Blanche Gatto’s Baked Goods
“Remember, all entries must be mailed in before noon on March fifth. Make sure to send one dessert recipe. Then attach a brief bio of yourself, and most importantly, write on the envelope, ‘2017 Battle of the Bakers.’ The three chosen contestants will present their desserts at our St. Patrick’s Day celebration at our Market Square Pavilion. Wow, this should be interesting… the morning show sampling sweet desserts then drinking pitchers of beer with corn Read more [...]
Stephan Bailey: A Valise of Doubt
“You’ve got this all wrong,” Tim Derr said to his best friend of thirty years, Stephan Bailey who sat next to him on a stool at a tavern in Miami called, 305 Brass. “First and foremost compadre, as a person who has known you the most, and the best wingman that a guy looking for a girl could ask for—it’s not a blind date.”
“Remember when Tara and I went to an all-inclusive in Key West?” Tim asked.
“Of course,” Stephan said.
“Well, Read more [...]
Rotted Orange among the Apple Orchards
A man from Miami wearing brown sandals, drawstring tan pants and a white guayabera appeared large between dead apple orchards. Two turkey vultures pecked on his body nailed between the long grass blades with a bullet. Their beaks had been breaking his skin since the scent stirred the air of a farm field in the eight hours of his death. The body was later identified by the sister of the deceased man: Charlie Snow.
Twelve hours earlier at the Merry Mountain Read more [...]
Captain's Boat
“I’ve been weeping for a mighty long time. Yes, I’ve been weeping for a mighty long time.”
Kim Whistler sang The Five Blind Boys song as if she was in the Overtown Baptist Church choir. She sang with the harmony of happiness and claps of praise. But she was three blocks and one little boy from the church. Her voice bounced off the inside of the boat as the acoustics allowed the sadness to sink into the old sea worn wood of a boat, forty feet in length.
In this neighborhood Read more [...]
Wanton Needs—Marshall Boyd
Coffee is like a bad woman, rough on the nerves, but good for the spirit—Falk McCoy
Wanton Needs, the fourth book by author Marshall Boyd of the Falk McCoy Mystery series, begins at the familiar Glades Hotel and then crisscrosses Miami by covering the cultures and countries that are the identity of the Magic City.
At Amantes, a supper club located on the second floor of the Glades Hotel, Garcia (owner of the hotel) and Mystel (Falk’s lover and proprietor of the Read more [...]
Christan Gatto: A Composition of Travel
A compelling review based on the sole question: What is your favorite book?
Cure, routine, rendezvous or collision, the rhyme of travel is sublime. But you must forgo these concepts and the common area in which you reside. Ride, ride, ride somewhere to the fissures of foreign tableaux.—D. Martini
A month ago I had a conversation with a dear friend who is a teacher living in the mountains of Colorado. It was about having a favorite book. From his repertoire Read more [...]
Serendipia James & Adaline
"The author’s struggle to convey the essence of the turmoil the two lovers’ experience is palpable. The wounds his characters carry are deep, invisible, lingering: unwarranted remorse the sorrowed must endure. Serendipia. Read it." Marshall Boyd, Author of the Falk McCoy series
YouTube Preview of Serendipia James & Adaline Book Trailer
Preface
James walked from the brief conversation with his neighbor about his divorce in a dire mood. He stepped in his Read more [...]
David Bowie
—In Memory of an Innovative Performer
As a “Young American” I listened to David Bowie. Many years would pass and I would be “Under Pressure” as an adult, but those “Changes” were for the better in my life. Eventually, the “Golden Years” gave me opportunities to celebrate with many knowing that, We can be Heroes, just for one day.
Ground control to Major Tom, there is a “Ziggy Stardust” in the sky tonight. Read more [...]
A Word about the Weather in Miami
(Whether or not we like it!)
OP, Errol D’Mint
Miami—The stormy weather patterns for the greater Miami area had played tricks on the local weather women who forecasted that Saturday, the 4th of December, would be different from Friday. Needless to say, they were correct—it was worse. I should have expected the weather to worsen due to the language offered by the local morning television weather women. Miami’s tropical storms, scheduled to dissipate Read more [...]
The Toil of Tic Tacking
“What time yinz going tic tacking Joey?”
“Probably ‘bout seven…seven-thirty, just show up at Eddie’s house at seven. Hey, you got room in your sack for more corncobs?”
“Yeah, I got room. Wow! We have a lot of corn to rake we get back,” Rich responded.
Joey Retter and Rich Canato were years apart in age, but not in mischievous thinking. The two neighborhood friends were tearing dried corn cobs from the farthest rows of stalks on Miller’s Farm. Dano, Read more [...]
