The Home (2019) Second Edition

What do the following individuals have in common? Walt (13), bewildered and beguiled, falling in love for the first time, second time, third time... Patti (12), precocious and outrageous, the wayward redhead; Freddie (12), freckled and fearless, the diminutive Romeo likes them all; Caroline (11), slim, blonde and innocent, Walt's companion and confidant; Frankie (12), the dormitory enforcer and bully; HoneySue (14), sexuality incorporated, dance lessons free; Ronnie (13), tattletale and frequent target of retaliatory beatings; and Jeannie (17), orphan and loner. They are all residents of The Home, a foster institution during the 1950s. It is a time of teenage ascendancy and the arrival of rock 'n roll. Walt, a naive thirteen-year-old, leaves his mother to experience dormitory living, the conflicts between group loyalty and personal ethics, the onset of introspection and its implications, and to confront the perplexing challenges of sexual awakening. Told with humor and nostalgia, the story is set against a background of first loves, music, dance, and occasional violence. Relationships shift between adolescent boys and girls as they adapt, or not, and survive, or not, in The Home.

Falling in Love and Other Misadventures (2019)

What is love and how does one attain it? Instead of the usual romantic portrayal, love in this collection of twenty stories and two interludes is viewed from a variety of perspectives and in a number of guises, including the love of adventure, the need for loyalty and social acceptance, and the feelings we express for other people, animals, and ourselves. What happens when a naive young man falls in love with his first intimate, a hotel prostitute? When do lucid dreams become real? What's so important about a wedding ring? A safety pin? What happens on a deserted, rat-infested island? What could possibly go wrong with shoplifting, burning leaves, a health fair physical, time travel, buying a car, helping an alien, or picking up someone at a local nightclub? It's all about life, real or imagined, partner. Been there and done that!

The Party House (2019)

A barrier island on the Gulf coast of Texas in the 1970s is only nominally part of the Lone Star State or anywhere else. It is home to a tavern and neighborhood social club called The Party House, hosting an eclectic clientele of hippies, rednecks, tourists, and others, along with their schemes, dreams, and relationships. Into the craziness steps Pete, a serious graduate student arriving on the island to conduct field research. He quickly succumbs to the drinking, dancing, gambling, and intimacies associated with the summertime beach life and wintertime bar life. His five-year sojourn includes an encounter with an outlaw biker gang, attempts to play pimp for a woman friend, surviving a hurricane, and confrontations with drunks, an angry father, a massive gathering of sharks, and poisonous jellyfish. Island life includes a young female pool hustler, an all night peyote party, and an assortment of has been and wanna be characters. Ultimately, Pete must choose between a demanding academic career or continue the raucous and comfortable lifestyle he has come to embrace. Can you have both?

Confronting the Boundaries (2020)

A collection of twenty tales, real and unreal, plus four poems and three photo-essays. Everyday life is full of challenges, including problems with family relationships, trials in dating and mating, miscommunication, overcoming tragedy, and encounters with the strange and unpredictable. Meet Starlight Bernie, an old man alone on a train; Fig Newton, a boy with a peculiar hobby; the Pizza Kid and his dog Rainbow struggling to forget; a professor who investigates a futuristic love store; and a man who wants to end the world as we know it. These stories and many more characterize the places and times where boundaries shift, limits are imposed, and challenges are either met or not.

New Albion Sunset (2020)

Drake's Lost English Outpost in North America, 1579

In 1577 Francis Drake left England with five ships on a trading mission to the Mediterranean. Instead, he sailed for the New World and entered the Pacific with one ship to relieve Spanish towns and ships of gold, silver, and other treasures. His voyage around the world was well-documented, except for one mysterious chapter. Before sailing across the Pacific to the East Indies, he spent several weeks on the west coast of North America. He brought a second ship, one captured off Nicaragua, with about 80 men and one woman to an anchorage site where he claimed New Albion as a territorial possession for Queen Elizabeth. He left the coast with 63 people, one ship, and considerably less silver in 1579. This book, a hybrid novel and historical inquiry, relates the fate of the New Albion Company, the twenty men left behind when the Golden Hinde departed. Set in British Columbia, Washington, and Oregon, the story presents historic and fictional characters, encounters with native tribes, a shipwreck, and the struggle to survive. An appendix, with maps, illustrations, dates, references, and factual details, provides support for armchair explorers and historians to explore the premise of the novel.

The Sagebrush Hotel Tontine (2021)

A Tale of Treasure and Treachery

In 1864, three Mormon brothers are bound for Utah and home after successfully extracting ore from the Northern California gold fields. Their gold is hijacked and buried by a stream near Goose Lake in Modoc County. The gold, in the form of miner's doré bars, is discovered by a schoolteacher and a government field biologist in 1957. Gold is illegal to possess and they and several friends hide it in the small desert town. Many of the group members are also enthusiastic poker players at the town's only hotel. They form a tontine, a survivorship agreement to retain and eventually dispose of the gold, which is valued at more than one hundred thousand dollars. By 1977, the gold is legal and worth millions, but the original group has changed. Some have not survived and others have been added. The tontine becomes a dead pool as temptations and frustrations increase. Amidst the intrigue surrounding the trove, romance antes into the game for Johnny and Brandi, two of the unpredictable players.

SurrogaCity (2022)

Perfect Societies Require Perfect Humans

In the year 2042, megacities are ruled by women, the International Progressive Gynocracy (IPG), after a global pandemic sterilizes over 98 percent of the men. Selected fertile males reside in sequestered androdomes or male harems. Freemen groups living outside of SurrogaCity, the former San Francisco, support reproductive freedom and resist the IPG with the help of artificial humans. Political conflicts, military confrontations, and the prospect of parthenogenetic reproduction threaten the future of human males.

The Gristmill Mistress (2023)

Flights of Fancy—Short Stories and More

A kaleidoscope of stories, poems, a play, and photo-essays, something for almost everyone. Contemporary tales include "Lessons in Probability," a romance by the numbers; "The Cocktail Luncheon," where food is not the only attraction, and "Affirmation," a story of gender decisions and consequences. Science fiction offerings include "Did You Ever Want To Be Someone Else?"—now is your chance; "Escape," and "The Beauty and the Butterfly." Two horror stories, "Cat-a-Rack" and "A Fine Old Romance" provide a different look at reality. Coming of age stories include: "Secrets in a Drawer," "Sealing the Deal," and "Inclusion." A play, on the ultimate poker tournament, a few pieces of verse, and two photo-essays complete the volume.

The Time Bubble and Other Distortions of Reality (2024)
The title novella, "The Time Bubble" is set in Austin, Texas within the near future. The bubble is a means to observe past events, such as the final shootout between two famous American outlaws and Bolivian authorities in 1908 and the hijacking of a commercial airline by D.B. Cooper in 1971. What really happened? The back cover features a red-eyed canid, not your loveable household pet, but a harbinger of things to come for the "Night Nurse." Other stories explore a nostalgic past ("Skinny Dipping Ain't What It Used To Be"), a magical summer in Bermuda ("Lobster Summer"), deals too good to be true ("Limited Time Offer"). and the promises and pains of love ("A Sauterne Romance") and growing up ("Aesthetics of Asymmetry"). Sci-fi, horror, semi-memoir, coming-of-age, and adult contemporary—a little bit of everything for everyone.