Featured Author: Bruce Louis Dodson

Author Bruce Louis Dodson

Bruce Louis Dodson writes fiction and poetry in Seattle, Washington. He was born in Alton, Illinois and moved to San Francisco where he worked as a consultant electrical designer until the 1980’s recession. He then moved to Seattle to work for a small group of consulting engineers contracted to Boeing. Boeing downsized the project they were working on after only three months and he found himself a stranger in a strange land: over fifty, over educated an unemployed for three years – lost in Seattle. After earning teaching credentials at Seattle Pacific University he became a technology instructor at an inner-city Seattle High school and is now very happily retired. His most recent publications appear in: Breadline Press West Coast Anthology, Pearl Literary Magazine, Struggle Magazine, Sein und Werden, Fiction International, Off The Coast, Quarrtsiluni, Contemporary Literature Review: India, Blue Collar Review, E-buffet, The Applicant, Foliate Oak and 3rd Wednesday. More of his writing and photography appear on his blog: http://brucelouisdodson.wordpress.com

Lost in Seattle by Bruce Louis Dodson

At fifty-three William Brenner has played by the rules, an honest, dependable and happily married man. He’s held a steady job for fifteen years; a good father making payments on a house and saving money in an IRA. After being downsized he finds himself transformed from a successful law abiding middle class American to a midlife victim of the recession. Willie experiences a rapid accumulation of loss including wife, home, vocation, daughter, a mother with Alzheimer’s and even his dog—everything but his sense of humor.

Three years of unemployment lead him into overwhelming plastic debt and a low rent neighborhood where he becomes one of many lovers to a talented braless barista who loves sex. He finds himself in a floating world of low-pay temporary jobs, unknown ethnicities and ways of life: Vietnamese, Hispanics, artists, college grads who can’t find jobs, a Buddhist nun, one bank robber and two lawyers. A fox-hole intimacy creates new friends and insight to another world.

This is a story of survival, love, lust, loss and luck interspaced with a narrated account of his mother who escapes from a California care facility into the arms of a drug dealing motorcycle gang.

Lost in Seattle by Bruce Louis Dodson is available from Amazon.

 

When It Just Isn’t Working

The idea you had for your next book looked really great. After all, each book is supposed to be better than the last; your skills as a writer are growing. You set yourself a new challenge, one that would grab the attention of your fans and garner the respect of your fellow writers. You have 20,000 words already written. But now you encounter a problem and you’re stuck. What to do? Continue reading “When It Just Isn’t Working”