James J. Brodell considers himself a skeptic or an iconoclast, perhaps due to the 50 years as a reporter and editor. His novels and short stories builds on the wacky incidents he has witnessed. He said he prefers short stories because he has a short attention span.
The line between sin and faith can be very narrow indeed. Then there is the perennial question addressed in one of these short stories: Why are we here? The answer may be a surprise. Also surprising is the real story behind Area 51. The human need for companionship can show up in strange places, while a 2,000-year-old dead bird can cost a school teacher her job.
A new house in a new town is the legacy for wounded veteran Tim Fitzgerald. But as he becomes more deeply involved with his new community, he is shocked by the depths of corruption and criminality. The Chamber of Commerce said Wellborough, Colorado, had it all. He doubted they really meant murder, drug and human trafficking, systemic political corruption and fraud.
Sarah Goodnight, 27 and an ancient language expert, is underemployed and longs for a professorship and regular paycheck. She translates ancient Sumerian and Akkadian tablets long-distance for the British Museum from her Chicago home. In a rare outing a handsome man surprises her saying he has a box of ancient clay chunks. Can she find fame and love wrestling with the unknown language and danger?
Life is full of untested assumptions: Prostitution exploits women, bloody religious ceremonies are of the past, Santa is jolly, there is one God, suburban life requires a great lawn. The six stories here, some drawn from life and some tongue-in-cheek, suggest otherwise.
A.M. Costa Rica, the Central American country’s English language newspaper, celebrates its 16th anniversary with a compilation of original news reports geared to the needs of foreigners living here and those elsewhere with personal or business interests in this vacation paradise. Each seeks to tell something new or original about the vacation and retirement mecca.
Why love? In five different situations in as many stories love strikes, sometimes in an unusual way. What happens next remains uncertain, but the couples have a foundation for the future.
Retired baseball player Jack Patterson becomes suspicious after his younger sister dies in a Pacific Ocean rip tide while on vacation in Costa Rica. Jack has to go there to find answers to troubling questions. But soon he is hijacked by a gang of avengers led by an icy Costa Rican-American woman who carries twin pistols strapped to her chest. Jack soon helps uncover a web of corruption and greed.
My wife, Sharon, was under firm instructions to shoot me if I ever tried to start a newspaper again. Alas, her pistol misfired, so here we are approaching 17 years of running an English-language newspaper on foreign soil, surrounded by Runyonesque characters. We want to share what we have learned about publication startups and finances.