I’ve got two problems. I love to read and I’ve always been overly optimistic about human nature. I hope for the best, but lately, it seems that just about everyone has set out to disappoint me. My wife tells me to just ignore the news, but the blasted stuff is so compelling. Compelling deliberately, because viewers and clicks sell advertising. Still, no matter where you look, you see examples of blind hatred, self-destructive antipathy, gross incompetence, and stupidity on Idiocracy levels.
Have you noticed that TV is usually several days behind in coverage of current events and it’s also pretty one-sided – the side depending, of course, on your choice of channel? My other news source, the Internet, is a hotbed of “outrage porn.” No matter your personal predilection, you can always find at least one slant on a news item that really ticks you off. Unfortunately, whether you read one side’s view or the others or maybe even both, there’s a high likelihood that the actual facts don’t warrant either interpretation.
Despite all the divisiveness, I keep hoping that everyone will eventually get together and begin treating each other like they’d want to be treated themselves. It just never seems to happen in real life. People continue to find trivial things to disagree about. These little disagreements turn into big ones and the next thing you know, someone is dead or there’s a war somewhere or some people are being repressed violently by another group.
Humans apparently need enemies. It’s probably a result of our tribal origins. Despite wistful thinking or willful blindness, many humans think that their lives aren’t complete unless they have someone to hate, denigrate and fight. Perhaps it’s a neighbor who belongs to a different political party, church, race, sexual orientation, or maybe just combs their hair on the wrong side. It’s really all the same; they are worthy of hate because… You fill in the blank. If you don’t like being reminded of this, good! At least I got a response.
This sad state of affairs made me think, what would happen if humans had an external enemy, one that poised a serious threat to all of us. Would we pull together and stand as a group? This thought happened to become mixed up with another idea that I had. A few years ago, a French artist placed a non-working door on the blank side of a building. Today, the door gets mail delivered to it and the city maintenance people keep it clean. It’s become an established part of its neighborhood in Paris. When I read about it, my first thought was, “Wouldn’t it be interesting if there were a functional matter transmitter hidden behind the door?”
Both of these ideas came together in book form and, naturally, they created a situation that required a man of action to deal with the alien enemies that just had to come through the matter transporter. I mean, what’s a matter transporter good for unless it provides access to the Earth for inimical creatures from another world? That’s where Declan Dunham came in. He’s competent and a good fighter, but he’s always been rather unsuccessful with women (although that’s about to change.) He also makes strategic mistakes at times, but he is definitely the man for the job when it comes to interfering with plans to invade the Earth.
Thanks to Dec, I realized that I like reading because it’s fun and a relaxing use of free time. On the other hand, writing is stressful, takes a lot of time and is a lot of work! To help him through this story, I spent my free time writing which inevitably cut down on the time available for reading. My goal was to work hard so you could spend your free time in an enjoyable manner. I made my characters risk their lives, so you can have fun. But, as I wrote, I realized that I was exploring what humans might do, if faced with an outside enemy. The story also deals with what it might be like to have our current system of living broken, forcing us to reset and rebuild in a new pattern. I sometimes think that we may have trapped ourselves and a full reset of our society might be necessary to progress.
I believe that most people aren’t in a position to take definitive action regarding things they don’t like about our world. Dec rather inadvertently finds himself in a situation which demands that he do something. Now, you can follow him through his difficulties from your armchair without working up a sweat. Trust me, it’s a lot easier that way. Who knows, perhaps you’ll come up with a thought that will lead to a whole new way of living for all of us.
Declan hasn’t stopped with the events in the first book. He’s now back up to his old tricks, busily trying to create as much havoc as possible in the second book of the series. The Second Wave will be released in December, 2014, so please watch for it! If you’d like an email notice that it’s available, connect with me using the widget on the right side of the screen.
Namaste!
