Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome, 507 Broad Street, Lake Geneva, WI (2026)

01/24/2026

THE COWARDLY LION, Volume VI, Chapter XXI

The mission off the coast of Florida takes on new importance as it should never have been a CIA mission in the first place. Why the CIA becomes the major and only player in the mission becomes apparent when my association and friendship with an inheriting member of the Kohler family, famous in northern Wisconsin for plumbing and other equipment, comes to the fore. Wild results begin to pile up and play out as the bizarre mission unfolds.

Please buy the books and, in particular, buy the signed ones I sell at James Strauss, 507 Broad Street, Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, 53147. I don't have that much farther to go in life and these books are going to be worth a fortune when i am gone. There are very few portrayels of real combat and real recovery that ever make it into print. Thank you and I'm glad you are there to appreciate the work and me in particular.
COWARDLY LION, Volume VI, Chapter XXI

Roger Rabbit, the pilot, flew us directly back to the airport in Key West. No one said a word, and even though it was hard to be heard inside the plane, which, with Robert pushing the speed to the little plane’s maximum, the reason for the complete silence had nothing to do with the plane’s […...

01/17/2026

THE COWARDLY LION, Volume VI, Chapter XXI

The mission off the coast of Florida takes on new importance as it should never have been a CIA mission in the first place. Why the CIA becomes the major and only player in the mission becomes apparent when my association and friendship with an inheriting member of the Kohler family, famous in northern Wisconsin for plumbing and other equipment, comes to the fore. Wild results begin to pile up and play out as the bizarre mission unfolds.

Please buy the books and, in particular, buy the signed ones I sell at James Strauss, 507 Broad Street, Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, 53147. I don't have that much farther to go in life and these books are going to be worth a fortune when i am gone. There are very few portrayels of real combat and real recovery that ever make it into print. Thank you and I'm glad you are there to appreciate the work and me in particular.
COWARDLY LION, Volume VI, Chapter XXI

There was too much going on, and my control was once again nearing the ephemeral kind of leadership I had in the A Shau Valley so long ago. The boat, or specialized watercraft that resembled a yacht, was ready to be guided down the waterway. Rosley Ryan was on the way to add credibility and brillian...

01/04/2026

THE COWARDLY LION, Volume VI, Chapter XIX

The rushed trip to Korea and back takes its toll but there is to be no respite as the Murder Island prepatory trip to Florida must be made, and the family left to once more wait, isn't dealing well with the non-stop missions or the wear and tear it's causing on everyone. Florida proves to be problematic, with Mary wanting to settle into the Flamingo Hotel in MIami to await events, and the preparations by the principal, Nguyen and Kingsley run into obstacles and difficulty in not revealing anyone that they are what they are.

Thanks for the patience in awaiting another chapter and hopefully having read the Christmas stories I run every year in the weeks preceeding that holiday. Please invest in the books as so many of you have and I am most happy to send out autographed copies to anyone who orders them. James Strauss at 507 Broad Street, Lake Geneva, Wisconsin 53147.

I was not encountered by anyone from either the embassy or any of the people I’d met earlier in the country, which was a blessing as my recovery from the cough syrup I’d taken before and during the flights over had taken the wind out of me, as well as my need or even ability […]

11/22/2025

THE COWARDLY LION, Volume VI, Chapter XVIII

The Korea trip is slipped into my life like an accidental stab of a side of beef that goes wrong. I was not cut but once again any plan of my life I was trying to create, even with the Agency's help, was once again paused. My presence was physically necessary but the reasons for that not clear. I drugged myself and went off only to have to come down in a truly foreign land and culture. Fortunately, i was not called on for any physical feats of either violence or escape. But the pressure was moutning as a real physical and potentially violent mission was soon to follow.

Please particpate in purchasing books and the advance copy of the Fifth Volume. It's my fault its not out as I did not do my part correctly in the descriptive necessities. I am getting better. I also apologize for being late on answering comments which I will be all over tomorrow. Thanks for your support and for your sticking with me.

Joan Rosely Ryan’s appearance created the first general meeting of all the employees at the Principal Financial Group office. Everyone was dancing, singing, and drinking God knows what kinds of mixed concoctions. It was a madhouse, and I was struck mostly dumb. The woman was an expressive freight ...

11/13/2025

THE COWARDLY LION, Volume VI, Chapter XVII

The horrid complex f actions that had overtaken me were becoming more organized and clear, the CIA being much more capable of such assembly and control than I had originally thought. My return to Korea to install the direct payment system to begin the 'sale' of medical insurance to Americans living abroad takes my attention but then a coming mission to Murder Island, a place I couldn't even find on any maps, begins to insinuate itself into my mindset and thinking. I knew I didn't want violence in life so why, when much opportunity presented itself, was I so eager and willing to participate?

Please support the cause of this extensive literary and therapeutic project, for me and all of you who are a vital part of not only its creation but I's continuance. My great thanks.

I wondered about the small recorder that Doctor Harpending had given me, or rather gifted me, since no discussion had taken place about ownership. The good doctor was known for being cheap, driving an older Volkswagen, and infamously buying used tires for it from one of his students. The video camer...

11/06/2025

THE COWARDLY LION, Volume VI, Chapter XVI

The return home was rocky, which I was trying to get used to happening after a mission. There was no letup in the vastly complex design of what was happening to my life. The college was demanding work on the Ph.D. while the new offices were demanding discovery, rentals and populating with employees I could not comprehend finding. My friends and myself had to have money. Allen Weh was proving ever more difficult to deal with and my control officer was using his own form of humor to irritate the hell out of me. Meanwhile, I had to protect my family and fortify my home. The life of an active secret agent working in the field is not nearly as secret as I would have imagined, and it would only get worse.

Please contribute to this writing adventure and cause by purchasing the books and going to the fund me page. You can order any books on the site and get them signed and inscribed at your request for a few bucks more. This series of novels has every likelihood of truly going places. So, consider, and then come along!

I hung up the phone after getting assurances from Tony that the cash would be available at the base on the following day. The payroll office would have it, but I wondered what the effect would be of so much cash going in and out of that place, which was staffed by real humans who […]

10/30/2025

THE COWARDLY LION, Volume VI, Chapter XV

The first test flight of the evacuation plane appears too rapidly planned and too amatuerish when it came to staffing. The pilot and co-pilot turn out to be very trained and professional but certainly not part of the CIA, nor truly identifiable as to whom they really were following. The test of getting in and out of an advanced first world country like Britain has merit but the fake evacuation takes on an entirely different tone when the patient is real and in need of real medical personnel to care for him on the flight...which he unknowingly does not have. The intricacies of bringing the patient's needs to the very forefront of everything are difficult and not totally accepted by all.

The Cowardly Lion is available in all of its current iterations and volumes and chapters on Amazon, Barnes and Noble and Smashswords. Also, just use PayPal or send a check to James Strauss 507 Broad Street, Lake Geneva, WI 53147 for signed and inscribed volumes of any or all of the books. Thirty dollars a book should do although Chuck Bartok puts out specials every now and then.

“There are no secure lines anywhere around or in Heathrow the young British police officer said, not the kind I think you are talking about. You would have to go to the American embassy downtown.” I turned away in frustration and walked back to the King Air, noting that the propellers still rota...

10/24/2025

THE COWARDLY LION, Volume VI, Chapter XIV
The pace of life refuses to slow, a pause is filled by a plane dropping out of the sky as if from nowhere, and another wrinkle in time and experience unfo9rlds. Royalty but not. SOS evacuation phony introduction, but not. Hyper secret but performed by those not truly understanding they are acting in secret...the mysteries continue to pile up, almost one atop another.

The books are at Amazon, Barnes and Noble and here with the author.. James Strauss, 507 Broad Street, Lake Geneva, Wisconsin 53147. PayPal and so on. Tom Thorkelson died while this chapter was written and the author truly grieves that loss. Tom had all my books and I simply loved that.

The pell-mell rush to Anderson Valley Vineyards was a success, except for the ballooning part. Kris had the folded and refolded envelope in its canvas bag, standing next to the basket, which had the two big burners thrusting upward from a brace up across from its center, but he hadn’t laid out the...

10/16/2025

THE COWARDLY LION, Volume VI, Chapter XIII

The complexity of life attempts to overcome me as my value, never stated to be of my quality at all, is constantly being demonstrated in new assignments in the middle of the biggest shakeup in the application of getting human intelligent agents in and out of foreign countries without fanfare, suspicion or normally necessary paperwork and evidence of them being there at all. The UFO phenomenon reaches national laboratory attention and is seriously reacted to, again with my participation. And now somehow the husband of the Prime Minister of Great Britain needs my specialized help...when I don't know what my specialization really is.

Please contribute to the cause here so I may continue to produce the rest of the volumes in this long but vitally important and truly historical series, probably only to be taken seriously by scholars after I am gone but nevertheless needs to be told and read by readers with your avid interest care and support. Thanks for being and staying along for this rather wild ride, at times.

I made it to the parking lot but had to turn back as Kingsley had my keys and I’d left no instructions for any of the staff or my men, much less the four new quasi-agents for the insurance operation. One of those agents was quite something I’d briefly heard. Joan Ryan. It was being […]

10/09/2025

THE COWARDLY LION, Volume VI, Chapter XIII (one of the most complex of the series)

The tempo of my many dimensional existence heats up from merely red hot to white hot as the brief respite of the Christmas holiday recedes and life once again hits hard and fast in the fast lane of the autobahn of my life. UFO phenomenon moves into a central position, opening up financial doors that are fearful in their size and what that attracts while the multiplicity of projects I have seemingly and accidentally become in charge of overwhelm my life and mind.

Please pre-order the held up volume V as it wil now be available next month. It’s thirty two dollars inscribed and signed and I’m so sorry about the hold uip but printers these days are not what they used to be. Books are coming back and so is book collecting. I think these books will one day be worth quite a bit in first edition, signed and inscribed. James Strauss, 507 Broad Street, Lake Geneva, Wisconsin 53147 Just send a check or use PayPal on the site. All of my books are still for sale by special order on the site signed or through Amazon, Smashswords and Barnes and Noble.

I sat thinking while inside the Jeep while Marlowe waited to find out if he was to live or die. There was no real decision to make. His firing at me, even though he wasn’t a sniper, should have taken me out earlier, no matter how I dodged and squirmed. Short-range shooting of a long-range […]

09/18/2025

THE COWARDLY LION, Volume VI, Chapter X

Christmas slowly moves on, hurried only by the arrival of a huge blizzard that also moves on, leaving the remainder of some supposed alien relic laying under a piñon bush out in the desert to be either retrieved or proven to be merely the bait to allow my assassination. Phil Marlowe's presence (the shooter) in the same city creates a security problem that must be dealt with, snow or no snow, relic or no relic. Moving to action whether sanctioned by the Agency or not becomes of paramount importance.

Please comment on the chapter as it means so much to me and all the readers who never comment but read other’s words with close attention and care. Please purchase the books including the coming Volume 5 of Cowardly still stuck at the printers by sending the money to PayPal or by check to me at James Strauss 507 Broad Street Lake Geneva Wisconsin 53147. You are not just purchasing books. You are totally supporting this unique writing exercise and participating in it. The new signed volume is $32.

I held back for a few seconds before committing. I was in Albuquerque, USA, and not in some combat zone, no matter what had happened earlier. If the car twenty meters away held hostiles, then people were going to die, with possibly the three of us among the dead. The Christmas carol played loudly wi...

Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome

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