The unique stories contained in this volume are either long short stories or short long stories. They are too long to be considered short stories and too short to be considered novels. When I first started working for a local newspaper, I asked my boss how many words would he like my stories and articles to contain. He said, "Write the story until it is finished. Once it is finished, we'll deal with the length." I liked that idea. Write the story until it is finished. Don't worry about how long it should be or how short it could be. Write the story until it is done and then stop. That is the case with the six stories in this account. I wrote them until they were done. When they were done, I stopped writing them. Simple enough. I consider each of the six stories contained in "It's a Long Story" to be worthy of the Hobo Philosopher tradition of thoughtful reading. I do hope you enjoy these stories. And remember whenever you see the thoughtful Hobo on the cover, inside you will find me. Just like Buster Brown, I will be in there too.
About the Author: MEET THE AUTHOR Richard Edward Noble was raised in Lawrence, Massachusetts. He attended St. Rita's grammar school in Lawrence, Central Catholic high school also in Lawrence, Northern Essex Community College in Haverhill and Merrimack College in North Andover. His mother and father and grandparents - on both sides of the family - were Lawrence textile workers. Richard lived in Lawrence until the age of twenty-seven and then migrated to Fort Lauderdale, Florida where he met his wife Carol. Richard and Carol have been a team for over thirty-five years. Richard has been a truck driver, a butcher, a beef boner, a beef breakdown man, a dishwasher, an oysterman, a fruit picker, a restaurant manager, a chef, a small butcher shop owner, a Kirby vacuum cleaner salesman, a fry cook, a broiler man, an expediter, a restaurant line boss, a hole digger, a swill collector for a pig farm, a raw bar man, a sous-chef, a tomato sorter, a sander in a spray paint factory and the owner/operator of an ice cream parlor and sandwich shop in Carrabelle, Florida. These experiences and many more were published in Hobo-ing America - A workingman's tour of the U.S.A. and other works by this author. Richard is now retired and working as a writer. He writes fiction, non-fiction, creative non-fiction and poetry. He published a column in a local newspaper. In 2007 he received a first place award for humor from the Florida Press Association for this column. Richard has a variety of interests - philosophy, history, politics, the American and world labor movements, economics, poetry, music, biography, autobiography and the unique history of Lawrence, Massachusetts.