The Entrepreneur is a zany romp through the imaginative mind of a narrator who sails off into his own realm of ludicrous ambition. He begins a tattoo business with the help of Mink, a mysterious master of the needle, capable of tattooing internal organs so they can be reclaimed by the owner should they ever be snatched.
Ever optimistic, the narrator undertakes another misadventure retooling a WWII Japanese submarine for luxury dinner cruises beneath the San Francisco bay. The cruises are a great success until an amorous whale spoils the fun and the Coast Guard must be beckoned to save passengers from angry, half-drunk harbor seals.
Undaunted, the narrator continues his quest after falling deeply in love with June Bug, a fellow zither player. Forced to leave California, they flee to New Mexico and open a Pancake House for aliens looking for the best flap jacks in the galaxy.
Rick Casteel extends the absurdity of the novella with his short story The Truth about Peking Duck in which the history of Peking Duck is delivered in the monologue of a Peking Duck that's about to be eaten.
The Entrepreneur is a zany romp through the imaginative mind of a narrator who sails off into his own realm of ludicrous ambition. He begins a tattoo business with the help of Mink, a mysterious master of the needle, capable of tattooing internal organs so they can be reclaimed by the owner should they ever be snatched.
Ever optimistic, the narrator undertakes another misadventure retooling a WWII Japanese submarine for luxury dinner cruises beneath the San Francisco bay. The cruises are a great success until an amorous whale spoils the fun and the Coast Guard must be beckoned to save passengers from angry, half-drunk harbor seals.
Undaunted, the narrator continues his quest after falling deeply in love with June Bug, a fellow zither player. Forced to leave California, they flee to New Mexico and open a Pancake House for aliens looking for the best flap jacks in the galaxy.
Rick Casteel extends the absurdity of the novella with his short story The Truth about Peking Duck in which the history of Peking Duck is delivered in the monologue of a Peking Duck that's about to be eaten.The Entrepreneur is a zany romp through the imaginative mind of a narrator who sails off into his own realm of ludicrous ambition. He begins a tattoo business with the help of Mink, a mysterious master of the needle, capable of tattooing internal organs so they can be reclaimed by the owner should they ever be snatched.
Ever optimistic, the narrator undertakes another misadventure retooling a WWII Japanese submarine for luxury dinner cruises beneath the San Francisco bay. The cruises are a great success until an amorous whale spoils the fun and the Coast Guard must be beckoned to save passengers from angry, half-drunk harbor seals.
Undaunted, the narrator continues his quest after falling deeply in love with June Bug, a fellow zither player. Forced to leave California, they flee to New Mexico and open a Pancake House for aliens looking for the best flap jacks in the galaxy.
Rick Casteel extends the absurdity of the novella with his short story The Truth about Peking Duck in which the history of Peking Duck is delivered in the monologue of a Peking Duck that's about to be eaten.
Excerpt
Reviewed by Paige Lovitt for Reader Views (12/10)
It seems to me that we all know that one person who always has a plan to make it big by doing something unusual. For me it was a guy that was going to get rich by retarring driveways; in a city full of concrete parking spots. In the twenty years that I have known him he has had a few other zany plans, but for now he makes a great stay-at-home dad.
In "The Entrepreneur," the narrator of the story takes his crazy ideas to a higher level. Seeing how popular that tattoos have become, he decides to do something bigger and different by tattooing internal organs. To make the business grow even faster, he promotes the urban legend of the organ thefts, and offers tattoos that contain personal information, just in case it does happen. This leads to a huge increase in kidney tattooing.
His business is booming, until he gets a threatening phone call to stop doing what he is doing. Most likely it is from an organ thief. This incident causes him to lose his tattoo artist, forcing him out of business. Moving on to his next idea, he finds a used WWII Japanese submarine at a great price. So he buys it and decides to offer dinner cruises in the San Francisco Bay. Having personally experienced a dinner cruise in the harbor, I can see where this would be a great idea. He is elated to find a captain who can maintain and man the sub. He becomes a little deflated when he discovers that the propeller is missing. Thank God for Costco.
Once the sub is assumed to be seaworthy, he is able to hire on a sushi chef, a Dixieland band, and an aging stripper. Once again business is booming. Unfortunately, the sub isn't quite as seaworthy as he hopes. Apparently, whales find antique Japanese subs to be quite attractive, especially if they have the right kind of music on board. Once again, due to unforeseen circumstances, his business hits a huge snag - to the point that the sub is destroyed, the harbor seals are angry, the Coast Guard is extremely unhappy and Governor Jerry Brown needs to make him go away. Note, that he wasn't yet governor again, so the author shouldn't be accused of ruining his political career.
Once again, the narrator is out of business and now has to leave the state. Good things still came from this; love bloomed twice for his former employees. He also finds a woman that is willing to travel with him to New Mexico to take on his next venture of having a pancake house that caters to aliens. Once again he finds success, and another huge surprise.
"The Entrepreneur," is a funny, quirky, laugh-out-loud kind of book. I totally enjoyed reading it. It allowed me to step outside my mundane world and see life through the eyes of someone who looks at life differently, and refuses to let anything stop him from following through on his plans. Thank God we don't have more people like that!
I highly recommend "The Entrepreneur." It would also make a great gift for others, especially people who need something to laugh about.
Professional Reviews
Reader Views
Reviewed by Paige Lovitt for Reader Views (12/10)
It seems to me that we all know that one person who always has a plan to make it big by doing something unusual. For me it was a guy that was going to get rich by retarring driveways; in a city full of concrete parking spots. In the twenty years that I have known him he has had a few other zany plans, but for now he makes a great stay-at-home dad.
In "The Entrepreneur," the narrator of the story takes his crazy ideas to a higher level. Seeing how popular that tattoos have become, he decides to do something bigger and different by tattooing internal organs. To make the business grow even faster, he promotes the urban legend of the organ thefts, and offers tattoos that contain personal information, just in case it does happen. This leads to a huge increase in kidney tattooing.
His business is booming, until he gets a threatening phone call to stop doing what he is doing. Most likely it is from an organ thief. This incident causes him to lose his tattoo artist, forcing him out of business. Moving on to his next idea, he finds a used WWII Japanese submarine at a great price. So he buys it and decides to offer dinner cruises in the San Francisco Bay. Having personally experienced a dinner cruise in the harbor, I can see where this would be a great idea. He is elated to find a captain who can maintain and man the sub. He becomes a little deflated when he discovers that the propeller is missing. Thank God for Costco.
Once the sub is assumed to be seaworthy, he is able to hire on a sushi chef, a Dixieland band, and an aging stripper. Once again business is booming. Unfortunately, the sub isn't quite as seaworthy as he hopes. Apparently, whales find antique Japanese subs to be quite attractive, especially if they have the right kind of music on board. Once again, due to unforeseen circumstances, his business hits a huge snag - to the point that the sub is destroyed, the harbor seals are angry, the Coast Guard is extremely unhappy and Governor Jerry Brown needs to make him go away. Note, that he wasn't yet governor again, so the author shouldn't be accused of ruining his political career.
Once again, the narrator is out of business and now has to leave the state. Good things still came from this; love bloomed twice for his former employees. He also finds a woman that is willing to travel with him to New Mexico to take on his next venture of having a pancake house that caters to aliens. Once again he finds success, and another huge surprise.
"The Entrepreneur," is a funny, quirky, laugh-out-loud kind of book. I totally enjoyed reading it. It allowed me to step outside my mundane world and see life through the eyes of someone who looks at life differently, and refuses to let anything stop him from following through on his plans. Thank God we don't have more people like that!
I highly recommend "The Entrepreneur." It would also make a great gift for others, especially people who need something to laugh about.
Feathered Quill Reviews
This review is from: The Entrepreneur: Also includes, The Truth About Peking Duck (Paperback)
When people claim that the American economy is in imminent danger of collapsing, we need people to step up to the plate, particularly those who are of the entrepreneurial mind. The narrator of this book, who shall remain unnamed to protect his innocence should anyone decide to sue, has decided to tell the world about how to succeed in business. Perhaps we should rephrase that. He has graciously decided to tell the world how to flop in business and keep on truckin.' Everyone knows, perhaps because of Kat Von D's wildly successful career in the tattoo department, that there is money to be made by altering one's appearance and so he decided to think "tattoo."
Sorry to say, Kat is not actually mentioned in this book, however this all American entrepreneur came up with the sparkling idea of tattooing organs. He promptly hired a fabulous tattoo artist, Mink, to carry out this magnificent idea (and make a couple of bucks). He divulges to the reader that "We falsely claimed that one out of three people had their kidneys stolen and the best way to protect oneself was to tattoo his/her kidneys with a message and a phone number to call in case it got lost." (pg. 4) It wasn't long before people flocked to the shop and Mink was "tattooing two dozen kidneys a day." Zzzzz zzzzz zzzzz... would he be able to get a grip on the great American dream or would this plan flop?
Our narrator then has another great idea...have you ever thought about purchasing a WWII Sentoku I-400 submarine for twelve-hundred smackeroos? When opportunity knocks (or clunks in this case), you simply step up to the plate and buy. No doubt about it, a sub would be the perfect excursion boat for the San Francisco Bay. He needed to hire a submarine pilot, but that was easy. Vidor Schomp, a shoo-in for the job on the Swan, was anxious to work and stated, "You just buy the bread and sliced meat and we can get going immediately." (pg. 13) A sushi chef, a Dixie Land Band, and Dora, the "stripper at the O'Farrell Theater for nearly twenty years" soon joined the crew. Was this gonna work? Was it time to order that picket fence? How about buyin' some white paint at Home Depot?
Let's just say that the shopping trip needed to be delayed because passenger Jerry Brown was not one who fancied having his face plastered in the National Enquirer. He sent a note that said, "You will leave the state of California within one week and never return." Can you say "incident?" It was time to move on because a true American entrepreneur does not give up. It seemed to him that Roswell, New Mexico would be a fine place to start a restaurant. An Inter-Galactic House of Pancakes (IGHOP) would be just the ticket. Have you ever heard about the IGHOP? I didn't think so. Perhaps you'd like to hear the REAL story about the history of the Peking Duck. Just pull up a chair, grab a Tsingtao, and listen...to the duck himself.
If you have aspired to attain the American dream of having 2.5 kids, a little house in the suburbs surrounded by a white picket fence and aren't cutting the mustard, this book will put a twinkle in your eye and a smile on your face. This is actually a marvelous piece of Horatian satire aimed at the good old US of A and everything she stands for. Naturally, many readers who pick up the book will laugh at this short, sometimes daffy read, and put it aside quite unaware of what they had just read. From start to finish the dialogue is akin to winding up a wanna be famous stand-up comedian and letting him or her loose in Times Square. There are some zany, light-hearted jabs at the American "experience." For example, the unnamed narrator was in dire need of a propeller for the Sentoku. "Right there, in between the Fokke D. VII cowlings and Norton Bombsites, sat a big shiny propeller." (pgs. 20-21) Ain't Costco grand? Only in America can we read a book that takes a crack at society and is a work of art all rolled into one.
Midwest Book Review
By Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Entrepreneur: Also includes, The Truth About Peking Duck (Paperback)
With high hopes and a vision for a brighter future, one's journey to the top can be a very perilous one. "The Entrepreneur" tells the story of a bright eyed individual who starts his own tattoo business with unusual services. But his goals for wealth don't end there, as he has many other endeavors for cash, as well as love. Humorous with plenty to ponder, "The Entrepreneur" is not a read to be missed.
Deputy Dave Jenkins sets out to find the murderer of the local high school principal, aided by a voice from the grave that is sometimes helpful and sometimes misleading.
"Murder isn't usually this funny."
Amazon reviewer
