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, including novels, short stories,
poems, and backpacking accounts. 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.
NEW . . . BRISTLECONE, A Novel
 What
if your freedom to travel were taken away? After the death
of his wife, Tildie, weary old dirt farmer Shadrack Smithers feels
the need to take a road trip beyond the boundaries of his farm
in the Surprise Valley of northeast California. He wants to return
to the Ozarks, where he and Tildie had begun their family. Elan
Groves, Shadrack's neighbor, wants to go along for the ride, and
so does his teenage daughter Katie. Problem is, none of them have
got a travel permit, and times have gotten weird. Government is
fragmenting. Civil order is breaking down. Not until Shadrack
makes it to his destination, do we learn the true purpose of his
journey. Along the way, encounters with an overworked policeman
and a rejuvenated preacher turn everything upside down. This is
the story of Shadrack's quest for solace on a circular journey
for redemption, and his deepening involvement in his home community.
Click
Here to "Look Inside the Book" or Purchase Bristlecone,
A Novel
NEW UNPUBLISHED SHORT STORIES
Click on a title to read for free online.
The Dancing Dead.
"Molly" wasn't her real name. She couldn't remember
her parents or what they had called her. So many names had come
and gone since then. And so many lives. (2016 short story, 3 pages,
1,310 words) (PDF version)
Mirror.
He couldn't see himself in the mirror. Was this a dream? Or death?
Or something even more fundamental? (2017 short story, 3 pages,
1,000 words) (PDF version)
Heaven.
In His infinite wisdom, God said to Himself, "Whoa, I got
a better idea." (2018 short story, 1 page, 380 words) (PDF
version)
Doña.
She was with him in the forest. They ate peyote. Then she was
gone. (2018 short story, 8 pages, 3200 words) (PDF
version)
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 "
VANISHING POINT, And Other Stories
 This
book is like an old-time train steaming westward. For the outdoor
enthusiast it carries two backpacking stories, a whitewater rafting
account, and a tale of a Native American snagged by the Border Patrol
as he treks through the Sonoran desert. My first and only Western
rides along. The baggage car holds a robot butler, a paramilitary
elementary school, four quantum spaceships, and a flawed solution
to overpopulation, among other stories. The passengers are characters
from the stories. Each is different. Some are of different times,
others of different places, and still others of different realities.
But the characters all seem comfortable riding along together in
this single volume, and I trust that the reader will share their
comfort.
Man Eaten: To sort things out Ernie Ackerman undertakes
a solo backpack trip to Man Eaten Lake.
Mrs. Wigmore's Troops: Mrs. Wigmore basks in the joy of the
children at recess, until she has to press the red button.
Barriers: Along the Mexican border Jacob Ramirez encounters
unexpected barriers at the intersection of three cultures.
Three New Years: Evan Layton rings in four New Years as he
flies west.
Pardners: In the Old West a lawyer and a stage coach driver
have to rely on his pardner.
The Woodsman: Lost in the woods, Nolan Anders learns to be
a woodsman.
The Butler: The robot butler seems to think he is somebody.
River: Bunky gets more than a taste of true wilderness on
his first whitewater rafting trip.
In Which Universe?: The spaceships didn't look like spaceships
at all.
And five more stories.
Click Here to read "Barriers" FREE: (HTML
Format) (PDF Format)
Click Here to read the short story "Vanishing
Point" FREE: (HTML Format) (PDF
Format)
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Here to Purchase Vanishing Point
MEMORIES AND
OTHER FICTIONS, Short Stories
 "Here
is a handful of short stories, composed from my memories and from
my imagination. They are recollections and they are fictions. That
is to say, they are all fictions." --from the author's
Preface.
Prayer: Kerouac's novel and an unrequited love are the twin
blades cutting the fabric of a young man's destiny.
Gandy Dancer: What if Big Bad John had been a railroad man?
The Ride: A hitchhiker should be careful before climbing
in.
Pookie: Jason Puker is a force of nature, but only one other
person knows the secret of his obsession.
Hacienda: Ben and Charlize buy a house, sight unseen, in
the rural highlands of Mexico.
Cover Crop: A Zen trainee discovers that global warming may
not be an accident.
Balance: At a contentious public hearing a mayor may find
it hard to achieve balance.
Revelation: Without a firm deadline, it's tough to get around
to getting something done. Even if it's God's will.
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(HTML Format) (PDF
Format)
Click Here to read "Revelation" FREE:
(HTML Format) (PDF
Format)
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DREAMTIME,
Selected Short Stories
 "These
short stories are inventions of the mind. Some will be called fantasies.
Others science fiction. Still others daydreams. Or myths. Or metaphors.
The truth is that they are all merely inventions. A few have such
firm footing in science that they will almost certainly come to
pass. Others, not so much. What they have in common is that they
are the stuff of dreams."
Web: What would happen if the World Wide Web were to become
conscious?
Genome: Their first task was to draw a blood sample from
the baby Jesus. After that, the mission got tricky.
Mescalito: In the blinding Chihuahuan desert, it can be difficult
to tell mirage from reality.
New Moon: Following the pilot truck down the one-lane corridor
can sometimes lead to an unexpected place.
The House with the Christmas Lights: Herb thought he saw
a ghost. Or was it a creature lying nearer to his own mind?
Timestop: If time travel is possible, then why don't we encounter
anyone from the future?
The Cabin: Lester Ames is content to live alone in his log
cabin in the woods. Until he falls asleep.
He Sees You When You're Sleeping: What does Santa bring us
when we're naughty?
And five more stories of the odd.
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Format) (PDF Format)
Click Here to read "New Moon" FREE: (HTML
Format) (PDF Format)
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Here to Purchase Memories and Other Fictions
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. 436 pages.
Click Here To Read First Three
Chapters FREE
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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. 160 pages.
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Chapters FREE
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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. 302 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
SELECTED POEMS
Click on a title to read the poem:
They
Say Electric Forces
The
Jackson House
What
Whispers in the Hush
Amanda
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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