My Life in the Three Rs
Who remembers when reading, writing, and arithmetic once made up the public education curriculum? My phonetic Rs are reading, research, and writing. I can’t imagine any serious writer of any merit getting along without them. It’s been that way for me since I committed myself to gainful employment as a writer—first as a newspaper reporter, then as a technical writer, then as a copywriter. And now I’m a pro bono fiction writer. Luckily, I’m retired.
Deathbed Promise
I have posted three short stories. The first, Deathbed Promise, appears in an anthology (available on Amazon) published by the St. George chapter of the League of Utah Writers. So, where’s the novel, you ask? It’s joined the thousands of “proverbial novels in drawers” if the authors wrote theirs before computers, or, like mine, it rests quietly on my computer hard drive.
Meanwhile, I’ve elected to earn my chops in short prose. Oh, I’ll still write nonfiction, but I’ll spend most of whatever writing time remains in my life writing fiction.
A Moment In Time & Santa In OD Green
I said three short stories. A Moment In Time and Santa In OD Green are two and three, respectively. Did I mention I read a lot? Among the books I read are books on history. A 1918 event in history inspired me to write A Moment In Time. Of course, while based on facts, my story is historical fiction.
Reece Adler must fulfill a promise and face the loss of his proxy father, R.J. “Mac” Macauley, an unsung Vietnam War veteran who nurtured Reece to manhood. He struggles with grief until he finds a spiritual message in the promise Mac asks Reece to make.
Soldier Reece Adler left his outfit in Germany on a five-day leave to Paris. En route, he visits the Aisne-Marne American Cemetery at Belleau Wood, where a fierce World War One battle occurred between US Marines and German soldiers. An unexpected stranger shows up and gives Reece an account of what happened on the first day of the battle.
American soldiers stationed in 1968 in the small town of Idar-Oberstein in Germany have their Christmas Eve Party interrupted. They join a search party to find a missing six-year-old boy.
Please add rickgraf@rickgraf.com to your contact list. Otherwise, the posting notifications will likely go to your SPAM folder.
Oh Cousin
Those were Beautiful stories. I can see in my mind how you describe everything. I read stories about ww1 frequently. Heart wrenching but enlightening.
Keep’em coming.
Carol
Thank you, Carol!
Enjoyed all 3 stories – glad you are incorporating some of your personal history in them!