Martin Copeland

Uncle Sam's team of national park rangers at the world's greatest natural wonder add finding an escaped killer to the many daily duties they perform with knowledge, enthusiasm, good humor and unfailing dedication.

RIVER OF DOUBT is inspired by a true story. The time is February 1914. An expedition heads down an unknown river in the heart of Brazil's Amazon. The leaders: ex-US President THEODORE ROOSEVELT, still a "Bull Moose" at 54, a man of seemingly unquenchable strength and character impervious to doubt; and COLONEL CANDIDO RONDON, Brazil's greatest explorer, renowned for having never failed on a expedition. Also along are KERMIT ROOSEVELT, Roosevelt's 24-year-old son, called "Bwana Dandy" for his expensive taste in clothes and elegant manners and speech; GEORGE K. CHERRIE, a New England naturalist; and Rondon's lieutenant AMILCAR LYRA, a fiery and impulsive man who resents the presence of the Roosevelts. None suspect what trials and dangers await them on the newly christened "River of Doubt." Some will not survive. Some will be changed forever. And others will be haunted for the rest of their lives.

A beautiful brand new minor league baseball park is opening in Arkansas' city affectionately called "Dogtown," and a group of oldtimers have rented a Walmart suite for a reunion where they can chow down, drink beer and most of all, reminisce about how the years have gone since that eventful summer in the 1960s when they fought for the state baseball championship. Currents from many oncoming storms charged the air that year in the Age of Aquarius: civil rights, war in Vietnam, longhaired tuneouts, hash and pot--the year a mismatched band of losers finally learned brotherhood and lessons they have carried with them for the rest of their lives.

Seriocomic stories and novellas set in Los Angeles, the City of Angels, where finding true love can be more difficult than finding an angel. 1. A LESSON IN LOVE. Former swinger, now happily married Jack Winston tries to straighten out his hormonal teenage sons with a cautionary tale about his own history of looking for love in all the wrong places. 2. FIRST LOVE. PART 1. When a New York doctor and LA film director fall in love on a hiking trip they must manage dream and reality across the wide continent that separates them.3. DON'T SPIT ON THIS PITCH. A successful screenwriter pitches an animated film for adults about 3 LA wannabes looking for fame, fortune and, if time permits, true love. 4. BEACHED IN VENICE. Failure to perform belittles our hapless hero in this Kafkaesque tale. 5. TINSELTOWN. A hick comes to Hollywood looking for the kind of divine platinum blondes he's seen in the movies, only to find that celluloid can be deceiving. 6. FIRST LOVE. PART 2. 7. A HIT MOVIE, MEANT TO BE. Love can be a hurting thing. 8. TOO DEEP FOR TEARS, featuring Private Detective John Marriner. The corpse of a former nun turned actress/model has been found in the desert and her onetime Mother Superior asks Banning private detective John Marriner--a decorated war veteran with stress and other disorders--to search for her killer on the mean streets of LA, where he was last seen bitchslapping the city Police Chief. 9. HONEST ABE. A salesman looks back at the life and career of his boss, the honestest used car dealer in the Southern California heartland, if not the world. 10. LET THE BELL RING. 11. FIRST LOVE. PART 3.

LEST WE FORGET-memorable lives from Western history dramatized in three plays. LAME DEER. Hellraiser, philosopher, sheepherder, sheriff, rodeo clown, lover, medicine man--a Lakota Sioux holy man and sage recounts his life in a series of wry, wise, humorous and always entertaining anecdotes. ADAPTED FROM LAME DEER. SEEKER OF VISIONS. by John (Fire) Lame Deer and Richard ErdoesSITTING BULL. The life of the great Sioux chief, from youth to the Battle of the Little Bighorn to his final conflict with the US government. BUFFALO SOLDIER. Two young recruits join the proud black US Ninth Cavalry and march toward different destinies.