Acclaim and Praise for ROCK 'N FIRE Winner of the 2021 NIEA African American Fiction Award Winner of the 2021 Kops-Fetherling Gold Award for Sports Book Finalist of the 2021 IBA Next Generation African American Fiction Award Bronze Medal Winner of the 2021 Ippy Midwest Fiction Award Bronze Medal Winner of the 2021 New York City Book Awards for History Top Five Placement in Historical Fiction for the 2021 Best Indie Book Award (BIBA) Finalist in TaleFlick's Road to Development Contest "This is a rare gem...the story is amazingly written." -TaleFlick "A 1960s Hall-of-Fame historian trying to find information on a Major League ballplayer's race-related taboo relationship occurring decades earlier...the Golden Age of Baseball and its tarnished surface are strongly featured." -IndieReader "Stallard weaves a tale of discovery (during) a turbulent time period in American history...juxtaposed against the racism of MLB." -Reader Views An unforgettable story hides in the shadows of America's national pastime... It's 1963, and civil unrest simmers in America's streets. Baseball Hall of Fame Historian Frank Aldridge receives a letter from a woman claiming that Ray Cavanaugh, a talented but forgotten left-handed pitcher, may be her father. Fascinated by her story, Frank sets out to discover the truth. What he finds and uncovers is a lost legacy of forbidden love, fragile dreams, and despicable racism... In the 1930s and '40s, Ray Cavanaugh was known as Rock 'n Fire', an ace pitcher with a stubborn streak a mile wide. After suffering an injury in a game against Negro League All Stars, Ray meets Aulette... a black woman. Together they defy society's racist taboos and embark on a passionate affair, knowing it could have disastrous consequences for them both. Inspired by his personal need to know the truth, Frank is driven to find the elusive Cavanaugh, who has not been heard from in more than a decade. And as the years go by, Frank fights his own problems as he presses on to uncover the love story buried beneath decades of hatred and oppression. Told against the sprawling canvas of our country's turbulent past, Rock 'n Fire is a mesmerizing look at the hope of love in the dark side of America's favorite sport.