Come Back, Bear is Gerald Locklin's long awaited sequel to The Case of the Missing Blue Volkswagen. Where Locklin explored the subconscious and the idea of the detective novel in the first novella of the series, here he delves into the Western novel and the idea of loyalty. Locklin is at his best here as he becomes irreverent in his relationships, his love of the classic cowboy novel, and his view of America.

Spanning a 40-year timeframe, 1967-2007, GERALD LOCKLIN: New and Selected Poems features many of this esteemed poet's most iconic and memorable poems.

The Case of the Missing Blue Volkswagen is Gerald Locklin's classic post-modern epic of Los Angeles and gumshoe detectives. At once homage and spoof, the novella follows Bear, a private detective, as he searches for the eponymous blue Volkswagen through the meanest streets of the West Coast and into a more dangerous world, his subconscious. The novella is at once a comedy, a discussion of the detective genre, and a look into the various cultures and subcultures of the 1970s.

Last Tango in Long Beach completes Gerald Locklin's trilogy of post-modern novellas that began with The Case of the Missing Blue Volkswagen and continued with Come Back, Bear. In this final story, Locklin explores the 1970s sex drama but backs away from his classic humor to take an inside look at the politics of a real couple. It takes a painfully accurate view of the way life can be in the long run even with people who love each other.

Ellen sat waiting in the Buick while Fr. Dean Finn checked in at the motel office. He always registered them as Mr. and Mrs. George Adams of Syracuse, New York. There was no objection to a couple without luggage taking a room for a couple of hours at the Hit-the-Sack. The desk clerk, a poorly-shaven, perpetually smirking man of thirty-five lewd years, had managed, in the midst of an ambiance of sexuality which should have inoculated him against disgust, to cultivate a urinal of a mind. People came to his office thinking of their affair as a matter of love or fun or nature or bawdry or even mystical oneness. The desk clerk never allowed these patrons to raise him to their level of innocence. Rather, he saw to it that their ecstasies were not unashamed. His grin evoked for them the puritanism of their parents, the prurience of the adolescent gang, the hellfire of the preachers, the chancres of sex hygiene movies, the self-consciousness of the stag party. Finn hated the man; he was always tempted to sprinkle holy water on him.

Modest Aspirations brings small press veteran, Gerald Locklin, and newcomer Beth Wilson together in this new collection of poems and short stories. Fans of Locklin's poems will not be disappointed by these "new poems" -- he is at the top of his game here. And complimenting the poems are eight short stories by Beth Wilson. They have never been published before, so this is Wilson's debut.

48 Poems, two short stories and one disquisition with reproductions from the author's handwritten manuscript, two full-color and two monochrome reproductions of photographs by the author, and a panoramic photo image extending to front and back covers.