About
To quote the late Jerry Garcia,“what a long, strange trip it’s been”. In my sixty-one years, I've worked on a missile launch crew, in the engine room of aMississippi riverboat and as the operator of a chemical plant. I've soldinsurance, advertising and other stuff, worked in numerous factories and as acounselor in a group home for troubled teens. There were the ten years as the webmaster/English editorfor a large Buddhist temple in southernCalifornia. Then there was the time spent in the Philippines as a Christianmissionary. All together, it makes for an interesting, if confusing, resume, aswell as a unique and eclectic writer’s perspective.
Now living in Calaveras County, California, I'm trying to decide if I'm retired, a writer or merely unemployed.
Vital Temptations: A Heart's Betrayal
Description
<p>Dr. Bethany McNeal is living her dream as a pediatric resident in one of the most sought-after medical centers in Seattle. Beautiful and intelligent, she’s missing only one thing—love, which she put on hold to focus on her career after ending a tumultuous relationship. Everything changes when she meets Dr. Brent Anderson, a charming and handsome fellow resident. Despite her reservations, Bethany falls for Brent—hard. When she learns Brent is married several months into their relationship, she immediately breaks it off. After graduating residency and going their separate ways, Bethany tries to move on with another man—real estate broker and personal trainer Charles Blakely. But just when things get serious with Charles, she realizes she’s still in love with Brent, and she finds herself caught between the two men, facing a series of difficult decisions and harrowing events that will change her life forever. Will she be able to recover from the vital temptations that turned her perfect life upside down?</p>
Story Behind The Book
A Wall of Eden began as a writing project. The challenge: Take an existing plot with which everyone is familiar. Without changing the story or its outcome, make it fresh and new. The story of the Garden of Eden was chosen because, in addition to being a familiar story, it is one which allows no references to the past. It also precludes the use of modern axioms and idioms. For example, neither Adam nor Eve could have been depicted as 'being so happy that they did cartwheels'. No cart, no wheels.
As the writing of the story progressed, another challenge presented itself. Portray the characters (Adam, Eve, the Serpent, the Lord) in such a way that the reader can start to see himself in the story. The story of Adam and Eve, like the rest of the Bible, has to be seen as each of our stories, else it is nothing but history at best, or even irrelevant myth or fable at worst.
I once saw, in a college curriculum, a course called The Bible As Literature. I never did sign up for the course, but the name stuck in mind over the years. A Wall in Eden is 'the Bible as literature', or at least an entertaining, made-up story with familiar characters and themes.
