Fiction

“There is a superstition among railroad men which, strangely enough, is seemingly warranted by experience, that when one wreck occurs, two more are certain to follow. And, sure enough, two more did follow, though neither was so serious as the one at Vinton; which, indeed, still lives in the memories of those who helped clear it away as the worst that ever happened on the division…”

4 Apr 2021

“The most deceived man of all is he whose mind is influenced by the Evil Spirit and yet he believes that he is besought by the Good Spirit. We hope to reach some of such persons whose eyes are color blind and whose ears are so impaired that they alone cannot distinguish between the voices that are calling them downward and those that are calling them upward.

21 Jan 2021

“I am a HUGE Harold Bell Wright fan. I know his books are old and some are out of print or at least there are few copies left, but if you are able to get your hands on one then get it and enjoy it. When A Man’s A Man is my favorite of all of his books that I have read. His books have been tested with time and are still worth your time and money. — Judith Leiva

30 Jul 2020

Pig Wisps and Shovel Ears, Balloon Pickers and Baked Clowns, Whitson Whimble and the Potato Face Blind Man are some of the people found in Rootabaga County. You can get there with “a ticket to ride where the railroad tracks run off into the sky and never come back… as far away as the railroad rails go and then forty ways farther yet.” Carl Sandburg wrote these stories for his daughters “Spink”, “Skabootch” and “Swipes”. If you watch carefully you just might find them in some of these tales.

16 Apr 2020

Lars Lee tells of a boy’s spiritual awakening in rural Norway and his emigration to Minnesota. The author, N. N. Ronning explains: “It was easy to write the story, but not easy to put the real Lars and Olaf, Helga and Olga into the story. We do not understand ourselves; how can we understand others? Still the baffling mysteries of life are all the time challenging our interpretation. The most difficult thing I was to describe how some of these persons found the Way of Life—and that after all was the main reason for writing the story.”

2 Apr 2020

The time is World War II. Rex Madden is an American flier in the European campaign who loses his courage after seeing his companions meet death in the skies. Fear overwhelms him. At last he discovers “the Christ of fighting men” and finds peace and courage amid the chaos of war.

10 Feb 2020

“The descriptions of battle scenes in the war and the lurid picture of the draft riots in New York are worth reading. Nothing that Mr. Roe has ever written is so vivid and dramatic as his sketch of the three terrible days in New York when the mob ruled the city, sacked the colored orphan asylum, and spread dismay in a thousand homes. It has the quality of history also, as the author has made careful research and employs no incidents which did not really occur.” — San Francisco Chronicle

3 Feb 2020

Of the characters in The Hour Struck , Dan Patch writes, “The hero depicts the victim of “fifth column police politics” prevalent in far too many communities today. The heroine, facing unavoidable circumstances, has no alternative but to fight for the right to protect the good name of those whom she loves. The villains are numerous and represent a system of corrupt politics motivated by selfishness, greed and sin in the hearts of men.”

20 Jan 2020

“The following story has been taking form in my mind for several years, and at last I have been able to write it out… At this distance from the late Civil War, it is time that passion and prejudice sank below the horizon.

13 Jan 2020

“The invisible hand moved mysteriously among the members of First Community Church and struck Reverend Stephen Winthrop. The blow was meant solely for him, but it struck deeply into the inner circle of the church membership, though he would have preferred to suffer alone… The evidence appeared surreptitiously: a picture lying face upward in the path of Amelia Decker.”

6 Jan 2020