Bücher veröffentlicht von Flexible Press

Lenny Beibel, a wannabe journalist, travels to an international environmental conference in rural Vermont, in search of a story that will put him in the big leagues. He sure needs one.There he meets Rachel Seagrave, EarthKare visionary founder. Rachel and her team of bumbling colleagues still cling to the hope that Nobel winner Al Gore will appear in time to inspire the faithful. But time is running short. Waiting in the wings is self-help guru Henry "On Your" Marks. Henry is the slick purveyor of JogThink, a self-help philosophy popular at business and sales conventions. How it could pertain to the environmental crisis is far from clear to Rachel and her comrades. But Henry is not one to give up easily. Renown for Creating Your Own Finish Line, he sprints onto the scene, determined to convince Rachel he is worthy of this gig, and worthy of her. But what's that, up in the sky? An endangered species bird thought to be extinct is sighted flitting around where the conference will be held. With a mad stampede of birders, a missing ex-Vice President, and a keynote speaker who may or may not be a fraud, Beibel's got his story. It's just not the story that anyone planned on.WAITING FOR AL GORE is a fish-out-water drama that blends the urgencies of environmental activism with the folly of self-help bombast, featuring an ensemble cast worthy of a Wes Anderson film.

Downlanders tells the story of five disillusioned young people who escape the trappings of sedentary urban lives and take off for the Grizzle Peninsula-a 1,200 mile expanse of steep mountains, impenetrable forest and jagged coastline, reputed to be "last great wilderness adventure." But this reputation comes with a warning, stated repeatedly in the budget backpacker's guide that frames this dis-adventure story: idealists rarely find the utopia they are looking for. Ernie is one such young person who is searching for something. With his sort of girlfriend Eva, off they go to the wilderness. Soon, their relationship is more than strained, Eva seeming to stay around for lack of a better plan while Ernie dreams of more than a few ice cold beers. Chief runs out of luck in the city, and he needs to get away. Far away. But the farther he goes, the more troubles pile up behind him. Danny follows a woman to the Grizzle Peninsula. Theoretically she's doing some surveying work, but that turns out to be a bust, On the bright side, he lands on his feet with a job as a forest service park attendant. Fiona Gallagher is similarly lost. But a crash course in being a game warden seems to offer her direction. Unfortunately, that direction points her to teaming up with Danny and chasing Chief across the Grizzle Peninsula.For all five, instead of offering a solution to their woes, the vast, brutal wilderness forces them to confront their own, and each other's, shortcomings, until it all comes to a head at the end of the world: a place called Grizzletown.

INDENENDENT PRESS AWARD: 2024 winner for best humor/satireLife's going great for Dr. Robert Rosen. He has a New York City medical practice, his dreams of TV fame as "Dr. Sober-Up" are coming true, and he's making big bucks selling oxycodone prescriptions for cash. What could go wrong? Sure, his personal life is a bit rocky-his brother, mother, and son all seeing him as a swindler and a low life-but you can't have everything. Besides, he has a wonderful young assistant/girlfriend in Tamika Jones and a skilled if out of control mentor in Dr. Barry "Bulldog" Bullard, so really, who needs them?Unfortunately, his opioid side business includes selling prescriptions to a bogus pain clinic run by Russian mobsters, mobsters who don't have a lot of respect for Dr. Rosen's position nor his fees, nor, for that matter, his apartment and personal possessions.Inevitably, his house of cards collapses when one of his patients rats him out to the FBI and he is arrested. Out on bail, he can't work, he is hemorrhaging money, and the prospect of spending a long stint in prison looms. He's got to do something, but the more he tries to get ahead of his troubles the worse they get.Finally he hits on a plan: reinvent himself as a life coach and motivational speaker. Once again, his fortunes appear to be on the rise. However, he finds, to his dismay, that he cannot escape his criminal past; the Russians have not finished with him yet.In the spirit of John Kennedy Toole and Chuck Palahniuk, a Very Innocent Man is a darkly comic novel that, as with all good satire, may not be so absurd after all.

The anthology includes 40 works representing a wide range of Minnesota experiences and voices, from urban to rural, from historical to present day. From celebrating the connection many of us feel to a community, to the beauty of the north woods, to struggling to find a way to keep our hard-earned home or to carve out a home in a sometimes hostile land, Home is a truly American story.