Pink Dice-Soft cover

If you’re a Baby Boomer, War Baby or just tantalized by the colorful 1950’s, this book is for you. If you enjoy hearing about the idyllic days of that economically-robust period when kids were free to roam away from home on foot or bike, when mothers were always there to help with homework and made sure to have a bountiful supper on the table by 6 P.M., when going to town was an event for dressing up, when church was a huge part of the community fabric, when fish fries and ice cream socials were as ubiquitous as the old faithful Nash and Studebaker, then read this … but not without an embroidered handkerchief.

It will make you laugh and cry at the same time.

At any age, this story captures the mind and soul. American’s finest modern era is recaptured in this heartfelt novel, offered in poetic prose, taking you back to a simpler time when the middle class burgeoned happily after WWII and when all was right… or almost right… with the world.

PRE-PUBULICATION/REVIEWS

Pink Dice by Ellen Everman is an absolutely wonderful experience. After reading this delightful story, I immediately did two things- read the book again and called a few close friends and told them I was sending them copies to read. Pink Dice is that good. ~Dr. John R. Powers, Broadway playwright and author

Ellen Everman’s Pink Dice brims with diverse angles and colorful characters. With nostalgic references to a mid-50’s Cincinnati and images of young baby boomers running freely through the woods and within their own imaginations, Everman had captured the 1950s in a compelling style. There’s a little something for everyone – girls coming of age, the bad boy who is really a good boy, a budding Southern belle, an introspective pre-teen, an imaginary alter-ego and a rooster called Mr. Shortcakes. The banter, the emotional roller-coaster of teenagers and the showing off to gain the attention of an attractive member of the opposite sex is timeless. Her description of Mary Lou as being “fifteen, going on Marilyn Monroe” makes a reader wish he were fifteen, going on Joe DiMaggio ~Jack Hicks, retired columnist, The Kentucky Post

No one makes Cincinnati sparkle like Ellen Everman in her novel, Pink Dice. Finally a book that describes greater Cincinnati’s special and unique qualities. To the person who passed through our city at night traveling north through the Northern Kentucky cut in the hill whereupon the city opens up fantastically: If it has occurred to you that Cincinnati resembles the fictionalized City of Oz, Ms. Everman will take that one step further. She’ll make you believe it is. ~Douglas Rowe

PRAISE/REVIEWS

I have much to say but this is my overall view: This is an important book that has been misunderstood by many. This book is not a romp through the 1950s. It is about the likely behavior of people of all ages during periods of great cultural change. Patti Rae and Francis show us the way to move on through difficult times. The author, Ellen Everman, has done a beautiful job ! I read the three reviews on the back cover and wonder that only one could perhaps be referring to the book I read. Can hardly wait for Bell Bottoms to Gucci Proud to carry Patti Rae’s name.

“I really could not believe I was reading the same book referred to in those reviews. It is such an important, timeless story that would, if I had my way, be re-titled, given different cover art and then pushed right to the New York Times best seller list. Every teacher should be assigning this book to students of all ages and majors. In my humble opinion. It’s sweet and scary. Your characters are so well drawn. The reader could (and did) recognize friends. The families and neighborhoods remind us of what the American Dream really is, and the gentle ending teaches us that, while this experience is done with, we will always need the lessons we’ve learned from Patti Rae. A part of me really wanted Mary Lou and Jake to live happily ever after, and that silliness was put to rest comfortably in the final chapter. Thus speaks Patty Rae. ~Patricia Wheeler, Retired Prof of Philosophy

Since I retired I’ve reviewed more than a hundred entries for the Florida Writer’s Association’s annual awards. I know what academically superior writing looks like. And so do you…the technical quality of your writing is absolutely top notch.

So, why did I really like Pink Dice? And I really liked it. I was touched. Touched by the innocent awareness the girls brought to their surroundings. The way you shared their perceptions put me in the room (or the woods) with them, feeling their very consciousness. I was taken back to the unencumbered hopes of a young person. You let me watch the flight training of girls becoming women.  I felt, although I couldn’t pinpoint the exact source, that you let me in on the subtleties of how intuition develops in a young woman. It warms me that you obviously care about your characters. Even the unsavory ones. A strong background thread of goodness and honor runs through it all. You comfort your reader with your sensitivity.

You touched all those memories deeply but with gentle hand. A rare skill.

What a great, fun, sensitive read! Ms Everman’s characters are true to life and endearing in their tenderness. She brought me back to 50’s Kentucky with it’s innocence and a compelling story. If you haven’t read it yet, get with it! ~Dale Simpson, Author of Sober and Miserable, award-winning short story writer (Florida Writer’s Association), free-lance writer and blogger December 2019

I recently read The Great Gatsby for the second time in my life. It ranks right up there with Pink Dice. ~Frank McElwain, Cincinnati Painter, July 29, 2020

I read Pink Dice on vacation…sitting in the sun at the beach. I LOVED IT…reminded me a lot of my childhood…not so much actual events, but the overall mood…the details were spot on…I especially enjoyed the scene on the Ice Cream Bridge…so many things I loved when I was a kid and am sorry that kids are missing out on today…life was magical then, even without Marvel movies and a cellphone…so glad I got to live in “The Good Old Days”…Pink Dice took me back there….Thank you for that….  ~by Beverly Reed, Cincinnati, Ohio  1-15-21

PINK DICE!  I SO loved the journey back in time. I felt like I was “there” with my old friends. Patti Rae was the BEST. I loved her! ~Gail Lyon, American Canyon, California, June 2021

What can I say except that I loved the  book; read every word with great care. The players came so clearly to me, and I  could relate to them from my 50’s life. Memories, memories and more memories:  Kennedy funeral, the first TV after I entered Nursing School in 1952, the  washer wringer machine replaced by the automatic; never a dryer though. My  angora bobby socks, a gift from my babysitting days at Xmas time and my most  treasured socks; saved for good. I didn’t have a poodle skirt because my  Mother told me not to depend on the latest fads; mine was shaped like a poodle  skirt but was a white quilted skirt with black and red bumble bees and wide  waist band with a tiny width black belt; I was a belt person but no more; my  waist has grown. Crinolines; multi under the calf length party dresses; I had a  blue sash on a embroidered dress but got the end of the sash in the toilet  bowl at Bob’s fraternity Dream Girl dance but still got the title of  Dream  Girl of PKI. Ice house is a great memory; going there as well as  them delivering ice to the house. My life was of “Intersanctum and The Green  Beetle”, Burns and Allen via radio. A great book that doesn’t have to have leud  sex descriptions to be understood. A great book and I feel a Classic that will  be on the best list and would be a great movie in a time of need to remember  what was and could be in our generation. Loved it. We need more books of this  time. ~Ana

Loved the book! I couldn’t put it down. I’ve passed it on  already.  The way you wrapped events and emotions around Patti Rae was brilliant. I could so imagine being there – feeling her every reaction  and observation. ~Rosemarie

Historic biographies are my favorite genre-so I was really  captivated by the references of 1956 including clothing, music and  even the sensor hose at the filling station. ( I’m glad you didn’t  mention American Bandstand in the book. That show went national  in March 1957 out of Phila.) Since your book didn’t include  gratuitous sex or vulgar language this book might be enriching to  teens and young adults-especially that segment who live in SW Ohio or  N. Kentucky. They could get an appreciation of life in that  milieu. ~Tom

What I enjoyed about Pink Dice and Bell Bottoms to Gucci is that you present your subject matter in a way that, while being sentimental in some aspects, shows the struggles that existed during their respective time periods.  Both novels are nostalgic with a healthy dose of realism. Thank you for so accurately chronicling those days! ~Rob Arlinghaus, Musician, Villa Hills, Kentucky, 12-21

I’ve just finished the first chapter of Pink Dice and I can’t lay it down. Reads like prose.  It is so beautifully written. ~Ella Ray Sentner, Arlington, Virginia, January 21, 2024

AMAZON REVIEW FOR PINK DICE

Pink Dice by Ellen Everman is not a romp through the 1950s as suggested by the cover art and the summary in the flyleaf. Pink Dice is about the likely upheaval in people of all ages during periods of great cultural change. Hope, anxiety and feelings of helplessness develop in equal measure in all of us as everything we’ve ever known is turned upside down virtually overnight.

Pink Dice is set in just such a time, and the significance of the change experienced in the 1950s from a rural culture recovering from a devastating World War cannot be ignored as we move now from industry, which expanded the labor of man, to technology, which can expand his mind, to something entirely unknown in a time of seemingly endless wars.
Ms. Everman’s debut novel has much to teach us now, not about “Walton’s Mountain” or “Rock Around the Clock”, but about who we are now and what we have to deal with now and how we can use our unique American experience to ease the feelings of fear and sadness and excitement that have the power to shake our souls now. Patti Rae and her friend, Francis, make their way through the confusion of the new world in which they find themselves through quiet, sometimes intense, talks in the local woods or by a stream or at the top of a hill in a daffodil patch. The insights they share lead them on a solid path, while the more emotionally heated around them lose their way, some of them completely, and the reader is reminded that we need to listen to what Francis and Patti Rae are saying to us.

Pink Dice is a sweet and scary story. The characters are so well drawn that I found myself recognizing some of them as my own friends from that time. The various plot lines blend smoothly without ever mangling the message. Patti Rae and Francis, with their companion characters, remind us of what the American Dream really is, and if I, a retired teacher, could have my way, Pink Dice would be required reading for everyone from middle school on.

I recommend this book highly.~Patricia Wheeler, Retired Prof of Philosophy