Piker Press — Weekly Journal of Arts and Literature
April 27, 2026
Ralph Bland

Ralph Bland

Ralph Bland is a graduate of Belmont University, married with a daughter and three very spoiled dogs, and on numerous occasions likes disguising himself as a normal person. He is the author of sixteen novels and four story collections.

34 Articles
2 Genres
2026 Most Recent

About Ralph Bland

Ralph Bland is a graduate of Belmont University, married with a daughter and three very spoiled dogs, and on numerous occasions likes disguising himself as a normal person. He is the author of sixteen novels and four story collections. He has been a frequent contributor to the Piker Press through the years.

When not coercing himself to write he spends his time suffering over the heartbreaks of the Vanderbilt Commodores basketball team, lounging in his backyard with his adorable dogs, or tinkering with his 1949 Wurlitzer jukebox, trying to determine why one day it works and the next day it doesn't, knowing full well that because he is a mechanical idiot he will never know the answer.

A lover of Universal Monster movies and British sports cars that don't run, he is the proud owner of perhaps the South's largest Frank Sinatra audio collection, as if that has anything to do with the price of tea in China. Please visit his website, Ralph Bland, Southern Literary Novelist for more information about his writing.

Books by Ralph Bland

Short

19 articles ↑ top
  • The Girls Next Door

    Life is change, they say, but even a small change in life is like being swept downstream, and the banks of the river are never the same ...

  • You Can't Sit Down

    After so long, there's a strange itch to know, to see, to speculate...is it better not to scratch?

  • Heartache

    Youth is often short-sighted, and what will you see when you're old enough to take the long view..?

  • Close Your Eyes and I'll Kiss You

    Travel back in time fifty years and so much is different -- and so much the same...

  • Nova Scotia

    Did you see or did you miss the Great Eclipse of August 2017? Will your grandchildren remember where you were that day?

  • Brunch at Jacqueline's

    A moment to make sense of the mysteries of the past -- how long to understand our future?

  • Lifeguard

    The end of the season and isn't it time to let it go peacefully?

  • Harlan

    Time goes by, and though some things get better, some good things are lost. Makes you wonder if anyone will find them again...

  • Saturday

    Every week, it happens. No wonder we get old so quick...

  • Sinner, Come Home

    "It was humid like it was going out of style, the way it had always been when I was growing up..."

  • Ages Past

    "Change is good," they say, and "Time marches on." And there we are, listening to them...

  • Me and Steve

    Epic, that's what it was -- truly epic...well, sorta epic...

  • Caldwell's Eve

    After closing time on a lonely Christmas Eve...

  • A - 9

    Was it a real memory? Or was it just something you wish that you could have the memory of?

  • After the Storm

    The future is all ahead of us, the present is what keeps us going back to the fridge for a sandwich -- and the past ought to stay the hell back where it belongs...

  • Blaze of Glory
  • Rightfield
  • Mildred

    The end creeps up on us, and when it arrives, all we have left is the past...

  • The Lawns of Charlie Sloan

    Just get it done...

Serial

15 articles ↑ top
  • Not Dead Again 2

    The day after the news of a death can throw one's mind into a morass of memory. Is there a way out?

  • Not Dead Again 3

    People once known are now being drawn back from across oceans of forgetfulness to the island of Mr. Bailey's casket.

  • Not Dead Again 4

    Jennifer Kay Owens ... was she just a dream coasting in on the evening?

  • Not Dead Again 5

    When the girl you loved so long ago, for so long, ago, reappears in your life, what happens to your heart?

  • Not Dead Again 6

    Finally the day of Mr. Bailey's funeral arrives. But before he's buried, more will be uncovered ...

  • Not Dead Again 7

    With the revelation that romance is only a strangely flat memory, it is time to try to re-integrate into the world...

  • Not Dead Again 8

    In the cold winter light, sharpened by loss, what does anyone really know? What can any even say?

  • Not Dead Again 9

    Conclusion. " But we are still out here in the night, living the moments we have ..."

  • Not Dead Again

    A graduate of Belmont University, Ralph Bland is married with a daughter and three very spoiled dogs, and on some occasions he likes to disguise himself as a normal person. He is the author of 16 novels, all of the comic Southern Fiction genre.

  • Miss Julia

    Part One of Three. What was love like when we were young? Did we know what love really was, or would become?

  • Miss Julia, Part Two

    Part Two of Three. Julia Hagemeyer found out what love really was when she met Dennis Barton...and how love would change her world forever...

  • Miss Julia, Part Three

    Conclusion. Can Julia live without Dennis in her life? Let her tell us that answer...

  • Forestwood

    Part One of Three. When you lose interest in keeping your life -- well, lively and interesting -- you start to see just how green that grass is on the other side of the fence...

  • Forestwood 2

    Part Two of Three. Willis Carrington is one attractive man, and Lizzie wasn't immune to him. Problem was, he wasn't immune to her sister Caroline, either...

  • Forestwood 3

    Lizzie has been playing with bright, enticing fire and got a little burnt. But is that enough for her to keep a safe distance from those lovely dancing flames..?