Slow Descent and Other Little Stories

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

For my daughter Sossity.  I hope this collection of little stories will put a smile on your face when you read it now and always.

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For Sossity’s partner John, for my grandkids Riley and Zane, and my second round of grandkids, Brett, Grant and Jack.  I hope that when you read this (and I hope that you DO read it), you will scratch your respective heads and think – What in the hell is Grappa up to now?!

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A very special thanks to my dear partner, Isabel, who has offered unyielding support throughout this entire effort.  Thank you for painstakingly translating each story into Spanish and for your meticulous editing and proofreading.  Thanks also for your helpful and creative suggestions and gracias por nunca poner sus ojos en blanco (never rolling your eyes) when I would test out a new story idea on you.

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Thanks also to my good friend Dennis Welch for serving as the occasional editor and encourager.  Most importantly thanks for turning Slow Descent into a beautiful song which more-or-less kick-started this whole train.

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Thanks to my old friend Van Wilks for opening the door for me to enter the music business and for hiring me for my first job in the business as his road manager, even though we had no idea what that meant.  That job laid the groundwork for Slow Descent.

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Thanks to Juan Gomez-Jurado, an outstanding Spanish author of many books, who I believe is a star at painting images with words.  He taught me to appreciate the beauty of the Spanish language and the importance of drawing images with words.  He is worth a read in Spanish or English.

PREFACE

I have never thought of myself as a writer and I am certainly not a poet.  I have simply stumbled on to something, at not such a young age, that I like to do.  I really have no idea where it came from or why it came.  Whatever it is, it started in 1977, quickly went into hibernation, and then woke up again decades later.

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I would rather be a painter because I like to try to paint pictures with words and phrases.  I would love for these little stories to come alive for each reader and to conjure up vivid, colorful and powerful images.  I want the readers to see something other than just words when they read a story.

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I think of these more as little stories rather than poems.  I am stuck with the archaic image of poetry with its strict guidelines and rhyme schemes.  That is definitely not me or these stories.  I cannot picture myself sitting around the table with Billy Shakespeare and tossing couplets back and forth in iambic pentameter.

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I use plenty of rhyming phrases, but I do not follow any pattern and sometimes no rhymes at all.  That is why I think little stories is a better description.  In any event, it sits better with me.  Each story comes from my own heart and soul and none have been dictated by form over substance.

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I like to write stories that contain unexpected twists and turns; stories in which maybe the reader cannot predict what happens until it happens.  Sometimes I cannot predict what happens until I write it.  Even then, I might decide to change it later.

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Some stories are inspired by growing up in central Texas in the 1960s and 1970s just a few hours from the Texas-Mexico border.