After more than a decade spent in and out of juvenile detention, half-way houses, and jail, Roy Alison returns to his rural home in Columbia County, Arkansas determined to do better, to be better. But what he finds is a working-class community devastated by the economic downturn—a region without anything to hold on to but the past.

Around him, families lose their sons to war, hunting accidents, drugs. A local teenager goes missing—one more good girl caught up with the wrong guy. And Roy, along with the town, falls into old patterns established generations ago.

A novel-in-stories, COUNTRY HARDBALL is a powerfully observed and devastatingly understated portrait of the American working class.

COUNTRY HARDBALL will be published by Tyrus Books in November 2013. The book is set for simultaneous release as hardback, paperback, ebook, and audio book.

My friend Steve Weddle has been working on something called COUNTRY HARDBALL. He’s finding a voice that’s half James Sallis and half Charlie Huston. I can’t wait until people see what he’s up to. -- Jay Stringer (Runaway Town, Old Gold) in PulpPusher

Steve Weddle’s COUNTRY HARDBALL is a perfect combination of the broken-hearted and the just flat broke. Perfect for anybody who's ever found themselves at the dead end of a dirt road, and decided, well, hell, there’s nothing to turn around for. Perfect for those who bear their lives like an amputated limb. Here’s hoping Weddle never stops writing, because COUNTRY HARDBALL is just about the perfect book. -- Benjamin Whitmer (SATAN IS REAL, PIKE)

By turns lyrical and brutal, sweet and sad, and it’s hands-down one of the best I’ve ever read. -- Chris F. Holm (DEAD HARVEST, THE WRONG GOODBYE), on "Purple Hulls" from COUNTRY HARDBALL