Stories from the Sky

As a boy lying in the grass of his Michigan backyard, Richard Schlottman dreamed of soaring alongside the birds that drifted above him. Decades later, those dreams became reality when he discovered hang gliding and found his own wings. Stories from the Sky is a pulse-quickening collection of essays chronicling Rick's decades-long obsession with the freedom of flight.

Born and raised in the shadow of Michigan's rustbelt, Rick grew up in a place where the sky seemed impossibly far away, and the boundaries of his world could feel as hemmed in as the town itself. Yet even as a child, he was captivated by the open sky-his curiosity rising far beyond the earth's limits. Years later, drawn to the wild promise of the west, Rick found himself at the edge of the California mountains, facing the vast blue expanse that once filled his childhood daydreams.

From white-knuckle escapes from disaster to serene moments suspended in silent air thousands of feet above the earth, these stories capture both the thrill of adventure and the quiet reverence of seeing the world from a bird's-eye view. Rick's journey from the fields of the Midwest to craggy mountaintops overlooking the Pacific traces not only the arc of a passionate life, but the unforgettable beauty of chasing your wildest dreams.