In His Corner
Will the Real Billy Joe Please Stand
By Joan Moore Lewis 

     In His Corner (Will the Real Billy Joe Please Stand) is the story of two young people from the same small town in Georgia who have much in common – and much that isn’t. The setting for In His Corner is during the sixties, an era of change and unrest amongst the youthful population of the United States – even those in a small town in the South.

     Jane Moss was a young naive Southern girl who yearned for a change, for something different from the small town life where everyone knew everyone else and made it their business to help them stay on the straight and narrow. Shortly after her high school graduation, Jane moved to the big city of Atlanta. Her life was filled with work, shopping and friends – and trying to pretend that she wasn’t really the innocent little small town girl that everyone thought she was. Life for Jane in downtown Atlanta was exciting, much different than life in the little town of Overton. Then she literally bumped into Billy Joe Billingsley on the dance floor at Kitten’s Korner on Peachtree Street - and her life changed forever.

     Billy Joe Billingsley was considered a juvenile delinquent amongst the town folk of Overton, Georgia – despite the fact that his family was a prominent one in the area. He had fallen in with the wrong crowd and had gotten caught committing the “heinous crime” of stealing hubcaps. Since he had just turned eighteen, he was sent to prison. When he was released, he returned home but he just did not fit in anymore. He soon left for greener pastures.

    Billy Joe was older than Jane and definitely not boyfriend material for such an innocent young girl - but try telling that to Jane. She had met her soul mate and nothing, not even her family disowning her, was going to stop her from seeing Billy Joe. Life with Billy Joe was filled with traveling from one place to another in the South. Jane suspected that something was just not right about the “distribution business” that Billy Joe was involved in but she closed her eyes to it and pretended everything was on the up and up. After all, they were in love and that made everything all right – didn’t it?

     Joan Moore Lewis has the true Southern knack for telling one heck of a story. She had me hooked from the moment that I read the prologue. Sometimes a writer hooks me from the first page, but it takes an exceptional writer to hook me from the prologue. A new Southern voice has emerged onto the writing scene in Joan Moore Lewis. In His Corner (Will the Real Billy Joe Please Stand) is Joan Moore Lewis’ first published book. I hope that it is not her last.