Red Giant Books - Independent Publisher of literary fiction, non-fiction and poetry

“There were three things that made me want to take a hard look back at where I came from and what I’ve done and try to make sense of it. The first was getting shot, the second was getting old, and the third was working on this book. Getting shot came first. It happened in Cleveland on April 26, 1976, and except for the fact that I was shot from ambush that evening, it was pretty much like any other day at that period of my life. I was working as an enforcer for the black numbers rackets at the time, and since I sometimes made enemies and there were always other people who wanted to muscle in, I took sensible precautions.” So begins the memoir of James ‘Diz’ Long as told to William Siebenschuh.  Born in 1925 Diz Long’s  life brings him into the orbit of such luminaries as Billie Holiday and Jim Brown as well as nefarious characters like Don King and Reuben Sturman, the porn king of Ohio. From his duty in the Triple Nickel Black parachuting unit to semi-pro football to nightclub emcee to number running and bodyguard and enforcer, Diz bears witness to crimes high…

The Irish Hungarian Guide to the Domestic Arts proves that the Rust Belt is the perfect backdrop for a whirlwind romance, that shopping at the discount grocery is really performance art, and that a half-acre lot in the middle of America is all you need to accommodate a field of dreams.   This book is also a food memoir for the rest of us, wherein a dozen ears of sweet corn turn a humble bowl of chowder into a divine creation, the Hamburger Helper glove dukes it out with a scrappy bowl of slumgullion, and banishing the blues is as easy as lunch with Holly Golightly at the local farmers’ market. A misfit Irish-but-not-Catholic girl from Cleveland’s west side, O’Brien is funny and sophisticated, projecting triumph through the lens of the domicile without blinking when sorrow fills the screen. The right measure of quirk and earthy sex separate this book from the Erma Bombeck set, while O’Brien’s dry Midwest humor ties it all together.