Do You Ever Hit the Pigeons? A novel about losing/finding love, even if it takes a lifetime. An excerpt: "I guess you know everything there is to know about me, now," Marcy said, looking down. "And none of it changes my opinion about what a wonderful person you are," Sean said. "Do you believe me?" She gave a slight smile, trying to believe. She wanted to believe. "But you want to be with her." Sean's uncomfortable silence told her not to follow up on that idea. "Look, um...why don't we just kiss as a final, parting gesture, then we can each go our separate ways." "Did the idea of that kiss suggest itself and come naturally, or do we just feel like it's something we're supposed to do?" Sean said, looking her in the eyes. "For you, a kiss should indicate union...." she said. "I think so," Sean said. "A coming together, not a going apart." "You don't want to kiss me then?" she said, shuffling her feet to the side, turning away from him. Her lips called. "Yes, I do." He held her hands in his and turned her to face him. "But I think I'm strong enough now to realize that there's something else...someone else...that I want more. Someone that I need more." "Sounds like we're acting in a chintzy soap opera or something," she said, giggling. "I know. But I don't know how else say it. I really feel strong feelings for you, you know? I wanted you like crazy for a time, and I still probably do, if I'd let myself feel it. But it's all physical. It would be fake because there's no spirit behind it...." "Like there is with Becki," she finished for him. They were silent for several minutes, looking at each other's feet. The eyes were too intense. "It's okay, Sean. Really. I mean, it's like you said before." "What's that?" "You know, all that about how there are relationships where we give ourselves over to the other person so much that, when he leaves, we lose part of ourselves along with that person. Then there are other relationships, intense maybe, loving, for sure, but where we haven't given up any essential part of our spirit or our being or whatever you want to call it. In that case, the break-up is painful for losing the other person, but we don't lose anything from ourselves. We recuperate and move on without permanent damage." "And this is...?" "It took me awhile to realize it, to accept it, but this is the second type of relationship." Silence again. Sean wanted every relationship in his life to be of the first kind. "Smile while I leave, okay? Don't move from here. Just let me go to the bus station alone." "You're not alone anymore." "I know," she said, looking at her stomach. Signs of the life inside her hadn't yet become visible. "Am I doing the right thing?" "Your heart needs to tell you that, and I think you've already gotten your answer." "I love you, Sean." He didn't move until he heard the diesel engine of several busses pull away from the station. Then he sat down and cried. Sean took the long way home, after he was sure Marcy was gone. He didn't want her to see him from the window, and he didn't want to watch her disappear. He couldn't deny to himself that part of him went with her. Rain was sprinkling Charles Avenue North. Sean passed the bright car headlights and the whip-whip-whip of the windshield wipers, and felt a strong need to record everything around him into a locked-away place in his mind, safe from the memory-sapping powers of time. "I have to capture it in my heart. I have to preserve those moments which are very special," he told himself. He paused to look up Shady Way, and thought back to...the night he saw her... Copyright 2002 by Scott M. Vrooman Quetarmo

Why, Superman? Why Superman?, a collection of essays designed to delve into the idea of why a fictional character such as Superman should have such a powerful hold on the American (and world) imagination for more than 60 years. Table of Contents Part One: Why Superman? Prologue: What Superman is Not; A Father Figure: Longing for Familial Relationships; Hope and Optimism: The Power of the Myth; Self-Control and Responsibility for Self; Superman vs. Batman: An Approach to Conflict Resolution; The Symbolism of the Suit; Loss of a Friend. Part Two: Why, Superman? What's Different Now?; Superman Comics as a Literary Device; Entering the Real World; Just Part of the Super-Powered Crowd; Soul-Searching Anxieties: On Being Human; Loss of the Symbol; Absolute Truth: The Theological Implications. Epilogue: Do We Need Him Anymore? Copyright © 1993 by Scott M. Vrooman, Sr.

Lifeline, a screenplay that deals with the after-effects of rape on a college campus, including the ways in which such criminal acts affect so many people.

Legitimate Son An Excerpt: The pair got out of the car and walked slowly toward the rocky outcropping of a pier that jutted out from the parking lot. The birds, sparrows, they thought, were hopping reed to reed. As one reed would bend under a bird's weight, the bird would hop to another, and remain there while that one, too, bent down. Then he (or she) would suddenly spring up and land on another. They looked like so many little children on a playground's jungle gym. "They seem full of life, Kendra." "Maybe they know something we don't," she said, looking past Ulysses's shoulder to the edge of the rock outcropping. "Or more than that man knows, anyway." She motioned with her head for Ulysses to look around. They saw the man, older than they, climbing over the railing onto the rocks that led to the water. As he descended the rock incline, his legs disappeared, then part of his torso, but they could see his head. He looked left, and right, and straight ahead, then kept walking. "Let's go see what's going on," Kendra said. "He wasn't wearing a bathing suit, and this isn't a swimming place anyway. He's either crazy or he's trying to kill himself." "Why do you figure that right away?" "The way he looked. I've seen that look before." "I won't ask." "I'll tell you about it later." At the end of the stony pier, they saw the man floundering in water just over his head. He was wearing jeans, a heavy chamois shirt, a military-style jacket, and engineer's boots. Ulysses jumped over the railing just behind Kendra, and they both reached the man. They grabbed his jacket by the shoulders, and they noticed that his pockets were filled with large stones. Looking at them with craziness and incomprehension in his eyes, he pulled and fell backwards, taking them with him. All three were fully immersed now, but only two were struggling for breath and the surface. Ulysses couldn't break the man's grip in his forearm, so he kicked the man in the shin, causing him to loosen his fingers. Ulysses gasped for breath at the surface, looking for some foothold which he knew was just a few inches to far from him. He dove over for Kendra, grabbed her around the waist, and pulled as hard as he could, kicking the water for leverage. "Help...he's dragging me...," Kendra said, as her mouth came to the surface for the briefest of moments. The man, now panicking in his need for air, was grabbing onto Kendra's hair and pants leg, pulling her further down while trying to climb on her. Ulysses swam around to the man, grabbed his neck in a frantic bid to yank him off Kendra, and pulled. The man responded by reaching back to get at Ulysses, and Kendra crawled up on the rocks coughing and vomiting water. The man swung wildly and hit Ulysses in the jaw. Ulysses then let go, took a breath, went under and grabbed the man by the foot. With one superhuman stroke, Ulysses got close enough to the rocks. "Kendra...grab me..." She turned in time to put her foot out. Ulysses took hold. She held fast to the rocks and pulled him into where he could get a foothold. Standing again, Ulysses and Kendra pulled the man to the rocks. As they tried to stand him up and get him to the railing, he flailed with his closed fists, catching Ulysses in the stomach. Ulysses reeled, fell backward and struck his head on the rocks. Kendra, reacting instinctively, punched the man in the stomach violently, stunning him. She then shoved him over the railing, not so much caring how he landed on the concrete. She turned back to Ulysses, helped him up, and brought him to the railing. "You're bleeding," she said. "Where?" "From the back. You've got a bump there now, too." "Yuck," he said, as he put his hand back and felt the blood flowing. He pressed his palm against the wound, where Kendra told him to. Fighting off a dizzy spell, he bent down to get through the railing, with Kendra's help. They both then looked at the unconscious man on the concrete in front of them. "Do you think he'll be like that for a long time? Copyright 2002 by Scott M. Vrooman Quetarmo

Pathways to Consciousness, a novel, also set in a future time, when one young girl and one young guy begin to discover their telepathic connection and the possibilities inherent in practicing psychic communication.

I've included here a brief writing sample that I was asked to create during my interview for a college teaching position recently: Como individuos, tenemos la responsabilidad y el privilegio de ser parte de un mundo de varias razas y culturas, y es nuestra la obligación de aprender que ninguna cultura es superior, en su esencia, a otra. Todas son válidas y, más que válidas, todas las culturas del mundo representan algo de la capacidad humana para vivir, sobrevivir, amar, crear arte y contribuir algo al desarrollo de la historia del mundo. Y, ¿cómo vamos a enterarnos de todas estas contribuciones si confiamos sólo en el propio idioma? A mi modo de ver las cosas, no es posible llegar a entender las culturas, a verdaderamente entender y comprender a los demás, si no nos abrimos a la posibilidad de que nuestra lengua, sea cual sea, no sea la más importante del mundo, ni sea adecuada para expresar todas las posibles ideas que se han promulgado en el mundo desde el principio de la historia. Para los que realmente desean entenderse a si mismos y comprenderles profundamente a los demás, es imprescindible un conocimiento de otro idioma.