Fantastic Christmas Gifts

This book isn’t sold at J. C. Penny, but it’s easily available elsewhere. When paired, the book complements a cup of English Breakfast Tea, or a latte, or a bottle of chardonnay.

1. SONGS OF SADNESS, SONGS OF LOVE, by Larry K. Andrews. (Mystery-Romance. Author ˛House, ISBN 978-1-4567-1595-3) This is the story of Ryan Graves, a young boy growing up. With the usual fears of adolescence, and a physical disability that causes him even greater agony and heightened fears and of being rejected by his peers. The reader watches this young man as he goes through middle school, high school, and the university with new emotional challenges at each level. This is a study about how people respond to challenging experiences in their lives; some people are overwhelmed and defeated by their challenges while others accept and accommodate them, moving onwards to successful adulthood.

Available at amazon.com and Barnes & Noble. Or, order e-books direct from amazon.com or Barnes & Noble or the Kindle Store.

2. THE CHINA-AFRICA PARALLAX: A RYAN AND GILLIAN MYSTERY, by Larry K. Andrews. (Action-Thriller. Author ˛House, ISBN 978-1-4520-1765-5)The China-Africa Parallax: A Ryan and Gillian Mystery describes how representatives of China and Africa are conspiring to steal research data from major US universities. They will kill anyone who gets in their way in order to achieve their ultimate goal: China’s economic and military domination of the world. This is a fast-moving mystery with an emphasis on today’s geo-political issues and economics. Ryan Graves and his wife, Gillian Davies, characters introduced in Songs of Sadness, Songs of Love, assume perilous, key roles central to the FBI strategy to thwart the devastating conspiracy.

Available at amazon.com and Barnes & Noble. Or, order e-books direct from amazon.com and Barnes & Noble or the Kindle Store.

Objects of my affections

Objects of my affections:

Mama, papa, mother, father, grandma, grandpa, and Aunt Bea;

Pancakes, coffee, pizza, corned beef, brown beans and hot tea;

Pencils, notebooks, tablets, ball points, neat desks, and lap suites;

Bow ties, warm vests, loose shirts, shined shoes, and ships free;

Baseball, football, soccer, hockey, movies, and TV;

Cardinals, Royals, Huskers, Tigers, Pirates and Kewpies.

Placing dreams in the Large Hadron Collider

Placing dreams in the Large Hadron Collider

Can result in subatomic collisions like you’ve never

Experienced before. Voilà, thoughts and images are brighter.

The release from reality makes you more clever

And visionary. The multiplied particles are no longer

Swimming in nothingness. There’s an existence

You may have met when you were younger:

The Spirit God, compassion, love in abundance.

Three November poems

November Poems

I.

It’s been snowing with falling temperatures

For two days in November. An embezzler,

This month absconded during one short night,

Betraying our trust: hah, the year’s not quite

Over. It’s too early for snow and wind-chills

We think, but November disagrees and shrill

Weather is here. The end of the year is closer

Than we expect, and daily we’re getting older.

II.

I am November, an aging pensioner

Who’s shocked by the silent and sly escolar

Who slithered into my life taking a huge bite

Out of my future. I sit, contemplating a rewrite

Of stupidities that merit poison pills,

And my time runs short. November, I’ll

Erroneously think, gives me one more chance.

My year’s not over. But the dance,

The span of a lifetime’s match play, nears its conclusion.

All I can do is flinch at mortality’s intrusion.

III.

A recurring biographical leitmotif:

He doesn’t like December. Some thief

Has stolen the other eleven months and

Has replaced them with a cheery band

Of elves, situated since Thanksgiving,

But too full of mischief for one who’s living

On the downside of his allocated days.

He reviews the prior months and his malaise

Lessens. December has a capstone he knows,

And it’s Christmas. He turns his focus and glows,

Seeing familiarities of Spirit he’s enjoyed before.

Love and compassion and the God-within-us to adore.