Rebecca Bailey's novella The Only Road There Is arrives at the perfect moment in this national season of gloom and doom. Narrator Brenda Marlene Simpkins' spoken language is fresh as a cold mountain stream as she tells the story of her road trip from Kentucky to 'out west' with her dear old and frustrating mother. I think this book establishes Rebecca Bailey high on the list of new-century American fiction writers." - Gurney Norman, author of Divine Right's Trip and Kinfolks, "The Only Road There Is sparkles with the same rare, creative energy that makes Rebecca Bailey a prize-winning short story writer and poet." - John Engle, author of Tree People, Modern Odyssey, and numerous other poetry collections, "This marvelously witty romp through the postmodern American West is a delightful and fresh point of view with a narrative voice that recalls the best of Tom Robbins and Jane Smiley without being imitative or derivative in the least. The heroine/narrator of this finely wrought story of a dysfunctional family that manages to pull it all together when the going gets... well, ridiculous... is just plain fun. Never a dull word here, just angst revealed in a candid and totally original and utterly fun story that creates an appetite for more. It is a nearly perfect novella." - Clay Reynolds, Series Judge