Fitzsimons history in Aurora is celebrated by the World War 2 Heritage Cities Program

9News in Denver featured a story yesterday about Aurora, its suburb to the east. The National Park Service has named Aurora as one of its World War II Heritage Cities. The story included mentions of Lowry AFB (my brother Pat trained there), Buckley National Guard base now a Space Force unit, and Fitzsimons Army Medical Center, closed in 1996.

Fitzsimons is the entity that I know best. My paternal grandmother served there as a nurse, 1919-1922, after returning from duty in France 1918-1919. She met my grandfather along the way. He was a cavalry officer who had returned from the trenches with pneumonia and the after-effects of poison gas. 

Aerial view of Fitzsimons Army Medical Center circa 1973. Photo courtesy Wikipedia.

The 9News story says that Fitzsimons opened just a few days before WW2. Not true. In a strange quirk of army planning, the hospital was begun before the U.S. entry into the Great War and completed in 1918. It was the center for tuberculosis treatment and also treated patients of the Spanish Flu which did not begin in Spain but most likely entered the world at a U.S. Army Base in west Kansas, Camp Funston. 

Aurora's Army General Hospital 21 was renamed Fitzsimons Army Hospital in 1920 after Lt. Fitzsimons, the first U.S. medical officer to die in the Great War. It's specialty was lung patients, those with TB or had sustained lung damage during gas attacks. 

I know a bit about era because I wrote the book, a historical novel titled Zeppelins Over Denver. I spent many hours reading about The Great War and its aftermath, especially in Colorado, my home place. I was born there in 1950 and have lived many other places since, but claim Denver as my home. It's terrific to see the World War 2 years celebrated by the National Park Service, an agency that's been under attack since January of 2023. Face it -- mistakes are made, facts sometimes can be wrong. As a writer and editor, I've made a few along the way. 

In this age of lies and deceit from high places, the right stuff is important. I have fond memories of watching 9,7, and 4 news during my adult years in Denver, 1978-88, and later Fort Collins, 1988-1991. Those Denver channels used to reach me over the Wyoming border, courtesy of cable. Bad news travels fast. I'm talking about you, Rockies, on MLB.com. We hope new leadership gets you out of the cellar.

One other thing. As you read my novel and find mistakes, please let me know. Some things are facts and some are fiction.

I unlocked the secret of Kindle Unlimited Publishing and you can too

As I mentioned in my Oct. 9 blog post, I had been stymied getting the ebook of Zeppelins Over Denver up on Amazon. Something wouldn't let me through the Amazon shield. That turned out to be my own inability to see the problem right in front of me. Yesterday I was successful. Both my print version and ebook are available. I would love it if you ordered the print version, now priced at $25.50. Free shipping if you have an account and order as many necessities as I do. Just throw in the book and along comes a fine story along with a month's supply of TP (hurricane season, you know), a six-pack of Del Monte Cherry Mixed Fruit Cups (loaded with Vitamin C!), gigantic Tylenol canisters (for html coding headaches), and those screwy little bulbs that look like jellyfish but brightly light my stovetop.

I have to mention that the Zeppelins ebook is only $9.99 and available in the blink of an eye. It also is available for free on Kindle Unlimited. 

I have read more than one book from Kindle Unlimited and I also dnf some KU choices. Right now, lucky customers can download two new ebook releases for free. I selected two. I chose Ghost Orchid by Dani Cessna and finished it yesterday. The Everglades National Park setting appealed to me, the main characters are National Park Service employees and one aging orchid thief who receives messages from plants. She carries a gun called Harriet. A hurricane appears as does a murder. The author spent 18 years working for the NPS, a reminder of the fine murder mysteries written by one-time park employee Nevada Barr. 

I almost dnf Ghost Orchid. Right around the 60-percent-read mark, I tired of one of the characters. Miranda's fiance, Clay, was getting on my last nerve. I stopped reading for a day but was drawn back, possibly by one of the Glades orchids. I read on and found that the author takes care of the issue and moves on. I won't say how (was Harriet involved?). But reading Cessna's author's note, I found praise for her "superhuman critique partner...who taught me the most about plot structure and narrative tension." She obviously learned the lesson when it came to Clay. 

I am a long-time member of a critique group. One of my superhuman colleagues recently critiqued the first section of my second novel and caught something very important missing from my story. Thanks, Liz. 

I remind you that you can also buy my ebook on most of the major platforms. I mention one in particular, Bookshop, because some of its income goes to local bookstores. There are many in Florida. One I like is Cafe Resistance Bookstore in Jacksonville. It's co-owned by Angie Nixon who intends to replace the GOPer Know Nothing Ashley Moody who now is one of our two worthless U.S. senators. Ms. Nixon would be so much better at governing. And she sells our books. 

What are you waiting for? Go get a book. Bring Kindle with you when you vote. There may be a line.

In Evergreen, Naomi Hirahara explores post-war L.A. and recommends Chester Himes

“I heartily recommend that readers check out the novels of Chester Himes.” 

That’s what Naomi Hirahara writes in her extensive author’s notes at the end of “Evergreen,” about Nisei returning from the World War Two internment camps to a changed L.A. "Evergreen" is the sequel to Hirahara's excellent "Clark & Division." Himes’ books play a role in Hirahara’s novel set in post-war Los Angeles. 

You can read more about Himes in James Sallis’ deeply detailed biography, “Chester Himes: A Life” I’ve read Sallis novels “Drive” and “Bluebottle” but plan on finding “Difficult Lives, Hitching Rides: Essays on Noir,” exploring writers like Himes and Jim Thompson. I brought Sallis to Wyoming a couple decades ago to work with student writers. 

Hirahara's author's notes are always lengthy and detailed. In "Evergreen," she recommends books on the the era's African-American presence in L.A. She suggests Isabel Wilkerson’s “The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration,” “Snapshots” from the Community Writers Group of Los Angeles, and Chuck Haddix’s “Bird: The Life and Music of Charlie Parker.” 

I added them all to my reading list. As is the case with many writers, L.A. has a hold on me through books and movies. The crime novels of Raymond Chandler, Michael Connelly, Walter Mosley, and James Ellroy. Other writers, such as the almost-forgotten Jon Fante, black-listed Dalton Trumbo, and poet/mailman Charles Bukowski. (Editor's note: Fante and Trumbo, two troublemakers with Colorado roots). The poems of Wanda Coleman, often called "the unofficial poet laureate of Los Angeles," always hit me in the gut. There are other writers as well as musicians such as Bird and the many rockers who have come and gone. The Doors, Joni Mitchell, Dr. Dre, Red Hot Chili Peppers, etc. And “Chinatown,” that lovely, sorrowful movie. 

"Evergreen" is a compelling mystery. I learned about the many injustices inflicted upon U.S. citizens yanked from their homes and schools and shops in Los Angeles for winters behind barbed wire in placed such as Heart Mountain, Wyoming, which I have visited many times. People in Wyoming, such as the late Sen. Alan Simpson of Cody, supported the building of a museum on the site, a museum which duplicates one of the camp's wooden barracks. Simpson and internee and late congressman and secretary of transportation U.S. Senator Norman Mineta were Boy Scouts during the war, Simpson finding a way for the Scouts to work together, inside and outside the wire.

Hirahara also explores the Nisei who served as U.S. soldiers in Italy during the war. Many were killed. Some returned with severe cases of PTSD, which also figures in the book's plot. 

I have “The Real Cool Killers” on my desk. Published in 1959 by Berkeley Medallion, a 50-cent paperback that a second-hand store marked down to 35. It’s the kind you can slip into your pocket. The cover shows Coffin Ed Johnson and Grave Digger Jones chasing a scantily-clad woman. They are all running somewhere down L.A.’s mean streets, some of which take you to the beach and some to certain death. That’s the cool thing, isn’t it? You can say mean streets and New York City in the same breath. But it’s such a weird juxtaposition with sunny, glossy L.A. I hear Beach Boys’ “Surf City” at the same time “Forget it, Jake, it’s Chinatown” rolls like an angry wave through my memory. 

Nomads from THE NOMAD gather in Utah Oct. 13

Some of my fellow writers featured in The Nomad Literary Magazine will be reading from their work Oct. 13 at the Utah Humanities Book Festival. The event is 6-7:30 p.m. at the Utah Cultural Celebration Center in West Valley located on the western fringe of SLC. My work is featured in several issues of The Nomad, edited by Rachel White and based in Bountiful. One of my favorite stories set in Wyoming, "George Running Poles," is in the "Breakthroughs" issue. I won't be at the reading as I will be getting myself and my books ready for the upcoming Florida Writers Association conference in Orlando. Would I rather be in Utah? Well, the Wasatch Front is gorgeous in October. Sending my regards to all Nomads.

Zeppelins Over Denver ebook now available on some platforms

The ebook edition of Zeppelins Over Denver is now available on the following platforms for $9.99:

Bookshop

Tolino

Smashwords

Barnes & Noble

Kobo

Fable

Apple

Vivlio

Coming soon: Hoopla, for all of us library folks.

I am still trying to unlock the secret of getting the ebook on Amazon and Ingram Spark. Amazon is the site for Kindle where I buy and read most ebooks (just snagged two free ebooks on Bookshop during its promo the day before Amazon started the fall sales blitz). I filled out the form for Amazon a few weeks ago but nothing so far. I uploaded to Ingram, the company that prints my book, but keep getting error messages. Anybody had any problems at these places?

I used Draft2Digital to format my ebook for other platforms. Worked like a charm. Recommended. Thanks to my critique group pal Liz for sending me to D2D. Meet her and other Cheyenne, WY, area writers at the Laramie County Public Library book bash Saturday, Oct. 10, 2-4 p.m. 

Ebooks are important because some 75 percent of all books are bought this way. Before cataract surgery, I read ebooks so I could enlarge the type in dark mode on my K-Reader, or I snagged large print books at the library. Post-surgery, I have laser vision and can read War & Peace at 50 paces. I won't -- read it in grad school. 

Author royalties tend to be a bit better for ebooks. Electrons cheaper than paper and ink and mailing.

Keep reading! 

Wetlands gotta do what wetlands gotta do

Feeling afloat in Florida.

According to the U.S. Fish & Wildlife's National Wetlands Inventory, my house sits between two segments of "freshwater emergent wetland." Our neighborhood, Groveside at Ormond Station, sits between two segments of "freshwater forested shrub wetland." It doesn't take too much imagination to know that, before Groveside, all this wet land was connected. 

I live in former wetland in Flagler County but my roots are beachside in Volusia, a few-hundred yards from a very wet ocean. About 10,962,052,282,368,000,000 cu. ft. of water, according to Google. Climate scientists say that some of that salt water will one day infect our Florida aquifer and might just roll over us all.  

For now, I'm on dry land in Flagler County. Just the other day, returning from a podiatrist's appointment in Daytona, I passed a trio of Flagler Sheriff cars, the sheriffs meeting at the side of Airport Road, discussing something important. A quarter-mile to the east lies Ormond Beach Fire Station No. 94. My house sits in Ormond Station on former wetlands claimed by Flagler, the county named after the railroad robber baron who often visited his RB chum John D in Ormond. My address is Ormond Beach 32174.

I voted at the Korona Fire Station in Flagler, permanently closed but open to voters on Nov. 3! Korona is an old Polish community near Bunnell. My parochial high school was named for the first Spanish priest to say mass ashore in Florida. We used to play Bunnell in basketball. The Father Lopez Green Wave vs. the Bunnell Bulldogs. Sometimes we city-based Sanctimonious Catholics won. Sometimes, the Holy Rollers rolled.

I now vote in Flagler County, as I blogged on Aug. 19. We get mailed and e-mailed notifications from Kaiti Lenhart, Flagler County Supervisor of Elections. A banner reminds us that YOUR VOTE COUNTS! Remember this on Nov. 4 when another pack of lunatics is elected because you didn't vote on Nov. 3. Lenhart's e-mail reminds us of upcoming deadlines. You can vote now. Do it. 

I grew up in Daytona. I graduated from Father Lopez in 1969. We lived a half-block from the beach. It was open to us 24/7. In 1964, men and women in bathing attire rode horses in the shorebreak. Our dog Shannon hunted the shallows for anything edible. We surfed. Tossed frisbees. Tried very hard to engage teen girls strolling by. We worked evenings at the Village Inn Pancake House or Murphy's in Bellair Plaza or as clerks or bellhops or room cleaners at the Mom-and-Pop motels along the beach. We were pool lifeguards or gremmies who sold suntan lotion to cadaver-pale visitors from Michigan.

I'm now a septuagenarian living on former wetlands. Wetlands were named for a reason. They don't care what they are called. As we say in Ormond Station, wetlands gotta do what wetlands gotta do. We don't say that but we should. The annual late-September high tides got a lot of attention. The roads in Tomoka State Park flooded. Miami streets flooded. The Pacific Ocean was angry. Beachside California houses were swamped by big waves. 

None of the many houses and apartments I lived in in Daytona/Ormond/Holly Hill have flooded. I grew up in two houses, each a half-block from the beach. They are still there, still dry. 

I wonder about 100 years from now. This will be the land of our great-great-great grandchildren.

Will the wetland reclaim its territory?

Where is Tomoka County, Florida? And what in the heck is a PETD?

My story collection, first published in 2006 by Ghost Road Press. GRP gave up the ghost a few years later. The collection was republished by Hummingbird Minds Press in 2021.
 

My first book of short stories is now available free on Kindle Unlimited. You can also buy the ebook for $3.99 or the paperback for $14.99.

I just formatted my novel "Zeppelins Over Denver" on Kindle Create. It will be an ebook shortly. Amazon AI Gremlins will alert me when it's ready. I prefer you buy the paperback, read it, and spread the news. I do admit that much of my reading lately has been on my Kindle Reader and on my Pixel. I did this when my vision was compromised by cataracts (the devils) and I needed high contrast and large type. A kindly eye doctor, assisted by fantastic nurses and my ISBA (Incredible Shrinking Bank Account; gas, alas, at $4.49!), removed the lenses which had been with me since my youth and replaced them with new ones. I now can see without specs most of the time except when I have to read the small print on meat packages from the grocers' shelves who must think that all of these gray-haired people wandering around the burgers and brats have had cataract surgery and can discern an "n" or a "k" at six inches. 

Read my stories. They can transport you to the Wyoming, post-World-War-Two Colorado, and even 2003 in a place I call Tomoka County, Florida, but most locals know by another name. The story is "Safe at Any Speed" and it begins this way:

Bob Rogers stumbled upon the vehicle of his dreams at the 2003 Tomoka County Leisure and Travel Fair in January. First he had to navigate displays of behemoth recreation vehicles, gleaming travel trailers, and a sea of customized vans. He dodged wave after wave of beaming salespeople touting their vehicles’ extras, such as built-in dialysis units (“Travel and Transfuse in Comfort!”) and satellite TV systems (“Never Again Stop for Directions!”). The prices stunned him. After less than an hour of touring vehicles bigger and pricier than his first house, he headed for the exit. That's when he happened upon the display for Mick Blake's PETD Extravaganza. 

What's next? 

You know what to do.