Kurt’s Books

  • Rainy Season
  • THE GOOD KILL
  • INSIDE THE SKIN
  • SHORT VERSES & OTHER CURSES by Kurt Brindley
  • POEMS FROM THE RIVER by Kurt Brindley
  • How Not To Die by Kurt Brindley

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With the heartbroken shards of a shattered past lodged deep within his soul, falling in love is the last thing a mysterious American expatriate in Tokyo is looking to do, especially with an alluring jazz club singer shrouded in vague mysteries of her own…

Tokyo during rainy season, when the sun rarely shines and the days are hot, wet, and long, is the perfect place for a man like Rich, a man who has traveled the world trying to outrun the memories of a bitter past.

Settled now in a street-side apartment, Rich spends his Tokyo days mostly out on the balcony where he leans against the railing, smokes his cigarettes, and watches the rain as it falls upon a sea of umbrellas flowing by on the sidewalk below.

But he spends his nights at The Low Point, a mostly unknown, cozy little jazz club where he is left alone to smoke, write in his journal, and drink Japanese whiskey… a lot of it.

With Tokyo, the largest metropolis in the world, Rich has become, if not happy, then at least content within his self-imposed solitude.

That is until Miko is hired on to perform at the club. With her comes beauty, grace, a magical singing voice, and a large following that turns the once obscure jazz club into the it place to be.

Also with her comes trouble… a lot of it.

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

A former Navy SEAL turned vigilante hitman already in the crosshairs of corrupt Russian agents finds himself in even deeper trouble after rescuing a sex trafficking victim against her will just as she is about to be delivered into the hands of an unscrupulous corporate mogul, an impetuous and dangerous man who will not be denied his purchase. . .

During the battle to liberate Mosul from the brutal grip of the Islamic State, Killian Lebon, a war-weary Navy SEAL Senior Chief, sustains life-threatening injuries from an explosion during a mission gone wrong, forcing him to retire early from an occupation that for almost twenty years had been his sole purpose for being – that of a fearless warrior in defense of his country.

Suffering from his injuries’ traumatic after-effects and the overwhelming guilt he feels from the deadly consequences of his failed final mission, Killian’s life had already spiraled downward to the deepest depths of despair when he is stricken further by dual tragedies that bottom him out completely and leave him without the will to continue living within such a dark and indifferent world.

And if not for the saving grace of RJ, a woman whom he had loved once long ago, he would have succeeded in that which he had thought would be his final mission. Instead, she saves him from the void of despair and reveals to him two long-held, painful secrets that inspire within him a new purpose for living – to make it his mission to ruthlessly eliminate from Earth the vile scum who traffic women and girls for sex.

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

A psychological and, at times, poignantly humorous drama set on a U.S. warship in the port city of Yokosuka, Japan, INSIDE THE SKIN is a story about the harsh realities of navy life during the Don’t Ask Don’t Tell era. But it’s more than that — it is also a story about each of us and how we perceive and interpret the world around us. Written with a narrative starkness, the story leaves us with only our own prejudices and stereotypes to draw from and forces us to make assumptions about character and identity, and, in the end, determine not just who did it but if it was even done at all…

Boot Camp didn’t join the navy to be a hero or to perform courageous acts—that was hardly his character—he joined simply to prove to himself, and to others, that he has what it takes to be a sailor, a real sailor.

However, after reporting to his first duty station, a laid-up warship filled with a disgruntled crew who welcomes him aboard with a brutal hazing and violent displays of homophobia and harassment, he quickly learns that to become that sailor of his ideals, a real sailor, he would have to step outside his true nature and put himself into harm’s way to achieve those ideals.

But after Flavor—Boot Camp’s only true shipmate and an eccentric nonconformist who, himself, had to learn to navigate the dangerous and sometimes deadly waters of homophobia and harassment—is discharged from the navy, Boot Camp is left on his own to face the hazards that await him.

Alone, he has to find that courage and strength so uncommon to him and stand up for his own self, his own identity, and fight for what is right, regardless the rules, and regardless how dangerous and deadly the costs may be.

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Kurt began writing haiku in 2012 as a therapeutic effort when finding himself in the midst of an illness. He continues to write them even as he now finds himself in the midst of wellness – their therapy for him being more calmative now than curative.

Kurt discovers truth and meaning in the concepts of “no mind,” “living in the now,” “non-attachment,” and “the angst of existence” as found in the practices and philosophies and Zazen, Stoicism, and Existentialism. He admires greatly the concepts taught by the late Dr. Wayne Dyer.

You may notice these conceptual influences laced throughout this collection.

It is hoped that the writings and other miscellany found in this book may be as therapeutic for you as you puruse and contemplate them as they were for him to create them.

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Just as water naturally follows the course set by the sometimes wayward and often divergent banks of the river, Kurt Brindley’s poems in his debut poetry collection POEMS FROM THE RIVER follow the course set by the sometimes wayward and often divergent life he has led.

From solitary childhood reflections and isolated moments with nature, to the anxiety associated with the unrelenting passing of time and the fear of cancer’s ultimate consequences, to the pleasures and pain of family, friends, work, play, love, hate, life, death, Kurt’s poetry flows as does a river–sometimes with ease and quiet calm, as a river flowing through an isolated gulf’s serene and lazy shallows; at other times with spontaneity and unforgiving force, as a river flowing through a precipitous canyon’s tumultuous and unpredictable rapids; and at all times with undiminished resolve and pure blind faith that the end will justify the means, as a river forever flowing towards some unknown distant body of water that promises to be greater than itself.

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Kurt was diagnosed with leukemia in November of 2009, received a bone marrow transplant in April of 2010, and, as a side-effect to the transplant, was diagnosed with an incurable, non-reversible, and highly fatal form of lung disease in November of that same year.

Medical statistics did not give him much of a chance to survive.

But he did.

He believes he was able to survive this incredible journey he has been on this past five years because he regarded it not as a journey of despair, but as a journey of hope, and as a journey of new opportunities.

And, while the journey has been filled with many overwhelming challenges and more than a little bit of pain, it has also been filled with many more rewarding experiences and life learning opportunities.

And learn about life, he did:

He learned many things, but he especially learned that love and happiness and kindness are all choices that can and must be made. And they must be made for each now for each successive moment one has left to live, however long it may be. For neither the past nor the future matter much when Death is hovering so closely by.

This journey Kurt has been on this past five years could have been one that led him toward the ultimate end, but instead, it has taken him toward a new understanding of life and of how to live it, which ultimately means he now understands…

How Not To Die.