My second book, My Search for Jazzbo Jones: A Real-life Memoir Adventure, was released by Atmosphere Press June 4, 2024. The first chapter opens with a scene in a UH classroom November 21, 1963. This often-humorous memoir intertwines my own life story with that of fellow UH student Jim Beeson, an older, colorful character from small-town Kansas who was blind, disfigured and had only a ninth-grade education. Researching details about both our lives for more than a decade, I finally managed to solve the mystery of how my friend and mentor lost his sight in a racing accident long before I knew him.
Touching on issues of blindness and resilience, My Search for Jazzbo Jones includes vivid recollections of the JFK assassination, civil rights, the Vietnam draft, and even an encounter with Cuba’s Che Guevara. It’s available on Amazon in paperback, hardback, ebook and audiobook at https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CY7YYW2K/ .
My earlier book can be found in the UH library’s Special Collections– Roach Rhino Redux: Revisiting Parallels in Kafka and Ionesco. This 50-year update of my senior honors thesis in literary criticism was published by Green Mountain Farm Press in 2019. It’s available in paperback and ebook from Amazon at https://www.amazon.com/Roach-Rhino-Redux-Revisiting-Parallels/dp/0999740229/