Santa Claus Satellites Cellphones Sinkholes

In Santa Claus, Satellites, Cellphones & Sinkholes in Spring Hill we see into the lives of a small Tampa Bay suburb and the lives of many of its residents. The author delves into many of the problems that confront it's residents almost daily, including such things as a large generation gap between many of the communities senior citizens and the millennial generation. Such things as cultural issues, religious issues, political issues; previous and present-day wars and revolutions and what they meant in the past and may mean in the future and government agendas pertaining to the enormous gap of wealth between societal groups are just some of those problems. Another larger problem turns out to be why it is that so many struggle in the computer generation while others do well only because they are so well-versed in the use and knowledge of satellites, cellphones and the digitally computerized gadgets that will make or break many a company, corporation and human being in the future. And, finally, the truth of what Christmas has been, is and should be takes center stage and if, and how it is that Santa Claus figures into this equation, by how much, and why and is it only children who can believe in Santa Claus?

The Manly Art is another collection of writer Keith G. Laufenberg's short stories, only this time with the defining factor being that they all involve the sport of boxing. Having been in the sport himself, beginning at age 17, when he entered Marine Corps boot camp, and ending after seven years, fought as a professional, he is afforded a closer more intimate look into the boxers lives. In "Sonny Liston's Eyes," the reader is taken into the Underworld of the sport when a writer interviews an ex-mobster-who is dying of lung cancer-and claims to have killed Sonny Liston, as well as JFK and Martin Luthur King Jr. He tells an incredible story but backs it up by saying he has absolutely verifiable evidence that he will produce for the writer. In "Frankenstein" we see why a young amateur boxer should have picked boxing over football. He has little say in the matter though as his father and uncle have trained him his entire life for football and it, along with the other stories, will keep you glued to the page.

The Anxious Assassins is another attempt at finally finding out the truth of what happened on November 22, 1963 in Dallas, Texas. In a 2003 interview, Robert Blakey, the Chief Counsel of the HSCA issued a statement on the CIA: "...I no longer believe that we were able to conduct an appropriate investigation of the CIA and its relationship to Oswald.... We now know that the Agency withheld from the Warren Commission the CIA-Mafia plots to kill Castro. Had the commission known of the plots, it would have followed a different path in its investigation. The Agency unilaterally deprived the commission of a chance to obtain the full truth, which will now never be known. Significantly, the Warren Commission's conclusion that the agencies of the government co-operated with it is, in retrospect, not the truth. The Agency's process could only have been designed to frustrate the ability of the committee in 1976-1979.If you want the real story you'll have to read "The Anxious Assassins."

Muhammad's Revenge is a collection of short stories that literally forces the reader to bring the realities of life on this earth, along with such terrible things as war, into sharp focus and to concentrate on why things happen as they do-when they do-and what happens to the soul when this life on earth is over. In the title story, "Muhammad's Revenge," we see how the war experiences of a single human being can bring an apocalypse to the entire world. In "Peace on Earth" the realities of the horrors of World War I become starkly vivid and real but so does the humanity of mankind when the Germans and the English armies call a one-day truce, a historic event, that actually did happen. In "Big Sugar," as in all these stories, we see the personal as well as private lives of many of the characters, in their darkest moments and how one life's circumstances which end in a tragic death can alter history for all the others involved for the better.

The author of Miami Rock sets a blistering fast pace, and this mystery/thriller will keep you on the edge of your seat, reading from the first page to the last, as you wonder what next calamity may befall one of the denizens of this sub-tropical area of our country, which many refer to as a paradise for its beautiful climate, sandy beaches, and famed tourist attractions. Its Latin beat provides the backdrop for another side of this city, however, and one also well-known to the public, for paradise can become a purgatory where crime is rampant and drugs are on every street corner in too many neighborhoods. The main characters, a rough-hewn group of construction workers, on a job site in Ft. Lauderdale, sojourn into Miami for a night out and encounter much more than they had bargained for as rogue cops, drug dealers, shapely vixens, and a briefcase full of money all collide in a thriller that you won t be able to put down.

It's 1979 and Jimmy Carter's administration is seeing 21% interest rates. In the city of Sacramento, California, Gary Greb labors as a union carpenter but with a wife and two toddlers to support-and, as new construction is all but non-existent, he tries real estate sales; putting his knowledge of construction techniques and land-use to bolster his earnings, He quickly finds that one group-the excessively wealthy-are totally unfazed by the recessionary times and when he finds an engineer, with ties to people with unlimited funds, who will buy any piece of land at any reasonable price-for cash-he begins a career that will ultimately land him in prison, as well as turn him from the working class into a part of the wealthy landowners-a class he has come to disdain, distrust and dislike. If you never lived through these times in the 1970's and 80's, take heed and scrutinize today's headlines and economy and remember history has a way of repeating itself-and God only knows when the cycle will begin to spin again.

In "I Am an American" we get a flavorful mixture of poems: everything freedom, politics, destiny and religion to the fact that if there is one thing we can count on, besides death and taxes, it is that the sun, sooner or later, will come up.

"Cowboys and Indians" is a look back into history and it explores the entire continent of America which was originally inhabited by Native Americans, none of whom had, or have ever, any familial ties to Amerigo Vespucci, the Italian explorer who was said to have discovered America. The theme throughout is the undeniable fact that the earth upon which we all live is being systematically strangled, drilled, poisoned, beaten and bartered to death. The undeniable truth shows us that the European immigrants had a philosophical difference with the Native Americans that they encountered living on the shores that they invaded and vanquished and always with the same thought in mind: to steal the land from the ignorant Indians, ignorant because they showed no knowledge of the financial worth of the land, the minerals inside of it and the animals living upon it. In "The Good Father" we see that, in fact, the Immigrants actually have (at least) one who the Indians (Native Americans) can agree with and get along with: A Jesuit Priest named Pierre DeSmet who had come to America as a missionary. The Indians did not understand why the missionaries who preached to them about a man who walked the earth many moons ago was to be revered as God when they themselves--the missionaries--did not act as they claimed their God-man had told them to. But, then, they found out that DeSmet, who all the tribes took to calling the Good Father, was not anything like the others because he did not covet land or women, or gold and silver or drink whiskey but devoted himself to spreading the gospel of peace and love and the name of Jesus Christ and his teachings. He knew the Indians believed in spirits and he preached to them about the Holy Spirit and they told him about the Great Spirit. If you enjoy historical truths seen through the eyes of both sides you will enjoy all twenty of these stories.