The Time Out Café is a real place in Washburn, Wisconsin. I write fiction, so it’s essential that I emphasize that this excellent restaurant really does exist. I hope to get some photos of the place this summer (August 2010) of the place so you can see it. It’s the place of inspiration for our upcoming fourth book, the theme of which was brought up by the illustrator of these books, Kathy Johnson.
     She wanted to know more about some of the characters in the first novel already published and from the second novel that was then in the works. Kathy Johnson, Uncle Charlie and I talked her idea over. I figured I could come up with a series of short stories about the main characters and maybe even a few of the minor characters. I am guessing this was in August of 2005 or 06, or as late as 07.
     I’m never in want of things to write about and to later assign these things to my characters; but, it might take a bit of time for me to formulate how the story will be told or mixed in with other incidents. For example: An acquaintance of mine told of a time her now adult son took the family car for a joy ride at age fourteen. The kid nonchalantly dangled the keys and handed them to his mother upon his return late at night and started to head towards his bedroom as if this was a common, acceptable habit. Note, I said he started towards his bedroom; I did not say he made it to his bedroom.
     I laughed as I pictured a kid, realizing he’s caught doing a grievous wrong, swiftly assumed a casual role in hopes of delaying, or maybe even escaping any repercussions for what he did. I liked the incident so much, particularly the lucid image I was conjuring up of what that scene could look like should I have been a fly on the wall that I noted it down with the resolve that I will work that incident into one of my Baby Boomer teens from the Village of Birch Clump.
     I finished such a story, which I think is excellent and somewhat funny, provided you are not a parent currently dealing with a similar incident. I sent it up to Uncle Charlie (May 2010) for him to proof read, comment and maybe make some suggestion as to what sort of a car the family might have had back in 1967.
     There are stories I pulled from the novels before sending my manuscripts in and there are stories I though of later for my characters. I should have no problems developing this fourth book. I’ll concentrate on the major characters already living in the novels, but I’ll add some minor figures I came up with since.
     For example: You’ve seen the picture of Amos on a couple of these web pages. He’s the kid with long hair, a smudged up shirt and some indisputably tight jeans, but the attention grabber at first glance is that his mouth is gagged with a rag and his hands are tied behind his back. Fishing Hole is a cliff hanger story you can read on this web site telling how it came to be that he’s tied up and gagged.
     The name Amos was chosen by his grandparents as a means to give him an Ojibwe name, but disguise it to look like a Biblical name so the government and Churches would not give the family any trouble about having a Native American name on a birth or baptismal certificate. He was born twenty seven years before the passage of the American Indian Freedom of Religion Law. In essence, his name could have been declared illegal in this country back then and the Church of his Grandparents would more than likely have refused to baptize him unless a Euro-American name was chosen from the list of canonized Saints. Amoos means Little Bee.
     Amos was given a very minor bit part days before I submitted the Birch Clump Portfolio manuscript. A scene on page 91 originally mentioned a “friend” with no name that cooperated with Jack to toss Jason into the Menominee River. The name Amos is was assigned and thus worked in with a very brief introduction and significant change to the story. He’s in only one of the thirteen short stories and his name comes up six times in as many sentences.
     There are no plans at this time to give him a major role in the fourth book though I might be able to include him in a couple new stories of characters already developed.

Photo inspiring the poem, "Snakes in the Outhouse."

Book 3

Return to The Birch Clump Portfolio page.

Work began: Some aspects began in 1998. A more accurate beginning date would be August 2006 or 2007 at the Time out Cafe, Washburn, WI.
First Story: The first two stories began about a year later. In the meantime, the development of what eventually became the Birch Clump Portfolio also began to take shape.
Original plans: I intended to complete this still developing 4th book before the Birch Clump Portfolio. Instead, work on the Portfolio advanced more quickly due in large part that over half the short stories and all the poems were writen a couple or so years before any of my books were published.

Current plans: B. C. Portfolio was published in March 2010. Full consentration is given now to the yet to be titled 4th book. The author team, made up of Charlie Browne as editor and proof reader, Kathy Johnson who illustrated the previous books, and me as the author refer to the book as "Road Kill" because of an item by that name on the Time Out Cafe menu. (Updated: May 19, 2010).