Ephemera [i-FEM-er-uh]
collectible memorabilia often created for a single use. Ticket stubs, programs, buttons, stickers.
​
But the ephemera in these pages has lasting value. Words fashioned into poetry, short stories, vignettes. Words collected over many years. And haints created from found objects, cast offs, and the detritus of our lives. The words and the haints intermingle in this collection of memorabilia.

I began writing this book many years ago, but never thought it would become a book. A stack of writings, notebooks and single pages rose in a pile on the floor by my desk. My leg often brushed against it, drawing my attention to this precious accumulation. What was I going to do with all this writing? Was it trying to tell me something?

One dark, rainy day, when I seated myself at my desk, another brush of my leg against the writing stack sent me into a frenzy when it all began to topple and slide. I grabbed a first bundle and carried  it to my kitchen counter; and bundle after bundle, I cleared the space next to my desk.

The kitchen counter groaned under the weight of so much paper, but I was drawn to read what was captured on those pages. Time disappeared as I stood for hours that first day reading piece after piece, discarding some, saving most. Something was taking shape.

The “save” pile beckoned me to get going. craft of writing and the art of revision.

But first a call to Andy Reed, who published Musical Morphine: Transforming Pain One Note at a Time and Open for Lunch, was in order.

We decided to meet for lunch. I asked him right away if he was still interested in another book. He sat up straight and said he was. I was flummoxed about how to proceed with all these pages of writing. He instructed me to catalogue it piece by piece, labeling each by genre, title, subject and date. I sighed. This sounded like a real slog. But I did what he suggested.

We met over lunch again; this time I carried a fat clipboard loaded with ten legal pages packed with catalogued writing!
Even before he could comment I said,  “This is way too much for a book. What do I do now?”

He smiled. “Choose the ones you cannot live without.”

And so I curated my favorite pieces and marked them with a blue dot on the legal pages. I read, re-read, revised, edited and created a new file of book inclusions: material about family and friends, relationships, life and death, faith, parenting, nature. Serious, funny, outrageous, tender.

I offer you this collection of poetry, prose, fiction, fact and imagination. And scattered throughout the pages are photos of my folk art, my Anti-Haints, made from found objects, junk drawer finds and natural materials.
​
EPHEMERA at its best!
Robin Russell Gaiser

Available through Pisgah Press, your local independent bookseller, and Amazon

"Your writing is so descriptive and evocative and it was a pleasure to be reminded of these wonderful aspects as I read the various stories and poems you included. Now, Ephemera has a place on my bookshelf next to Musical Morphine and Open for Lunch and tucked in among other books written by authors I know. What a lovely collection!" — J.G.

Robin Russell Gaiser, MA,CMP, holds degrees in English literature and psychology as well as a certificate in therapeutic music. Her first book, Musical Morphine:Transforming Pain One Note at a Time was a 2017 finalist in American Book Fest’s Best Book Awards. Open for Lunch, her second book, garnered an NPR interview in 2020. Her third book, Ephemera, was just released in July, 2026. She publishes with Pisgah Press,LLC, Asheville, NC.
Gaiser has presented before book clubs, bookstores and professional groups, and was featured in a TEDx Talk,“Good Vibrations: Less Drugs, More Music.” Her short stories and poetry appear in numerous anthologies and journals. As a vocalist and multi-instrumentalist she has performed widely and recorded numerous CDs; and provided live bedside music to critically ill and those in the last stages of life. She is a prolific creator of folk art using found objects, junk drawer contents and natural materials. She and her husband have three children and five grandchildren scattered from coast to coast. Robin and her husband live at 2200 feet among the bears and deer in Asheville, NC.