I have added this page to my blog so you can view and comment about my E-Zine First Church of the Streets which ran from 4/2003 to 11/2008 All comments should be made on this page and include the month/year of the article so we can know what you refer to 🙂

Meet Tom. He’s had it really tough in his life, but he’s made it good because he’s worked hard. Growing up with drunks for parents that first abandoned him and then up and died, he’s an up and coming star in the academic world, all before he’s thirty, with nothing more than hard work and good old fashioned effort.

But no one seems to really appreciate all that he’s done.

It’s bad enough that his boss Scott at the university is on his back all of the time, and he can’t get his dissertation done, and that his sister Denise is on her third husband with a pain-in-the neck guy named Nigel. No, his girlfriend Serena of eleven years has decided that she’s an alcoholic, which is really just ridiculous because even though she can’t hold down a job because she’s drunk when she’s there and the alcohol decides filters are not needed so she tells everyone off constantly, Tom doesn’t see why she’s overreacting and it really is just messing with his mojo.

In fact, things have gone so out of hand that Tom winds up at a sober meeting with Serena, after some guy in a liquor store tells her where these weirdo gatherings in church meetings are. Now, how bad can things go from here? Can it get any worse for this poor guy who only wants to make a name for himself and love his girl in peace?

Oh, yeah. It sure will…..

Available for purchase as an e-book at Amazon .

Synopsis

“The Minstrel” is a 130,000 word novel that takes place over the course of four months, with the exception of the conclusion, which takes place three years after the rest of the story. Its genre is that of subterficial urban drama, where many things seem to be happening below the surface for those characters that are willing to look. The perspective follows the experiences of seven disparate characters from an intimate third point of view: the protagonist, Raul Valesquez, a middle-aged Latino amnesiac searching for the daughter he has lost; Cindy DiEsposito, a thirtyish Caucasian woman who lives on the streets hiding from her abusive husband; Emmanuel Jackson, a fortyish African-American who to the outside eye is a charismatic Christian minister but internally is imprisoned by a crime he committed in his past; Jonathan Pfeifer, a Caucasian paralegal in his early thirties who is caught in a spiritual quagmire where he realizes that the cultural goals he pursues as an adult pale next to the idealism of his youth; his boss Russell Frawley, a playboy Caucasian lawyer in his late forties who finally finds meaning in his life of cynicism after meeting and falling in love with Cindy; Russell’s wife Joan Taylor Frawley, an alcoholic who is paying the price for giving up her individuality to fit the social norms of wife and mother, avenging her losses in such a way as to take down everyone in the society with her, and Carmen Sanchez, a middle-aged Latina nurse who is the key to Raul’s lost past. These people, representing conflicting sides of general society, come together in such a way that their latent prejudices and fears explode upon one another.   Read more….. »

“Hello?”
“Cin, it’s me Becky. You ready for your date with Steven?”

“Sure, man. I’m like, so nervous. Becky, like Steven’s real fine, man. Don’t you think?”   Read more….. »

It had come out of nowhere, this avalanche, the one that deterred Mike and her from reaching the summit of Mt. Rainier, the one that now rendered her incapacitated, frozen. Strange to be lying so still, when she is supposed to be climbing, moving forward. She is tempted to try and get up anyway, but the pain in her leg hurts too much for even her to move. She hates to admit defeat, that the elements have gotten an edge on her. Her whole adult life she has spent in defiance of them. Now she is at Nature’s mercy, must work with Her if she is to survive. She has to keep focused. Mike will soon be back with help, camp is only several hundred feet from here. It is starting to snow. But she must not panic, must keep her mind clear. She must fight her mind even as it wants to sleep, take her away. She must think of overcoming it like the mountains she has always conquered. She will strive for victory; life is victory now.   Read more….. »

She stared out of the window. She kept expecting to hear noises from upstairs, from outside; noises which had been everyday and commonplace for all those years. But there was nothing. There hadn’t been any for what seemed like years now. Yet, still she waited.

Her so-called friends avoided her now. You’re crazy, they would say. You should get on your life. Forget the past. It’s been so long now. Like a year of time should make one dance for joy after the world had been ripped from you.   Read more….. »

Anyone who thinks that slavery went the way of the nineteenth century will be disabused of that belief when reading “Slave: My True Story.”   Read more….. »

If you want to travel to Greece, or are interested in the history of the Mediterranean country, “Travelers’ Tales: Greece” is a must read. In the style of Travelers’ Tales, which is not so much a guidebook as essays of narrative nonfiction, editors Larry Habegger, Sean O’Reilly and Brian Alexander have selected wonderful essays which give the character and history of Greece. The essays cover many of the islands, Crete, and the entire peninsula of the mainland. Some of the essays evoke the romantic notion of seaside paradise, while others give a darker tone. There are excerpts from well-known travel writers such as Paul Theroux as well as relative newcomers. Enjoy this compilation of Greek travel, whether as preparation for a trip, substantial but entertaining reading on a beach in Crete, or as armchair travel and amateur anthropology. “Travelers’ Tales: Greece” is a very enjoyable book indeed.