R Rodriguez: 42 books

In this very short story a life of deception is shown but not judged. Reality has demonstrated that parallel lives, no matter how well concealed and smoothly run, eventually come crashing down like a house of cards. Of course, for every one that crashes, how many go on and on?

This is an imperfect love story between an imperfect man and woman that starts in the early eighties and goes nowhere because happy endings are not how real life works. Mistakes and misfortunes keep them apart until by chance they meet again twenty years later. Despite their emotional baggage, scars,...

A ten year old blessed with a great intellect is also damned with tumors and deformities that make him an outcast. He tries to fit in a society that doesn't accept his deformed looks. In school, he plays dumb to hide his high IQ and intellect; he doesn't want another reason for people to see him as...

After an eventful day at the office that included fighting a man with a knife, what was supposed to be a relaxing mountain bike ride turns into an epic escape on the Colorado Trail. In this short story our lonely rider is running away from … something, chased by his own fears.

In this short story a dying man has a few loose ends to tie before his demise. He puts on his black suit, holsters his revolver and embarks on a quest for revenge. He is the first to admit that his idea of justice is flawed, but in his mind, it has to be done. His actions may have consequences, or...

An American expatriate living in a small town along the Caribbean, an escapee from alimony payments and pesky IRS tax men, becomes the unexpected driver of an ambulance carrying a dying kid through the dark jungle night. Besides a rough dirt road full of pot holes, river crossings, and no headlights,...

Three short stories specifically written for publication in religious magazines. Two out the three got published in 1994 and 1995. Years later, after re-reading this early work, I have to admit that these stories are tearjerkers. I didn't set out to write lachrymose stories, but sometimes stories...

Grace Elizabeth Coventry has wanted to die since puberty. Since then, she carries out elaborate plans to end her life. She almost succeeds on her eighteenth birthday, but when an outside force emerges to carry out the deed, an inexplicable survival instinct awakens in her. It’s too late, though....

Chastity Ann Chadwick is a self proclaimed teenage femme fatale who lives in the small sailing town of Seaport Harbor. She’s a boy eater who uses pleasure to numb the pain of her unfortunate circumstances. Little does she know, she’s on a certain path to self destruction when one of her romantic...

This is the first book of The Bronx Trilogy: three books of poetry about The Bronx and its environs. The Shoe Shine Parlor Poems Et Al: Second Edition features a preface written by the author and a bibliography. It is being released to complement the recent completion of the project, which includes: Concrete Pastures of the Beautiful Bronx and From the Banks of Brook Avenue.

A short story about unfulfilled expectations. Two cousins think they hit the jackpot when they run into a crashed UFO, only to find out that what they though was their ticket to fame and riches is just another of life's disappointments.

Short story about an illegal Mexican immigrant working as a short order cook in El Norte, the promised land north of the border, Texas. Being undocumented, poor, and not speaking English, he encounters unexpected disdain from the very people he aspires to be.

On November 1868, Lee Musgrove, horse thief and hell raiser in general, was hanged from a wooden bridge in Denver. Almost a century and a half later, Joe Glatfelter, to the horror of early morning joggers and cyclists, hung by his broken neck under the same bridge, now reinforced concrete. One can say that both hangings were unrelated, but they both shared a common thread of lynch justice.

In this short story, Jack thinks his failed marriage was due to not having a shop manual for women, something that can explain to him how the opposite sex works. He works on his Bug, in the cold, toiling away under dripping oil, a predictable world that he understands well. But soon enough, another...