At about midday on Friday, April 17, 1885, in the middle of the bloodiest era of internecine feuding that the southeastern Appalachian Mountains have ever known, a young man named Gus Finley was hanged for first degree murder at Prestonburg, Floyd County, Kentucky.John Sparks has written a historical fiction account of events leading up to the public hanging, the execution itself, and its aftermath. John narrates the event by being the voice of Gus Finley and the eyes and ears of a...

Playing junior high football and basketball, Ken Pucket realized that sports were more than just physical ability. It was also a mental challenge. But when he decided to take on the sport of amateur boxing, he also realized that hard work and determination, along with mental strength, was what would help him to eventually succeed. It was a journey of discontent filled with doubts and fears, lessons learned from teammates, coaches and opponents. Lessons he had to learn in order to be succes...

Ken Puckett was a typical fifteen year old growing up in a small town, USA. He was a big time sports fan, and all he wanted to do was play his sports. Sports were a major part of his young life. But what he found out as he started to become involved in organized school sports, was that he would not only be taught lessons on the football field and basketball court, but also lessons in life. That was the time he started to become a young man.

In late 1932, with so many Americans either starving or mad with worry at its prospect, a Pentecostal evangelist, "Little" Mary Skaggs, began preaching a revival in western Martin County, Kentucky. Among her converts was Lucinda Mills, matriarch of a large local family, and her son John, who soon claimed to be a prophet. John Mills was said to be able to change water into wine and grapevines into snakes, and although few besides his immediate family joined his cult they stirred enough ruck...

Apologies to the memory of Samuel Beckett for the partial appropriation of his title. This is a collection of short stories and poems, admittedly unconventional, all set in the modern-day Appalachian Mountains, of people trying to survive and find happiness while waiting for God, O.T. (the standard abbreviation for overtime work in the healthcare industry). The stories don't try to perpetuate any of tyhe common Appalachian hillbilly myths, but rather try to explore the conundrums of existe...

In the spring of 2016, when things were getting just about their craziest in American politics, I was approached by the editor of the then-extant "Around Town" family of newspapers in the Big Sandy Valley of eastern Kentucky, to write a weekly column that would appear in all three papers: Around Paintsville, Around Prestonsburg, and Around Louisa. At first I wondered if I could write on demand in the fashion the papers required, with any degree of brevity or wit either one; but as I warmed...

Charles Chilton Moore, 1837-1906, was one of the leading proponents of atheism in the U.S. His "infidel" newspaper, The Bluegrass Blade, published in Lexington, Kentucky, was well-known across the nation, and his legal trials resulted in landmark judicial decisions which set precedents in the areas of freedom of religion and freedom of the press in the United States.

Three series of surreal, fast-paced sketch comedy from the cast of the iconic TV show - plus S*ketchorama: Absolutely Special*and extensive never-before-heard bonus materialDescribed as 'Channel 4's best-kept secret', Absolutely was a cult hit on TV, running for four series between 1989 and 1993. In 2013, the original cast (minus Jack Docherty) reunited for the Sketchorama: Absolutely Special for BBC Radio 4, winning a BBC Audio D...

Three series of comic monologues from the bedsit poet, philosopher and favourite lost cause of WalesStep into the charming and bewildered world of Siadwel: poet, philosopher, as endearing as he is perplexed. With his signature anorak and National Health Service specs, Siadwel has become a cultural icon, offering his unique and often befuddled perspective on the conundrums of everyday life.The beloved Welsh geek has been tickling audiences’ funny bones for d...

The 1980s witnessed the first step - change in managing the logistics function when stock centralization, contracting out and investment in technologies made a massive impact. The 1990s have experienced further changes that have been mainly concerned with incremental improvements and relationship changes. Academic researchers and industry specialists share their research into retail logistics providing a state-of-the-art report on the key issues. Logistics and Retail Management: Insights i...

Logistics and supply chains play a vital role in the overall success of retail management. This fifth edition of Logistics and Retail Management covers the major strides made in retail logistics and the challenges which remain, providing students and professionals with the current thinking and research in this strategic field. Including chapters on internationalization, corporate social responsibility (CSR), and green logistics, the book also explores examples fro...

Most of us think we know something about retailing: we shop, we buy, we consume. But retailing, perhaps more than any other economic sector, has been transformed fundamentally over the last thirty years, both economically and culturally.Featuring work from seminal theorists in the area and charting the development of retailing as an important discipline in its own right, this superb volume examines the key themes in contemporary retailing. Organized into five sections, each of whic...