Raymond L. Atkins

Raymond L. Atkins
Raymond L. Atkins resides in Rome, Georgia. His stories have been published in Christmas Stories from Georgia, The Lavender Mountain Anthology, The Blood and Fire Review, The Old Red Kimono, Long Island Woman, and Savannah Magazine. His humorous column —"South of the Etowah" — appears in The Rome News-Tribune. His industrial maintenance column — "The Fundamentals" — appears in Maintenance Technology Magazine. His humorous column — "And So It Goes" — appears in Memphis Downtowner Magazine. His first novel, "The Front Porch Prophet," was published by Medallion Press in June of 2008 to critical acclaim and earned the 2009 Georgia Author of the Year Award for First Novel. His second novel, "Sorrow Wood," was released in June 2009 by Medallion Press and has been nominated for the 2010 Georgia Author of the Year Award for Fiction. Both are available at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and other fine booksellers. His third novel, "Camp Redemption," will be released in August, 2011.
Number of posts: 33
Email address: raymondlatkins@aol.com

Posts by Raymond L. Atkins:


    Life, People & Places, Talk, Voices

    Graceland vs Rowan Oak

    by Raymond L. Atkins | 2, Add your Comment | Jul 4 10
    Graceland vs Rowan Oak
    During a recent book signing trip, my wife and I had the opportunity to visit the homes of two famous Southerners, Elvis Presley and William Faulkner. Elvis, of course, was the king of rock and roll, and as almost everyone knows, his Memphis home is called Graceland. William Faulkner was the king of Southern fiction, and his residence—located just south of Memphis in Oxford, Mississippi—has the pastoral name of Rowan Oak. So, here we have two Southern boys who made it good. Among other things, they both gave their houses names, they both left this world before their time, and they ...
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    Life, People & Places, Talk, Voices

    Vacuum Cleaners

    by Raymond L. Atkins | 7, Add your Comment | May 20 10
    Vacuum Cleaners
    I am sitting here looking at my six-month-old vacuum cleaner, and I am conflicted.  On the one hand, I’m happy.  I should be vacuuming the floors right now, but I can’t because the vacuum has died, and that’s fine by me.  I hate to vacuum the floors anyway, and I would much rather write about not vacuuming them.  It just seems more dignified, somehow. But on the other hand, I am unhappy, as well, because another fairly expensive vacuum cleaner has just become a member of the world famous Atkins six-month-old-dead-vacuum-club.  At the risk of sounding platitudinal and trite, which I’m ...
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    Life, Rhythm & Dews, Talk, Voices

    1960 Road Trip (Kids in Cars Part Two)

    by Raymond L. Atkins | 7, Add your Comment | Apr 19 10
    1960 Road Trip (Kids in Cars Part Two)
    I have always loved riding in a car. Well, ever since I became an adult, anyway. And the longer the trip, the better I like it. I adjust the seat for plenty of legroom, set the cruise control, pop the audio book into the CD player, fine-tune the climate control, and let the miles roll by. Most times, I enjoy the trip more than the destination, especially if the destination is any theme park anywhere, Houston, or places where the tea isn’t already sweet when they bring it to the table. Of course, traveling wasn’t always this idyllic. Back in the ...
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    Life, People & Places, Talk, Voices

    Kids in Cars

    by Raymond L. Atkins | 12, Add your Comment | Apr 13 10
    Kids in Cars
    Just the other day at a stop light, I came to a halt next to a mini-van with four kids in it.  One of them was on a cell phone, another was playing a video game, the third was listening to an IPod, and the final child was watching her own personal DVD player. There was so much electronic activity going on over there, it was like I had pulled up next to NASA’s mobile command center.  I kept waiting for a flatbed truck loaded with a big missile to arrive. Let’s face it.  When it comes to traveling, modern children have ...
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    Rhythm & Dews, Talk, Voices

    She Ain’t Nothin’ but a Hound Dog

    by Raymond L. Atkins | 14, Add your Comment | Apr 4 10
    She Ain’t Nothin’ but a Hound Dog
    I’ve had twelve dogs in my lifetime, but I’ve never had a dog like Hotep (pronounced hoe-tep). She’s a Black and Tan coon hound, or at least, that’s mostly what she is. I got her for Father’s Day last year from one of my grown daughters. Yes, the daughter was grown enough to know better. And no, I don’t hunt. If you’re curious, what I had asked for was a new wallet. And if requesting a new billfold and receiving a stray hound dog instead doesn’t make any sense to you, then there’s nothing wrong with you. You’re just obviously not ...
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    Life, People & Places, Voices

    The Tree of Doom

    by Raymond L. Atkins | 4, Add your Comment | Mar 25 10
    The Tree of Doom
    My little patch of front yard is a constant source of pain.  For twenty years I have done battle with it, and for twenty years, it has won.  That piece of ground refuses to grow anything.  I have planted grass, sod, monkey grass, monkey sod, azaleas, camellias, forsythias, boxwoods, and a large variety of annuals and perennials.  I have tried watering, fertilizing, aerating, mulching, composting, pollinating, and rotating, and it still looks like the Gobi desert out there.  All I need is a camel and a couple of nomads in furry hats pitching a tent. I have sought many solutions over ...
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    Life, Talk

    Spring Cleaning

    by Raymond L. Atkins | 1, Add your Comment | Mar 19 10
    Spring Cleaning
    There is an old maxim about being sure to pay attention to the fine print, which is just another way of saying that you should be aware of what you are getting into before you inadvertently step off into a minefield. A lot of people don’t realize it, but there doesn’t even have to be an actual document involved for there to be fine print. Assumptions can also have it, invisible fine print, so to speak, and if you are not aware, you will be held accountable for words that don’t even exist in tangible form. Take spring cleaning as an ...
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    Talk, Views, Voices

    The Ballet

    by Raymond L. Atkins | 7, Add your Comment | Mar 10 10
    The Ballet
    I have a confession to make, and I won’t be able to sleep until I get it off of my chest. So here it is. I went to the ballet the other night. There, I feel better already. A weight has been lifted. It’s good to get these things out into the open. Otherwise, they’ll just eat away at you. A lesser man might try to convince you that the whole thing had been a mistake, that he thought he was going to the tractor pull, or maybe to Wrestlemania. But I’ll be honest. I meant to go. Attending the ballet ...
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    Talk, Views, Voices

    Computer Science

    by Raymond L. Atkins | 3, Add your Comment | Mar 4 10
    Computer Science
    My computer was being a little balky the other night, so I slipped off my right shoe and gave it a quick tune up in the form of a couple of good whacks. It took the hint and began to work properly, but the incident got me to thinking about the sad fact that we are at the mercy of computers, and thus we are subject to forces beyond our control and understanding. Basically, if a computer ceases to operate and smacking it upside the monitor with a shoe doesn’t bring it around, then most of us are in big trouble. ...
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    Talk, Views

    Strange Olympic Sports

    by Raymond L. Atkins | 4, Add your Comment | Feb 28 10
    Strange Olympic Sports
    What is the deal with some of the sports they have in the Olympics?  Whether you watch the Winter Games or the Summer Games, there are some seriously unusual competitions, and you really have to wonder where some of these sports came from. My understanding about the history of sporting events is that they have evolved over time from similar, real-life activities that figured prominently in mankind’s past.  Thus javelin-throwing is a holdover from the days when warriors threw spears, running events hearken back to a time when hungry bears with sharp teeth chased our ancestors, and skiing derives from that ...
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    People & Places, Talk, Views

    Blu-Ray

    by Raymond L. Atkins | 7, Add your Comment | Feb 11 10
    Blu-Ray
    I was in the video rental store the other day when I noticed a section devoted to something called Blu-Ray. There was a movie on that shelf I wanted to view, so I picked up a copy and took it to the counter, where I asked if the Blu-Ray disc would play in my machine. I was told that it would not, and when I asked why, it was explained to me that a regular DVD player uses a red laser, while a Blu-Ray uses a blue laser. Well, there you go. It all makes perfect sense, now that I ...
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    Life, People & Places, Talk

    The Good Old Days

    by Raymond L. Atkins | 9, Add your Comment | Feb 1 10
    The Good Old Days
    Sometime after the arrival of your fifth decade, there will come a morning when you wake up and realize that you can now remember the good old days. Well, let me qualify that. Often you will be able to recall the good old days, while at other times you will have to look at your driver’s license if someone asks you for your name. I can still recall the fateful moment when I first waxed nostalgic for times gone by, and it was a bittersweet experience. On one hand, seemingly against all odds, I had made it beyond my fiftieth ...
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    Rhythm & Dews, Talk, Views

    Parental Guidance

    by Raymond L. Atkins | 6, Add your Comment | Jan 23 10
    Parental Guidance
    I was at the park the other day when I encountered a young couple who were having a terrible time making their youngsters mind. The children were happy and boisterous, and it was obvious that they were overcome with the absolute joy of life. The parents, on the other hand, looked like two blind chickens lost on an alligator farm. It struck a chord with me, and my heart went out to them. My wife and I raised four children, and I can tell you for a fact that we were definitely behind the learning curve on the first two. ...
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