John Sparks

Waiting For God, O.T. John Sparks

John Sparks is a writer, historian, former preacher, and healthcare worker living at Hagerhill, Kentucky. Waiting for God, O. T. is a collection of short stories on Appalachian life, told from the perspective of a medical worker, a fictional character named Tom Harmon. The tales, be they tall or short, are a mixed bag. John Sparks says about Tom, "In our junior year, the last spring semester before Tom and I went into our clinicals, the Drama Department put on the Samuel Beckett play Waiting for Godot and Tom read for and got the part of Lucky. He very nearly broke the audience up, those he didn't insult, with his rendition of Lucky thinking out loud. Tom sang and chanted the script while holding onto his ear and shaking hands with the other characters like an old-time mountain Baptist preacher. After the poison-pen letters started appearing in the town newspaper, one of the Deans threatened to expel us for that little prank. After we started our careers, Tom would pass an occasional recollection about the play to me and say that instead of waiting for Godot he was now waiting for God, O. T., using the common hospital abbreviation for overtime hours worked."