Spotlight: Crooked Paths and Abandoned Borders: Story in "Real" Time (Volume 1) by author Kerry Augustyniak

Dear readers,

Today's Spotlight is on a compelling, emotionally charged, and adventurous Memoir titled Crooked Paths and Abandoned Borders: Story in "Real" Time (Volume 1 available at Amazon Stores) by the very talented and gifted author Kerry Augustyniak.

From the author's desk : This is a true story about courage, survival and a quest about purpose and belonging in life with a realization of a spiritual component within.

Author Links : Connect with author Kerry Augustyniak


Self Publishers and Publishers Advertising Club : http://www.pinterest.com/oncemulligan/must-read/

Writer explores life between stability and panic | Lifestyles | The Register-Guard | Eugene, Oregon
http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-364984823.html
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Book Spotlight

Ebook : CROOKED PATHS AND ABANDONED BORDERS : Story in "Real" Time

Author : Kerry Augustyniak

Genre : Non Fiction, Memoirs, Self Help, True Story

Format : Paperback

Available at : Amazon - http://www.amazon.com/Crooked-Paths-Abandoned-Borders-Story/dp/1494860260 

Black Sun Books - http://www.blacksunbooks.net/

Reviews : Multiple 5 stars

Synopsis : This is a story about courage. It's a true story of one human’s struggle and one canine’s quest to find a pack where they belong. It’s about surviving as castaways, while each tries to find footing in a wilderness they were never intended to be part of. It’s for those who dance to the beat of a different drummer and what happens when they fail to integrate, a story of trespassed boundaries, disintegration, and broken hearts, in the midst of conflicting ideologies. Despite anguish, despair, and nothing but failure along their crooked paths, they are eventually lead back to where they both began. Where Love, Hope, Acceptance, and Credence can be found, right under our very own nose.

Amazon Reviews
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Chapter Excerpt - Crooked Paths and Abandoned Borders

I’m one of those who has known the bounds between stability and instability all of my life, dipping in and out of each realm to varying degrees. My challenges have not been obvious to others, not at first glance anyway. My wit, charm, and street smarts, though fleeting, have allowed me to skate through just enough to survive. Survive was all I could ever muster when it came to employment. I was able to disguise my inner world, long enough, to obtain way too many entry-level positions to count with just as many failed attempts to follow. I’d seen therapists on and off throughout my life without a diagnosis ever being revealed, not to me anyway. 

After they collected my money and posed as interested advocates, some better than others, they would then attempt to shoot confidence and some semblance of order into my veins. Scantly comprehended by my brain, it mostly dribbled out before it had a chance to sink in, and the little that did would wear off in a short time. Many years later, at the crossroads of life and at the threshold of “the change,” I was deteriorating quickly. It’s true that I’d had high levels of anxiety and a history of panic throughout my life. Perhaps a learning disability of sorts, brain damage, or ADD, but as long as I can remember, my mind has blasted me with negative interpretations of my world and myself, creating deep passages and well-worn grooves for my fully insulated, uninterrupted, negative thought patterns to run in, but none of which were comparable to what was taking place at this juncture in my life. 

My children flew the coop, my place of employment was trying to rid themselves of me (or so I thought), I found myself out on medical leave, my husband of 27 years moved out, and the unwavering support that I had been receiving from my doctors came to an abrupt end. My inability to cope with the recent series of inevitable milestones in my life, created intolerable doses of fear, anger, anguish, sadness and despair, during which time I managed to blow away everything and everyone that had been within close proximity to me. I took out innocent bystanders and wreaked havoc on everything that crossed my path. It had become painfully apparent that the boat load of bad habits I’d spent a good deal of my life trying to control and abstain from, had only been replaced by coping strategies fabricated on false, delusional, security systems.

I’ve written this story for several reasons; I am determined to finish something that I started, because this in and of itself is less than a common experience in my life. Not long ago I had started a story about a canine friend of mine named Copper, who broke my heart; but true to form I was derailed in the process time and time again. When shit hit the fan I decided to pick it up again and since mine and Copper’s experiences seemed so similar in theme, I wanted to try to integrate them. Like me, Copper had characteristics he was born with that made it difficult, no, impossible, for him to succeed in the situations where he was placed. 

Although these environments with their rule and limits did not allow for his attributes to be showcased, much less accepted, I knew he was not flawed. Leaving no stone unturned while running up against dead ends, failed attempts, and repeated messages that he did not measure up, he was ultimately able to find his true pack by continuing along the crooked, dimly lit and unmarked path that life has to offer. Like Copper, I had little interest in the limits of rules and did not know how to carry myself well in social situations.

In school, I missed the boat in learning most of what was taught about reading, writing and arithmetic, so I’ll warn you now that there are many hiccups in my attempt in putting this story together, but this story is for those living in the margins. It’s for the ones who have had continuous struggles and failed attempts at making a living or finding a niche for themselves in this world, whether due to mental afflictions or just simply marching to the beat of a different drummer, a beat that is not copacetic with the rhythms of the culture they find themselves in. If you know the pain of persistence in the face of fear, failures and flaws, or have worked in menial positions all of your life, leaving you wanting, if your experience in the world is one of perpetual outcast, then this book might be for you.

Book Spotlight Part I : The Brett Cornell Mystery Series by David D. D'Aguanno

Dear readers, today's book spotlight is a popular detective series with humor and comedy thrown into this interesting mix concoted and created by author David D. D'Aguanno -- The Brett Cornell Mystery Series.

The 5 popular Brett Cornell Mysteries featured today - Read an excerpt from each book posted in this blog along with links to the author's website, purchase links to the bookstore and links to multiple star reviews that the Brett Cornell Series has received.

AUTHOR LINKS : Connect with author David D. D'Aguanno

Author page: http://www.amazon.com/David-DAguanno/e/B0078L97ZI

Author blog: http://brettcornell.blogspot.com

Twitter handle: @DaveDAguanno

Goodreads : http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/7618068-dave-d-aguanno

Facebook: www.facebook.com/BrettCornellSeries

THE BRETT CORNELL MYSTERY SERIES- book features and excerpts

Ebook : BRETT AEROBICIZES (Brett Cornell Mystery#2)

Genre : Mystery, comedy-mystery

ISBN (print format): 978-1470005375

Formats: Kindle, Nook, Paperback

Amazon : http://www.amazon.com/Brett-Aerobicizes-Cornell-Mysteries-ebook/dp/B007ECTXWI

CreateSpace paperback: https://www.createspace.com/3786598

Barnes and Noble :  http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/brett-aerobicizes-david-daguanno/1109152823

Reviews : 4-5stars

Blurb : A man is found dead with a bullet hole in his chest, and private detective Brett Cornell is the #1 suspect.

It might have something to do with the fact that there were witnesses who had seen him punching the guy around only a few days earlier. Or -- more likely -- it might be because the police have discovered that the fatal bullet had been fired from HIS gun!

In the second novel of this detective series set in the late 1980s, self-proclaimed unscrupulous bastard Brett Cornell has to figure out who's trying to set him up:Could it be his lovely but meek new client? Or perhaps her equally lovely but far from meek room-mate? Or might it actually be the beautiful and dynamic aerobics instructor he's recently taken up with?

In the meantime, Brett's legendary Adonis-like features get severely damaged when he ends up catching the beating of his life -- emotionally as well as physically -- before he finally nails the identity of the real killer!

Excerpt from BRETT AEROBICIZES (Brett Cornell Mystery#2):

   

There was a kind of wheezing sound as Ginger let out some air through her nostrils, and then she followed me as far as the bedroom, where I stopped and turned around towards her when she reached out and touched my arm.

     “Hands off, babe,” I said to her in a tight-sounding voice, and after backing off from me, she told me that if I should happen to bring Marilyn into “our” bed, it would constitute the end of our entire relationship.

     “When you move out,” I replied, walking the rest of the way on into the bathroom,” do like Karen did, and clear all of your feminine paraphernalia out of here before Marilyn moves in and takes over.”

     By the time I finished that sentence, I was already in the bathroom, leaning in a trifle towards the mirror as I thought I saw a couple of hairs of my mustache slightly out of alignment with all the others. I expected Ginger to dart right in there after me, but she took me a little by surprise because it was almost a full sixty seconds before she came in, and even then, she only leaned against the door-frame and crossed her arms in front of her to put her hands on opposite shoulders.

     I’d been concentrating just then on the important task of straightening out the old mustache, but for one moment, when I took a real quick glance at her reflection standing behind me, I said to myself,” God! Is she beautiful!” – But it was just that one moment, and then reality came rushing back into my brain as I heard her begin to speak, looking down at the floor as she did so.

     “When you asked me to move in with you last Friday, I didn’t realize that you were intent upon inflicting all sorts of mental punishment upon me – but I made up my mind that I would put up with it as long as I possibly could, because I – Well, never mind that.” She paused to lower her head even more, and then she went on,” I have never been treated so horribly by a man, and yet, I don’t know what to do – to please you, Brett –“

     Feeling restless, and instinctively telling myself that I needed to escape the discomfort I was beginning to feel, I walked on past her, and her body made room for me to get through the doorway as I did so. Then I retrieved my pack of Marlboros from the top of my bureau and put it in the front pocket of my shirt. Seeing that she continued to face into the interior of the bathroom, with her hands still grasping her two arms, I said to the back of her,

     “Don’t even try it.”

     “Try what?” she immediately asked me, still without turning around and facing me.

     “You know what you’re trying to do to me, and I’m telling you to knock it off.” Then I deliberately paused, just to give her enough time to respond to what I’d just said if she felt so inclined, but since she didn’t, I went ahead and told her,” You know why I asked you to move in. It was to spite Karen. That’s all. So, just ‘cause I’ve been letting you sleep here for the past week, don’t get any stupid ideas in your head about – Just don’t, O.K.? Things are the way they are – ‘cause that’s the way they are.” And then, cursing at myself for talking gibberish, I set my jaw more firmly and continued relentlessly,” You know as well as I do that all I have to do is say the word, and Marilyn will move right in and take your place, and then, for all I care, you can go soak your sad self in a hot basin somewhere on Skid Row.”

Amazon Reviews for Brett Aerobicizes

Ebook : BRETT ALWAYS WINS (Brett Cornell Mystery#3)

Genre : Mystery, comedy-mystery

ISBN (print format): 978-1470098346

Formats: Kindle, Nook, Paperback

Amazon :  http://www.amazon.com/Brett-Always-Cornell-Mysteries-ebook/dp/B007P3NOLM

CreateSpace paperback: https://www.createspace.com/3801789 

Barnes and Noble : http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/brett-always-wins-david-d-daguanno/1109864793 

 Reviews : Multiple 5stars

Blurb : According to the police report, the attractive, blue-eyed blonde had been shot to death in her apartment at around 7:30 p.m. Then how was it possible that nearly 50 people saw her dining and dancing at a nearby club over 3 hours later?

Set in the late 1980s, the third Brett Cornell novel finds the studly private detective surrounded by the usual bevy of beautiful women, as well as a few seedy characters who foolishly decide to butt heads with the supreme unscrupulous bastard himself.

But Brett's road to victory isn't easy, especially when he receives a frantic call for help which leads to his being severely beaten right outside his office building and, later, being held and threatened at gunpoint.

Soon, bullets start flying, fists start flying -- and even a sledgehammer is used -- in one of the most violent cases of his career, before Brett finally wins!

 Excerpt from BRETT ALWAYS WINS (Brett Cornell Mystery#3)

Cute little Paula Marshall came walking towards me in the parking lot, and she offered me a feeble smile when she came close enough to touch.

    “Well, it’s done, I’ve got the money,” she announced, although she didn’t look any too happy about it. For my own part, I wasn’t exactly ready to bust out singing the Star-Spanish Banner either. For one thing, I didn’t even know the words, and for another thing, my singing voice ain’t exactly at the same level as Burt Baccarat’s or that Deaf Leopard guy, to name just two of the best country-and-western singers you’d ever care to listen to! But I did manage to put a big smile on my face upon hearing the great news about the money finally being just a little itty-bit closer to being put in my own bank account.

    “Make sure it’s all there before we drive out of the parking lot,” I advised her.

    “Do you think somebody might try to rob us?” she asked me, suddenly all a-tremble.

    “Nah, I just wanna make sure you’re not trying to rip me off, that’s all,” I said to her, then I chuckled good-naturedly and told her,” What I meant to say was, ’We wanna make sure Donna Ruby don’t think we’re trying to rip her off, that’s all.’”

    Whether she believed me or not didn’t really matter a whole lot, as far as I was concerned, so we got back in the car, and Paula proceeded to direct me to the address she had found out on her own as being that of the woman named Donna Ruby who she had every reason to believe was ruining her pathetic little life. And so, just to convince me one more time that she was one totally mixed-up gal, the first thing she said to me when we stepped out of the car upon our arrival at Donna Ruby’s apartment building was: “Do I look all right?”

    “Not bad, considering you’re about to make an ass of yourself,” I told her, then hurriedly corrected myself since I was probably pushing my luck to its absolute limit,” That is to say, ‘Not bad, you can pass yourself off as a highly respectable woman who sincerely wants to save her marriage at any cost.”

    “Why, thank you, Brett,” Little Miss Clueless replied, smiling faintly. “It was very nice of you to say that.”

    Yup, I told myself. She definitely wants me to make mad and passionate love to her. They all do.

Amazon Reviews for Brett Always Wins 

Other reviews for Brett Always Wins 

Ebook : BRETT GETS HAMMERED (Brett Cornell Mystery#5)

Genre : Mystery, comedy-mystery

ISBN (print format): 978-1475097184

Formats: Kindle, Nook, Paperback

Amazon :  http://www.amazon.com/Brett-Hammered-Cornell-Mysteries-ebook/dp/B008CFDJJO

CreateSpace paperback: https://www.createspace.com/3834938

Barnes and Noble : http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/brett-gets-hammered-david-daguanno/1111782600

Reviews :  Multiple 4.5-5stars

Blurb : The beautiful and alluring Tammy Rankin and her brother Andy were positively grief-stricken when their well-to-do father died of a fatal heart attack.

In fact, their grief was intensified when they realized that their young stepmother stood to inherit his vast fortune -- that is, unless they could somehow suggest foul play and pin a murder rap on the woman, notwithstanding her probable innocence.

They obviously needed to enlist the services of someone who was totally devoid of any amount of scruples whatsoever.

A perfect cue, then, for the entrance of self-proclaimed unscrupulous bastard Brett Cornell who -- as expected -- is instantly attracted to the prospect of getting his own greedy hands on a portion of the Rankin inheritance -- and on the lovely Tammy Rankin herself!

However, will his unscrupulous nature alone, coupled with his stunning Adonis-like features, be enough for him to pull it off? -- especially when he's been spending the last few months of his life in a state of almost constant inebriation? 

Excerpt from Brett Gets Hammered (Brett Cornell Mystery #5)

The man gave out a short laugh, and then he looked down briefly at the floor beneath where he was standing, before looking back up at me and saying,

     “You certainly seem in better spirits than you were in the last time I spoke with you – and I’m glad of that. But I don’t know, Brett. I keep thinking and keep hoping that someday real soon you’ll trust me enough – maybe even like me enough – to open up and tell me why you had that falling out with that beautiful young woman you were seeing at the time of your bout against Gil Bailey – if only to make me understand how you could throw away something so precious –“

     “Stop right there, Joe!” I told him, holding my right hand straight out in his direction, palm facing out. “You don’t know what I know – or what I think I know – which I know don’t make no sense, but –“ and I had to stop myself as the realization came upon me that I was entering the kind of emotional territory that I’d always found to be completely alien and even hostile to my basically unscrupulous nature. Luckily, however, Raff didn’t give me any more time to stumble all over myself as I was starting to do just then, as he came to the rescue (so to speak) by saying to me,

     “You’re right, of course. There’s a lot I don’t know about this situation, and about what you were led to believe or suspect or whatever – but what I do know is this: There’s a young woman involved here who’s wasting away emotionally, who’s confused and scared and just about ready to give up, and I would consider it a horrible sin if I didn’t at least make an attempt to remedy the situation for her – and for you, too, of course -- in any way that I could.”

     I had originally planned on taking a nice brisk shower and then high-tailing it on over to Miss Lola Buchanan’s where I was fairly certain I’d be greeted warmly and tenderly. She, so far, had impressed me as being a really sweet and gentle young thing –

     But she wasn’t Ginger.

     Then, while I simply sat down on the wooden bench that ran parallel to the row of lockers I’d just been standing in front of, I kept my lips closed and looked down at my feet.

     And Joe Raff placed a hand on one of my shoulders and told me,

     “All I can tell you is this, Brett: I could be wrong, but -- I’ve always believed that the sincere and passionate love of a beautiful woman can transform a man’s life and his soul in a truly miraculous way.  Just give that some thought, would you please?”

    He didn’t say anything else after that, and he increased the pressure of his hand upon my shoulder – just a tad – without me even shaking it off me as I normally reacted whenever a man put his hands upon me, uninvited.

     And so, I just sat there for several minutes, even after Joe had left, and I can’t even recall exactly what it was I was either thinking or feeling at that time. But I can state with absolute certainty that I was NOT thinking about Lola Buchanan – and our date that evening never did take place.

     And I can’t even offer a rational explanation as to why it happened that way. 

Barnes and Noble Reviews for Brett Gets Hammered 

Goodreads Reviews for Brett Gets Hammered

Book Spotlight Part II : The Brett Cornell Mystery Series by David D. D'Aguanno

Dear readers, today's book spotlight is a popular detective series with humor and comedy thrown into this interesting mix concoted and created by author David D. D'Aguanno -- The Brett Cornell Mystery Series.

The 2 popular Brett Cornell Mysteries featured today - Read an excerpt from each book posted in this blog along with links to the author's website, purchase links to the bookstore and links to multiple star reviews that the Brett Cornell Series has received.

AUTHOR LINKS : Connect with author David D. D'Aguanno

Author page: http://www.amazon.com/David-DAguanno/e/B0078L97ZI

Author blog: http://brettcornell.blogspot.com

Twitter handle: @DaveDAguanno

Goodreads : http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/7618068-dave-d-aguanno

Facebook: www.facebook.com/BrettCornellSeries

THE BRETT CORNELL MYSTERY SERIES- book features and excerpts

Ebook : IT'S ALL BRETT'S FAULT (Brett Cornell Mystery#7)

Genre : Mystery, comedy-mystery

ISBN (print format): 978-1477631218

Formats: Kindle, Nook, Paperback

Amazon :  http://www.amazon.com/Bretts-Fault-Cornell-Mysteries-ebook/dp/B008HS307W

CreateSpace paperback: https://www.createspace.com/3904102

Barnes and Noble :  http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/its-all-bretts-fault-david-daguanno/1111971619

Blurb :  Marcus Wade was a man who wasn't easily intimidated -- that is, until he had reason to believe that someone was trying to kill him.

Upon talking the matter over with his wife Sybil, he decided to hire someone who would not only protect him, but who would also scare off any potential murderers. In other words, he needed a man who was tough, dangerous -- and more than a little unscrupulous.

 
Enter private detective Brett Cornell who jumps at the chance to push his weight around on the man's behalf, but is even MORE anxious to get it on with the lovely Sybil Wade as well as her younger and even more voluptuous sister Nora -- for starters! The fun and games come to an abrupt end, however, when someone really ends up dead, and everyone involved agrees: It's all Brett's fault!

Excerpt from It's all Brett's Fault (Brett Cornell Mystery#7)

 A little while later, when I was getting back inside after having stashed all that brew in the trunk of my car parked right outside, I thought the jig was up for sure when a fairly cute brunette, decked out in a little waitress outfit, suddenly materialized behind the counter and, looking around in some confusion, finally squinted her eyes in my direction as I approached.

     “Did you see where Al went?” she asked me, then her confused look turned into one of sheer pleasure, probably on account of she could see me more clearly when I stepped in closer to her, and the sight of my incredible mustache and my beautiful curly blond hair had obviously bedazzled her to the max.

     “What do you need Al for? I’m here right now, and Al ain’t,” and all I had to do just then was to continue to enchant her by giving her a brief sample of the devastating Brett Cornell smile, and then I topped it off by circling an arm about her waist and bringing her in closer to me.

     “I -- I wish I had time to get better acquainted with you,” she replied, summoning all the inner strength available to her in an effort to prevent herself from melting away completely. “But I am on duty right now. Maybe later?”

     Hearing that, I kept my smile going strong as I calmly reached over and extracted her little waitress’s pad from out of the back pocket of her skirt, along with the pen that was attached to it, and held it in front of her a moment before handing it over to her and telling her,

    “Name and number.”

    Then I slowly let go of her, but remained standing pretty close as I watched her write down the info I’d asked for. Then I shoved my hands in my pockets, looked around idly, and remarked,

     “As a matter of fact, honey -- I kinda wish Al was here right now. I loaned him fifty bucks last week, and he told me I’d get it back this afternoon. Now, the lousy bum’s nowhere to be found, and it’s my nephew’s birthday – the little tadpole’s just turned six -- and I really need that fifty to buy him a nice present, you know?” I was gonna add a few words to the effect that I needed to get him something that wouldn’t put too much of a strain on the poor, sickly little tadpole, seeing as he’d recently had an operation, and golly, he was just a helpless little tadpole, too, and he didn’t deserve all the unhappiness he’d had recently, which was quite a lot, considering he was just a little tadpole, right? And in so saying this, I think I’ve just exceeded the world’s record for the number of times the word “tadpole” has ever appeared in print in a single paragraph!

    But the truth of the matter is I didn’t actually say anything like that, but instead, I merely clamped my mouth shut and cast pleading eyes across the short space that separated my face from hers and sniffed a little, as if to hold back a few tears.

     Then the girl sighed and said,

     “I guess I’m just a sucker for sensitive guys like you. Listen, darling -- I’ll just take fifty dollars out of the register, and when Al gets back, I’ll just tell him I paid you, and he can just put the fifty bucks back in the register out of his own pocket.”

     “Gee,” I said to her in an awe-struck voice, and my smile got even wider than before. “You are not only beautiful, but you’ve got a real kind heart. I like that in a woman -- even more than good looks, you know?”

     “No problem at all, sweetie,” she said on her way back from the cash register, and she handed me two crisp twenty-dollar bills and a handsome ten-spot, accompanying the act with a cheery smile that I was rapidly falling in love with -- sort of. “Now -- just in case he asks, who should I say I gave the money to?”

     With a big smile, I folded the bills, dropped them into the front pocket of my shirt where I kept my smokes, and said,” Henry Lawton,” three seconds before I was out the door. 

Ebook : BEACH BUM BRETT (Brett Cornell Mystery#8)

Genre : Mystery, comedy-mystery

Facebook Page :  http://www.facebook.com/pages/Beach-Bum-Brett

ISBN (print format): 978-1478122500

Formats: Kindle, Nook, Paperback




Amazon : http://www.amazon.com/Beach-Brett-Cornell-Mysteries-ebook/dp/B008RLB1IO

CreateSpace paperback: https://www.createspace.com/3918340

Barnes and Noble :  http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/beach-bum-brett-david-daguanno/1112229469

Reviews : 5stars 

Blurb : Private detective Brett Cornell decides to go on vacation, and hits the sunny, golden shoreline of the Atlantic Ocean, where he quickly captures the 3 A's (the attention, admiration, & affections) of as many of the lovely young bikini-clad beauties as he could ever desire!

So, what could possibly go wrong?

Well -- as Brett himself would say -- as sure as rain is wet and water is...well...wet, Brett's self-appointed reign as King of the Beach is soon threatened when a few of the local tough guys decide to engage him in a bit of fisticuffs so that it doesn't take long before the unscrupulous bastard himself begins to catch a whiff of MURDER in the salty sea air.

Only, this time he himself may very well be the intended victim!

Excerpt from Beach Bum Brett (Brett Cornell Mystery#8)

“On an individual basis,” I said to the company at large,” you guys are totally useless. Is that why you always got to fight in packs?”

     “We don’t fight,” somebody said. It was a new voice -- or, at least, a voice I hadn’t heard in a while -- and I then noticed that Norman character coming forward a few steps away from the railing. With his piercing pretty eyes blazing away at me, he proceeded to inform me that he himself was not in the habit of driving into strange towns and punching out innocent people the way I apparently was. “And just because some of those innocent people want to strike back,” he continued,” you seem to think you’re being ganged up on.”

     With a laugh that had the word “scorn” written all over it, I stepped in towards the sucker, hands on my hips, and said to him,

    “Don’t be such a two-faced clown. Be honest for once in your life, and admit you’re the one who put Craig and his pals up to that stunt on the beach the other day.”

     “What stunt on the beach?” he asked with a kind of self-righteous attitude, and just because he seemed to think he was above a common piece of peasant trash like me and -- mainly -- just because I felt like it, I reached out, took him by the throat, and shoved him back up against the railing, and without letting go of his throat while I did that, too.

     “Jeez!” Konrad cried out, and noticing out of the corner of my eye that Craig was about to start towards me, I shot back at him,

     “Just try it, and I’ll break his neck with my bare hands.”

     And then, aside from some sputtering from Norman, there was silence. Craig dropped his arms loosely by his sides and stepped back to stand next to the lifeguard buddy of his that I hadn’t knocked out -- yet. Even Konrad shut his stupid baby-mouth and stood quietly, a look of pained intensity on his face the whole time I kept my hand around Norman’s throat. Finally, a scruple I didn’t know I even had persuaded me to ease up, so I let go of the hold I had on his neck, and as soon as I released him, he went stumbling back against the railing again, choking and putting on an Academy Award-winning performance like he was Marlo Thomas in “A Streetcar Named Denial” – or was it that other old movie that took place on a Southern plantation in Minneapolis, and starred Clark Kent and Betty Grable?

      Anyways, watching him carry on like that, I had some difficulty in stifling the urge to simply step over to him and nail him a good solid punch on the jaw, just to shut him up. Pretty boys like him turned my stomach, if you know what I mean, especially the ones who put on airs like they were better than everybody else, as if their descendants had all come over to this country on the Titanic, or something -- and from where I was standing, this Norman character fit that description to a Tee. Turning to the others, I told them that, as far as I was concerned, the party was over and they could all go take a flying leap off the Himalayas, assuming they knew what they were and where to find them (which I didn’t, incidentally).

Amazon Reviews for Beach Bum Brett