BLAME RANE was a quiet college student until a tragic fire shattered her world. To escape poverty, Blame exposes herself to drugs, domestic violence, prostitution, and incarceration. She moves from welfare role to employment role as a single parent, from the grimy streets of D.C. to plush condos in VA; to rural NC, where she discovers the meaning of self-empowerment and unconditional love. Three birds tail her every move. This crow, cardinal and pigeon were an African-American, a Native American and a Caucasian woman in life. They are the blood ancestors of Blame Rane. The birds honestly tell the stories of their lives, taking us on an epic tour of American history. Blame encounters joy, jealousy, love, addiction, friendship, disease and opportunity. She battles classism, racism, and materialism; seizing passion, dignity and wisdom along the way. It's easy to blame the rain, but at some point, a woman learns to take responsibility for her life. Will Blame?

Stories told in the book, "Tony Dufflebag . . . and other Remembrances of the War in Korea," are a mixture of memories, history, journalism and autobiographical experiences that are blended into a fascinating collection. The title story is of the rescue by two soldiers of a six-year-old Korean orphan boy who was found freezing and starving on the streets in war-ravaged Seoul, South Korea, then secreted into protective "adoption" for a few weeks, and how he was cared for and won the hearts of all the soldiers in a frontline Infantry rifle company until he was placed in safer circumstances. The author shares feelings about the death of a fellow soldier, of thoughts about a young wife and son back home, of the dramatic mountain rescue of a critically-wounded friend, reflects on feelings of a Christian soldier in combat, tells about lifelong friendships that develop in wartime, reflects on personal values, beliefs, feelings, commitments, opinions and relates tales of humorous events that occur to and among soldiers, even in a far-off war zone.

Reprint of the original, first published in 1877.

A magazine of tales, travels, essays, and poems.