Ramblings Under A Palmetto Moon is a collection of Short Stories and Poems that relate to the Human Condition of the people that live in the modern South. They are stories of pain and suffering, love and laughter. The Ramblings are meant to give the reader an insight into the daily disappointments and triumphs of the average man, woman, or child in the New South.

Shiloh to Durham Station, 18th Wisconsin Infantry Regiment: With Captain Robert S. McMichael's Civil War Letters begins in the early winter of 1861 in Bad Ax County, Wisconsin, and it ends in 1865 with the Grand March in Washington, D. C. after the surrender of Confederate General Joseph E. Johnston at Durham Station, North Carolina. It is an historical account of the Civil War in the West, and a true personal reflection of the war as told by Robert S. McMichael. He was a young husband and father who never missed an opportunity to write home to his wife, Orla. Robert enlisted in the 18th Wisconsin Infantry Regiment on January 25, 1861. The regiment mustered into the United States service on March 15, 1862, and departed Camp Trowbridge at Milwaukee for Pittsburg Landing, Tennessee on March 30, 1862. Robert served in The Army of the Mississippi, re-enlisted in 1864, rose to captain of his Company C, participated in General William T. Sherman's march through Georgia and the Carolinas. He capped off his service at the Grand March in Washington, D. C., and was mustered out of service on July 18, 1865.

You talk to your dog, and most of the time it responds with obedience or with curious gestures when it does not understand you. Most importantly, your dog is there by your side when you need a "listener." Oh, if your dog could only talk to you. Well, here is a dog that does. If you are fortunate, you will at some point in your life have a pet dog that you can call your friend, and doubly fortunate if the dog can call you a friend. Spade, a black Labrador was that kind of dog. During the fourteen years of his life from a puppy to an elder adult, he truly was our family's best friend, as we were his best friends. You already love dogs or you would not have selected this book to read. In Pals Forever, Spade tells his story in his own words. Perhaps his recollections will cause you to reflect on the fond memories of a dog that was once your best friend, and to reflect on those long ago memories of you being his best friend. Join a black Labrador on his journey, and be reminded of the simple pleasures of raking leaves, only to play in the pile, and taking long walks just to see what might be stirring in the woods, or hunting upland game birds on a colorful warm autumn day. If you are not already convinced that having a dog will make you a better person, Spade will convince you.

Freeman A. Halverson, a son of Norwegian immigrants was born in Barron County, Wisconsin in 1889 near the town of Dallas. His mother died when he was barely a year old, and he was taken in and raised by close relatives. At the age of 21 years he, along with his cousin Fred, decided to see the world, so they trekked west on the Great Northern Railroad to a place called Kalispell, Montana. Having the youthful wide-eyed intentions of venturing to Alaska, the Far East or other far-off worldly places, the two young men, instead, ended up homesteading in Montana, where the territory was open range and dominated by Native Americans, large cattle ranches, mining, and forest logging operations. After a lifetime in the Little Bitter Root Valley of "Big Sky Country," and retiring fifty years after arriving there, Freeman took pen in hand with a typewriter at his side, and wrote his memoirs. A Man From Montana is rich in the tales of adventure, fortitude and endurance which westward bound young men and women experienced during that time. Freeman and Fred started out life with absolutely nothing but a few dollars in their pockets and a spirit of adventure.

The story of "The Plant, Oh Quality Where Art Thou" begins in the summer of 1957 and it ends 52 years later in March 2009 when Tom Luggs invites his former GM colleagues to a roundtable discussion on the demise and future of General Motors Corporation. It is the story of a young man who accepts a co-op engineering education appointment with Chevrolet Division to attend General Motors Institute of Technology in Flint, Michigan. "The Plant" is a story that follows Tom's career where he learns production is king, and production efficiency is the measure of success. He reluctantly leaves GM in 1965 and is gone for fourteen years. He returns to GM only to find that quality is still the foster child to the 'King'; production efficiency. He spends the last decade of his industrial career working to transform GM's myopic 'production efficiency' culture, with its huge gluttonous batch process systems, to a system of Just-In-Time Quality Synchronous Manufacturing, where quality is the only measure of success for sustained productivity. With America's 2008-2009 financial freefall and the subsequent demise of GM, Tom invites his former colleagues to a roundtable discussion where they discuss GM's situation, and put it into perspective. They explore root causes, and offer insight into what it will take for GM to be a viable company in the future. His experiences are unique. They were uniquely recorded, and they likely represent the trials and tribulations of not only himself, but many of his colleagues in the manufacturing engineering field. As a historical novel it hits at the core of GM internal politics. The story shines a light on the philosophical management issue of production efficiency versus quality. Readers will want to read this story, because it is a story about the day-to-day firing line, the people in the trench, not about the Board Room.

Managing Writers is a practical guide to managing documentation projects in the real world. It is informal, but concise, using examples from the author's experience working with and managing technical writers. It looks beyond big project, big team methodologies to the issues faced by smaller, less well-funded projects. Managing Writers is for technical writers, both freelancers and employees, documentation managers, and managers in other disciplines who are responsible for documentation; anyone who may need to manage, full or part-time, a documentation project.