Barlow Jimson was mean before he went deaf. Afterward, he just turned meaner. He'd blow up and fight anybody on a dare or on a show of surly lips or even a one-sided laugh if he didn't see enough smile in it.

Born in Bagdad, Florida, in 1927, Robert Willis served in the U.S. Marine Corps during World War II. The conflict fired his desire for learning, and after the war ended, he attended Florida Southern College, the University of Texas, and capping it off with a PhD from Florida State University. Careers in higher education and, later, real estate followed. Willis has pursued writing with earnest passion since the 1960s. A fan of serious fiction, sometimes with comic overtones, he admires writers like Twain, Hemingway, even the classical bards like Shakespeare and Homer. The list goes on....