I’ve just completed a labor of love that’s taken me more than 10 years to finish due to lack of a sufficient market and health issues.
Times have changed and far more people are now interested in history-based time travel stories. My book, The Rebellion, slated to be the first in a time travel series: ESCape Into History will be available as an EBook and other formats by Thanksgiving, just in time for holiday gifting. The series revolves around two former military Special Operators travel back in time to prevent occurrences that could alter the timeline of history.
The rebellion involves Frank Souza and Bob Ponte as they head off a Tory conspiracy to prevent completion of the Declaration of Independence. Will they succeed? Will history be altered? Available soon at better bookstores.
History, the way it was taught when I was a high school student, meant a never ending drudgery of learning obscure dates and events, with little or no effort being made to make history come alive, or even to stress the remarkably accurate adage that those who ignore history are doomed to repeat it.
Like many in my generation, patriotism was a word often greeted with a snide smirk. After college, I enlisted for three years in the U.S. Army and its’ guaranteed schooling program, rather than serve two years as a draftee, with combat in Vietnam a highly likely prospect.
After schooling, the Army assigned me to the American Forces Network-Europe. While a European assignment was certainly prefereable to VietNam jungles, Europe wasn’t exactly a bed for roses as there was a very real cold war between the Western Allies and Soviet Bloc countries.
While there, I began to acquire a sense of history and its’ importance. It was hard not to, as our unit was in the small town of Hoechst, outside Frankfurt. As the result of a long term lease, our broadcast facilities were in a 19th Century Chateau, and our living quarters were in a 14th Century Castle!
Walking through the charming town of Hoechst, was like being propelled back in time. Homes, some of stone, some of wood, frequently exhibited cornerstones and/or plaques, with construction dates 400 to 600 years in the past. Touring Europe, I repeatedly encountered similar experiences. Visits to many of the major museums reinforced this feeling of being steeped in history. Indeed, more than two years of being surrounded by that much history, can make an American feel inferior, and Europeans often convey that attitude. Except: Europe at the time was divided. The western portion was `free’, with governments often patterned after that of the United States. Yet, none I encountered allowed the degree of freedom that the average American was experiencing. East of the “Iron Curtain” was a tyranny so oppressive that Americans could not comprehend it unless they witnessed it first hand, as I did, during several day trips into East Berlin while on leave.
Imagine a climate in which non-residents had to carry written proof of their purchases and amounts of western currencies exchanged for East German Marks. Imagine a country where, if a seller didn’t comply with innumerable regulations, he or she could be arrested — even by a Russian Naval Officer! Imagine poverty in which a small merchant is willing to risk years of imprisonment to make a $10 sale. Imagine a godless society in which World War II damage to churches remains unrepaired, but the government spent millions of dollars to build a 1,000-foot tall television tower virtually next door. Lastly, imagine a society so morally and financially impoverished that it murdered, on virtually a daily basis, its citizens who desired to escape to freedom in the west.
Sometime during my years in Europe, and subsequent return to the U.S., where I witnessed young people exercise their right to freedom of speech through riot and protest, I began to develop a pride in my nation. Certainly not a pride in their riot and protest, for those are extremes which should never be engaged in lightly, but pride in a country that allows civil protest. I witnessed demonstrations in Western Europe that were routinely suppressed with riot troops, batons and tear gas. True, there is a lot wrong with our country, yet there is much more that is right with it. We have come a long way, and still have a long way to go, yet as a nation, we are the envy of much of the remainder of the world. Even our poor, yes, even those residing in ghettos, have so much more in material goods and in their American heritage than their counterparts in most other countries. In short, I came to realize the incredible importance of two of our nation’s most cherished documents. The first was a statement of rebellion drafted by a man who could easily have chosen not to rebel, for he was of the privileged class. That man was, of course, Thomas Jefferson, and the statement was the Declaration of Independence. The other key document, in my view, is the Bill of Rights. While the Constitution is basically a road map establishing the bureaucracy, the Bill of Rights, is at the core of our freedom. While each of us tends to be parochial and view certain of those rights as more important than others, we must remember that ALL of those rights are there to protect all Americans.
Any person or group who endeavors to chip away at ANY of those rights is, in reality, seeking to chip away at the freedom of ALL of us. After developing the concept for Escape Into History, it was but a short leap to focusing on The Declaration of Independence. How to make that era come alive was the difficult part. While reviewing sources, I came upon “PATRIOTS The Men Who Started The American Revolution” By A.J. Langguth, Touchstone Books, Division of Simon and Schuster, 1988, in a bookstore. To the author I wish to extend a most sincere “Thank You.” “PATRIOTS” made many of our founding fathers real for me, and provided inspiration which has guided me in, hopefully, making some of our founders `real’ to you. As much as possible within the confines of a work of fiction, I have endeavored to be faithful to history. When I have diverged, such as in describing specific actions or dialogue, I have endeavored to portray these giants of our nation as I believe they would have acted and spoken had they faced such circumstances.
Times have changed and far more people are now interested in history-based time travel stories. My book, The Rebellion, slated to be the first in a time travel series: ESCape Into History will be available as an EBook and other formats by Thanksgiving, just in time for holiday gifting.
The series revolves around two former military Special Operators travel back in time to prevent occurrences that could alter the timeline of history.
The rebellion involves Frank Souza and Bob Ponte as they head off a Tory conspiracy to prevent completion of the Declaration of Independence. Will they succeed? Will history be altered? Available soon at better bookstores.
History, the way it was taught when I was a high school student, meant a never ending drudgery of learning obscure dates and events, with little or no effort being made to make history come alive, or even to stress the remarkably accurate adage that those who ignore history are doomed to repeat it.
Like many in my generation, patriotism was a word often greeted with a snide smirk. After college, I enlisted for three years in the U.S. Army and its’ guaranteed schooling program, rather than serve two years as a draftee, with combat in Vietnam a highly likely prospect.
After schooling, the Army assigned me to the American Forces Network-Europe. While a European assignment was certainly prefereable to VietNam jungles, Europe wasn’t exactly a bed for roses as there was a very real cold war between the Western Allies and Soviet Bloc countries.
While there, I began to acquire a sense of history and its’ importance. It was hard not to, as our unit was in the small town of Hoechst, outside Frankfurt. As the result of a long term lease, our broadcast facilities were in a 19th Century Chateau, and our living quarters were in a 14th Century Castle!
Walking through the charming town of Hoechst, was like being propelled back in time. Homes, some of stone, some of wood, frequently exhibited cornerstones and/or plaques, with construction dates 400 to 600 years in the past. Touring Europe, I repeatedly encountered similar experiences. Visits to many of the major museums reinforced this feeling of being steeped in history. Indeed, more than two years of being surrounded by that much history, can make an American feel inferior, and Europeans often convey that attitude. Except: Europe at the time was divided. The western portion was `free’, with governments often patterned after that of the United States. Yet, none I encountered allowed the degree of freedom that the average American was experiencing. East of the “Iron Curtain” was a tyranny so oppressive that Americans could not comprehend it unless they witnessed it first hand, as I did, during several day trips into East Berlin while on leave.
Imagine a climate in which non-residents had to carry written proof of their purchases and amounts of western currencies exchanged for East German Marks. Imagine a country where, if a seller didn’t comply with innumerable regulations, he or she could be arrested — even by a Russian Naval Officer! Imagine poverty in which a small merchant is willing to risk years of imprisonment to make a $10 sale. Imagine a godless society in which World War II damage to churches remains unrepaired, but the government spent millions of dollars to build a 1,000-foot tall television tower virtually next door. Lastly, imagine a society so morally and financially impoverished that it murdered, on virtually a daily basis, its citizens who desired to escape to freedom in the west.
Sometime during my years in Europe, and subsequent return to the U.S., where I witnessed young people exercise their right to freedom of speech through riot and protest, I began to develop a pride in my nation. Certainly not a pride in their riot and protest, for those are extremes which should never be engaged in lightly, but pride in a country that allows civil protest. I witnessed demonstrations in Western Europe that were routinely suppressed with riot troops, batons and tear gas.
True, there is a lot wrong with our country, yet there is much more that is right with it. We have come a long way, and still have a long way to go, yet as a nation, we are the envy of much of the remainder of the world.
Even our poor, yes, even those residing in ghettos, have so much more in material goods and in their American heritage than their counterparts in most other countries. In short, I came to realize the incredible importance of two of our nation’s most cherished documents. The first was a statement of rebellion drafted by a man who could easily have chosen not to rebel, for he was of the privileged class. That man was, of course, Thomas Jefferson, and the statement was the Declaration of Independence.
The other key document, in my view, is the Bill of Rights. While the Constitution is basically a road map establishing the bureaucracy, the Bill of Rights, is at the core of our freedom. While each of us tends to be parochial and view certain of those rights as more important than others, we must remember that ALL of those rights are there to protect all Americans.
Any person or group who endeavors to chip away at ANY of those rights is, in reality, seeking to chip away at the freedom of ALL of us. After developing the concept for Escape Into History, it was but a short leap to focusing on The Declaration of Independence. How to make that era come alive was the difficult part.
While reviewing sources, I came upon “PATRIOTS The Men Who Started The American Revolution” By A.J. Langguth, Touchstone Books, Division of Simon and Schuster, 1988, in a bookstore. To the author I wish to extend a most sincere “Thank You.” “PATRIOTS” made many of our founding fathers real for me, and provided inspiration which has guided me in, hopefully, making some of our founders `real’ to you.
As much as possible within the confines of a work of fiction, I have endeavored to be faithful to history. When I have diverged, such as in describing specific actions or dialogue, I have endeavored to portray these giants of our nation as I believe they would have acted and spoken had they faced such circumstances.