Independence

Tomorrow, we in the US, celebrate our independence from Britain. The casting aside of our colonial status to take the first steps as a union of 13 sovereign states.

Almost no one thinks of the 50 states today as sovereign, nor do we think of the US as a union of sovereign states. That is, though, in theory, what the United States of America really is.

President Lincoln and the War Between the States went a long way towards setting us on the road to nationalism, where we now think of ourselves as Americans, and not Virginians, Ohioans, or Minnesotans.

In effect, the states have been reduced to quasi-province status. One of the reasons, for example, why many people want to do away with the Electoral College. These people do not see us as a union of states, merely one country.

Ironically, Canada is far more a “federal” union than is the US. Although even there the drive towards a strong central government is alive and well.

I stumbled on to writing post-apocalyptic fiction by accident. An intriguing first line (“Today I killed a man and a woman.”) popped into my head one day and 2000+ pages later I had a “novel”.

The Rocheport Saga, currently at seven volumes, is basically one long novel I’ve broken up into convenient reads. 

With the seventh book, Take to the Sky, the series is at a convenient pause point and on hiatus while I work on other things. Oh, to have a novel factory like Alexandre Dumas!

The narrator of The Rocheport Saga, Bill Arthur, is an intellectual prepper, an armchair philosopher, and a reluctant leader. As one reviewer put it (whose review Amazon has taken down for some reason — boy, oh boy, Amazon is not in my good books): Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown.

In the story, America (and the world) is a lawless ruin in the wake of the apocalyptic event. Bill’s dream is to build a new America — preserving the best of the old, and getting rid of the worst.

So what does that mean? For Bill, who is politically a libertarian, that means the promotion of the values that made America a great country: love of freedom, respect for the individual, determined self-reliance, and pride in being frugal.

What Bill Arthur sees as the great cancer that was rotting out the old America is: a sense of entitlement, the desire for security over freedom, lack of respect for the individual, the quest for money and a lavish and extravagant lifestyle, and a complete disregard for the Golden Rule.

The wonderful thing about fiction is that the author constructs his own world, and then invites the reader to share that world with him.

The world of The Rocheport Saga is a hard world, a difficult world. It is also a world of hope. Hope in those positive values that made the United States a great country. Values that have nothing to do with big government and the growing nanny state, which eviscerates freedom, self-reliance, respect for self and others, and gives in return a stultifying uniformity, constant surveillance for our “protection”, and a sense of hopelessness.

George Orwell in 1984 captured the horror that is all-powerful government. We must remember the Soviet Union regularly conducted elections in their sham democracy. And the 1936 constitution provided equal rights to all regardless of sex, race, or ethnicity. Too bad the interpretation and practice of said rights was lacking. Stalin killed far more citizens of the USSR, than Hitler killed of all countries in his concentration camps.

Big government is no guarantor of rights. Big government is only concerned about the submission of the people to the will of the state, irrespective of any promised rights.

That is what the Patriots were fighting against. The King’s trampling of the people’s rights in favor of submission to the will of the state.

All of my books, to one degree or another, promote love of freedom, respect for the individual, a determined self-reliance, and a pride in not being wasteful.

I don’t sell many books, readership is tiny (to the extent I can determine that), I don’t get many reviews, and virtually no one writes to me who has read my books.

For many writers that would be discouraging, and an indication that perhaps they should quit, and sometimes I feel that way myself. When I do, I remind myself that today I have the freedom to self-publish my work and not be thought a loser for doing so. That wasn’t the case in the publishing world for most of my life. Today I can live my dream, and no editor can say otherwise.

Ever since I can remember, I’ve wanted to make my living writing fiction. I’m not there. Yet. And I might never get there. But I do have the freedom to give it a shot. And as long as I am breathing I will.

Grandma Moses achieved fame in her twilight years for her art. Helen Hooven Santmyer was 88 when “…And Ladies of the Club” hit it big.

I don’t want to wait that long, but, as the saying goes, “Good things come to those who wait”.

The United States of America is a fabulous land. Fifty fabulous lands in actuality. I’m glad I live here and I’m glad I’m able to self-publish my books and set off on the quest to find my readers. They may not be legion, but I know they’re out there.

Comments are always welcome. And until next time, happy reading!