CHICKEN LIVER BLUES: Stories

Chicken Liver Blues is an inimitable collection of twelve stories that at times barrels and swerves down rural backroads kicking up gravel and dust in its wake, and other moments it’s a calm late night country cruise that soaks up the stars, the moon, and the heavens while contemplating the meaning of life.

In “Twenty Dollars” a working-class man whose marriage is on the brink of unraveling is convinced to go out for another night of drinking, but this time his night out with the guys changes his life in more ways than one. “Bluesman of the Woods” involves a young guitar rambler and his desire to make it to the big time. He thinks an old family friend can help, but the old friend is feeling the effects of a family tragedy and needs a jumpstart of his own. In “The Letter” a regretful, old writer comes down from the hills to make his yearly pilgrimage to town to hand-deliver a birthday letter to his estranged daughter. In the country noir story “Forsaken Land” Sheriff Randall King is feeling the repercussions of losing his younger sister and of a deadly shootout, both of which happened one year before. But as always, the sheriff is waiting with readied guns for whatever trouble comes his way. “One Step Closer to Heaven” involves a young couple who is convinced that eliminating all the free-roaming sexual predators of the world will give them full access through the Pearly Gates. In the horror-flavored “The Man in the Meadow” a young boy seeks an inhumane course in order to deal with a school bully, but finds out his chosen tactic is a messy one for all involved.

Ride shotgun on this memorable journey that looks in on the struggling working-class and other notable characters who try to make it through life the only way they know how…for good or ill.