Fictionwise

Asylett has closed its company due to family matters; however, the orginal version of  MURDERS IN THE SWAMPLAND is still available in hard back from Xlibris Press.




MURDERS IN THE SWAMPLAND is in the top ten True Crime books on Fictionwise; and both MURDERS IN THE SWAMPLAND and BLUE EYES are in the top ten Asylett Press books on Fictionwise...
A good feeling! YEA!

Fictionwise link to BLUE EYES

Copies of my books are available in paperback from Asylett Press, Amazon, or most any book store.

Appearences

April 7, 1 p.m. - Guest seaker at the Meet The Author event at the Hernando County YMCA in the Community Center.

April 10, 5:30-to-8 p.m.- Book signing at the 2nd Annual Wine Tasting & Silent Auction event at The Wine Loft, Trinity Commons, Trinity, FL

Bridged By Love.......... book review

Long & Short Reviews

Watch for my name and title of my true crime book on Discovery ID.. I Almost Got Away With It.

MUJRDERS IN THE SWAMPLAND is available from Xlibris Press.

Discovery ID Network; 135 in Tampa Bay area:

Feb 20, 11:00 am

(60 minutes) I (Almost) Got Away With It
Got the Wrong Four People Killed
TV-14 (DLSV), CC

Scott Burnside hires a hit man to kill a friend's wife. But when the hit goes wrong, and four people are found murdered, Burnside flees to a remote island. On the run, Scott is unable to adjust to his lonely life. His family ties tip the Feds.

Watch for my name --Patricia Lieb-- and my book MURDERS IN THE SWAMPLAND in the credits.

The story is in MURDERS IN THE SWAMPLAND; it is titled SHE'S AS GOOD AS DEAD.... The deal Scott Burnside made to the young hit man was to kill Joanne Sanders--Barrett goes to Joanne's house three different times before he kills the four men. I covered the case for the newspaper and also called in information about it to WTOG tv in St. Petersburg... There were four different trials... I covered Dorsey Sander's III trial (Joanne's son) and John Barrett's (the hit man)--what a scene in the courtroom when the judge sentenced Barrett to death.. His parents totally broke down (death sentence has since been overturned). I had already started working with another newspaper, though, when Scott was brought back from the Christmas Islands. However, I still read the depositions for his case. Long, long, long story! The program is going to air again tonight at 11 p.m.

Most of the still photos are mine... Yea!!!

Should be on other channels at other times.

MURDERS IN THE SWAMPLAND available from Xlibris.com

Myebook - ACROSS TEXAS FROM HOME

Myebook - ACROSS TEXAS FROM HOME
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Home from Mexico

Peanut says: I'm so glad you're home. I'm starving!

Peanut says: Oh thank you thank you for the peanut. Don't go away again!

This morning I think that all the squirrels that live in the surrounding forest, especially the one I named Peanut, have come licky-de-split to my bedroom sliding door for breakfast. I hand-feed them peanuts. After I left my daily reporting job at a newspaper, a few years ago, it took a while to tame these wild little critters. But after one winter of being very patient and offering them peanuts, they got the idea that I was their friend for life. First, Peanut came to know me. He often came to my back patio door and then as more squirrels started visiting, he moved to the bedroom door to get away from his little too-playful friends and also the aggressive bums that pushed him out of line. So now Peanut has learned that when he gets chased off from one door, to he must high-tail it to the other.

While on our sea cruise to Mexico a young friend named Billy stayed at my house to dog-set for my best buddy Blacky.

I had forgotten to mention to Billy that Peanut comes regularly at mealtime and that if he doesn’t see a person coming toward him, he will scratch until he gets human attention. So, upon talking to Billy after returning from the cruise, Billy said quite sincerely, “When it was time to feed Blacky there was always a squirrel trying to get in… I waited for it to leave before I went out. I knew if it came in, I’d never get it out.”

“Oh, that’s Peanut,” I said. “He’s my pet squirrel.”

“Thanks for telling me,” he said.

On our sea voyage, the four in our group had a really awesome time. We sailed to Costa Maya, spend a wonderful fun-filled family day walking through the old section along the beach and then stopping under the palms and drinking Coronita beer and tequila shots. (We made it back to the ship on time!!!)

The next day we were in Cozumel and then back on board for another day of sunning, eating, walking and gambling at sea.

Of course, coming back into Tampa Bay was delightful though it was a bit cooler than the penetrating Mexican sunshine.

Regardless of the good vacation times with family, being back home is grand. Blacky barked at me for a while—telling me off and of everything that had gone on while I was gone. (He loves me so much.) Visited with my daughter already. Been to Yoga and have read most of my email.

Just fed Blacky… he gets special treats with his daily meal: chipped hotdog fried in sausage grease or chicken lives make him a happy dog.

Woops, Peanut is scratching at my door. I got ‘ta run……..

Let me take you on a Sea Cruise

The beautiful Carribean Sea
Cozumel has spread over most of the island


Coming into Costa Maya

These cuties selling their crafts in "old" Costa Maya










A side road in "old" Costa Maya




The main sections of Cozumel are lovely

Costa Maya, Mexico

Architecture in old town Coata Maya

This canoe was build from a single log.

Spent the day in Costa Maya, Mexico, known for its jungles, beaches lagoons and Mayan ruins. We went to the older part of Costa Maya, which is a short shuttle ride from the more developed ship pier area. Walked and shopped then had Corona and tequila on the sand under the palms. Was a real party-time blast!

Happy Holidays

Merry Christmas
Happy Hanukka
And a very Happy New Year

Christmas Arts Fair 2009 in Shady Hills FL

My Yoga session ended today with these words

QUOTE FROM SRI NISARGADATTA MAHARAJ

Love says I am everything
Wisdom says I am nothing
Between them, life flows.

When I must break from writing to clean house

(I wonder if other writers experience this problem)

OK. I keep my house clean, for the most part. But things certainly get piled up when I am here alone for a few weeks at a time… For instance, mail stacks on my dining room table, dishes spend days in the dishwasher, blankets and pillows collect on the sofa in the television room and new and old newspapers, unlabeled CDs, manuscripts, books, boxes of photos and stack of photo albums including everything from family pictures to photos of criminals to those taken for lots of years at writers’ conferences and poetry conventions.

So, when I clean thoroughly, I usually misplace very important stuff like phone numbers, pass words, notebooks containing irreplaceable information and other scarps of paper that is so very important to my writings.

That’s why I don’t make a habit of straighting in my computer room until I think somebody might want to sleep over after a cookout or holiday dinner at my house.

So now with Thanksgiving just around the corner, yesterday was a cleaning day for me. Needless to say, my computer room comes last; it is on the to-clean list today.

But let me tell you what happened yesterday after I had mopped the tile floors in half the house and went outside to hose off windows and porches. OK. I started with spraying the window outside my computer room with the water running full blast. Forgot I had recently turned off the air conditioner and opened the windows... When I didn’t see the water boomaranging back at me, I realized what was happening.

I ran into the house to shut off the computer and unplug the surge protector but slipped on the drenched tiles, tripped over dampened newspapers, slipped and fell into the the closet’s sliding mirrored door. It crumbled to pieces. I just laid there in total shock staring up at the breakage as it slowly crackled, starting at the bottom and working to the top. But the pieces didn't fall.

After I gathered towels and tried to dry off the back of my computer, speakers, surge protector, too many wires for a wireless network, and turned my keyboard upside down to drain, I tried to start my computer, which had gone off without help—well, it did have held of the window-washer.

I thought and figured bills to see how I could afford another big-enough-to-work-on computer. Later yesterday, I tried one more time to start the old e-machine and would you believe, it came on.

I wasn't hurt except for a bump on the head (to match a bump I got on the other side of the head last time I cleaned) and a bit of a strained back. The YMCA where I workout doesn’t have a Hot Tub to lay back and relax in. But it does have a nice Back Extension machine that is so awesome. Yea!

But the real truth is: I should speak with my Muse before I clean house!

MURDERS IN THE SWAMPLAND, true crime published by Xlibris Press

New: Updated original cases with new cases-- 3rd edition:https://www.createspace.com/4491231





Paperback available:
MURDERS IN THE SWAMPLAND



Billy Mansfield during his murder trial in Brooksville, Florida, listens but never
says a word.





Gary Mansfield, Billy Mansfield's brother, knew of the going'on at the family's home in Weeki Wachee Acres and of the burials that took place there.



Phyllis Spielmaker puffs her cigarette while listening to testimony during court
proceedings.
..... In the spring of 1981, while detectives were putting together a
case for the murder of Renee Saling in California, detectives in
Florida were doing some real digging. Actual digging. Information
had come out during trial proceedings in an unrelated Hernando
County case that bodies were buried at the mansfield homeplace.
......
As the investigation unfolded, witnesses in the case provided information so bizarre it seemed fictionl. How could the burying of human bodies in the Mansfield yard have been done so indifferently? It appeared the back yard being the gravesite for
young women was a shared bit of knowledge by quite a few folks in the area swampland. What did people think when they would hear of a girl's body being buried at the Mansfield place? What was going through their minds? After all, it wasn't like a team of detectives went out and uncovered bodies of murdered girls in
somebody's back yard everyday....
MURDERS IN THE SWAMPLAND
is available from asylett.com in ebook & and soft cover

MURDERS IN THE SWAMPLAND, 3RD EDITION  ON Create Space; AMAZON


 CONTENTS Introduction Cases included in MURDERS IN THE SWAMPLAND & names of convicted killers

1. The Story Of Billy Mansfield & Secrets Hidden In The Green Bus--Serial Killer Billy Mansfield

2. Gay Encounter Costs Priest His Life--William Howell Galvin

3. Torture Murder In The Swamp--Todd Mendyk & Philip Frantz

4. A Christmas Rabbit Hunt Became A Night Of Murder--Rick Shere & Bruce Demo

5. Shootout In Sumter County--Jeffrey Raymond McGuire & Traci Grosvenor

6. He Killed The Pretty Young Women--Serial Killer Oscar Ray Bolin

7. Murder To Be Popular--Patrici Keebler

8. A Gunman’s Intent: She’s As Good As Dead--John Barrett, Scott Burnside, & Dorssey Sanders III

9. Rumble At The Old Publix--Gang murder of Russell Coats in Brooksville, FL.

10. They Killed For A Hunk of Crack--Debra Russo & Daniel Gardner

11. Granny Killer On The Loose--Serial Killer Edwin Bernard "Mike" Kaprat

12. Killer Left Body For The Dogs--Ivan Morales

13. She Awakened To A Gunshot In The Night--Julie Leacock & Samuel Augusta Coppola

14. Killers Claim Rock Star & Bodyguard Fame--Clifford Jarvis & Brian Kipp

15. Couple On The Run: Caught With Gun In Her Panties--Melissa Herriss & Earl Linebaugh

16. She Listened To Kidnappers Plot Her Murder--Alfred Fennie, Pala Colbert & Michael Frazier

17. Mother & Daughters Dumped In The Bay--Serial Killer Oba Chandler

Cop Log I
Cop Log 2
Cop Log 3
Epilogue




NEW WITH 2012 UPDATES AND ADDITIONAL CASES AVAILABLE in paperback
MURDERS IN THE SWAMPLAND 3RD EDITION

https://www.createspace.com/4491231

Asylett Press (closed in late 2011)

Asylett Pressed closed in late 2011

BRIDGED BY LOVE

Reviewed by Bea
WritersWall.com

Valerie J. Patterson, award-winning author of Gee Whiz Meets S.H.A.F.T

The book opens with a day in Shanna's tortured life with Jake Minor—her owner—the man who stole her from her family when she was just a young girl. To use a trite and overworked cliché, what doesn't kill Shanna serves only to make her stronger and more resolved to find her way back to her people—back to her family.

Shanna—a full nine months pregnant—puts a plan into motion and leaves the fish camp where she's been a captive for years, but she must constantly keep one eye on the way before her and one eye on the way behind her. She can't risk being caught and brought back to the fish camp—to a way of life that only brought her pain and suffering. It's shortly after her escape that she gives birth to a beautiful baby boy. All alone and with no safe haven to run to, Shanna forges on ahead in her goal of finding the one woman she hopes can help her.

Kathryn Williams is no stranger to pain and heartache, either. A failed marriage. A miscarriage. A divorce during a time when it was virtually unheard of. And a life that's lonely for a woman who truly wants a husband and a family.Kathryn has much support in her life. Her mother resides with her plus there are several people who love and protect her. There's one man who's loved her all her life. There's another Kathryn loves and wants to share the rest of her life.One knows her pain. The other knows she's divorced and is allowing that to stand in his way. One wants nothing more than to shower her with affection. The other can't seem to see past her strength and independence. Kathryn's heart has room for both men in different ways.

When Shanna crosses paths with Kathryn, she immediately places her trust—as well as her son—in Kathryn's hands.Shanna knows men are coming to take her back to the fish camp. She knows her son will not survive in that type of environment. If only she could get to the land where her people have relocated—to where her family is—she'll finally find peace and happiness. But peace and happiness have a price for a woman on the run.

The journeys both women take are riveting, pulling the reader right into their stories. You can't help but cheer each on to happiness and the futures they deserve.

If you're looking for a book that brings you history, a hint or two of mystery, romance, and good strong characters that you'll willingly love and dislike, then Bridged By Love by Patricia Lieb is the book for you. Leave your cares behind and travel inside the lives of Shanna and Kathryn. Their stories will stay with you long after you turn the last page.

+Will be available soon by a different publisher






By: Aaron Brand - Texarkana Gazette - Published: 07/12/2009




For one writer who grew up in Texarkana, the city’s early days were fertile ground for a historical novel.





Patricia Lieb once called Texarkana, Ark., home as a member of Arkansas High School’s class of 1960, growing up with the maiden name Shipp and rooting for the Hogs.

From there, Lieb, now a Florida resident, became a writer who has won awards for her reporting and has seen her books published, the latest of which is called “Bridged by Love,” a historical novel set in Texarkana circa 1886 and recently published by Asylett Press.

Lieb chose as her heroines two young women who become friends trying to survive as Texarkana, in its infancy, is growing: Kathryn, a divorced lumberjack who lives with her mother and is in love with a man while another has fallen in love with her; and Shanna, a Native American woman who escapes life as a slave and has a newborn son to care for as she tries to return to her family in Indian Territory.

“Texarkana is the main area. That’s where Kathryn takes her wood to the sawmill, which is a fictitious sawmill in Texarkana,” said Lieb. The man she loves is a bookkeeper in town, while her business partner is in love with her. “She comes in practically every day with logs with her partner Leonard.”

Lieb, armed with information from a Texarkana friend (Wayne Adcock) and the Museum of Regional History, pictures Texarkana in its early days. Though she grew up here, she needed to research.

“I read as much as I could about Texarkana. Even though I lived there, it wasn’t 1886,” she said.

She writes in one passage about the town’s connection to the railroad: “Texarkana had grown profusely since becoming incorporated some 10 or so years ago—to the tune of about 8,000 people, give or take. Most of the growth was due to the building of the Texas and Pacific Railroad, which ran parallel with Front Street on the south end of town. Then came an abundance of other train lines, thus generating much business to the twin cities.”

Elsewhere, she pictures the hustle and bustle on a young Broad Street: “This, like other streets in town, seemed to grow bigger every day with businesses booming from all corners. Tall brick and stucco buildings blocked the western horizon. People, horses, cotton carts, milk wagons and horse trolleys paraded like cow herds.”

Part of her research involved investigating old newspaper clips to get a feel for the time. Some of those stories made it into the book, she said, such as one tale about a man being arrested for branding his teenage wife or Texarkana growing to a size where it needed its own police force, Lieb said.

As a writer, she sought to imagine herself in the setting.

“I love history and I love writing, and I think I just felt the earth, the ground. I just felt myself in that period when I wrote that book ... as I wrote the book I could see everything,” said Lieb.

But it’s the characters who are the focus of her historical novel, picturing two independent women at a time when they didn’t have a lot of power.

“Most of the time women are strong. A lot of them just don’t know it,” said Lieb. “Kathryn needed to be strong because of the life she was living, and Shanna was strong because of the life she was forced into.”

Lieb said the inspiration for Kathryn and the plot itself came from her family’s history.

She said when her grandma was a young woman, a family member had a child with a Native American girl and the child was raised by Lieb’s grandmother and great-grandmother. In “Bridged by Love,” Shanna must leave her young baby with Kathryn while she journeys to find her family.

Lieb imagined her grandmother at age 27 with a fiery personality and how these characters would have felt at the time in this kind of situation.

“That’s what inspired the plot,” said Lieb, who was a reporter and features writer for The Suncoast News in New Port Richey, Fla. She covered the crime beat for the Daily Sun-Journal in Brookville, Fla., and wrote for two Illinois papers, the Daily Journal and Bourbonnais Herald.

“I started writing for detective magazines,” said Lieb. Her “Murders in the Swampland” is a book of true crime reporting from Hernando County, Fla.

Married at 24, she’d only worked in factories until then but her husband encouraged her to write. After her husband passed away at age 42, Lieb figured what she knew how to do was write. She started at a Kankakee, Ill., newspaper and went from there.

She says she feels lucky in her writing career. She didn’t think she was smart enough to be a news reporter but she’s been honored for her work.

“I’m doing what I love to do,” said Lieb.

No parole for mass killer Billy Mansfield

New: MURDERS IN THE SWAMPLAND (3rd edition), original cases with 2012 updates along with new Florida murder cases:Murders in the Swampland 3rd edition

Please take notice: I would like to respectfully ask you again to please correct your mistake in the article. My aunt's correct name was Sandra Jean GRAHAM!!! Not BROWN!!! As you are profiting off of these crimes with your book, PLEASE at least get her name right! 

Sincerely,
(Senders name withheld here)

Murders in the Swampland 3rd edition

As of this date, 2-9-2013, Mansfield is STILL jailed in California...

February 06, 2013 

/MURDERS-THE-SWAMPLAND-3rd-ebook:
MURDERS IN THE SWAMPLAND 
https://www.createspace.com/4491231

At a recent parole hearing Mansfield, now age 51, would not comply with psychological testing requirements required by the California Parole Board, said Det. Mike Nelson of the Hernando County Sheriff’s Office. Mansfield, who killed young women and buried their bodies in his parents’ yard in Weeki Wachee, started serving a life sentence in 1982 for the murder of Renee Saling in Santa Cruz, CA. Also, Judge L.R. Huffstleter sentenced Mansfield to four life terms for his Florida murdering spree that began in the 1970s. Mansfield plead guilty to the Florida murders.”

In California, it took a second trail to get Mansfield convicted for killing Saling, Nelson added. Nelson is now trying to identify two bodies whose bones were recovered along with Sandra Jean Graham (Brown..?), 21, of Tampa, and Elaine Zeigler, 15, of a KOA campsite near Brooksville. The bodies were dug up on the Mansfield property after Mansfield was arrested in California.

Though years have gone by since the slayings, there is so much you can do now with new DNA developments, Nelson said. During Mansfield’s Hernando County trial, several witnesses testified that they knew of the goings-on at the Mansfield property at the time of the slayings.

Actually, notice of the Mansfield killings came out by accident when a witness in an unrelated trial mentioned that Mansfield had buried bodies in the family yard. After four bodies were dug up at the Mansfield property and Mansfield was brought to trial, several witnesses testified that Mansfield picked up “girls” and took them to an old green bus located on the Mansfield property, raped them, killed them and then buried their bodies in the family yard.

During the initial investigation authorities said that if they started arresting people for withholding evidence they would have to add a new wing to the jail. There are “all kinds of rumors and speculations” that Mansfield may have buried more bodies in areas of Hernando County, but with any substantial evidence “we’d be back on the property digging,” Nelson said. Nelson said Mansfield has come up twice before for probation hearings. This year Mansfield’s mother attended, Nelson confirmed. A phone number for Mansfield’s parents Virginia and Billy Mansfield Sr. could not be located.

According to Attorney Jimmy Brown, who prosecuted Mansfield for the Florida murders, Mansfield was up for parole last year but it turned out to be a “non started”, which means there wasn’t even a hearing, Brown said.

According to Nelson, the Florida Parole Board “has been in touch with him” but a hearing here is “way down the road”. It is not likely that Mansfield will ever get out of prison alive, said Nelson.

“If he does he will be in excess of one-hundred years old.” Some of the victims’ families here do keep watch on the case, he added. Mansfield has been housed at several prisons since beginning his life-sentence for killing Saling.

He is currently at Pleasant Valley State Prison in Coalinga, CA; a spokesman there didn’t return my phone calls. Prisoners are moved about in California sometimes at their own request and sometimes for population reasons, Nelson said.

Mansfield is suspected of numerous rapes and other slaying during his killing spree in Westcentral Florida.

Read: The Story of Billy Mansfield & Secrets Hidden in the Green Bus--one of 17 true crime cases covered in MURDERS IN THE SWAMPLAND

True Crime: Murders in the Swampland

New: 2012 updated version of original cases and additional Florida murder cases:


MURDERS IN THE SWAMPLAND AND COP LOGS 3rd addion contains the following cases plus three additional files. https://www.createspace.com/4491231
CONTENTS Introduction Cases included in MURDERS IN THE SWAMPLAND & names of convicted killers 1. The Story Of Billy Mansfield & Secrets Hidden In The Green Bus--Serial Killer Billy Mansfield 2. Gay Encounter Costs Priest His Life--William Howell Galvin 3. Torture Murder In The Swamp--Todd Mendyk & Philip Frantz 4. A Christmas Rabbit Hunt Became A Night Of Murder--Rick Shere & Bruce Demo 5. Shootout In Sumter County--Jeffrey Raymond McGuire & Traci Grosvenor 6. He Killed The Pretty Young Women--Serial Killer Oscar Ray Bolin 7. Murder To Be Popular--Patrici Keebler A Gunman’s Intent: She’s As Good As Dead--John Barrett, Scott Burnside, & Dorssey Sanders III 9. Rumble At The Old Publix--Gang murder of Russell Coats in Brooksville, FL. 10. They Killed For A Hunk of Crack--Debra Russo & Daniel Gardner 11. Granny Killer On The Loose--Serial Killer Edwin Bernard "Mike" Kaprat 12. Killer Left Body For The Dogs--Ivan Morales 13. She Awakened To A Gunshot In The Night--Julie Leacock & Samuel Augusta Coppola 14. Killers Claim Rock Star & Bodyguard Fame--Clifford Jarvis & Brian Kipp 15. Couple On The Run: Caught With Gun In Her Panties--Melissa Herriss & Earl Linebaugh 16. She Listened To Kidnappers Plot Her Murder--Alfred Fennie, Pala Colbert @ Michael Frazier 17. Mother & Daughters Dumped In The Bay--Serial Killer Oba Chandler 18. Cop Log I 19. Cop Log 2 20. Cop Log 3 21. Epilogue



Order from Create Space

Comment from reader reguarding Billy Mansfield

Steve Goodman

Patricia:

Good to see your 22-year-old story on Arlo, and its mention of Steve Goodman.

He often doesn't get his due. Given your interest in biography, youmight be interested in an eight-year project of mine that is coming tofruition -- a biography of Goodman that will be published this spring. I'm attaching a background sheet on the book and will keep you on my notification list!

Clay

=====Clay Eals1728 California Ave. S.W.

Riding on the City of New Orleans with Arlo Guthrie

By Patricia Lieb
Appeared in the Daily Journal, Kankakee, IL, Oct. 14, 1985

At Union Station in Chicago, the southbound Amtrak -- the one they call The City Of New Orleans --fills up quickly. There are city officals, photographers and reporters -- people who came all the way from Kankakee just to ride this train back.

And, with good reason: To greet Arlo Guthrie and accompany him to Kankakee, where he would give his first concert in the town he made famous in song.

Guthrie is quite a man. Still his warm, pleasing manner comes through clearly as he chooses a seat in the club car that was reserved for this special occasion.

This is his first ride on The City Of New Orleans, which passes through Kankakee in both the song of that name and in fact.

Traveling with him is his 18-year-old son, Abraham, and an artist.

Arlo is dressed in jeans, a long-sleeved, blue shirt and a short, tan trench coat belted at the waist. He wears tennis shoes, a pair of red checked socks, and an Amtrak hat that someone gave. His thick, shoulder-length, curly hair is graying.

"My son Abraham," he says, "is playing with me this tour."

Music, he says, has always been a way of life for his family. Although his father, Woody, took sick when Arlo was only six-years-old, and was ill until he died 15 years later, the Guthrie clan was the "singingest, dancingest family who ever lived."

Arlo saw the movie, "Bound For Glory," just once. It was supposed to be a recall of his famous father, but, "I didn't like the movie. It was a combination of a bunch of ideals that I didn't think flowed very well together, and after seeing the movie I don't know if I knew anymore about my dad than I did to begin with. And I don't mean, just by being his son, I mean for anybody. It (the movie) sort of gave the impression that he just ran around a lot and sang in freigh trains and such."

Like his father, Arlo has been involved in social movements.

"Nowadays you get involved in some things but they are not called protests anymore. Anybody who is singing about hungry people in Africa, or farms in the Midwest, or newsy plans in their own home town ... things like that don't really carry the protest aura that some things did fifetten years ago. These are actions taken by people who are very normal -- They get together and help people and they leave it at that."

Helping each other is fashionable nowadays, he says, and "I hope it becomes more fashionable. I think if you're going to be a slave to fashion, you might as well do it to benefit other people."

An admirer of St. Francis, Arlo is a lay brother. There was a time, he says, when he "sort-of" hung out in monasteries. "Just for the sake of not standing out, I dressed in gowns and robes, "But," he says, "that is not a big deal. I'm not trying to detract from other people's comings and goings. I tend to disappear as a personality or celebrity when I'm dressed like everyody else." As for Steve Goodman's song, The City Of New Orleans, Guthrie says it took him three months and six recordings to get the song like he wanted. "I kept hearing it," he says, tilting his head with a shy laugh, "but didn't like it. So, I'd go back and start from scratch again."

On his next album, he says, there are decidedly biased. "I've always been that way," he says. "I don't try to remain neutral about things. I don't find any job in neutrallity. I'd rather be wrong than neutral."

Arlo glances out the window at the big whoop-de-doo getting started along the tracks just as the conductor announces that the train will be stopping in Kankakee soon. "I never expected them (the people of Kankakee) to do it up this big," he says.