Table of Contents


Views and Mechanics
Publisher's Note
Editor's Note
Review of Terrorist
Review of God's Gym
Review of Cherry Blossoms in Twilight
Creative Nonfiction
Ain't Is A Word
By Marcie Hollowell &
Kristen Munch
Love Under the Big Top
By Andy Martello
Revival
By Brenda G. Wooley
Poetry
Letting Go Wish
By Antoinette Brim
Pam Farwick
By G. David Schwartz
Confession While Dining
By Mary Lou Taylor
Homeschooling Adventures
By Beth Happel
Fiction
Ike Experiences Vanity
By Sidney Kidd
What Keeps Me Alive
By Paul Brittain
Minor Damage
By Jane Hammons
How To Cook for Your In-Laws
By Ricky Ginsburg
About the Contributors

© 2006, River Walk Journal and respective authors and artists. All rights reserved. Do not use or reproduce without permission.

River Walk Journal, Inc.
Board of Directors

Chairman - Elizabeth Ross
Vice Chairman - Joseph Koch
Secretary/Treasurer - Geri Stock-Ross
Editorial Director - Patti Kurtz, DA
Literacy Director - Bill Mausteller
Policy Director - PA State Rep. Jess Stairs
Advisory Board
Chairman - Patti Kurtz, DA
Asst. Chairman - Dan Lachenman, PhD
Samuel Hazo
Christopher Leland
Edwin Yoder
Joseph Bathanti
Journal Staff
Publisher - Elizabeth Ross
Editor-In-Chief - Joseph Koch
Sen. Fiction Editor - Patti Kurtz
Sen. Poetry Editor - Neeldhara Misra
Sen. Creative Nonfiction Editor - Brenda Coxe
Contributing Editor - Robert Dittman
Publicity Director (PA) - Geri Stock-Ross

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River Walk Journal, Inc. is a non-profit corporation run entirely by volunteers. For information about volunteer opportunities and internships, visit VolunteerMatch.

Contributors' Bios

Marcie Hollowell

Kristen Munch

Andy Martello - Andy Martello is a professional comedian & variety performer living in the Chicago area. Aside from his duties as an entertainer, Andy is a freelance humor writer working on his first book. His works have been featured at The Cheers, Gapers Block, Malicious Bitch, and Absolute Write. He is always honored to be included within the pages of the respected River Walk Journal and he hopes his works don't "dumb down" the high quality of writing found here.

Brenda G. Wooley - Brenda G. Wooley is a retired social worker and office manager. She grew up on a farm in Kentucky in a family of avid storytellers and colorful friends and neighbors whose beliefs were steeped in tradition and religion. Much of her writing is drawn from those characters, hoping to capture and preserve the unique dialogue, eccentricities and contradictions of the people she knows best. Her work has appeared in Southern Hum, SouthLit and Amarillo Bay, and she is currently at work on her novel entitled "The Rise and Fall of Boyd K. Wilkins." She and her husband have lived and worked in Illinois and Michigan and now reside near Paducah, Kentucky.

Antoinette Brim - Antoinette Brim teaches English at Pulaski Technical College in North Little Rock, Arkansas. She earned an MFA in Creative Writing/Poetry from Antioch University in Los Angeles. She also earned a Bachelor of Arts in Literature and Language with an emphasis in Creative Writing from Webster University. She is a Cave Canem fellow. Her work has appeared in various print and online journals and magazines.

G. David Schwartz - The former president of Seedhouse, the online interfaith committee, Schwartz is the author of A Jewish Appraisal of Dialogue, and coauthor, with Jacqueline Winston, of Parables In Black and White. Currently a volunteer at Drake Hospital in Cincinnati, Schwartz continues to write essays, and fiction. His new book, Midrash and Working Out Of The Book is now in stores or can be ordered.

Mary Lou Taylor

Beth Happel

Sidney Kidd - Sidney lives in Florence, SC where he studies conversations with hidden agendas. He attempts to compose revealing reflections of what makes us tick. His takes on humanity have been published in PlayGirl, The Angry Poet, Lady Fire, Oysters and Chocolate and SlipTongue.

Paul Brittain - Paul S. Brittain is a career journalist from Western Pennsylvania, who presently serves as the coordinating editor of a weekly newspaper, "The Advisor." He has won state awards in sports column-writing (2004) and news photography (1978) among weekly newspapers. He was also a columns finalist in 2003 for the Western Pennsylvania Golden Quill Awards. He has written two short-story books and two related novels. He has also been published in Reader's Digest, ByLine Magazine, and The Goldrush, among others, with forthcoming publications in I Love Cats magazine and Small Town Life Magazine. Paul and his wife, Kathleen reside in Upper Tyrone Township with their cats Tinkerbelle, Wendy, and Pandy.

Jane Hammons - Jane Hammons lives with her two sons in the San Francisco Bay Area and teaches writing at UC Berkeley. She has published fiction and nonfiction in a variety of journals, most recently Alaska Quarterly Review; Brain, Child: The Magazine for Thinking Mothers; Kitchen Sink; Natural Bridge; Rhino; and taintmagazine.com.

Ricky Ginsburg - Ricky Ginsburg is a fame junky. His whole life has revolved around the on-going extraction of another Warholian block of 15 minutes. Ricky grabbed the first one as the producer of the now famous “Synthetic Pleasure” radio program at WFMU, where a half a million listeners prayed to the sound of his voice three hours a week for eleven years. Unfortunately for them, his 44th winter in New Jersey was the loose card, the broken toothpick, and the faulty strut that forced him to find refuge in the swamps of South Florida. Fortunately for him, the hot sun and humidity allowed his fiction seed to sprout. He has written wheelbarrow loads of fiction that have entertained only the bright yellow recycle bin in the garage and the first and last third of a satirical romance novel that might one day get finished - if the beaches close. After a half century of reading everything from Dick and Jane to Pelayo and Elisenda, he has closed the intake and opened the outflow.