I published Missing Pieces, December 30, 2020
Some insights into my new novel, Missing Pieces
I so enjoyed writing this Novel, and I know you will enjoy reading it. Many of my followers have told me it is a page turner they cannot put down. The settings are varied and interesting. Lots of little known history of Camden New Jersey, a city which now gets little positive press. Many do not know it was once a key element of the War effort against the Nazis in WWII. or that Walt Whitman moved there and created a cultural community of poets artists and musicians.
The story is about a good woman of good conscience who was born in Camden just prior to WWII and lived a life that would not be possible there today. Though she was in the city in a place called Morgan Village, or "Sweet Potato Hill" as it was affectionately known by the locals. They had a rural homestead in a city environment. Lena the main character even had a pony which was kept in a barn behind her house and built before the Revolutionary war. Few people know that much of the revolutionary war was fought in New Jersey. In fact, General Washington spent most of his time fighting there. Almost all villages , towns and cities felt the ravages of the war.
The history of The state shows that the People of New Jersey are mostly Provincial or Parochial. They tend to stay in one location, and have strong ties to a particular people group not doing much travel outside their native area. What Lena experiences is a Post War era where all of that is rapidly changing.
People are changing, and the traditions are migrating away from her epicenter. This is a part of her challenged maturation. Her very identity is on the line, and her reaction is a big part of the story.
In Missing Pieces we see many characters, and locations and settings constantly changing. Post WWII was a cultural shock to America more so than the first war, It was a change almost as great as the Post Civil War era,
I have tried to capture the locations, settings, and attitudes of my characters who lived through this time, and their feelings of living in our current turbulent times as they were swept along with those changes.
One major change was that of the moral compass Lena had set in her heart and mind at birth. The reality of what is in the minds of people from Lena's generation clashes sharply with the mind set of the 21ST Century. People often get that wrong. on New Years of 1999 people thought they had moved into the 21ST century. However, that is like saying if you count from 1 to 9 you have a decade. What you have is 9 years. the same is true for Centuries 1900 to 1999 is only 99 years. The celebration for the 21ST Century took place Dec 31, 2000. Howevver, the 21ST Century will last from 2001 to 3000 not 2199.
The issue is not with the calendar, but with people and their attitudes. As we have seen throughout history, each Century has it's own unique identity, and it does not just come about on New Years day. What Lena experiences is the gradual metamorphosis of her society physically, mentally and morally. She is a spirit filled person and not a person of the world. Her constant efforts to focus and center herself in the Universal constant which guides all things is unique.
Unlike those surrounding her who are an undeniable piece of her life, she is constantly aware of how people move away from their God Infused Central purpose. How she discovers this will keep you reading to the very end.
New works on the Horizon
My next book is a focus on essays, stories and reactions to the world around me To that end for the past 17 years I have kept a Blog[this Blog you are reading] of my thoughts and reactions to the world around me. I have always believed that two things apart from our soul try to rule and direct our lives and thoughts.
POLITICS
Like it or not Politics , at least these days where it is not as Lassie Faire as Jefferson and Adams and others intended. Today it has become a ubiquitous giant gobbling up all the good and wholesome plans the founders of America intended. We the people are at fault for letting government rule us rather than US rule them as intended.
POETRY, MUSIC, ART, LITERATURE
This has come about through another well intentioned idea that has also been perverted. In 1821, the famous English poet Percy Bysshe Shelly Christened poets as "the unrecognized legislators of the world". By this he meant that their keen sense of observing man , his nature, reactions and desires made them experts at defining, judging and proposing law which could promote positive social evolution, thus directing and improving man's conditions. Does it work or is it constantly manipulated by evil intentions?
THE FLY IN THE OINTMENT
He was spot on , however, it seems that every time people come with a good idea, there is some evil person nearby who sees a way to use the idea to corrupt man and not improve him. for example, in my earlier career, I was tasked with adding phone and Internet service to our existing Cable TV delivery system. We were an independent Franchise of Continental Cablevision, so we could be creative within the confines of our franchise agreement [ that boiled down to make money any way you can, just send Boston a check each month] Me and my team were the first in the company to actually offer internet services to our 600,000 + customers in North Florida and South Georgia. In order to deliver movies on demand, we had to find ways to overcome even our own bandwidth using compression and other means to make movie delivery seem just like a regular movie HBO or MAX delivered on our CATV side. In a matter of one year we found that the Porn sites were compressing and streaming video on demand. Initially, they were shadowing our system using unauthorized store and forward to make it seem like they were offering 'video on demand' Thus, while we were working to provide wholesome entertainment on demand, the porn factories were doing the same for their product on our delivery system. There are many such examples of how good things are used for bad purposes. Drugs is another big one, but I won't go into that here.
Retired Traveling and Reflecting
Topics ranging from travel, People I have known, experiences I have had. my human reactions as I see a world turning to disarray, and deliberately and willingly committing Suicide for no good reason other than the fear of not being with the in-crowd.
Often, I comment on other writers, like my good friend and prolific novelist Robert J Firth. This man is amazing, not only in his writing of over 25 books , having them published. He has lived a life of travel and adventure as a pilot, soldier, and artist and poet. I urge everyone to go to his site and select a book from a plethora of wide ranging and interesting subjects. For me, every book is a page turner.
http://www.robert-j-firth.com/
Look for a revision of my first Novel which I wrote when I was 19 years old while confined to duty on a USN Aircraft Carrier during the South East Aisa Conflict [Viet Nam Era]. "Impossible Love"
