Featured (secondary row)

Hand. Shadow. Rod.

Posted on April 9, 2023 by Steve Semken

Since 1974, Eulenspiegel has toured in thirty-one states and four countries around the world. All along establishing and maintaining an internationally known puppetry center in West Liberty, Iowa. A look at puppets, arts, culture, and creativity. […]

A Widow’s Guide To Becoming A Handyman

Posted on April 8, 2023 by Steve Semken

Part grief memoir, part immigrant story, and part how-to-guide. A story of premature death and emotional wreckage that uses the narrator’s old house as its foundation. […]

Harry and Sue

Posted on January 8, 2023 by Steve Semken

Taxi driver Harry Mason is obsessed with the loss of his girlfriend, who left him for Hollywood and never came back. One rainy night he finds himself inside a boarded-up movie theatre, where he meets a cast of ghosts. […]

Do Lizards Have Lips?

Posted on January 4, 2023 by Steve Semken

Based loosely, or tightly (who knows for sure) on some real truths about life in and around the small town of Toronto, Kansas. These Lizard Lips stories will leave you smacking your own lips and wanting more–sweet romances and spicy adventures. […]

The Ghost Of Craven Snuggs

Posted on June 15, 2022 by Steve Semken

A novel with a serious critique of the destruction caused by modern corporate agriculture and large-scale meat production. In the tradition of greats like Carl Hiaasen and Elmore Leonard. Mystery, CAFOs, and adventure in the Heartland. […]

Slippery Steps

Posted on February 19, 2022 by Steve Semken

Slippery Steps isn’t your typical, hell-and-back recovery memoir. I never intended to quit drinking, rarely gave it a thought. I’d spent decades as a successful and productive journalist. I was a loving husband and father. My life worked, and worked well. Until it didn’t. Freedom from drinking has enriched my life in ways I’d never imagined. […]

Bach and the Blues

Posted on December 6, 2021 by Steve Semken

Cellomaster Pablo Casals and ‘King of the Delta Blues’ Robert Johnson recorded iconic albums the very same week in history. Late November 1936. In Spain, Pablo was dealing with an erupting World War II. While in America’s ‘Jim Crow’ South, Robert was dealing with racism and the ‘Great Depression.’ […]

Corn Poll: A Novel of the Iowa Caucuses

Posted on February 21, 2015 by Steve Semken

Every four years the United States of America’s candidates for President bend over backwards to ingratiate themselves to Iowa’s first-in-the-nation voters. Some big-name contenders uproot friends and family and move to the Hawkeye State in an attempt to win the ultimate electoral prize. Others devote six months of their lives to crisscrossing the state in […]

SCHOOLHOUSE

Posted on February 16, 2015 by Steve Semken