Recommended Read: Erased, a novel by edRogers

Mysteries explored, 

identities briefly assumed

By Moristotle

I agree with Holy Moley, who says on the back cover of Erased:

What a thrill to read Erased! I thought edRogers couldn’t get any more exciting than in his Boystown and Body Count novels, but he’s done it again, and done it even better! Never die, edRogers! Keep on writing!”

I too hope Rogers doesn’t die, and I hope I don’t either, because I so enjoy editing his work. (He began writing Erased while I was editing his fictional biography Jaudon: An American Family.)

As Rogers himself describes this work:

Erased is a gripping story about identity, memories, and some perils of doing your job. When your past disappears, do you disappear too? Follow my characters as they move from one dangerous life to the next.”

Ed Rogers creates stories with a skill I can only marvel at. If you like to read action-packed stories, I urge you to give Erased a try. You can purchase a copy on Amazon.

And after you have read and enjoyed Erased, please do your friends the favor of recommending they read it too.

Copyright © 2026 by Moristotle

Recommended Read: Jaudon: An American Family, a novel by edRogers

The Jaudons had

what it took

By Moristotle

Here’s what one reader had to say about edRogers’ novel:

The novel Jaudon: An American Family is a history book in which we have a look at the life of two generations of a family as Texas goes from a desolate wasteland to a booming economy of cattle, oil, railroads, and more. The swiftness with which things change is amazing. And the people involved were seldom nice. Jaudon reminds me of Patrick Smith’s A Land Remembered, a great novel about Florida. It puts the reader right into the action.
             —Roger Owens, author of A Killing on a Bridge,
                                         Dancing at the Driftwood Hotel, &
                                  Drinking Kubulis at the Dead Cat Café

Roger Owens’ endorsement means a lot, because he’s as thoughtful a reader as he is a writer.

As the author himself describes Jaudon: An American Family:

This is the story of a family beginning their life after the American Civil War. James Jaudon, a Southern boy in Mississippi, falls in love with an ex-slave named Cassy. After the birth of their son, they and James’ sister flee to Texas, where they endure the hardships of carving out a life in the wild west—from fighting bandits and renegades to suffering racism and other prejudices. James builds a cattle empire, and he and Cassy’s son, Claude Napoleon Jaudon, become two of the richest oilmen in Texas. The Jaudons cast a long shadow across Texas as the story continues through the Spanish-American War, Prohibition, the Great Depression, and World Wars 1 & 2. Members of the Jaudon family were there for it all.

Ed Rogers created this story with heart, because he himself has Jaudon roots in France. If you especially like to read gripping historical fiction, I highly recommend this book. You can purchase a copy on Amazon.

And after you have read and enjoyed Jaudon: An American Family, please do your friends the favor of recommending they read it too. 

Copyright © 2026 by Moristotle

Goines Muses on His Creator’s Two Books

In Sestina

By Moristotle

Eyeing the two books’ mosaic of covers, Goines
pined to read in print his creator’s vignettes
about himself and learn of the man’s musings,
reveries, fantasies, dreams, and perusings,
whose volume was twice as long of writings,
its cover even showing a face to readers.

He wanted to show his own face to readers
and see theirs as well and learn of their goings-
on and where to look to find their writings.
Had any of them written anything—vignettes,
essays, reviews, reports of their perusings,
interviews, poems, stories, random musings?

He did not and never would know their musings,
but his creator’s were there for any reader
who added the second book to their perusings,
and in the first they’d see in fiction Goines’
creator from the outside, a man in vignette
seen by a man outside himself through writing.

His creator knew from his many forays in writing
that working with words facilitated musing.
Arranging words was like painting a vignette,
producing pictures in words, portraits for readers,
moving pictures of comings and goings,
transforming into movie-goers their perusers.

He wondered now, having begun his perusings
of that other volume of his creator’s writings,
whether his creator would also be going
through its pages, to revisit his many musings—
all writers need to become their own readers,
to see themselves, as though in vignette.

Not all his creator’s writings were vignettes:
philosophical essays called on perusers
to become Socratically probing readers;
light verse and wordplay accompanied his writings;
self-reflections brought readers to introspective musing
along paths they had not planned to be going.

He favored the vignettes of all the writings:
they showed him also perusing and musing;
their readers would see that Goines was going on.

Copyright © 2026 by Moristotle

Musings & Perusings and Goines 0n have been published

Publication Date: Dec. 24, 2025

75th Birthday Gift Fulfilled

By Moristotle

On January 8, 2018 , in his post, “An Immodest Proposal: A Birthday Surprise Ruined in 750 Words," Geoffrey proposed that I put together a collection of my writings in book form. On several later occasions I apologized for not having yet acted on the proposal, which came from Jennifer as well. Now, at last, I can announce that I have completed the project. Or, rather, Geoffrey and I have completed the project, because he provided consultations and invaluable editing without which I might neither have completed the project nor have achieved as good results as I think we did.
    Musings & Perusings: A Moristotle Reader is available in both paperback and ebook on Amazon. 

Publication Date: Dec. 23, 2025

Goines Has Delivered!

Almost two years ago, after his retirement from blogging, Goines submitted the manuscript of his book Goines On: A self-portrait in fictional vignettes to an agent in the William Morris Endeavor agency. He never heard from the agent, so he decided to self-publish the book along with Musings & Perusings: A Moristotle Reader. Goines is grateful to everyone who encouraged him along the way and helped him get the Goines On book out. He hopes his words of acknowledgment in the book’s front matters adequately convey his thanks.
    Goines On: A self-portrait in fictional vignettes is available in both paperback and ebook on Amazon.

Both books can be accessed from my author page on Amazon.

Write a Review
If you purchase a copy, you can leave a review of it on Amazon. Just click the stars below its title, opt to see customer reviews, and then click to write your review, which must be titled. Read the reviews already posted for examples.

Copyright © 2025 by Moristotle

Life Storiesis

By Eric Meub



I managed to post this even though Morris has resigned. Don't ask me how I managed it; mum's the word.

 

A short essay he wrote this fall for his 60th Yale reunion book next year prompted me to tell him that he could teach a class on "How to Write Your Life Story in 500 Words or Less." He seemed to lighten at the suggestion:

Afterlife (a sonnet)

By Eric Meub

On visiting your native town, we walk

The streets you used to walk before we met.

We talk about the sights. But as you talk,

And as you smile, I can’t help see regret.

Some memory transfixes every spot:

Old dreams, perhaps, of what would gladden you

In years to come. The years have come: I’m not

The future you were looking forward to.

How brave you are—to walk with me, yet bear
Such disappointment, such surprising grief
That, just this once, you can’t humanely share
With me, the one who usually brings relief.

My fault: I thought that you’d enjoy the week.
You take my hand and press it to your cheek.

Copyright © 2023 by Eric Meub Eric Meub is a California poet & architect.

A Farewell to Arts

By Roger Owens

There was a man. Just a regular guy really, maybe a bit harder-working than most, but just a regular guy. He had what employers want a guy to have: the house, the wife, the mortgage, the car, the kid, the dog. Best way to keep a worker from considering leaving; he needs this job. Then he broke the mold and bought his own business. After a few years, he was successful enough to have a lot of time on his hands. And, this man had a dream.

Farewell to Moristotle & Co.

By Paul Clark
(aka motomynd)

It seems fitting that my internet went out as I was attempting to write this. I was drawn into the Moristotle family by accident, spent most of my time wondering if I fit in as anything more than the proverbial red-headed stepchild, and now an accident was preventing my properly saying goodbye.
    Over the years, Moristotle has become an amazing literary amalgamation that I hope somehow survives and evolves and gains more respect even as you, Morris, move on to other uses of your time. When I was allegedly gainfully employed in the magazine industry, I worked with various publishing houses across the country, but I never knew a group with more talent spread across a wider array of interests and perspectives than I came to know at Moristotle. I hope that you, Morris, and everyone involved, take great pride in what you have been part of.

All Over the Place: “A Witness to Your Life” from The...Other Poems

By Michael H. Brownstein

A Witness to Your Life

She is wife to the husband,

Keeper of memoirs he will never write,

The exposed and the secret-sharer.

Even with life so small, unkempt,

Littered with rude manners and perfumed breath.

Later, if he saved the drowning boy

Or pulled the soldier out of the burning building

Or calmed the man full of slurs and bad skin,

It will only be that ordinary people

Often do extraordinary things.

Farewells to Moristotle & Co.

By André Duvall
[with a few words from
Billy Charles Duvall]

I cherish knowing that my father and Morris are first cousins and have a great respect and affinity for each other (their mothers, Florine & Stella, respectively, were sisters). I’m blessed to have found myself in the middle of the thoughts and creations of these two amazing souls by way of my contributions to Moristotle & Co. I’m grateful to Morris for his unwavering encouragement, inspiration, and direct but always respectful nudging of my continued engagement with his blog.

“Fairmount” Relined (another Farewell to Moristotle & Co.)

By Maik Strosahl

When I submitted an audio file of my reading of my 2011 poem “Fairmount” for the sidebar’s “S.o.u.n.d.s of Moristotle & Co.” a few weeks ago, Moristotle observed that he could not hear some of the line breaks he saw presented in my June 21 “Highways and Byways” column, and he asked whether I would like to do a re-reading.
    After trying several times, I decided I didn’t like the way it sounded with all those short lines from a dozen years ago (when I wrote it). Consequently, I changed the line breaks (and only the line breaks) as shown in the new version, below.

All Over the Place: “Eight Breaks in the Glaze....” from The..Other Poems

By Michael H. Brownstein

Eight Breaks in the 

Glaze or If We Ate
Superstition for Supper

1.

I see exact replication in everyone, every tree,

      every landscape, every valley,
      in every thick mountain crag.

Birds know how to hate that way too.

Farewell to Moristotle & Co.

By Bob Boldt

There has been so much to say of late, but I have neglected to say anything due to personal issues inhibiting my creative life. That, and I just got out of the habit of contributing.
    In spite of this dearth, I link to Moristotle & Co. continually. I hope the site will stay up because it is a great link to some of the best of my work, beautifully displayed.
    I cannot express how much your mentorship has meant to me and, as I hear, to my two Mikes as well. Introducing them to you has been one of the great blessings of my life. You have been as great a stimulus to their creative lives as you have been to mine.
    Is there any chance you might be available in an advisory capacity to an aspiring poet from time to time?

Copyright © 2023 by Bob Boldt

All Over the Place: “Home” from The...Other Poems

By Michael H. Brownstein

Home

Potholed with devil sores.
He learned to tolerate them,
And now this: straight aways

Huge with speed bumps like blemishes.

“Everything is big there,”
They told him. “Be careful.”
And America was big. Big streets.
Big cereal boxes. Big windows.

Father’s Art: Works of Billy Charles Duvall [12]

Detail of a photo below

By André Duvall

Beyond the 31 works of art I’ve catalogued so far in this column, there are still other paintings in Dad’s oeuvre worthy of sharing. He recently rediscovered a few more completed works, owing to searches motivated by the evolution of our Father’s Art project. He also discovered several unfinished works from many years ago that the project has inspired him to work on completing.