Quirky Stories & Poems

About the Book

This book is about many things – real and fictionalized recollections about growing up, pleasure and pain, good and evil, as well as quirky insights into human nature. It includes stories and poems for children, teens and adults. Most stories are under 600 words, so it’s perfect for the coffee or night table, bathroom or flight bag.

Quirky Stories & Poems is divided into three sections, so dive in where you wish and revisit often:

Backwards. Stories and poems about childhood and adolescence, as well as those that look to the past. The first seven or eight pieces are great for reading aloud to children. The section then progresses into themes for adolescents and young adults.

Forward. These pieces look ahead, sometimes just minutes around the corner, sometimes decades. You’ll find stories that consider how people might change, and how things might change people. Some are sci-fi, some humorous, some both. Many carry messages for today.

Upside Down. This section is filled with characters who are confused, on the edge--or over it. But not all of them. Between the lines you’ll find angels and those of a darker nature, so pay attention--it’s not always easy to tell them apart.

About the Author

Charles Bins is a former journalist and marketing PR pro who has ghost-written hundreds of articles for magazines. For three decades, he executed winning campaigns for companies spanning business, technology and consumer products. Before starting his own marketing PR agency, he spent 17 years with a leading agency in New York City representing such clients as Sprint, Dow Chemical, Hewlett-Packard and Armstrong Floors.

Early in his career, he worked for the Bergen Record in N.J., and then became an internationally syndicated entertainment columnist reviewing films and interviewing celebrities including Tom Hanks, Kenny Rogers and Patty Duke. He earned an M.S. in Marketing/E-Commerce from the City University of New York, and a B.A. in Mass Communications from Rutgers University in N.J.

Now that he’s retired, he’s focusing on fiction. He lives with his wife, Mary, two cats and a cockatoo in Leland, N.C. where he is a contributor to Cape Fear Voices.