Books by Tony Cochran

Somewhere between here and anywhere, in a trailer park called "The People''s Court," lives a bespectacled, floppy-footed girl named Agnes. Her age falls exactly between the wide-eyed times when fairy tales are embraced as truth and the darker, later years when cynicism starts to take its toll. The other players in this small sideshow are Grandma, a hardworking, underpaid Golden Ager who worries that she may be a little too old for the challenge of raising a granddaughter, and Trout, Agnes''s best friend. Trout was named after one of her father''s biggest passions and, according to her, she was only three numbers from being christened Powerball. Trout tries to temper Agnes''s stigmatism of hope with her own doctrine of realism. Together they weather the major tribulations that only childhood can make so monumental. Trout aspires to pilot a soft-serve ice cream machine so all the kids will laugh and yell "Hey, Ice Cream Lady!" Agnes merely wants to be crowned lord queen of the unknown universe. They will probably end up on different bowling leagues.

Every once in a great while the glimmer of something different will twinkle from the stack of comic cordwood piled in the daily newspaper. In I Have Tampered with the Divine Plan, the second Agnes collection, that glimmer continues to shine brightly. Agnes, the round-nosed, elegantly footed little girl in the cute black shift, and her best friend, Trout, continue their mad scramble through youth's treacherous minefield. High adventure and mayhem are afoot as they share the odd conversations that cobble together all amazing relationships. And when all that imagination no longer fits in their heads, it spills out into some very messy puddles. And messy puddles are funny.