Write to Life blog

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 Stenographer, written in 2018, is my fourth novel. I'll post a chapter a day over the next few weeks.

Book Blurb

Walt Shepherd, a 35 year veteran of the White House’s stenographic team, is fired by President Andrew Kane for refusing to lie.

Walt returns to his hometown of Boaz, Alabama and renews his relationship with Regina Gillan, his high school sweetheart, who he had ditched right before graduation to marry the daughter of a prominent local businessman.  Regina has recently moved back to Boaz after forty years in Chicago working at the Tribune.  She is now editor of the Sand Mountain Reporter, a local newspaper.

Walt and Regina’s relationship transforms into a once in life love at the same time they are being immersed in a growing local and national divide between Democrats and traditional Republicans, and extremist Republicans (known as Kanites) who are becoming more dogmatic about the revolution that began during President Kanes campaign.

Walt accepts two part-time jobs.  One as a stenography instructor at Snead State Community College in Boaz, and one as an itinerant stenographer with Rains & Associates out of Birmingham.

Walt later learns the owner of Rains & Associates  is also one of five men who created the Constitution Foundation and is involved in a sinister plot to destroy President Kane, but is using an unorthodox method to achieve its objective.  The Foundation is doing everything it can to prevent President Kane from being reelected in 2020, and is scheming to initiate a civil war that will hopefully restore allegiance to the U.S. Constitution.

While Walt is writing a book, The Coming Civil War, he is, unwittingly, gathering key information for the Constitution Foundation.

Will Walt discover a connection between the Foundation  and the deaths of three U.S. Congressmen in time to save his relationship with Regina, prevent President Kane from being reelected as the defacto head of a Christian theocracy, and the eruption of a civil war that could destroy the Nation ?

Chapter 79

 Last Sunday’s round of national news interviews in New York City had set off a firestorm.  No matter the hour or the day, whenever I turned on the TV all I would see and hear were a news host talking with pastors, philosophers, professors, politicians, and private citizens discussing the pros and cons of a Biblical-based government.  What had happened during the passing of this week was almost a miracle.  The evangelical right and their quest to transform our government into a theocracy had seemingly been the key to uniting every other non-Christian group in the country.  I was glad a lull in my interview schedule had occurred.

It was now Thursday, and I was in Chicago for the second of six Presidential debates.  CNN, the debate’s host, had asked me to do something that had never been tried in any national debate.  Stupid me had agreed to moderate the portion of the debate that centered on the theocracy issue.  I would be present at the moderators’ table and would ask the two candidates a carefully scripted list of questions.  I would have a limited amount of leeway in asking follow-up questions.

During the first half of the debate I was kept backstage in a tiny room with a desk and chair and a small TV.  I watched the debate even though I wasn’t focused given my level of anxiety.  I didn’t catch much details of what was discussed as the moderators asked the candidates their platform and visions concerning the economy, health care, and foreign policy.  The latter consumed an inordinate amount of time given the rising tensions between President Kane and Kim Jong-un, North Korea’s leader.  

At 9:30 p.m., and after nearly ninety minutes in the tiny claustrophobic room, I was led to the moderators’ table where Megan Kelley sat.  The other two moderators were milling around the front of the auditorium stretching their legs during the ongoing ten-minute break.  Megan reviewed once again the protocol and encouraged me to relax.  She was gracious, kind, and respectful, and along with her beautiful smile, cut away most of my anxiety and gave me the courage for my next national appearance.

The first question was for President Kane. “Mr. President, I’m Walt Shepherd and ….”

As I expected, he interrupted me and said, “We know who you are.  The nation knows you.  You are an embarrassment to true patriotism.”

“Mr. President, I may be a lot of things but right now I have a question.  It is up to you whether you answer it.  If you are reelected will you attempt to amend the U.S. Constitution to define marriage as between one man and one woman?”

“I certainly will.  Everybody with half a brain knows it can’t be any other way.  God created man and woman, Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve.”

“Good evening Mr. Salers, I ask you the same question.”  I said gaining just a little confidence since Kane had answered my first question, albeit in a way that truly reflected he is dumber than a First Grader.

“Thanks Mr. Shepherd for asking a very important question.  There is no need to amend our Constitution.  The real issue is whether this country will follow it.  Our Supreme Court has already ruled on this issue.  Even though their opinion didn’t discuss the origins of life, science is clear.  We humans are part of the animal kingdom.  We evolved from a common ancestor.  We are cousins to every plant and animal on this earth.  Unlike what President Kane says and possibly believes, God did not create Adam and Eve.  In fact, there is no God at all.”  I could hardly believe a candidate for the President of the United States would have the guts, on national TV, to state such a bold truth, to go against virtually every politician before him and deny the very existence of God.

Salers continued, “homosexuality is common throughout the animal kingdom.  I see no need to go against nature.  I agree this is not what a large percentage of the American people want to hear, but it is the truth.”

I decided to take a risk here in using my limited power to create a question.  “Mr. Salers, let me ask you a follow-up.  I’m sure you are aware that many proponents of a Biblical theocracy are calling for criminalizing homosexuality and as punishment, administering the death penalty. 

What do you say to that?”

“The very sound of that makes me cringe.  What on earth have we become, as Americans, the land of the free and the home of the brave?  Are we willing to destroy two-thousand plus years of progress?  It is absurd.  It is an affront to humankind.  Let me just say, anyone who would support such a policy is so brainwashed and indoctrinated they are both a danger to themselves and to the rest of us.  It is imperative all truth-loving voters in this great land stand up against this barbarism.”

At that moment President Kane jumped in.  “Don’t I get a chance to respond?  I will whether you like it Mr. Salers or not.  This nation has done quite well building its house on the Bible.  Our Founding Fathers were Christians and risked their lives to create a country deeply rooted in the Bible.  If the Bible was good enough for them it is good enough for me and all true believers.  I can’t help that homosexuality exists, but I can damn well put a roadblock in its path. 

God deplores homosexuality.”

I knew I needed to move on, but I was not sensing any resistance from Kelly.  I turned back to Mr. Salers.  “Do you want to respond to President Kane?”

“Absolutely, if we are interested in truth, we have to reconsider the veracity of the Bible.   It has too long been held up as a beacon of hope and light.  Ladies and gentlemen, it is time to recognize the Bible is simply a man-made document.  It is time to recognize that we do not have the original manuscripts.  The first full manuscripts of the Bible date to the ninth century.  Let’s be grownups here and admit that all we have are copies of copies of copies of copies of manuscripts.  No one person in the world knows what the originals said.  Bible scholars agree that even the manuscripts we have are all different from each other.  They contain many conflicts between each other.  We have no way of knowing that what we see in a modern Bible is in any way like it started out.  Of course, that makes the huge assumption itself, that there was a real Jesus to begin with.  Many scholars doubt even this.  One other thing, and it is the most damaging thing at all to the truth of Christianity.  I’m speaking of evolution.  We know for a fact it is true.  All life has evolved from a simple single-cell organism over billions of years.  Obviously, the Bible says life came about in a six-day week by God speaking it into existence.  Science and evolution dispute this.  Science and evolution destroy this.  It is time we as a nation move on and leave the Christian myth in the dust.  If we don’t, we are going to destroy ourselves.”

It took another forty-five minutes to get through the original four questions I was given.  The deeper we got into the fight over whether a theocracy was good or bad for America, it became clear that the crowd behind me was equally divided.   Even though the moderators continually reminded them to hold their verbal response until the debate was over, it was all in vain.  The crowd erupted in boos and yeas throughout the remainder of my moderating.  It finally got so bad that Megan called for a break immediately after both candidates responded to my last question.

As the program went to a commercial Kelly congratulated me on a job well done and asked me if I would consider an interview on her new program, Megyn Kelly TODAY in a week or so.  I agreed and thanked her.

As I was outside the auditorium hailing a cab my cell phone rang. 

It was Thaddeus Colburn.

“I thought you had been told not to spread this garbage.  Tonight, I see you on national TV giving Eric Salers an opportunity to sway millions of voters.  Let me put it to you one final time.  If you make one more national statement concerning anything remotely close to the Bible and theocracy controversy, I promise you will regret it.  You will not like what happens to you.”

As I got in my cab I responded.  “Are you threatening me?”

“No, I’m promising you.”

I immediately ended the call and grew madder and madder during the twenty-minute drive to the airport. 

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 Stenographer, written in 2018, is my fourth novel. I'll post a chapter a day over the next few weeks.

Book Blurb

Walt Shepherd, a 35 year veteran of the White House’s stenographic team, is fired by President Andrew Kane for refusing to lie.

Walt returns to his hometown of Boaz, Alabama and renews his relationship with Regina Gillan, his high school sweetheart, who he had ditched right before graduation to marry the daughter of a prominent local businessman.  Regina has recently moved back to Boaz after forty years in Chicago working at the Tribune.  She is now editor of the Sand Mountain Reporter, a local newspaper.

Walt and Regina’s relationship transforms into a once in life love at the same time they are being immersed in a growing local and national divide between Democrats and traditional Republicans, and extremist Republicans (known as Kanites) who are becoming more dogmatic about the revolution that began during President Kanes campaign.

Walt accepts two part-time jobs.  One as a stenography instructor at Snead State Community College in Boaz, and one as an itinerant stenographer with Rains & Associates out of Birmingham.

Walt later learns the owner of Rains & Associates  is also one of five men who created the Constitution Foundation and is involved in a sinister plot to destroy President Kane, but is using an unorthodox method to achieve its objective.  The Foundation is doing everything it can to prevent President Kane from being reelected in 2020, and is scheming to initiate a civil war that will hopefully restore allegiance to the U.S. Constitution.

While Walt is writing a book, The Coming Civil War, he is, unwittingly, gathering key information for the Constitution Foundation.

Will Walt discover a connection between the Foundation  and the deaths of three U.S. Congressmen in time to save his relationship with Regina, prevent President Kane from being reelected as the defacto head of a Christian theocracy, and the eruption of a civil war that could destroy the Nation ?

Chapter 78

 The next three weeks went by in a blur.  Court-reporting three days per week was on auto-pilot, but the evenings were consumed with book interviews.  With Regina and I froze as to what to do about her dilemma and my desire to be as far away from Shepherd’s Cove as I could because of the criminal living in my barn, I was happy to drive two or three evenings per week to Huntsville, Birmingham, Montgomery, Chattanooga, and Atlanta to conduct book interviews.  Also, the last three Sundays I had flown to New York City and Washington, D.C. to participate in multiple nationwide interviews including Meet the Press with Chuck Todd, Face the Nation with John Dickerson, This Week with George Stephanopoulos, and Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace.

Ever since Regina had confessed her devastating news to me during our drive back from my first national interview in Atlanta with Anderson Cooper, I had developed a lackadaisical attitude.  It seemed I had lost my way, especially when it came to my goal of destroying President Kane.  It was like I was seeing everything in a fog and I lacked the clarity and resolve to formulate a plan of action.  That changed last night when I received a disturbing phone call at 1:30 a.m.  I did not recognize the number.

“Hello.”  I started not to answer it because Regina and I had just walked in the door after a long three-hour drive from Atlanta.

“Mr. Shepherd, this is Thaddeus Colburn?  Do you know who I am?”  He said without any attempt at a pleasant greeting or a friendly remark about the weather, football, or, the countless hours of excellent work I had invested in his court reporting company, not to mention my time and efforts playing investigator on his behalf.

“If you are the owner of Rains & Associates and the director of the Constitution Foundation, then I know who you are.”

“That’s correct.  I’m going to demand that you stop talking about Eric Salters in such a favorable light, as though citizens should give him serious consideration.”  I was confused about how I was promoting Salters, the Democratic Presidential candidate.

“In all due respects sir, how is that any of your business?”  I said.

“Mr. Shepherd, you work for me.  Have you forgotten that?”

I normally am calm, but this man was pushing my buttons, buttons that hadn’t been messed with in quite a while.  “I am quite aware who I work for, but I must have missed the memo that I was your slave.”  

“I don’t want this conversation to get out of hand.  It seems you would spend your time during your book interviews focused on President Kane and the dangers he poses if he is reelected.”

“This is very confusing.  You want me to argue against the sitting President but not for his Democratic opponent?  What am I missing?”  I said.

“Your pointing out the problems with Kane stirs up his base and strengthens his chances of being reelected.  This is what I want, what the Constitution Foundation wants, and what is best for our nation in the long run.  Encouraging citizens to vote for Mr. Salers conflicts with our mutual goal.”  

“I hear what you are saying.”  I said.

“Are we then in agreement?”  Colburn asked.

“I’m not sure.”

“Mr. Shepherd, you have a lot to lose here.  I suggest you get on board.  I will not take no for an answer.  That’s all I must say. 

Goodnight.”  Colburn ended our conversation.

After Regina and I talked about what I had just heard she went to bed.  I was in no condition to sleep.  I sat in my lounge chair and reviewed my national interviews from the past three weeks.  It dawned on me what possibly had precipitated Mr. Colburn’s phone call.

The presidential election of late was filled with President Kane’s typical bombast and vitriol.  But, something new had crept onto the main stage.  Kane’s Democratic opponent, Eric Salers, was the first major party nominee who was an avowed atheist.  He was a seriously responsible and qualified man.  He was rational and had a dignified and honorable way of presenting his positions.  He was also a savvy politician and a risk-taker.

He had picked up on the possibility that there had to be a large group of folks who were sick and tired of the God mantle that every president in modern history had worn, no matter what true character framed their personality.  Salters knew that President Kane was as far away from being a true and committed Christian as one could get, yet he had become the darling of the evangelical right.  Salters also knew that America was becoming less and less religious.  Every major poll indicated the ‘Nones’ were the largest and fastest growing group in America.  That is, these folks were not affiliated with any religious denomination.

In large part, Salter’s platform was centered on the importance of science and evidence.  In addition, he openly shared his opposition to a theocracy that was motivating and fueling Kane’s campaign.  Salter’s was every day out on the campaign trail warning Americans of the dangers of allowing the Bible to become our guiding star.  He clearly stated that for far too long we as Americans had become lackadaisical in our thinking.  Over the past few weeks Salters had become bolder, even going so far as to say that any reasonably-minded person could not discard the fact that Christianity had two insurmountable problems.  The Bible and evolution.  He encouraged everyone to do a little research.  He contended that such study would lead to only one conclusion.  The Bible is man-made, and evolution is incompatible with the long-held scriptural interpretations by most every evangelical Christian.  Salter’s was adamant that every American enjoyed the fruits of science and President Kane’s assault on climate change alone could lead to the future destruction of our planet.

I was in total agreement with Eric Salters.  In pondering all my interviews, I recognized I had clearly become one of his advocates.  It was natural to one who had been able to break free from the Christian brainwashing of my youth.  But, it was this advocacy that had roiled Thaddeus Colburn and controlled his demands.

The problem was that I had never liked being told what I should believe.  My dear mother and I had had this conversation when I was fifteen years old.  At 3:30 a.m. I turned off the light beside my chair and walked upstairs.  I was ready for sleep because my mind had a renewed purpose that President Kane and the Christian right must be defeated, or America was doomed.

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 Stenographer, written in 2018, is my fourth novel. I'll post a chapter a day over the next few weeks.

Book Blurb

Walt Shepherd, a 35 year veteran of the White House’s stenographic team, is fired by President Andrew Kane for refusing to lie.

Walt returns to his hometown of Boaz, Alabama and renews his relationship with Regina Gillan, his high school sweetheart, who he had ditched right before graduation to marry the daughter of a prominent local businessman.  Regina has recently moved back to Boaz after forty years in Chicago working at the Tribune.  She is now editor of the Sand Mountain Reporter, a local newspaper.

Walt and Regina’s relationship transforms into a once in life love at the same time they are being immersed in a growing local and national divide between Democrats and traditional Republicans, and extremist Republicans (known as Kanites) who are becoming more dogmatic about the revolution that began during President Kanes campaign.

Walt accepts two part-time jobs.  One as a stenography instructor at Snead State Community College in Boaz, and one as an itinerant stenographer with Rains & Associates out of Birmingham.

Walt later learns the owner of Rains & Associates  is also one of five men who created the Constitution Foundation and is involved in a sinister plot to destroy President Kane, but is using an unorthodox method to achieve its objective.  The Foundation is doing everything it can to prevent President Kane from being reelected in 2020, and is scheming to initiate a civil war that will hopefully restore allegiance to the U.S. Constitution.

While Walt is writing a book, The Coming Civil War, he is, unwittingly, gathering key information for the Constitution Foundation.

Will Walt discover a connection between the Foundation  and the deaths of three U.S. Congressmen in time to save his relationship with Regina, prevent President Kane from being reelected as the defacto head of a Christian theocracy, and the eruption of a civil war that could destroy the Nation ?

Chapter 77

Initially, we had planned on spending Friday night in Atlanta and using Saturday to unwind and focus on each other and our relationship.  After leaving Glenn Memorial Auditorium, a few minutes after laying down in bed, Regina asked if it would be okay if we checked out of the hotel and drove home.  She said she had something important to tell me and that I probably would rather be home when she was finished.  I felt I didn’t have any choice but to trust her judgment.

After we filled my truck with gas in Villa Rica and bought two large cups of coffee, we settled in for the drive west on I-20.  For several minutes we sat in silence, so long that I needed to hear something, anyone’s voice, so I turned on the radio.  

“I know that’s my signal that I need to start talking.”  Regina said shifting in her seat.

I turned the radio off and said, “you’ve learned to read me, haven’t you?”

“I sure hope so.”

“What does that mean?”  I asked.

“Walt, I don’t deserve you.  You are honest to a fault.  You don’t deserve me either.  You deserve someone so much better.  I must tell you the full truth.  I hate to admit that I’m unsure whether I would do this if I didn’t believe you were in danger, at least from having your heart broken.

“I’m going to try to just sit here and listen.”  I said.

“I’ve been such a fool but now I believe our lives are about to get more complicated.  It’s all my fault for getting back involved with Thaddeus and the Constitution Foundation.  I have allowed my love for this country and my hatred of what harm right wing evangelicals are doing to motivate me to do things that will likely destroy us.”

“Regina, tell me what you’ve done.  But first, let me say, I’m feeling like I’m about to become the world’s biggest fool but so be it.  The one thing I know for sure is that I fell in love with you when we were teenagers and I have never stopped loving you.  It just took me nearly half a century to have the courage to tell you, to show you.  Please know that whatever you have done, it will never change the fact you hold my heart.”

“I love you too Walt, please, please know that.  It’s because of our love for each other that I must clear the air.  Oh, how I wish it was as simple as saying, ‘I lied to you about Ginger and Zell,’ or that ‘I hated you when you dumped me so that’s why I went along with Thaddeus’ scheme to manipulate you.’  But, what I’ve done is so much worse.”

“I’m realizing this is nearly impossible for you.  I give you permission to tell me the truth.  I promise I will respond, well, responsibly.”  I said.

“Walt, I murdered Kip Brewer and I manipulated you into assisting Sergei Ivankov to escape from Tifton, Georgia, after he murdered Kyle Turner.”

I will never know why I reached over and turned on the radio.  Maybe it was an involuntary reaction to the shock I had just received.  Something my deep subconscious screamed at me to do, to prevent me from dying or exploding with anger that I didn’t know I possessed.  I kept driving without saying a word.  I listened to the song Without You, by Faith Hill that talked about what would I do if you walked away.  I think I would have driven all the way back home, silently and internally crying my heart out if Regina hadn’t spoken.

“I’m so sorry.”  Regina’s words were like a hammer pounding against my frozen ears.

“What can I do to help save you?  To save us?”  Again, where had my words come from?  In an instant, I became a willing criminal.  Or, probably better put, in an instant, I discovered I wasn’t the person I thought I was.  Now, with these new facts, I could hear an attorney, a good attorney like Micaden Tanner say, things are different.

“The smartest thing for you to do is run to the hills away from me, leaving me to fend for myself.”  Regina said, her voice clearly broken.

“I know you are upset, really hurting, but please don’t get stupid and insulting with me.  Okay?  I’m not your assistant at work.”

I was gaining confidence, so I didn’t stop.  “To be clear, that’s exactly what I would do if I didn’t love you with all my heart.  I guess that makes me stupid since it’s the opposite of what the smart man would think and do.”  I said throwing my empty coffee cup out the window, something I had never done.  Funny, how easy it was now to become a law breaker.

“Are you saying you would keep this a secret to protect me and our relationship?”

“Damn right I would.”  I said.

“Let’s just ponder something.  What if some way we could get by with it, find ourselves someday having escaped from the possibility my secrets, my crimes, could be exposed?  How do you think we would be? 

Do you see us, our relationship, at its very best?”  Regina asked.

“That’s a little difficult to answer.  I suspect our love is now forever changed.  It will never go back to, let me put it like this, to that night we first made love.  I know what I felt like the next morning.  I think I can say you felt the same way.  I hope I’m not being too presumptuous.”

“You’re not.  It was the most beautiful thing ever.”

“Relationships mature, they change, maybe we could say they evolve.  New circumstances appear, and the creature has to adjust, or he will be destroyed by the new geography or the new antagonist.”

“Beautifully put.  So, if we want to survive, we have to respond.”  Regina said.

“Let me ask you, what’s the likelihood Thaddeus, Ginger, and Zell will keep your secret?”  I asked.

“I don’t have a doubt they will keep silent about me and my involvement.  It is Sergei Ivankov who is the one who would definitely use me as a bargaining chip if he is captured.”

“If I understood you, your confession, you didn’t shoot Kyle Turner.  So, he cannot honestly tie you to that.  But, I assume he knows that you shot Kip Brewer.  Right?”

“He knows that because he was there.  I guess Thaddeus didn’t know for sure if I would pull the trigger.  He sent Sergei to make sure the job got done.”

“Do you know where he is, Sergei?”  I asked.

“He’s still in Boaz.”

“I bet I know where he is.  Club Eden.  Why in the hell did I know this?”  

“You’re right.  Pastor Tillman and his gang are in on this to a point.  He, Club Eden, is tied to Thaddeus.  But, they are not all in as they say.”  Regina said.

“What do you mean?”

“I’ll just say Pastor Tillman, but I’m including all four members.  Yes, that includes Governor Justin Adams.  They are working with Thaddeus to see that President Kane is reelected.  They are knee deep in working with the Russians to manipulate the 2020 presidential election.  However, they do not know how Thaddeus and the Foundation is working to physically manipulate the actual candidates.  In other words, Pastor isn’t involved with the killings.”

“I’ve written a book about this but after the Emory presentation and now this, I feel my writing just scratched the surface of what is really going on.  Tell me, does President Kane know about all this, know about what Thaddeus and Pastor Tillman are up to?”  I asked.

“Here’s the funny thing.  No, he is clueless.  All he knows is that Pastor Tillman has worked tirelessly to stack the deck in Congress with like-minded folks to give Kane the power to ‘drain the swamp’ as he calls it.  Many people give him too much credit, that he is a genius to be able to manipulate the 2016 election to gain a victory over Hillary Clinton.  Kane can’t see ten feet in front of him.  He is a total non-thinker, nonplanner.  He operates strictly in the moment.”  Regina said.

“I’m still confused.  Here’s a dumb question, what is Thaddeus and his Foundation trying to accomplish?  Doesn’t seem to me like they would want him to win.”

“Actually, they do.  They believe that if he wins they win.”

“How so?”

“Thaddeus wants the U.S. Constitution to mean something again.  He believes that the only way for that to happen is for the country to come precipitously close to falling over the edge, into the abyss.  His plan is confusing since it has been, from the beginning, a double, maybe a triple play.  Thaddeus literally hates Kane but saw him as the key to taking America to the edge.  He, Kane, was the man to expose the raw underbelly of the Christian right, exposing what they are truly after.”

“I think I know but tell me anyway.  What are they after?”

“To rewrite the law.  For America to become a theocracy.”

“That’s what I thought.”

“Thaddeus believes that if Kane as President can be aligned with a Congress that is truly Kane Republicans, the truth will be exposed.  These folks in power will start passing legislation that will wake up the rest of America, the ones opposed to Kane, and will precipitate a counter revolution.  See, you are right in the big picture.  There is a coming civil war.  The means of getting to the beginning of the war might just be a little different than you thought.”  Regina said.

“I feel rather stupid.  Back to you and me, us.  There’s a national manhunt now underway for Sergei Ivankov.  I have to admit it was pretty smart to hide him in Boaz but that seems to indicate that Pastor Tillman has to know the man is a killer.”  I said.

“He, Tillman doesn’t know the man is Sergei Ivankov.  He thinks the man is Professor Romanov’s brother.  Yes, Anatoly Romanov, the man who the Professor is supposed to meet with in Russia.  The man the Professor is supposed to manipulate into revealing his election manipulation secrets.”

“I’m totally confused, is Sergei Ivankov hiding out at Club Eden?  If not, where is he?”  I said feeling either my mind was failing, or Regina was making all this up.

“If the man Pastor Tillman is hiding at Club Eden isn’t Sergei, where is he?”

“Please drive carefully because you are about to be in danger of committing suicide.  Okay?”  Regina said.

“Oh hell, why do I feel like a freight train is coming straight at me?”

“Sergei Ivankov has been hiding out in your barn ever since we returned from Tifton, Georgia.”  Regina said rolling down her window to let in some cool air.  

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 Stenographer, written in 2018, is my fourth novel. I'll post a chapter a day over the next few weeks.

Book Blurb

Walt Shepherd, a 35 year veteran of the White House’s stenographic team, is fired by President Andrew Kane for refusing to lie.

Walt returns to his hometown of Boaz, Alabama and renews his relationship with Regina Gillan, his high school sweetheart, who he had ditched right before graduation to marry the daughter of a prominent local businessman.  Regina has recently moved back to Boaz after forty years in Chicago working at the Tribune.  She is now editor of the Sand Mountain Reporter, a local newspaper.

Walt and Regina’s relationship transforms into a once in life love at the same time they are being immersed in a growing local and national divide between Democrats and traditional Republicans, and extremist Republicans (known as Kanites) who are becoming more dogmatic about the revolution that began during President Kanes campaign.

Walt accepts two part-time jobs.  One as a stenography instructor at Snead State Community College in Boaz, and one as an itinerant stenographer with Rains & Associates out of Birmingham.

Walt later learns the owner of Rains & Associates  is also one of five men who created the Constitution Foundation and is involved in a sinister plot to destroy President Kane, but is using an unorthodox method to achieve its objective.  The Foundation is doing everything it can to prevent President Kane from being reelected in 2020, and is scheming to initiate a civil war that will hopefully restore allegiance to the U.S. Constitution.

While Walt is writing a book, The Coming Civil War, he is, unwittingly, gathering key information for the Constitution Foundation.

Will Walt discover a connection between the Foundation  and the deaths of three U.S. Congressmen in time to save his relationship with Regina, prevent President Kane from being reelected as the defacto head of a Christian theocracy, and the eruption of a civil war that could destroy the Nation ?

Chapter 76

I knew that Eagle Publishing had arranged several radio interviews to promote my book.  By the first of July I had traveled to Birmingham, Montgomery, Chattanooga, and Nashville.  Todd, with Eagle, had done a good job of dividing my air time with both democratic and republican-leaning radio stations.  After my return from Nashville, I was feeling confident that being live, on the air, wasn’t so difficult and I was enjoying talking about my background and the future I envisioned that seemed to all hinge on the Presidential election that was only four months away.

The call from Anderson Cooper with CNN brought me back to reality.  After we talked for at least thirty minutes and arranged a live TV interview for the tenth of July, I was about to call Regina and give her the good news, or what I sure hoped would be, when Todd called.  He said that he had known for a week that Mr. Cooper was going to call but hadn’t wanted to give me time to stress out.  He then asked me if I was up for a presentation at Emory University, to their students, faculty, alumni, and community, after my TV interview at CNN.  Todd described the forum as me making a thirty to forty-five-minute presentation, followed by a Question & Answer session of the same time frame.  I agreed.

Regina and I decided to drive to Atlanta late Thursday afternoon and take a day just for ourselves.  We hadn’t been out of Boaz, together, since our trip to Tifton, Georgia.  We spent the night at the downtown Hilton in each other’s arms, in bed, not getting up other than an occasional trip to the bathroom.  We had covenanted to focus strictly on ourselves and not to even mention anything about my book, her newspaper, or our involvement with Ginger, Zell, Thaddeus, and the Constitution Foundation.  Friday morning, we walked to Crater’s, a local landmark, for breakfast and then spent several hours at the Natural Museum.  At 6:30 p.m., we walked across the street to the CNN Building on Peachtree Blvd.

Mr. Cooper, Anderson he insisted, was a wonderful host, gracious and humble.  The three of us spent thirty minutes talking about the growing national tensions with North Korea and the decimation of the third major earthquake to hit Mexico City in the last week.  At 7:00 p.m., Anderson directed Regina across the hall and beside the main studio to a viewing room.  He then guided me to what he simply called ‘Make-up.’  Before depositing me there he asked if I had any questions and I innocently, but ignorantly replied, no.

When the two women and one-man make-up team had done all they could to make me look presentable to a national audience, Kristie led me to a holding room on the opposite side of the studio.  She first let me peek through a door I would take to enter the studio and where to sit across from Anderson.  As she left she said that in about thirty minutes I would hear my name over the intercom and the word ‘live.’  That would be my signal to go to the studio and sit across from Anderson.

It was the longest thirty minutes of my life.  My mind kept suggesting to me that my book had a huge flaw in it and that I should have ditched the project after Vann was murdered.  Sweat kept breaking out on my forehead and I knew by the make-up on my handkerchief that I was going to look worse than Richard Nixon had during his 1960 televised presidential debate with John F. Kennedy.  Everyone knew how that turned out.  To my pleasant surprise, at the 27-minute mark, a freezer blast of cold air burst into the room along with Kristie.  She said not to worry.  “It happens to every newbie, those who are unaccustomed to TV.”  In less than three minutes I was cooled down and made-up good as new.  Or, so I thought.

As I sat down before Anderson, he pushed a cup across to me that I could see was filled with ice and water.  He said, “just relax, listen, and respond as naturally as though we were sitting at your house.  To keep it fun, I’ll probably make you feel a little uncomfortable.  Here we go, three, two, one.”  I wanted to take a sip of water, but I refrained.

“Good evening ladies and gentlemen and thank you for joining CNN.  I’m Anderson Cooper and this is Walt Shepherd from Boaz, Alabama.  Walt is here to tell us about his new book, The Coming Civil War, that was published the first of June.  Walt, what is the premise of your book?”

 “Our nation is divided more now than at any time since the Civil War of the 1860s.  There are many sides but simply put it is liberals vs. conservatives.  Another way to describe the parties is religious vs. humanist.  I contend that the U.S. Constitution is under assault from the religious right, some call it the evangelical right.  They want to convert the federal government into a Christian theocracy and they have hitched their wagon to the popularity of President Kane.  Without some common ground, a uniting, I predict a coming violent confrontation that could escalate to an all-out civil war.”

After a rapid back and forth over three or four underlying issues, including the upcoming federal elections, Anderson asked me what my book recommends.  He asked it this way, “let’s say I read your book.  What is the main take-away, the action I would need to take to do my part to help our nation avoid a civil war?”

“You have to decide what type of America you want to live in.  If you are okay with congressmen and a president who believe the Bible is the best guide for living, whether gays, blacks, Hispanics, and other minorities should be relegated to second-class citizenship, then you will vote Republican.  Anderson, you must realize that the Republican party has changed, it is no longer the party of Abraham Lincoln.  It is now the party of folks like Roy Moore from Alabama, who want to adopt and implement God’s laws.  He and his type have a unique take on our present Constitution—if he believes a law goes against his interpretation of the Bible, then he is quite okay, just look at his record, of refusing to comply with the actual law.”

Anderson ended the interview by asking me how people could buy my book and whether I had a forum they could ask me questions.  I told him the book was available on Amazon and at all the major book stores.  I also gave him the address of my Facebook Page where I tried to interact daily. 

After leaving the CNN studio, Regina and I took a cab to the Glenn Memorial Auditorium on the Emory University Campus. It was a few minutes after 9:00 p.m. when we met Clayton Stevens, an alumnus, and a former law partner of Micaden Tanner.  Mr. Stevens led us to the back stage and introduced us to Rhonda Bernstein who was overseeing our event.  I had spoken with her a couple of days ago and she had advised me to watch a couple of YouTube videos of international author and celebrity Richard Dawkins conducting a book presentation.  Rhonda had told me our forum would be similar and I would do well to learn from Mr. Dawkins’ techniques.

Within ten minutes of arriving by cab, Rhonda had introduced me and I was standing before a crowd of about two-hundred.  I did model my presentation after Mr. Dawkins.  I gave a brief biography and description of what had prompted me to write The Coming Civil War.  I then read a few excerpts from several chapters.  With each, I made a few comments.  All easy and on my own terms. 

Rhonda stopped me a few minutes before 10:00 p.m. and immediately kicked off the Question & Answer session.  The first question was from an elderly woman who asked if I had a vendetta against Mr. Kane since he had fired me back in 2017.  I responded ‘no’ and gave her a run-down on why I thought he really wasn’t the major problem, that it appeared to me he and his popularity were simply a tool the extreme right had hijacked to convert into a virtual overthrow of the U.S. Constitution.

For another forty-five minutes I answered questions that spanned everything from ‘Americans learned a lesson from the last Civil War and therefore it’s impossible that another one could occur,’ to ‘the Bible is God’s Word, so what would be so bad if our legislature took a lead from what the Bible mandates, especially the New Testament.’  It was the last question that threw me for a loop.

A middle-aged man asked, “Mr. Shepherd, what do you think is the connection between the Russian involvement in the 2016 Presidential election and the assumption they will be again in this year’s election, and Thaddeus Colburn’s Constitution Foundation?”

I told him that I could not speak to that because I didn’t have any relevant information.  The same man then asked, “why not, don’t you work for Mr. Colburn?” 

How did this man know about my involvement with the Constitution Foundation?  Was that what he was referring to?  How had he obtained whatever information he was basing his question on?  “I work for a company by the name of Rains & Associates out of Birmingham.  It is a court-reporting service.  I believe it is owned by Mr. Colburn, but I don’t know him, never met him.  And, I certainly don’t work for the Constitution Foundation.”

The man attempted to ask another question, but Rhonda cut him off and politely ended the presentation.  After another hour of sitting out in the front of the Auditorium, selling and signing books, Regina and I returned by cab to our hotel.  We ordered room service and watched a rerun of the night’s Anderson Cooper show.  I ate and sat silently as Regina quizzed me about my make-up until I had no choice but to join in her out-of-control laughter.  At 1:00 a.m. we went to bed and, as though we had been married for forty years, kissed good night and dosed off without attempting any intimacy.

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 Stenographer, written in 2018, is my fourth novel. I'll post a chapter a day over the next few weeks.

Book Blurb

Walt Shepherd, a 35 year veteran of the White House’s stenographic team, is fired by President Andrew Kane for refusing to lie.

Walt returns to his hometown of Boaz, Alabama and renews his relationship with Regina Gillan, his high school sweetheart, who he had ditched right before graduation to marry the daughter of a prominent local businessman.  Regina has recently moved back to Boaz after forty years in Chicago working at the Tribune.  She is now editor of the Sand Mountain Reporter, a local newspaper.

Walt and Regina’s relationship transforms into a once in life love at the same time they are being immersed in a growing local and national divide between Democrats and traditional Republicans, and extremist Republicans (known as Kanites) who are becoming more dogmatic about the revolution that began during President Kanes campaign.

Walt accepts two part-time jobs.  One as a stenography instructor at Snead State Community College in Boaz, and one as an itinerant stenographer with Rains & Associates out of Birmingham.

Walt later learns the owner of Rains & Associates  is also one of five men who created the Constitution Foundation and is involved in a sinister plot to destroy President Kane, but is using an unorthodox method to achieve its objective.  The Foundation is doing everything it can to prevent President Kane from being reelected in 2020, and is scheming to initiate a civil war that will hopefully restore allegiance to the U.S. Constitution.

While Walt is writing a book, The Coming Civil War, he is, unwittingly, gathering key information for the Constitution Foundation.

Will Walt discover a connection between the Foundation  and the deaths of three U.S. Congressmen in time to save his relationship with Regina, prevent President Kane from being reelected as the defacto head of a Christian theocracy, and the eruption of a civil war that could destroy the Nation ?

Chapter 75

It was the rarest of circumstances that led to Freddie Olinger’s arrest.  Late Saturday night, June 20th, Jeremiah Hill and his two sons drove to the rear entrance of Beulah Baptist Church of Christ to return forty chairs they had borrowed for their family reunion held earlier in the afternoon.  They were not surprised to see Pastor Mel Abramson’s car parked in his favorite spot beneath an old oak tree beside a fenced-in children’s playground.

Jeremiah backed under the awning and as close as he could get to the back door.  The two boys, Jacob and Joseph, were unloading the bed of their truck and toting the chairs inside the Fellowship Hall while Jeremiah walked two flights up to the Pastor’s office.  Every church member knew he spent several hours every Saturday night in prayer and reviewing his Sunday morning sermon.  Just as the boys were sitting down a load of chairs they heard what sounded like a gunshot.  They instantly ran upstairs and into the reception area outside the Pastor’s study.  Just as they entered, a tall and thin man in a black mask rushed through the Pastor’s door and headed straight for them.  The man attempted to fire at them, but his gun jammed.  The boys heard their father’s voice from the Pastor’s study yell, “tackle him.”  

When Freddie left home Saturday night he never expected a confrontation with twin brothers, both six-foot two inches tall and weighing over two-hundred twenty pounds.  They were senior football stars at Albertville High School and were the pride of Jeremiah and his wife Renee’s lives.  Freddie had planned on a quiet, non-violent confrontation with Pastor Abramson.  The police were summoned and found Freddie Olinger face-down on the floor secured beneath Jacob’s knees.  The body of Mel Abramson was discovered on the floor beyond his desk. Joseph Hill was squatting beside his father attempting to slow the blood flowing from a wound to his chest.  Freddie was arrested and transported to the Marshall County Jail.  Two ambulances arrived right behind the police.  One carried Jeremiah to the hospital, the other moved Pastor Mel to the coroner’s office and temporary morgue awaiting transport to the Alabama Department of Forensic Sciences for an official autopsy.

This information had been divulged in the Sand Mountain Reporter by Delton Kittle in his weekly crime update.

That was a little less than three weeks ago and today was Freddie’s preliminary hearing.  Once again, Judge Broadside had been asked to conduct this high-profile hearing since the two District Court judges were busy with the many run-of-the-mill cases, and neither wanted to screw up a murder case, especially one that, given a rumor leaked from the Sheriff’s Department, could connect to at least one other unsolved crime.

I shouldn’t have been surprised to see Micaden Tanner enter the courtroom.  Locally, he was the top criminal defense attorney.  In fact, he was well known throughout North Alabama, something of a rock star given his personal experience of beating the criminal justice system on his own behalf on two separate occasions.  No doubt Micaden was a great lawyer but, if what the Reporter had said about this case was true, I knew Freddie Olinger would spend the next twenty years or so on death row awaiting the final ruling on a host of appeals, before he entered the State’s death chamber and had a needle administer a cocktail of lethal drugs.

Once again, I realized Tanner was no ordinary lawyer.  He fooled everyone when he, before the State called its first witness, and on the record, announced his client was willing to plead guilty to the murder of Mel Abramson and three others if the State would agree to abandon all efforts to obtain the death penalty.  This announcement jarred District Attorney Charles Abbott.  He too was a seasoned professional and chose to not respond other than request the Court to allow a private, but recorded, meeting of the attorneys in the Judge’s chambers.

Judge Broadside agreed, and I moved my steno into his office.  Once all five of us, including Freddie Olinger, were situated, Judge instructed DA Abbott to make a statement.  He couched his words in the form of a hypothetical.  “Let’s assume for the moment that we are not talking about State vs. Freddie Olinger, but simply an imaginary case.  Micaden, let me ask you what evidence you could provide in that case to persuade me to accept your offer?”

Micaden responded, “In that case, Rudolph, can we call the defendant Rudolph?”

“Yes.”

“What if Rudolph has photos of those other crime scenes or he has items that he seized during the commission of such offenses?”  Micaden said.

“Could you provide me an example of such a photograph?”  

Micaden pulled his brief case onto his lap, opened it and rustled through a couple of files.  “Here, let’s assume one of the murder victim’s looks a lot like Sandra Donaldson and that she lived in a house that was almost identical to hers.”

“Okay, we could do that.”  Abbott said.

Micaden handed the photograph over to the District Attorney who said, “looks believable.”

This make-believe scenario played out for the next fifteen minutes or so.  Of course, everyone knew what was going on.  If the DA did not accept Micaden’s offer, nothing that was said here, in Judge Broadside’s chambers, could ever be used against Freddie Olinger, since it was all couched in hypothetical and not actual terms.

Finally, after persuasive evidence was shared for the Brian Steele and Vann Elkins murders, DA Abbott said, “Okay, I agree to take the death penalty off the table, but make sure you know that I will settle for nothing less than life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.  Is that clear?”

“Absolutely.”  Micaden responded.

“One thing I would like to know is why kill Pastor Abramson? Abbott asked.

Micaden looked at Freddie and he nodded.  “A few weeks ago, Freddie read a Facebook post made by Abramson.  He was reminiscing over the horrible Las Vegas shooting in 2018 where sixty or so folks were killed and over 500 were wounded.  Abramson had stated in his post that without God there is no right and wrong, there is no moral absolutes.  He argued that evil could not exist if there were no God.  I quote, ‘If we are just accidental beings in an accidental universe, nothing can really be evil.’  The pastor went on to say, ‘Evil points to a necessary moral judgment made by a moral authority greater than we are — a transcendent and supernatural moral authority: God.’  Of course, the Pastor was referring to the Christian God.  My client is smart enough to know that Pastor Abramson is fully brainwashed, believing something that has no evidence to support it.  Freddie is a smart man.  He, unlike Abramson, has exposed his mind to both sides of this argument and knows that man’s morals don’t come from God.  Heck, he has read the Bible.  When Freddie was sharing this with me he used this example, ‘Do you think that the adults who were wandering around in the wilderness with Moses believed that killing, raping, and stealing were all okay, but when God gave Moses the Ten Commandments, these folks said to themselves, ‘Gosh, we didn’t know this.  We have to stop all this evil behavior.’  To Freddie, and to all reasonable folks, this example is absurd.  The bottom line is, Freddie took great offense to the Pastor’s narrowminded bigotry and decided to kill him.” 

When we returned to the courtroom I heard an off-the-record discussion between DA Abbott, Micaden, and Judge Broadside.  They were discussing the better approach towards a resolution of Freddie’s cases.  Whether to pursue an Indictment from a grand jury or to seek a plea based on an Information, which is a procedure that is provided by the Alabama Code of Criminal Procedure where a District Attorney can, with agreement from the Defendant, create an official charging document that authorizes the court to accept a felony plea.  The discussion was resolved with an agreement for Micaden, on behalf of Freddie, to waive the preliminary hearing, meaning they conceded probable cause.  The Defendant agreed to sign the Information once the DA had it prepared.

After court I returned my equipment and tapes to my office and was waiting at the elevator to leave, when Micaden appeared from the direction of the District Attorney’s office.  He asked if I had time for a cup of coffee.  We rode the elevator down to the ground floor and the Courthouse Diner, bought two large coffees, and retired to the same table in the corner that he, Pastor Warren, and I had used a few weeks ago.

“I’m a little hesitant to tell you this but my reasoning is the information I’m going to tell you is in the custody of the Sheriff’s office, and therefore I’m not breaching my confidentiality to my client.  I also wanted to tell you because I consider you a friend.”

“I don’t have a clue what you are referring to, but I suspect you know that.”  I said.

“Freddie is going to plea to another murder case that is over forty years old.  When Freddie was arrested DA Clarke obtained a search warrant for Freddie’s house.  There, they seized some evidence that has since been linked to Vann Elkins’ murder at Regina’s house.  Long story short, it appears Freddie is responsible for the murder of your late wife, Jennifer.  I know this is a horrible shock.”  Micaden said.

“What type of information was taken from Freddie’s?”

“Two shoeboxes full of photos.  Freddie said he grabbed them after he shot Vann.  He had already packed them into a backpack.” “What exactly do the pictures show?”  I asked.

“Jennifer’s car is up on a rack.  Freddie said it was at his and Frankie’s business, Sand Mountain Tire & Muffler.  There are wide-angle shots and close-ups.  The photos clearly show the car’s brakes being worked on, even show a special tubing section that has been modified.” “Why on earth would Freddie want to harm Jennifer?” 

“He won’t say but he has indicated to me that he had a partner.  Again, he’s not talking but is wanting a concession from the DA to disclose that person’s name.”

“What exactly is he wanting?”

“To have his sentences eligible for parole, to remove the life without parole component.”

“Do you think DA Abbott will agree?”  I asked.

“I kind of doubt it.  He has no strong reason to, since he knows Freddie could be lying, and even if he is not, Abbott knows he will have a pretty difficult time of getting a conviction of that person since all the evidence hinges on the word of a serial killer.”  Micaden said wiping up coffee he spilled on his tie.

“Do you believe Freddie?  Do you think he had a partner?”

“I’m not sure but it seems plausible especially given Freddie’s seeming lack of motive.  A partner could supply that motive.”

“Oh, this is horrible.  Who on earth would have wanted to hurt sweet Jennifer?”  I said.

“We might be shocked if we knew the truth.  Sometimes it doesn’t take much for someone to want to kill somebody.”  Micaden said.

“So, you don’t have any idea who this other person is?  Freddie’s partner?”

“No.”

“Is there any way I could look at the photos?”  I asked.

“For sure, but you might have to wait until the plea hearing.  Those photos will be part of the evidence the DA brings to the courtroom.  It will be entered into evidence and then, obviously, you will have them since you are the court reporter and in charge of the evidence until it is later secured back at the Sheriff’s office.”

After a few minutes of Micaden and me discussing what was going on in Professor Romanov’s undercover assignment, I drove to the Sand Mountain Reporter, picked up Regina, and traveled to Oneonta to eat barbecue at our favorite spot.

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 Stenographer, written in 2018, is my fourth novel. I'll post a chapter a day over the next few weeks.

Book Blurb

Walt Shepherd, a 35 year veteran of the White House’s stenographic team, is fired by President Andrew Kane for refusing to lie.

Walt returns to his hometown of Boaz, Alabama and renews his relationship with Regina Gillan, his high school sweetheart, who he had ditched right before graduation to marry the daughter of a prominent local businessman.  Regina has recently moved back to Boaz after forty years in Chicago working at the Tribune.  She is now editor of the Sand Mountain Reporter, a local newspaper.

Walt and Regina’s relationship transforms into a once in life love at the same time they are being immersed in a growing local and national divide between Democrats and traditional Republicans, and extremist Republicans (known as Kanites) who are becoming more dogmatic about the revolution that began during President Kanes campaign.

Walt accepts two part-time jobs.  One as a stenography instructor at Snead State Community College in Boaz, and one as an itinerant stenographer with Rains & Associates out of Birmingham.

Walt later learns the owner of Rains & Associates  is also one of five men who created the Constitution Foundation and is involved in a sinister plot to destroy President Kane, but is using an unorthodox method to achieve its objective.  The Foundation is doing everything it can to prevent President Kane from being reelected in 2020, and is scheming to initiate a civil war that will hopefully restore allegiance to the U.S. Constitution.

While Walt is writing a book, The Coming Civil War, he is, unwittingly, gathering key information for the Constitution Foundation.

Will Walt discover a connection between the Foundation  and the deaths of three U.S. Congressmen in time to save his relationship with Regina, prevent President Kane from being reelected as the defacto head of a Christian theocracy, and the eruption of a civil war that could destroy the Nation ?

Chapter 74

Christmas 2019 came and went, and I found myself in the deepest slough of my life.  For all my thirty-five years working at the White House my life was a predictable routine, but I had always felt I was at the periphery of the main story.  Now, I was knee deep in a plot where I felt like the main character.  I suppose it was because I was so enthralled with writing The Coming Civil War, a book I was convinced represented the very heartbeat of America.

Over the holidays I had convinced Rains & Associates to approach the Administrative Office of Courts to consider whether it would allow a division of my duties with another court-reporter.  It agreed if Judge Broadside did.  It worked out, though not perfectly.  Dana Teague, the woman who had filled in the two days I missed with Vann’s funeral, was Judge Broadside’s number one choice.  He really liked her.  I think it might have had something to do with their similar age and the fact both had lost their spouses in the prior couple of years.  Dana finally agreed if I would be available to answer questions and review transcripts.  During the week of January 6, 2020, my court reporter duties for Circuit Judge Broadside were limited to criminal case matters.  Dana Teague took over everything else.  This change gave me the time to concentrate on completing my book.

Although this change gave me an extra three, sometimes four, days per week, it wasn’t like I didn’t have anything but book-writing on my calendar.  I continued to teach stenography at Snead State Monday and Thursday evenings.  I also continued to write the Sand Mountain Reporter’s weekly Boaz Stenographer column.  One afternoon during the second week of January it finally dawned on me that everything I was doing, including my life with Regina, had a vital connection to The Coming Civil War.  It might have had something to do with what I had discovered on that second thumb drive I had stolen from Regina’s house.  Other than the photos of the shooting site for the killer of Kip Brewer, the drive contained a file with photos from a lake, taken from the shore.  An island with a like new, docked, Sea Born NX23 fishing boat, along with two men.  One laying on his side; the other on his face.  Both were bloody, no doubt dead.  After looking at the photos of them, I finally concluded these photos were of the Kyle Turner murder in Tifton, Georgia.  What unnerved me as much as anything were several photos of the trailer Regina and I had rented to haul the furniture from the home of Wilma and Carl Carrington.  There were three photos of the inside of the trailer after the furniture had been loaded, wrapped, and secured.  I was completely confused as to when Regina had made these pictures, thinking back to that afternoon when I thought she and I had taken every step together. 

My book-writing activity in January was centered on distilling the main theme(s) of War, my internal reference for my great work in process.  This thought harkened me back to college and the semester a literature professor made the class read War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy.  The novel focused on Napoleon’s invasion of Russia in 1812.  The real credit belonged to Vann.  He had the idea that the players or forces were the characters in our book.  There were the right-wing Republicans, far right I should say, led by President Kane, and included the thinkers like Professor Romanov and Warren Tillman types.  This force wanted a revolution that was not limited by tradition.  If given a chance, this force would dismantle the U.S. Constitution and place President Kane at the head of a monarchy.   The right wing also included the thoughtless, those like Frankie Olinger who acted on their anger.  Many, but not all, of this group, were uneducated white men.  They believed they had been dealt a losing hand by past presidents, mostly because of favoritism of blacks, Hispanics, and other minorities.  The other side of the coming war was the left wing of the Democratic Party, more accurately, a section of the left wing.  This force was a ‘behind-the-scenes’ secret force that would do anything to destroy the right wing, including murder.  

During the second week of February I received a call from Todd Mason with Eagle Publishers in Denver, Colorado.  I had never written a book before, but I knew writers, unknown writers, were never called and asked for permission to publish his or her book.  After a cordial conversation getting to know each other and to discuss the general thrust of my book, I persuaded him to tell me how he had learned of me.  It seems Micaden Tanner had spoken to Nate Baker, a journalist with the New York Times, whose best friend was Todd Mason.  Until he called I had almost forgotten the Saturday morning time after Professor Romanov’s agreement and release where Micaden and I had met, ate breakfast at Grumpy’s Diner, and then retired to his office to discuss mine and Vann’s outline.  Over the next ten days, I grew to respect Todd’s ability to understand War and his desire to publish it in record time.  He agreed that it was imperative that every American have access to either the book itself or to its core message in plenty of time to carefully consider the importance of their November 2020 vote for the next President of the United States.  On February 9, 2020, I signed an agreement with Eagle Publishers for a fifty percent share of all profits from the sale of War and a $25,000 signing bonus.  Eagle agreed to have the book ready for distribution on June 1st if I delivered to Eagle’s editors a clean draft no later than April 15.

It seemed the first quarter of 2020 passed without any major interruptions.  I was particularly happy that no one within my community was murdered.  I kept my head down in my book, taught my two classes per week, and performed the stenographic duties of a court-reporter for over three months.  The only other thing I did was stay on full alert with Regina.  I concentrated on being as good an actor as the best in Hollywood.  As everyday went by I knew more confidently than before that Regina had not told me the full truth.  I had this sick feeling that the secrets she protected were the type no true and loving relationship could weather.

The dark pall of daylight after a midnight tornado began to break through when, two days after The Coming Civil War was published and available in fine bookstores everywhere, Freddie Olinger was arrested for the murder of Mel Abramson.

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 Stenographer, written in 2018, is my fourth novel. I'll post a chapter a day over the next few weeks.

Book Blurb

Walt Shepherd, a 35 year veteran of the White House’s stenographic team, is fired by President Andrew Kane for refusing to lie.

Walt returns to his hometown of Boaz, Alabama and renews his relationship with Regina Gillan, his high school sweetheart, who he had ditched right before graduation to marry the daughter of a prominent local businessman.  Regina has recently moved back to Boaz after forty years in Chicago working at the Tribune.  She is now editor of the Sand Mountain Reporter, a local newspaper.

Walt and Regina’s relationship transforms into a once in life love at the same time they are being immersed in a growing local and national divide between Democrats and traditional Republicans, and extremist Republicans (known as Kanites) who are becoming more dogmatic about the revolution that began during President Kanes campaign.

Walt accepts two part-time jobs.  One as a stenography instructor at Snead State Community College in Boaz, and one as an itinerant stenographer with Rains & Associates out of Birmingham.

Walt later learns the owner of Rains & Associates  is also one of five men who created the Constitution Foundation and is involved in a sinister plot to destroy President Kane, but is using an unorthodox method to achieve its objective.  The Foundation is doing everything it can to prevent President Kane from being reelected in 2020, and is scheming to initiate a civil war that will hopefully restore allegiance to the U.S. Constitution.

While Walt is writing a book, The Coming Civil War, he is, unwittingly, gathering key information for the Constitution Foundation.

Will Walt discover a connection between the Foundation  and the deaths of three U.S. Congressmen in time to save his relationship with Regina, prevent President Kane from being reelected as the defacto head of a Christian theocracy, and the eruption of a civil war that could destroy the Nation ?

Chapter 73

Judge Broadside had his judicial assistant clear his entire calendar for Anton Romanov’s plea hearing.  District Attorney Charles Abbott had assembled a grand jury Tuesday afternoon and easily obtained an indictment against Sergei Ivankov for the murder of U.S. Congressmen Kip Brewer.

Micaden had called to explain the legal process and answer my question why Professor Romanov would agree to aiding.  Micaden said that Clarke, with the assistance of the FBI, had secured the services of an international expert in photo recognition.  The man was working another case in St. Louis, Missouri and could quickly evaluate the photo provided by Regina.  He had no doubt the man was Sergei Ivankov.

Micaden had convinced his client that even though the State’s case against him was weakened by the photo, the State could continue to hold him to pursue their investigation.  He could be held for months awaiting Micaden’s successful argument of a motion to dismiss.  Professor Romanov was losing his mind sitting in a six by eight jail cell and being away from the most important thing in his life, his teaching and consulting. It was Jeff Sessions, the FBI director himself, who, with the permission of Micaden and the Professor, who ultimately persuaded him to agree.  Mr. Sessions told him the U.S. Justice Department was planning on taking him into custody to pursue a federal indictment for treason related to his role in the 2016 election fraud.  He convinced the Professor he would become the most hated man in America, to both those for and those against President Kane.

DA Charles Abbott and the FBI had been able to convince the Professor, through Micaden, that his best interest was served by agreeing to become the government’s undercover agent.  In this role, American justice had an opportunity to learn what had happened during the 2016 Presidential election, including whether Russia had been involved in manipulating the final votes.

Micaden had told me all this over the phone Sunday afternoon. 

He also answered my question about the role I was being asked to play.  It seemed Micaden and Pastor Tillman had assembled a pretty good team of investigators.  They had not been able to positively confirm yet, but seriously believed, Thaddeus Colburn and his Constitution Foundation were involved in a conspiracy to spark a national crisis.  Micaden said he couldn’t divulge any details yet but Colburn had a history of what Micaden called, ‘the double-play.’  He said this was always a strategy that, on its face, left you saying, ‘he wouldn’t do that if his objective was X.’  Micaden said that Colburn had a reputation, through his public interest law firm of creating, albeit on a much smaller stage, situations that created a need for his solution.  It was somewhat analogous to Munchhausen’s Syndrome where the mentally ill mother abuses her child for her to become the savior.  Micaden cited several cases throughout the Midwest where Colburn had gone so far as to plant a public-school teacher who was a Bible thumper and engaged in clear violations of the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment prohibition against the establishment of religion.  

Both Darden and the FBI, aware of my relationship with Ginger Crumbley and Zel Peterson, believed that if I completed my book and engaged in widespread publication, including some carefully planned national media interviews, that Thaddeus Colburn and his Constitution Foundation might disclose their plan.  I told Micaden that I was weeks away from completing the first draft.

The hearing on Thursday was unusual.  It really wasn’t a court hearing at all.  It was simply a meeting to put the parties, the government and Professor Romanov’s, agreement on the record.  Judge Broadside was needed for two things.  To make sure he was present in the event the parties were unable to resolve an issue.  The parties had agreed the Judge would be this final arbiter.  Also, Judge Broadside controlled his courtroom.  It was necessary that the meeting be secret, with only Darden Clarke, FBI agent Stanford, the Justice Department’s representative, Micaden, and his client.  Of course, I would be present to create a stenographic record of everything that was said. 

The morning session was conducted as though it was a criminal trial of sorts.  The parties had agreed to create a mock courtroom scene to allow the parties to question each other.  The purpose was for the government to reveal the scope of what they were asking Professor Romanov to do.  DA Abbott was tasked with the job of asking the Professor, ‘did you not know’ questions.  Things like, did you not know that you would be asked to wear a wire in the meeting with your brother?  The biggest issue arose over whether the Professor must wear an electronic monitoring device.  Finally, Micaden convinced the government the dangerousness of this idea, that the anticipated trip for the Professor to Russia would be too late to deal with such issue.  The KGB would discover this and would immediately take the Professor into custody.  This session lasted until almost 12:30 p.m.  

Judge Broadside’s judicial assistant brought sandwiches and chips for everyone’s lunch.  After a short break, the afternoon session began which, for an hour, was off the record with the parties hashing out changes in the written agreement.  At 2:00 p.m., Judge Broadside conducted a plea hearing of sorts.  He, of course, was not accepting a plea from the Professor to a criminal charge.  The Judge just wanted to make sure the Professor understood his Constitutional rights to a trial and that he did not have to enter into this agreement or any other agreement with the State of Alabama, the Federal government, or anyone else.  After Judge Broadside was convinced the Professor was acting voluntarily, he supervised the parties entering into and signing off on the agreement.  

After the meeting was over the parties wanted me to prepare the actual transcript of the morning and afternoon sessions.  I returned to my office.  Less than an hour later I delivered copies of both transcripts to Judge Broadside.  He thanked me for my timely service and told me to have a good weekend.

I took the elevator to the ground floor and had just exited the courthouse when my phone vibrated in my coat pocket.  It was Regina.

“Hello love.”

“Hey babe.  Are you coming home anytime soon?”  Regina asked.

“I’m leaving the courthouse right now.  What’s up?”

“I just wanted to hear your voice and let you know I was already home.  Funny, that feels weird saying that.”

“Oh, stop it.  We’ve had this discussion.  My home is your home. 

It is official, you are a permanent resident of Shepherd’s Cove.”

“If you will, drop by Pizza Hut for our favorite pizza.  I’ll order it when we get off the phone.  Oh, by the way, I just heard that Anton Romanov is being released from jail.  Not sure exactly why.  Have you heard anything?”  Regina asked.

The question froze my mind as I stood there at the curb.  I hesitated for just a second.  Regina then asked me again, the same question.  “Sorry, I lost you for just a minute.  Did you say Romanov had escaped from jail?”

“No.  No.  Delton called me and said he was being released from jail.  I asked you if you had heard anything.  Why he is being released?”

“No.  Nothing.  My guess would be Micaden pulled a rabbit trick from his hat.  You know he is known for his creativity.”  I said.

“Okay, see you soon.  Don’t forget to pick up our pizza.”

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 Stenographer, written in 2018, is my fourth novel. I'll post a chapter a day over the next few weeks.

Book Blurb

Walt Shepherd, a 35 year veteran of the White House’s stenographic team, is fired by President Andrew Kane for refusing to lie.

Walt returns to his hometown of Boaz, Alabama and renews his relationship with Regina Gillan, his high school sweetheart, who he had ditched right before graduation to marry the daughter of a prominent local businessman.  Regina has recently moved back to Boaz after forty years in Chicago working at the Tribune.  She is now editor of the Sand Mountain Reporter, a local newspaper.

Walt and Regina’s relationship transforms into a once in life love at the same time they are being immersed in a growing local and national divide between Democrats and traditional Republicans, and extremist Republicans (known as Kanites) who are becoming more dogmatic about the revolution that began during President Kanes campaign.

Walt accepts two part-time jobs.  One as a stenography instructor at Snead State Community College in Boaz, and one as an itinerant stenographer with Rains & Associates out of Birmingham.

Walt later learns the owner of Rains & Associates  is also one of five men who created the Constitution Foundation and is involved in a sinister plot to destroy President Kane, but is using an unorthodox method to achieve its objective.  The Foundation is doing everything it can to prevent President Kane from being reelected in 2020, and is scheming to initiate a civil war that will hopefully restore allegiance to the U.S. Constitution.

While Walt is writing a book, The Coming Civil War, he is, unwittingly, gathering key information for the Constitution Foundation.

Will Walt discover a connection between the Foundation  and the deaths of three U.S. Congressmen in time to save his relationship with Regina, prevent President Kane from being reelected as the defacto head of a Christian theocracy, and the eruption of a civil war that could destroy the Nation ?

Chapter 72

I spent all morning Friday on the phone with Dana Teague attempting to straighten out two of the transcripts she had left on my desk with questions.  These were from yesterday’s two long civil motions hearings.  She was a rookie stenographer.  Her lack of experience and weak education and training were showing in spades.

I normally work until noon or 1:00 p.m. on Fridays, but today was an exception.  The more I had spoken with Dana and considered her errors, the more I knew I had to review all her transcripts from Wednesday.  This was going to be a long day.

At 11:30 a.m. I told Dana my decision and arranged for her to be available to continue our phone conversation at 3:00.  I was hungry, so I walked the three flights down to the basement and to the Courthouse Diner.  I ordered a salad and a grilled cheese and looked for a table.  The place was already busy.  All courthouse personnel knew to eat before noon since that was shift change at the Sheriff’s office across the street which on Fridays always swamped the dining room even though it covered nearly the entire ground floor.  I had to admit, the Diner’s chili-cheese fries were to die for.

After scanning the room, I saw Micaden sitting alone in the far-right corner next to the double doors going out to the north side parking lot.  I walked toward him and ten feet before reaching his table Pastor Tillman stepped out from the restrooms which were on the back wall just to the left of where Micaden was sitting.  At that same instant he looked up and motioned me over.  For a split second I alternated my gaze between the two of them.  Warren also motioned me to come join them, so I did.

For the next several minutes we all shared our sadness over losing Vann.  He had never gone into a lot of detail about his and Warren’s relationship, but I knew the two were close.  Vann had obviously known Warren all his life since he and Deb were members of First Baptist Church of Christ.  Warren’s father, Pastor Wade, was a high school classmate of Vann and me.  It was not until Warren’s tenth grade year that he and Vann really connected.  Vann spurred Warren’s interest in American history and created an assistant’s position so they could spend more time together.  At some point, American politics became the glue that held them inseparable.  If Wade and his wife Gina ever wondered where Warren was all they had to do was call Vann.

Suddenly I realized what a situation I had gotten myself into.  Why would Warren and Micaden be together?  With their history, it was unbelievable.  Gina, Warren’s mother was dead.  Killed by Wade, her husband and Warren’s father.  Micaden was Gina’s divorce attorney and, according to rumor, was a very close friend, some believed they were lovers.  Wade and James Adams, and their fathers had attempted to frame Micaden for the murder of Gina Tillman.  Wade and James had been convicted of Gina’s murder and were now serving, for all practical purposes, life sentences at a federal prison in Georgia.  If all of this were not enough to make one wonder why these two men were now sitting sharing a meal, I remembered how Warren’s grandfather, Walter, was one of four who were shot down by Micaden when they attacked him at his place off Cox Gap Road.  A fiction writer could not have created such dynamics and tension between these two men.

“I see you’ve grown quiet.  I suspect you are wondering why Micaden and I are here together.”  Warren said.

“Well, it has crossed my mind.”  I replied continuing to eat my salad and without looking up.

“You might call it a truce for the love of country.  Warren believes America might crumble unless President Kane is vindicated in his Russian scandal.”  Micaden said.

“I sense this all might have something to do with a Russian named Romanov sitting in a jail cell across the street.”  I said, looking first at Micaden and then over to Warren.

“You’re correct.  I think it is divine that you are here right now.”  Warren said.

“Now, you’ve lost me.”

“Micaden and I were just talking about you and had decided that I would call you this afternoon.  We have set aside our differences and have reached an agreement.  You do not know it yet, but you must play a role for our plan to be a success.”  Warren said.

“Walt, let me be clear.  My interest here is solely as Romanov’s attorney.  My job is to zealously represent my client.  Warren has offered something that I believe can provide my client an acceptable resolution to his current legal problems.

“Romanov did not kill Kip Brewer.  Furthermore, he was not involved with any Russian scheme to manipulate the 2016 Presidential election.  But, there is one thing he is guilty of.  He is guilty of being the perfect stooge for a sinister organization that is guilty of, probably treason.”  Warren said.

“I’m listening, and by the way, I have to be back at my desk upstairs by 1:00, so talk fast.”  I said.

“Anton Romanov, Micaden’s client, has a brother named Anatoly, Anatoly Mikhailovich Romanov.  He is, and has been, for over twenty years, the Chief Director of Technologies for Russia and President Putin.”  Warren said.

“Eat the rest of your fries and let me summarize for Walt.”  Micaden interjected.  “My client contacted his brother, mainly to request financial assistance with his defense.  When Anatoly learned of the depth of the legal trouble his brother was in, he offered to do whatever he could.  He said he might know a way to help.  After a couple of weeks, I persuaded the court to allow the brothers an opportunity to talk, privately.  I’m not sure what Anatoly did on his end to secure his privacy.  The bottom line is Anatoly admitted his involvement in the Russian hacking.  He also said there are rumors in Moscow that two brothers— Sergei and Semyon Ivankov–who, by the way, are also from St. Petersburg, are working for a Chicago organization and might possibly be connected to some if not all the murders of U.S. Congressmen.”

Micaden paused giving me a second to interrupt.  “You said Chicago, ‘a Chicago organization.’  Have you identified that outfit?”  I asked.

Warren wiped some cheese from the corner of his mouth and said, “we are not absolutely positive but I’m confident it is the Constitution Foundation.  It’s a think tank created ten plus years ago by a man named Thaddeus Colburn.  He also has a public interest law firm that litigates U.S. Constitutional issues.”  

“What makes you think these two brothers are some way connected to Mr. Colburn’s organization?”  I asked.

“I can answer that.”  Micaden spoke up.  “My client recognized Sergei in the photograph that was offered against him at his Preliminary Hearing.  We have kept quiet hoping that we could create an opportunity to maximize its value for Romanov’s defense.”  

“Also, since the two Romanov brothers had their phone conversation, we have, Micaden and I, hired an investigator to tail Mr. Colburn.  We have learned he has some type connection to three men, all who live and work in Chicago.  These men are: Marc Anderson, Michael Gasaway, and George Perrot.  Here’s the kicker, when Micaden showed his client a photograph of Colburn with George Perrot, he nearly passed out.  It seems Perrot’s son was a student of Anton’s in Toronto and the three met for drinks after an event where the professor spoke.  Some type of conference that dealt with the ways a U.S. President can lose his job.  That meeting was several years ago but Romanov, Micaden’s client, still recognized George Perrot.

“Guys, no matter how much I’ve enjoyed our little meeting, I have to go.”  I said.

“Is it okay if I give you a call later today or sometime over the weekend?”  Micaden asked.

“That’ll be fine.  I am getting curious of what you want me to do.”  I said, pushing back my chair.

“Thanks for meeting with us.”  Warren said.

I didn’t respond but picked up my tray and made my way back towards the elevators.  

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 Stenographer, written in 2018, is my fourth novel. I'll post a chapter a day over the next few weeks.

Book Blurb

Walt Shepherd, a 35 year veteran of the White House’s stenographic team, is fired by President Andrew Kane for refusing to lie.

Walt returns to his hometown of Boaz, Alabama and renews his relationship with Regina Gillan, his high school sweetheart, who he had ditched right before graduation to marry the daughter of a prominent local businessman.  Regina has recently moved back to Boaz after forty years in Chicago working at the Tribune.  She is now editor of the Sand Mountain Reporter, a local newspaper.

Walt and Regina’s relationship transforms into a once in life love at the same time they are being immersed in a growing local and national divide between Democrats and traditional Republicans, and extremist Republicans (known as Kanites) who are becoming more dogmatic about the revolution that began during President Kanes campaign.

Walt accepts two part-time jobs.  One as a stenography instructor at Snead State Community College in Boaz, and one as an itinerant stenographer with Rains & Associates out of Birmingham.

Walt later learns the owner of Rains & Associates  is also one of five men who created the Constitution Foundation and is involved in a sinister plot to destroy President Kane, but is using an unorthodox method to achieve its objective.  The Foundation is doing everything it can to prevent President Kane from being reelected in 2020, and is scheming to initiate a civil war that will hopefully restore allegiance to the U.S. Constitution.

While Walt is writing a book, The Coming Civil War, he is, unwittingly, gathering key information for the Constitution Foundation.

Will Walt discover a connection between the Foundation  and the deaths of three U.S. Congressmen in time to save his relationship with Regina, prevent President Kane from being reelected as the defacto head of a Christian theocracy, and the eruption of a civil war that could destroy the Nation ?

Chapter 71

Monday and Tuesday were the longest non-trial days I had had with Judge Broadside.  No one seemed to know why the criminal motions docket was so bloated, taking a full two days instead of the usual one day or less.  All I could figure out was a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling that expanded defendant’s rights under the Fourth Amendment had spawned a wave of requests to suppress evidence, allegedly illegally seized.

Vann’s funeral wasn’t until Thursday afternoon because of a required autopsy for all deaths arising from a crime.  I took off all day Wednesday and Thursday after Rains & Associates scheduled a substitute court-reporter.  Regina and I had spent several hours Sunday afternoon with Deb, Vann’s wife, and his two children, Bailey and Vance.  Bailey and her family from Dallas had arrived late Saturday afternoon.  Vance didn’t show until late Sunday when we were just about to leave.  Bailey and Vann were very close.  The distance between Vann and Vance couldn’t be measured, something I never had been able to figure out since Vann refused to talk about it.

The funeral was held at First Baptist Church of Christ.  Pastor Tillman led the ‘by the book’ service which reminded me once again why I hated funerals.  Before the service and afterwards, all I heard was, ‘he is in a better place,’ and ‘God is mysterious and it’s hard to understand God’s plan, but God is good all the time.’  The best I could do was grow depressed thinking of Mother’s funeral and my swearing that I would never again be caught at such an insane event.  Tommy Clanton, another high school classmate, and fellow teacher with Vann at Boaz High School for nearly forty years was, to me, the highlight of the funeral. 

Before Pastor Tillman presented his celebratory remarks and evangelistic message, Tommy entertained us with story after story of why Vann was elected favorite teacher year after year.  I was amazed at how creative he had been in bringing American History to life and connecting things that happened years and decades earlier to what was going on now in students’ lives.  Even Pastor Tillman added a story as he got started with his message.  

Deb had chosen not to have a public service at Hillcrest.  Regina and I had earlier arranged to visit her house after the funeral.  After an hour visiting Deb and her two children, I drove us to Regina’s house on the brow.  The Alabama Department of Forensic Sciences had completed all their field work yesterday afternoon giving Regina the okay to return.  We arrived shortly after 4:00 p.m. but it seemed much later given the low clouds and fog that had lingered all day.  Waiting for Regina to unlock the basement door I couldn’t help but believe there was some connection between Vann’s death and funeral, and the misty fog.  As we entered the house I was again reminded, forcefully, that I was responsible for the death of the best friend I had ever had.  Vann Elkins was dead, and I would never see or talk to him again.  I knew I would never recover from such a loss.

Regina had been quiet all day.  We had talked less than we ever had during this many hours together.  I was anxious to see her reaction when she saw her bedroom and study.  I also wondered whether she would be prompted to talk and maybe enlighten me some on what was missing, especially from the shoe boxes from her bedroom closet.

Before going up the stairs she noticed a cooler had been moved up high on the counter under the window.  She walked over and inspected, concluding that either Vann or the murderer must have entered this way.  We then walked upstairs, and she went straight for her study.  It seemed pretty much like I had left it.  The desk drawers open and the safe still on its side.  Regina sat down in her swivel chair looking first at her desk and then at the safe and the gap created when it was removed from the bookcase.

“I’m not sure why I kept my journals in this rickety old safe.  They were worthless, except to me.  My whole life, well, my life since you dumped me the day before we graduated, was documented in those journals.  I can’t imagine why someone would take them.”

“I doubt he, I’m assuming the murderer was a he, sat down and read them.  He probably thought since they were locked up they had to contain something of importance.  I don’t think I would read too much into the fact he took them.  Question, and don’t take this wrong, but are you positive there isn’t something in them that could come back to haunt you?”  I asked touching Regina’s shoulder as she continued to sit.

I detected the slightest confusion or perplexity in her face.  It was like her left eyebrow rose just enough to lob a question mark into my mind.  She didn’t answer me, directly.

“Let’s go to my bedroom.”  

I followed her closely.  As soon as we turned into the doorway she paused, nearly falling back into my arms.  I then saw what she saw.  The taped outline of where and how Vann’s body was found on the bedroom floor between the closet and the foot of Regina’s bed.  

“Oh my.  Walt, I’ll never be able to spend another night in this room.”

I stood beside her putting my left hand around her waist.  “I understand fully.  And, you won’t have to.  Beginning tonight, you are staying with me, all the time.”

“Look at this mess.”  Regina walked over and bent down in front of the closet and among several shoe boxes, some open and some still with the lids attached.  She looked inside each box.  “There’s two missing.”

“What was in them?”  I asked.

“Mainly old photos, from over the years.”  Regina said walking over and sitting on her bed.  “Sit with me, please.”

I sat down beside her and took her right hand in my left.  “You’re too quiet, too reserved.  This isn’t like you.  I feel you are holding back, wanting to tell me something but don’t know if you can.”  I said.

She turned and looked at me.  Our eyes connected and stayed locked together in between two worlds.  One was our happy, loving, caring world.  The other one was serious, sad, maybe dark.  I had no idea how dark.  “Walt, if I told you that I had done some things, some horrible things, over the years, do you think you could still love me?” 

“Baby, I can’t imagine ever stopping loving you.  I have this philosophy.  I’ve had it ever since we started dating after we moved back to Boaz.  I said then, even though we knew each other in high school, we were starting over.  We each had our own separate lives for over four decades.  But, now we were starting a new life.  It was like I gave myself, maybe you too, a mental bath, just washed away all the past and let things happen anew.”  

“That was beautiful.  But, now you know I’ve done some things recently, after we have started over.  Doesn’t my deception over the photo and Reyansh Johar change your mind?  What I did, I did to myself but that necessarily involves you.  I chose to put our relationship in jeopardy.”  Regina said, now with eyes looking down on the floor as though she were peering down into hell itself.

“I guess it depends on what we want.  I know what I want.  I want you.  I want you in my life forever.  I want us, maybe soon, to be married.  Regina, you are my world.  I can’t imagine living without you.”

“I want the same thing.  We both have had, still have other goals. 

It seems mine have gotten in the way.”

“If we both want the same thing, each other, then if we commit to that being our top priority, then we can get through everything else. 

Don’t you think?”  I said.

“I hope so.  I’m going to do everything I can to make things right.”

“I suggest we leave.  Let’s get out of here and go home, to the place I think we both feel the most secure.”  I said.

“Okay.  On the way, I think I’m going to call Belinda and tell her to take mother home with her.  I’m glad they decided to stay in Gulf Shores a few extra days.  I sure don’t want them to see this place the way it is.  I’m going to take off tomorrow and come back to straighten up.  I think Mitzi will help me.”

“I’m sorry I cannot take off.  It was nearly impossible to take off these two days.”  I said.

We drove home sharing our feelings over the loss of Vann.  As our words fell silent I thought of how I had purposely not pursued Regina’s past.  It seemed she had offered to disclose what, to her, were some bad things, but I had gently stopped her.  It was enough to me that she was willing.  I had been honest.  I didn’t care about the past.  I cared about now.  I loved Regina and nothing else mattered.

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 Stenographer, written in 2018, is my fourth novel. I'll post a chapter a day over the next few weeks.

Book Blurb

Walt Shepherd, a 35 year veteran of the White House’s stenographic team, is fired by President Andrew Kane for refusing to lie.

Walt returns to his hometown of Boaz, Alabama and renews his relationship with Regina Gillan, his high school sweetheart, who he had ditched right before graduation to marry the daughter of a prominent local businessman.  Regina has recently moved back to Boaz after forty years in Chicago working at the Tribune.  She is now editor of the Sand Mountain Reporter, a local newspaper.

Walt and Regina’s relationship transforms into a once in life love at the same time they are being immersed in a growing local and national divide between Democrats and traditional Republicans, and extremist Republicans (known as Kanites) who are becoming more dogmatic about the revolution that began during President Kanes campaign.

Walt accepts two part-time jobs.  One as a stenography instructor at Snead State Community College in Boaz, and one as an itinerant stenographer with Rains & Associates out of Birmingham.

Walt later learns the owner of Rains & Associates  is also one of five men who created the Constitution Foundation and is involved in a sinister plot to destroy President Kane, but is using an unorthodox method to achieve its objective.  The Foundation is doing everything it can to prevent President Kane from being reelected in 2020, and is scheming to initiate a civil war that will hopefully restore allegiance to the U.S. Constitution.

While Walt is writing a book, The Coming Civil War, he is, unwittingly, gathering key information for the Constitution Foundation.

Will Walt discover a connection between the Foundation  and the deaths of three U.S. Congressmen in time to save his relationship with Regina, prevent President Kane from being reelected as the defacto head of a Christian theocracy, and the eruption of a civil war that could destroy the Nation ?

Chapter 70

Regina arrived at 1:30 a.m.  Instead of investing time and thought into crafting an action plan, I had dozed off as soon as I had sat down in my recliner downstairs.

“Walt, Walt.  I’m here.”

“I jolted upright when I felt Regina’s hand on my arm.  I looked up at her and for an instant thought I was seeing an angel, that my world, our world, was still perfect.  The dream didn’t last.  I pulled my recliner upright and stood up.  The hug was awkward.  I hope Regina didn’t detect that something was wrong.  “Honey, I didn’t hear you drive up or come in.”

“I got here as soon as I could.  For all times to have a roadblock set up at New Hope, tonight was the perfect night.  I was delayed nearly forty-five minutes there by the driver in front jumping out of his car right when the police approached his car.

“I’m glad you’re here.”  I pulled her into me and lay my head on her shoulder.  She clutched me with her hands around my waist.  Her hair smelled like the Herbal Essences Naked shampoo I had given her.  I kissed her neck and wanted this moment to last forever.  I came close to thinking I wished I had never gone to Aurora Quik-Mart, never gone to her house and discovered what I had.

“Let’s make some coffee and talk.  We really need to talk.” 

Regina said pulling away and taking my hand, leading me to the kitchen.

As the coffee was making we didn’t talk.  We smiled and kissed and hugged and just looked at each other.  Her look was natural.  I didn’t detect a thing.  I couldn’t help but think, ‘Regina Gillan, you are an accomplished actor.’

We poured our coffee and sat down at the bar.  I pulled my stool around to the other side.  I knew we needed to be looking each other straight on.

“Walt, I want to apologize for what must look like me deceiving you.”

“Okay, I’m listening.”

“I know this won’t sound true, but I kept my relationship with Zell and Ginger a secret to protect you and us.  I thought we could do so much better if we forgot the past and just started where we were.  It was so dumb of me to think that none of this, the truth, would come out and it wouldn’t affect you and me.  I was wrong.  I’m so, so sorry.  Can you, will you, forgive me?”  Regina said, tears running down both sides of her face.

“Baby, you know I love you.  I can honestly say, you are the only woman I have truly loved.  Please know I want to forgive you but I must first know the truth, the full truth.  I might as well make it a little easier on you.  I have to tell you I know more than you think I do.”  I said, hardly able to look her in the eye.

“What do you know, or think you know?”  Regina said.  I could feel a cool breeze enter the room.  And, it wasn’t refreshing.

“I’d prefer you just tell me the truth.  I think that’s fair.”

“You’re correct.  I met Zell and Ginger fifteen, maybe twenty years ago.  They both worked at Thaddeus Colburn’s Public Interest Law Firm.  Zell was the lead attorney, and Ginger was his right hand.  Later, I learned they were more than co-workers.  Zell became well known for the cases he took on, mostly constitutional cases, high-profile cases.  I met him through my work at the Tribune.  Thaddeus introduced us.  Do you know who he is?”

“Zell and Ginger told me he is their boss.”

“He started the public interest law firm and the Constitution Foundation.  I got to know the three of them and we struck up a friendship.”

“So, you first met Thaddeus about fifteen to twenty years ago?”   I asked.

“I did, but that wasn’t the first time I’d met him.  This is the part I wanted to forget, to keep away from you and me.  Thaddeus and I met in the seventies.  We first were friends.  Do you know that Juanita Tillman and I left Boaz after our graduation?”

“I’ve heard something about that.”

“Thaddeus and Juanita became friends.  They met, we met, when we lived in Beattyville, Kentucky.  Don’t ask me how Juanita and I wound up there.  Can we save that little side story for later?” “That’s fine.”  I said.

Thaddeus was from this gosh awful poverty town in east Kentucky.  He too had just graduated from high school and was headed to the University of Chicago on full scholarship.  We spent the summer living at his mother’s boarding house.  Juanita fell head over hills in love with Thaddeus.  I’ll summarize.  In late August, he left for Chicago, for school, and Juanita fell apart.  During the fall on our first drive up to see him we had a terrible accident that came close to killing us both.  After we recovered, Juanita and I moved to Chicago.  By then, Thaddeus and two guys from Wyoming, Logan and Landon, had their own place.  I’m skipping a lot, but after a few months Thaddeus and I found we had a lot more in common than him and Juanita.  We became lovers.” “Can I ask you something?”  I said.

“Did you truly love him or did the relationship have anything to do with me?”

“I guess I can say that it was all about you.  Thaddeus saved me.  I was, on my own, incapable of going on without you.  I have told you how deeply you hurt me.  Haven’t I?”  Regina asked.

“Oh yes, and I hope you remember how I’ve apologized.  I still, to this day, regret what happened.”

“Thanks again.  Thaddeus and I connected on almost a spiritual level, but it wasn’t religious, it was political.  I, for the first time in my life, was exposed to political science and the U.S. Constitution.  It seemed he knew everything there was to know.  For some reason, he had gotten interested in this stuff way back in high school.  He didn’t play sports.  He just read and read and read.  He was, he is, brilliant.”

“What happened between you two?  I take it you broke up at some point and went your separate ways.”

“We lived together until he graduated.  I was still in school.  I didn’t start until a year and a half after he did.  I broke up with him because he was becoming too radical.  Over the years together we had kind of joined up with a militia type group, some called them a white supremacist organization.  There was talk about developing targets and manipulating the public into a war.  I got out.”

“But, years later you reconnected?”

“Sort of, kind of.  I guess it was around 1995 to 1998 I met Zell and Ginger.  It was a couple of years after that they introduced me to their boss.  I was shocked.  In several ways.  That it was Thaddeus, but also that he was totally different from the last time I had seen him.  He was now a professional, seemingly with pure motives.  I learned his law firm and foundation were well respected and were working to make a positive difference in our country.”

“Were you aware of their plot to position me, to use me?”  I asked.

“I didn’t know this until I saw Ginger at court that day.  I hadn’t seen or heard from them in a couple of years.  I had not told them I was leaving Chicago.  Walt, I’m so sorry, I let Ginger persuade me to manipulate you into going to work for them.  She and Zell, can be very persuasive.  But, it should never have happened.  It is no excuse, but I honestly thought it would be a good thing for you.”

“Anything else you need to tell me to allow me to understand the big picture?”  I asked.

“Yes, there is.  And, it’s really bad.”

“You know you can tell me anything.  I thought the beauty and strength of our relationship was built on honesty and openness.”

“It was and still should be.  I’ve screwed up and want with all my heart to make it right.”

“Let’s hear it.”

“I’ve lied under oath.  Zell and Ginger conned me into believing it vitally important to our national interest to circulate a photo, the one I used in my article a few months ago, and to tell the court I got it at Aurora Quik-Mart.”

“Don’t forget Reyansh Johar.”  I said.

“I haven’t.  I was getting to that.  I lied about him also.  He lied about working at the Quik-Mart and that the photo came from their security system.”

“Why?  What made you get involved with this?”  I asked.

“Zell and Ginger and I met during one of my trips to Chicago.  They persuaded me, saying Pastor Warren Tillman and his group, Club

Eden, was in bed with the President and were working to manipulate the 2018 mid-term elections and ultimately the 2020 Presidential election. 

They said they, Tillman and company, were involved in the death of Kip Brewer and were going to get away with it.  It was a way to tip the scales towards justice.”

“You bought that, hook, line, and sinker?”  I asked.

“I guess so.”

“Now, it makes sense.  I discovered this myself.  What you’ve just told me.  I got suspicious because of Micaden Tanner, Romanov’s attorney, how he made such a big deal of questioning the photograph at the preliminary hearing.  I went to the Quik-Mart and learned that you were lying.”

“Oh Walt, what a mess I have made.  Forgive me, please forgive me.  I can’t lose you.  I love you and need you.”

“I now know or suspect I know why Vann was at your house.  I shared with him what I had learned.  He must have decided to do some investigating on his own.  Certainly, not thinking he was at risk.”

“Sweet, sweet Vann.  This is so terrible.  Have you seen Deb?”

“No, but I have spoken with her.  She is, naturally, torn up beyond belief.  I want us to go see her today.  Let me ask you.  Who on earth would have been at your house and shot Vann?” “He was shot?”  Regina asked.

“That’s the word on social media.”

“To your question.  I don’t have a clue.  Seems to me it would have to be someone that knew I was out of town, and that Mom was too.”

“That’s what I thought.  That’s pretty much just family.  Right?”

“Yes.  Me, Mom, Belinda, Frankie, probably Freddie, you, Vann.  That’s all I can think of.”  Regina said pouring us another cup of coffee.

“I take it that Frankie and Freddie stayed in town while Belinda took your mom to Gulf Shores?”  I asked.

“Actually no.  I’m pretty sure Frankie and Freddie were going deer hunting to their place somewhere in south Alabama.”

“Either way, I don’t see either one of them shooting Vann.  Do you?”

“Well no, absolutely not.  Why would they?”

“I agree, but just looking at the only suspects we have.”

“Walt, can we change the subject for a while.  I really need to lay down a while.  I also need you to join me.  Please?”  Regina said placing her coffee cup on the counter and pulling me up and over to her.  She gave me the look that overpowered all reason.  If I hadn’t been leaning back against the bar I probably would have slumped to the ground.

“Come on baby.  I’ve missed you.”  I said taking her by the hand and leading her up to our bedroom.”