Joel Stribling (1667-1718) was born in King County, Virginia. Descendants lived in Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia, Georgia, South Carolina and elsewhere.

First in the Vaiden trilogy, The Forge follows the story of Miltiades Vaiden, a Civil War veteran who has returned to his southern home in the hopes of rebuilding and eventually rising into the ranks of the middle class.

William Lawrence Stribling, Jr. was born in a small southern Georgia town in 1904. He should have lived out his years in that rural setting, but he became a professional prizefighter by the age of sixteen. Though a fatal accident kept him from winning the championship title he sought, "Young" Stribling was true to himself and the values with which he had been raised. This book tells his story.

A tough former Marine leads Buddhist basic training for the average Joe. In Buddhism for Dudes, Gerry “Strib” Stribling, former Marine and all-around good guy, answers questions on life and living with a healthy dose of Buddhist wisdom for the regular guy. Strib takes a good look at who the Buddha was, meditation, karma, and more. With good humor and without sentimentalism, he explains these down-to-earth insights in everyday language. Showing how Buddhism boldly approaches life’s problems head on, unflinching and alert—like a soldier in a forward listening post in the dark of night—Strib emphasizes the Buddhist call to moral action for the good of oneself and others.

In this concluding novel of Stribling's trilogy on the changes facing the South between the Civil War and the Great Depression, Jerry Catlin, nephew to Col. Miltiades Vaiden, embodies the "secularization of religion" during the 1920s.--Intro., p. vi.