The story follows a pastor's kid from idyllic childhood into the rugged terrain of the Rockies as an adventurous young man and finally into the coal mines where he confronts the same demons that nearly destroyed his father.
About the Author: S. K. Badgett is an artist, poet, and adventurer who has gone on a quest to expose profane language. His convictions are rooted in his upbringing as the son of a Foursquare pastor with a hardscrabble past in migrant camps during the Depression. Though very poor, his parents were staunchly conservative politically and strictly fundamental in their religious points of view. His father suffered a nervous breakdown and was placed in a mental hospital while Badgett was still a child. As an adolescent, S. K. was drawn to beatnik writers and found himself identifying with the socially downtrodden and with American Indians. By the time he hit college he was climbing rocks and dropping lots of drugs. He adopted Eastern mysticism, avidly pursuing the "white light" he had read about as a teenager, yet never entirely severing his fundamental roots. God changed his life in a dramatic moment of conversion, and from there Badgett never looked back. He hustled odd jobs to support his own growing family, and this led at last to the coalmines. He spent seven years underground and tells of harrowing moments there in his newly published memoir Tenuous. The constant stream of profanity nearly drove him crazy, and he still experiences symptoms of traumatic stress from his mining days. S. K. Badgett loves language and loves people, so he often finds himself involved in gregarious conversation in chance meetings with people in the Roaring Fork Valley where he lives. Badgett's mural-painting talent has landed him commissions in luxurious homes in Aspen, the most expensive town in America. Badgett has been a speech teacher, storyteller, and oral historian. His new book, Tenuous, has been described as "crystal clear and generous." Badgett's poetry has appeared in numerous literary journals. His essays have appeared in several journals, a college text, and two anthologies. He reads his work at coffee shops and poetry gatherings. He has a Masters in Language and Communication from Regis University and is currently pursuing an MA in English at Bread Loaf School of English, Middlebury College.