“It Began with Wilkie’s Song”: Jim McKee, an American GI serving in Korea in 1968, meets Hati-Ja, a beautiful and complex woman. Their story is one of bittersweet love, kismet, and the impact of war on personal lives. “A Magical Sojourn”: Jeff Brickley, inexplicably, finds himself as a teacher in Wisconsin in 1941, a few years before he was born. Jeff’s adventure blends historical realism with a possible connection to his birth family. “Shane McCaaren’s First Experience” is a further development of the author’s award-winning short-short story, “The Candle, the Spoon and the Needle.” It explores the themes of innocence, urban danger, the complexity of human relationships, and a police investigation. “Brilliance from a Damaged Mind”: Colonel Clifford Rozale is a disgraced former Army officer living in Milwaukee, WI, who suffers from paranoia and schizophrenia. He has a plan to get even with the person he feels is the foundation of his woes: President Adler Entsorgen. Out in Patzau is a novella about Stan Elliott of Superior, WI, in 1940. It is a story of justice gone awry, revenge, danger, redemption and (possible) salvation and atonement. “Shelter in the Storm” is a story from the future of writing.

Jim is a retired English teacher in Manitowoc, WI, and an English-Journalism graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Superior. He has won first-place awards for short fiction and poetry in The Wisconsin Veterans Creative Writing Contest and a first-place award for newspaper feature writing. After reading UNEXPECTED OUTCOMES, we hope that your expected outcome will be one of reading enjoyment.