
WELCOME TO MY AUTHOR PORTFOLIO
April is the cruellest month—so begins Thomas Stearnes Eliot’s poem “The Waste Land” …breeding Lilacs out of dead land, mixing memory and desire, stirring dull roots with spring rain…
Sadly, tragedy and April go hand in hand. Abraham Lincoln was assassinated in 1865 as he and Mary Todd Lincoln enjoyed the play Our American Cousin just five days after Lee surrendered to Grant.
There was the great San Francisco earthquake in 1906, believed to have been on the magnitude of 8.0 on the Moment Magnitude scale--which replaced the Richter scale in 1970. Forty seconds of terror at 5:12 in the morning. April 26 is National Richter Scale Day, celebrating Charles Francis Richter although his eponymous scale is now out of favor.
There was also the sinking of the Royal Mail Steamer Titanic in 1912.
April was cruel to Manfred von Richthoven, known as the Red Baron. The WW I German ace was shot down on April 21, 1918 near Vaux-sur-Somme, a tiny village north of Paris. I think we all know who might have been responsible for that.
Snoopy vs. the Red Baron was recorded in 1966 by The Royal Guardsmen. The song peaked at number 2 on the Hot 100 the last week in 1966, behind The Monkees' I'm a Believer.
Ten, twenty, thirty, forty, fifty or more
The Bloody Red Baron was rollin' up the score
Eighty men died tryin' to end that spree
Of the Bloody Red Baron of Germany
In the nick of time, a hero arose
A funny-looking dog with a big black nose
He flew into the sky to seek revenge
But the Baron shot him down ("Curses, foiled again!")
Now, Snoopy had sworn that he'd get that man
So he asked the Great Pumpkin for a new battle plan
He challenged the German to a real dogfight
While the Baron was laughing, he got him in his sight
April is also the month in which the Masters Golf Tournament is played .
OTHER PUBLISHED STORIES... AND ESSAYS
How To Eat Right
How To Manage Your Money
How To Stay Healthy
The Fall Of Squirrel
Cake Walk
Do-gooders Gotta Eat Too
Of Peas and Queues
Three O'clock in the Garden of Good and Evil
News Item
The Visitor
Mr. Blinkie To The Rescue
The Point System
Elements Of Success
She Spits to Conquer
The Tree Remembers
Christmas Time Is Here
The Sodfather
What MLK Day Means To Me
Thanks, Mussolini
The Cure
Tarzan In Decline
Side Effects
Greatest Of All Time
The Last Hundred Days
Plight Of the Humble Bee

AWARDS AND HONORS
2017 Pushcart Prize nomination from Hawaii Pacific Review for The Last Hundred Days
2018 First Honorable Mention Short Story Division AWC contest
2018 Second Place Chattahoochee Valley Contest Short Story category
2019 First Place Flash Fiction Division AWC contest
2020 First Place Essay Streetlight Magazine
2020 Top ten finalist for The Opossum Prize
2020 Honorable Mention Stories That Need To Be Told Anthology
2020 First place Flash Fiction category in Seven Hills contest
2021 Second place Streetlight Magazine's Flash fiction contest
2021 Second place Seven Hills contest for flash fiction
2021 Second place Seven Hills contest for essay/memoir
2021 Third place Seven Hills contest for non-fiction
2022 First Place Seven Hills contest for flash fiction

"Life is a moderately good play with a poorly written third act."
Truman Capote
"Writers aren't people exactly. Or, if they're any good, they're a whole lot of people trying so hard to be one person."
F. Scott Fitzgerald

CURRENTLY READING
...or just finished
Absalom Absalom by William Faulkner
Where The Past Begins by Amy Tan
The Order Of Time by Carlo Rovelli
