I’M GONNA DIG MYSELF A HOLE . . . ’n’ bury myself in it is the story, by turns revelatory, wildly funny and deeply moving, of Sheppard (“Shep”) James Michaels, a Midwestern corn farmer, who, at a dramatic moment in his youth, abandoned his love for music to raise a family in the tornado country of Melba County, Iowa, a denial that comes at a terrible cost to him and his family. It is a tale of the hard, and often mistaken choices, people frequently make, even with the best of intentions, and the painful consequences those choices can inflict on them and those they love. It is also a story of the power of art to bridge the differences between people, and of the dangers of concealing a person’s true self, genuine drives, authentic needs, at whatever age or for whatever reason, behind noble yet failed choices.

Told with the suspense of a detective story, the story proceeds from the moment of Shep’s death at 67 from a stroke, to his wake and funeral and the desperate quest to seek shelter from an oncoming tempest, which leads to the discovery, later the next day, by his surviving family of a cache of writings and recordings he had made secretly over many years and hidden in a storm shelter, an oasis filled with music and mystery, dug beneath a sacred patch of abandoned cornfield. Over the long, stormy night that follows, Shep’s three daughters, huddled in the shelter they discover to have been their father’s secret hideout from the world, read aloud to each other from his journals dating back to his teens and listen to his songs tied to these impressionable times, to find a man with a musical gift, a generous soul and a poetic heart whom none of them had ever known.

The story is also a tale of reconciliation, between the three daughters, filled with mutual jealousies, suspicions and resentments, and their enigmatic father, and between them and their wealthy mother, also present for the funeral and now swept up in her daughters’ discoveries; she had divorced Shep many years before, after her father’s death left her the richest woman in the county, and now harbors a secret worthy of those hidden by Shep, that will at the same time shatter, shock and heal this wounded family.

Many of the chapters are devoted to Shep’s salty and often very funny journals, recounting the wanderings of his youth, his friendship with his mentor and surrogate father, the blues guitarist Tin Can Willie Thomas, his own discovery of music, his years spent hopping trains from Kansas City to New Orleans during the turbulent race torn 1960’s, and his love for the woman who eventually became the mother of his children. Interspersed with Shep’s adventures is a unique feature of the book: its own soundtrack! The first of its kind eBook with links to recordings made by the fictional songwriter, many of them as written, composed and performed by Shep himself and written with the backdrop of the tales within his journals, to be listened to by the reader while reading or separately. The novel is not only a story of discovery, a picaresque tale of adventure and an extensive medley of songs, many about Shep’s life experiences, but it is also an introduction to many unforgettable characters, including Tin Can Willie; Shep’s widely different daughters, Maggie, Lucy and Rayne, and his ex-wife and first, great love, Lola Mae; the street people of New Orleans Sunflower Betty, Cobra, Shadow Baby and Sin City Sue; the denizens of Melba County, including Ma and Pa Huff, an ancient couple of who cater voluntarily at local wakes and funerals, and Pastor Farley, who “shepherds” the souls of Melba with hellfire in his heart and a frozen smile on his lips; the gentle giant with an even bigger heart, Hawg Hopkins, Shep’s best friend since childhood; and the intelligent, loyal, and affectionate Sallie Mae, Junior, Shep’s animal companion from the beloved porcine family.

The novel’s final message is that it is never too late to be, express, and fulfill oneself – and that doing so is the most direct route to complete acceptance of oneself and of others, as well as to affection and respect, understanding and love.

And, to bring its message home, it provides one really good story.