Bøger af Ken Foster

From the editor of "The KGB Bar Reader" comes a collection of 14 stories that evoke Mary Gaitskill, Lorrie Moore, and Denis Johnson in their emotion and lyricism. "Wonderful, just short of too hip."--"The Village Voice."

Tom Malley is a young man of fifteen when he loses his parents on their way west. After caring for their bodies and not knowing what to do he continued traveling northwest. Starving to death he was asleep and rode his horse right into an Indian village. The remote tribe had heard of the white man but never seen one. They had a good laugh at his expense then took him in, taught him their language, and how to live in the harsh winter environment. He quickly realized he knew less than the smallest of the tribe about the great mother earth. One day after the long winter, while swimming in a snow melt stream with several braves, he dove to the bottom and found a gold nugget the size of a small bird egg. After inspecting the mineral he looked around to his surprise he discovered he was swimming in a stream laced with gold nuggets. It became his habit to swim often and collect the nuggets that were worthless to his adopted people. When returning from an elk hunt one day he was suddenly shot twice by arrows. A jealous brave had seen the woman he wanted for a wife watching Tom and had shot the arrows. After healing from that incident Tom was forced to move on. He took the gold he had hidden; traveled southeast, then with the mountain passes closing, he had to spend a lonely winter in a valley filled with elk. It was well into spring when he got out of the mountains and met a trapper that partnered up with him for the rendezvous. There he gets his first introduction to feminine pleasures. He also is instrumental in killing a hungry grizzly bear that is intent on killing their horses. Just before he leaves the rendezvous a drunken scalp hunter tries to force him to sell his horses, when Tom refuses the evil man shoots one and Tom fights the drunkard so his other horse can get away. It's only after he gets up that he discovers he mortally wounded the man that's still trying to kill him. Months later Tom finds himself in St. Louis to get his animals reshod and resupply himself. There he encounters a tough sheriff that's a bully and hates Indians as well as anyone that has the appearance of one. Circumstances demand he help a squaw that is brutalized by the sheriff after a physical confrontation that leaves the sheriff badly injured. He rides west with the squaw for three weeks to get her close to the villages then when she proves she can take care of herself he makes the decision to resume his travels east. With winter again coming he needed to resupply. It was the first town he intended to stop in since St. Louis. The instant he rode in he knew it was a mistake and didn't stop. However he did manage to get the Warden Brothers attention and they followed him in hopes of robbing a stranger. Once again Tom is forced to deal with men that have ill intentions toward him. He leads the four brothers deep into the wilderness where they meet more than their match. During his travels Tom Malley meets many colorful and expressive people, each having an influence on his life. The interactions with these people and the experiences he goes through molds him into the man he is destined to become.

The Adventures of Tom Malley, Volume II: The Winter of Pleasure In Ken Foster's second book about The Adventures of Tom Malley series, the skilled frontiersman finds himself facing another long winter alone and decides to make his winter camp on a nice hillside. Before scouting the area, he is cooking his first meal at the new camp site when he is interrupted by an old woman that's out scrounging for rabbit. Somehow he had managed to select a campsite that was just over the hill from a family who had become lost when their wagon had broken down in the wilderness several years earlier. They hadn't seen any white men in that time and the Indians frightened them when they saw them. After meeting the family of gypsies from the old country, it is agreed he will stay the winter and even teach the lost family how to live in the mountains while providing them with venison. While scouting the area one day, Tom finds an Indian trail. On his way back, he startles a very young brave that is watching the family. The brave runs away leaving his horse and bow behind and Tom must take the brave's horse and bow to the village so there isn't any misunderstanding. While there, he arranges for the family to come and meet the village as well as perform for them. The family is well received and given many gifts for coming to entertaining the village. They are even invited back in the spring. Tom works hard and gets a nice home built before the winter gets too hard. He must enlist the family to help finish it and it is completed before they are snowed in. The family discovers they have unknown talents with making building materials while making bricks for the chimney. He tries to give the cabin to the family, but is turned down as the old couple wants him to do them a big favor but also want him to help make their shack winter proof. The favor is what brings him the winter of pleasure. In early spring, he goes to scout the area looking for signs of winter leaving when he finds himself right in the middle of an Indian war. Now, Tom must use all his skills to get the family out of the wilderness before the warring tribe catches them. They travel many days through deep snow, spending freezing nights with late winter storms without a fire to keep warm. The exhausted group finally make it to a town that's already been attacked by Indians. There they find their first hot meal and shelter from the weather. Tom helps the family get established and makes certain the men of the town understand how they are to be treated. When the army arrives, he discovers they have captured the wrong Indian and proves his innocence while catching the real scalp hunter. Then he recruits the man he just rescued and together they lead the army into a position so they can capture the tribe that started the war. With the war averted, they take the army to the Indian camp that was wiped out to show the toll the war had caused. This is where the Indian leaves to go find his family and Tom leaves to continue his travels. Eventually he makes it to Atlanta then several more large cities along the eastern coast, stopping in each to deposit some of the gold and lightening his burden while keeping his trail impossible to follow.

The Island of Second Chances is written by promising new fiction writer, Ken Foster. This book tells an exciting story of a man and woman who were stranded for a few years upon a remote island after each separately experienced horrible happenings at sea. The man, Captain Joe Weathers, survived an explosion on his ship caused by drug traffickers who set him up to be killed. On another ship the woman, a beloved movie star named Nikki Coleman, was beaten and thrown overboard by her hateful, drug abusing husband, during a drunken rage. To keep from getting caught, this awful man murdered everyone else on the ship. He didn't know that the ship was leaking fuel and the crew members had been working to fix the problem. As the murderous husband tried to pilot the ship, the leaking fuel ignited and the resulting explosion blew the whole outfit high in the sky, along with him and his dirty deeds. Nikki Coleman, comatose, swollen and sunburned beyond recognition, was barely alive in a lifeboat when she was rescued by Captain Joe Weathers. Her condition was so bad, he first thought she was a man. The Captain tended the critically ill woman and treated her badly sunburned skin everyday for a couple of months. When she finally awoke from the coma, Nikki had lost the memory of what had happened to her. In her confusion Nikki believed that she had been kidnapped and was being held for ransom. Nothing her rescuer said could convince her otherwise. For a long time she has a real problem with trust and constantly resists Joe's efforts to help her. While on the island they survive dangerous events, such as typhoons, wild boars, and gigantic sharks. These two very different people eventually learn to cope with their misfortunes, while they share the tropical island. Captain Weathers, an honorable man, war hero and a Navy S.E.A.L. meets each challenge with a strong and capable defense even though the Island's tasks for living are almost unbearable. In time Nikki, the movie star, starts being nicer to the Captain as she regains all of her memory about what really occurred. Eventually, the pair is rescued by a fisherman and he arranges for them to be taken to port by the Australian Navy. The next things that happen are shocking and you must read the book to learn the details. You'll enjoy getting to know Joe and Nikki's families as well as Joe's wild and boisterous S.E.A.L buddies. Captain Joe Weathers is an outstanding character and you'll want to read more of his adventures in the future. Here's an excerpt from the book: "It was late in the morning of the last day of the voyage before arriving in the tropical paradise of Tahiti. Captain Joe Weathers was looking at the bow enjoying the beauty sunbathing on the fifty-five foot yacht. Their trip began three weeks earlier when he had taken delivery of the yacht in Seattle and was ferrying it to the new owner in Tahiti. The crew consisted of a young couple from Italy that could only be described as free spirits. Lou and Marina had just completed their studies just a few months earlier and were now working their way around the world. Signing up to help ferry the yacht would take them one more step toward circling the globe. Lou was a hard worker that only had to be told once what needed to be done then he made sure the task was always complete. Marina was the daughter of two very well known chefs in Rome; she cooked and served their meals. Even though they were informal on this trip she insisted they all dress for dinner. Marina was the view he was enjoying at that moment, as the yacht had all the latest electronics and didn't need his attention until they reached the outer marker of the island harbor. She wasn't modest and had immediately taken to sunbathing on the bow between her duties. Of course she had chosen the most visible place to be seen from the bridge. Her bathing attire could only be described as consisting of a very small patch of a garment with no top. . ."

Follow along as Gunnery Sergeant Dale Johnson lives two lives; One as a hard working retired Marine Sniper that enjoys hunting to put fresh meat in the freezer for his family and the other, a man that keeps a secret discovery to himself while collecting data to prove the existence of "Bigfoot". He uses his old sniper skills, after discovering the true existence of this creature, as he documents the lifestyle of the mysterious beast. After collecting a sample of a dead "Bigfoot", he is ready for the world to find out about his discovery. But first he must escape the raging fury of the alpha male when it discovers what he took. All evidence and samples are anonymously given to a special contact at a college. Then after his research is stolen, Dale is suddenly placed in a position to defend his family against a murderous international criminal trying to kill a "Bigfoot" for sport. It is a story of a man wanting to prove the existence of the elusive creature known as "Bigfoot". While protecting beast from man he must also protect his family and friends from the pure evil known as Malcolm Hutchins.

A collection of stories, from both the author and other owners of rescued and adopted dogs that show how man's best friend can provide love and friendship during the best and the worst of times.

A beautiful, heartfelt, funny, and inspiring collection of photos and stories that maps the relationship between canine New Yorkers and their human counterparts.New York is a city of five boroughs, more than 250 distinct neighborhoods, 8.5 million people, and more than 600,000 dogs, who are as much a part of the social fabric as the people who follow them on the other end of the leash. City of Dogs maps this relationship with incredible four-color photos highlighting the scene.From the Bronx to Brooklyn and along the streets of Harlem and Manhattan, Ken Foster and Traer Scott explore the unique relationships between dogs and their human counterparts. We meet Alex Nuckel, living on disability and finding joy and purpose in caring for his two pit bulls, Lucy and Rocky. And Majora Carter, a community activist who has received a MacArthur grant, living and working with two stray shepherds she rescued in her own neighborhood. City of Dogs also takes us to a Midtown Manhattan law office, where staff are encouraged to bring their adopted dogs to work, and to the JFK airport, where we meet dogs who help screen at security. And then on to Brooklyn, where we meet award-winning author Jacqueline Woodson and her dogs, Toffee and Shadow. These are just a few of the amazing animals and their people featured in this perfect gift book for any dog lover.

A New York Times bestseller! A favorite author reveals his experiences rescuing abandoned dogs--and offers solid advice for readers who "find" dogs.