By Michael Butler

Tallassee native Jason Cleghorn has written his first book focusing on his family and hometown ties. “The Weight of the Light” is now available on Amazon.

The work has been dedicated to Cleghorn’s father, Felix, who died in 2007.

“(He) had almost nothing and gave me everything. I wrote the book because I made a promise to my father that these stories would carry forward. I think a big takeaway from the book is that ordinary people can lead extraordinary lives.

“Having an older parent growing up, I never met my grandfather. I never met a lot of my cousins, aunts and uncles. The novel is a way for me to reconnect to people that I never met through these stories.”

Cleghorn is an urban planner who resides in New Hampshire. He has lived in Florida and Arizona since his days growing up in Tallapoosa County.

“This novel starts with my father’s birth. This is book one of a planned three-series novel. This book runs from 1927 to 1949.”

Cleghorn’s grandfather had a farm at Herren’s Crossroads.

“My father lived there. (He) never farmed. He left to join the Navy when he was 14. You weren’t allowed to be in the Navy when you were 14 even after Pearl Harbor. He was sent home. He didn’t want to go back to school and farm. The novel is divided into two parts. Part one is about the farm (and) my grandfather, things people that farm in Tallassee would be familiar with. Part two was about my father.”

The work is classified as historical fiction.

“When you put your book on Amazon, you have to give it categories. I, like my father, never farmed a day. I did research to make sure things in the book about cotton farming were accurate. In some ways, I feel like I didn’t actually write this book. This book was my father’s stories. I wrote the prologue ten years ago.”

The early reviews have been positive.

“I was blessed to get a lot of people say, humbly, ‘This felt like reading “To Kill a Mockingbird” for the first time.’ I hoped it (wasn’t) just people telling me this because they’re friends and family. Then I let people read it that I didn’t know and got the same reactions.”