About this website. This website offers a selection of the writings of brothers George A. Platz and Richard S. Platz, and will include novels, short stories, and nonfiction. (Please note: The writings on this web site are provided solely for personal reading by visitors to the site. They may be copied or downloaded for that purpose only. They may not be distributed to other persons, altered in any way, or used for any other purpose without the express written consent of the authors, who reserve all rights in such works.) Comments, questions and licensing inquiries are welcome. Send them to: Platz Brothers, P.O. Box 797, Blue Lake, CA 95525.

About the Platz Brothers.

George A. Platz practiced law in Chicago from 1964 to 2002. He received his B.S. degree from Northwestern University in 1960 and his J.D. degree from Harvard Law School in 1963, where he was an editor of the Harvard Law Review. He is currently retired and spends his time at his farm in southwestern Michigan, his home near Chicago, and his winter residence in Thatcher, Arizona.

Richard S. Platz has retired from the practice of law in Humboldt County, California. Rick received his B.A. degree in philosophy from Northwestern University in 1964. In 1967 he received his JD degree from the University of California at Berkeley, serving as an associate editor of the California Law Review. After practicing law in Berkeley and Oakland, Rick spent two years in Mexico, near Guadalajara. In 1977 he established his sole general practice in Blue Lake, a rural town in Northern California with a population of 1200, where he served as City Attorney for more than 32 years. Besides writing, his interests include backpacking, garden railroading, and playing a little basketball.

Click on a title to read a sample of the Platz Brothers' works:

The Graham County Papers is a collection of George's papers on the history of the highways, irrigation canals, and golf course in Graham County, Arizona, where the Platz brothers were born.

Art Appreciation is George's essay on the paintings of Vincent Van Gogh, their total value, and the total value of fine art in general

Three Weeks In Provence is George's essay on the adventures and misadventures he and his wife Andrea experienced on a trip to France in the Fall of 2014

Loyalists is George's play about how residents of New York City react to the invasion and capture of the city by the British in September 1776

In Pursuit of the Elegant Trogon is Rick's account of the brothers' search for the rare and colorful Elegant Trogon in the canyons of Southeast Arizona.

Timestop One fine day some twenty years ago, as the Platz Brothers were motoring serenely around the southern tip of Lake Michigan toward Sugarwood Farm, and apropos of nothing in particular, George posed the following question, "If time travel is possible, then why don't we encounter anyone from the future?" Timestop is Rick's response.

Backpacking in Jefferson contains Rick's accounts of backpacking and dayhiking. While not intended as a guidebook, they do nonetheless contain photographs and data about trails, access to trailheads, and the location of good campsites that hikers may find of use. Located in the mountainous border region of northern California and southern Oregon, the State of Jefferson is more a state of mind than a political reality. But here lie plentiful wilderness areas and undesignated wildlands. This is a work in progress.

Excerpts from Adventures of a Weekend Farmer is a selection from the essays in George's published book on buying a farm and becoming an amateur surveyor, woodcutter, bridge builder, and maple syrup maker. It also includes a gallery of his wife Andrea's farm-related block prints.

For information about the Platz Brothers' published works available on Amazon, click on a title below:

Acquired Characteristics is George's short novel about Russian journalist Leo Krakin, who pursues an unusual second job in an unlikely time and place--as a private investigator in the Soviet Union of the early 1960s. He takes on a seemingly simple task of finding a professor's missing manuscript that draws him and his girlfriend Anya into a complex plot involving a murder and an audacious Cold War deception concerning weapons of mass destruction. In the course of his investigation, Krakin must deal with the KGB, the Soviet Academy of Science and its director T. D. Lysenko, the Soviet Army, a black market entrepreneur, a mysterious American agent and a wealthy American publisher, and a key Soviet government leader. Krakin evades one threat after another, only to face a choice that, if he survives, will determine the course of the rest of his life. Acquired Characterstics is now available for purchase on Amazon.com in a deluxe trade paperback or Kindle edition.

Hawk Island is George's imaginative novel set in a world dominated by a democratic government obsessed with equality and respect for human rights and indigenous cultures. It follows the lives of a frontiersman who becomes a revered protector of native tribes, an idealistic government leader who is deeply concerned about the treatment of a racial minority of which he is a member, a foreign despot who fiercely defends his homeland's rigid class structure, and others who are destined to play a role in an unexpected threat to that democratic government from outside its borders. Strong characters, political intrigue, crucial battles, and threats of nuclear devastation combine in a drama that deals with universal issues of egalitarianism, pacifism, racism, and cultural conflict. Hawk Island is now available for purchase on Amazon.com in a deluxe trade paperback edition.

Adventures of a Weekend Farmer is a collection of George's essays about the 80 acre farm in southwestern Michigan that he and his wife have used as a weekend retreat for more than 30 years. It covers some of the many things they learned as weekend farmers, including what to do (and not do) in buying and enjoying country property. Adventures of a Weekend Farmer is now available for purchase on Amazon.com in a deluxe trade paperback or Kindle edition. NOTE: you may read excerpts from these essays at no cost above.

Project Divine Wind is Rick's cybernetic courtroom thriller flavored with mystery and romance. Attorney Jed LeBaron's representation of a young black man accused of simple burglary leads him to the federal courts for a determination of whether a self-aware machine, a synthesis of genetic engineering and computer science, is entitled to the basic civil rights of a human being. LeBaron studied in Berkeley in the mid-Sixties and came away with a law degree. But what next? Returning from a long stay under the Mexican sun, he finds employment representing criminal defendants in the down and dirty neighborhoods of Oakland. His employer, Cedrick P. Collins, Esq., is a former longshoreman who earned his law degree from correspondence school and is now the most charismatic, elegantly dressed, and silver tongued African American criminal defense lawyer in the Bay Area. Law school never prepared LeBaron for coping with Collins' streetwise clients. This novel contains a realistic look at the underside of the legal justice system based on the author's own experience. 335 pages.

Of Magic and Delusion is Rick's third novel. The young Crown Prince is not happy. The darling of the realm, he is a product of an age of plenty in a kingdom protected by the Sorcerer's magic from savage barbarians at the borders. The Prince is representative of his generation, only somehow more so, as if painted in vivid colors by a more passionate hand. One would suppose him content. But inside he rages after the elusive goal of perfection and is ravaged by unquenchable desire. Neither philosophy nor faith can satisfy his longing. He turns to the Sorcerer for mastery of the magical. But here there is no real magic, only madness. Or to put it another way, there is only the magic of the everyday world, and all attempts to suborn it are madness. The result is a brutally honest coming-of-age novel, built from the bricks and mortar of real life. Through romance, adventure, humor, and a smattering of philosophy, Of Magic and Delusion explores hope, love, obsession, addiction, and self-delusion. Suitable for mature young adults prepared to face the truth. 150 pages.

Apointment at Angahuan was co-authored by Rick and James A. Kline. It is a contemporary novel of adventure, suspense, and international intrigue. Three young Americans are unwittingly drawn into the maelstrom of Presidential politics in Mexico as the Tarascan Indian people try to break the stranglehold of the conservative PRI party. Psychologist Dr. Jeff Rivers and Archaeologist Shimoko Johanson, in search of an ancient Tarascan treasure, and attorney Jed LeBaron, a pawn in a political game, are thrown together in the lava tubes beneath the re-awakening Paricutin volcano, the headquarters of the shadowy leader of the secretive Ninos del Tecolote. Completed in 1982, this novel foreshadows by a decade the violent indigenous uprisings in the State of Chiapas, Mexico, and the drug cartel and weapons wars of today. Co-author James A. Kline is a retired psychologist currently living in southwest Colorado. He has traveled extensively in Mexico. 300 pages.

Memories and Other Fictions is a collection of Rick's more-or-less autobiographical short stories. "Here is a handful of short stories, composed from my memories and from my imagination. They are recollections and they are fictions. That is to say, they are all fictions." --from the author's Preface. Prayer: Kerouac's novel and an unrequited love are the twin blades cutting the fabric of a young man's destiny. Gandy Dancer: What if Big Bad John had been a railroad man? The Ride: A hitchhiker should be careful before climbing in. Pookie: Jason Puker is a force of nature, but only one other person knows the secret of his obsession. Hacienda: Ben and Charlize buy a house, sight unseen, in the rural highlands of Mexico. Cover Crop: A Zen trainee discovers that global warming may not be an accident. Balance: At a contentious public hearing a mayor may find it hard to achieve balance. Revelation: Without a firm deadline, it's tough to get around to getting something done. Even if it's God's will. 158 pages.

Dreamtime is a collection of Rick's fantastic short stories. "These short stories are inventions of the mind. Some will be called fantasies. Others science fiction. Still others daydreams. Or myths. Or metaphors. The truth is that they are all merely inventions. A few have such firm footing in science that they will almost certainly come to pass. Others, not so much. What they have in common is that they are the stuff of dreams." Web: What would happen if the World Wide Web were to become conscious? Genome: Their first task was to draw a blood sample from the baby Jesus. After that, the mission got tricky. Mescalito: In the blinding Chihuahuan desert, it can be difficult to tell mirage from reality. New Moon: Following the pilot truck down the one-lane corridor can sometimes lead to an unexpected place. The House with the Christmas Lights: Herb thought he saw a ghost. Or was it a creature lying nearer to his own mind? Timestop: If time travel is possible, then why don't we encounter anyone from the future? The Cabin: Lester Ames is content to live alone in his log cabin in the woods. Until he falls asleep. He Sees You When You're Sleeping: What does Santa bring us when we're naughty? And five more stories of the odd. 229 pages.

Vanishing Point is like an old-time train steaming westward. For the outdoor enthusiast it carries two backpacking stories, a whitewater rafting account, and a tale of a Native American snagged by the Border Patrol as he treks through the Sonoran desert. Rick's first and only Western rides along. The baggage car holds a robot butler, a paramilitary elementary school, four quantum spaceships, and a flawed solution to overpopulation, among other stories. The passengers are characters from the stories. Each is different. Some are of different times, others of different places, and still others of different realities. But the characters all seem comfortable riding along together in this single volume, and we trust that the reader will share their comfort. Man Eaten: To sort things out Ernie Ackerman undertakes a solo backpack trip to Man Eaten Lake. Mrs. Wigmore's Troops: Mrs. Wigmore basks in the joy of the children at recess, until she has to press the red button. Barriers: Along the Mexican border Jacob Ramirez encounters unexpected barriers at the intersection of three cultures. Three New Years: Evan Layton rings in four New Years as he flies west. Pardners: In the Old West a lawyer and a stage coach driver have to rely on his pardner. The Woodsman: Lost in the woods, Nolan Anders learns to be a woodsman. The Butler: The robot butler seems to think he is somebody. River: Bunky gets more than a taste of true wilderness on his first whitewater rafting trip. In Which Universe?: The spaceships didn't look like spaceships at all. And five more stories. 173 pages.

Bristlecone asks "What if your freedom to travel were taken away?" After the death of his wife, Tildie, weary old dirt farmer Shadrack Smithers feels the need to take a road trip beyond the boundaries of his farm in the Surprise Valley of northeast California. He wants to return to the Ozarks, where he and Tildie had begun their family. Elan Groves, Shadrack's neighbor, wants to go along for the ride, and so does his teenage daughter Katie. Problem is, none of them have got a travel permit, and times have gotten weird. Government is fragmenting. Civil order is breaking down. Not until Shadrack makes it to his destination, do we learn the true purpose of his journey. Along the way, encounters with an overworked policeman and a rejuvenated preacher turn everything upside down. This is the story of Shadrack's quest for solace on a circular journey for redemption, and his deepening involvement in his home community.

Additional Items of Interest: Platzbrothers fans will also want to read the following literary creations and writings of interest:

The Dog and the Wolf, a poem written by George's granddaughter Eva Platz-Walker,when she was eleven years old.

Additional links:

You can read more of Rick's work at the following website: