Tag: Unpublished Fiction

  • The Balloon Hat

    By Franklin Dent Mr. Pacioli was a quiet little man who wore a tie every day and never left the house without a hat.  The instant a car drove onto his little corner used car lot, Mr. Pacioli could tell within twenty dollars what he could sell it for.  He was a very polite man but had…

  • The Messenger Bird

    By Franklin Dent I wrote this story twenty years ago but was reminded of it yesterday by the observance of the Baptism of our Lord. The Gospel lesson was Mark 1:4-11 where we hear “And a voice came down from heaven, ‘You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.’” As a boy,…

  • Water & Word: Understand and believe

    I’ve been asked why I wanted to write Water & Word, the novel I’ve just completed. Although I’ve attended church most of my life, off and on, I wandered aimlessly in the wilderness of American churches for at least forty years. At some time in the early 2000’s I found a companion in the White…

  • Now What?

    About a year ago I started work on another novel. As that work gained traction this blog was one of the things I simply set aside. We still made visits to both coasts to visit grandkids (and their parents), I still maintained and expanded landscaping operations, I served our little church as Deacon, and I…

  • KOP: Scott

    As heroes go, Scott is not an obvious choice. He’s a little on the ordinary side, smart enough and funny enough, not exactly teen heart-throb material, a good baseball player, and that’s about it. He made it this far without having to think too deeply or experience much out of his comfort zone.  Maybe this…

  • KOP: Devin and Alice

    Most of the kids at Dalriada are just kids, a little bit of this personality or that characteristic, and a common sense of trying to find their way in life. What sets Devin and Alice apart from the other kids Scott meets at Dalriada is they each have a strong personal sense of mission, of…

  • KOP: Henry and Elena

    The engineer and the ballerina. Son of New England old money and daughter of a Romanian goat herder. He graduated from MIT at nineteen, she was dancing en pointe at nine. He was touring Europe studying great engineering and design, she was touring Europe in the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo. Love at first sight. A love…

  • KOP: Beeboo and El-Beth

    We meet the Bonomo sisters, Margaret and Elizabeth, when Gizmo introduces Scott to the kids gathered for the first baseball game of the season at Dalriada. Gizmo tried to get the attention of a girl in an Operation Ivy t-shirt listening to a Walkman on headphones. “Beeboo! Beeboo!” No response. “She’s the best pitcher in…