The Great Filling Station Holdup

Jimmy Buffett is one of the great contemporary singer/songwriters, and it’s hard to imagine a citizen of Planet Earth unfamiliar with such classic hits as “Margaritaville.” Jimmy has also written novels, children’s books, memoirs, and a stage musical based on Herman Wouk’s Don’t Stop the Carnival, and his family-friendly concerts almost always sell out to audiences comprised of a mix of dedicated Parrotheads, casual fans, and newbies. In The Great Filling Station Holdup, editor Josh Pachter presents sixteen short crime stories by sixteen popular and up-and-coming crime writers, each story based on a song from one of the twenty-nine studio albums Jimmy has released over the last half century, from Leigh Lundin’s take on “Truckstop Salvation” (which appeared on Jimmy’s first LP, 1970’s Down to Earth) to M.E. Browning’s interpretation of “Einstein Was a Surfer” (from 2013’s Songs from St. Somewhere). If you love Jimmy’s music or crime fiction or both, you’ll love The Great Filling Station Holdup. Mix yourself a boat drink, ask Alexa to put on a buffet of Buffett tunes, kick back, and enjoy! Table of Contents Introduction by Josh Pachter Down to Earth (1970) “Truckstop Salvation” by Leigh Lundin A White Sport Coat and a Pink Crustacean (1973) “The Great Filling Station Holdup” by Josh Pachter A1A (1974) “A Pirate Looks at Forty” by Rick Ollerman Changes in Latitudes, Changes in Attitudes (1977) “Tampico Trauma” by Michael Bracken Son of a Son of a Sailor (1978) “Cheeseburger in Paradise” by Don Bruns Volcano (1979) “Volcano” by Alison McMahan Coconut Telegraph (1981) “Incommunicado” by Bruce Robert Coffin Somewhere Over China (1981) “If I Could Just Get It On Paper” by Lissa Marie Redmond One Particular Harbour (1983) “We Are the People Our Parents Warned Us About” by Elaine Viets Riddles in the Sand (1984) “Who’s the Blonde Stranger?” by Robert J. Randisi Last Mango in Paris (1985) “Everybody’s on the Run” by Laura Oles Hot Water (1988) “Smart Woman (in a Real Short Skirt)” by Isabella Maldonado Off to See the Lizard (1989) “The Pascagoula Run” by Jeffery Hess Don’t Stop the Carnival (1998) “Public Relations” by Neil Plakcy Beach House on the Moon (1999) “Spending Money” by John M. Floyd Songs From St. Somewhere (2013) “Einstein Was a Surfer” by M.E. Browning

A candid, compelling, and rollicking portrait of the pirate captain of Margaritaville—Jimmy Buffett. In Jimmy Buffett: A Good Life All the Way, acclaimed music critic Ryan White has crafted the first definitive account of Buffett’s rise from singing songs for beer to his emergence as a tropical icon and CEO behind the Margaritaville industrial complex, a vast network of merchandise, chain restaurants, resorts, and lifestyle products all inspired by his sunny but disillusioned hit “Margaritaville.” Filled with interviews from friends, musicians, Coral Reefer Band members past and present, and business partners who were there, this book is a top-down joyride with plenty of side trips and meanderings from Mobile and Pascagoula to New Orleans, Key West, down into the islands aboard the Euphoria and the Euphoria II, and into the studios and onto the stages where the foundation of Buffett’s reputation was laid. Buffett wasn’t always the pied piper of beaches, bars, and laid-back living. Born on the Gulf Coast, the son of a son of a sailing ship captain, Buffett scuffed around New Orleans in the late sixties, flunked out of Nashville (and a marriage) in 1971, and found refuge among the artists, dopers, shrimpers, and genuine characters who’d collected at the end of the road in Key West. And it was there, in those waning outlaw days at the last American exit, where Buffett, like Hemingway before him, found his voice and eventually brought to life the song that would launch Parrot Head nation. And just where is Margaritaville? It’s wherever it’s five o’clock; it’s wherever there’s a breeze and salt in the air; and it’s wherever Buffett sets his bare feet, smiles, and sings his songs.

The lyrics for two albums of songs waiting for a musician. Half are about "Losers in Bars." The other half are more sensitive fare, full of cosmic insights.

A forty-year-old self-cutting workaholic abandons everything she knows for a stripper with a death wish. Both lives change, only one ends. Scar Tissue is a psychological noir novel that stunningly brings to life a world others dare not dream of. This is a vivid and memorable portrayal of desire as seen through the eyes of two women with dark hearts and very different goals who cross paths at critical moments in their lives. The power of their hopes and despair, their weaknesses and strengths is a testament to the yearning that resides inside all of us. Praise for Scar Tissue: “This persuasive and dizzying novel grabs you and doesn’t let go. It is sexy, disturbing and relentless. What it says about human nature will keep you up at night. It’s also constantly entertaining and unnervingly passionate. Scar Tissue is amazing and weird in all the best ways.” —Fred Leebron, author of Six Figures, Out West, and Welcome to Christiania “Scar Tissue has all that we’ve come to expect from Jeff Hess’s crime fiction—sweat-soaked Florida settings, uncompromising authenticity, and wild plots with hairpin turns—but adds yet another layer of ground-in grit. Hess’s new protagonists, Dylan and Abby, are damaged goods—selfish, yet sympathetic, slick cons, but also lost souls—and, most importantly, complicated women who are written and treated by Hess as such. In his latest, Hess spills just as much blood as in his previous novels, but it’s in the scars still healing where the real story lies.” —Steph Post, author of Miraculum, Lightwood, Walk in the Fire, and Holding Smoke “This gritty novel is the redheaded stepchild of Martyrs mated with Thelma and Louise—layers of darkness, vengeance, and chaos wrapped tightly together into a ball of sinuous fury.” —Richard Thomas, author of Disintegration and Breaker (Thriller Award nominee)

Amongst this assemblage are stories that have never been seen before, many of which have appeared in literary journals, magazines, or anthologies, and others that found their way into some of Hess’s novels. Crime stories, all, and most on the Noir side of the spectrum. The characters and their environs change, but the trouble never ends. They all bring it on themselves, but that doesn’t stop any of them in moments like that. If you know, you know. Even if you don’t, you’ll be riveted by this stellar lineup of heroes and heroines and the damage they inflict. Critical Acclaim for Pascagoula Run: “Miscreants and ne’er-do-wells abide front-and-center—Pascagoula Run and Other Stories is an intriguing collection of suspenseful short story gems, many of them weaved with Hess’s deliciously dark sense of character-based humor. I thoroughly enjoyed this potent craft cocktail of nineteen Florida-centric stories blended to savory and spicy perfection.” —John Shepphird, author of Bottom Feeders, The Shill Trilogy, and Deception Specialist “In this gritty, somewhat crazed collection of short stories Jeff Hess has fashioned a world both boisterous and despairing. These bold novelistic tales are constantly engaging and memorable. Better yet, they are cinematic and pure fun to read.” —Fred Leebron, author of Six Figures, Out West, Welcome to Christiania, and The News Said It Was

True stories of writers and pirates, painters and potheads, guitar pickers and drug merchants in Key West in the 1970s. For Hemingway and Fitzgerald, there was Paris in the twenties. For others, later, there was Greenwich Village, Big Sur, and Woodstock. But for an even later generation—one defined by the likes of Jimmy Buffett, Tom McGuane, and Hunter S. Thompson—there was another moveable feast: Key West, Florida. The small town on the two-by-four-mile island has long been an artistic haven, a wild refuge for people of all persuasions, and the inspirational home for a league of great American writers. Some of the artists went there to be literary he-men. Some went to re-create themselves. Others just went to disappear—and succeeded. No matter what inspired the trip, Key West in the seventies was the right place at the right time, where and when an astonishing collection of artists wove a web of creative inspiration. Mile Marker Zero tells the story of how these writers and artists found their identities in Key West and maintained their friendships over the decades, despite oceans of booze and boatloads of pot, through serial marriages and sexual escapades, in that dangerous paradise. Unlike the “Lost Generation” of Paris in the twenties, we have a generation that invented, reinvented, and found itself at the unending cocktail party at the end—and the beginning—of America’s highway.