NEW STORY coming this spring: "Pillars of Society" by Chuck Trunks (Trunks Art)!

Nampa, Idaho - April 7, 2026 - An excerpt: “When I first met you,” Fitz continued, “you seemed like a normal caterpillar—a little too serious and particular for my taste, but I liked you anyway. Back then, you were married, had a nine-to-five job, and lived in a house you owned. You used to do things and go places. Now, you’re single, don’t work, and rent where they’ll have you. You isolate yourself, dedicating all your time to reading, writing, and researching topics nobody cares about anymore. And yet, you walk around with this self-importance, believing you have the answers to life’s most mysterious questions as if—”

“Fitz, that’s enough!” hissed Bethany.

 

The premise: Do you know what the United States of Private Equity Firms needs right now? A lower cost of living? Non-profit health care? A government that actually represents the interests of its taxpayers? Nope. It needs an allegorical tale of personal transcendence as told through the interactions between four fuzzy caterpillars. Carl, Bethany, Fitz, and Sigmund live and work in a colony located in a secluded pond surrounded by wetland trees and dotted with water lilies. Each represents one of four distinct, survivalist responses to crumbling capitalism and the ascent of fascism.

 

-Chuck Trunks

 

“This work was written independently by the author without the use of generative AI.”

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All my books can be found on Amazon. 💓💓💓

Trunks Art moved from Columbia, South Carolina, to Nampa, Idaho, in 2025 and has made this city his home and writing inspiration.

To see more of my work, please have a look at more posts or email me at chucktrunks@gmail.com. Or, visit my website at www.trunksart.com.  Also, you can find me on Instagram (chucktrunks) and Facebook (Chuck Trunks).

A Brief Review of Hunter S. Thompson's "The Rum Diary" by Chuck Trunks (Trunks Art)

Nampa, Idaho - March 30, 2026 - I finally got my chance to read a Hunter S. Thompson (1937-2005) book when I saw The Rum Diary (1998) on the same library shelf containing works by Thoreau, Tolkien, and Twain. Up until that moment of discovery, most of what I had heard about the controversial author convinced me he was a half-crazed lunatic, known for womanizing, boozing, wielding guns, and having pioneered a method of writing referred to as “gonzo journalism,” a subjective and personal style where the author is central to the story, blending fact with fiction for optimal engagement.

The Rum Diary is set in Puerto Rico during the late 1950s, an island I called home for nearly two years while commuting for work from Los Angeles at the dawn of the new millennium. Back then, the buzz was about how the Y2K computer problem threatened to send the civilized world, including the Caribbean, back to the dark ages. But in Mr. Thompson’s second novel—written when he was only 22 years old—the buzz in Puerto Rico was centered around the exploitation of a peaceful, beautiful island—before Kennedy and Castro.

The main character, Paul Kemp, is a down-on-his-luck, world-traveling journalist who settles into a precarious job writing for The San Juan Daily News, a volatile and fledgling English-language newspaper filled with rum-sucking coworkers with anger issues who entangle Paul with nefarious businessmen, sadistic policemen, sex-fueled women, devil-may-care partying, and sheer recklessness. Simply stated, The Rum Diary is a highly entertaining novel that captivated me from the very beginning. It’s the kind of story you’d read under the covers with a flashlight because your parents forbid you to read it. Afterwards, you’d understand why they didn’t want you to read it—but you’d be glad you did.

-Chuck Trunks

“This work was written independently by the author without the use of generative AI.”

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All my books can be found on Amazon. 💓💓💓

Trunks Art moved from Columbia, South Carolina, to Nampa, Idaho, in 2025 and has made this city his home and writing inspiration.

To see more of my work, please have a look at more posts or email me at chucktrunks@gmail.com. Or, visit my website at www.trunksart.com.  Also, you can find me on Instagram (chucktrunks) and Facebook (Chuck Trunks).

 

A Brief Review of Hermann Hesse's "Steppenwolf" by Chuck Trunks (Trunks Art)

Nampa, Idaho - March 22, 2026 - A year ago, I discovered the word “Steppenwolf” is more than just the name of a 1960s rock band responsible for the iconic counterculture anthem “Born to Be Wild.” Steppenwolf (1927) is also the title of one of Hermann Hesse’s most famous novels, a psychological and existential thriller about a man torn between his humanity and his natural inclination toward wolfish loneliness. Ten days ago, I brought it home with me from the library; by the time I finished reading the preface that evening, I was thinking, I’m not only the same age as the wretched protagonist, Harry Haller, but I’m also exactly like him! Oh no!

Hermann Hesse (1877-1962), a German-Swiss novelist and Nobel Prize winner for literature in 1946, published Steppenwolf at the age of 50. In it, he describes a society that is as lost and rudderless as the one we live in today—just substitute radios and gramophones for the internet. What made Steppenwolf interesting to me was the main character—no doubt an alter ego of the author—who struggles, like many of us, with the duality of human nature: spirituality versus physical indulgence, intellect versus emotion. Each time I turned the pages, I kept reminding myself that Mr. Hesse was describing a medium-sized German town in the late 1920s—and not Los Angeles, California, in the 2000s, Boise, Idaho, in the 2010s, or Columbia, South Carolina, in the 2020s.

I am like the anti-hero Harry Haller in that I, too, am aware—and deeply troubled—by the evil truths that underpin so-called “civilized society.” It isn’t until Harry meets Hermine, a young lady of dubious distinction, that he is coerced into confronting his self-defeating behaviors. This confrontation climaxes in a conclusion that one would think impossible to imagine—let alone write—more than a hundred years ago. It reads like an Edgar Allen Poe rewrite of a Hans Christian Andersen story, directed by Stanley Kubrick. It’s wild, macabre, and voyeuristic—an unsettling ending to Hesse’s Steppenwolf, a book I won’t soon forget.

-Chuck Trunks

"This work was written independently by the author without the use of generative AI."

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All my books can be found on Amazon. 💓💓💓

Trunks Art moved from Columbia, South Carolina, to Nampa, Idaho, in 2025 and has made this city his home and writing inspiration.

To see more of my work, please have a look at more posts or email me at chucktrunks@gmail.com. Or, visit my website at www.trunksart.com.  Also, you can find me on Instagram (chucktrunks) and Facebook (Chuck Trunks).

"Be Still My Heart: A Code for Love" has resonated with so many readers. What's your story? Do you agree or disagree with mine?

Nampa, Idaho  - March 16, 2026 - An excerpt from Chapter 5: My modus operandi was always the same. If our initial phone conversation was going well, I’d find out about her availability and willingness to meet before saying, “I’ll come up with a plan and text you sometime tomorrow.” By this time in the online dating game, I had already figured out that since I was the one who was expected to plan and pay for the initial meetup, I might as well suit myself. After all, these weren’t real dates, plus I had yet to lay eyes on any of these women. I figured meeting at a neighborhood bar within walking distance from my apartment for a beer or a glass of wine would make everyone happy—they didn’t have to come up with an idea or bring their wallet, and I could enjoy a leisurely walk to an inexpensive evening with a relative stranger.

Be Still My Heart: A Code for Love is on Amazon now.

Back Cover:

How many times do we have to be told to step outside our comfort zone before it becomes "You're just not trying hard enough?" At first, I bristled at such tiresome platitudes, yet there I was, rolling up my sleeves, putting myself out there, and believing that life gives you exactly what you put into it.

But does it? Has life really given you exactly what you deserve? When so many of us can't find romantic love, meaningful work, a true friend, a permanent home, or enough money to live on, I can't help but think that something other than our own poor choices and self-defeating behaviors is working behind the scenes to keep us from acquiring happiness, success, and fulfillment. To me, it just doesn't add up.

Be Still My Heart: A Code for Love will not only reveal what's hidden behind the curtain, but you'll also come to understand that your lot in life isn't all your fault.  💖💖💖 

Trunks Art moved from Columbia, South Carolina, to Nampa, Idaho, in 2025 and has made this city his home and writing inspiration.

To see more of my work, please have a look at more posts or email me at chucktrunks@gmail.com. Or, visit my website at www.trunksart.com.  Also, you can find me on Instagram (chucktrunks) and Facebook (Chuck Trunks).

A Brief Review of Robert Kurson's "Rocket Men" by Chuck Trunks (Trunks Art)

Nampa, Idaho - March 13, 2026 - Two high-profile assassinations, race riots, violent anti-war demonstrations, subversive countercultures, and Cold War threats of nuclear annihilation pummeled America into one of its darkest hours. No, I’m not talking about any year between 2019 and 2026; I’m talking about 1968—when the country was coming apart at the seams. But just like any story where the hero steps up to save the day at the last possible moment, NASA’s Apollo 8 year-end mission not only rescued America from imploding on itself, but it also saved the world.

Whereas Lily Koppel touched on the historic mission from the wives’ viewpoint in her terrific book The Astronaut Wives Club (2013), Robert Kurson’s Rocket Men (2018) recounts the story from the perspective of the three heroic astronauts themselves. Like most earthbound stargazers, I was under the impression that Apollo 11 was NASA’s greatest achievement, but even the first man to set foot on the lunar surface, Neil Armstrong, put Apollo 8’s mission at the top of the list. I whole-heartedly recommend these two books. While Koppel’s book offers the reader a complete background on all three NASA programs—Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo—Kurson’s focuses solely on Frank Borman, James Lovell, and William Anders, the first men to orbit the moon.

Earlier today, as I drove to the library to return Rocket Men, I was saddened by the fact that interest in space exploration seems to have faded away with the 1960s. While I watched the book disappear behind a wall, I had to wonder who—or what—would save America in 2026.

“Houston, we have a problem.”

-Chuck Trunks

"This work was written independently by the author without the use of generative AI."

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All my books can be found on Amazon. 💓💓💓

Trunks Art moved from Columbia, South Carolina, to Nampa, Idaho, in 2025 and has made this city his home and writing inspiration.

To see more of my work, please have a look at more posts or email me at chucktrunks@gmail.com. Or, visit my website at www.trunksart.com.  Also, you can find me on Instagram (chucktrunks) and Facebook (Chuck Trunks).

A Brief Review of F. Scott Fitzgerald's "Tender Is the Night" by Chuck Trunks (Trunks Art)

Nampa, Idaho - March 8, 2026 - Google summarizes its definition of the Lost Generation, a term coined by Gertrude Stein, as the generation who came of age during World War I. With what we know of the conflict and its aftermath, it isn’t hard to understand how these young adults—especially in France and Italy—became spiritually adrift, deeming pre-war moral and traditional values as no longer relevant. Whereas Stein, an American writer and poet living in Paris, identified the social movement, Ernest Hemingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald popularized it in The Sun Also Rises (1926) and Tender Is the Night (1934).

I finished reading Tender Is the Night—one of only four Fitzgerald novels—a week earlier, and I still can’t stop thinking about it. Similar to Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises, Fitzgerald’s story centers around complicated and deeply flawed American expatriates living in post-war Europe. However, Fitzgerald’s characters are more aristocratic, intellectual, and refined—yet they still pursue what everyone wants: acceptance for their true selves and romantic love. What results is a timeless tale—one relatable even in today’s screen-rich society. Whether you see yourself in one or more of the characters or are drawn to the complexity of their misgivings, Tender Is the Night offers a haunting, unforgettable descent into the gilded world of the restless elite.

If you can get through Fitzgerald’s pedantic attentiveness to cultural details, poetic prose, and uneven pacing, you’ll be rewarded with a rich story that—if you’re like me—will make you believe we’re living among several lost generations right now.

-Chuck Trunks

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All my books can be found on Amazon. 💓💓💓

Trunks Art moved from Columbia, South Carolina, to Nampa, Idaho, in 2025 and has made this city his home and writing inspiration.

To see more of my work, please have a look at more posts or email me at chucktrunks@gmail.com. Or, visit my website at www.trunksart.com.  Also, you can find me on Instagram (chucktrunks) and Facebook (Chuck Trunks).

NEW STORY coming this spring: "Pillars of Society" by Chuck Trunks (Trunks Art)!

Nampa, Idaho - March 4, 2026 - Do you know what the United States of Private Equity Firms needs right now? A lower cost of living? Non-profit health care? A government that actually represents the interests of its taxpayers? Nope. It needs an allegorical tale of personal transcendence as told through the interactions between four fuzzy caterpillars. Carl, Bethany, Fitz, and Sigmund live and work in a colony located in a secluded pond surrounded by wetland trees and dotted with water lilies. Each represents one of four distinct, survivalist responses to crumbling capitalism and the ascent of fascism.

All my books can be found on Amazon. 💓💓💓

Trunks Art moved from Columbia, South Carolina, to Nampa, Idaho, in 2025 and has made this city his home and writing inspiration.

To see more of my work, please have a look at more posts or email me at chucktrunks@gmail.com. Or, visit my website at www.trunksart.com.  Also, you can find me on Instagram (chucktrunks) and Facebook (Chuck Trunks).