How would you like to join me on an unbelievable ride? Let us take a ride on a mystical wooden kiddie roller coaster as we travel thru my dash (you know, that line that separates, the date you were born and the date that says you, died) to, re-live my experiences, when I went knocking on Heavens door, starting at the early age of five years old, having to survive my first automobile accident. At sixteen, I drowned but was miraculously saved. Four years later I was in Vietnam, then had two major automobile accidents one before I was there in the WTC on the 93 bombing, then another before I was there on 9/11. After ten months at Ground Zero, I ended up with nineteen health ailments, one being bladder cancer. This will probably have you feel like youve been pushed back into that seat youre in and have you look to see if youre safely secured, as we go about feeling the remainder of those climbs, drops, curves and hoops with me. While were still on this journey, I will tell you about some of these most amazing surprising coincidences that had occurred to me (ones that I could never imagine, happening) and all because of this sudden change in me, that came about, hours later on September 11, 2001. Why, and more than, anything why me?

This collection of short stories is intended to illustrate a more humorous glimpse of a soldier's life in Vietnam. It's of the times when boredom and a fertile imagination often lead to amusing situations, rather than the "blood and guts" of combat. All the narratives in this book, saves one, are true, or at least were presented to the author as fact. Some are without a doubt true, as they happened to the author. Other Vietnam veterans related the remainder of the yarns, swearing that each and every detail was unquestioningly genuine. We all know that combat veterans do not lie but their memories may, nevertheless recall their experiences slightly altered from actual events. Perusing these stories the reader might logically conclude that ego or passing years might, just possibly, influence a few of the bone-chilling tales. GI's live through numerous happenstances that are not heroic but are embarrassing or mundane. No matter how cynical a GI becomes, some events, maybe only in retrospect, are viewed as ironic or downright funny. These random experiences are what the book are about.

Richard has adventures living on a small farm in Arkansas.

The Bizarre Ramblings of a Sane Madman was written to stretch your mind and imagination and let you share in the thoughts that permeate my brain. hopefully it will make you laugh and stop to realize the multitude of absurdities we encounter on a daily basis. i hired an assistant to stand next to me while i wrote this book and slap me silly every time i started to rant ramble be random or get a little wacky. .. he quit after the first day lucky you or wait..maybe not.

First-person narratives are a fundamental tool of the qualitative researcher. One of the latest volumes in the Qualitative Research Methods series, The Life Story Interview provides specific suggestions and guidelines for preparing and executing a life story interview. Author Robert Atkinson, Director of the Center for the Study of Lives at the University of Southern Maine, places the life story interview into a wider research context before moving on to planning and conducting the interview. Atkinson carefully covers the classic functions of stories, the research uses of life stories, generating data from a life story, and the art and science of life story interviewing. He also thoroughly examines the potential benefits of sharing a life story, getting the information desired and questions to ask, and transcribing and interpreting the interview. To provide further support for the reader, the book concludes with a sample life story interview. As the use and study of narratives continues to grow in importance throughout the research enterprise, The Life Story Interview becomes an even-more valuable tool for qualitative researchers in all disciplines.

Miranda is a bright, attractive woman with an important government job, a nice home, and a prominent lawyer husband. Her fraternal twin sister, Jessica, is a sportswriter who has spent years sacrificing her social life and conventional career prospects to establish a magazine. Jessicas publication has finally caught on after she receives renown for an article she writes about local baseball star Manny Chavez and his perilous journey back to his native Cuba to retrieve his abducted son. Jessica, now engaged to Manny, invites Miranda, her husband, and their parents to join her in a luxury suite to watch the hometown Washington Filibusters take on their archrivals, the Florida Keys, in a championship game. As they are wined and dined by the team owner, Miranda envies her sisters seemingly perfect life and faces the reality that her own is a facade. But when the forces of revenge and corporate greed catch up to the perfect couple and blow their world apart, Miranda is suddenly thrust into a world of international politics. Lets Play Ball dramatizes the struggles of two ambitious sisters against the backdrops of immigration, global conflict, and the nations pastime.

Muscadine Vine and Clear Creek water is just one of a collection of award winning short stories contained in this anthology by published authors recognized by their peers and selected for this work.The lead story is set during the depression of the 1930's and is an account of actual experiences by its author. It is a story that will be enjoyed by all ages. The older generation who lived in those times will identify with that era and today's youth will go away with a clear picture of life without televison, computers and all the other modern conveniences of today.The eighteen stories that comprise the this work will satisfy those who seek a variety of genre, including, romance, murder mystery. the supernatural and creative writing by accomplished authors.

In 2002 a fifteen-year-old Canadian citizen was captured in Afghanistan for allegedly killing an American soldier. A badly wounded Omar Khadr was transferred to the US Bagram Air Force base and then Guantánamo Bay detention camp. He would remain there without trial until October 2010, when a military commission admitted evidence considered tainted by Canadian courts. A plea bargain and guilty plea initiated his promised return to Canada a year later. Some Canadians see Khadr as a symbol of terrorism in action. For others he is the victim of a jihadist father and Canadian complicity in the unjust excesses, including torture, of the US "war on terror." The youngest prisoner held at Guantánamo and the only citizen of a Western country not repatriated, Khadr was formally identified by the United Nations as a child soldier. In Omar Khadr, Oh Canada, over thirty contributors analyze Khadr's background, his incarceration, the actions of Canadian authorities, and the implications raised by his legal case. This multi-genre book includes essays, articles, poems, a play, extended excerpts from the documentary film You Don't Like the Truth, and other texts produced by distinguished contributors such as Sherene Razack, General Roméo Dallaire, Charles Foran, Kim Echlin, Judith Thompson, Audrey Macklin, Shadia Drury, George Elliott Clarke, Maher Arar, Rick Salutin, and Sheema Khan. While they sometimes disagree on issues such as radical Islam and Canadian multiculturalism, they all write from the conviction that Khadr's treatment has been - and continues to be - shamefully unjust and shaped by post 9/11 Islamophobia that continues to distort the views of many Canadians. Many Canadians are dismayed by the government's behaviour toward Omar Khadr. Adding strong and articulate voices to the debate, Omar Khadr, Oh Canada will educate and inform readers as his story continues to unfold. Contributors include: - Maher Arar, human rights activist and journalist. - Craig Kielburger, child labour activist and co-founder of "Free the Children Foundation." - George Elliott Clarke, poet, playright and English professor at the University of Toronto. - Luc Côté and Patricio Henriquez, screenwriters, directors, cinematographers, and producers of the documentary "You Don't Like the Truth - 4 Days Inside Guantánamo." - LGen Roméo A. Dallaire commanded the UN Assistance Mission for Rwanda in 1994 and was appointed to the Senate of Canada in 2005. - Gail Davidson, executive director, Lawyer's Rights Watch Canada. - Nathalie des Rosiers, General Counsel, Canadian Civil Liberties Association. - Robert Diab, lawyer and faculty member of Capilano University. - Alnoor Gova, broadcaster and PhD student, Simon Fraser University. - Shadia Drury, CRC Chair in Social Justice, University of Regina. - Kim Echlin, novelist, essayist, film producer. - Dennis Edney, former lawyer of Omar Khadr. - Charles Foran novelist, biographer. - Deborah Gorham history professor, Carleton University. - Yasmin Jiwani, associate professor in the department of Communication Studies at Concordia University. - Hasnain Khan, graduate student in political economy of international development at the University of Toronto. - Andy Knight, chair of the department of political science and professor of international relations at the University of Alberta. - John McCoy, PhD candidate in political science at the University of Alberta. - Sheema Khan, Globe & Mail columnist and author of Of Hockey & Hijabs - Audrey Macklin, member of the law faculty at the University of Toronto. - Monia Mazigh, human rights activist and author. - Marina Nemat, human rights activist and memoirist, author of Prisoner of Tehran and After Tehran. - Gar Pardy former diplomat, commentator and writer, served in Canada's foreign service from 1967 to 2003. - Sheila Pratt, Edmonton Journal journalist and author. - Sherene Razack, professor of Sociology and Equity Studies in Education, OISE, University of Toronto. - Rick Salutin, author and Toronto Star columnist. - Heather Spears, poet and artist. - Judith Thompson, playwright and professor, School of English and Theatre Studies at the University of Guelph. - Lola Lemire Tostevin, poet and novelist. - Janice Williamson, professor of English and Film Studies at the University of Alberta. - Richard J. Wilson, professor of law and founding director of the International Human Rights Law Clinic at American University's Washington College of Law. - Grace Li Xiu Woo, lawyer, legal scholar, member of Lawyer rights Watch Canada. - Jasmin Zine, author, editor and sociology associate professor Sociology at the Wilfred Laurier University. - Rachel Zolf, poet.

Deep in the north woods, two sisters become lost; one stalked by a murderous ex-husband, the other unable to rid herself of the leeches that appear mysteriously on her skin. All are drawn to an old, dilapidated cabin. Inside lives an old man with awful urges, accompanied by a Rottweiler possessed by something…unnatural. But it’s what resides beneath the cabin that they should really be worried about. Please join award-winning author Joel Arnold on a ride over the river and through the woods straight into terror in his newest novel, Northwoods Deep. Topics: horror, canoeing, stalker, Minnesota, cabin, forest, woods, sisters, alcoholism

"We gotta' get out of this place, if it's the last thing we ever do." Jake Strong is stuck in a rut. Over a period of time, he's gradually grown tired of his job. He can't help feeling that, long ago, he might have taken the wrong turn somewhere on life's path. Jake regrets having heeded the advice of authority when he was young and is now longing for the good old days. At fifty-three years old, Jake is a moderately successful-but completely burned-out-real estate broker who is badly in need of a change. When an old high school friend, now a washed-up rock star, comes to town, it reminds him that songwriting was his natural talent and his first passion. Apprehensive but inspired, Jake embarks on a quest to find out if he has the moxie to be a songwriter. Along the way, he learns the truth about his old flame, Lizzie Taylor, he rights some wrongs, and he combines his youthful passion for songwriting with a seasoned work ethic. Will Jake finally find true happiness? Author Al Pauly creates the perfect mix of youthful dreams and grown-up cynicism in Suburban Blues, a story with which every adult can identify.