A small part of a cool book!

So, you think that all I do is write historical crime fiction, get involved in jazz and poetry readings, hang out yearly in Oklahoma with a bunch other writers, and pass along various musings about writing on this blog. Well, you would be wrong.

I had the opportunity to edit a collection of work-related stories from a couple of retired telephone technicians who have over 60 years combined experience. The fact that I, too, worked for the phone company drew me to the project. Christopher Gulick and Shelley Staib had many interesting tales to tell of basically walking into a complete stranger’s home or back yard to fix their telephone service. As any writer knows, the human race is interesting, complex, strange, and weird. So are these stories.

The collection is titled I’ve Got a Pole You Can Climb: Tales of a Telephone Technician. It’s taken from a comment a couple of guys made to Shelley while they sat around drinking beer and watching her climb a telephone pole. The stories are shocking, bizarre, and every once in a while quite touching. My part as editor was to formulate their frenetic words into stories that would hit you in the gut. Make no mistake: the stories are all theirs.

A book launch is planned and from the enthusiasm on the part of the two authors a sequel is more than likely.

It’s a collection of tales about working with the general public. We can all relate, even if we don’t want to.