I setup a 99 cent coupon for the E-version of my last novel, Off Road, from smashwords.com (coupon JJ72U, every format from Kindle to .pdf) for my FB and Blog friends, and I hope you’ll partake while you have the chance (it expires on Monday). In the meantime I thought I’d repost the series of articles I did earlier this year on the four main elements the story revolves around: traditional and uniquely American views on God, guns, big trucks, and family. If you don’t like Smashwords.com, you can also buy Off Road directly through the Amazon kindle store, in Nook version from Barnes & Noble, or paperback version from Amazon or B&N. On the left sidebar are recommendations from fellow bloggers and others.
First and foremost, of course, Off Road is a four wheeling adventure in the mountains of Colorado based on my own experiences. But at the center of the story is a family — a family torn by their different views of life. One son has become a self righteous progressive, who thinks he’s outgrown the poor rednecks of the family he was born into, while his father and brother still have faith in America as it was originally conceived.
Family:
People like to declare “family” as whatever politically correct relationship they are defending. But though “family” is an expansive term, it is definable: A Family is people who are related to each other, usually by blood, but also by marriage and adoption. And each of these relationships has different caveats, and they don’t indicate similar personalities; but they do mean the people involved are bound for life and beyond. Whether they like it or not. And thank God for that. Literally.
Family isn’t just a theme in Off Road, it’s the basis of the whole story. The “progressive” narrator is living a life based on his personal weaknesses and the emotional trauma he has experienced, and has decided his family represents all the bad things that have happened to him. He particularly despises their obsession with God, guns and big trucks. He has done his best to abandon his embarrassing family members, but the effort has left big holes in his life and personality. Holes that the forced off-road adventure with his father and brother reveal to him.
The moment that I, personally, came to understand what “Family” means — as well as the greatest moment of my life — was about 7 years ago. It was in the wee hours of the morning in a hospital room when my daughter, newborn and breathing her first breaths, reached up from the warming bassinet and grabbed my extended finger. A thrill ran through me like an electric shock, and I literally felt my entire body chemistry change and a hundred unexpected realizations become clear at the same moment.
No longer was I living for myself, now I would live for this little girl. For the first time I truly loved someone more than my own life, and that love would be unconditional and forever. Though that tiny infant couldn’t so much as exchange a single word, and I had just met her for the first time, I knew that if required I would die for her. Or kill for her. And less dramatically, but just as surely, I would sacrifice everything I ever earned for her success.
Then three years later I met my second daughter, whom I was afraid I would feel less for, because I couldn’t see how I could possibly feel as much. But while the father instincts were already activated, the rest of the reaction was no less powerful.
All the fathers I have ever talked to can relate to what I felt, though perhaps I felt it more intensely because I was older than most. In fact, my wife and I had pretty much given up on having children, and I was content with making other plans for my life, as I knew I could have a good life without dependents. We were both working professional jobs and keeping our bills low, and were on track with a plan from an investment counselor to retire at age 55. And we were taking yearly trips to Europe or overseas and heading out of town several weekends a year besides. Life was good, and the money flowed easily, and whatever expensive electronic gizmo I wanted was mine.
Friends my age with growing children could only look on with obvious envy in their eyes (though I noticed none were envious enough to regret their children), and in some ways I was almost glad to be childless.
But then came the magical night when my first daughter came into the world, and a just-as-magical night when my second daughter arrived. And the plan to retire at 55 was out the window (I will probably breathe my last as I hand off a cart as a greeter at Wal Mart) as were the trips to Europe. And the ability to buy whatever expensive toy caught my fancy was over. Because now I had to pay for baby furniture, pre-school, insurance, Tae Kwando … and on one paycheck, as my wife no longer brings in a regular paycheck (I can’t say she doesn’t work, because she works harder than ever).
But I wouldn’t have it any other way. As a friend said, “you can’t imagine having children until you have them, and then you can’t imagine NOT having children.” That is my life. And I love it.
In Off Road the narrator has a similar epiphany about family, but it’s over the course of a wild off-roading adventure and not from a single night and meeting his first born.
Off Road
The best book ever written!
By me, anyway.
Set against the background of the American civil war of “progressives” vs. patriotic American traditionalists and a family caught in the middle, Off Road is a journey into the uniquely American world of God, guns, big trucks … and family.
More information here, including an Ebook coupon. Or buy it at amazon.com. Paperback or Kindle (only $5.00 on Kindle, which can also be read on a PC with a free reader).
