To write something and leave it behind us,
It
is but a dream
When we awake we know
There
is not even anyone to read it.
--Ikkyu
(1394-1481)
About this website. This website offers a selection
of writings of Richard S. Platz, and includes backpacking accounts,
novels, short stories, and nonfiction. Many of the writings may
be read at no cost. All copyrights and reservations of rights
apply.
About the Author. Richard S. Platz has retired
from the practice of law in Humboldt County, California. He received
his B.A. degree in philosophy from Northwestern University in
1964, where he was first published in the TriQuarterly,
the University's literary magazine. In 1967 he received his J.D.
degree from the University of California at Berkeley, serving
as an associate editor of the California Law Review. After
practicing law in Berkeley and Oakland, Mr. Platz spent two years
in Mexico, near Guadalajara. In 1977 he established his sole general
practice in Blue Lake, a rural town in Northern California with
a population of 1150, where he served as City Attorney for 32
years. He has written his entire adult life, including essays,
poems, short stories, and novels. Some of his works reflect his
experiences in the courtroom and in Mexico.
BACKPACKING
IN JEFFERSON
 These
are accounts of backpacking and dayhiking. While not intended
as a guidebook, they do nonetheless contain photographs and data
about trails, access to trailheads, and the location of good campsites
that hikers may find of use. Located in the mountainous border
region of northern California and southern Oregon, the State
of Jefferson is more a state of mind than a political reality.
But here lie plentiful wilderness areas and undesignated wildlands.
This is a work in progress.
"It made me feel like I had been there
with you, though without all the pain."--George Platz
Click Here To Read "Backpacking
in Jefferson "
PROJECT DIVINE
WIND, a novel
 Project
Divine Wind is a cybernetic courtroom thriller flavored with
mystery and romance. Attorney Jed LeBaron's representation of
a young black man accused of simple burglary leads him to the
federal courts for a determination of whether a self-aware machine,
a synthesis of genetic engineering and computer science, is entitled
to the basic civil rights of a human being.
LeBaron studied in Berkeley in the mid-Sixties and came away
with a law degree. But what next? Returning from a long stay under
the Mexican sun, he finds employment representing criminal defendants
in the down and dirty neighborhoods of Oakland. His employer,
Cedrick P. Collins, Esq., is a former longshoreman who earned
his law degree from correspondence school and is now the most
charismatic, elegantly dressed, and silver tongued African American
criminal defense lawyer in the Bay Area. Law school never prepared
LeBaron for coping with Collins' streetwise clients. This novel
contains a realistic look at the underside of the legal justice
system based on the author's own experience. 335 pages.
Click Here To Read First
Three Chapters FREE
Click
Here to Purchase Project Divine Wind
OF MAGIC
AND DELUSION, a novel
 The
young Crown Prince is not happy. The darling of the realm, he
is a product of an age of plenty in a kingdom protected by the
Sorcerer's magic from savage barbarians at the borders. The Prince
is representative of his generation, only somehow more so, as
if painted in vivid colors by a more passionate hand. One would
suppose him content. But inside he rages after the elusive goal
of perfection and is ravaged by unquenchable desire. Neither philosophy
nor faith can satisfy his longing. He turns to the Sorcerer for
mastery of the magical. But here there is no real magic, only
madness. Or to put it another way, there is only the magic of
the everyday world, and all attempts to suborn it are madness.
The result is a brutally honest coming-of-age novel, built from
the bricks and mortar of real life. Through romance, adventure,
humor, and a smattering of philosophy, Of Magic and Delusion
explores hope, love, obsession, addiction, and self-delusion.
Suitable for mature young adults prepared to face the truth.
150 pages.
Click Here To Read First
Three Chapters FREE
Click
Here to Purchase Of Magic and Delusion
APPOINTMENT
AT ANGAHUAN, a novel
by
James A. Kline & Richard S. Platz
 Appointment
at Angahuan is a contemporary novel of adventure, suspense,
and international intrigue. Three young Americans are unwittingly
drawn into the maelstrom of Presidential politics in Mexico as
the Tarascan Indian people try to break the stranglehold of the
conservative PRI party. Psychologist Dr. Jeff Rivers and Archaeologist
Shimoko Johanson, in search of an ancient Tarascan treasure, and
attorney Jed LeBaron, a pawn in a political game, are thrown together
in the lava tubes beneath the re-awakening Paricutin volcano,
the headquarters of the shadowy leader of the secretive Ninos
del Tecolote. Completed in 1982, this novel foreshadows by a decade
the violent indigenous uprisings in the State of Chiapas, Mexico,
and the drug cartel and weapons wars of today. 300 pages.
Co-author James A. Kline is a retired psychologist currently
living in southwest Colorado. Dr. Kline has published numerous
articles in professional journals, and has authored two books
in his field, as well as a novel tracing the history of human's
search for meaning. He has traveled extensively in Mexico. The
beginning of Appointment at Angahuan may be viewed without
charge, and if you would like to read the rest, the entire work
may then be purchased from Amazon.
Click Here To Read First
Three Chapters FREE
Click
Here to Purchase Appointment at Angahuan
DREAMTIME,
selected short stories
Dreamtime, a work in progress, consists of selected short
stories written between 1964 and the present. Click on a title
to read the short story.
Timestop.
One fine day more than twenty years ago, as the Platz Brothers
were motoring serenely around the southern tip of Lake Michigan
toward Sugarwood Farm, and apropos of nothing in particular, George
posed the following question, "If time travel is possible,
then why don't we encounter anyone from the future?" This
story
is Rick's response.
The Ride.
Sometimes a hitchhiker should be careful before climbing in. And
sometimes he learns something from the experience.
The Cabin.
Lester Ames is content to live alone in his log cabin in the woods.
Until he falls asleep.
Nor Iron
Bars a Cage. Associate Warden Robert Inglewood's
account of the unworldly events that lead to the suspension of
the maximum-security prison experiment at Piedra, California.
Tommy
is a trifle which explores a theme similar to Nor Iron Bars
a Cage.
Only a
Matter of Time is a fictional series of newspaper
articles that first appeared in the Blue Lake Advocate
in 1979.
The
Explosion was first published in the TriQuarterly,
Northwestern University's literary magazine, in 1964.
SELECTED
POEMS
What whispers in the hush of autumn
dusk
Beneath a blazing moon, insinuates
That I have walked this teeming path before?
What murmurs in the scented, smokey breeze,
Cajoles with cricket's chirp, mosquito's whine?
What longs for me? It beckons me to close
Forever weary depths behind my eyes,
To float no deeper than the surface of
My skin, to sip each taste anew and breathe
But once the fragrance of the evening air.
--May 16, 1979
LINKS
 Be
sure to click on the Platzbrothers website logo for more from
Rick and his big brother George.
Comments, questions,and licensing inquiries are
welcome. Send them to: Richard
Platz
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