Author Archive
Posted on January 23, 2010 - by admin
Author Chris Casey – Guest Blog Post
Chris Casey – Author of Bruin’s Wake
I get e-mails and texts all the time asking me ‘who exactly is Paul Bruin?’ and ‘what exactly is Bruin’s Wake?’ Most of the questions come from either my growing fan base or just curious individuals anxious to know why Paul Bruin wants to friend them on Facebook. Well, to answer their inquiries, Paul Bruin is an amalgamation of several different individuals I grew up with in Memphis, TN. Suffice to say, Paul Bruin is not an exact, cloned, carbon copy of myself but rather a mixture of several different characters, myself being one of them. Many of the experiences Paul Bruin faces in the book, actually happened in the author’s life including, but not limited to, attending a private Catholic high school in Memphis, joining the Marine Corps at the age of 18, running a marathon, playing major college football, writing the Great American Novel and having been falsely accused and wrongly convicted of a crime. Paul’s enemies are numerous, mean and vindictive. The major players include Brian Gowan, a former high school friend of Paul’s who has inherited the beautiful gene from his mother and the stupid gene from his father and who can’t seem to find a way to stop disrupting Paul’s life in any way he can. Next there’s Allison Tressle, the lie-mongering , local newswoman who fiends for sex and unearned money. Under highly suspicious circumstances, she becomes Paul’s stepmother in the book by marrying Paul’s widower father, George Bruin, and is a non-stop schemer, much like her attention-seeking ,real-life counterparts. Dick Cordella, the Germantown Police Officer, is the pistol-packing homosexual who has had it in for Paul ever since hacking into his wife’s e-mail account and discovering all the lurid messages Paul has sent her. Dick fulfills an important role throughout the book. It is his specific actions, words and tomfoolery that will eventually absolve Paul and subsequently the author from any and all wrongdoing, supposed shenanigans and felonious behavior. Finally, there is Clinton Weeks, the meth-addicted maniac who murders Paul Bruin’s beloved mother during Paul’s junior year of high school. Clinton is arrested in Part 1 of Bruin’s Wake, only to escape in Part 2, reuniting with his mother, super-dyke Tura Weeks, in Part 3. Clinton is about as stupid and senseless as they come, bragging non-stop about all the drugs he’s done in his lifetime and continuing to make meth even while on the lam. He does however possess one burning passion. To get even with the one person, both he and his cellmate back in federal prison, want dead: Paul Bruin.
So you see Bruin’s Wake really is the story of Paul Bruin, an enigmatic character who traipses from one adventure to the next. Horseshoe Lake, Arkansas. The ‘Mad’ County Jail. Florida State University. Oxford, Mississippi. They’re all the places Paul leaves a little bit of himself in his ‘wake’ and they’re all stops on the road leading back to Memphis as a Confederacy of Dunces aims to bring him down. But will pride, his greatest nemesis of all, finally get the best of him?
Paul Bruin is not a real person, per se, but the things that befall him all are, or at least people can relate to them.
Now, Bruin’s Wake, is the story of Paul Bruin, again, an enigmatic character who traipses from one adventure to the next.
Posted on January 3, 2010 - by admin
Book Review: Star Trek: The Art of the Film by Mark Cotta Vaz and J. J. Abrams (Blogcritics.org)
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Part coffee table book and part behind-the-scenes glimpse at the creation of the film.
Posted on December 29, 2009 - by admin
Book Review Roundup (The Huffington Post)
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While you were off spending time with family and friends, you may have missed the weekend’s reviews of new books. Here they are now in your weekly book review roundup:
Posted on December 28, 2009 - by admin
Mindmap of bookreview6
snufukinlimbo posted a photo:
Posted on December 26, 2009 - by admin
Book Review : Beaded Colorways (BellaOnline)
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A review of the book Beaded Colorways by Beverly Ash Gilbert
Posted on April 4, 2009 - by admin
History provides terrorizing truth to new work of fiction…
Infinite Exposure
ISBN 978-0-9770866-8-9 is an e-book by Roland Hughes, published by Logical Solutions in 465 pages.
{mosimage} The story begins with a secret international team of al-Qaida fighters following and apprehending an offshore web master who is part of an al-Qaida cell, which, in turn, is part of a far-ranging network. From here, the scene shifts to the financial districts of the United States, and their never ending search for ways to save money. The CEO of a huge American bank, with large branches in France and Germany, is approached by a marketing company to offshore their operations. Such a move will save millions of dollars and, in the thoughts of the executive, produce a lucrative advancement. He is more concerned with this personal gain, and does not think through the proposition, even when given hints by his second in command, who is most knowledgeable. A software company becomes involved and contributes further to the maneuvers, and the story progresses to a horrendous financial debacle, and many associated reactions. A third element enters the picture – a group of traders who deal with insider information, have ties to Account Executives in Russia, with the Russian Mafia, with China, and with the coordinator of the occult al-Qaida fighters.
To provide more details would spoil, for the reader, a most interesting and thought-provoking proposal of a possible future American agenda.
With respect to the writing, Roland Hughes quite masterfully juggles the various elements, as they shift from one to the next. His characters are interesting, and the story’s progression is at a fine pace. I read an ARC (Advanced Reading Copy) of this book which contained spelling and grammar problems. However, I understand the author has since had the manuscript fully edited and corrected. With removal of this jarring note, I should like to say that Roland Hughes has provided added enjoyment to a highly recommended read that presents some very serious thoughts to ponder, as well.
Purchase this exciting new book!
Posted on November 15, 2008 - by admin
Militarist Millionaire Peacenik
The Memoir of a Militarist Millionaire Peacenik
This is a story of Alan F. Kay, a man who dared to do. Kay, 82, developed the idea for a shared information exchange for the financial services industry in 1968, well before the Internet and the Bloomsburg news services made it commonplace. His name might be confused with another man; Alan Curtis Kay who conceived the Dynabook, a 1970’s predecessor to today’s laptops, notebook computers and E-books as well as the graphical user interface that we use to work in a Mac or Windows environment. Alan F. Kay is no less inventive, nor his scientific contributions less important. But his contributions to the public interest may be more noteworthy.
{mosimage}In the early 1980’s after, leaving AutEx, a company he had co-founded and led for sixteen years, Kay became one of the national leaders in the nuclear arms freeze movement. While at odds with the Reagan Administration, Kay joined with billionaire Armand Hammer, among others, to found a non-profit institute for U.S.-Soviet relations. His more recent accomplishments are in public interest polling; those had the most interest to me. (Full disclosure: my wife is a programmer for a market research company that conducts public interest polls.)
Kay was trained as a theoretical mathematician, earning a bachelor’s degree from MIT and a doctorate from Harvard. From reading this memoir, Militant Millionaire Peacenik, Memoir of a Serial Entrepreneur, I got the impression that Kay tried to take a rational approach to survey research, at least to the point where questions were carefully designed, as not to be politically biased.
One of his surveys, conducted in 1991 through an entity he created called America Talks Issues (ATI), was quite relevant to today; it was a survey on solutions that could lead to energy independence. This survey asked respondents to consider eighteen proposals for improving the U.S. energy supply. These ranged from expanding fossil fuels to renewable energy sources to conservation measures. Each respondent was asked to determine if each proposal had the potential to improve the economy as well as the environment.
Posted on November 15, 2008 - by admin
Plunder
Plunder:
Investigative Insight into a Financial Meltdown
Reviewed by Stuart Nachbar
These days I have to ask myself if book publishers and Wall Street make connected decisions on the release of business profile books. Is it mere coincidence that stories about AIG and Bear Stearns have appeared scant weeks after their failures were fait accompli with the business press?
{mosimage}Investigative journalist and television producer Danny Schechter asked that very same question in a new book: Plunder, Investigating our Economic Calamity and the Subprime Scandal. He explained that only a small press was willing to take on the title because Plunder did not fit the template for traditional business books where, in his own words, story telling trumps analysis. While Schecter has been part of news establishment himself—he produced ABC News’ 20/20 for seven years, part of an extremely long resume of credits—he prides himself on being an independent thinker.
Schechter’s experience shines throughout Plunder. He takes you step-by-step not only through the debt crisis that brought on the most recent federally-backed bailout, but also shows how the regulators and the national business news media were tacit collaborators with Wall Street and the Bush Administration. He does a better job at posing the pointed questions than someone like Michael Moore, who does not have either the education or professional journalistic experience. Nor does he take sides with the Democratic Party, as Moore does. Schechter holds them equally to blame, though he shows some hope for Barack Obama in this story. He does, however, show materials from academic allies, the CEO of the National Community Reinvestment Coalition as well as the Reverend Jesse Jackson, who calls Schecter a “human rights activist.” And his writing style is less dry than Al Gore’s.
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Posted on October 24, 2008 - by admin
Initiation Into The Vampiric Arts
Posted on September 10, 2008 - by admin
Considering SomeplacElse
Armageddon Meets Carl Hiaasen
By Stuart Nachbar
After finishing this story, I was reminded of a line from All in the Family: people who live in communes are communists (the small c is mine—not Archie Bunker’s). It’s not that people who choose communal living want to overthrow the government; they prefer a society where everyone shares equally in the fun and the work, and no one person prospers more than the others. And everyone must join in to protect the commune when it is attacked by outsiders who don’t understand it or consider the place to be too different to be “acceptable.” Too many wars and vocal sparring matches have been fought over communities who desired to be different and left alone to be different.
{mosimage}SomeplacElse is a communal place in Arizona, founded by Michael Allen, a formerly homeless person who was allowed to win a $200 million lottery. The community is guided by a Biblical verse, First Timothy which says: “Do not neglect the gift you have, which was given you by prophetic utterance when the elders laid their hands upon you.” After 12 years, SomeplacElse has garnered incredible wealth, not only money, but in scientific knowledge. But the community has also reached critical mass, employing 12,000 people.
Norm Larson, the main character, is a computer systems engineer who has been down on his luck in the job market for some time. He comes onto a Web site: ConsiderSE.com and is invited to take part in an extremely unique interview process. He not only gets a lift to the interview in a Prius stretch limousine, he gets to interview the company. SomeplacElse guarantees life-long employment and health care, freedom to choose projects, paid relocation, an interest-free loan, and free food and housing. This all comes at a price—a fixed salary of $20,000 a year per family member and a requirement to change tasks every 10 years. Larson not only gets hired on at SomeplacElse, he gets the top job as Advocate—because 253 people in the commune know he’ll always do the right thing!
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