You thought Steven King was a prolific author, with more than 50 novels to his credit? Multiply by SIX to get the output of David Robbins , who calls Rogue River home. At last count, Robbins had written 321 (correction: 322) books, mostly novels, under a handful of different names. And three of his books were adapted from Hollywood movies. His most successful works are in the "Endworld" series, depicting a post-Apocalypse Earth. Whence comes all these stories?

The big transportation bill passed by the Oregon Legislature had a lot of features for a lot of different travel modes. That includes bicycles, which get more off-street paths under the bill. But they also get a new tax: $15 on the sale of every adult-sized bicycle with a value $200 or above. There are mixed feelings among people who use and sell bicycles, as you might imagine. We visit with reps from Bike Portland , People for Bikes , and Talent's Flywheel Bicycle Solutions .

Our part of the world is prone to earthquakes and resulting tsunamis. In coastal communities, it's easy to know where to go TO, should a tsunami warning sound. But that doesn't cover where you should run FROM. A new online app developed by Todd Becker, an environmental analyst for Humboldt County, shows the tsunami evacuation zones in the county. So you can check on a phone which areas should be left behind once the ground shakes.

Two words, not terribly descriptive alone, gain surprising strength when used in a two-word phrase: special forces. That phrase conjures up images of elite teams of military forces, trained for the most difficult and harrowing missions. Special operations forces grew out of World War II and stuck around. Now they are profiled in a book, Oppose Any Foe: The Rise of America’s Special Operations Forces .

Just a small percentage of Americans serve in the armed forces now. But that's still 20 million and more people with experiences taking up arms to protect the country. Southern Oregon Public TV--SOPTV--honors them periodically with "My Story of Service," personal tales of service from veterans of all ages. A second season of stories is now underway, and producer Jeff LeBeau visits with Larry Slessler, who has memories from Vietnam and the Cuban missile crisis.

Lyme disease is scary, plain and simple. It can cause a host of problems in humans, including damage to the joints, the heart, and the nervous system. And it appears to be spreading. Geos Institute chief scientist Dominick DellaSala attributes the spread of Lyme to global warming, which allows the ticks that carry the disease to expand their range.

Anneli Rufus believed the voice that told her she was worthless. And the voice was her own. If it's possible to measure self-esteem in negative numbers, that's where she was. And she realized over time that neither she nor anyone else needs to feel that way. Her journey of realization and reconstruction is told in her book Unworthy: How To Stop Hating Yourself .

Few of us are equipped to understand the challenges of mental illness. And that's why we hear the voices of people struggling with mental health in our monthly segment "Compass Radio." It is co-produced by Compass House in Medford, a center that functions on the clubhouse model of mental health care. Compass House residents talk about issues in their lives, including homelessness and unemployment, in recordings made at the house.

People continue to smoke and use tobacco in Oregon, despite programs in place to discourage smoking. The Oregon Nurses Association says there's a reason: the tobacco industry spending heavily to influence laws and policies in the state. ONA points to Oregon's low cigarette tax as one example.

You don't have to write like a journalist to be successful in most careers. But it helps, actually. Being able to communicate thoughts in writing--briefly and clearly--is a handy skill no matter what the job. Professional journalist Mary-Kate Mackey, who taught at the University of Oregon, packages up some ideas on how to deliver punchy prose in her book Write Better Right Now: The Reluctant Writer's Guide to Confident Communication and Self-Assured Style . That subtitle tells it all: even if