SOLDIER BOYS

Japan. Spring 1951. Phillips, an adolescent National Guardsman and driver for Able Battery CO Captain Wylie, is caught in a power struggle between First Sergeant Radick, Wylie’s boss in civilian life, and Lieutenant Briscoe, an ROTC officer. Harsh training, obsolete equipment, and mistakes – aggravated by personal hatreds – lead to accidents, fights, sexual intrigues, deaths, and a bizarre shooting incident that brings on a military inquiry in which Phillips is a key witness. Combat in Korea looms for Phillips and his teenage comrades. He is fearful but wants to be a good soldier. He’s aided by Private Green, a slick draftee from New York, and Sergeant Agee, a WW II retread. Later in Korea the boys are bloodied in battle and undergo severe strains as casualties mount. Phillips receives his baptism of fire in a Chinese attack where he must kill to survive and save human decency for another time and place.

ISBN 1-4137-1851-5, Publish America, 2004

MESA BEACH

Alan French has left his wife, Luise, and six-year-old daughter, Dee, in Los Angeles and fled to an indolent beach town. It is summer 1963. He fantasizes that he loves Agnes, his former college professor, who now edits the Mesa Beach News. Luise, back with her parents in San Marino, still loves Alan and regrets the divorce. Alan gets involved with Agnes’s guilt-ridden lifestyle, and Luise’s ex-fiance, Chris Daniels and wife, Jean. Then there’s Watha, his landlady, Elsie’s, Jesus-freak mulatto son; an apartment neighbor, Greg, with an insecure fiance, Marilyn; and Greg’s roommate, Kurt, a disturbed teen whose outward charm covers sexual perversity and violent impulses that create havoc and aggravate jealousies. Lovers reach a critical mass on a post-Labor Day, freak-of-nature weekend that leads to denunciations and betrayals threatening hope and life. An unexpected and bizarre death realigns relationships, for better or worse, leaving the seaside resort littered with casualties of love.

ISBN 1-4137-8242-6, Publish America, 2005

Childhood Country Has Arrived

Was very pleased to receive my advanced copies of CHILDHOOD COUNTRY today. Delivered copies to Nan - since she designed the cover for me. My third book!

Childhood Country

Stay tuned for more information about my forthcoming collection of adult stories.