AUTHOR’s NOTE

“This is the second novel I wrote but the first one I’m sharing with the world. The book began with a few persistent melodies—snatches of voice, a gesture, a line of dialogue—that played themselves in my head. Writing each chapter was like learning an instrument—tuning their timbre, tempo, and private rhythms until they found a place in the score. I arranged scenes the way a composer orchestrates sequences and rhythms, listening for counterpoint, following harmonies and allowing dissonance where it felt true, and often the story surprised me by improvising its own endings. I hope these characters stay with you as they do with me.”—TYRONE JOHN

PUBLISHER’s NOTE

“The songs they wanted to write were simple. The lives they lived were not.

What happens when two aspiring songwriters discover that life hits harder than any lyric they can write? Meet the tearful dreamer and the brutally honest realist, bound by music, tested by pressure, undone by their own insecurities. Paper Boats and Paracords follows a lachrymose lass and a forthright lad whose shared love for music becomes both their anchor and their undoing. As life tests their courage, their bond, and their hearts, they learn that some lessons can’t be written in a song—only lived.

Paper Boats and Paracords tells the story of two young dreamers navigating music, pressure, and the quiet storms inside their hearts. As disagreements, fear, pride, and unexpected affection reshape them, they learn that some melodies are written not with notes, but with courage.

Two souls. One dream. A thousand unspoken fears. Love, jealousy, pride, admiration, heartbreak—it’s all here!

—Here’s a tender, immersive quiet, aching, beautiful debut novel by Tyrone John. Paper Boats and Paracords is 518 pages of tenderness, tension, and truth, an emotional marathon you won’t forget.”— Cindy Wong, 8Letters Publishing