Authorpreneur Dashboard – Mike Corbett
Mr. Nachron's List
Literature & Fiction
If you knew that there was something on the other side of a door that shouldn’t logically exist, would you through it?
In his efforts to locate the items on “Mr. Nachron’s List”, Ron Maddock is confronted by some surprising obstacles. Many are seductive, but complicated. Others seem toxic but they are benign. His charming and apparent naiveté is a contrast to the strength and energy of his closest friend Crystal, who is a patient ally as Maddock’s orbit becomes more eccentric.
Albert Nachron, the originator of this quest, proves that he has chosen his friends well as the trio negotiates a daunting temporal maze with courage and humor.
As the protagonist leaves the gauzy humid appeal of South Florida for parts unknown, he finds himself in the company of a colony of lepers in Panama, a Habsburg princess, and Richard Feynman, the noted American physicist. He even found time to spend with a cross-dressing Civil War sailor aboard a monitor class vessel called Sangamon which was patrolling the Carolina coastline. Historic settings are accurately portrayed to tantalize a reader with an appetite for history. The accomplishments of his tasks were typically a celebratory relief taken in the hospitality of Fort Lauderdale.
Ron’s personality has been flavored by a multitude of events, some positive but not gaudy, others humiliating but not shameful. A surfboard, a fishing rod and a handstamp to get into a night club were his most useful, if temporary possessions. The single quality which may have elevated him from the mediocrity that an onlooker might perceive, is a singular appetite for new experiences. Extraordinary stimuli should be exciting to many of us, but to Ron, it was the ultimate intoxicant. The planets must have aligned for him with the old friendship of Crystal and the arrival of Albert Nachron into their lives.
Ron had his own personal goal however. He had always hoped he would reunite with an old girlfriend named Lynn, who was every man’s dream and every mother’s nightmare. She once calmly and skillfully flipped a lit cigarette into Ron’s chest before they made love. That’s just the kind of girl she was. If you had asked him which he would prefer, a beautiful female with a graduate degree, or a cute girl with crazy eyes, he would answer without a second thought.
In this captivating tale, the believable has been woven cleverly into the impossible in a way that gives life to some of the improbable dreams that attract us all.
To say that this odyssey comes full circle with the completion of the assigned tasks is to grossly underestimate the size of the circle.
The author provides a literal and a hypothetical tapestry for the reader to enjoy.
Book Bubbles from Mr. Nachron's List
The Matrix
There are plenty of phenomena that are on the edge of human ability to grasp. The speed of light, the age and evolution of the universe and particles (neutrinos) so small that they are able to pass through the earth with only a slight chance of a collision, all confound most of us. I tried to imagine a dimension that would be beyond the comfortable reach of all of us, with heat being the only recognizable commonality. This chapter is the fruit of a playful imagination, but hardly more challenging than quantum entanglement. If a writer isn’t entertained by his own effort, he is unlikely to amuse others.
Primitive?
Much of this book touches on elements of personal evolution. The relationship between two of the main characters implies the union of two individuals on the basest possible level, setting the stage for a question. How far and in what direction do they go from here?
Civil War Letter
Many of my references have been mined from my collection of personal Civil War correspondence. One of my resources is a firsthand account of shipboard life from the skipper of the U.S.S. Sangamon, a Union Monitor. Authenticity makes fiction so tantalizing that it’s tempting to simply offer it word for word. It shares a perspective that even a naval historian should admire.
Florida
If the reader detects subtle hints of autobiographical material here, he has not been misled. Stupidity is more clearly detailed in a rearview mirror than when we are confronted by it, making the adolescent male a perfect challenge for natural selection. Fortunately, our memories tumble satisfaction and regret into something that would not play well in the confessional.
Genes
The strange marriage of pride and ignorance echoes frequently across centuries and geographical borders. Leopold the Hogmouth seems like a creature of fiction until you see one of the millions of coins with his remarkable profile on it. This may be a good argument for boarding schools.
Laughter of the Damned
Humor & Entertainment
Whose dreams of hell are more interesting, politicians or popes? The reader may discover the answer to that question and more in this imaginative interpretation of an afterlife. If you are curious about the opinions of Shakespeare, Mark Twain, Marilyn Monroe, or Saint Thomas Aquinas, there are plenty of those as well.
Book Bubbles from Laughter of the Damned
Desire
Imagination has few limitations. Reality has many. Everyone who dares to move from one to the other crosses a different bridge. We are compelled to admire the durability of hope.
A cynic writing about cynicism
If the creation of a piece of satire does not entertain its maker, the reader can sense the strain between the phrases. If I'm not enjoying the process, the waste basket is never far away. You may accuse me of revealing ugly ideas, but I just can't resist exposing them to brighter light with the expectation of new perspectives.
