With imagination and a great deal of heart, Ed Bach, the author of the recently released novel, Joleen, uses his creative agility to forge the faulting character, Willie Pinkly, a threadbare, middle-aged man who spends his days toiling in his eight-by-eight cube, winnowing nickels and dimes from the company’s customers. Once considered a shoo-in to reach the executive suite, the years have taken its toll, and Willie spends his days spinning in his chair and annoying the people around him. At a Christmas dinner party, he gains access to his boss’s secret bat phone and calls him daily pretending to be the caped crusader’s sidekick, Robin. The “bat” phone.In the story Lost at Sea, a once-wealthy man disappears when his boat is found motoring far offshore with no one aboard. Has the man fallen overboard? Or has a recent financial setback sent him into hiding with the goal of cashing in on a five-million-dollar life insurance policy?