Not a Guest, really. It's Jerry Rasmussen sans cookie. - moderator -

I don't drop in here much anymore, but Mudcat still has its presence in my life. Last year my wife and I went to the Getaway of the GWFSS and finally met a lot of mudcatters I'd only known through the Cafe. I still keep in touch with many friends on here, through e-mails and Facebook, too.

Several years ago, I started a thread titled Bus Stories. I'd just had a memorable experience taking a bus from Wisconsin out to South Dakota with my wife, and I wanted to share it on Mudcat. The story encouraged me to write another story I posted about a train ride on the way back to Connecticut, and I started to think of myself very tenetively as an author. In 2009, I published The Gate of Beautiful: Stories, Songs, and Reflections on Christian Life and it won a Finalist and a first place award in two book competitions. The book is a series of storues much like the Bus and Train stories, and includes quotes ranging from people as diverse as Jesus Christ and Casey Stengel.

Two days ago, I puyblished The Gaste of Beautiful as an ebook for Kindle on amazon.com. It's priced at $3.99 and from what I understand its avaiable on UK Kindle, too. You can preview the introduction ond first three hapters in the Kindle listing on amazon, and the book is still available in paperback.

In October, I'll be one the performers at a one day celebration of Urban Folk Music in the '60's in Greenwich Village, where I haunted the Gaslight Cafe from 1960-64. I'll see some other Catters there, because Charlie Ipcar and Lisa Null will also be performing, amony others.

If you enjoyed my writing on here and have a kindle, you might check out my book on amazon.com. If you don't have a kindle, you might still want to check it out for the first three chapters to see what I'm up to.

I hope all is well with you. Things are great here in Derby. I am performing more now than I have in years, mostly gospel, but folk, too. I'm starting a new gospel CD this fall.

Jerry