Short and Shorter Stories

About the Book

I like short stories. And long romances The short story: In this age we have tech messages, microwave ovens, instant replay, jet planes, fast foods, fuel injectors, so I feel there is a bigger need for the short story. I admire the people who can write novels and anthropologies and dictionaries and cook books, but that is not for me, hence these collections of tales. I took a course in creative writing at Middlesex County Collage and the professors there set me straight, straight on this course. I hope you enjoy the book. To please my kids I have included their photos. And long romances. I met my wife Ellie at a dance in November of 1951 just before I had to leave for Germany with the Air Force. After letter writing and longing from oversees, in April 1953, after a fifteen month separation, on returning home we kept our romance alive. In February of 1955 we were married at Saint Joseph’s Church in Bayonne, New Jersey. We were blessed with five children and I decided to go into show business. After a few years in show business, I connected with Walter Stone who was Jackie Gleason’s head writer. He told me that because the Gleason show was going off the air, he could not hire me. But he wrote me some jokes for my standup act; “My name is Jin Carney and ever since I’ve been married, I’ve been trying to break into show business and in that time I’ve had five kids--my wife’s the only on e who never turned me down”…and so on. With my agent George Q. Lewis guiding me I met show business people and wrote jokes for up and coming and for established comics. George also got me to do my standup comedy at the comedy clubs and out of the way places. I even traveled to Mel’s Lounge in Brooklyn, a bowling ally. They had a cozy lounge and booked comic on weekends and had showcases on Wednesday nights. A story in this book titled, “One Night Stand.” actually happened. But the stage wasn’t in a lounge, it was a hospital. Some of the stores inside do have a background. The story “Dead Head” happened to me. The stories; “The Box,” and “The Magic Pants” come from my experiences, as do other. And that is how my career in the entertaining field progressed--one joke at a time, one break at a time—one connection at a time. Throughout my travel on the highway to the stars, my wife Ellie, did her job as housewife, mother, and then in the business world as a secretary. Sometimes she came with me and watched me perform. Our life was a happy struggle. We dined out two nights a week, had many friends, many laughs, and went to many parties and social gatherings. As a helpmate, in the beginning Ellie typed my scripts and drafts. Ellie was Misses inside and I was Mister outside, her with the dishes, washer and dryer, the vacuum and the broom; I with the hammer, the ladder, the paint, the garbage can and the rake. We made it work, our relationship. But I feel we had help with God, our higher power. We prepared for our marriage by not rushing into it. We attended pre-marriage sessions and gave our romantic love time to relax and turn into a maturing love. As a boy of ten, I dreamt of growing up and marring a beautiful lady. And I did. It was during her time of dying that she became more alive. We spent those precious six weeks of her suffering, together—me taking care of her—or is it the other way around. But that’s another book.

About the Author