Category: nonfiction

rabbit tears – run rabbit run


Chapter one: How do I love thee, let me count thy bruises.

He stood in front of her rubbing the knuckles on his right hand staring down at her where she sat on a wooden chair in front of him. He growled as she reached up to where blood trickled from the bruised flesh below her right eye. Touched it, saw the blood, then lowering her arms clasped her hands in front of her on her lap. Slowly she looked up at him with tears racing down to her chin. “I didn’t do anything wrong,” he voice trembled. “I didn’t do anything wrong.”

The year was 1926. She was just 19 and he was 27.

He slapped her hard jerking her head to the left. She slowly recovered. “I didn’t do anything wrong.”

“So, my mother and sister are liars?” Blood stood against the vows of marriage. Sometimes blood is stronger, and in this case it was. “They saw you at the theater”

“No,” her voice wavered, “no they, if anyone it was Virginia and all I did was acknowledge an old school friend.”

“Who you then went into the movies with.”

“He had his girlfriend with him”

“You sat with him.”

“I sat with them, not with him,” she said her face hurting her badly. Her tongue slipped sideways and found a tooth had been dislodged.

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Catatonic in Milwaukee


Stiffness of mind can be a problem and should be noted to tend along with a great deal of anger. I deal with anger. I have problems with anger. I can be very un-nice with anger when it overtakes me and lately it has been  near me too much. I think it is just that the world is moving at such a strange pace and what I hope for is not actually happening but the reverse is. Maybe that  holds true for you as well. In any case being catatonic would be a problem not only in Milwaukee but in Bradenton  as well.

I wonder if people can really change or is it just backwash that we get when we think we changed and then something happens that drags us back into all the same shit. I don’t know. I just known that when looking at my life I can see too many mistakes.

Its a new day and hopefully a day where anger doesn’t creep in to my life or yours.

Oh, and I have never been in Milwaukee but I understand they brew a very fine beer there.

 

WHAT?


        by improve everywhere

Do you like poetry? I like poetry. My dogs have always like poetry. Have you ever heard me read poetry? How about if I sang it to you? Any chance for that? Come on where’s the support here, there, over there. It has to be here someplace, why else would I write poetry? Happy poetry, sad poetry, nonsense poetry, and serious poetry. Ok, you can just sit and read then…..but if you do make it MY poetry that you read: The Widow’s Cliff and Other Poems on Amazon, or for a very select few, Rabbit in a Box also on Amazon.

You do want to support me, don’t you. Of course you do. Amazon, Gordon Kuhn….come and buy a book!   My dog thanks you.

 

 


 

Good morning, afternoon, or evening depending on where you are. But happy to see you stopped by, put a cup of coffee down, and sat down so we could talk about some serious things.  The first is that I am almost finished with the second true crime book about a serial killer in Sarasota and Manatee Counties.  It is called Predator: The Man Who Didn’t Exist, Nightmare on Terra Ceia……and some call it The Lady in a Pink Top.  

In any case it is about the murder of a doctor’s wife on Terra Ceia Island just off Palmetto, Florida. It is the sister book to the one titled Do You Know How To Fly.

Sales are good! I invite you to http://www.authorgordonkuhn.com or go to Amazon and make a purchase. You can also get the book on Kindle.

Now, one last thing. I am looking for a reliable literary agent. If you know of one please write me at GKUHNWRITES@AOL.COM

INTERVIEW WITH CLAIRE-HARRIS PERKINS


What a wonderful idea, I thought, to actually be interviewed by someone who was professional and knowledgeable about my writing. What a treat. And so, when asked, I answered with a loud, “Yes.” How could I not and I found the experience most entertaining and educational at the same time.

First off, I am not the brightest person when it comes to computers and anything electronic hates me from the first handshake. That held true with trying to get Skype to work. It kept rejecting my passwords and then went nuts when I tried to reload with another email address. So, there I was panicking a full hour before the interview and poor Claire who resides in the UK was wrong on the time difference between there and here. She said 10 AM and it was 9:40 when I wrote on Skype asking if we were connected. She wrote back that she had just come home from shopping and that the time for our conversation was 10 and we had an hour to go. I told her it was coming up on 10 and then she realized the time difference was 4 and not 5 hours. So she set off to get the interview going.

She is incredibly professional.  She  sent me her list of questions and she followed that list perfectly. I was thankful that she had done that because I knew where we were going and there were no surprises.

I am attaching the link to the interview.

https://www.booktalkradio.info/gordon-kuhn

Please go and enjoy it and write back and tell me what you think. Claire can be reached at her site http://www.booktalkradio.info she can also be found at her page on Facebook:

Claire Harris-Perkins

So, if you are an author and independently publish you own works contact her. She is easy to talk with and lots of fun.

 

Dinner With Diane Brinker


Jan and I were very fortunate to have as a dinner guest yesterday evening Diane Brinker who was one of  the eight sisters of Kathleen Briles. There were 9 girls and 2 boys. Diane shared a lot of details with us and it was a pure blessing to simply be able to sit and talk with her. In some ways, having conversations with her and others, the people in these stories become family to me as I ride along listening to the fun days and the sad days. It is so sad to me to meet them with all this pain brought about by one person, and the tragedy is that Kathleen would not have died if the FBI had not failed to keep their computer data base up to date. Diane shared photos of her sister and her family with us. It was a wonderful evening but so tragically  brought about. It leaves me with a major responsibility to write Nightmare in Terra Ceia with as much sensitivity as I can muster.

Morning!


Good morning to all my readers. It is 0512 and I have been up for a few hours working on Nightmare in Terra Ceia. It is the true story of the murder of Kathleen Briles  on 8/3/2009. It is the followup to Do You Know How To Fly?.

Do You Know How To Fly is the first book in the two book series of Predator; The Man Who Didn’t Exist.

This book was reviewed by Kirkus Reviews and also by Onlinebookclub.org. It can be found on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and also on my web page: http://www.authorgordonkuhn.com .

It is available in print and also in ebook fashion.

 

GOODREADS BOOK GIVEAWAY


Goodreads has a contest running on my book Do You Know How To Fly which is a true crime novel. It is the first of two books about a career criminal who came to the Tampa Bay area after being placed on parole for bank robbery and sentenced to 15 1/2 years in Federal prison.

Shortly after his arrival here he dumped the woman who married him sight unseen while he was in prison and who helped his being released from prison and moved in with a woman much younger. Shortly after that he began a series of robberies, assaults, and home invasions. It ended with his capture after a bar fight but too late for the murder of a local doctor’s wife. Sadly had the FBI’s CODIS program for DNA been up to date he would have been stopped months prior before two local women (one the doctor’s wife) was brutally murdered.

ONLINE BOOKCLUB REVIEW


Official Review: Predator; The Man Who Didn’t Exist; Do You Know How To Fly?

Post Number:#1 by klbradley » Yesterday, 16:21

http://forums.onlinebookclub.org/shelves/iframe-add-to-wtr.php?id=123113[Following is an official OnlineBookClub.org review of “Predator; The Man Who Didn’t Exist; Do You Know How to Fly?” by Gordon L Kuhn.]

Book Cover

3 out of 4 stars

Review by klbradley

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Predator; The Man Who Didn’t Exist; Do You Know How to Fly? is Gordon Kahn’s non-fiction novel that takes a look at the disastrous turmoil that one man caused to several innocent people in Manatee County and Sarasota, Florida. The author pieces together the information regarding the attacks, and follows with an extraordinary account of the trial that followed Delmer Smith’s arrest. Predator; The Man Who Didn’t Exist; Do You Know How to Fly? is a true crime story that depicts how one violent man’s actions could cause disaster for many others, and eventually lead him to death row. 

Delmer Smith was born in Detroit in 1971. His introduction into the life of a criminal was started at an early age, and by age fourteen, he was introduced to a juvenile jail cell for a rape conviction at a car wash. His eighteen months behind bars seemed to have little effect on him, as not long after he was released, he went forward with burglaries, bank robberies, and other violent crimes. Smith appeared to live a normal life to his close friends and family, but his violent assaults and robberies carried on throughout Florida starting in 2009, which is where a majority of this story takes place. 

In this riveting story, author Gordon Kahn interviews some of Smith’s victims, relating back the horrific experiences they had to endure. The story seems to come to life when it is told from a first-hand experience, so this was an excellent attribution by the author. The court proceedings were easy to follow, with the author giving an excellent recount of details, like explaining what is happening when the attorneys pause, or the looks that are being given by the jury members. I was exceptionally pleased to see that the author included vocabulary clarification page at the end of the book, and cross-referenced the usage to specific sentences. This allowed me to follow along with ease, despite having to refer to the back of the book. 

The writing style seemed to flow with ease, with only a few minor hiccups in the structure. My complaint with Predator; The Man Who Didn’t Exist; Do You Know How to Fly? comes from the repetition that came along with the story. I can tell the author repeated some sections for clarity, and so that they would be easily remembered, but it seemed that the same points of evidence came in to play five to six times each. There was also a bit of jumping around with the time log, especially once the violent attacks started to become frequent. Some of the background information seemed unnecessary to the story, especially the introductory pages regarding Delmer Smith’s birth. 

My boss currently owns two homes in Florida, one in Bradenton and one in Sarasota. As I avidly watch the news, I was surprised to find that I did not recall hearing of these attacks. I was curious with how closely this story followed along with the news articles, and was pleasantly surprised to learn that the information in the story follows along well with the news articles. There was a mention of another book that continues with this story, and I am looking forward to the release of it as well.

This book has earned a 3 out of 4 star rating from me. The plot moved forward smoothly, but the numerous repetition seemed to make me feel as though I had accidentally lost my place in the book and read the same paragraph numerous times. I can understand the thought behind it, as a way to give clarity and serve as a reminder, but it became an issue with the numerous mentions. This book comes as an excellent recommendation from me for readers who enjoy true crime novels. Because the story depicts fairly recent events, it may be hard for some to read, given the violent nature and attacks that are detailed.

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Predator; The Man Who Didn’t Exist; Do You Know How to Fly? 
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon

 

KIRKUS REVIEW OF DO YOU KNOW HOW TO FLY?


KIRKUS REVIEW

Kuhn’s debut true-crime story shows how a violent man’s life led him to death row.

The author uses interviews and other sources to piece together the life of Delmer Smith, a seasoned career criminal awaiting execution in Florida. Smith was born in Detroit in 1971, on the cusp of the city’s economic decline. By age 14, he was convicted of raping a woman at a carwash where he worked. The 18 months that he spent in a juvenile reformatory dashed any possibility of rehabilitation; instead, he learned “how to be more proficient as a criminal” as he became “a creature without a conscience.” As a young adult, Kuhn writes, Smith carried out burglaries, carjackings, and bank robberies, which eventually led to a 15-year incarceration. After his second prison stint, he moved to Florida; there, Kuhn writes, Smith assaulted and beat multiple women—all the while leading a double life as a “wise and loving uncle” to his two nieces. Eventually, the violence led to a murder conviction. The author interviewed many of Smith’s victims and found that the women were now “desperately seeking someone or something to fully trust again.” Thanks to these firsthand accounts, readers receive a nuanced portrait of a predatory man. Kuhn’s decision to jump between accounts of Smith’s early life and present-day interviews is an effective one; by regularly pulling readers back to the present, he reminds them of the painful, enduring impact of his subject’s actions. Moreover, Kuhn shows a great deal of sensitivity when recounting the crimes, evoking deep pathos instead of graphic sensationalism. That said, the book does include some unnecessary background information, including three pages on Smith’s birth alone; it also bafflingly overuses section breaks, which disrupt the otherwise strong narrative flow.

A thoughtful, engaging account of a brutal life and the carnage that it left behind.