What happens when a young baseball player, out of necessity, learns to pitch both right- and left-handed? This novelette explores his techniques and the challenges that erupt on and off the field when he becomes "ambi-disastrous" on the mound. Although written with a younger readership in mind, baseball fans of all ages find The Switch Pitcher thrilling, as they do with the five bonus short stories. Aldo Vidali, an 84-year-old collaborator of one of cinema's greatest directors: Federico Fellini, wrote a review of the first edition of The Switch Pitcher, and urged it be made into a motion picture. "Children, parents, and grandparents would flock to see such a movie," he said. Among the bonus features is a short story about a sunflower living in a keyhole garden that literally "comes to life." The second short story is a non-fiction account of an encounter with a UFO wherein the subject about thirty years later recounts details of the event while under hypnosis. In the feature entitled ROD & REEL SNAPSHOTS, the author recounts unique fishing expeditions. Another non-fiction entry is about growing up with a magical teddy bear named Fleddie Peddie. The fifth short story, entitled PERIPHERAL ACCELERATON, is about an elderly man who is a perfectionist. He shares his extreme attention to detail with a friend, proving, for instance, the idea that it is extremely intelligent people who become carsick. He also recounts what it is truly like to be a time traveler.

The Switch Pitcher

Children's Books

Smith, Mr. W. Leon

Sports & Outdoors

Smith Media, Inc.

Want to get off the grid and provide healthy, safe food for your family? Please consider your own backyard keyhole garden farm, suggests the author. W. Leon Smith is an experienced keyhole gardener, having spent several years experimenting with crop varieties and helping others create their own backyard keyhole farms. He regularly gives presentations to Master Gardener functions where he explains his adventures into this worthwhile concept of the perfect gardening system. His interest in keyhole gardens led to the creation of his small company, www.keyholefarm.com, that manufactures easy-to-build keyhole garden kits. He feels it is crucial for families to explore the idea of raising their own vegetables, what with the influx of GMOs (genetically modified organisms), the secret and abundant use of pesticides on food, and grocery shelves where vegetables have quite often been harvested too early, thereby reducing nutrition and taste. “Why not raise your own quality food in a keyhole raised-bed garden?” Smith says. This book explains the concept and provides useful tips. “Keyhole gardens conserve water,” said Smith. “They are easier on the back than traditional gardens. They promote recycling. They allow crops to be planted closer together, and the harvests are remarkable in such a small compact area. “Keyhole gardens also offer a splendid opportunity to teach youngsters the time-honored skills of raising their own crops, important survival methods that will stay with them all their lives.”

Plant Your Garden In A Keyhole

Crafts, Hobbies & Home

Smith, W. Leon

Gardening & Landscape Design

The Viet Nam war has just ended, but the military now wants to embark on its third quest to acquisition even more farm and ranch land for special maneuvers in this traditionally agricultural region of Central Texas. Acquisition could mean the destruction of small cities, cemeteries, and the lives of its inhabitants who have toiled and cared for the land for generations. The landowners decide to form a coalition to fight the corporate/military land grab which they feel is unnecessary and they enlist the aid of a newcomer to their midst, a young black man who is trying to put into action Martin Luther King's "dream" in a region where the influence of the "Klan" still lingers. He wants to do his part to break the chains of a nation yet in turmoil. The young man has started a weekly newspaper called The Epitaph in one of the small cities and finds himself embroiled in an emotional roller coaster after he befriends an elderly rancher whose life is etched into the homeland. This epic novel is loosely based on actual events. Its setting begins at the turn of the 20th century with the rise of King Cotton and quickly evolves into modern times where issues of sovereignty of the land abound and questions about state-of-the-art weaponry in order to keep the military industrial complex profitable are explored. Featuring adventure, romance, and intriguing characters, the tear-jerk ending lives up to the title.

Epitaph

Literature & Fiction

United States

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