Publications

Blind Insights into the Writing Process

Paperback – March 20, 2022

Oedipus's vision starts blind. A book on writing suggesting anything else is imposed, a handbook of techniques unlike these epigrams and prose poems that are essentially beyond the writer, just as the creative process is, if they are honest, beyond anyone. Blind Insights into the Writing Process is a book of sightings outside the terrestrial landscape of everyday vision that as rich as it is often gets in the way of true access. These insights came about without conscious calculation, almost beyond effort; they are the result of blind, unashamed reaching.

Eye Exams: A Book of Epigrams

Epigrams can be stabs at thought, sudden insights, or summations of a life. The fact that they don't parade in the best dress gives freedom to all types of garb; even so, occasional nakedness is exposed. Ultimately writing epigrams exposes the reader as well as the writer, and by extension all human nature -- broadening our observations of the species. The sole object is understanding.

Crawl Space and Other Stories of Limited Maneuverability

Crawl Space and Other Stories of Limited Maneuverability is a collection of stories about the fallout from limited maneuverability, whether it be the horror inside the walls of a New York City apartment, the firing of a professor on a college campus, bullying in the basement of an orphanage, the restraint a father feels reaching out to touch a youth, the confinement inside jockey underwear, the consolation of a typewriter over an unreported violence, an actual hanging by boys after a church service, the fatal end of a patient's world following a hospital miracle, the shyness of a classical pianist breached by a man named Ray Rice, the drama inside a Madrid bullring, the consequences of an old man's collapse at a urinal in Yokohama, the rejection of the vegetarian Cain by God, the torment of a pelican under a bridge in Mexico, Presidents' shooting bears or obsessing about scratches on a cherry table, a preoccupation with curtains when preparing for a visitor, how a house full of knickknacks replaces people, the power of beets exposing sibling rivalry, a predicted automobile accident enlarging the stunted lives of two lovers, the claustrophobia over a book of Matisse art, the triumph after the modest boasts of an actual stuntman, the recollections of a stubborn liver in a frying pan, the weekly ritual of Pop paddling young boys, a pearl family's revenge for the horrors of World War II, the secret life of a British aesthete in Japan, and the results of reduced mobility inside an actual crawl space.

The Horror of the Ordinary

The Horror of the Ordinary deals with life through the eyes of diverse characters and stories. As you dive into the short story collection, you'll meet a property owner dealing with an infestation of Japanese beetles in his backyard, a too-tall Afghan named Hamid, a trophy huntiing orthodonist not prepared to deal with his actions, and many others. As you dive deeper into the collection, things get weirder, more out of the ordinary. From the unexpected tragedy of a Japanese pitcher's performance in American baseball to disturbing thoughts about an alligator watchband, every story provokes. Every story incites.

Studies in Insignificance

Richard Krause has delineated, in fine detail and meticulous writing, the disconcerting strains underlying all humanity, sometimes by focusing on abandoned children, sometimes on sexual nuances, and sometimes on the lingering effect of World War II and its atrocities. Krause taught in Japan for several years; he also worked as a taxi driver in New York City for several years: oddly, those disparate occupations forge a finely hammered toughness into this collection, giving the reader plenty of quirky, desperate characters presented in a melodious, poetic fashion. Imagine, for instance, Baudelaire writing fiction—though you would need to add a tongue-in-cheek voice continually pulling the story back to offer perspective. The stories in this collection have been published in Hawaii Review, American Writing, The Crescent Review, Kansas Quarterly Confrontation, and other literary magazines.

Unashamed Observations

Unashamed Observations contains prose poems about my experiences living in Japan, driving a taxi in New York City, growing up in an orphanage in Pennsylvania, detailing my contact with animals on a dairy farm along with the many men and women that I have met. The poems draw out those idiosyncrasies I have experienced, whether it be a moment of cruelty on a bus in Japan, my response to an orange on a table, the relationship of a hemophiliac to his condition, the shocking reply to someone's politeness, or my experience towards an amputee sitting before me on a Japanese train. These are the first five poems in the collection. There are 105 remaining poems.

Optical Biases: Epigrams

OPTICAL BIASES is a collection of original epigrams. Each epigram is carefully culled, has a twist or edge, and is included as an aesthetic whole. They are readable. They are clear. They don't require head scratching. Though they might not be read in a sitting, a reader would easily want to go through them once started. There is humor and no fillers are intended. Overall the collection shows a way of looking, despite the writer's own optical biases. Meaning and insight are the objects throughout. Areas that are addressed include intelligence, love, women, beauty, sex, cruelty, loneliness, friendship, talent and ambition, family, religion, and power.