Creekbank Stories Curt Iles, Storyteller

Betting on The Saints: Thoughts on 60 inch TVs, “Cryptkeeper” Tattoos, and Louisiana Rednecks It’s a scary combination: a bet, a case of beer, Louisiana rednecks*… and the New Orleans Saints. It sounds like a sure enough formula for trouble for any day of the week. *First of all a disclaimer: “Redneck” is not an offensive term where I come …

I visited this morning with Mrs. Kelly Rudy’s third graders at DeRidder’s Carver Elementary.  We had a fun time together as I told them three stories:  The Evening Holler (from Stories from the Creekbank) , Joe Moore and the Skunk (The Wayfaring Stranger) , and Mayo’s Snake-Popping story (A Good Place). No matter the age, people love stories.  No matter …

    A  Good Epitaph to Have. . . Have you ever thought about what epitaph you’d like to have? Years ago I walked along the seawall in Galveston, I saw one I admired.   A plaque there read: In memory of Leroy Columbo 1905‑1974 A deaf mute who risked his own life repeatedly to save more than one thousand lives …

Can You Hear Me Now? A man I encountered in a rural area of Cambodia may have been the defining image of this interesting part of Asia. I saw him coming before he saw me: he was a rather large man for the Khmer race.  What really caught my eye was his attire. All he was wearing was a loose …

"I know I'll never see her again until heaven..."

It’s rare to get snow along the Gulf Coast, especially in December.  Yesterday’s 2 inch snowfall was the earliest ever recorded.  Just a note:  we had snow last year in mid-December,  some during Easter 2007 (See the Easter Cold Snap in The Wayfaring Stranger) and previous to that it had last snowed on February 7, 1988.   Click here to see …

Click here to read author’s notes on the hurricane that starts Chapter 1 in A Good Place. Gratitude: Two stories about a wonderful word. Gratitude: It’s a word that rolls off the tongue.  To read more No matter where you go, every culture has bogeymen stories to scare their children. In the following scene from A Good Place,  Eliza Moore …

Landmark Longleaf Pine on Longville Gravel Pit Road. See below for more A good word:  “Compel” A short story from Hearts across the Water by Curt Iles Then there is the story of my friend Tom Dunville.  I’ve known Tom for seven years. He is a wonderful artist and the nicest guy I know… when he is sober.  Tom has …

Thanksgiving for my parents, Clayton and Mary Iles This old beech tree still stands on our family land on the bank of Crooked Bayou.  It bears the initials of my mom and dad,  CI (Clayton Iles) and MP (Mary Plott.)  Today (November 25) is their 56th anniversary, so the tree pre-dates 1953. Even though my dad has been dead six …

A Good Place by Curt Iles Chapter 21 Author’s notes: Our narrator, twelve year old Mayo Moore, is on a log raft trip down the Calcasieu River.  He relates an incident on the River as they near the sawmills on Lake Charles. This scene is my current favorite.  Special thanks to my friend Joe Chaney for sharing a similar family …

"Sure enough she appeared with a four or five foot long chicken snake in her hand, grandpa hurriedly backing up as she came out the door."

View the short commercial-length book trailer for our new book, A Good Place at YouTube.

Some stories are too funny not to tell. They say you should be careful talking to yourself out loud: especially when you start answering back. Last week I was gassing up my truck on pump 4 at DeRidder’s WalMart.  Just minding my own business,  I glanced up at the Appalachian Trail* sticker on my truck’s back glass.  Thinking back to …

Arriving at Lake Charles on a raft of logs. In this excerpt from A Good Place, 12 year-old Mayo Moore, who has never been more than ten miles from home,  travels down the Calcasieu River on a raft of logs with his father and other local men.  On reaching the small town of Charleston (the 1862 name of present day …