Cover Reveal

Book Title: Eternal Curse: Giovanni’s Angel

Series: Eternal Curse Series, Book 1

Author: Toi Thomas

Publisher: Tate Publishing and Enterprises, LLC

Reading Level: Adult

Genre: Spiritual Urban Fantasy, Paranormal Romance

Content Rating: PG

Available Formats: releasing in paperback and ebook

Purchase Links: coming soon

Cultural Assessment: Street Wraith Press (featuring original cover)

Book Themes: dreams, curses, family, adoption, faith, fear, love, death, wealth, intimacy, war, struggle, race, diversity, angels, demons, good vs. bad, purpose, and hope.

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Book blurb provided by author

“You have plenty of time to change your mind. You have not yet seen the monster I can be.”

 -- Giovanni

Giovanni has been waiting his whole life to meet someone like Mira, someone from the outside world who might be able to help him. He wonders if there really is help for him as he continues to hold tightly onto dark secrets and even darker memories. Giovanni wants to be hopeful and he wants to accept Mira’s help, but first he has to look himself in the mirror and face what he truly is- and that is a reality no one is quite ready to accept.

Searching for new purpose and meaning in her life, Mira meets Giovanni online and an exciting and, in some ways, scary friendship is developed. Mira decides one day to meet Giovanni in person, at his secluded country home, in order to aid him on his journey of self-discovery. What these two are able to discover will not only test their strength and will, but it will stretch the limits of their minds and catapult them into a world where earth, Heaven, and Hell collide.

Eternal Curse: Giovanni’s Angel is the story of a man who may just be the answer to a spiritual war swiftly heading his way- but for now, he just wants to be a man.

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Excerpt from Chapter 3: Expectations

It had been one of those rare nights when Giovanni was tired enough to attempt sleeping through the night. The night ended commonly enough with him being tormented with twisted dreams instead. His sleep never quite seemed to offer him the rest he sought, and, apparently, his body didn’t need the rest very much, as he’d grown used to going days without sleeping.

Like many nights before, his body had become drenched in sweat as he lay beneath his sheets. While he tossed and turned in his bed, he became entangled in the fabric as it began to cling and stick to his body. As he dreamed of war, Giovanni could feel the warmth of a slow burning fire growing all around him. The intensity of the battle in his mind was so great that heat began to radiate from his body as though he were actually in the line of fire and apart of the battle.

In his mind, Giovanni could see a battlefield suspended in the highest high of the sky, engulfed in clouds, with mountains of flattened bodies stacked all around. A smoky dust began to fill the air in the forefront of this nightmare, where there stood a victorious warrior standing tall over his defeated foe. The warrior’s body seemed to emit a golden glowing light as angelic pristine white wings rose up, soaring from behind him. He was truly the epitomized image of purity, majesty, and strength. The warrior angel clutched a sword in one hand with diamond clusters for a blade and deeply dark onyx for the handle. In his other hand, he toted a shield of shimmering gold and silver.

Giovanni stretched out his neck and squinted his eyes, but he could not make out the face of the angelic warrior. As the victor knelt down and placed his hand over the head of his foe, Giovanni could see that he was looking down at the slain face of a youth; a golden boy, curled up like a wheel with his head pressed into his feet. His body was covered with a thousand crying eyes that now remained forever shut behind their resting lids.

There seemed to be a black smoke-like spirit fading away, almost seeping, from the corpse as it disintegrated into ash. Giovanni was nearby struggling to break free, as forces of anger and hatred held him down. He could not see this enemy, this dark force that was digging its claws into his flesh, causing blood to trickle painfully from his body. Giovanni so wanted to break away from his adversary and fight the good fight face to face, but he couldn’t.

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To learn more about Toi Thomas and Eternal Curse: Giovanni’s Angel, please visit these links:

eToiThomas.com | Toinette “Toi” Thomas Google+ | Toi Thomas Facebook page | @toithomas

How Much of History Can We Trust? by Toi Thomas

“History has been written, but it has not always been right or complete…” –Narrator, Eternal Curse: Giovanni’s Angel

Aside from matters of a supernatural nature, which the above quote from my book refers, why is it there are so many discrepancies in fact, fiction, and myth in terms of our collective history? 

I have a theory that I feel may be a bit pessimistic, but I want to assure the readers of this post that I do have hope for the future of humankind. I hope that humanity will learn from the facts and myths of history just how to be more kind and bring in a more peaceful future. 

The first thing I’d like to state about my theory on the discrepancies between fact and myth is that there seems to be a great deal of either: hate, greed, or pride at the root of most of it. When dealing with such matters as hate, greed, and pride people tend to want to believe certain things, while others, though they may be right, refuse to believe some things could be true for fear of hurting their own egos. 

The second thing I’d like to state is that some myths are positive and some are negative, but in either case, the truth of these tends to leave a bad feeling behind by those who once whole heartily believed in the myth. For this reason, I feel that the spreading and debunking of many myths to be an act of cruelty. Don’t get me wrong, I do think the truth should be sought, but I have to wonder about how some of these stories start, spread, and are engaged. 

The following are simply examples I picked for the sake of argument and they will probably upset someone reading this, but that is not my purpose. 

Highly Probable Myths

-A man could legally beat his wife with a stick no thicker than the width of his thumb, thus giving way to the phrase “the thumb rule”.

 

-The original design of the Statue of Liberty was meant to depict a slave woman, but white Americans wouldn’t accept it.

 

-During the time of the popular Irish Immigration, nationwide- public store owners would post signs stating “No Irish Need Apply” because the Irish population was flooding the job market.

 

The truth or falsehood of these statements isn’t a matter I care to debate at the moment, but I would like to take a look at the state of the American past that would cause such statements to exists and even be questions of debate today. All these highly probable myths, if you care to research them, do have some truth to them, but obviously have been exaggerated or influence by instances of hate, greed, or pride. 

 

People still facing the ever present issues of racism, sexism, and discrimination can easily believe statements such as these, while those who have not a care, or so few, in the world can’t understand why someone would believe these statements. Like I stated earlier, whatever the whole truth may be, there is some level of truth or origin as to how the stories were started…but “Why were these myths started?” is a greater question.

 

But that's a question for another time. More on my theory for now.

 

Men, more specifically husbands, have in the past and in many ways now still have a more prominent or dominate role in society and women as a whole are still fighting for equality. The glass ceiling is still quite heavy and far out reach for many in the U.S. To state that race is still an issue seems silly, but for those who don’t know, it is. Then there’s the matter of nationality and culture. Some people still go out of their make to make this distinction, which I think would be a good thing and a show of positive pride, but too many use it as a way to discriminate. There are still so many people out there who search beyond the color of another person’s skin in order to find some reason to dislike them. Everything that I’ve talked about up to this point has been a build to my ultimate questions that I, unfortunately, don’t know if there are answers to.

 

-How much of history can we trust?

 

-Is it possible that many of the views people have now are based on false tales of the past presented as true history?

 

-Is there a way to prevent new myths that do nothing but start argumentative debates or is this just the way the world is and will always be?

 

-Who is deciding what history is worth telling and what are the motives of the people who question matters of the past that will affect the present and future?

 

-How far have we really come and how far will we ever get?

 

I’ll be the first to admit that sometimes I prefer to believe myths over reality because sometimes myths seem to make more sense. Then I wonder to myself, “Why spread myths if the truth can be found?” I think there is a struggle of power happening somewhere, which are the roots of another war waiting to be started. Hopefully, in time, truth and facts, no matter how shocking and disappointing, will aid the efforts of peace.

 

While my book, Eternal Curse: Giovanni’s Angel is clearly a work of fiction, it does bring up a question or two about what is known of history to be actual fact, though this is a very minor theme. There are many themes within this book including: dreams, curses, family, adoption, faith, fear, love, death, wealth, intimacy, war, struggle, race, diversity, angels, demons, good vs. bad, purpose, and hope.

 

I believe to question the status quo for a sense of clarity to be quite noble, but sometimes I feel as though things are questioned simply to invoke an argument. I guess the point of all this is that, at some point; even history becomes a matter of faith. People have to decide for themselves what to believe in, stand for, and in some cases, fight for. People must have faith in something, whether it be something: physical, emotional, logical, spiritual, technical, or some combination of them all.

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A self-proclaimed techie and foodie, Toi Thomas was born in Texas, but considers Virginia to be home. Working with computers and cooking lavish meals are reoccurring pastimes for this Virginia Beach teacher’s assistant. She’s been blogging for three years and is proud to present her debut novel.

 

To learn more about Toi Thomas and Eternal Curse: Giovanni’s Angel, please visit these links:

eToiThomas.com | Toinette “Toi” Thomas Google+ | Toi Thomas Facebook page | @toithomas

Can Peace Be Conceived? by Toi Thomas

 

“Whatever the mind can conceive and believe, it can achieve.”― Napoleon Hill
This sounds nice, doesn’t it? Well let’s look at the meaning of the key words in this statement.
Conceive: to form a notion or idea of; imagine.
Believe: to have confidence in the truth, the existence, or the reliability of something, although without absolute proof that one is right in doing so.
Achieve: to bring to a successful end; carry through; accomplish.
While I’m sure Napoleon Hill had all the best intentions when he wrote this, there are so many ways in which a statement like this can be used to cause great destruction, but more on that later.  For now, let’s look a look at the meaning of some other words.
Perceive: identify by means of the senses, to recognize, discern, envision, or understand.
Concede: to grant as a right or privilege; yield.
It’s evident through history that people are quite capable of achieving many great and, unfortunately, devastating things. I often wonder how the likes of someone like Hitler could have perceived his course of action as the only way to get what he wanted. Perhaps, as is often the case with us mere humans, it is easier to fight and take what you want than it is to concede and work hard for it in some other way.
So, I guess the challenge I’m currently faced with is, “Is world peace even a viable option?” To work this out in my head, I look again the meaning of this word “peace”.
Peace: a state of mutual harmony between people or groups, especially in personal relations.

READ MORE.....

About Toinette “Toi” Thomas

I like reading, writing, cooking, dancing, movies, and music. I'm a big kid and choose to see the world in my own special way. Yes, I'm educated, but I haven't let that stop me from being who I want to be.

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Veterans’ Cemeteries: Waypoints along the Journey to World Peace

Curious about progress made toward achieving world peace in the past hundred years or so? The statistics are not encouraging.  Take the American people, for example, a cheerful, optimistic, relatively hard working group who believe almost anything is possible if you try hard enough to achieve it.  Then, type in the question, “how many Americans died in combat overseas,” in your favorite search engine, and chances are the answer you’ll get is around 440,000.  This includes all wars fought on foreign soil from the Mexican-American War to the present day Wars on Terrorism (aka Iraq and Afghanistan). It does not include thousands more who lost their lives “in theater” meaning they were in the war zone but not on the battlefield; nor does it include those who died “outside the theater” as the result of war related activities. Why have so many of our men and women in uniform historically put themselves in harm’s way, when the above statistics suggest that death would likely be the outcome?  Is it a sense of honor, patriotism, or duty? Maybe.

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International Day of Peace the History of this UN Celebration

VISIT http://internationaldayofpeace.org/ 

 In its 36th session, in 1981, the United Nations General Assembly decided "to devote a specific time to concentrate the efforts of the United Nations and its Member States, as well as of the whole of mankind, to promoting the ideals of Peace and to giving positive evidence of their commitment to peace in all viable ways." By unanimous vote, Resolution 36/67 was adopted establishing the International Day of Peace (IDP). The Assembly’s resolution was initiated by then Ambassador Emilia Castro de Barish from Costa Rica. Avon Mattison of Pathways To Peace worked behind the scenes with Assistant Secretary-General Robert Mueller, Ambassador John Donald, and others to obtain this historic level of support. The IDP was to be celebrated on the third Tuesday of September of each year, the first day of business of the General Assembly.

The first International Day of Peace was observed at the United Nations Headquarters on September 21 1982 the opening day of the 37th session of the General Assembly. At the start of the session delegates stood for the traditional minute of silence in observance of the Day.

At that time, Pathways To Peace saw that member states were not involving civil society as hoped, and therefore initiated action. In 1983 with the Minute of Silence of the UN, the idea of the Peace Day was developed so civil society was inspired to get involved and humanity had ways to engage in activity that benefits the larger community. This was structured to be intergenerational and intercultural. We wanted to make it more accessible.

By 1984, the September 18th International Day of Peace saw people involved from over 52 countries and Pathways to Peace organized the first major IDP celebration in San Francisco when department stores stopped their cash registers at noon; a major television network stopped its programming at noon and scrolled a message in silence with a minute of peace. In front of the San Francisco City Hall a program of music, speakers and a parade of flags took place inspiring many in the Civic Center Plaza. The Minute of Silence and Moment of Peace (Sound) and the global Peace Wave were also initiated around the world at this time. This celebration moved the activity outside of the headquarters of the United Nations for the International Day of Peace and into the hands of NGOs and Civil Society.

In 2001 the opening day of the General Assembly was scheduled for 11 September, and Secretary General Kofi Annan drafted a message recognizing that observance of International Peace Day on 11 September. That year the day was changed from the third Tuesday to specifically the twenty-first day of September, to take effect in 2002. A new resolution (A-Res-55-282) was passed by the General Assembly, sponsored by the United Kingdom (giving credit to Peace One Day) and Costa Rica (the sponsors of the original day) to give Peace Day a fixed calendar date of the 21st September. The resolution also declared it as a day of global ceasefire and non-violence.

This annual Peace Day marks our personal and planetary progress toward Peace, and also serves to remind us that our commitment, above all interests or differences of any kind, is to Peace.

International Day of Peace (Peace Day), September 21, provides an opportunity for individuals, organizations and nations to create practical acts of Peace on a shared date. All over the world, events are being organized to celebrate this landmark day.

About The Author:

M.C.V. Egan lives in South Florida. she is fluent in four languages; English, Spanish, French and Swedish. From a young age became determined to solve the 'mystery' of her grandfather's death, she has researched this story for almost two decades. the story has taken her to Denmark, England and unconventional world of psychics.Website | Blog | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads

Genre: Historical Paranormal
Publisher: AuthorHouse Publishing
Release Date: June 14, 2011

An interview with the fascinating POET and AUTHOR Brian Francis Heffron About his book COLORADO MANDALA

·        Hello Brian, welcome to IS HISTORY THE AGREED UPON LIE. Your essay made me surf a bit around the internet and look into the Mountbatten name. Can you tell our guests what COLORADO MANDALA is book about?

Colorado Mandala is the story of three people, Michael, Sarah and Paul, who in the seventies love and support each other. Michael is a former Green Beret who has returned from Viet Nam having experienced horrible and vivid sights that have done permanent damage. He loves Sarah but knows he can never make her happy so he encourages Paul to step in and take his place: A strange idea, and one that he is compelled to simultaneously both pursue and try to stop. The book is a romantic adventure set inside a wild and free country and era that is now gone forever.

·         What an interesting premise. Did you live through the seventies? Did that inspire you to write this story ?

I was in the writing program at Emerson college in the seventies and my own experiences at that time of meeting and interviewing returning Veterans led me to want to portray them, and honor their courage and suffering. There was a great divide at that time between the young and old over the war and civil rights and this division was called the “generation gap”. It was a period of both social turmoil and social growth. The soldier and the hippie were also often at odds, but had a mutual love for our country even though they were on different sides of the question of America’s participation in the Viet Nam war. Since Michael was a soldier and Paul was a hippie I wanted to show that these two groups could also meet and form a deep and abiding friendship.

 

This is fascinating. I think this is a great spot to share the book trailer with our guests

·         Describe your writing in three words.

Descriptive, inspirational and romantic.

·         Do you have specific techniques you use to develop the plot and stay on track?

Writing for me is done in my subconscious. I plant an idea down there in the dark and let it stew below the conscious level until a plan emerges. Then I start to write. By that time I have a general idea of where I am going but spontaneity plays a dynamic role in what actually happens on the page. It is like weaving. Pulling together threads of plot and people until a garment begins to become recognizable as a tale. My characters are portrayed as well as I possibly can do it and then they inform the reader by what they do and say. I let the characters tell the story. The place is also key as the setting should be like another character in the book supporting the plot with visuals that relate to the underlying story. It is all a “who, what, where” type of thing that eventually gels into a solid and intriguing story.

 

·         Are your characters in the book based on anyone you knew in that era?

Yes. The characters in Colorado Mandala are all based on real people whom I knew and loved at the time. They lived and breathed and suffered and cared for each other, and I watched them and remembered and tried my hardest to make them come as alive as they were to me at the time. But, oddly, they are also distinct and separate parts of my own psyche and each one represents a side of my own personality.

 

·         Was there any research involved in your work?

Yes, in the seventies I hitchhiked all over America interviewing returning Veterans. Many were defensive and would only communicate with other Veterans, but I always took my time and after getting an introduction to them I would patiently wait to see if they would open up and trust me with their stories. There was no Post Traumatic Stress Disorder diagnosis at that time so people just thought these guys were anti-social or worse. The truth is they had seen too much horror and mayhem and it had made them loners. Now we know they had been damaged and had acquired PTSD in combat but then they were just guys who seemed withdrawn and sad. I too have PTSD so I could relate to them very directly and I think they sensed that. I started to write the book back then and finished it, but then put it aside for 35 years until last spring when I found it and began to revise it. Whatever wisdom I had acquired in the interim, and my knowledge of PTSD as someone who suffers from it went in to the book as it is now.

·         What authors inspire or influence your work?

I know he has become a kind of hyper-masculine cliché but the writing of Ernest Hemingway is still the best English prose around. The stark beauty of his descriptions and the fierce insight into humanity that he had never ceases to amaze me. F. Scott Fitzgerald also taught me how to capture a wonderful sense of the power of love and romance and how necessary it was to humanity. So I guess you could say I learned how to write action from Hemingway and romance from Fitzgerald. Whatever is left…came from me. 

·         Do you need visual media to describe people or places? Some authors use pictures out of magazines or other media.

No. I have a very visual mind. After college, I supported myself as a director of photography for TV and motion pictures so I learned composition and framing that way. My eyes see everything and pick out the important details and those are the things I bring into my prose. Each chapter of Colorado Mandala begins with a section in italics which is an omnipresent author describing the scene where the chapter takes place then I switch to first person singular as Paul narrates the action of what occurs there. Many of the reviews of the book mention that it is extremely visual and that makes me very happy.

·         Favorite snack when writing.

 

I don’t eat when writing. I am far too absorbed in my own internal creative process to do anything but think and write, think and write, think and write. When I stop I gorge myself and have a beer to relax and come back into the present and real life. Don’t disturb me when I am writing or you will be barked at and sent away.

 

·         Do you have a Muse?

Yes, the world. The Buddhists say: “Sometimes life is so intense I can hardly stand it” and I think that is true for me. I watch, listen and try to order things that occur in front of my eyes. Life is an ongoing story of life love, hate, hunger and striving, and if you watch carefully enough the world will give you everything you need to create a compelling and complete tale.

·         Once a character is fully developed do you set them free or do they still dance around your mind?

All my characters are complete people in my mind’s eye before I ever set pen to paper. They are as real as you are in my head and I know exactly what anyone of them would do under any circumstance. They are truly alive for me and all I do is write down what they do. I love their idiosyncrasies; odd ways and even their cruelty because that is what real people are like. There are no angels on earth. We are all flawed beings rowing our way back to our own creation.

·         Is the Thesaurus one of your best writing friends?

Yes. I want to use the most perfect word possible under all circumstances and so using a Thesaurus helps guide me to narrow down to the exact right word or phrase to describe something or someone. Reading should be an adventure for the reader so we must keep the lions and tigers of a paragraph moving and that involves using the perfect word for the perfect spot.

·         Who gets to read your drafts before they're published?

Since I am a published poet my literary circle is quite wide, far reaching and even international, so I send out drafts to these kind folk and they let me know what is working and what is not, what is needed and what is not and how the thing is progressing generally. This is enormously helpful and I thank them with all my heart and signed first editions J.

·         Share with us your biggest hurdles in the writing process?

Writing is easy compared to marketing which is as important if you want to be read by a wide audience. Doing interviews like this one are a writing challenge because I want to seem clever enough to the reader that they feel the desire to go that next step to Amazon and actually buy Colorado Mandala. So I hope you have enjoyed reading the above and that it has given you some sustenance and worth content, enough for you to take that next step and want to share a novel together.

 

·         Share the biggest hurdles in the marketing process.

Knowing how to do it! It is a mystery why some great books sell and other great books do not, but I think marketing is still a “word of mouth” kind of thing so basically you are marketing the book when you have written something that is a compelling and unique tale that people read and then tell others about. Reading one of my books should be a joy that you want to share. The reviews for Colorado Mandala have been incredibly positive and upbeat so I think the book is selling because of that and because I have succeeded in telling a story that anyone can relate to no matter what age or background. Colorado Mandala is a transformative book that opens up an era that is past, but still present in that many of the things that happened in the seventies have resulted in the better parts of our culture today.

·         What project(s) are you working on now?

I am working on a Historical Fiction novel about the period of the Irish Rebellion from approximately 1907 to the present. It is the story of a small Irish family and their personal vendetta against the royal family because one of the royal killed the Irish Patriarch when he was a callow youth. It explains why Mountbatten was killed in 1978 and that is something that no one, outside a small group of people know anything about. My ancestors were founders of the Irish Citizen’s Army, which was a labor army formed by James Larkin and which was an integral part of the Easter Rising in Dublin in 1916. It is a family history set against the epic changes that had to happen for the Irish people to throw off the mantle of British oppression.

·         Is there anything else you would like to say to your readers?

Please read the reviews of Colorado Mandala and give it a chance. I guarantee you won’t be disappointed. If you want a signed and dedicated first edition please contact me and we can set that up. And thank you for listening.

·         Where can readers find you and your book(s) online? 

To purchase COLORADO MANDALA

Brian Francis Heffron's WEBSITE

Brian's Page on Facebook

You can find all of Brian's links here

 

 

What is moral in warfare? What is moral in life? by Brian Francis Heffron

Lord Louis Mountbatten was a member of the British royal family. This “royal” family were formerly called the Battenberg’s of Germany, but during the First World War they were forced to anglicize their name to Windsor. Why? Because the Tommie’s in the trenches did not relate to fighting for a royal family that was German, just like his enemy in a trench not fifty feet away. So changing it to Windsor, named after the most famous of the Royal Family’s ancient palaces, just seemed right.  

During the Second World War, Mountbatten was Admiral of the Fleet under Churchill, neither of them supporters of the Irish cause. Mountbatten was also the last Viceroy of India, the man who turned over the “jewel of the empire” to its own people, in short, a vestige of the colonial era and a walking symbol of imperialism at its height.  

In1979, as he motored his yacht out of Mullaghmore harbor in the Irish Republic,the craft was shattered to splinters by a bomb. No one in any counter terrorism organization in the world could explain why Mountbatten had been targeted, either then or now. There seemed to be no tactical advantage to this assassination.

 

In fact, that very same day, the IRA had taken on the crème of the British Forces in Ireland near Warrenpoint along the border between the Irish Republic and the territory still controlled by the crown in the north of Ireland. There they cleverly lured in the British 1st Battalion, Parachute Regiment, (the same soldiers who shot unarmed teens on Bloody Sunday) first into a convoy ambush, and then to land their rescuing helicopter directly on top of explosive caches.  Eighteen 1PARA British soldiers were killed. Two innocent British tourists, who were taken for IRS detonating operatives, were shot by the 1PARA as well. There were no Irish injuries. 

So, you have two military operations at work on the same day. One that appears to be a grim terrorist attack on the Royal Family itself, and the other a tactical, stealth-based, “lure” attack on the most hated, but best trained forces of your enemy. One attack asymmetric and small, one military based, large and direct: But both attacks were on the the same enemy on the same day. Both were successful with no loss of life (2 IRA Active Duty officers were arrested near Warrenpoint, but released for lack of evidence, and one man was eventually imprisoned after being caught driving away from Mullaghmore. He was eventually freed by the Good Friday agreement.) Both events would definitely seemed to be tied together, but in some cases of history the obvious is not the truth. 

Suppose the military attack, which was so large that it definitely had to involve complete IRA participation on a previously unprecedented scale, were the only IRA operation that day?

Suppose some other IRA personal, on their own time and for their own reasons, assisted an ancient and great old Irish Family when the moment finally came for them to go after Mountbatten. Suppose it was not because of who he was or what he represented. Suppose it was because of something that he, personally had done when he was a midshipman, visiting Belfast and being shown around the Irish countryside by local officials who wanted to show him how they dealt there with “Irish upstart Rack-renters”:  

What they would do would be they would bring a battering ram and a triangle of logs to rig it and then they would batter the hand wrought stone home with the Irish people still inside it. That is the truth. That is what they did. 

Now just suppose for a moment that that was the scene that you, some how turned into an Irish lad or lass, came home to one day after a being afoot in the fields or away selling eggs at the market. The stone home your Father built now a heap. A pile, a wreak, and there beneath it your Father’s body, still breathing, but dying beneath the weight of what he had so carefully constructed.  

And there, at the edge of this smoking sadness was little Mountbatten, somehow still all spiffy and white  in his navel ducks. Laughing at this destruction created for his amusement. Don’t you think that laughter would ring in your ears forever? 

And so you knelt beside your mother at your dying father’s arm and he pulled you down and told you in a whisper: “Take no revenge until you Mother is in her grave.”

 

And suppose that woman was of healthy Irish stock: Ancient Celtic Stock. And that she lived to be 106 years old. And so a family waited, and while they waited some of them immigrated to America. But they probably stayed in the fight. Supplying money and arms and support from Chicago, their new home in the breast of America.  

So my question to you is: which was more moral? Was there any moral choice? Do we have any responsibility to our dead ancestors? Which was morally worse?

A carefully planned military to military strike at Warrenpoint, or the murder of a callow youth, who had grown royally old, but who had once laughed mercilessly at a dying Irish Patriarch?  

I’m just a writer so I sure don’t know. 

P.S: Immediately after the Mountbatten and Warrenpoint attacks, the British supported terrorist group the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) retaliated by shooting dead a Catholic man, John Patrick Hardy (43), at his home in Belfast's New Lodge estate. Hardy was targeted by the UVF Belfast Brigade in the mistaken belief that he was a member of the Provisional IRA. He was not.

 

 

 

Available on Amazon — May 2013

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