We Interrupt This Program

We Interrupt This Program was a great TV movie special some years back. It was fully advertised as a phony news broadcast. To prevent a panic, like War of the Worlds in the 1930s, they made it very clear that it was fiction.. It opened with news bulletin of an asteroid strike and turned into a story of our first alien contact, It did not end well. This was a terrifying and thought provoking movie that is still around on DVD and is well worth watching.
But, that us not what this post is about. No, it was a sneaky way to lead inti a short ad. I want to tell you about 3 more of my books, all available on Kindle.
First, The Grand Game, co written by Debra Weiner. This is the story of a strange, intense golf match on an old classic Scottish links course. The match takes a stunning dark turn, which leads to a deep spiritual revelation for one of the participants. This is a fine blend of sports and the spiritual that you will enjoy
Second, is The Guava Grove. I still hear and see a lot of nonsense about the infamous 60s, I was right in the middle of the whole mess and, trust me,It was not all just sex, drugs and rock and roll. For many, it was a time if complete madness. This is a fiction story of a well intentioned, nice, bright young man destroyed by demons, both personal and chemical. It is frightening and to quote Ken Kesey, from One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, 'it's the truth, even if it never happened, it's the truth.
Third, I present a non fiction work, To The Mockingbird's Trill. This was a tune my Grandmother used to hum. I set out writing an autobiography to help me figure our a few things. As I wrote, I discovered that I had a fascinating story if a time and its people who are now all but forgotten. To forget the would be a shame because their characters and their work made his Nation what it is today. Their story is , at turns, funny sad, and heroic. You will love these cranky, wonderful folks as much as I do.
We now resume our regular programming.

Another Word From Our Sponsor

I mentioned a few days ago, that I have books for sale on Amazon/Kindle. I would like to mention 2 more.
First, The One, by John Wright and Debra Weiner.
We were discussing the Gospels one day (yes, we do talk occasionally about such things) and decided that it was a shame that there were so many gaps in the story, not surprising since the 4 books disagree wildly. So, we wrote our own version. Is ours true? Remember, when Pilate asked Jesus, 'what is truth?' he got no answer and we won't answer either. This version is as likely as any other. We now know that in the early days of the Church, many Gospels were written and all but the 4 were repressed. Which are true? Maybe ours. You will have to read the book and decide for yourselves. Whether you believe it or not, it is a great adventure, the greatest any man ever had.
Second, is another book dealing with truth, The Agent by John Wright (a solo effort).
I am sure that anyone reading my blog has read some of the many conspiracy blogs on line. I seldom go deeply into conspiracies because it is so hard to get any real evidence and speculation can easily get out of hand. But, there is some proof, including their own files and reluctant admissions, that from about 1945 through the mid 70s, the CIA was involved in some very weird activities. Now, what if an Agent, who was involved in all this wacky weirdness, up to his eye balls involved, decided, as a very old man, to write a tell all memoir. The Agent just might be his story. Is it true? He says it is, it may be, but such agents have been known to lie. You will have to read the story and decide. I promise that whether you believe it or not, this is a wild and entertaining story of this Nation's wildest and strangest era.

American Writers

I will sing the praise of American writers. There are none on Earth like them. Americans have mastered the novel, the short story and, in short, narrative fiction. When it comes to just plain story telling, they have no equal.

English writers tell stories but, always, with the exception of the Scot, RL Stevenson, there stories are so concerned with manners and social class that the story is stulliflied. Even the great Dickens was so wrapped up in social criticism that his stories were often soap opera-ish, simple frameworks in which he made his critiques of British society. French authors are just way too cerebral and their stories suffer. Spain had one great novelist, Cervantes. In fact, he pretty much invented the novel and was brilliant but, since then,  naught. The Germans are like their French cousins, too full of angst and intellectual theory. The Russians are just too long winded and the Latin American writers are lost in a world of magical realism. The problem with that is if you can just make up anything to advance the tale, it  is simply left limp and foolish. The Japanese writers are even weirder and less comprehensible.

Americans know how to tell a tale, to spin a yarn. Twain had a lot to say in Huckleberry Finn bit never let that stand in the way of telling his wild. raucus story of a boy's adventure. Melville certainly had a lot on his mind and made extensive use of symbollism bur, when push comes to shove, Moby Dick is simply a whopper of a tale, a sea story unmatched. Hemmingway's novella, The Old Man and the Sea is a simple fish story yet, in its simplicity, it is a story of incredible bravery.

And on the list could go. Crane, Cooper, Irving, Hawthorne, the incomparable Poe and his descendent Lovecraft, King, Bradbury, Dick, Kesey, Mailer, Vonnegut, Clavell, Mitchener, Rawlings. On and on I could go, but you get my point. The most important part of a story is the story. Style, symbolism, all the rest mean nothing if the story is not compelling. If you place a lump of coal in a beutifully decorated box, it is still a lump of coal. Likewise, if you place a great pastrami sandwich in a series of steel boxes, each sealed with a combination lock that you have to figure out the combination of, then it is quite unlikely that you will pursue it. It is just too easy to go find a  deli and buy a pastrami sandwich you can just take out of the paper and enjoy.

There is one exception that I must note, a non-American who wrote perhaps the best novel I have ever read. In my next blog I will nominate him for status as an honorary American.