Donald Harington Books In Order

Publication Order of Stay More Books

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Publication Order of Non-Fiction Books

Publication Order of Collections

Donald Harington was American visual artist and author of Stay More series. Most of the author’s novels are set or have an essential connection to a fictional Ozark Mountain town, Stay More based in Drakes Creek in Arkansas where the author spent most of his childhood summers.

Harington was born and spent his childhood in Little Rock, Arkansas and nearly lost his hearing to meningitis at the age of 12. The hearing loss did not prevent Harington from preventing the author from pursuing his childhood dreams nor teaching as an adult. Though the author wanted to be a writer right from the start, his career was in art history. Harington taught history in New England, South Dakota and New York City before returning to lecture in University of Arkansas for the next 22 years before retiring in 2008.

Harrington is referred to one of America’s most celebrated author of fiction, with Entertainment Weekly referring him to as one of America’s most celebrated unknown authors.

Lightning Bug

While Donald Harington might be one of those writers unheard of, he is one of those few writers you should make yourself familiar with.
Lightning Bug is the first book in Stay More series. It is mostly the romance story of Latha Bourne and Every Dill. The two were lovers until their adolescence when a might Ingledew brothers who in some way think that Stay More is their personal town decided that Latha Bourne should marry to Ranfall Ingledew. It is not revealed to the reader the motive behind Latha’s acceptance for this betrothal, but she immediately puts Every out of her life.
Not even World War I can break the hold of Randall’s family over their son betrothal to Latha. Though Every Dill returns from the battlefield to report that Randall had done and tied to a tree by the Germans to lure American soldiers into the path of machine gun crosshairs.

Every still deeply in love with Latha had promised her that he would take care of her man while overseas but seems to have failed in his promise despite having machine gun bullet scars as an indicator that he had done everything in his power to save Randall. Ingledew family subsequently threatens every if he approaches Latha until when Uncle Sam confirms that Randall is dead.

The first book in Stay More series spans from the period of pre-world war I to some years after the war. During this period the small town of Stay More experiences many changes and some for the worse. Literally, the small town is dying especially when someone who is after Every Dill robs the local bank.
Dill eventually leaves Stay More and encounters Latha and manages to declare his love for her and what transpires next is what many would call rape, but that’s a subject of debate.

The next years in Every life are blank, and the author doesn’t explain his absence. On the other hand, Latha spends time with her sister and her husband in Little Rock. She spends almost three years in an asylum, and next, we find her running a general store. Occasionally, Latha spends her free time fishing in Banty Creek where she meets Dolph.

From the author’s description, the reader can see that Latha is a lady of strong sexuality. On the other hand, Dolph takes the thing to the next level by declaring that he wants to marry Latha Bourne but she doesn’t make it easy for him.

However, Dolph doesn’t give up and decides to track her down, but she doesn’t give him a chance either. Suddenly, Every Dill reappears in Stay More town as a preacher to post flyers in the local village with the intention of preaching a revival. However, Every Dill transformation from a World War I soldier to a bank thief and then preacher astonishes the locals.

It’s not long before Latha finally accepts Every’s marriage proposal but on a condition that he makes love to her before they get married. However, Everyone’s commitment to the word of the Lord restricts him from committing fornication.

What follows next is a stalemate that can only be tackled by Every’s “chat” with the Lord and Latha’s chat with God. Lightning Bug, the first book in the series is a tangle of narrators and flashbacks. This is one of the author’s techniques that make his writing work so well. The author makes use of a subjective narration. The main focus of the novel is Latha.

Cockroaches of Stay More

Cockroaches of Stay More is the story of class struggle, love, religious parables set in American South with some cast of cockroaches. Centering on some few houses of Stay More, the story follows a thriving community of rooster-roaches who swim in beer cans, pray to man and have a solid class structure.
The town landowners live in luxurious houses; the middle-class people live in a rundown house while the poor folks live in abandoned structures. Between dodging bullets and hiding from giant white rat, a poor woman in town falls in love with both the town pastor’s son and the town squire.

Meanwhile, Stay More town pastor starts to preach the end of times preaches thus initiating a series of events like death, gunplay and a scene where a cockroach ends up in someone’s mouth.

Butterfly Weed

Butterfly Weed takes the form of an author speaking with a former folklorist at his nursing home. It is revealed that the folklorist arrived in Stay More town suffering from typhoid and was treated by Doc Swain.

Additionally, Harington reveals to the reader that Doc Swain was cut from the womb by his biological father who murdered his parents and gave him to a healer to learn the art of healing. Without formal education, Doc Swain becomes a well-recognized doctor capable of performing major medical diagnosis, curing the sick in their sleep and waking the dead. Even though Doc marries one of his patients, he eventually finds his true love years later, but their love is frustrated by a lusty teacher named Venda Breedlove. The 7th installment in Stay More series is a fascinating story with plenty of sex scenes throughout the pages.