Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    A Season of Misgiving
    A Season of Misgiving
    A Season of Misgiving
    Ebook65 pages1 hour

    A Season of Misgiving

    By Al Cline

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    Written with middle school readers in mind, "A Season of Misgiving" is a collection of four short stories from the larger "Ball Park Series", written by the veteran storyteller, Al Cine. Each story humorously recounts the problems two young brothers encounter as they live, play and go to school in a small town. Each story is complete in itself and can be taken to heart by any reader who enjoys mystery, laughter and silly situations.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherAl Cline
    Release dateDec 14, 2011
    ISBN9781466115095
    A Season of Misgiving
    Author

    Al Cline

    The author of the Ball Park Series, Al Cline, grew up in Middle Tennessee and Northern Ohio. He also spent time living in Pittsburgh Pa, Lynchburg, Va. and the Washington D.C area. Presently, he lives in a colorful part of California called San Bernardino. Shifts in habitat from one part of the country to another result in what Al calls "Perspective lending distance to the view!" So out of his migration and wacky experiences, the Ball Park series of short stories was born. The first collection in the series is "A Season of Misgiving" and is presented for your Holiday Reading Enjoyment! The stories are geared to appeal to readers of middle school age but, adult readers seem to like them too. Many of the important characters in series are introduced in "A Season of Misgiving" and allowed to strut and fret before getting their Holiday comeuppance. They will reappear in the ten additional volumes that are planned. Al's life experience and work background are continually brought to bear on all types of subject matter in the stories. He's been a salesman, security guard, mid level business executive, musician, teacher, magazine publisher, contract administrator, motorcycle courier, and radio news announcer to name a few places he has shown up for work. The Ball Park stories were first produced as live one-man-play events. Al created all the players with his crackly, whimsical and responsive voice. It is storytelling at it's best. A follow on project of talking books is planned for each of the volumes. Currently Al has a daily blog on facebook called Mz. Hackensack where some of the people from his stories can interact with readers. And yes, at one time, he did drive a school bus that was numbered 47 and he did drag race a fully loaded soft drink truck with an empty Bus #47 and lose. Please enjoy the stories! And above all, "Y'all come back now!"

    Related to A Season of Misgiving

    Related ebooks

    Children's Holidays & Celebrations For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      The Stories of James McBride

      Jan 19, 2018

      Five-Carat Soul, James McBride’s new short story collection, is an eclectic and delightful follow-up to his award-winning novel The Good Lord Bird. It is also a collection that has been patchworked, and smoothed together over 30 years. Mr. P & th

      2 min read

    • Article

      Bookshelf

      Mar 2, 2020

      There are simply some books that you inadvertently read out loud to whoever is closest—cat or human. I found myself having a giant laugh and then being unable to resist sharing long passages of Carla Funk’s memoir. Though I worried that the religious

      5 min read

    • Article

      Push Play

      Apr 6, 2020

      Push Play
      7 min read

    • Article

      The best bad things

      Sep 29, 2020

      The best bad things
      12 min read

    • Article

      Oklahoma Royale

      Apr 16, 2019

      Oklahoma Royale
      4 min read

    • Article

      Children 10 BOOKS To Explore And Cherish

      Nov 25, 2020

      The world of Children’s Literature is vast, varied and impossible to exhaust. The standards of the genre – from Peter Pan to Where the Wild Things Are to Harry Potter – you can spend years just reading the most popular titles. We thought that we’d ta

      3 min read

    • Article

      Two Poems

      Feb 28, 2023

      I want to write a poem about abortion.I’m driving to Rural King to get a key cut.I’m in rural Indiana. Then I’m in rural Michigan.I’m in Michiana. I’m driving to Niles.I pass the neon Pegasus sign outside a gas station,always off. I pass a man panhan

      5 min read

    • Article

      In The Valley Of Mirrors

      Feb 27, 2020

      In The Valley Of Mirrors
      10 min read

    • Article

      A Bounty Of Books To Spark Adventures For Young Readers

      Nov 25, 2019

      Friendship, culture, and travel enliven the best picture books of 2019. And tweens will be pulled into our entertaining middle-grade picks.

      3 min read

    • Article

      The Call Of The Road

      Sep 28, 2021

      The Call Of The Road
      5 min read

    • Article

      Not Everything Turns to Gold

      Oct 2, 2018

      Theodore Roosevelt once said, “When I am in California, I am not in the West, I am west of the West.” The Rough Rider’s koan has been widely viewed as a celebration of the limitless California adventure, but it’s also a reminder of the dizzying, vert

      4 min read

    • Article

      The Art of Fiction No. 245

      Dec 15, 2019

      The Art of Fiction No. 245
      42 min read

    • Article

      Merge

      Aug 20, 2019

      Merge
      2 min read

    • Article

      Hold On For Your Life

      Aug 26, 2021

      Hold On For Your Life
      11 min read

    • Article

      The Unexpected Cowboy

      May 1, 2022

      The Unexpected Cowboy
      7 min read

    • Article

      Books

      Jan 23, 2023

      Books
      6 min read

    • Article

      Eroded Tropes and Fears and Consequences: The Millions Interviews Alyson Hagy

      Sep 28, 2018

      It’s been 18 years since Alyson Hagy and I both won a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. Nested within the list of grantees was a scattering of addresses. I wrote to Alyson. She answered. We’ve seen each other just twice in all these yea

      8 min read

    • Article

      Past The Edges Of Town

      Jan 27, 2022

      Past The Edges Of Town
      10 min read

    • Article

      Southland

      Jan 5, 2021

      Southland
      4 min read

    • Article

      On Aging

      Mar 1, 2022

      On Aging
      9 min read

    • Article

      Paltry Gestures

      Jan 5, 2021

      Paltry Gestures
      6 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for A Season of Misgiving

    0 ratings

    0 ratings0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      A Season of Misgiving - Al Cline

      A Season of Misgiving

      By

      Al Cline

      ****************

      Copyright 2011 by Al Cline

      SMASHWORDS Edition

      ****************

      Table of Contents:

      Forward to The Book by Michael Ivie

      Story 1: Bus #47, the Halloween School Bus

      (wherein Mz. Hackensack creates a local legend.)

      Story 2: Our Dinner with Patrick

      (an unexpected relative shows up for Thanksgiving Dinner)

      Story 3: Fruit Cakes ‘r’ Us

      (unselfish annual gifting of fruitcakes creates major problems)

      Story 4: The Incredible Christmas Tree

      (bargain hunting for Christmas trees can be prove costly)

      A Season of Misgiving is taken from a collection of original, fictional short stories written by Al Cline. All characters appearing in this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental. A Season of Misgiving is protected by International Copyright Laws © 2011 and Mz. Hackensack’s wrath.

      All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book, or portions thereof, in any form. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical without the express written permission of the author. The scanning, uploading, and distribution of this book via the Internet or via any other means without the permission of the publisher is illegal and punishable by law. Please purchase only authorized electronic editions and do not participate in or encourage electronic piracy of copyrighted materials.

      The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party websites or their content.

      These short stories were written to appeal to the middle-school aged readers although many adults seem to find them equally interesting. This first volume ‘A Season of Misgiving’ will be followed by at least eight other volumes collected from the original Ball Park Stories series. Be sure to watch for ‘Hackensack Tales‘, ‘A Sporting Chance‘, ‘School Daze’, ’Our Kind Of Town’ and several other fine short story collections. Also in the planning stage are ‘talking books’ which will be dramatic presentations of these fine stories. We trust you will enjoy them all!

      The author of this collection, Al Cline grew up in Middle Tennessee and Northern Ohio. He now lives in Southern California where he is a storyteller, teacher, musician and writer. Like some of his story characters he has had success in numerous fields of endeavor. Al currently maintains a daily blog on facebook called Mz. Hackensack where some of the characters from his stories can interact with readers. And yes at one time as a driver, he did drag race an empty Bus #47 and lose to a fully loaded soft drink truck!

      Foreword to A Season of Misgiving

      In addition to a risible introduction to the ubiquitous Mildred J. Hackensack, you will, as readers, if, after suspending disbelief, you allow yourselves the luxury of enjoying stories that are frequently outside the bothersome net of reality. You suspend disbelief anytime you chose to enjoy any dramatic or comedic offering so that your enjoyment won’t be fettered with notions that That can’t really happen—or can it? When you allow yourselves, dear readers, this freedom, you may also find yourselves exposed to the musical subtleties that Al Cline invariably infuses into his projects. These nuanced notes add to the pleasure—if you let it.

      Perhaps the lyrical qualities of the stories has something to do with the Irish roots of the Smith family who, despite the ubiquity of Ms. Hackensack in their lives, is regularly visited by Patrick O’ Lafferty, a bona fide Leprechaun. Don’t worry, it’s all part of the fun you will have after suspending that nuisance, disbelief.

      Patrick, in his green jacket, knickers, and black shoes with big silver buckles and the derby, tilted jauntily, even under the watchful, mistrusting eyes of Charles Smith, does what leprechauns excel at—mischief. We are never told so, but, could it be that Ms. Hackensack is related as well?" Hmm.

      The jokes whether anachronistic or have contemporary references are quite frequently non sequitur, and they come at us with rapid-fire velocity. Don’t worry for Mr. Cline. It is all part of the fun. That some of the jokes defy logic and some are plain corny, tends to make them all that more endearing. Since you have already suspended disbelief, you can now embrace the story-telling for what it is—pure, unadulterated escapism.

      Besides, who knows whether or not there is somewhere—perhaps in a parallel universe somewhere, a Fruitcakes R’ Us super store. And then, it would not be inconceivable that such a superstore could be part of Hackensack Enterprises, Inc., could it not?

      In the world we know as ‘the real world’, we must remind ourselves ad tedium, that we have lived among such powerful and mysterious entities as World com, Enron, Global Crossing and a host of other giants, who frequently declare themselves to be real so that they can frighten us poor mortal children. So why not Mildred J. Hackensack, who alternately, runs a superstore that sells fruitcakes, appears again miraculously immediately before the Fourth of July with the greatest fireworks stand that the folks in Ball Park, the lovely, close-knit community nestled in

      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1