Baby Boomers 2024 Authors

Protector: First Place: A wonderful story set in the Middle Ages. Author Michael Jefferson has created a marvelous fantasy that is both a love story and adventure. Will the hero and heroine find love or immortality, or are they destined for something much worse? The Lady of the Lake is irreverent, funny, and determined and she demands that you read this story.

Unknown Caller: Second Place: By Samuel George Tooma. A couple learns that the wife has contracted a rare and deadly disease and that she has less than a year to live. Her only hope is if she can be accepted into an unsanctioned, clinical trial of a high-risk expensive drug. With little hope of being accepted into the program and with no way to pay its cost, all hope seems lost. Then, a mysterious woman resolves all the issues, and the wife is accepted into the trial with all expenses paid. Who is this woman?  What are her motives?  The husband soon finds out to beware of strangers bearing gifts.

Samuel Tooma worked for the US Department of Defense as a civilian physical oceanographer for over 36 years. He worked on submarines, navy, coast guard, and civilian ships, and navy aircraft, and spent time in scientific camps on the Arctic Ocean ice pack. Mr. Tooma spent 2 years as the Environmental Science Advisor to the Commander of the Submarine Forces in the Pacific, after which he was awarded the Meritorious Civilian Service medal. During his professional career, he published 6 scientific papers in peer reviewed journals. His primary scientific areas of study include the Arctic Ocean environment, seafloor properties, and the use of aircraft and satellite mounted sensors to determine environmental properties of interest. All these studies were applied to the environmental impact on navy systems and operations. In 2021, Mr. Tooma published a fiction novel entitled “The SOOF”, and in 2023, he published a sequel entitled “Assassin’s Revenge”. Both these novels have won literary awards in competitions. In 2023, Mr. Tooma entered a short story entitled ”Eden’s Rain” into a best writing contest. This story won first place and was published in an anthology entitled “Finding the Good Through the Rain published by Indignor House Publishing. His professional website is www.samuelgtooma.com.
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Just This Once? Third Place: The author, Brian Kelly, provides a splendid glimpse into cultural differences in Ireland during the 1960’s. Humorous at times, yet distressing in the cruelty practiced against those considered to be ‘different’. Our hero finds himself the victim of childhood taunting and ridicule but realizes that others face far worse. We can only hope that in the end he will ‘do the right thing.’

Brian Kelly, aged 65, lives in Belfast, Northern Ireland, having returned to his home city after 32 years in the rural idyll of Teconnaught, County Down. While missing the camaraderie, televised horse racing and cheap pints of Clonmel in McMullan’s bar, he is revelling in the new-found novelty of coffee shops, restaurants and arterial bus routes.

He has been married to Maria for 38 years, with 2 daughters, Alex (the Golden Child) and Catherine (the Platinum Child) – their phraseology, not his! His new best mate however is 9-month-old grandson Oliver, born to Alex.

He has returned to writing after 32 years working in the UK National Health Service and Queen’s University Belfast as an IT Director and Corporate Project Manager. Brian has been fortunate to have been published since picking up his fountain pen and mastering two-fingered typing, with short story, poetry and non-fiction competitions submissions accepted in the UK, USA and Australia. Go to the book page.

Night Song: By Jacqueline Bassan. A third-year medical student, still glowing with the idealism of her youth, is faced with the stark realities of life on the children's ward of a hospital. Where expectations of coughs and colds are blunted by cancer and other life-threatening diseases, she must face close-up as a professional, while pushing emotion aside. All the while, the pop music of that era is a part of the story.

Jacqueline Bassan was born in Manhattan, raised in Brooklyn. Music, a theme in her “Night Song,” is her passion. She made her stage debut at five singing Lerner and Loewe’s “I Could Have Danced All Night” in the Catskill Mountains. She went on to play the Scarecrow in her 3rd grade class production of The Wizard of Oz. She began piano lessons at a young age. At Midwood High, she sang and wrote lyrics for the victorious sophomore and senior Sing. At 17, she took music coursework at Brandeis with a noted Scott Joplin/Bach scholar. Jacqueline graduated from Cornell, BA in history. During her 3rd year of med school, she wrote lyrics for and performed in the medical student show. She wrote a musical based on her own European history research. Her play had staged readings in NYC and LA.

Her current writing is focused on American popular song. Go to the book page.

Mother of Two: By Luanne Castle. Jeannie, a young mother of two children, goes about her life with a loving husband and a bright future. Suddenly, disaster strikes in a most unfortunate way. Who is at fault? What are the horrible consequences? A must read to find the answers.

Luanne Castle grew up in Kalamazoo, Michigan, lived for years in California, and now resides in Phoenix, Arizona, next to a wash that wildlife use as a thoroughfare, with her husband and five cats. Her children and first grandchild live close enough that Luanne operates “Grandma Daycare” for the baby. Luanne received an MFA in poetry and fiction from Western Michigan University and a PhD in English from the University of California, Riverside. She has published four award-winning poetry collections. Luanne Castle’s Pushcart, Best Small Fictions, and Best of the Net-nominated poetry and prose have appeared in Copper Nickel, TAB, Verse Daily, Saranac Review, Bending Genres, The Ekphrastic Review, One Art, Sheila Na Gig, Feral Poetry, MacQueen’s Quinterly, Does it Have Pockets, South 85, Roi Fainéant, River Teeth, The Dribble Drabble Review, Flash Boulevard, and many other journals and anthologies. Her memoir, Scrap: Salvaging a Family, will be published in 2026 by ELJ Editions.

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How I’ll Miss Paris: By J Craig Dix. For a change of pace, we find an exciting mystery, set in Paris in the early 1950’s. Henri Gaspard is a special operative whose task is to ‘confront’ those deemed unwanted by “The Directors”. Ready to retire he’s convinced to take one more assignment. This well-written story isn’t what it seems in the beginning and the ending is both surprising, yet inevitable.

Craig has always had a love of entertaining people. It’s taken the form of amateur stage work and song writing, to a radio play produced by The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation as the winner of the “Young Writers of Manitoba” contest. While a member of “The Scribblers” a group of writers/friends in Halifax his short story “The Scent of Hollyhocks” was published by the Canadian Authors Association.

Formerly a Museum Conservator, he now enjoys spending time crafting stories sparked by dialogue that may make them feel like short plays or TV programs. Most of his works are based in the past where interactions are more important than electronics.

Craig has one lovely daughter Lindsay and lives quietly in Halifax, Nova Scotia with his incredibly patient wife Susan. Go to the book page.

Lean Away from the Night: By Deac Etherington. A wonderfully crafted story about a young would-be writer who finds love, then loses it only to cross a continent to try and find it again. The characters are well defined and true to their personalities, which may or may not be a good thing. Our hero doesn’t necessarily find what he was looking for, but he’s probably better off with what he gets. Don’t miss reading this one.

Deac Etherington is a former high school English Teacher and Headmaster. He holds degrees from Connecticut College and Wesleyan University and lives with his wife in southern Arizona where you can drive all the way to the Sea of Cortez when you want to change the view. Deac was a finalist for the 2017 Arcturus Award for Fiction, Chicago Review of Books; winner of the 2018 Flash Fiction Contest for Light and Dark Magazine; winner of the 2018 Fiction Contest for Prime Number Magazine; winner of the 2019 Hemingway Shorts Contest; winner of the 2020 Fiction Contest for The Briar Cliff Review; Finalist for the 2023 Sense of Place and Home Contest for Dreamers Magazine. His work has also appeared in Projected Letters Magazine and The Baltimore Review. Deac is currently at work on a novel. Find him on Facebook. Go to the book page.

Cat Funk

Almost Intact: By Cat Funk. The laws of the land were handed down over centuries dictating how one behaved in the circle of life. All of that changed as the new creatures moved into the forest. Creatures on two legs. Would they honor the code or not? Regardless, life goes on and we adapt, or we don’t survive. An excellent story with 

Cat Funk has been inflicting her stories on friends and relations since elementary school. She hasn’t found the rule book yet but believes that when she does there will be a sternly worded paragraph about serving cats if that is actually your name. She enjoys living the cliché with her two spoiled felines and harbors a secret dream of becoming a hermit someday.  Go to the book page.

The Shadow Girl: By Amy Lauer Goldin. Set in the 1960’s, this story is about a little girl and her mother who set off on an adventure, but she doesn’t know what it could be. It isn’t her birthday or Christmas, but something is in the air. What is it? Suddenly a pleasant outing turns sinister, and her world is threatened by something she doesn’t understand. A must read. 

Amy Lauer Goldin is a writer living in St Augustine Florida. Her prose works include short stories and an upcoming novel. She is an active member of Ancient City poets and has been featured multiple times in their literary journal, AC PAPA, and the poetry anthology Florida Bards. She has authored several plays, which have been featured in the Five & Dime Festival in Jacksonville, A Classic Theatre and at Flagler College and other theatrical venues in and around St Augustine.    Go to the book page.

He Called It a What?: The author, Geoffrey K. Graves, has created a humorous reflection on what 1960’s life was like in the Biology Lab of his high school in California. The students participate in the standard dissections of lowly earthworms and frogs while anticipating the inevitable charts of human anatomy. What ensues is a funny tale about how one biology teacher pronounces certain body parts during his lecture. 

Geoffrey K. Graves’ work has been recognized and/or published internationally: 2023/24 Pushcart Prize Nominee (US); Longlisted Disquiet Prize 2024 (Portugal); TulipTree Publishing 2024 & 2020 (US); Witcraft 2023 (Australia); Finalist 2021 Bellingham Review’s Tobias Wolff Award for Fiction (US); First Honorable Mention (2nd place winner) 2022 Periscope Literary/Word Press (UK); Shortlisted 2021 Bath Flash Fiction Award (Ireland); Writer’s Digest (US) – #1-Notable Short Story 2020, #2-First Prize Short-Short Story 2020, #3-Honorable Mention Short Story Humor category 2023; Winner Micro-Fiction 2020 Grindstone Literary Anthology (UK); Finalist 2019 Cutthroat Barry Lopez Nonfiction Award (US); and elsewhere. He lives in Palm Springs, California, with his wife, a backyard full of goldfinches, rabbits, hummingbirds, and an occasional coyote with mandatory roadrunner. He worked in the script department at CBS, Television City, Hollywood. He has a BA and MA from CSU, Fullerton. His first publication was the co-authored satirical novel “Seven Days to Disaster,” published by Major Books in 1976 about a secret agent on a budget who drove a Nash Metropolitan. He now writes fiction and non-fiction serious and humorous short stories, and has a humorous collection he’s shopping around.       Go to the book page.

The Hindenbug: Author Kevin L. Hostbjor’s story of an ant colony at war with various enemies in their territory is surprisingly touching. The hero and heroine find love in a most unlikely way and together vanquish their foes against overwhelming odds. We discover, that while love triumphs, the forces of nature prevail, as they must to preserve the colony. 

Kevin L Hostbjor grew up on the west coast (best coast) and after a long stint in the United States Navy, landed in the Pacific Northwest. A graduate of the University of Washington with a Bachelor of Science in Metallurgical Engineering and City University with a Master of Science in Project Management, Kevin settled into a gratifying career as a Project Manager Professional (PMP), concluding with the Army Corps of Engineers.

His self-published novel, The Musher Man, is a serial-killer thriller, set in the late 1960’s Montana. It brings a Jack the Ripper character into a Jack London wilderness environment. Currently, he is in the process of editing his second novel, The 4^th Cohort. Set in the 80’s, imagine Ayn Rand adapting Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card into The Abyss underwater environment.

Kevin lives in Spokane Valley, WA with his wife, Terri, and whippets Loki and Brewer.    Go to the book page.

It's Called SPAM:  A large family moves from the big city to a farm, or ranch, leading to many unfamiliar adventures on a plot of land the mother names ‘Windrift Acres’. Author CM Kelly recounts the many problems associated with guiding a large family through everyday challenges, with little money to ease the burdens. The title will be misleading to those born after a certain age. Read the story to discover why. 

With two engineering degrees, CM Kelly’s passion has always been focused on numbers, formulas, equations and algorithms. Raised as the fourth of nine children, in an abandoned farmhouse on a rural dirt road, the families household was rich in character, though light on finances. Hard work and laughter were constants. In many ways, it was akin to a “Waltons” setting with a touch of “Archie Bunker”. His upbringing lit a flame in him: to advance, to achieve, to not be a burden to society and to “amount to something”. He unapologetically pursued the American Dream. 

Now retired, He enjoys writing about his life experiences; growing up in a large family, working in underground coal mines, pursuing business deals around the world, climbing the corporate ladder, and building billion-dollar projects. The travel stories are full of unique and quirky encounters. The coal mining stories reflect the challenges of working underground. A few of the stories capture the ups and downs of climbing the corporate ladder and run-ins with politicians, the likes of Manchin, and Blagojevich.

Never boring, sometimes surprising, and occasionally educational. If you enjoy Mike Rowe, (“Dirty Jobs”), you will like his short stories.      Go to the book page.

Best Beloved:   This story is set in England where our heroine suffers at the hands of her abusive husband and his family. The author, Bridgett Kendall, weaves a bittersweet story of losing her baby with no one to share her misery and no prospects for the future. The characters are all victims of the times they live in. The ending will surprise you as we discover the strength that she exhibits to resolve the matter.

Born in Gloucestershire, England, from age five Bridgett became obsessed with playing the piano. A graduate of Trinity College of Music, London, she became a successful music teacher and accompanist, married musician David and raised three children. During this time she also completed an Arts Degree with the Open University. On retirement in 2006, a move to Burgundy, France, inspired new challenges, one of which is running a rural gîte. In 2013, in denial of her advancing years, and with an undiminished and irresistible creative urge, writing became Bridgett’s new part-time career. Concentrating mostly on the short story form, her stories have been highly commended, short and long-listed in a number of competitions and published in online publications. She has also been short and long-listed in the short memoir genre. Her magpie imagination generates wildly diverse ideas about the human condition that lend themselves to expression through dark realism, dark humour or magic realism.     Go to the book page.

Some Things Cannot Be Fixed:  By Neil McKinnon. Noburo is a young Japanese boy whose family lived in western Canada. He learned respect from his father and grandfather, played in the creek and learned about birds. Then the bombs fell on Pearl Harbor. The family is forced to move to Alberta and work on a farm there. Read the story to find out how it ends. 

Neil McKinnon was raised on the Canadian prairies. He served in the Royal Canadian Navy and has been a businessman, archaeologist, university lecturer, and freelance writer. He has worked in China, Japan, Mexico, Canada, and the U.S. and holds a B.S. in math and BA and MA in archaeology.

Neil’s articles have appeared in Canadian, Mexican and U.S. publications. His first book, Tuckahoe Slidebottle, was short-listed for the Stephen Leacock Medal for Humour and for the Alberta Book Award for short fiction. Neil’s novel, The Greatest Lover of Last Tuesday came out in 2015 and his first nonfiction book, A Ticket to the Grand Show, was published in May. He has read/signed, conducted workshops and made presentations at more than 100 venues. He has also served on literary juries and edited/published academically.

He ran the Calgary Marathon in the same year that he collected his first pension cheque. He and his wife, Judy live near Vancouver and have been married for 59 years. They have produced two globe-trotting daughters and inherited two brilliant grandchildren   Go to the book page.

Special Delivery:  By T. Dan Nelson Two mischievous young boys unknowingly, or should we say innocently, wreak havoc on their rural neighbors by pretending to be mailmen. The special delivery packages they leave are most unwanted causing the neighborhood to organize vigilantes to catch the culprits. The surprise ending is humorous and lucky for the boys. 

Originally from the Midwest, Dan now lives in the mountains of Colorado’s Front Range. Born and largely raised in Iowa, Dan earned an undergraduate and a graduate degree from the University of Iowa. There, Dan got his feet wet as a writer. HIs first poem was published in Earthwords–a creative writing magazine produced by the University of Iowa Undergraduate Writer’s Workshop.

During a decades-long career in quality management, Dan did a lot of business writing. He (ghost) wrote thousands of tailored procedures for companies engaged in systemic quality improvement. He also authored a book about quality management and authored dozens of articles published all over the world in quality management industry rags. Dan also did some ghost writing for a company that created website content for mental health professionals.

More of a speaker and a creative thinker than he is a writer, Dan’s writing currently focuses on how screwed up the world is, why it’s that way, and what can be done to leave a better world to those who come. Occasionally, Dan comes up with something people actually want to read, like the short story published here.   Go to the book page.

Lesson in Pie:  This excellent story by J.R Reynolds creates the mystery of what is a ‘BetterBilt Pie’? Dwight is curious to find out more about his grandfather. In the search he comes across a riddle that seems impossible to solve, but through luck and perseverance he solves the mystery and finds much more. Read the story to see for yourself.  

J.R has been writing stories for forty years. He has had numerous stories published in ‘Stories through the Ages’ over the last several years. He’s had stories selected for on-line magazines such as ‘Frontier Times’. He writes daily and has completed two full length novels, many short stories, and Novella’s. He teaches classes on woodcarving bi-monthly at the local Cultural Arts Center, and is an Artist working in oils, acrylics, and clay. He and his wife of fifty-two years have four children, five grandchildren and three great grandchildren.

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Balance:  Ken Sutherland has gifted us a marvelous story. Michael a young Irish lad who, along with his father and brother, immigrate during the Irish Potato famine. They look for work in Canada then, finding none and facing starvation, they choose to cross the frozen Detroit River to try and find work in the USA. This is a story of the struggle for survival by people with indomitable spirit but little in the way of material comforts.

Ken Sutherland, author of three novels and several short stories, lives in Reno, NV with his wife, Alene. This August marks their 55th wedding anniversary. He is a true Baby Boomer and Beatles fan, born in Oakland, California in 1947. He served in the US Army from 1965-1968 as a Medic.

In 1969, the Sutherlands were married and Ken began a 53-year career in radio as a DJ, newsman, program director, salesman, sales & general manager, network executive and, eventually, owner of 10 Nevada radio stations. He is a member of the Nevada Broadcasters Hall of Fame.

In 2022, he retired and concentrated on finishing the stories he’d quietly started over the years.

In his debut novel, now available from Amazon, “BALANCE: The 200-Year Journey of Andrew Crawford,” a young man trips through time, re-living his own past lives. The story in this anthology is excerpted from this novel.

The Chuck Donnegan Mystery Series is well under way, with HEARTBREAKER and THE HOLLYWOOD DIAMOND MURDERS, also available from Amazon.

Ken Sutherland is accessible. Reach him at: KenSutherlandAuthor.com.

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Love & Apples:   By Elaine Thomas. A young girl is left in the care of her grandmother and aunt while her parents are on a business trip. Grace tries her best to be ‘good’ but temptation is too much to bear and she comically succumbs. She fears the consequences only to find that the adults aren’t as bad as she anticipated. This is a fun story.

Elaine Thomas grew up in rural North Carolina. She’s a retired college communications director and on-call hospital chaplain. She enjoys cross-country travel by train, takes long walks on the beach, and is proud these days to be considered a childless cat lady. Her creative writing has appeared in numerous publications including the 2022 Stories Through the Ages Baby Boomers Plus.     Go to the book page.

Swampin’ in ‘63: By Bill Weatherford. The son of the owner works alongside the migrant workers picking fruit in California’s San Joaquin Valley. Leo, the true hero of the story, is a laborer, or trajabador, yes, but he is also a philosopher, mentor and professor to the young boy who is trying to find his way in the world. Excellently written and full of lasting memories, this is a must read. 

Bill Weatherford is a native Californian. He grew up in a small San Joaquin Valley town and much of his writing has its roots in the central part of the state. He completed his undergrad and graduate work in Speech at UC Berkeley. In retirement, he has been an adjunct theatre instructor at Southern Oregon and Cal Poly State Universities and the University of Aalborg, Denmark.

Primarily a short story writer, he also wrote the YA novel, Tilly & Turp (2024) and the screenplay for the 2014 feature film, “Underclassmen”. He hopes to produce another of his screenplays, “Killing Flies” in the near future.

 He lives and writes in Los Osos on California’s Central Coast.

   Go to the book page.

Winter Squall: By Scott Winkler. In this story, the father, Eugene, can only be described as a despicable narcissist who horribly mistreats his wife and daughter, bringing serious illness upon the former and chasing the latter away from the family home in fear and disgust. He presents himself to the outside world as a virtuous philanthropist but in the end, karma wins out. He perishes in a morbid comeuppance that many will find satisfying. 

The author is a semi-retired lawyer. He is a father, stepfather, grandfather, husband, brother and son. He has been writing short fiction in earnest for only about 2 years. during that time, his work has been recognized on several long lists, as well as Honorable Mention by the Creative Writing Society of New Zealand, semi-finalist among 23 others out of ‘thousands’ of stories submitted to the European Society of Literature Harold Bloom short fiction competition for 2023. Recently, his short story “The Milky Way” won first place in the 2024 Slippery Elm short fiction contest, with a cash prize and publication. 

He loves to walk, read, play golf, occasionally travel and take care of his 2 best canine friends Pinky and Stella. He is a praying person and observes and practices ritual Jewish law on a daily basis. His late arrival to writing has to do with the need to make a living. definitely the law afforded him an adequate living. however, during and after the Covid crisis, he got quite literally burnt-out practicing law. it was taking too much out of him, wearing him down terribly, and he had had enough of it. As he dialed it back, he kind of accidentally turned to writing when an ad for a contest showed up on his fb page; and thus it began. 

His passion for writing the Great American Short Story grows with each page written. But is a page ever completed? For Shakespeare sure, maybe, but for the rest of us? We will never know until we labor and keep at it until the sun comes up next morning. The human brain, heart and imagination, combined into one cannonball, know no force their equal for creating poetry, art, music and literature. The author regards this story as a sincere and credible contribution to the short fiction genre. 

   Go to the book page.