From The Book of Power: "Let me speak of a time when the world was not as it is. Some of the history of that time came down to us in spoken word and that word was written down with pictures drawn and maps plotted. Whether all things that were said were truth and all writings were exact is not for this student to say. In long studies at night and in the day through libraries and records and keepers of many local histories this student can but pass on what was written and drawn and spoken from father to son. From all those dusty books and dry speeches comes the story that follows. From all that...

An Old-Fashioned Shooting is a wild ride through the Adirondacks of upstate New York with a mystery to be solved, abundant wit and humor, and a great sense of fun. The action takes place in the near-recent past and follows the narrator through a twisting tale of mystery and intrigue. A good time read. Come on along.

From Trying to Help People: "Personally, I am on a journey of discovery when I compose a poem. I rarely have a plan or any idea what the finished product will look like. Often a bit of conversation, something Ive heard on the radio or read in a newspaper will set me off on that voyage of discovery. ... As far as the title goes, Ive always liked the turn of thought from such sayings as, No good deed goes unpunished. Trying to help people is not only an exercise in futility; it is likely to get you in trouble. Yet there are those of us who have the audacity to make the attempt and the...

"What the... " Zach started as he landed on all fours and put out his hand to see what he'd tripped on. What he tripped over shifted with his weight and the push of his hand until the face of his brother, Bobby, stared blankly up into the starlit night from where he lay in a heap. Zach brought his wet, glistening hand palm upwards for Rose to see and they both stared at Zach's bloody hand for several seconds with the only sounds that of their breathing and chirp of crickets in the grass. Brush Arbor, A Cautionary Tale of 1950s Rural Arkansas, follows the lives of four teenagers - Naomi, John...

The flies were the first thing that would have caught my attention. The drooping, sagging mass of flesh and the smell of urine and the bowels having let go were right up there in sensory overload, but the buzzing blue and green shining flies all over the body signaled there was no going back for this dude. From doing suicide on-call for more than a decade, I've seen my share of "successful" attempts. There are no pretty stories to tell. Even though I came upon the scene after the fact, long after as a matter of fact, even though the photos I eventually saw were black and whites in a sheriff's...