Crooked Branch was a finalist in the Christian Writer's Guild first annual Operation New Novel competition. About the book: Sherman can't help it. He's afraid. For a farm boy growing up in Oklahoma during the summer of 1953, there's plenty to be afraid of - nuclear war, tornados, the crazed milk cow lurking in the back pasture, the Ku Klux Klan, lock jaw, bank robbers, losing that big fish (again), hobos. Oh, and don't forget the big one. Hell. Sherman is very afraid of going to Hell. But mostly Sherman and his little brother Ray are afraid of their oldest brother Merle. Merle is the kind of...