RichEisbrouch - Stories

Bodark Creek is a small, former mill town, north of Dallas and close to the Oklahoma border. Starting in 1908, Addy Bronner Braden spends most of her very long life there, surrounded by her large, close family. She loves them, leads them, and depends on them.

There is one gay person in this book – my husband. That makes sense, since the book is based on one half of his family tree. But he only turns up at the very end and as a visitor. And that about defines the relationship between gay people and this part of his family.

In a small Western Massachusetts former mill town, now part of a larger college circuit, people -- largely students -- keep getting approached.

They don't bring it on themselves -- or do they?

Police detective Elena Petrakis leads the investigation, while her standbys, Chief Owen Neland, Senior Detective Don Burris, Lt. Ike Omari, and Sgts. Jae Ryu and Rob Perez offer support.

Writers make mistakes, especially when writing quickly. Students make mistakes, even when writing slowly. Students writing quickly often make lots of mistakes, and they get unintentionally funny. Here are some of them.

In Germany, it appears there's a whole cult that collects these. In America, we largely have the popular British book Eats Shoots and Leaves by Lynne Truss. This collection follows both of those.

A friendly caution: A little of these goes a long way, so don't try to read them all at once. They get less funny. Very less funny. Far less funny. Oh so less funny. You were warned.

ROGER

It was something of a mystery. One minute, Roger was there, busy as always, and the next, he wasn't.

Gay lawyer Ben Carleson – from In The Plan – is back, this time in 1985, near the beginning of his career and soon after he finished law school and passed the California bar exam.

He and Gene De Wijk met over a different kind of bar several years earlier, and since then, Ben’s given Gene incidental legal advice – for a business agreement, a will, and helping Gene close on the sale of his new house. Now, they’re both up against something much bigger.

This is a collection of my short non-fiction pieces.

It's mostly lightweight stuff, just written to make you smile or laugh.

This collection parallels that of my short fiction on this site -- Circumstances. Also, pretty lightweight.

Enjoy.

Billy wants a relationship. Badly. And that's just what he gets.

This is a darkly funny Roadrunner cartoon. No matter where it starts, the coyote gets it in the end.

Be careful when you rub part of your body thinking it's a genie lamp.

This was written for a friend of mine, who contributed the first three chapters.

Nine guys at a summer camp. Eight waiters: Rob, Nate, Brian, Greg, Steve, Dan, Paul, Jim. And a counselor: Andy.

The waiters have a lot of fun in their generous spare time -- the usual camp activities, plus shooting some hoops, playing some cards, and generally messing around. And at least one of them's a joker.

The counselor has other plans, aiming for a different kind of fun. But fun.

Short chapters. Easy reading. As usual, comments are welcome.

Enjoy.

Barnegat Bay is a romance, which starts on the Jersey shore in the summer of 1932. It focuses on its narrator, Doc, and his friends Mike, Larry, Al, and Spence, summer lifeguards soon headed into their senior year at CCNY -- the City College of New York. This is in the uncertain times and job market of the still early years of the Great Depression, just before Franklin Delano Roosevelt was elected. Joining the guys are Mary and Claire, local to the area but no less ambitious for their lives, and in fairly close by New York City, Doc's parents.

It may initially seem an odd book for this site, but, believe me, it's not.

Events on a small New England college campus, following an exceptional one. Gil Andrus and his husband, Pete Sordan, follow through the usual faculty politics and the unexpected mystery. And Don Burris, the detective from The Pendleton Omens, reappears.

Note: this book shares roots and occasionally overlaps with my other book, Quabbin, which is also set in Waldron, Massachusetts, though in a national clothing company. But they're different books with different sensibilities.