Ferguson checked the dial of his Seiko automatic. He remembered buying it in the back of the big Saigon PX while on R&R. He’d gotten drunk the same day on cold duck wine.
The watch read five o’clock sharp.
From FERGUSON’S TRIP
Coming soon
Buy my crime novels on Amazon or on this website.
"Cholon PX - Saigon Nov 1968" by manhhai is licensed under CC BY 2.0
Lefty wasn’t going to have fried clams at this place.
The Howard Johnson’s was pretty much the same as the one on the highway outside Bangor where Lefty had been plenty of times.
He would have had clams up in Maine, but he wasn’t sure about this far south. Something told him to wait until he got home.
Lefty looked over the menu while the waitress stood next to his table. She’d shown him in and parked him near the kitchen and the cigarette machine. He had a good view of the orange peaked roof of the motor lodge.
From LEFTY and the KILLERS
Coming soon.
Look for my crime novels on Amazon or on this website.
Diner Music by Mo Riza is licenced under CC 2.0 Generic
Loomis dropped two quarters in the machine. Two plays.Coming soon.
Look for my crime novels on Amazon or on this website. Theme from SHAFT.
Flipped the jukebox selector.
A-24. O-Jay’s. Use Ta Be My Girl.
Loomis walked past the salad bar and then back to the pie tower. He could see his reflection in the mirror in the back of the tower and he could see Louisa walking back to the kitchen.
From FERGUSON’S TRIP
Coming soon.
Look for my crime novels on Amazon or on this website.
AMC Gremlin before modification as Taverna Athena delivery vehicle.
Hearing sirens after his escape from a walk-in cooler , Max Fountain’s only hope for evasion lies with the delivery Gremlin used by the Taverna Athena. Good luck, Max.
From the upcoming novel LEFTY and the KILLERS
Coming soon.
Look for my crime novels on Amazon or on this website.
Built by rusticators pursuing the unrivaled hunting and fishing of the north woods, the Bide-a-Wee stood alone on a pond fed by a branch of the Mattawamkeag River. Hidden from the road by a seemingly endless expanse of evergreen trees, the Bide-a-Wee was almost impossible to stumble upon by mistake. On one of his fishing trips to the county, Ted Williams was rumored to have spent time at the Bide-a-Wee field-testing part of the line of fishing tackle the Red Sox legend endorsed for Sears and Roebuck.
From FERGUSON’S TRIP
The picture of the snow covered lodge is from John Holliday’s book cover.
Before being an insurance agent, he’d been an infielder for the A’s. He had to be forty-something, but he still looked great with the tan and all.
“Before Finley moved the team to Oakland, I quit before that,” he said, “you wouldn’t believe it. Five six years in the league? We still made nothing. I made more my first couple years in insurance than I made my whole career playing ball.”
Marty remembered him telling the story.
She liked him, but he drank way too much.
From TRINITY SPRINGS FORWARD
Now on Amazon.
Trinity, like every other American on the camp, was starting to get short. Soldiers started to get short the moment they got off the plane in Pusan.
With five months left in Korea, Trinity was neither a short-timer nor a newcomer. The Van Halen song? “I found no love, no love in Korea…”
From TRINITY AND THE SHORT-TIMER
Available from Amazon or this website.
Eddie Cicotte
In LEFTY and the KILLERS, we find out Lefty learned how to throw the knuckleball from a man who claims to have learned it “from Eddie Cicotte himself, while the notorious White Sox pitcher was barnstorming under an assumed name following the Black Sox scandal.”
None of his clothing fit. He looked like he was playing dress-up in his father’s clothes. Even the diamond horseshoe pinky ring he wore on the ring finger of his right hand fit too loosely.
From LEFTY and the KILLERS
Coming soon.
Look for my crime novels on Amazon or on this website.
Close to the start of FERGUSON’S TRIP, the last seconds tick off the clock in the the last game of the season. Ferguson should have gotten off the ice sooner. John Holliday illustration for the cover of the soon-to-be published FERGUSON’S TRIP.
Lefty runs into real trouble way Down East. Boats and bad guys. Short piece coming soon.
In UP FRONT, Bill Mauldin describes his experiences drawing the Willie and Joe cartoons for Stars and Stripes while he was an enlisted soldier in the front lines of World War II’s European Theater.
It’s also worth listening to Johnny Cash’s rendition of “Ragged Old Flag.”
Enjoy the holiday, and please remember our fallen heroes.
John Holliday’s cover illustration is Thane Ferguson, playing in the last hockey game of the year in the semi-pro Northern Maine/New Brunswick Industrial Border League. He’s getting old for the game and needs to decide what he will do next. His immediate plan is to take an extended trip to the Grand Canyon.
Cars and trucks play a big part in my novels. FERGUSON’S TRIP features an Impala station wagon. In DIM LIGHTS THICK SMOKE, Edison Graves drives a red and white Ford F-150. In the fourth Trinity, a gold Mercury Cougar plays a big part. While I’ve been writing the next book, I’ve been taking a closer look at the Chevy Vega.
Another gem from John Holliday’s cover for FERGUSON’S TRIP. Ferguson has forgotten to fill the snowmobile with gas. The video speaks for itself.
Dallas King has his first business meeting with James and Wanda Locaster at Gordo’s Mexicateria on the far east side of Tucson. Both Dallas and James, however, order all-you-can-eat. Wanda goes with the diet plate.
DIM LIGHTS THICK SMOKE -
I like stories taking place in a short span of time.
Like maybe a couple of days, or a week at the most.
FERGUSON’S TRIP? Basically three days.
DIM LIGHTS THICK SMOKE? Three days.
You gotta leave out some sleep in order to do this.
from Dim Lights Thick Smoke:
Wanda was much younger than Locaster. She reminded Dallas of one of those beach movie actresses.
Ride the Wild Surf was his favorite. Shelley Fabares and Barbara Eden were both in Ride the Wild Surf.
Dallas felt Shelley Fabares was very underrated. Johnny Angel knocked him out.
Dim Lights Thick Smoke takes place in the 1980’s in Holbrook, Arizona. Travelers driving west from Chicago to LA would pass through Holbrook almost a hundred miles after Gallup, New Mexico. Most of the action in Dim Lights Thick Smoke takes place in or near the Sunset Motel in Holbrook’s stretch of 66 not long after Interstate 40 has made the fabled highway obsolete.
Don’t Forget Winona
Another great John Holliday illustration. This one will also be part of the cover for the upcoming Ferguson’s Trip. An alternative road is used when the snow and ice is too heavy. Accidents will happen.
