Three Foggy Mornings
Publish Date: May, 2025
Many of the thirty-three stories in Three Foggy Mornings were published in several literary magazines between 1974 and 2020. Many are autobiographical. Some were inspired by travels to Central America and Europe, others by incidents and anecdotes from family, including centuries-ago ancestors, others by the author’s late wife’s long participation in a co-op art gallery, and still others by news and current events. Rick believes that all fiction writers use the canvas of their lives and experiences to create characters, and that all art is self-portrait, even abstract paintings. Asked if he really did all the stuff in his books, the author replies that he did some of it, and made up the rest.
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An excerpt from “The Snake Cane” in Three Foggy Mornings
Despite Mama’s warnings, he led Isaiah through the tangy wetlands choked with marsh grasses and vines, through willows half-sunk in slow-moving black water, and past oaks laden with Spanish moss and cypress roots in ghostly morning mist. Down into the bottoms they trekked, inhaling clouds of tiny insects, feeling cold spongy mud between their toes. Among clumps of sphagnum moss and Christmas ferns, he found bay leaves and crushed them so his little brother could savor the sweet aroma.
They watched white egrets and brown pelicans rise like a whisper from dense thickets of needle grass and float on updrafts in a sky resembling hammered pewter. Joshua, intent on capturing a snapping turtle about to drop off a log perch, didn’t notice when Isaiah ran on ahead. He was reaching for the turtle when he heard screams. Rushing to his brother’s aid, he spotted the danger.
“Don’t move, Isaiah.”
A dull-gold snake with dark spiraling rings, three feet long and thick as Joshua’s arm, was sunning on a rock. It had cat’s eyes and hinged jaws he knew were gorged with poison. This was a cottonmouth, the most dangerous snake in the swamp, and from the way its head was flung back, exposing puffy white lining of gaping mouth and fangs, it was warning them both to stay away.
Knowing an unprovoked cottonmouth would usually slither off, Joshua remained motionless. But Isaiah couldn’t stop shaking, and as he grew more agitated, the snake hissed and vibrated its tail. When it was coiled and began to strike, Joshua stepped forward and with one swing of the cane knife cut the cottonmouth in two, but not before it had sunk its fangs into Isaiah’s ankle. Joshua picked up his brother, who was shrieking, and tore through the swamp toward home with Isaiah in his arms.
Mama took one look at the swollen, discolored ankle and, aware that the venom could be fatal, called for the hoodoo woman, who knew all about herbs, poisons, charms, and amulets, which ones would protect, which would harm.
By the time she arrived in a bright silk head scarf and long flowing gown, Isaiah was unconscious.
Praise for Three Foggy Mornings
If you are a fan of short stories and/or flash fiction, then Neumayer’s latest book is a must read. Three Foggy Mornings contains well over 30 professionally crafted, smooth flowing, attention-grabbing stories from one of Kentucky’s most talented fiction writers, plus a bonus series of well-written essays on the craft of writing. If you’re a writer looking for sound, yet inspirational advice on writing, these essays with their many effective examples of famous authors and best-selling novels, are absolutely worth reading. Neumayer’s short, yet powerful stories take readers on numerous interesting, intriguing journeys, moving from Italy to Cornwall and Ireland, from the mountains west of Mexico City to Paris, from bars to barbershops, from old friends to new acquaintances, from the past to the present, all while effectively touching on a myriad of emotions, events, and challenges along each journey.
While no two stories are alike in this collection, and certainly none are ever close to boring, they all share Neumayer’s skillful prose and interesting, intriguing imagination. His well-chosen words draw readers into each story until they feel they are part of the storyline. At least two were winners of writing contests, while a dozen more have been published in literary journals and reviews, including the Tulane Review, Deep Sout Magazine, and Trajectory, the journal I have been publishing for almost 15 years. In addition, Three Foggy Mornings also highlight several previously unpublished gems.
I first met Neumayer during our overlapping sojourns at the Spalding University MFA in Writing program and have always admired his ability to draw readers into his work with smooth flowing, effectively detailed, and colorful prose. Even though he has written a number of good novels, I truly believe Three Foggy Mornings is his best work to date. The book is available from Amazon and rickneumayer.com.
- Chris Helvey
Editor of Trajectory Journal and author of multiple short story collections and more than a dozen novels, the lates being Revolution.
Part story collection, part time capsule, part quiet memoir in disguise, Three Foggy Mornings gathers thirty-three stories written across five decades, plus two essays that pull back the curtain on craft. The result is more than fictional entertainment; it’s a conversation about what it means to live a creative life. Many of these excellent stories were published in various literary magazines from 1974 through 2020. What struck me most about them wasn’t just the range, though the collection spans continents, decades, a wide range of topics, and emotional tones, but the constancy of voice. Whether he’s writing about ancestors, artists, or current events, Neumayer’s tone is reflective, generous, humorous, and keenly observant. Many of the stories feel autobiographical, but not in a confessional way, in the sense that they’re shaped by a life deeply witnessed and reimagined with care.
The lead story, “Stalking Jennifer Lawrence,” plays with pop culture and layered narrative. It’s a story-within-a-story, and sneakily, it contains the antidote to writer’s block inside a tale about someone struggling with it. Classic Rick. Clever and self-aware, but always in service to the story. That was a strong choice to lead with.
Following it is the titular “Three Foggy Mornings,” another tour de force. Originally published as “Thirty-Six Rockers,” (also an awesome title) in New Southerner, the details will make you feel as if you’ve lived among the nostalgia described: “Chairs, spice racks, a box of axe handles, bundles of paint brushes, crates of old bottles, mirrors, bushel baskets full of goblets and glasses and milk-glass vases, a dozen Barlow pocketknives, a carton of plumber’s helpers, coiled strands of Christmas tree lights, framed pictures.” All things you either found in your grandparents’ barn or, if you’ve ever been to an auction of household goods, items that would 100% be found on tables strewn on the yard amid the scent of hot dogs coming from the concession wagon.
Those loving details are tiny paintings, all. And the touching ending is earned.
Other stories include characters longtime readers will recognize, like Pate from Rick’s first novel, Journeyman. These callbacks feel like seeing old friends again, or perhaps witnessing their beginnings. There are also clusters of stories that feature the same characters and feel almost like novellas, an unexpected but welcome slice of time with the familiar. You feel the cumulative in this book: a writer returning to the page, year after year, to make sense of the world. You feel his steady hand, his curiosity, and how he’s loved the world: fearlessly, attentively.
The essays at the end don’t over-explain. Instead, they frame the collection as part of a lifelong engagement with writing as both habit and inquiry. Writers and teachers will find much to admire here. “The Hardboiled Private Eye” in particular deserves a home in a craft magazine. His reflections on writing reminded me of Stephen King, but less the horror, more the plainspoken wisdom about how and why we write. His sympathy with the reader is heartfelt: read for the story, read for the language, read what you want; read whatever you please. I heartily agree.
Three Foggy Mornings reminds us that all stories are, in some way, love letters: to the lives we’ve lived, to the people who’ve shaped us, and to the selves we’ve yet to imagine. I’m honored to know Rick and his work. This collection feels like one that needed to be, and here it is. I would also be remiss not to say that the gorgeous painting, Roadside, was used as the cover art for Rick’s book and was painted by his precious departed wife, Corie Neumayer. The perfect touch.
—Drema Drudge, author of novels Victorine and Southern-Fried Woolf, blogging at: https://wp.me/p26Itr-1Ec