Chester, Thomas & Marta Rock

I have a literary knight who delivers small treasures. He drives Big Brown and wears shorts. The doorbell rings and he scampers away, leaving packages behind. It's the UPS man.

Since the used-bookstore by my house closed last year, the chance to find off-the-beaten track literature is dwindling. Thank God for the net. Small publishers such as El León Literary Arts and sites like The Litblog Co-Op, and California Authors/Writers.com feature non-mainstream writing that deserves to be read. And so for the men and women who print the newspaper that I read each morning, I give them their mid-summer reading list.

Once in awhile, I stumble upon a book that's a model of discernment, rendered with tenderness and care. Prose pared to the essentials is like a most thoughtful kiss. Chester Aaron has written a wonderful book of seven short stories, Symptoms Of Terminal Passion. His characters have histories, a reason for the way they interact with the world, be it during the tail end of WWII, in post-war Holland, on a ranch, or as the struggling patriarch of a family. These aren't overwrought, reactionary characters as if in a play that tries too hard. They live and think. There's wisdom here and a certainty that only comes about if a writer is secure with himself to let his stories unfold the way the characters want. Beautifully written, I didn't want the stories to end. This is how short stories are supposed to be done.

Ballantine isn't a small publishing house, but few would have bothered with a collection of short stories. Down To A Soundless Sea by Thomas Steinbeck, is a collection of seven (which must be a magic number) short stories, all of which takes place in Big Sur. A limited geography with unlimited stories to tell. Be it ranching or the wreck of the Los Angeles, his stories describe a time when California was raw and less tamed, a time that as native Californians we feel a kinship though our world is asphalt and bytes. His characters have been sculpted by the beautiful but often solitary landscape, the hard work, tragedy and love. Steinbeck is every bit the writer that his father John was, and it was better that the son waited until he was absolutely ready before he tossed his fate upon the fickle tastes of the reading public. This book is a gem and like all good things, was worth the wait.

A lot of big publishers wouldn't have looked at a manuscript of "quirky, honest prose" submitted in CAPITALS from an octagenarian dancer in Death Valley. Stephen's Press LLC published To Dance On Sands, the story of Marta Beckett, from model, painter, dancer in NYC to the epoch of her creativity, The Amargosa Opera House. Her story is an affirmation of the creative process at any age, for as long as we are willing to keep plugging away.