And it gives me the right to tell you how good he is before you sit down to find out for yourself. For the benefit of you who are crossword puzzle aficionados, Jerry is a oner, a word my spelling checker doesn't like and which my desk dictionary doesn't recognize. But it means about the same thing as one of a kind. He is deep, he is wide, which you soon will discover for yourself.
And in the process you will have wondered why this book wasn't published years before. Many of us know you can't play the blues until you've paid the dues, and that it takes a heap of livin' to make a house a home.
Well, then, after your dues are paid and you've done that heap of livin', you just might be ready to write a book like this.
And part of the lesson in that will be that you will know that you don't write like this so you can become wealthy, or so your name becomes featured on marquees or bulletin boards. You write because you have been given the stories and are obligated to share them around.
Should you become wealthy and your name be featured on marquees or bulletin boards, you may think you've succeeded. But the true success will have been setting them down so others can know them, and so others can know you. As is true with these stories from Jerry Engler.
Merle Bird, Kansas author and editor
