{"id":15452,"date":"2011-12-12T11:28:35","date_gmt":"2011-12-12T18:28:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/?p=15452"},"modified":"2011-12-12T15:01:51","modified_gmt":"2011-12-12T22:01:51","slug":"ramblin-gamblin-willie-goes-straight-to-jail-meanwhile-he-has-a-new-book-of-short-stories-out-for-christmas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/15452\/ramblin-gamblin-willie-goes-straight-to-jail-meanwhile-he-has-a-new-book-of-short-stories-out-for-christmas\/","title":{"rendered":"Ramblin’ Gamblin’ Willie goes straight — to jail. Meanwhile, he has a new book of short stories out for Christmas."},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a>William F.X. O’Connell — that’s Ramblin’ Gamblin’ Willie to you — has been making a game effort to go straight over the past few years. This paid off in abundance this morning, when he finally managed to get himself arrested.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, just yesterday Willie published a collection of his outrageously brutal Christmas stories at Amazon.com.<\/a> It’s Kindle-only, but every smartphone and tablet computer has a Kindle reader by now.<\/a><\/p>\n

These are the stories, all of which have been published here in various versions over the years:<\/p>\n

The season’s greetings
\nA dumpster diver’s Christmas
\nA canticle for Kathleen Sullivan
\nA future more vivid
\nA father for Christmas
\nMerry Christmas, Princess Peach
\nA Costco family Christmas
\nHow to slay dragons
\nCourtney at the speed of life<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Cathleen and I did the line-edits on the final manuscript, and it was interesting to me to see how well the thing holds together as a collection.<\/em> Separately, the yarns are almost too brutal, but taken together they have that certain cathartic something that left me feeling cleansed — beat up, to be sure, but better for having endured the punishment.<\/p>\n

Anyway, y’all could do a favor or three for our jailbird friend:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Buy the book — or give it as a present.<\/a> At around 20,000 words, it’s a lazy afternoon or a cross-country flight in length.\n<\/li>\n
  2. Review the book.<\/a> It would be nice for Willie if you have good things to say about the stories, but it will be better for everyone if you simply tell the truth.\n<\/li>\n
  3. Tell your friends. Here is code you can link from:\n