"Reading For Pleasure" was an early ezine, which talked about books and authors. This magnificant publication was short lived (only from ) and is much missed. There was even a special issue devoted to baseball! According to the banner heads of each issue, the copyright belongs to: Cindy & Drew Bartorillo c/o Reading For Pleasure, 103 Baughman's Lane, Suite 303, Frederick, MD 21702 (This is probably an extinct address.)
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Index of Authors and Books

The famous Paul Dean Anderson gave a lecture in Rockford Illinois and gave his "system" for writing great short-short stories. Anyone reading this blurb should try Paul's "method"!

Here is an example of a story written in Paul's "method" (or style). It is a little piece about self-protection against an abusive husband. Also, I got to kill off (figuratively speaking) someone who made my life miserable in junior high. I call it The Election for reasons that will become clear...

Interestingly enough, Illinois really did remove the requirement that death certificates be signed off on by M.D.s!

Here is a story I wrote for a writing contest in Rockford, Illinois. I recall this was an example of the Anderson method. Still, it is a nice little story of innocent US tourists abroad. Whistle Up Your Way Home! (I didn't win and I suspect part of the reason was my story wasn't Politically Correct in the early 1990s.

This story A Small Private Gathering was inspired by

  1. The book "Boys From Boise", which mentioned a witch hunt that "cleaned out" gay military personnel from a base at Mountain Home Idaho (as I recall) and
  2. my remembering that some of the best enlisted Navy personnel I worked with were kicked out of the Navy when they were accidentally found to be gay. They didn't harm anyone, they just scared the fearful.
This was a blatant injustice. If these men were good enough to be drafted and to fight for their country (WW2 and Korea), they surely were good enough to be allowed to retire...

I wrote this in the early 1990s and now (24 September 2006) is the first time I've finally gotten the courage to publish this story. I may be feeling tired now (and I am) but suddenly I can't figure out why I was ever afraid to publish. It's not like I'll have the chance to go back into the Navy...

Here is a picture of Commander James Francis Etro's first Wardroom. This version will not display in "firefox". Another version, capable of doing so, will have to be created. However, since it's only taken me about 18 years to get this imagery and names on the internet, I don't expect to be doing this "real soon now". (Written 21 November 2005)