The Black Angel

The stories in this volume resemble artifacts from a time capsule. They were all originally conceived in the 1970’s when the author was a student at the University of Iowa attending the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. They were not published at the time, and were set aside, untouched for many years. Only recently has the author returned to these stories and prepared them for publication.

They have been edited, updated, and significantly rewritten. But they remain filled with themes and plots conceived for a 1970's audience. They are very much a part of the times in which they were written. The author is a product of the baby boom, and his perspective is influenced by his childhood growing up within that era.

The Vietnam war figures prominently as an undercurrent in some of the stories. The social change that occurred in America in the 1960’s and 1970’s are underlying issues. The characters move through the times in which the stories were written, and must navigate the American landscape as it existed back then.

‘The Way of This World’ also explores the world as it existed for parents and grandparents of the children of the baby boom.

The stories are also representative of the material presented in the prestigious Iowa Writers’ Workshop in the 1970’s. The featured story provides an insight into how the Workshop operated back then, although the author intentionally exaggerates to present a lighter side of what it was like to be a student in the Iowa Writers’ Workshop in those days.