With the pending publication of “The Swamps of Jersey” I’m making my Smashwords collection available for free until Aug. 29.

The first free story is “The Summer of the Homerun.” It features Smitty, a character whose life I am examining in the work-in-progress, “Three Rivers.”

Samples of “Three Rivers” are available on this site: “Three Rivers;

“Smitty and Katina;” and “Katina at the piano.”

Formats available: epub mobi (Kindle) pdf rtf lrf pdb txt read online

“The Summer of the Home Run” is available at https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/299057

Enter Coupon Code: JR48H

This is an excerpt from “The Summer of the Home run.”

“Our town was not that big, but it was spread out and we could go all summer and not see any of our friends. Anything could happen, like the year when we moved from sixth grade to the middle school and found out only when we got back to school that Jackie Dennis, the girl everybody on the baseball team wanted to take to the movies because she was like the prettiest girl in three counties, like we knew girls in three counties, but you know what I mean. Anyway, she had moved because her father, who was a minister, had been transferred to a church in, like, Iowa. We didn’t even know that minsters got transferred. I mean, all the ministers in all the rest of the town’s churches were old like they founded the church or something.

But anyway, we only found out Jackie Dennis had moved when she wasn’t sitting in the second seat of the third row in homeroom. That’s where she always sat, between Allan Anderson on her left, whose name was always second behind Brenda Ades, and Eddie Madden, who was always in the second seat of the fourth row. I always sat in the fourth seat of the fifth row and had a perfect angle view of Jackie Dennis. She had the blondest hair. It shined like it absorbed the sunlight, and she had a soft, round face with green eyes and a pretty little crooked smile.

You know who sat in her seat now? Frankie Earl. I didn’t like Frankie Earl.

It’s not like I would have had a chance with Jackie Dennis anyway. She was too perfect. She moved with a confidence that I could never figure out. Her friends were all smart and she always gave the speech at graduation or at the Memorial Day parade, and read the notices during homeroom.

She knew my name, and would always say “Hi, Smitty,” when we passed in the hallways, but I’d never have a chance with her.

That’s why getting to pitch that summer was such a big deal.

The other Smashwords offering is a collection of short words entitled “The Resurrection of Leo.”

“The Resurrection of Leo” is available at: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/282799.

Enter Coupon Code: UD39R

Formats available: epub mobi (Kindle) pdf rtf lrf pdb txt read online

This is a sample from the story, “Weight””

“

They were the conversations between people interested in one another, who enjoyed the chance to talk and share; conversations between people who wanted to be speaking to one another, where thoughts and ideas flew around so fast we apologized to one another for interrupting, then carried on again at a mad pace.  Conversations of the curious, the hungry for details, for the voice, the sound of the other; filled with promise, laughter, a lightness of being that filled your eyes. I could never look away.

They were conversations between people who enjoyed each other’s company.

Conversations between people who thought about one another when we were separated.

Conversations that should have pulled us together.

Conversations that failed.

It was one of those conversations we had that suddenly all went bad. The shell cracked, the shine in your eyes faded, the joy in our voices, gone. The truth of all we thought was truth, just words, sounds echoing in a vacuum until meaningless, convincing both of us that we were right.

It was just talk, just electrons scattered through our minds, weightless. Scientists say electrons have critical mass. They are wrong. Electrons are as weightless as dust; the weight is in the heart.

John Prine calls it running at the speed of loneliness. Filling time and space with activity because to stop would expose the emptiness.

The morning after you left I sat weightless on the bed knowing that you were running again through the world as weightless as I.

It takes one to know one is running at that speed.”

My friend and voice artist Diane Havens has recorded version of stories from “Leo.” They are available at:

http://oneplaylist.fm/playlists/diane-havens