Darkling Plain (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9781477535721)

Gary Tillery is the author of both fiction and nonfiction works. His latest nonfiction work, The Seeker King: A Spiritual Biography of Elvis Presley, is slated for publication by Quest Books in third-quarter 2013. Quest previously published The Cynical Idealist-a biography of "the intellectual Beatle," John Lennon, in 2009, and Working Class Mystic-a similar study of George Harrison, in 2011. Both books have been translated into several languages and are available worldwide. Fiction-wise, he has chronicled the adventures of "soft-boiled" detective Jack Savage in two comic novels: Death, Be Not Loud and To an Aesthete Dying Young. The third book in the "Monterey Jack" series-She Stalks in Beauty-will be published in late 2013. He also published Darkling Plain, a collection of intertwined short stories set in Vietnam. The book examines the impact of America's most traumatic war on a young airman. Tillery is also author of two volumes of poetry-Through a Dark, Glassly, as well as 50 Epiphanies, a collection of haiku. A native of the American Southwest, Tillery was born in Phoenix in 1947. He served in Vietnam with the U.S. Air Force in 1968-69, then returned to earn a Bachelor's degree in Latin American Studies from Arizona State University and a Master's degree from the American Graduate School of International Management. Tillery is also a professional artist. His most prominent work is the centerpiece sculpture for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Chicago. He also created the bronze bust of Steve Allen for the Steve Allen Theater in Hollywood. He has displayed in galleries from Pennsylvania to New Mexico and appeared in exhibitions from Chicago to Shanghai. His works are in the private collections of Patricia DuPont and General Tommy Franks, and the National Veterans Art Museum in Chicago holds two pieces in its permanent collection.