VS Grenier ~ Award-Winning Author, Speaker & Podcaster

From Dennis Milam Bensie (Chapter 1 from Shorn: Toys to Men) Novelist James Jones enlisted in the Army and left his hometown of Robinson, Illinois in 1939. His experiences during the attack on Pearl Harbor inspired his first published book, From Here to Eternity . For his second book, Some Came Running , he used Robinson as the backdrop. This semi-autobiographical novel centers around a failed writer named Dave Hirsh, orphaned as a child, who comes home after serving in World War II to a fictionalized version of Robinson (renamed Parkman, Indiana) to find family divisions, sexual repression, and other unsavory vices. The book was described as shrill and bitter by its critics. The 1958 Oscar-nominated film was a scandal when it played at the Lincoln Theater, a few blocks away from Jones’ childhood home.   My dad was a local hero similar to characters in any of James Jones’ war themed novels. He returned home to Robinson from the Korean War allegedly the most decorated soldi

Originally, I was going to write something else, but the ideas I had were too dark and too bleak. Seeing as I've done a lot of that lately, I wanted to have a bit of a departure. Though I love my characters in Isosceles dearly, I decided to leave them behind for this piece. I have other characters running about in my mind, so I wanted to give them a little bit of time in the spotlight. I hope you all enjoy reading it as much as I had fun writing it. – Scott R. Caseley “Silent Cal”             Though, I can’t tell you what I had for breakfast yesterday, I will never forget a certain guy in my freshman class from over twenty years ago. His quiet demeanor made him mysterious, which of course made him even cuter to my fourteen-year old mind.   I first noticed him when our Honors English class got holed up in the school library because they had to repaint our classroom.   Fumes and fate placed us at the same table with three others whose last name began with a “T”.   W