Withlacoochee Jitterbug

Withlacoochee Jitterbug is about the knots within families that defy unraveling. The romance between Harry Breitenbach, the black sheep of a prominent family in Withlacoochee, Florida, and Rose Lindermeyer, a shop girl half his age who works the perfume counter at the Maas Brothers Department Store in downtown Tampa, is an unlikely one. Their lives take off like the Florida economy, as citrus agriculture and tourism create a boom economy that knows no bounds until it leads the country into the Great Depression. Withlacoochee Jitterbug is story of struggle and redemption as Rose knits the disparate threads of the Breitenbach family together. A Withlacoochee Jitterbug is Harry Breitenbach's favorite fishing lure, and this one catches the rich diversity of life in Florida from Ybor City to the Gulf Beaches and the Ten Thousand Islands, and it glistens and sparkles as it runs through the water.

Harry Breitenbach was the consummate angler, fishing the Florida Gulf Coast from Tampa to the Ten Thousand Islands. When fishing fresh water rivers like the Withlacoochee, his favorite lure was an improvised affair he called the "Withlacoochee Jitterbug." His luckiest day is not on the river, but when he meets 19-year old Rose Lindermeyer working the perfume counter at the original downtown Maas Brothers Department Store in Tampa. Harry was hooked, and though this tall, elegant young woman was half his age, their unlikely romance lights the pages of this novel. The setting is early 20th century Florida, where the state's origins in the old Confederacy are squeezed by a boom economy fed by sunshine, citrus agriculture and tourism. Tampa becomes a magnet for Americans, Cubans, and every ethnicity. The story itself reflects that diversity. The saga of Harry and Rose unfolds in Ybor City as well as on the lazy rivers and gulf beaches of Florida's modern beginnings. The story revolves around family and the Breitenbachs are rich in contradictions and the emotional angst unique to southern gothic. Withlacoochee Jitterbug is driven by its characters' struggle for redemption and accomplishment. The plot lines are as rich as seafood gumbo; as compelling as the determined angler fighting to land the catch of a lifetime.

Ted Leavengood is the author of Clark Griffith, the Old Fox of Washington Baseball, Ted Williams and the 1969 Senators, The Last Winning Season, and The 2005 Washington Nationals, all by McFarland & Company, Publishers, Inc. He recently co-authored with Dick Bosman on Dick Bosman on Pitching, by Rowman and Littlefield. His writing has appeared in numerous publications and web sites. He lives in Chevy Chase, MD with his wife Donna and the family dog. They have two daughters, Julia Leavengood-Boxer and Claire Leavengood-Boxer, both of whom live in Brooklyn, NY. Ted was an urban planner who worked for the City of Atlanta, GA, and the US Department of Housing and Urban Development until he retired in 2011.