By M. Ernest Johnson
Mr. Ledbetter’s Boots
A Novel
Follow the epic journey of Raymond Ulysses Ledbetter, a modest North Carolina farm boy who becomes a Tuskegee Airman legend when a dogfight over the Austrian Alps in 1945 sends him spiraling toward a 12,000-foot mountain range and into history. Now 95, this improbability of humanity intends to become the oldest known person to complete the iconic 40-mile hike into Nepal’s Everest Base Camp.
Traveling with Raymond is a young, hotshot journalist looking to raise his own stock in the world of social-justice broadcast news. Little does he know that the old man’s strange hiking boots hold a secret that will turn the adventure on its head.
about
M. Ernest Johnson
Raised on a North Carolina Christmas tree farm, I cut my literary teeth on Louis L’Amour, Roald Dahl, Tolkien, Hardy Boys Mysteries, Stephen King, and the like. Following in the footsteps of my father — former editor of Progressive Farmer magazine — I earned a degree in English with the intention to become a writer. Then — as you do — I spent the next 15 years as a Nashville singer-songwriter and traveling musician, followed by stints as a graphic designer, magazine writer, blogger, photographer, and owner of an international adventure travel company. (I still do all of these things today.)
I’ve written two memoirs — Doofus Dad Does Everest Base Camp and Blow the Man Down — and live near Nashville with my wife, Holly, and our three children, Sam, Ava, and Pete.
Other Books
Blow the Man Down: How I navigated the sailboats and station wagons of the music business
Doofus Dad Does Everest Base Camp: One of Planet Earth’s epic adventures told by a slightly-less-than-epic guy
Imagine setting off on a 12-day trek through the Himalayan wilderness to the foot of Mount Everest, experiencing the world’s most startling landscapes and vibrant Sherpa culture and struggling to catch your breath at nearly 18,000 feet above sea level – all without leaving your favorite listening chair.
Doofus Dad Does Everest Base Camp brings that scenario to life.
In April 2018, Johnson embarked on an epic, grueling, and often hilarious adventure – the 80-mile trek from Lukla, Nepal, to Mount Everest Base Camp – after launching an improbable trekking company a year earlier in the flatlands of the southeastern United States. As Johnson’s first excursion out of the continental US, this journey into the exotic country of Nepal was indeed a trial by fire (and ice).
Mark’s writing style and descriptions of the people, places, and events is such that you finish a chapter, put the book down … and then pick it back up, further procrastinating whatever it was you were about to move onto.
– Michael Strauss, Airline pilot, Himalayan trekker
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