MY HANDPRINT

By Dennis Lantz In May of 1995, I went to live in the woods for the summer. Not the deep forest or wilderness, just the small tree patches on my family farm. I did not go alone to this natural sanctuary, which we called Gentlewoods. Mark stayed with me. Jon and others visited frequently. Those were different times. No one I knew had a cell phone. No Facebook, Google or Twitter tracked us, labeled us or caused us to reach out desperately for some small measure of momentary comfort.  Life was simpler. Life was good.   Many times in the twenty-five years since, I have contemplated writing a book about my experiences. I have my journals and could readily interview most of those mentioned within. But I haven’t… for various reasons. Some of the memories and thoughts are too personal. Others are too mundane. But the essence or spirit of that period in my life is too important not to share. So today I begin that process.     Over the upcoming months I will p...

By Dennis Lantz Never once in my life have I uttered the phrase “I would like to have my picture taken.” I am not photogenic. More often than not I end up displaying odd facial features… too much gray in the hair… squinty eyes… messy hair… an angry glare… whatever. It’s not me, though. It’s the camera. I don’t look the same as my profile picture. I’m actually quite handsome. I used to believe that some small piece of my soul would be captured by those evil magic boxes, but luckily Snopes assured me that doesn’t happen. Well, one of the stipulations of the book contract I signed was to produce a photograph of myself for my author profile on the publisher's website . Luckily I know someone who takes awesome photographs. If anyone can find my good side (or at least my better-than-bad side) in an image it would be Christy . We both had Monday off a couple of weeks ago and the weather, though not summer-like, seemed nice enough to head outside for a mini-photo shoot. ...

By Dennis Lantz So many interesting puzzle pieces. I admired them separately… always intended to put them together someday… just never happened for whatever reason. Writing, creating board games, winemaking, political and social studies, personal and human history, primitive skills, woodworking, scientific experiments, archaeology, geology, gardening, nature… the pieces are everywhere. I’ve been working on it for years, but now I am happy to say that it’s coming together. The big picture is starting to take shape. On the last day of March, I signed a contract with Basil E. Bacorn Publishing for three separate novels. If all goes as planned, there’s the likelihood of others later on. The first and second are tentatively scheduled to come out in September 2020 and the third in October 2020. Much work has to be done before then. Like starting a Facebook page … check. (Follow me here ). I keep plugging away at all my projects. Juggling the puzzle. As the third book is the first of ...