Ron De Torre – DTdesertrat's blog

Labor agitators, crime bosses, thieves, hijackers, abusive fathers, terrorists, drug lords, prostitutes, crooked politicians, hillbillies, fallen nuns and priests, itinerant musicians…these are the people who populate Chris Cahill’s young life.

His grandfather is “Boss” Colin Sullivan, a self-styled 1960s Robin Hood.  Little of anything legal or illegal goes on in the 42nd precinct without his knowledge or approval.  Christopher’s father, Rory Cahill is Boss Sully’s hulking chief lieutenant, more comfortable enforcing his authority on his women and children than his crews.  Christopher’s older brother, Liam, has convinced himself Chris is responsible for the death of their mother, and is determined to make him suffer for it, though the cause of her death had nothing to do with his birth.  Rather, it was her injuries from either jumping from her bedroom window, or being pushed, that caused his early delivery.

In a moribund mill town fractured by racial and religious tensions, Chris discovers the first rule of survival: run away.  His best friend becomes a farm girl who has a completely different idea of what running away means.

Too soon, though, the protective bastions Boss Sully has spent his life to build come crashing down at the hands of a fickle Rory Cahill, forcing Chris to battle for his own independence rather than accept a life of institutions and foster homes so he can discover the fate of his missing friend.

Now available as trade paperback and e-book through Amazon, Barnes & Noble and other outlets( several characters were reprised from Talking to Crayfish.)

In a sense, any story of fiction is an alternate-universe story.
This is a work of fiction.

Picture the United States where the income gap equals the gap experienced before the Great Depression in the era of Robber Barons, where the top 1% incomes tripled while the 99% average only 1/6th of that in the same amount of time: where that same 1% has sent job after job to foreign countries who care little about employee safety or working conditions, while blaming unionism for the loss of work.
Picture a country where George Orwell’s nightmare vision in the novel, 1984, and its New Speak:
War is Peace,
Freedom is Slavery,
Ignorance is strength,
has been replaced by:
Common courtesy is Political Correctness,
Protection of Constitutional rights is Big Government,
Tax breaks for the wealthy is Tax Reform,
The highest income 1% is Middle Class,
Questioning federal policy is unpatriotic,
Forcing limits on unbelievers is Religious Freedom,
And lack of union protection is the Right to Work.
It is a country where quality of health care is dictated by business expediency, and homeless camps are reminiscent of the hobo camps of the 1930s. It is a country where the President has removed words like empowerment, trans-gender and science-based from language allowed to be used by federal agencies. The FBI has been instructed to end investigations of white supremacists while Muslims, Latinos, and any minority that dares protest injustice are demonized as the Jews and Poles were by Nazi Germany.

This is an alternate universe story.
Or is it?

Three extraordinary people struggle against the abuse of power and authority: a black ops anti-terrorist agent, an environmental terrorist, and a high school sports hero.

It is now available in print from Lulu.com, and Amazon Books.

Look for E-books on Lulu.com, Amazon Kindle, and Barnes & Noble Book Nook.

The newspapers called her the Lakeside Lolita, and he was the apparent heir to a small-town mob boss.  But they were each other’s only hope in a ’60s environment of prejudice, bigotry, child abuse, and apathy.

 

Talking to Crayfish is now available at Lulu.com, Amazon.com. and Barnes & Noble.com as well as other on-line outlets.

Find E-books on Amazon Kindle, and Barnes & Noble Book Nook.

In 1968  Marc, member of the band, “The Eclectic Tambourine,” falls in love with two young women as disparate as the times: one, a self-styled hippie with dreams of social reform, and the other, a beauty bound for stardom.

 

Available at Lulu.com, and Amazon Books.

Ebooks available through Amazon Kindle, and Barnes & Noble Book Nook.