Without a Net: Stories of Our Risky Flights Towards Love, Loss, and Home

Willing to take a risk? These arerisky tales that celebrate the fragile, stubborn human animal: no matter whatshape he takes, relationships he forms--the color of his mind. He is oncontradictory flights towards love (wherever he may find it), confrontationswith loss, and his search for home. He must also be packed for sudden stopoversin North Africa or 'Big Easy' to check out thescenes there. Don't expect consistency. Thesestories leap like fleas from slapstick-farce in 'The Five DancingBrothers' through horror in 'Neighboring' and 'TheRats,' past a Saroyanesque caper ('NoSabbaticals in Tinseltown') and gay-world hustle('Close Shave.') to end in the dream-reality of 'House ofChildren.' You will meet some unusual folks: Big Tex from Peoria,Branka the Gypsy, the BrainertBoys, the Can Man, and Azzi's Wife. Maybe they willremind you of someone--maybe you.Two volumes of Jack Beach'spoetry have been published by 1 at Books Library: THE THREE MILE BRIDGE: AcrossPensacola Bay on a Span of Poems, and THE GRAND TOUR: A Steamer Trunk of TravelPoems. WITHOUT A NET is his first prose work in print.¿

Former actor, cherry picker,artist, shoe salesman, Assassination buff, and Theatre Professor, Jack hailsfrom Galesburg, Illinoisin the heart of the Midwest. After receiving his PhD inTheatre at Western Reserve Universityin Cleveland, Jack spent two decades teaching and directing at the University of Kansas, followed by anotherdecade at Agnes Scott College in Atlanta.Upon retirement, his Cancer/Scorpio signs lured him to water and sun, and henow splits his writing time between Gulf Breeze, Florida,and a slave-quarter pad in New Orleans'sFrench Quarter. An avid traveler, he recently returned from a writing trip toCambodia and Burma and looks forward to holidays with son Kevin and family, whoperform mime, music, and mayhem in Brussels, Belgium.