Tom Stewart

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About The Author

Tom Stewart

Tom Stewart tells stories about real people in real rooms. He notices the click of a ceiling fan, the hum of a switchboard, and the one dinner invite that can turn a stranger into family. His writing is rich in humor, sympathy, and specific, tiny details that bring a world to life.

He loves dialogue that sounds like it’s actually happening. His style is quick, smart, a little messy, and characters who are brave enough to figure themselves out in public. He recreates Florida of the early 90s in 12TH AVE SOUTH with its blazing heat, its heart, and the silent courage you had to possess to be yourself in the 90s.

About The Book

12th ave south

In this vivid, heartfelt coming-of-age set in the early ’90s, Jack Powers leaves Iowa chasing air that feels freer. He wakes in a New Orleans haze, then keeps driving east until the Atlantic stops him. In Jacksonville Beach, he finds a job at RBB Imports, a sharp-tongued crew, and a neighbor, Miss Mable, who teaches him that belonging isn’t given, it’s built. One dinner, one laugh, one honest risk at a time. Join the journey of bad choices, small mercies, and the slow thaw of a guarded heart into chosen family.

12th Ave South

Book Chapter

Chapter
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You'll read the hangover morning in New Orleans that makes Jack choose motion over drift: a "single blade of sunlight," the click of a wobbly fan, the room's stale-beer FOG. It's funny and bleak at once, and it sets the book's sensory truth from the first line. That urgency, get up, get out, pushes him east.
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Jack steps into RBB Imports, where the atrium and spiral staircase signal who has power before anyone speaks. At the front desk, Allissa’s sultry phone voice becomes a precise gatekeeper in heels. Upstairs and down, quick introductions and small favors double as tests. You’ll read the office’s unwritten code and how Jack starts reading it.
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You'll read the moment Miss Mable spots Jack and opens a door: dinner at her beach place on 12th Avenue South, "Ties are illegal at the beach… I'm always on beach time." Then the drive east turns into a slow reveal: pines to palms, the Intracoastal bridge, a flash of white egret, and the ocean ahead like an answer. It's the chapter where the book's compass flips from clock time to tide time.
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You'll read how that first beach night spills into predawn restlessness and a walk straight to the water. The scene slows: breath of the ocean, body unclenching, the kind of silence that feels like permission. It's the first time you feel "home" as a sensation, not a place.

12th Ave South

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What Our Readers Say

❝

This reads like someone finally told the truth about the early '90s if you were queer and just trying to live. Not tragic, not sanitized, honest, warm, sharp. Definitely give it a read!

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❝

Please hold.’ I can still hear the switchboard. The office chapters are hilarious without being mean, and they give Jack a believable way into the community. A worth reading book!

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❝

Chapter 1 hooked me with the ceiling fan click and didn't let go. The writing is so visual that you can feel the humidity. I highlighted half the pages.

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A Midwestener lands on 12th Ave South and finds what the 90s rarely offered: safety, laughter, and a deck full of people who keep a seat open.

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