Stan C Smith

Parthenium's Year Stan C Smith

"Value not so much the gift of the lover as the love of the giver."

Spencer Wolfe has finished college and returns to his hometown with no idea what he'll do next. Unexpectedly, he meets a girl he has never seen before, which doesn't happen often in Oak Green, Missouri. She is unlike anyone Spencer has ever met. She speaks by sharing quotes and stories. She looks at the world with wonder, having recently ventured off her family's property for the first time.

Her name is Parthenium. Spencer is drawn to her because, in spite of her peculiar childhood, she overflows with sensitivity and perception. She also has a mysterious eagerness to achieve, and when Spencer discovers why, his life is suddenly set on a new course.

Parthenium's Year, a novella of 15,000 words, is a story of the true nature of gifts. Not gifts born of wealth, but rather gifts born of love, and of imagination, and perhaps even magic.