Q:
Your newest book in the “resurrection” series, an american
journey, deals with some pretty heavy political, social, and economic
issues, and yet the book is science fiction. Why did you choose that
genre?
A:
Actually, I didn't choose the genre, it kind of chose me. I am often
asked why resurrection: an american journey uses an extraterrestrial
civilization to explore the political and social disarry of our
current society, yet many don't make the connection that since the
1980's science fiction has been the genre of choice for enlightening,
and warning, a misinformed society against the forces of tyranny;
from Herman Hesse's steppenwolf (1929) and Orwell's 1984 (1949) to
William Gibson's necromancer (1984). The history in the resurrection
series is factual in detail, and the alternatives presented,
regardless of political or religious persuasion, are viable. Like
Frank Herbert's dune (1965), in seeing current events in the middle
east today, was to really science fiction? As l've said before, the
resurrection series is about the true “game of thrones” the
powers-that-be-are running, and it's accelerating. The big difference
is that all my monsters are real. I'll let the reader decide the
novel's genre.
Q:
you're a credentialed national security expert and international
business executive, so what made you choose to write fiction? Why
now?
With
tongue firmly in cheek, I answered in the preface of resurrection:
“today only in fantasy may one speak truth.” l've been at the
highest levels of our country's national security, political, and
economic infrastructures, working for some of the most powerful,
richest people in history. I have lived and worked with people of
many cultures, both for and against them, long enough to understand
them. I've seen enough of the true history behind the headlines in
the last thirty years. To paraphrase Ayn rand: fiction? Check your
premise.
As
to why, for me it's simple. I swore an oath to the constitution of
the united states. For thirty-five years, I fulfilled that oath and
remained silent. But things have become so twisted and we are
becoming so uninformed on what's happening to our civilization, I
could no longer remain silent. Again I go back to the preface of
resurrection: an american journey. “fantasies are easily proven in
an age of technological marvels; an age where all secrets revealed,
bar one – we live again in a time of no quarter or mercy.” I
write novels because my kind are the ones the public never hears
about. We don't hold press conferences. Consequently, I never learned
to speak in politically correct sound bites. Not my thing. I'll let
my readers decide if l've done a good job and what they want to
verify on Wikipedia.
Q:
can you give us some insight into your main character, Kirk Danner?
What makes him so special? What does he represent or symbolize in the
book?
Kirk
Danner represents an every-man suddenly trust upon a path to
enlightenment and forced by circumstance to become aware of the world
around him. Although in american male, Danner represents the average
person of reasonable intelligence raised in western civilization who understands the current course our civilization is taking is not the
way it's supposed to be. We learn through his eyes that the
technology, science and financial resources available today offer
alternatives to us that are not being utilized for our species'
evolution. Why it's not happening and how our evolution is being
stifled becomes his focus. The forces opposing all of us, as
individuals and as a society are revealed. The direct parallels in
history are provided by his alter egos and why those forces
protecting their own economic or political power, haven't changed in
the last 3,000 years. In my own view, individuals of contemporary
european societies are ahead of Americans in this realization. That's
why l include so much European history in the novel. Kirk Danner isn't a cliché superhero, just an individual who begins to realize
the power all humans have – their own minds. I don't use the term
resurrection in a biblical sense, but rathert that we all need to
awaken to move forward. Kirk Danner, we learn in the story is a
guardian, his message is: “wake up, people, so are you.”
Q:
Based on the character of Leila Freyan, it's clear that you have a
very positive view of the Millennial generation, yet the widely held
belief is that they as lazy and entitled. Why don't you buy into that
notion? What do you think society can learn or gain from millennials?
In
my experience, the sound bite about millennials is false. I heard the
exact same complaints about my generation. When I flew fighters in
the marines, I put my life in the hands of 19 years olds on a daily
basis. The biggest shock to me in my travels since was that those 19
years olds had more responsibility and integrity then most of the
so-called political and business leaders of today. One needs to
understand the millennials' history. They have lived through two
economic crises both of which were artificially induced; continual
war and terror threats, and; bombarded since birth with hyper mass
marketing telling them that they must make “more” money to be
considered a successful human being. They leave college with more
debt than my parents had after 15 years of marriage, six children and
a mortgage, yet the way the system is rigged, only 1 in 25,000 will
find a job allowing them to pay if off in ten years, all the while
being told that it's perfectly legitimate that in a so-called
democratic, free market system, 1% of the population owns 99% of the
wealth. And their government tells them the answer every economic
issue is to cut the taxes of the rich and the answer to every foreign
policy issue is to bomb. I think they have the right to be a little
cynical. Their major issue is that they don't know their own history,
I use the quotes at the beginning of each chapter to show them
today's issues have a deep history in the human experience and we
have overcome far more terrible crisis and evil forces before.
Lecturing
at colleges, I am constantly amazed at the lack of, or complete
misunderstanding of our nation's post-WWII political and economic
history. For anyone who doesn't see that as an issue, I point to the
current administration: a bunch of smart kids, who have no
understanding of the national and international issues. They know
about crisis of the day but without understanding its history, they
don't resolve them, but rather politicize them. Nothing changes the
course we're on and there are forces out there that are quite
comfortable with that inaction.
The
millennials are the first generation who understand technology, they
are socially conscious, and environmentally aware. The vast majority
of western civilization's millennials have been turned into economic
serfs at birth. Their potential is stifled by the system that rose
from the ashes of Wwll. They, along with past and future generations,
need to think about how to free themselves from that system. We must
work towards freeing ourselves from the political correctness of
“group think” and the lie of “the futility of individual
effort.” in my view, the millennials' history is still to be
written. I'm just telling them that there is 5,000 years of recorded
history out there to learn what worked and what didn't. That's the
only way they can understand where they are and not they got here,
and then think about how to fix it, as a generation, and as
individuals.
Q:
what's next for you? Are you working on another resurrection book? If
so, please tell us more about it.
I
designed the resurrection series as a trilogy, each book's storyline
capable of standing alone. I tried to pattern them on H.G wells, the
outline of history where you can jump in at any part of the tale
through fictional flashbacks from 30,000 BC to 2012. the characters
through multiple subplots of competing perspectives, reveal the
legacy of the crisis, its current form and present oppression, both
good and bad. The revelation shifts the power to the new generation
of women and men, who enlightened by the past, find the strength to
trust themselves and confront those whose plans threaten their lives,
their society, and their future.
In
book III, presently in work, the story comes to a climax when the
established leaders of both sides realize that the situation has
evolved beyond their abilities to control. Danner has his own plan of
how this is going to work out. Leila Freyan and her allies level the
playing field with the weapons of their generation, finance, politics
and technology, but the old ways aren't going quietly, and as Danner
warned in book II: ghosts of the past deserve the demons their myths
have resurrected.”
l've
received some feedback about how resurrection's was scenes are too
graphic, and that my depiction of various spectrums of the human
experience such as in sexual and occult traditions, are too
controversial for a mass audience, but l wanted people to understand
the reality of was and those spectrums on the human condition and we
each have a role to play in the greatest dynamic in earths' history,
our species evolution. Besides, I warned the reader up front that the resurrection series is not a story for the "faint of hearts".
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