Writings Index

Doug Bittinger has been writing articles, short stories, poetry and novels since junior high school (late 1960's).  In that time a fair number of works have been published, mostly non-fiction.  Some were published under the pen name Allan Douglas.  He has sold several technical manuals, a book on computer programming, a series of articles in COMAL Today magazine, some short items to PC Magazine, an article in Parenting magazine, along with a number of short pieces in Readers' Digest and American Woodworker magazines.

Presented here are a selection of Doug's works; most of these lacked the literary greatness required for formal publication.  Some were published to the web as well as in print and we've linked to the publishers articles.  Others were posted only for a short time and we may now reproduce them here.  Even the unpublished works have been enjoyed by those with whom they've been shared so we put them up for you to read and, hopefully, enjoy as well.

Going Pro As A Woodworker  A 10 part series purchased by Highland Woodworking for publication in their Wood News Magazine.

Furniture Construction Articles  A series of photo-illustrated articles describing the process, techniques and reasoning of building an assortment of furniture pieces, published by Smoky Mountain Woodworks on their web site.

Rules Of Thumb  A series of short articles, some very short, discussing some of those hard won pearls of knowledge that we gain only through experience with a particular slant toward woodworking.

1. The First Rule of Thumb
2. A Stitch In Time Saves Nine
3. The Cold Weather Workshop
4. Horizontal Surface Shortage?
5. Planer Blades
6. Steeling Yourself
7. What is Right?

The Concord Grill   Brief Restaurant Review.

The Muny Amphitheater   Entertainment Review.

VGA Planets 4   Game review.

Twist Of Fate   A true story that happened in the late 1970's.   The kind of thing that Soap Operas thrive on.

New Puppy   Readers Digest style short about a trip to the pet store with Doug's young daughter, who has always had a way with words.

Louisville Lil   Another R.D. style short story about a co-worker who always managed to have her way.

Ode To Fred   A humorous short about a young fellow I know and his pet turtle.

Woodworker Wanderings  A series of articles created for Rockler Woodworking and Hardware and published on their web site, but since they have been removed, we may post them for you here.

1. Louisville Slugger museum and factory. Posted 6/21/2000
2. Furniture Alley, heartland of American furniture production.   Posted 7/17/2000.
3. DeKlomp Wooden Shoe Factory in Holland Michigan.   Posted 8/15/2000.
4. Martin Guitars history and manufacturing.   Posted 9/16/2000.
5. Giant City A delight for nature buffs of all ages.   Posted 10/16/2000.

Mountain Man Wannabe  An eclectic collection of short pieces inspired by the adventures of this middle-aged city couple as we move to the mountains to pursue our dream of building custom furniture.

  The Fat Lady Sings 

1. A Day With A Dingo
2. A Right Fine Settin' Porch
3. All About Nails
4. Alone Again - Naturally
5. An Eventful Day
6. Are You Out Of Your Mind!?
7. Big Box Blues
8. Doug's Busy Day
9. Doug-Bob's Gone D.J.
10. Good Mountain Morning
11. Hindsight
12. Hitting The Wall
13. I Yam What I Yam
14. Labor Day
15. Obituary
16. Riding in the Fast Lane
17. Rocky Top Burning!
18. Tree Fall
19. Up On My Soapbox
20. Workshop Tour
21. Woodland Critters

Looking At the Cross  Different people see different things when they see the cross of Calvary.

A Tale of Two Builders  In Luke 6:46-49 Jesus tells a parable about two men who built homes. You know the tale; one man built on sand and lost his home in a storm, the other dug down to rock...

Spiritual Athletes  The Christian life is a lot like the life of an athlete. In fact this comparison is drawn several times in the Bible...

A Religion of Convenience  The ancient Israelites kept turning away from God and falling into paganism; why, and are we doing the same thing today?

A Whisper Or A Brick?  An important lesson learned the hard way.

Driving Through Life  A short comparison between living life and driving a car.

The Boat   Doug's first real story, written in his sophomore year of high school for a Creative Writing class.   The teacher praised his use of illustrative allusions.

Cyborg Invasion   Was a work-in-progress, being created from the events arising in a game of VGA Planets.   Primarily a creative outlet for pent-up fictional fission.   Some tongue-in-cheek humor and a lot of spoofing well known Sci-Fi shows and characters.

The Wager   A cute Sci-Fi short story with a twist.

Walls   Poetry - in any form - has never come easily for Doug.   It requires his being in a highly charged emotional state or whatever he writes turns out like a third rate Limerick.   This was one of his first successful attempts at poetry.

Angel   A purely fictional fantasy concerning a young lady with whom Doug was once quite taken.   Alas, the real life story ended quite badly.

Beware  One of many works inspired by a failed attempt at romance.

Demons among us   Inspired by a rash of media coverage concerning priests and ministers who had been exposed as child molesters.

You may also enjoy our collection of audio and video productions:

1. Cataloochee Valley  Historic Cataloochee valley video.
2. A Day In the Life of Dolly   Daily adventures of our best friend.
3. Hard Times Rod Run   A classic car & hot rod show video.
4. Dr. Calvin Metcalf's Radio Program  A weekly radio program.