Indy Boswell

Champion Standing is the second novel in the planned series of four related novels that take place in the small fictitious town of Jordan, Indiana. The first novel in the set of four was The Sower’s Seeds. Whereas The Sower’s Seeds is somewhat a Siddhartha-like novel, at its heart Champion Standing is a like a Romeo and Juliet love story. The two main characters Abigail “Abi” Lloyd and Arthur “Art” Kosterman born the same day in 1946 grow up as “neighborhood twins” together.

Besides the overhanging love story behind Champion Standing there are many other fun things within the novel. Champion Standing could also be viewed as a story about ego and the management thereof. Abigail deals with this issue. Abi is an artist. A great artist! In fact, the name of the novel comes from Abi’s first painting (called Champion Standing). Regardless, throughout her life Abi hides her talent from others. At first, she does this for the wrong reasons; later on, she discovers how or why to do it for the right reasons. As an individual, Abi lives most of her entire life within the narrow confines of Jordan. Abi lives life in the here and now. She is a realist, more than an idealist. She lives with tragedy, then grows beyond it. She is not necessarily bright from a book and schooling standpoint, but she does have a god given talent—and that is her artistic painting.

Champion Standing is also a story about mysticism. This is Art’s part of the story. Art is an idealist. He is bright—a 1600 SAT type bright. However, unlike Abi, he is an idealist, and not a realist. Art is always looking out there—to the skies, to the universe, to new ideas—for his answers. He has seen the world. At first he went to school to become a High Energy Physicist, but then he was confronted by the Vietnam War, and life changed for him, sending him on a completely different path. By the end of the story he is studying humpbacked whales and trying to learn what they are telling him.

Although Champion Standing is yet to be published, a short story called To Be or Not to Be, drawing from one of the more important of the fifty plus scenes in the novel, can be obtained by contacting the author through this website.