times that I had formed similar bonds and had similar adventures and experiences.
Thank you Mark for bringing me back to a time where we simply loved each other and had fun! Your backyard camping adventure sounds exactly like the ones we had in my backyard!

Do yourself a favor and listen to or read this book!

Bravo!

Great Story!

I absolutely loved it! It took me back to the cool springs, dark woods, and warm rivers of my youth in Kingston Springs Tennessee. The freedom of having seemingly limitless time while un-incumbered by the constraints of anything other than the adventure of the day. The delivery of the story was fantastic. He really takes you by the hand and walks you through Starmount. I look forward to any future projects the author takes on in the future.

Old Florida through the eyes of adventurous boys

A great story of comradery set in 1970ties Tallahassee, Florida. Childhood was supposed to be adventurous and daring with friendship, valor and loyalty at the heart of it. I loved the natural settings and the boys' freedom to roam.