Fiction: Finsoup (a novel) [8]

Margot

By edRogers

[Reviewed here on the novel’s publication day, October 6, 2018: “Coming soon to a Barnes & Noble store near you?”]

Margot placed the cell phone back in the drawer and came back to her couch and glass of wine. She knew she was using Charlie, but it was more than that. Despite the few years age difference, she was very attracted to him. She was also fond of him and knew that what Charlie was doing was important. It was the last chance to turn around the wholesale killing of every shark in the ocean.

Thunder Down Under: Survival – separate yet together

By Vic Midyett

“In all my put together born days” is an old Southern (U.S.) saying that I suspect is not used much, if any, anymore. It means, “in my whole life.”

Fiction: Finsoup (a novel) [7]

Seafarer

By edRogers

[Reviewed here on the novel’s publication day, October 6, 2018: “Coming soon to a Barnes & Noble store near you?”]

The boat was docked at a pier down from Mr. Tai’s warehouse. They were adding a radio and tracking device. Charlie wasn’t sure, but he was thinking Mr. Tai didn’t trust his new partners, or maybe he didn’t trust anybody.
    In fact, the law required the tracking device on all boats sailing in Costa Rican waters. But Charlie was right about Mr. Tai, he didn’t trust anybody.

The Loneliest Liberal:Tears and more tears

By James Knudsen

Ask about me of those who knew me as a child and I imagine you will get a variety of responses. Ask me and I will tell you that I was a crier, a cry baby, an easily bruised tomato, a flower that wilted under extremely mild heat. I cried over just about anything. Some of the tears came from the usual childhood traumas – bee stings, crashing a bicycle, crashing a skateboard – and these may be viewed as reasonable, normal, perhaps even healthy responses.

Every day’s a gift when you’re over...

By Dr. Ely Lazar & Dr. Adele Thomas

[Republished here by permission of the authors from their “Lifestyle Tips for Over 50s,” affiliated with their website “Passionate Retirees,” September 3, 2018.]

Back in 1973, Alexander Leaf, a medical doctor, travelled to various areas of the world to study people who were living beyond 100. His article “Every Day Is A Gift When You Are Over 100” was featured at the time in National Geographic Magazine. Dr Leaf attempted to discover what was the secret to longevity in these communities.

The Last Walk

In remembrance of a dog named Gretchen

By Karen Abbey

My oldest son, Mark, lives in a mobile home park in Cayucos, California. The home next to his had been lived in for years by an older couple and their dog Gretchen. The wife died last year, so the 90-year-old man, Ray, and his dog – Gretchen, a 12-year-old Border Collie – live alone.

Fiction: Finsoup (a novel) [6]

Boating

By edRogers

[Reviewed here on the novel’s publication day, October 6, 2018: “Coming soon to a Barnes & Noble store near you?”]

Margot pulled up at the hotel and as Charlie stepped out of the car she said, “I am truly sorry Charlie.”
    He would have answered her but he honestly didn’t know what he was feeling. He walked through the empty lobby and waved at the night guard watching TV while half asleep on the couch. The sex had been outstanding, and Margot may have thought that was why he agreed to help her, but no, this wasn’t about his feelings toward her. It was the story. She was right. If he lived through this, he would have the greatest story of his life.

Computer Help with Ralph

By Ralph Earle

When I retired in 2017, I intended to devote more time to writing poetry, but also wanted to translate my three decades of computer experience into providing help for others. Talking with friends, I realized that unlike our children and grandchildren, many of our generation have little connection with the why’s and wherefore’s of how computers deliver email, social media, and videos. If anything goes wrong, we are as unlikely to fix it as we are to repair our increasingly computerized automobiles.

Fiction: Finsoup (a novel) [5]

A Bond

By edRogers

[Reviewed here on the novel’s publication day, October 6, 2018: “Coming soon to a Barnes & Noble store near you?”]

Charlie sat quietly as Margot drove out of town. On the mainland, she headed southwest into the mountains. She drove a 1998 Toyota Land Cruiser, which she called a jeep, as did most Costa Ricans. She drove it like it was a rental. She told Charlie she had bought it three years before from a man who had rebuilt it from the ground up.

Fiction: Finsoup (a novel) [4]

Environmentalist

By edRogers

[Reviewed here on the novel’s publication day, October 6, 2018: “Coming soon to a Barnes & Noble store near you?”]

What with Edgar and Rufino up north looking at a boat, Charlie felt as though he could breathe again. The tension of being around those two had worn him out. He was relaxing in the lobby with another beer and chatting with Eric. He needed someone to talk to and Eric seemed like a good sounding board for him. After his meeting with Mr. Tai, he knew it was time to cut his ties with Edgar and Rufino. He might be able to stall them about the money for a while longer, but that Taiwanese bastard scared him even more than he scared Edgar.

Fiction: Finsoup (a novel) [3]

Taiwanese Mafia

By edRogers

[Reviewed here on the novel’s publication day, October 6, 2018: “Coming soon to a Barnes & Noble store near you?”]

Charlie woke up at 5:30 the next morning. Refreshed from eleven hours of sleep, he was ready to get on with the day ahead. He stepped into the shower, but immediately jumped out. Charlie was reacting to the large, white, pear-shaped shower head, which was at the end of a long pipe that came out of the wall and extended to a spot above the middle of the stall to deliver water from its flat round bottom. What worried him and had him backing away from the water was the two electrical wires that ran from the wall along the pipe to the shower head.

Poetry & Portraits: Gabriel

Drawing by Susan C. Price

Gabriel
By Eric Meub

[Originally published on January 14, 2017]

A mouth that’s raised on thirst must yearn
     for lips kept coiled around the sea’s
green seed, unfolding like a fern
     to spread her lace upon the breeze.

Fiction: Finsoup (a novel) [2]

Costa Rica

By edRogers

[Reviewed here on the novel’s publication day, October 6, 2018: “Coming soon to a Barnes & Noble store near you?”]

The threesome landed at the San Jose International airport in Costa Rica at 1 o’clock on Tuesday afternoon. San Jose is the largest city in Costa Rica and the seat of government. It sits in a bowl, surrounded by mountains, and from there in the minivan shuttle they hired it was a little over a two-hour ride westward to their hotel in the town of Puntarenas.

Fiction: Finsoup (a novel) [1]

Photo on 1st page,
Tico Times excerpt,
Dedication,
A Chance Encounter

By edRogers

[Reviewed here on the novel’s publication day, October 6, 2018: “Coming soon to a Barnes & Noble store near you?”]

Photo on first page

Confession to myself

By Moristotle

It’s Sunday, and more than a few of my neighbors have gone to church. I know they have good reasons for going (and possibly a few not-so-good ones – “What might the Joneses, or my parents, think if I don’t go?”).

Book Review: Finsoup, by edRogers

Coming soon to a Barnes & Noble store near you?

By Moristotle

Wednesday evening, UPS delivered to my doorstep a printed proof copy of edRogers’s new action & adventure thriller Finsoup. [edRogers is the pen name of Ed Rogers, a contributing editor of Moristotle & Co.] Of edRogers’ several such thrillers, it’s the first he wrote for the sake of a cause, one that, as the book’s “about the author” section conveys, “he became passionate about while living in Costa Rica for four years this decade – the urgent cause of ending shark finning.”

In Your Dreams: The confirmation vote

Subject to change

By Moristotle

Last night I had trouble sleeping. It seemed hours before I finally slept.