Jumper and the Bones

Humorous contemporary fiction. In the tradition of Huck Finn, a big hearted but uneducated 28 year old narrator (nicknamed 'Jumper') tells of his adventures protecting Holly (a nurse who lives downstairs in his building) from a dangerous gang ("the Bones"). This involves some detective work, which Jumper is familiar with because he watches TV. Someone like Jumper might describe the book like this: If you hate bad grammar, this ain't the book for you. Jumper writes like he talks.The Bones have knives and guns, but Jumper is smart with duct tape. Plus, his hobby is jumping off of things, like garages and trees, which surprises you if you ain't expecting a guy to jump off the garage at you. He also likes to draw, and gives art therapy lessons to a little girl in the hospital with cancer. When it looks like the Bones want to hurt her, that's about the last straw for Jumper. A guy can only stay all James Bond cool for so long, and you really ain't that smart if you pick a fight with a guy who jumps off garages for fun. The book appeals to adults and young adults who don't mind mild violence and mildly offensive language. Nothing in it worse than you see or hear on network TV. So far, it appeals (oddly) to writers and fans of literary fiction who appreciate some of the subtle language humor Jumper stumbles across and steps into.Kenn Amdahl is also the author of There Are No Electrons: Electronics for Earthlings; the Land of Debris and the Home of Alfredo; Revenge of the Pond Scum: searching for the causes of Alzheimer's Disease, ALS and Parkinson's; The Wordguise Alembic (essays); Stones in the Water (poetry); Joy Writing: Discover and Develop Your Creative Voice; and co author of Calculus for Cats (with Jim Loats, Ph.D) and Algebra Unplugged (also with Jim Loats, Ph.D). It's an odd book; some readers have loved it, others can't get past the quirky style. It would be the absolutely perfect book to read on an airplane or train or bus, when you want something easy, a little different, entertaining and funny, but you don't want to invest a bunch of money or time. For example, if you were considering a James Patterson book, or a Stephen King book, or a JK Rowling book, I'd recommend this one instead. It's nothing like them, and aren't you ready to read something that everyone else hasn't read? Aren't you ready to be the FIRST of your friends to read something instead of the LAST? Wouldn't it be cool to be one of the first to read it, and then it became a big hit. Yes. Yes it would.Here is how the book starts:Some people say I ain’t smart enough to have did what I done. But some of the guys who say that ain’t exactly Einstein Bagels themselves and probably ain’t as smart as stuff they done either. Sometimes smart and lucky is the same thing, which a guy should not get credit for even if they want to.OK, so getting in a fight with the meanest gang guy in Denver wasn’t smart or lucky, I’ll give you that one. I shouldn’t of done that and I ain’t got excuses. And any time you see a murder, you got to figure you done some dumb stuff to put you in the wrong spot at the right time. So it would be fair to take off some of my brain points for being a murder witness, on top of the points for the unfortunate gang incident. But then you got to add some luck points for not getting killed myself, and some on account of the turtle. Since smart and lucky is a lot alike, as I already explained, I think my luck points raises my brain points back to a level playing field.