Lighthouse Tales began with the request of a small boy and his sister at a camp site in the redwoods of the Santa Cruz Mountains in California. Their request was to hear a ghost story. Unable to comply with anything he thought suitable, Lance told a standard “jump” tale he heard in his youth. Never wanting to be caught off guard again, Lance vowed to write a story he would always know, one that would be forever in his brain in the event this request was made again. For this purpose he wrote Ramora. It was written in verse to convey the feeling of the story being from older time, and for ease in memorizing.
Having enjoyed the process, Lance continued to write stories in verse: Bryan and the Boys’ School was next, written as a script writing assignment at the USC film school. Then Merlin & The Mermaid (a gift during a long distance relationship), and finally, after 3 years, the epic Justice or Jessica Pope. He then linked the stories with the larger narrative of The Reader. Now 20+ years later, The Reader is being presented as Lighthouse Tales.
Lance has told each of these stories (but never the entire book as a whole) at storytelling festivals, campfires, and beach bonfires, around the United States and Canada and Europe. With Lighthouse Tales he hopes others will share them with their friends and family in similar venues……when someone needs a good story.
Lance continues to tell when the chance arises and is working on second book of Reader tales, Stories by the Wayside.