MOTHER'S DAY SPECIALS! SHOW ME MORE
THE SHORT VERSION: Dennis Wammack: Alabama Born. Alabama bred. All the pride. All the guilt.Seven decades of figuring things out: An engineering contractor with white socks and pocket protector at Houston Space Flight Center in the 60's and 70's. A retail merchant supplying photographic supplies to commercial photographers, corporations, colleges, high schools, and hobbyists in Birmingham Alabama from the '80s through 2015. A worst-selling author/editor/publisher from 2016 until now.He has a wife of 52 years, two independent self-actualized daughters, 150 world-class photographs, and 1100 masterpoints from ACBL.He does NOT have a dog or hope for the survival of human civilization-Tip died in 2015, hope in 2016. ### THE LONG VERSION: Dennis Wammack was born, raised, and lives in Birmingham, Alabama. He spent thirteen years in Houston working for various incarnations of McDonnell-Douglas; a prime contractor supporting NASA Houston Manned Spaceflight operations, specifically with in-flight-simulations and crew training During that time, he married Dianne Perry of Montgomery, and they had two children, Jennifer and Catherine.In 1978, he moved his family back to Alabama to raise their children with their grandparents and cousins.They opened a photographic supply store, Cameras Brookwood, in Homewood Alabama, where they served primarily advanced hobbyists, professional, and educational markets for over 38 years.The core business of film and darkroom supplies was impacted by the transition from analog to digital. Mr. Wammack states, ""We closed the store because our lease was up, our bills were paid, I was old, and I wanted to.""After retirement, he began writing short stories as gifts for family members. This segued into self-published paperback novels. His writing is influenced by his desire to resolve dichotomies, especially those suggested during his working-class Southern Baptist upbringing.Dennis and Dianne have a collection of over 150 superb photographs. They are both well past the Life Master rank in Duplicate Bridge. He has a BA from UA in Aerospace Engineering. She has a BS from AU in Computer Sciences. He writes. She plays bridge. They live in the suburban woods of Riverchase.
Booklife Review, March, 2024. ""Something new is happening,"" a tribal leader declares deep into the epic first novel of Wammack's six-book vision of the dawn of history. For Wammack's characters, that new thing doesn't yet have a name, but it's hinted at in the title: a city, Urfa, where clans can trade, pool their resources, develop trades, and where ""For the first time, we can live without hunting."" Earthy and deeply, pointedly human, the Mythologies Told True series imagines the origins of civilization, drawing on ancient texts, both secular and religious, to imagine the lived experience of the distant past-and to strip away millennia of myth to examine breakthroughs achieved by flesh-and-blood characters not so different from us today. This first volume centers on hunter-gatherers as they settle into a new way of life, as camps become cities like Urfa, monuments get erected at camps like Tallstone, and bold figures like Valki dare to take up a new path, ""one that a woman has never traveled before."" At the story's heart are Valki-a gatherer who pioneers the cultivation of crops, exulting ""There is so much to learn about growing things""-and stonecutter/skywatcher Pumi, who at first is judged a disappointment by the chief, especially in comparison to Pumi's brother Vanam. But thoughtful Pumi, who relishes knowledge like how to measure hunting seasons by stones and stars, will also help bring newness into the world-including sex for the sake of pleasure. Writing in direct, inviting prose distinguished by a touch of the sensual and a fascination with ancient beliefs and mysteries, Wammack dramatizes the fates of the brothers, which involve classic themes of fraternal conflict. But the storytelling here is concerned with the development of ideas and ways of living, rather than traditional narrative suspense. The surprising, often touching result will appeal to anyone fascinated by what makes us human-and the earliest moment when one of us could say, ""Let us speak of the joy of life."" Takeaway: Deeply human historical fiction of the dawn of civilization. Comparable Titles: Elizabeth Marshall Thomas's The Old Way, Andrew Collins's Gobekli Tepe. Production grades Cover: C Design and typography: B Editing: A Marketing copy: A-
