Rod Raglin's Blog, page 15

Free read on Inkitt ends June 30, 2022

For the past two and a half months, The Rocker and the Bird Girl and Cold-Blooded, books 1 & 2 in the Mattie Saunders Series, have been offered as a free read on Inkitt. As of June 24, 2022, these books had accumulated an amazing 1096 and 306 “reads” respectively with dozens more being added every day!

This offer ends on June 30, 2022, but until then you can still take advantage of it here

https://www.inkitt.com/RodRaglin

You can continue to experience Mattie’s heartaches and happy times as well as personal and professional triumphs and tragedies as the entire five book series is available on Amazon. Here’s the link https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B003DS6LEU and a glimpse at what’s in store for you in books three thru five.

The BIRD WHISPERER – Book 3 in the Mattie Saunders Series

The end of the relationship with rock star partner, Bodine, has left Mattie feeling unsettled and the death of a close friend has heightened her vulnerability. She hopes her fieldwork studying hummingbirds in The Rockies will allow her the peace to heal, but a #MeToo episode with her college professor forces her to flee into the wilderness.

She’s rescued by Simon, an Indigenous person and activist for First Nations causes. His care and concern are comforting and she finds herself attracted to him. But the attraction abruptly ends when they confront an eagle poacher who sells the feathers and body parts on the black market.

The poacher is Simon’s cousin and he’s not about to turn him over to the authorities.

Mattie’s outraged, but realizes she has to decide between justice for the bird and her feelings for Simon.

The BIRD WITCH – Book 4 in the Mattie Saunders Series

Can you love someone whose worldview is different from yours? Someone who is committed to a cause that excludes you because of your race? Simon is an Indigenous person dedicated to the struggle for justice for First Nations people. Mattie loves him but is love enough?

Birds are dying. At the Saunders Bird Rescue and Sanctuary where rescued parrots abandoned by their owners are rehabilitated and re-homed, a deadly virus has them dying in Mattie’s hands. In the midst of this outbreak, she’s called to investigate a mortality event where dozens of starlings fly into the pavement as if committing suicide.

Mattie leans on Simon, her rock and refuge, but after spending weeks at a remote protest site, as soon as he returns home he begins working with Wendy Walters, the attractive, ambitious Indigenous politician on her re-election campaign.

Mattie’s just about had enough.

When Simon proposes a vacation on the Mexican Riviera, Mattie sees it as an opportunity to recover from the death of her beloved birds. She’s also hopeful it’s an indication Simon’s reconsidering his priorities. She didn’t realize while on vacation he’d want to attend the Conference of Indigenous Peoples in Chiapas. Mattie’s annoyed but decides to indulge her passion and do some tropical bird watching rather than attend a boring conference.

But Simon’s conference turns out to be anything but boring when a deadly firefight erupts between the Mexican Army trying to arrest suspected terrorists and revolutionary Zapatista’s. Now Simon is missing, and Mattie is determined to find him, but to do so she must first escape being kidnapped by corrupt Mexican police and avoid abduction by vicious cartel members.

The FLOCK – Book 5 in the Mattie Saunders Series

Rewilding Pickles, the Blue and Gold Macaw, her companion for twenty years and the last of the exotic birds she’d rescued, rehabilitated and rehomed has left Mattie with a big hole in her life.

Being brought up in foster care, she’s never had a family and isn’t even convinced it’s good or even necessary, but there have been moments when she’s felt its power–and her need. Maybe that’s what’s missing. Birds band together for safety, socialization–for a better chance of survival. It’s called a flock. Mattie wants to bring people together for the same reasons.

She’s getting little help from her partner, Simon, a First Nations leader committed to justice and equality for his people. He’s on the other side of the country leading a protest that has pitted him against Wendy Walters, the country’s first Indigenous Prime Minister, and most powerful woman in the land, as well as made him a target for alt-right fanatics.

Matters become further complicated when Mattie’s compelled to rescue not another parrot, but the three-year-old son of Simon’s cousin who died of a drug overdose and whose wife, and the child’s mother, may soon face a similar fate.

Mattie thought her intervention would be for just a few days, but that’s all it takes for her to fall in love with Howie and become committed to keeping him. She’s determined she won’t have the little guy endure what she did growing up, but it’s going to take compromise and sacrifice, neither of which are Mattie’s strong suits.

The first thing she needs to do is get Simon back home so they can present as a family at the custody hearing. That means she’ll have to persuade him to reconcile with Wendy. The two have a history and Wendy’s never given up trying to recruit Simon as a political ally and lover, but Mattie’s willing to take the risk.

The outlook doesn’t look promising, and it gets worse when Mattie uses a baseball bat to defend her transsexual friend from hate crime thugs. She’s charged with assault with a weapon and if convicted will be deemed an unfit parent and denied custody.

But Mattie’s not giving up. Using whatever resources are at hand, from humility to blackmail, she sets about to recruit the support she needs to have the courts grant her custody of the child she loves and gives her life purpose.

Thanks for your interest in Mattie and here’s the link to the rest of the series https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B003DS6LEU

Public Opinion will have you reconsidering the vulnerability of your digital footprint

5 STARS

You’re super-rich and someone has canceled you on social media, denigrated you in an article, or, worst of all, hacked your computer, and unless you pay them all your dirty, illegal secrets are going to be exposed. What do you do? You call Melvin Ritkin.
According to his LinkedIn profile, Melvin’s a consultant and works mainly with publicists. But according to Melvin himself, he’s “a dirty, slimy opportunist: a grifter and a liar, a catfish and a cyber bully. I enable deep fakes, spread vicious rumors, and sling bullshit far and wide on the almighty internet for whoever pays me the most.”
In digital strategy and crisis management he’s categorized as a “whatever needs to happen to get the job done type of consultant–a fixer.”
Melvin mostly works for Titus, a “thirty-two-year-old multi-million dollar narcissist worth born into money and privilege who became a movie star” and his sycophants.
His latest assignment is to manipulate positive reviews for a movie that’s about to be released that Titus has directed and financed with his cohorts. Using a combination of bribery and blackmail Melvin manages to coerce eleven out of twelve, but when the last reviewer threatens to expose his illegal acts, Melvin and his associate murder him and make it look like an accident.
Titus thinks it’s unfortunate but since it appears the crime will go undetected he gives Melvin another assignment – manipulate the vote for the Oscars.
That’s when Melvin’s porn star wife, Ruby, and mother of their baby daughter discovers her husband’s secret retirement/insurance stash – incriminating digital files he could use to blackmail his previous clients. Those files also reveal the kind of work he does and the havoc he’s wreaked on their behalf. Ruby’s shocked and appalled at “the monster” her husband truly is and leaves with the kid and the evidence.
Now Melvin’s the one whose life can be destroyed if Ruby decides to take this evidence to the authorities. If she does, will all his tech-savvy and nefarious social media skills keep him from spending the rest of his life in prison?
Public Opinion author Nathan Pettijohn tells you everything you want to know and more about what’s fake, fraudulent and just distasteful on the internet as well as how reputations can be destroyed, created or rehabilitated. This intriguing novel, ringing with authenticity, will have you reconsidering your digital footprint as it reveals just how vulnerable we all are.

Planet Q – 120 pages of “story-openers” from insightful to bizarre

FOUR STAR REVIEW

The book description on the review site described Planet Q by Peter Quinones as a “somewhat strange, completely original volume …that invites the reader to try out hundreds of “story openers” with the following question in mind – If you started reading a story, and this was the first sentence, would you want to continue reading.”

Accordingly, the reader is presented with one hundred and twenty pages of sentences. Some short and jarring:

“Jared is such a puss bag.”

“I love plastic cocks, OK? – there, I said it.”

Others thoughtful and insightful:

“The consequences of your ignorance will become the content of your sorrow.”

“A small ailment in one’s fifties is the start of the journey toward death.”

As well as larger rambling polysyndetons, sentences with multiple conjunctions that join multiple independent clauses:

“Baysta was in the pet store looking around for joint support soft chews for a small dog but her mind tended to wander and in seconds she saw the good looking male stock boy and she wondered if she were to drop to her knees and give him a blow job in the back aisles among the cans of cat food should she go for the granny mouth, pulling her lips back to create a suction feel?”

“I live my life as I wish, as a wildebeest with excessive blood flowing to my penis, cracked lips with hanging pieces of skin, dragon breath (dental floss is for plebeians), an occasional foray with an expensive nose hair trimming tool, and a Kung Fu action grip on women whose vaginas I crave – you can bet no girl is playing with her cell phone when I’m around.”

 Taken into the context presented by the author, that if you started reading a story, and this was the first sentence, would you want to continue reading?” the hundreds of offerings range from intriguing, to witty, with some crossing over to gross, while the majority are bizarre or absurd.

Quinones is masterful in his use of language finding humor in contradictions while connecting incongruous subjects to create an alternate reality. Throw in a handful of obscure words and nescience takes over – the reader begins to believe this nonsense has some literary value.

Maybe it does, considering most books consist of pre-determined genre plots populated by stereotypical characters. Planet Q may be flimflam but it’s original, and in that regard deserves credit. Just how much can only be determined by the readers.

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5 STARS – A masterfully told tale, flawlessly written with authentic characters, brimming with drama and reality.

A masterfully told tale, flawlessly written with authentic characters, brimming with drama and reality.

A 21-year-old woman leaves a New Year’s Eve party after a spat with her boyfriend.

At about the same time and very inebriated man leaves another party to head home. The two of them meet on a dark street, she while walking in a crosswalk, he in a speeding luxury vehicle.

After the impact, he leaves the scene to make the necessary arrangements to keep his life intact while she lies dying on the roadside. He never even gets out of the vehicle.

In She Tumbled Down, author Lorraine Devon Wilke asks, “What kind of person could do such a thing…hit someone then just drive away?” and then she goes on to answer it.

Told from the point of view of the perpetrator, Wilke enters into his world of rationalization and justification. As the story unfolds and three years pass, the reader is brought to the brink of empathy, just as the woman who has fallen in love with him is when he confesses to her. He’s repentant, he helps others, he tries to be the best person he can be, admitting his crime now would do more harm than good.

What should she do? What would you do?

This is a masterfully told tale, flawlessly written with authentic characters and brimming with dramatic reality. A remarkable achievement in the difficult genre of the short story.

“We have met the enemy and he is us.”

5 STAR Review for Kings, Conquerors, Psychopaths – From Alexander to Hitler to the Corporation, by Joseph N. Abraham, MD

Remember in history class how we were taught that all the kings, conquerors, and subsequent rulers in ancient times were great men? How we focused on their limited positive achievements, disregarding the human carnage it took to accomplish them? 

In Kings, Conquerors, Psychopaths: From Alexander to Hitler to the Corporation, author Joseph N. Abraham makes the indisputable case that “Conquest is murder and theft; Conquerors are vicious criminals; Conquerors become kings; Kings designed civilization; And we are the products of civilization.” 

Despite what we were indoctrinated to believe, these iconic figures were not benign rulers or philosopher-kings. Instead, and the facts bear it out, they ascended to power because of personality traits that include a confluence of psychopathy, narcissism, Machiavellianism, and sadism, or as Abraham refers to this malevolent mix, “the dark tetrad.” 

The reasons for the primacy of the “atrox,” the term the author uses for those individuals with these personality traits, are two-fold: genetic and conditioning. Abraham points out that humans are pack animals and that the characteristics of a successful alpha male very closely resemble that of the “dark tetrad.” Furthermore, the chances of flourishing or even surviving under such a leader necessitate blind obedience; ergo, civilization is designed by the atrox and we are products of his civilization. 

Considering that I read this book during Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, it provided some disturbing revelations about this modern-day atrox’s motivation. According to Abraham, “when the conqueror invades, he robs civilians of their wealth, their freedom, and their lives. He may claim any number of reasons for his conquest, including protection, ideological conversion, liberation, trade preservation, or others. It does not matter. Those arguments are rationalizations, or at best secondary concerns, for a simple reason: without profit, conquest is impossible. Without obscene levels of profit, it is unattractive.” 

He also convincingly applies these traits to modern-day corporations, suggesting that “King and conqueror have morphed into modern business and political leaders, who continue to exploit us and expend our lives for power, wealth, and narcissism.” 

So compelling are Abraham’s arguments that it’s not an exaggeration to say Kings, Conquerors, Psychopaths: From Alexander to Hitler to the Corporation changed my world view. Despite being dense with facts and theories, the book is extremely readable, with countless historical revelations and profound insights throughout. The most discouraging of these is the idea that “Horror is our past. If we do not embrace that fact, it will also be our future, over and over, until we finally do learn to understand and to control it. Or until we disappear from the planet.”

Chick lit without the chick

Dan McDowell is a thirty-three-year-old commercial photographer three years into a comfortable relationship with Jane. They both are, if not ambitious, gainfully employed, well-mannered and appropriate. Dan seems quite content to continue to take pictures of school children, Jane to crunch numbers at a real estate firm, both seem satisfied with routine monogamous sex and enjoy Jane’s homemade pie afterwards. They neither have the will nor inclination to do anything about the boring middle-class trap that’s about to ensnare them.

Indeed, that very evening they’re discussing the inevitable – marriage – when Dan lets slip that three years ago, he had sex with his former girlfriend during the transitional period before he and Jane were “exclusive”.

Jane freaks and throws him out of their cozy two-bedroom bungalow where he conveniently crosses the lawn and becomes ensconced in the spare bedroom of his good friend and neighbour, Bob.

What’s with Jane, Dan wonders, and true to his even-tempered, considerate personality gives her some space and time until she accepts that his transgression is nothing compared to the mundane existence they can share moving forward.

Five weeks later Jane is still intransigent, and Dan is becoming a tad impatient. Surprisingly, so are his parents. His reply to their inquiries about his relationship provokes a grumpy response from his father, Big Jim, “You’re dealt a hand and you play it. End of story.”, which has enough subliminal meaning to upset his mother, Esther.

When Dan tells his sister, Lucy, she divulges that the subtext of that conversation has to do with a manuscript she and her mother discovered of a heartbreaking story Big Jim wrote about being dumped by his “soul mate” Barbara from Oakland right after he finished college and eight years before he married their mom.

Perhaps it’s the precarious state of Dan’s own relationship or maybe it’s just that he’s such a sensitive guy, but this romantic illusion resonates, and unimaginative Dan begins to imagine he and Jane maybe aren’t cosmically bonded and what does that mean for their future?

This flight of adolescent flakiness takes a dramatic turn when Big Jim suffers a stroke and in that interim period when brain synapses are scrambled, aand recovery is still in question he utters a strangled plea for someone to “caa…baaa…baaa”.

For some reason, Dan assumes his father, who’s been as happily married to Esther as one can reasonably hope to be after forty years, is calling out for Barbara from Oakland.

This sets the stage for Dan’s frantic week-long quest in the other city by the bay for his father’s enigmatic soul mate. What he hopes to achieve if he finds her is never clear, but he has “to do something that might actually have some impact”. The resulting impact of this misadventure is more bizarre than meaningful.

If you think this preamble into Hysterical Love, by Lorraine Devon Wilke, is complicated then you have some idea of how convoluted the story is. Though cohesive, the narrative is rambling and impeded by long passages of moralizing dialogue and redundant reflection most of which is self-evident to any mature adult.

Major plot points such as Jane’s reason for ejecting her fiancé from their relationship and their domicile, the discovery and significance that Big Jim had his young heart broken eight years before he married Esther, the motive behind the search for Barbara from Oakland, and the improbable hookup with a love goddess named Fiona, really stretched this reader’s suspension of disbelief.

Perhaps most unconvincing is the protagonist who is immature, hypersensitive, prone to histrionics, one would imagine, almost devoid of testosterone. At one point, when he is turning down a zipless encounter with the unimaginably attractive, sexy, and oh so willing Fiona, the virtuous Dan declares “…tonight, I want to be sure we’re honestly in synch with each other”, then doubles down by affirming “Yep, I’d become the girl. The girl who didn’t want to get down to it until she knew it “meant something.”

Was it the author’s intention to convey feminine sensibilities in a male character or is she just having a difficult time writing from a male perspective?

Considering a protagonist like Dan, you might think character growth and development would be easy and extensive. But no, he’s the same milquetoast at the end as he was at the beginning. It’s as if Wilke considered him fully formed with no need to change or improve.

Sometimes pushing the boundaries of genre works, like writing chick lit from a male perspective, but in this case of Hysterical Love, it’s still chick lit only without the chick.

New Release! The FLOCK, Mattie Saunders Series Book 5.

Family – the source of our greatest joy and our deepest pain.

Mattie thinks she needs one. Which will it be for her?

FREE! First 2 books in the series,

The Rocker and the Bird Girl and Cold-Blooded ‘til March 5. Available now at https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B003DS6LEU

“Compelling read with a complicated heroine and a rich, diverse narrative

 “…a powerful, exciting, well executed drama… I was thoroughly captivated by the interweaving of the various subplots, the interesting and well-developed characters introduced, and the diversity of both personalities and backgrounds that gave the story a depth I found unusual and appealing. A wonderful read I highly recommend.”

– Lorraine Devon Wilke, award-winning author of The Alchemy of Noise   

Rewilding her Blue and Gold Macaw, her companion for twenty years has left Mattie with a big hole in her life. She’s filling it with anger and cynicism and further alienating the few people she’s close to including her partner, Simon.

Being brought up in foster care, Mattie’s never had a family and isn’t even convinced it’s good or necessary, but there have been moments when she’d felt its power–and her need. Birds band together for safety, socialization–for a better chance of survival. It’s called a flock. Mattie wants to bring people together for the same reasons.

She’s getting little help from Simon, an Indigenous person and First Nations leader who is committed to justice and equality for his people and is on the other side of the country leading a protest that has made him a target for alt-right fanatics.

At the same time, she receives a call from the wife of Simon’s cousin who has died of an overdose. Can Mattie take care of their three-year-old son, Howie, while his mother tries to get herself straight? Knowing the alternative is the child goes into the system, Mattie rescues the toddler from the slum apartment.

Mattie knows nothing about looking after children and assumes she’ll play the role of caregiver until another more suitable family member steps up. No one does and despite herself, she falls in love with the little boy and with the help of her transgender housekeeper, Dana, they create a safe and happy environment.

Mattie’s role as a parent abruptly ends when she intervenes in stopping a hate crime by taking a baseball bat to a punk who is assaulting Dana.

She’s arrested, charged and social services take custody of the child. To get Howie back Mattie is faced with personal, legal and political challenges she’ll never overcome alone.

It’s going to take compromise and sacrifice, neither being Mattie’s strong suits, but she’s determined. She won’t have Howie endure what she did growing up.

Using whatever resources at hand, from humility to blackmail, she recruits the support she needs to have the courts grant her custody of the child. On the way, she gathers her flock, while learning that family is like everything else–the more you work at it, the better it gets.

CLICK HERE TO WATCH THE VIDEO TRAILER FOR ALL 5 BOOKS

The end of innocence in an innocent time

Opal Ethelred Rogers, Red for short, the only child of two geology professors, has been brought up on her mother’s stories, which use geological episodes as metaphors for life. According to her mother, “Life is nothing but an unending series of these glacial and interglacial periods. Remember that, Red.” When her mother commits suicide, Red relegates these “gilded sagas” to being “one more ugly indictment” of her family and “one more sign that my mother, my father and I were not, and would never be, normal.” 

Difficult years ensue until one day her father decides to uproot their lives in Buffalo and relocate to a small uninhabited island near Pointe au Baril Station on the east coast of Georgian Bay in southern Ontario, Canada. While packing for the move, the stories her mother told her as a child are rediscovered in a notebook and they become “the compass I would use to navigate through the most unforgettable and influential moments of my life – the summer of 1955.” 

Her father’s plan to rebuild an abandoned lodge at this isolated location is met with dismay and some resistance by his fifteen-year-old daughter. This reluctance gradually turns into cooperation and deeper bond is formed between father and daughter. Help with the restoration is recruited and includes a couple of young men, Isadore Whitefeather and Walter Mahoney, both about the same age as Red. Despite having disparate backgrounds, the teenagers become fast friends and support each other, including Walter’s ill-fated entry in the annual regatta and the catching of a mythic musky in the fishing derby, both sponsored by a nearby hotel/resort. 

It’s the same hotel where Red accepts a job as a nanny and is introduced to the “Richie Riches,” the pretentious guests who reside there in the summer. Ignoring warnings from her friends, Red decides to attend a secret, unchaperoned party in a remote location with the teen guests, gets drunk and only the timely intervention of Isadore and Walter saves her from being raped. Yes, the Richie Riches are a nasty lot and not all of them have come by their wealth honestly, as the trio of intrepid teens soon find out. 

Author Peter Bridgford has created an entertaining coming-of-age novel that depicts the end of innocence in an innocent time. Halfway to Schist has a realistic plot, believable characters, and flawless writing, including impressive imagery of the Canadian wilderness as well as authentic fishing and boating details. The geological metaphors are interesting if for no other reason than the science they’re derived from. The story flows naturally and, with the exception of a beginning burdened with backstory and an overlong denouement, is well structured with rising tension that has the reader turning pages quickly.

Terrain – a thriller that transcends genre

Deep in the jungle of Sierra Leone, a group of professional soldiers bolstered by some local regulars are quietly and efficiently facilitating a change of government at the request of their employers. Marek Hussar is ambivalent about the task at hand–not a good predisposition for someone who is hired to kill

Somewhat later, in the upper echelons of international finance shady foreign debt manipulations are coming unraveled. Freddie Oslo is in the middle of it and his boss thinks it might be a good time for him to take an unannounced holiday to an undisclosed destination rather than be deposed under oath in court.

 As considerations regarding Freddie’s culpability are being considered, a young actor has been hired and is being trained for a part in a mysterious reality production he’s not apprised of.

Freddie’s tour guide turns out to be the enigmatic Mr. Lanze, a.k.a. Marek Hussar, the somewhat rehabilitated Cambridge-educated mercenary who previously served the interests of similar corporate masters by perpetuating ongoing conflicts on the continent of Africa.

Freddie’s holiday involves a number of complicated and unexplained machinations including clandestine travel arrangements throughout Europe all the while being held incommunicado. Initially, the subterfuge is tolerated but Freddie’s unease builds as his questions go unanswered and his requests are ignored.

During an unguarded moment, he manages to slip away from his minder and in desperation contacts his wife and arranges a rendezvous. Her arrival accompanied by their young son infuriates Lanze, apparently complicating whatever agenda he has for his client and leaving the reader to wonder if Freddie’s disappearance is to be temporary or permanent–and what part will the actor play?

 Terrain is a good example of an international thriller in all aspects except the way it’s written. Instead of a plot-driven story with a focus on action, author Hesse Caplinger has chosen to present it in a literary style with plot permutations, complex characterizations and lavish descriptions. Motives are hinted at but not declared, dialogue is oblique rather than straightforward and much is left to the reader’s imagination.

 While the writing is crisp and evocative the style at times supersedes the narrative which may have some fans of this genre preferring a more blunt and uncomplicated telling. However, for the reader who wants a story that transcends the genre, Terrain is a good choice. Credit must also be given to Caplinger for taking the risk when he could have easily written to formula.

A compelling story about the resilience of the human spirit

If you want to know what contributes to a person becoming a violent criminal, Real Prison Real Freedom the story of Rickie Smith, by Rosser McDonald is a good place to start.

Born in 1954, Rickie was adopted as an infant by Selestia and Red Smith. As parents, his father was physically and emotionally abusive, while his mother was overindulgent and enabling. The one thing both parents had in common was that all disputes were resolved by violence, most often fueled by alcohol. In addition to a dysfunctional family, Rickie was dyslexic and stopped going to school in grade eight, though he likely didn’t achieve even that level of education.

His life of crime began with burglaries but soon escalated to drug trafficking. His relationships were short and misogynistic. The only trait resembling self-esteem was Rickie’s so-called personal code of honor, “These people are, for sure, gonna respect me.” These people referred to everyone, beginning with his criminal associates, fellow inmates, and particularly the guards and prison administration. Understandably, Rickie equated fear with respect.

By 1990, Rickie was serving three ninety-nine year sentences and fighting a war on three fronts, including one with the Aryan Brotherhood against competing gangs, especially the Mandingo Warriors, the dominant Black inmate gang. Another he was engaged in was within the Aryan Brotherhood over leadership and personal conflicts. The third was against the guards and the system. He had rightly earned the title of the most dangerous man in the Texas Department of Corrections.

Miserable, filled with hatred and anger, and without hope, he picked up a discarded Bible and read “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.” Rest was what Rickie longed for and so he asked Jesus for it, and it was granted. From that day forward, Rickie Smith became a Christian, living and preaching the gospel.

Included in this compelling story about the resilience of the human spirit is a detailed account of the changes the Texas Department of Corrections underwent during this period. Whether you attribute the transformation of Rickie Smith to accepting Jesus or realizing his life was unbearable and had to change is a matter of personal choice, but there is no denying the gospel was the roadmap to finding his way back to humanity. His implementation of Christian principles has affected a seismic shift in his life and, in doing so, influenced the faith of many others.