I turned 40 this week (pipe down, I’m not fishing for B-day wishes, just pointing it out). In the grand tradition of turning the Big Four…Oh, it seemed like time to take stock, and to assemble a sort of personal inventory of the things I think I know about myself by this advanced age. The things I know about myself as a writer and reader, I mean. Who the heck wants to go down that dark path of a full-blown personal inventory, with the scratching trees and the slippery mud and what not? Continue reading “A Portrait of the Artist as an Old Man.”
Tag: fiction
Book Brief: Drawing Breath
Drawing Breath
by Laurie Boris
Genre: Contemporary fiction, coming-of-age story
49,000 words
Students often fall in love with their teachers. Despite warnings from her mother, that’s exactly what 16-year-old Caitlin Kelly does. But Daniel Benedetto isn’t just any art teacher. Not only is he more than twice Caitlin’s age, he rents the Kellys’ upstairs apartment and suffers from cystic fibrosis, a life-threatening disease. Caitlin watches in torment as other people, especially women, treat Daniel like a freak because of his condition. To Caitlin, Daniel is not a disease, not someone to pity or take care of but someone to care for, a friend, her first love. He, however, seems oblivious to her adoration. In a well-meaning yet naive gesture, Caitlin crosses the line and interferes with his private life, sparking a chain of events with devastating consequences. Neither of them will ever be the same again.
This title is available from Amazon US and Amazon UK. Continue reading “Book Brief: Drawing Breath”
J.L. Murray Announces New Release
J.L. Murray’s The Devil Is a Gentleman is the second book in the Niki Slobodian series. It is available now through Amazon.
Niki Slobodian thought she’d seen it all. She’s faced down all-powerful demons, sent escaped Hellions back where they came from, and, maybe most significantly, confronted her own notorious father, Alexei “Sasha” Slobodian. But when Congressman Frank Bradley, the poster boy for New Government, and the orchestrator of the loathed Registry knocks on her door, she becomes entangled in a new set of dangers. A mysterious organization is literally out for her blood, the unusual new police commissioner wants to involve Niki in her schemes, and new information makes Niki realize Sasha isn’t nearly as self-serving as she once thought. With her partner Bobby Gage, Niki finds out how little she really knows about the Slobodian family, and how alike she and her father really are.
Underneath it all is her inscrutable employer, Sam, who has his own plans for Niki’s future. A war between Heaven and Hell is brewing, and Sam seems to be right in the middle. He also seems to be a little too interested in Niki. And the ghosts are getting worse. Continue reading “J.L. Murray Announces New Release”
Featured Author: Bruce Louis Dodson
Bruce Louis Dodson writes fiction and poetry in Seattle, Washington. He was born in Alton, Illinois and moved to San Francisco where he worked as a consultant electrical designer until the 1980’s recession. He then moved to Seattle to work for a small group of consulting engineers contracted to Boeing. Boeing downsized the project they were working on after only three months and he found himself a stranger in a strange land: over fifty, over educated an unemployed for three years – lost in Seattle. After earning teaching credentials at Seattle Pacific University he became a technology instructor at an inner-city Seattle High school and is now very happily retired. His most recent publications appear in: Breadline Press West Coast Anthology, Pearl Literary Magazine, Struggle Magazine, Sein und Werden, Fiction International, Off The Coast, Quarrtsiluni, Contemporary Literature Review: India, Blue Collar Review, E-buffet, The Applicant, Foliate Oak and 3rd Wednesday. More of his writing and photography appear on his blog: http://brucelouisdodson.wordpress.com
Lost in Seattle by Bruce Louis Dodson
At fifty-three William Brenner has played by the rules, an honest, dependable and happily married man. He’s held a steady job for fifteen years; a good father making payments on a house and saving money in an IRA. After being downsized he finds himself transformed from a successful law abiding middle class American to a midlife victim of the recession. Willie experiences a rapid accumulation of loss including wife, home, vocation, daughter, a mother with Alzheimer’s and even his dog—everything but his sense of humor.
Three years of unemployment lead him into overwhelming plastic debt and a low rent neighborhood where he becomes one of many lovers to a talented braless barista who loves sex. He finds himself in a floating world of low-pay temporary jobs, unknown ethnicities and ways of life: Vietnamese, Hispanics, artists, college grads who can’t find jobs, a Buddhist nun, one bank robber and two lawyers. A fox-hole intimacy creates new friends and insight to another world.
This is a story of survival, love, lust, loss and luck interspaced with a narrated account of his mother who escapes from a California care facility into the arms of a drug dealing motorcycle gang.
Lost in Seattle by Bruce Louis Dodson is available from Amazon.