Works by
James Michael Pratt
(Writer)

Fiction

• The Last Valentine (1998)
  Television reporter Susan Allison is looking for the perfect story about true love, yet she doubts where such a thing really exists, Neil Thomas, Jr. wants to share his parents' bittersweet love story with the world. On February 14, 1944, Caroline Thomas said good-bye to her beloved husband, a Navy pilot sent to the Pacific. For fifty year, she waited for him--until a miracle happened, and she received his last valentine. In the present day, when Susan and Neil meet, can the story of Neil's parents bring them together in a love as powerful as she dreams of and he remembers?

• The Lighthouse Keeper (2000)
  Nine-year-old Peter O'Banyon's life changes forever when his family dies in an accident. Orphaned, he goes to live with his garrulous Uncle Billy, the keeper of the Port Hope Lighthouse in Massachusetts. There, as the beacon leads sailors safely home, Peter learns an astonishing truth about Billy's past--and the power of love. This message guides Peter's life, even when World War II's brutality rocks his faith, even when he returns to his young bride and an unimaginable tragedy. Now, in the final days of his own life, Peter needs to pass on the lighthouse keeper's secrets to his own daughter, but to do it may take nothing less than a miracle ...

• Ticket Home (2001)
  At the dawn of World War II, in rural Oklahoma, identical twins Lucien and Norman Parker are bound by the tragic death of their mother, their railroad jobs, and an abiding well of brotherly devotion. But when both fall for the prettiest girl in town, they learn the hard way that they can't share everything. It is brash Lucien who finally wins her hand, while gentle Norman must learn to live without the woman he cherishes and the brother who betrayed him. At last, reunited, and reconciled, in the war-torn South Pacific, Lucien and Norman fight side by side. But only one will return home for a bittersweet reunion, burdened with the heartbreaking loss of his brother- and the weight of a shocking secret that will haunt him for decades to come ...

• Paradise Bay (2002)
  Jack Santos never had a father-or so he believed. All his life, he was told his father was killed in the Vietnam War. Jack was raised by his mother alone, and all his life he was searching for something he couldn't name. A twist of fate changes everything he thought he knew, however. He discovers his father isn't dead after all and that for the past decades he has been suspended between life and death; between dreaming and waking. Jack is hungry for everything he can find out about this father, Levi Harper. And the only link he has to the past is through Levi's journals. It is through these journals that Jack discovers who his father really is: from a small boy in Paradise Bay, California, to an eager young man going off to Vietnam, to a young husband who desperately wants a future for his wife, Levi Harper reveals his loves, dreams, hopes....and secrets. Can Jack discover the truth about his own life? And can he find the love that will always bring him back to Paradise Bay? For anyone who came of age in the 1950s, 60s, or 70s, Paradise Bay is a story that will show you the true meaning of love, and will take you home again.

• The Good Heart (2005)
  He expected peace, but it had not come. Would God require something from him for the secret he had kept for more than 40 years?
  
  One mad dies, and another lives through the gift of a transplanted heart. As the recipient heals, memories he was never aware of come to him in dreams and in bright flashes of recognition that have no past. As the "heart memories" become more vivid, Mike Stone begins to understand that the secret imbedded in his new heart can destroy the very person responsible for saving his life. After years of hard living, Mike has experienced a literal change of heart. Passionately in love for the first time in his life, he is desperate to survive and to redeem the recklessness of his youth. But as he follows the trail of memories encoded in the donated heart and wrestles with issues of integrity and forgiveness, someone else seems determined to make certain the secret is never revealed. Torn between his newfound values and a desire to protect his family from harm, Mike must decide if exposing the truth is worth the risk.
  
  Set in the fast-paced, power-hungry climate of Washington, D.C., this gripping new novel combines political intrigue with passion and danger while unraveling the mystery behind a brotherly pact that threatens all in its path.

Non-fiction

• Dad:  The Man Who Lied to Save the Planet -- 12 Timeless Virtues Handed Down to a Son by an Everyday Dad (2003)
  Recalling his growing-up years in Los Angeles following World War II, author James Pratt describes twelve lessons he learned from observing his father, an unpretentious and uneducated man who acquired little of this world's wealth but who lived an honorable life. "For some, these twelve virtues may seem antiquated, out of date, or hopelessly provincial," writes Pratt. "I don't see it that way. What my father practiced and conveyed to me were principles that made it possible for children to grow up in a stable, two-parent home, where there was a widely accepted code of decency, honesty, honor, and patriotism." This book recalls simpler times, when Southern California was still filled with dusty little towns and when a mand could have purchased the bean fields that have become LAX for $5 an acre - if he had somehow had five dollars. Readers will enjoy this loving retrospective, a fitting tribute to dads everywhere.

• Mom: The Woman Who Made Oatmeal Stick to My Ribs (2004)
  "Jimmy, eat your oatmeal, it'll stick to your ribs." I recall as a boy feeling around my rib cage after eating my oatmeal and wondering if it took a trip other foods didn't. Maybe oatmeal really did hang out down there."
  
  The advice of our mothers. Maybe we don't always understand it as children (how does my failure to clean my plate affect the starving children in Africa?), but it carries a message of love and concern that reaches far beyond words. In his reflective style, best-selling author James Michael Pratt reminds us of the timeless wisdom of our mothers and offer tribute to the unsung heroines who have made the world go round. As he acknowledges, "Oatmeal might not really stick to ribs, but I never, ever eat it without hearing Mom's voice. It wasn't just oatmeal that stuck to this boy, though. It was the time-tested values that gave real warmth and protection, like a shield against the punches, life's knockout blows to the ribcage. Obeying Mom on eating the hot cereal was assuring myself that I could succeed."