Wally's life is drab and, despite his financial genius, his dream eludes him. Near 50, life should be more than, well ... So, what to do. Soon his life is shady business deals, thugs with guns, a night on the Amazon, and ... well, hang on, Wally is no longer circling Moose Jaw.

"Meek shares one important trait with (Ernie) Pyle. He tells good stories. To me that is the highest praise a writer can receive." Jim Kiser, Arizona Daily Star People who have known John Martin Meek know he has never been reluctant to express his opinions with one regrettable exception. In the Cabinet Room of the White House one evening, President Johnson went around the table to ask all present what he or she thought about the Vietnam War. To his deep regret, Meek failed to tell LBJ he honestly felt the war was going to destroy his presidency. But by then the president was getting the same advice from The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King and other distinguished Americans. Moving from Washington, DC, to Southern Arizona in 1999, Meek began teaching journalism at Pima Community College (60,000 students) in Tucson and jumpstarted his journalism career by writing features and all but two of the columns included in this book. After leaving the University of Oklahoma journalism school, where he was editor of The Oklahoma Daily, Meek worked on newspapers in Texas and New York while earning an MA in communications at Syracuse University. He then had a long and, to him, exciting career in political and private sector public affairs in New York, Chicago and primarily in Washington, DC. He has drawn from these experiences for some of the columns in this book. Meek, writing under the pen name of John Martin Hill, is the author of "The Christmas Hour" (www.thechristmashour.com), a novel set in Washington, DC, and editor of a book of photos of the Johnson presidency.

Frank Blanchard lives on a houseboat, has a great job, and is in love with an unattainable woman. Frank and his neighbors are about to have their lives turned upside down by the opening of a fertilizer plant which will mean a pending relocation of their houseboats so the harbor can be dredged and a dock built. A humorous book filled with observations about life both on and off the river.

This is a rollicking romp about employees in the Sleep Tite Pajama Factory who are about to strike for a 7½ cent raise. Wisecracking dialogue and dry wit abound. 7½ Cents was adapted by Richard Bissell and George Abbott for the Broadway musical success The Pajama Game.

A skillful, and frequently hilarious, comparison of Mark Twain and the author, Richard Bissell. Part commentary and part autobiography, Bissell deftly interweaves family history, anecdotes, and career paths into an unforgettable linking of two outstanding authors and river boat buffs living almost a century apart.

High Water: Duke Snyder found his first job on a stern wheeler when he was sixteen years old. Ten years later he's still on the river aboard an old diesel towboat hauling eight barges of coal toward the Chain of Rocks above St. Louis with all hands on deck facing the ominous rise of high water.