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Canyon Park is bowed down under a relentless torrent of rain. The fields are flooded, the bridges crumble and the increasingly isolated town is host to a serial killer with a grudge against the wealthy Lollo family. Slipping between a small cast of characters; the killer, the tortured policeman hiding a dark secret, the returning son, the inquisitive librarian, the boy caught between cultures.... each of these marred, struggling humans a part of the threadbare fabric of the town. Throughout the story, secrets and motivations are slowly revealed, people continue to die, and it continues to rain. -

Emily from POD People

The story is about a Native American, driven to madness by his experience growing up in the small upstate New York town of Canyon Park being discriminated, molested and ostracized. In his mind, various characters of his tribe's mythology and American popular culture vie for his soul. He terrorizes the residents of Canyon Park, murdering those he judges guilty, to punish them for their crimes against him and his ancestors. Strangely, since the killing spree began, there has been a deluge of constant rain adding to the dismal mood and hampering efforts to stop him while the resident also battle nature's fury. Under these conditions, various characters gather from places as close as the local library, to as far away as New York City, to absolve their sins and stop their beloved town from being eroded away.

All the characters are eventually stripped bare in this trying time and face their naked souls, their dark inner parts that they are afraid to see and their true selves. America's national guilt over the destruction of the Native American culture is weaved through the motivation of the characters as they struggle with the consequences of acts they committed in the past or the acts of their kin.

The Indian Boarding Schools and the Mythology of Iroquois Creation Myth were thoroughly researched and are based on fact though the setting and characters are all fictional.

Erosion by Lon S. Cohen is available in paperback from Lulu.com.


Thanks Tom Cote for his version of Amazing Grace in my last chapter. Check out his music here.

This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works- 3.0 United States License.

Audio Quality: Out of 24 ratings

Narration Quality: Out of 24 ratings

Writing Quality: Out of 24 ratings

Overall Rating: Out of 24 ratings

By: JaneInPA
Just finished and wanted to say "thank you", for a very enjoyable listen. It was well paced and thought provoking and I would definitely recommend it. Not sure if you want commentary on the story or the tech, so I'll offer a little of both. Might just be me, but I had a little trouble keeping the names straight early on - Jerry and Gary in particular - very different visually, but aurally - not so much. Also, I thought Francine was lacking a little in character development. She was the only character that felt a little like just a plot device. The rain was a great addition - almost like another character. As for my "2 cents worth" on some of the technical issues - the episode lengths didn't bother me, since each ended naturally but I might feel differently if I had listened to it as a work in progress. When I wait a week for an episode - I'd like it to last! I liked the music, but it did compete with the narration sometimes (although it might also be my cheap little MP3 adaptor for the car radio!). I hope you're going to podiocast more of your work.

By: per ove sleen
First I want to say thank you for writing us a great story, and that this is a nice piece of literature ( so I think anyway, haven't gotten to the end yet..chap.15 next..hope it isn't ruined with the standard all over happy endings...I hate that..I like 50/50 or even all over tragedy like in real life). But the characters are deep and with nice layers of texture being served in increments. The surroundings slowly dawns on you and you get a nice overview after a while. If you are new at this I will say nothing of the narration, cos the little mistakes are just charming and will vanish in no time as you get more practice....it's actually very nice. There is actually only one thing I want to point out, and that is the music in the background. It should be even more quiet, and you shouldn't loop one short sequence for ever (that's what it sounds like). The flute gets very annoying after a while. It would also be a good idea to use a recording of some quality music, played by professional musicians. There is a very good collection of all sorts of good (and bad:-) music that you are aloud to use for podcasting on www.podsafemusic.com I've been a professional musician for more than 25 years and I can hear the difference (and most people will feel it without knowing). But the rain is awesome, it really sets the mood. All and all a very good product, so keep up the good work and thank you again for reading it to us. That's very nice of you. pos

By: Zack
First off, thanks to Lon for writing this great podiobook. Second, Erosion is a very apt title for this book. The literal and figurative erosion of a small town, the erosion of a family, the erosion of an entire culture, and the erosion of a man's sanity all come together to form a great and entertaining story.

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