Champagne Book Takes Look At Life After Fake Death

The tone of “Man Overboard: The Counterfeit Resurrection of Phil Champagne” (Northwest Publishing, 182 pages, $19.95) by Burl Barer, is set in the opening paragraph:

“Phil Champagne died Aug. 31, 1982, in a tragic boating accident off Lopez Island, Washington. He was 52. Champagne was survived by his wife of 28 years, four grown children, an octogenarian mother and two despondent brothers. Phil didn’t know he was dead until he read it in the paper. All things considered, he took it pretty well.”

Author Barer, an Edgar Award winner, takes a look at what Champagne did during that decade during which he was dead but was instead posing as Washington restaurateur Harold Stegeman.

Finley on love

Spokane writer Mitch Finley expects to have a new book out in September. “Whispers of Love” (Crossroad Publishing) is a collection of 200 true stories about those who claim to have had contact with deceased relatives or friends.

Sound ridiculous? Well, as Finley points out, Chicago’s National Opinion Research Center reports that some 40 percent of Americans claim to have had such contact.

Poetry wanted

EPS Publishing Company is looking for poems to include in its 1996 book project titled “Reflections of Life.”

Writers are invited to submit up to two original poems of no more than 24 lines each. Deadline is Dec. 31.

Send your entries to: EPS Publishing Company, 19116 Tillman Road, Long Beach, MS 39560.

A note of caution: Some companies that solicit for poetry do so only as a means of gouging naive writers for the price of the final book at an inflated cost.

The reader board

Michael Gurian, a Spokesman-Review columnist and author of books on gender relations, will read from his new book of poetry, “Emptying,” at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday at Auntie’s Bookstore, Main and Washington.

Sherry Waldrip, author of “I Don’t Remember Signing Up for Cancer,” will read from her book at 7:30 p.m. Thursday at Auntie’s Bookstore.

, DataTimes