Baby Boomers Plus 2023 Authors

Autumn Leaves Falling: First place in this year’s Baby Boomers Plus goes to J. R. Reynolds. His poignant story of two brothers with a very special bond will melt the coldest of hearts. “Pete was special; he didn’t have to grow up.” This beautiful thought sets the stage for what follows. Pete and Jerry experience life to the fullest and make many wonderful friends along the way. This story will make your day.

JR lives in Texas with his wife of 51 years. They live on a small farm where he writes every day. He has several short stories in various stages of completion along with two novella’s and one novel that is going through the edit process. He meets with people in the surrounding communities encouraging them to write their stories several times a month. He is also a carver, an artist working in oils and acrylics and a potter. Go to the book page.

Heading Home—A Prisoner of War at Christmas: This story won second place in this year’s contest. A well-written account of a Vietnam veteran returning from that unpopular war to find protesters in the airport on his arrival. Again, a story that needs to be told for those who don’t know. The ending is a touching surprise that ties the whole narrative together. Don’t miss this one written by Robert Robeson.

Robert has had his articles, short stories and poems published 950 times in 330 publications in 130 countries and 73 anthologies. This includes the Reader’s Digest, Writer’s Digest, Vietnam Combat and Soldier of Fortune, among others. He’s a life member of the National Writers Association, VFW, Dustoff Association and the Distinguished Flying Cross Society. He retired as a lieutenant colonel from a 27-year military career as an Army, helicopter medical evacuation pilot on three continents and combat in Vietnam. That is where he flew 987 missions for over 2,500 patients from both sides of the action, had seven aircraft shot up by enemy fire and was shot down twice in one year (1969-1970). He then served as a newspaper managing editor and columnist. He has a BA in English from the University of Maryland—College Park and has completed extensive undergraduate and graduate work in journalism at the University of Nebraska—Lincoln. He lives in Lincoln with his wife, Phyllis, of 54 years. Robert doesn’t sport any tattoos and has somehow survived on this planet for 81 years. Though he doesn’t fly anymore, he still has a distinct distaste for loud noises and people he doesn’t know shooting at him.
Go to the book page.

Drawknife: The third-place winner in this year’s contest is a beautifully written story about a boy’s relationship with his grandfather. Oh, how wonderful it would be if we all could have an adult in our life like, Fredrick Haarm Telkamp. This is a fast paced, well-crafted story that keeps our attention throughout. A must read from Bill Weatherford.

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. Having a farmer father who self-described as a former ”football bum”, and a ballerina for a mom, Bill had a wide range of gods to please…and to learn from. He completed his undergrad and graduate work at UC Berkeley but returned to the San Joaquin. There it became a passion to promote the virtues and opportunities, the kindnesses, and fullness of a place that feeds much of the world but often gets little respect. We have wonderful art, music, history, multicultural splendor; children of 79 languages go to our schools. All that means, we have some special stories and Bill tries to tell a few.

Primarily a short story writer, he also wrote the screenplay, produced and directed the 2014 feature film, Underclassmen. He hopes to produce another of his screenplays, Killing Flies. At present, Bill is looking to publish a first novel, Tilly&Turp, a book that starts out like a YA but finds richness and power from a 12-year-old girl whose first words about Fresno were, “Are we on earth?”. Go to the book page.

The Faller by Brad Bennett: A horrible event in World War II has unforeseen repercussions for many people through the years, long after the war itself. Our narrator, Brad, nick-named Sonny, leads a difficult life moving from one place to the next and not realizing until he is well into adulthood the reasons for the hardships. An excellent story of human frailty and strength.

Brad now lives with his wife, Norrie, in Oliver BC, “Canada’s Wine Capital,’’ in the heart of the Okanagan Valley. Since both retiring, they have enjoyed the beauty of this land, and frequently have their grandchildren up from the Vancouver coast for visits. Norrie loves visiting all the grape wineries here, and some are Canada’s best. Alas, Brad can’t drink wine, he’s allergic to sulphites “I didn’t like the damn stuff anyway,” Brad says, “just give me a good dark ale.”

Brad was born in Oregon, and grew up in the Willamette Valley. After a stent as a graphic designer doing flight safety cartoons for the Air Force, Brad moved to Canada and opened a small art studio in Vancouver. There he took up Advertising logo design. Later, as a writer, Brad ventured into TV ads—it was a living, he says, but Brad always wanted to write fiction. So on retirement he has written three books of short stories.

This story featured here is his only nonfiction. It’s a story that was very hard to put on paper, Brad says, but now, thanks to Stories through ages, it’s finally out.  Go to the book page.

The Good Things Consignment Shop: Lynn and Joe Miller own a consignment shop in a small town. Jeannette M. Bond has written a wonderfully entertaining tale about old and new clients who often get a lot more than they bargained for as Lynn looks for opportunities to ply her matchmaking skills. A fun and charming story, well worth your time to read.

Jeannette Bond is a retired tax lawyer who now focuses on the creative side of life, through art and storytelling. She is an artist who spent a lot of days over 13 years standing under a white tent in various grassy locations selling her watercolors, subject to the vagaries of the weather. Her storytelling goes back three decades, to the time when her two children were small. Her technique was to ask for prompts from them for time of year, time of day, characters, place, and weather and then make up a story on the spot. She recorded these stories on cassette tapes so they could play them at night when she was traveling on business trips. After living her whole life on the East Coast, she and her husband, Cliff Wymbs, now split their time between Arizona and New Jersey. Her watercolor palette now includes lots of shades of red and brown in addition to all the blues and greens. The settings for her short stories have expanded to include mountain deserts as well as seashore towns and lots of places in between. Go to the book page.

The Reunion: A short story written in second person narration about a man who has avoided going to a high school reunion for decades. He chooses this particular reunion to attend and discovers what he has missed, both good and bad. But it’s really a story about grief, and existential angst, and how people deal with each of these emotions differently. Raymond Brunt, has crafted a unique and witty story about a subject we face at one time or another…growing old.

Ray has been a life long writer who had poetry and short stories published in college literary magazines in the 70’s, but only began to take it more seriously later in life. In his early sixties he went to graduate school and received his MFA in Creative Writing – Fiction from The University of Nevada Reno, at Lake Tahoe. His thesis was a collection of linked short stories titled, “The Dying Dreams of a Steely Dan Fan.” He is currently studying screenwriting and adapting one of the stories from this collection into an episodic TV series. He supports his passions for the arts, education and writing by serving on the boards of The Rattlestick Theater in NYC, Project Write Now, a writers institute based in NJ, as well as the Deans Advisory Council for The School of Humanities and Social Sciences at his alma mater, Monmouth University. Go to the book page.

Beholden to the Sea: Two men are winding down a fishing trip in the open waters of the Pacific, 22 miles from shore. Suddenly the boat is destroyed as it crashes into an unseen obstacle. Only one man survives. His extraordinary story of perseverance and luck is described with spine-tingling accuracy by author, JD Clapp. This is a must read. 

JD Clapp is a writer and social scientist based in San Diego, CA. His creative writing draws on decades of experience as a keen observer of human behavior through his work as a field alcohologist (someone who studies drinking behavior in natural environments), and an avid outdoorsman and angler. Often set in the contexts he knows best—bars, academia, rural America, and far-flung hunting and fishing locations—his stories examine themes of love, family, loss, hope, and perseverance. He currently writes short-form fiction and creative nonfiction. JD’s creative work has appeared in 101Words, Micro Fiction Mondays Magazine, Free Flash Fiction, Wrong Turn Literary, Scribes MICRO, Café Lit, and Sporting Classics Magazine among several others. His story, One Last Drop, was a finalist in the 2023 Hemingway Shorts Literary Journal, Short Story Competition. He can be reached at www.jdclappwrotes.com. Go to the book page.

Drums of War and of Memory Eighty years on from World War II: Sarah Elizabeth Das Gupta gives us a personal memoir of a childhood in the Surrey countryside in the immediate aftermath of World War II. Ironically a war-scarred landscape becomes the playground of the local gang of ‘war-babies’. They roam the woods armed with gas masks and bottles of Tizer, meet in underground war shelters and interpret secret codes in the whispering pine woods. This is a story waiting eighty years to be told which endorses the spirit of survival.

Sarah Das Gupta was born in 1942 so is a war baby, rather than a baby boomer. She remembers gas masks, ration books, air shelters becoming part of her post-war childhood. The first film she saw was Lawrence Olivier’s iconic production of Henry V, dedicated to the Battle of Britain pilots, which was shown on the walls of a makeshift classroom. She graduated from London University in 1962 with a degree in History and trained as a teacher. The next years she spent in Kolkata (Calcutta), married to a Bengali journalist. These were exciting times, teaching and adjusting to a new life and culture. Now in her eighties, with the support of her two daughters and five wonderful grandchildren, she has started writing after a spell in hospital following an accident. Her work has been published in over fifty magazines and anthologies in ten countries. Go to the book page.

The Password: The setting is World War II…Germany. Our heroes, a young boy, and his grandfather, are part of the underground, the resistance. The risks they take and the things they do are justified because the information they possess is of vital importance to the Allied cause. This is an exciting story full of suspense and intrigue by Edward E. Douglas. Don’t miss it

Ed Douglas retired in 2006 after a variety of professions including Christian ministry, public education, business management, and photography. He has a B.A. in Art, an M.A. in Education, and a year of theological school. He spent 5 years as a Methodist pastor, 27 years teaching English and Art on high school level, and over 25 years in professional photography. In retirement he began writing poetry and short stories for personal enjoyment, taking non-credit courses through OLLI (Osher Lifelong Learning Institute) and the Institute of Children’s Literature. Moving from the Peoria IL area to San Antonio’s Hill Country Retreat in 2020, he joined the San Antonio Writers Guild and founded the HCR Creative Writing Group which meets bi-weekly in the HCR retirement community. Besides writing, Ed enjoys photography, fishing, and riding his Terra-trike 10 miles a day. He is married and has 3 sons, 5 grandchildren, and 2 great granddaughters. Go to the book page.

The Men in the Dunes by Ellen Herbert:  It’s 1967 and our heroine, Ellen, has received reluctant permission from her father to join a military family on a beach excursion near Camp LeJeune, Jacksonville, North Carolina. The Vietnam War is raging but the Sergeant, his family and Ellen are staying in a cottage on the beach. Just one problem -don’t leave the cottage after dark. Read the story to find out why.

Ellen Herbert is the author of the novel, The Last Government Girl, winner of the Maryland Writer’s Prize for Best Novel and published by AH Loyola Press. Her writing has appeared in The Washington Post, the Sonora Review, Thema, and other publications. One of her short stories was read on National Public Radio. She is a creative nonfiction editor for the international on-line zine, Halfway Down the Stairs. Go to the book page.

Blank Page: Bill Morris receives a letter that contains a blank sheet of paper. A mystery that only one person can unravel. The journey to the surprise ending is full of suspense and anticipation. Author, George Koyl, does a wonderful job of maintaining the pace and keeping our interest until the very end. Is it a happy ending? You have to judge for yourself.

His birth eclipsed by Sir Edmund’s summit of Mt. Everest back in ’53, George grew up in rural Michigan. Obtaining a B.A. in English and Masters in the Science of Administration, he worked with the Developmentally Disabled, before transferring to the Financial Institutions Bureau, and then becoming an investigator for Unemployment Insurance. Subsequently, he accepted a temporary position with the United States Forest Service in Truth or Consequences, NM, a setting he used for his Amazon Kindle science fiction trilogy Voyager.

George currently resides with his wife Terri, a college librarian, in rural Michigan where they raised their son and daughter. Terri and George have six wonderful grandchildren. Go to the book page.

Lunch at the Sad Cafeteria:The setting for this story is a second-grade classroom three days before Christmas vacation, 1955. Michael, the narrator, is battling his arch-enemy, a fellow classmate named Margaret. Despite their hatred for each other, the two share a common hatred for their teacher, Miss Cronin. They also share a hunger for love and simple sustenance. The two are forced to band together against their classmates who seek revenge for the culinary assault on their lunches that takes place in the cloakroom. You need to read this entertaining tale by Michail Mulvey.

Michail Mulvey is a retired educator who taught for almost half a century, at all levels, from kindergarten to college. He holds an MFA in creative writing from Southern Connecticut State University and has had over fifty short stories published in literary magazines and journals such as Prole(UK), Johnny America, Poydras, The Front Porch Review, The Summerset Review, The Umbrella Factory, Drunk Monkeys, Roadside Fiction (IRL), Crack the Spine, Spank the Carp, and War, Literature and the Arts.” In 2013 he was nominated for a Pushcart Prize.

He spends his days reading, writing, watching English Premier League Football, napping, playing with his grandchildren, and sipping Proseco on the back deck on warm summer nights. Go to the book page.

Hamburger Girl: Author Patti Ann Pecina has crafted a heart-warming story about an episode revolving around drive-in movie night. It is 1967, and despite the title the story really hinges on a fish sandwich gone horribly wrong. This story will make you laugh, but at the same time, the ending is a wonderful example of a family coming together in crisis.

Patti is a native Southern Californian and currently resides with two wild and crazy but adorable rescue pups, Norman and Stevie. She is over the moon that her story “Hamburger Girl” has been selected to be published in this year’s “Stories Through the Ages Baby Boomers Plus” book. She wishes she could time travel back to 1967 and tell her 9-year-old self, “Don’t worry your humiliating food sin story will one day be shared with many and hopefully bring laughter to all who read it.”

After 20 years as a business owner in restaurant recruiting, she thought she might retire and enjoy the good life, but a nonprofit that teaches culinary training to at risk youth had other ideas and hired her as their Dean of Students, the most rewarding opportunity she has ever been blessed to have.

She has always used her imagination to fuel creative endeavors, whether it’s thinking outside the box in her own business or being crafty with clay or sewing to fulfill her creative heart. She loves visiting Oregon and the special people who live there, her daughter Kelli, son in law, Nick, and her adorable and talented grandson Luca who is thrilled that the story he asks her to tell him over and over has now been published. Go to the book page.

Dirge: Author, Susan M. Pomerantz has crafted a marvelous story of a tragedy seen through the eyes of a 14-year-old girl.  Our heroine, Kendra, is both a realist and a romantic who reads more than her mother thinks proper. She is forced to help her father with the other children as her mother’s health deteriorates. The ending is heart wrenching yet full of promise. This is a beautifully written, touching story. Don’t miss it.

About to retire from over three decades of teaching (college sociology and high school English), Susan Pomerantz is ready to enjoy a full-time life of writing and reading voluminously, yoga, gardening, chatting with friends in her zen garden, traveling, taking long walks, and maybe picking up the piano again. She and her husband, Steve, are happy to live in beautiful South Jersey, and to have their two fantastic thirty-something children living close enough by in Philadelphia. Going into the city is a chance to visit them and visiting them is a chance to go into the city!

Susan has been writing stories since the days when she was tasting the colorful, deliciously-named crayons as well as using them to form words. Since then, she has had some of her stories published in literary magazines. She is ready to publish her first novel and is knee-deep so far in writing her second novel. Go to the book page.

Killer at Kozy Kove Kampground: A mystery unfolds as the family leaves for a vacation across the southeastern United States. Thom Schilling has written a wonderful story of intrigue and misadventure that leaves you laughing and shaking your head at the same time. Who is the shadowy stranger in the foreboding campground far from the beaten path? Find out for yourself.

A graduate of Hanover College, Thom worked 45 years in the transportation industry while living in 25 different places throughout North America. After retirement, he worked on developing his writing skills by completing sixteen Action/Adventure novels (The ALERT Series), and four paranormal books about a Kansas Sin Eating Farmer.

In 2022, he temporarily veered from “long” works by adding two novellas, a 22 story anthology with a mix of humor and tragedy and 35 miscellaneous short stories to his collection.

2022 – Winner of the 2022 T. A. Barron Award for Best Adult Humor Writer in his “All Smiles” Comedy Writing contest.

2023 – Thom is one of the ten finalist in the Adventure Writer Competition sponsored by the Clive Cussler Collector’s Society. This year’s competition received a record number of submissions from 10 different countries. The Winner of the Grand Master Award will be announced in early October 2023.

Additionally, Thom is a finalist in the “Stories Through The Ages – Baby Boomers Plus 2023” short fiction contest. Thom and his wife have 4 children, 9 grandchildren 6 great grandchildren, and they live in Arizona. Go to the book page.

The Way it Had to Be:  It is 1962. Danny is a new reporter at his hometown newspaper when a black man is shot by a policeman one night in the town stockyards. The policeman’s story is thin, and Danny tries to rally the paper with the few who are seeking justice. The prevailing winds are blowing in a different direction. Bill Smoot has given us a timely and well-written account of dealing with an issue charged with emotions of all kinds. Read it!

Bill grew up in Maysville, Kentucky, a child in the fifties and an adolescent beginning to come of age in the sixties. He went off to college and grad school, committed himself to the causes of the day, and then moved to Berkeley, a distance from Maysville not measurable in miles. He has spent his working life as a teacher, and left his day job in 2018 to realize his lifelong dream of becoming a fulltime writer. Bill’s first project was a series of shorts stories set in a fictionalized version of his hometown during the late fifties and early sixties. He thinks of them as love letters to the place where he grew up.

Bill has written a nonfiction book, Conversations with Great Teachers, and published short stories in such literary journals as The Literary Review, Crab Creek Review, and Ninth Letter. He does pro bono teaching at San Quentin Prison. Go to the book page.

The Last Word:  The siblings gather as the last few hours of their father’s life unfolds. Many stories are shared…some funny, some poignant and some surprising. Author, Cheryl Velasquez, has written a beautifully crafted ode to the emotions we, as humans, feel upon the changes in our lives and how it’s not always important to have the last word.

Elizabeth has never lived in one home for more than 7 years. She’s moved across the Atlantic four times so far and she’s not taking bets on whether that’s the final number. Always “the new girl”, changing schools three times in the third grade, she was shy but learned to get her bearings more quickly with each move. She left her fundamentalist religious family the day after her eighteenth birthday to move to New York City and embrace a larger life. In her early 20s she co-founded a documentary film company in London and ran it for fifteen years. Film culture became her religion of choice, and after returning to the US with a husband and two small children, she stopped making films and began creating special community programming through cinema. She’s been writing since she was a child, with no interest in publishing till now. She currently lives on the North Shore of Massachusetts, pursuing her entrepreneurial interests and wanderlust. Go to the book page.

Grace: This is a wonderful story about a strong-willed woman narrated through the eyes of her granddaughter. “Grace Adams Macaluso was a wildcat…” we learn early in the tale. Living poor but happy in “one of the more respectable parts of Brooklyn, New York.” The author, Elizabeth Taylor-Mead, keeps us interested throughout the story. An uplifting story that you don’t want to miss.

Elizabeth has never lived in one home for more than 7 years. She’s moved across the Atlantic four times so far and she’s not taking bets on whether that’s the final number. Always “the new girl”, changing schools three times in the third grade, she was shy but learned to get her bearings more quickly with each move. She left her fundamentalist religious family the day after her eighteenth birthday to move to New York City and embrace a larger life. In her early 20s she co-founded a documentary film company in London and ran it for fifteen years. Film culture became her religion of choice, and after returning to the US with a husband and two small children, she stopped making films and began creating special community programming through cinema. She’s been writing since she was a child, with no interest in publishing till now. She currently lives on the North Shore of Massachusetts, pursuing her entrepreneurial interests and wanderlust. Go to the book page.