Cobwebs, Echoes and Footprints: A Collection of Stories and Memories (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9781950947577)

This book is divided into two parts, Fiction and Memoirs, but the sections do overlap. I have learned that a small memory or experience is not a story but merely a Vignette. However, that Vignette can turn into a story with the help of some imagination. Therefore, all of these short pieces needed some sort of "trigger" to bring them to completion.

Some of them are based on early experiences in many places throughout the United States and especially in Northern California. Some are offshoots stemming from the many books I have read throughout the years and notes I have gleaned from my journals. I still keep a journal of events in my life as well as thoughts, dreams, and anything which might later turn into a story. In this book, I have merely taken experiences and my imagination to expand the material into hopefully, humorous, thought-provoking stories and memoirs.

As outlandish as this material may seem to the reader, rest assured that seemingly insignificant experiences can be turned into stories. In this short book, I included some material that started out in the real world and I have called this fiction but almost everything in these works started from an actual experience, dream or fantasy.

Especially the memoirs which all have some semblance of truth in them. Now as I read through them, it is hard for me to realize how close to my reality most of them are, or were. The first half is straight fiction although the stories all have at least a nugget of truth and reality in them. The one exception is "Francis With An I." Some of them are based on my early experiences in many places throughout the United States, especially in Northern California. Some are offshoots stemming from the many books I have read throughout the years and notes I have gleaned from my journals.

The word "Cobwebs" refers to memories buried deep in my past. "Echoes" refers to many of the voices I still hear after a lifetime of having a variety of experiences. "Footprints" refers in both sections of the book to my many years of traipsing through mountains, foothills, and seashores with fellow Sierra Club members, friends, family members or by myself.