The primary aim of the "Novel Excerpts" blog category is to showcase my creative writing, specifically from the novels I've written. Hopefully, these posts will provide a glimpse into my storytelling style, themes, and narrative skills. It's an opportunity to share my artistic expressions and the worlds I've created through my novels.
The Boaz Scorekeeper, written in 2017, is my second novel. I'll post it a chapter a day over the next few weeks.
The morning after the bombing, local talking-heads and State-wide newscasters were predicting a continuing wave of Ferguson, Missouri style rioting and destruction in Boaz and beyond. It never happened.
By 4:30 p.m. that afternoon, Nico and Santiago Castenada had completed over six hours visiting and speaking with 90% of the local Hispanic community. The General Manager of Platinum Foods shut down three departments of the processing plant and allowed the two educated, reasonable, and focused nephews of Mateo Castenada to speak atop a flatbed trailer in the parking lot to a gathering of over 400 Hispanics. The two young men shared their vision for Boaz, even disclosing details about the school that would open in less than a year. Nico gave an impassioned speech on the importance of allowing the criminal justice system to punish those who had murdered Mateo, his wife Natamar, and their daughter Alma. He drew on the 1960s civil right struggle of the blacks and what Martin Luther King’s vision of peace through non-violence had achieved. Santiago promised change and implored each of them to forgo rioting and redirect their anger towards God, letting Him show them the higher road. By dark, the message had spread. The rioting was replaced by the sounds of righteous anger seeping from the windows and doorways of Esperanza Baptist Church.
Something else never happened. The two bombed out businesses didn’t die. I shouldn’t have been surprised. Even though both Adams Chevrolet, Buick & GMC, and Radford Hardware & Building Supply were virtually destroyed by the bombs and fiery aftermath, they quickly announced an aggressive plan to reopen. Each company maintained full replacement insurance policies. New construction would begin within a month. Bulldozers and dump trucks started cleanup less than 24 hours after the explosions. The real ingenuity of the Adams’ was demonstrated when six car haulers showed up during the last week of July and unloaded 36 new vehicles in the parking lot of the long-empty Outlet Center. Since the bombings, the 36 employees of the Adams’ dealership had worked tirelessly in setting up a temporary operation including a 10,000-square foot service department under a gigantic tent complete with every tool needed including four hydraulic lifts. The Radford’s followed the Adams’ lead and by mid-August had leased and stocked the empty building directly across from the GM dealership.
The Pencil Driven Life 