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I'm working on three more books I hope to finish before I die. They are:

Beyond the Flying Bathtub: The Life of Etienne Dormoy (Co-authored with Jerry M. Turner, an expert on Etienne Dormoy.)

If you are an aviation history buff you will enjoy this book. Click on Etienne Dormoy link on the first page of my site for a short biography.

Jeweler's Revenge and Other Short Stories

A collection of short stories.

A Long Way From Easy Street

A novel about brothers growing up with parents who divorced and neither parent can take care of their sons.

Richard L. Meister Jr. attended Spokane Community College, Spokane, Washington, while working at a restaurant and a gas station to pay his tuition. He received an Associate in Applied Science Degree for the study of Auto Mechanics and planned to become a mechanic. But when he applied for jobs, he was asked about his experience. He reminded them of his college degree and was told that was of no interest. Experience counted--not a degree.

He worked in gas stations for several years until his brother invited him to move to Idanha, Oregon, to stay with him. Richard found work at the veneer mill where his brother worked, but the job didn't work out.

Wyoming oil fields sounded like a good place to make a bundle of money, so Richard sold all his tools and took a bus to Casper. He discovered jobs in the oil field, at that time, were easy to get. (He was in a bar one night when he wandered over to a table where a man who looked like Johnny Cash was talking to a couple of other men. It turned out the men worked for an oil company. The "Johnny Cash look-alike" told him, "Come on out and we'll put you to work.") The trouble was too many people told Richard the oil field was no place for a rookie in the wintertime. The temperature had already dropped below freezing at night, and it was still the middle of August. He packed his bags and moved back to Spokane.

In his hometown, he worked in one gas station after another. Richard didn't mind the work, but only earned minimum wage or bearly above it. Then a friend talked him into applying for a job at a boat factory. The work was harder, but his pay nearly doubled. He worked there until the luxury tax and gas prices almost killed the industry. It was after being laid off from the boat factory he decided to try writing. He didn't make much progress since he really didn't know what he was doing. So it was back to looking for a job.

An old high school friend, who worked as a supervisor at a wood products company, asked Richard to apply there. He did and got hired. While working at the job, he took a writing course through the Institute of Children's Literature. Richard worked at the wood company for about a year before getting laid off.

Out of work again, he called a gas station where he used to work and his old boss suggested he apply for Assistant Apartment Manager at an apartment complex near the station. Richard knew the manager from when he worked at the gas station, so he called him. He quickly learned, after he got hired, Assistant Apartment Manager was a fancy name for "janitor/handyman." While he worked there he kept submitting stories and articles but didn't sell anything. He stuck with the job for two years when he received a call from the wood products company that had laid him off. They wanted him to return to work. He did. Richard took the Writer's Digest Short Story Course during the time he worked there and follow up with their Advance Writer's Course. He sold his first article during this time, but he still had to work full-time to make a living. Five years later, the company closed its doors.

Richard took another wood products job. He kept writing and sold several articles and short stories. He also landed a job teaching an adult writing class a couple of nights each quarter. After nine years Richard quit the wood products job to try his hand at full-time writing.

For the next year, Richard wrote, occasionally worked on a friend's farm as well as a temporary employment service. He eventually got hired on at a company that made telephone equipment. He tried several times to get a writing position at the company, but was unable to. Then, after he worked a year and a half at the company, the bottom fell out of the telecom business and the once booming company had to lay off over 1,000 employees.

Richard now writes from home.