Inspiration for the Outlaw Series (2 books):
an urban thriller
I retired from my career as a Silicon Valley Design Engineer in 2006.
The experience of leaving the demands of my job and the hectic pace of the
San Francisco Bay Area after working fifteen-to-twenty-hour days for thirty
years was like running along a rooftop and then falling off the edge.
Suddenly, I had nothing to do. With the absence of demands on my time, I rode my
motorcycle around the USA, but after moving to Colorado, I discovered that riding
during the winter isn't much fun.
On a trip out west, I went to lunch with an old friend. We've known each other
for close to five decades, so there's a lot of history between us. As we sat
together, I complained about not having much to do, and he suggested that I take
up writing. My friend knew of my tumultuous history as a miscreant son of outlaws
and suggested that I write about that.
You see, my parents were big-time drug dealers back in the 1960s, and they were
arrested, tried, and sent to prison when I was twelve years old. While they were
away, I was put in Juvenile Hall, then subjected to foster care. The latter was
an abusive situation which I escaped, then lived on the streets with a bunch of
other kids, all of us surviving by selling drugs.
Yeah, I didn't grow up like Beaver Cleaver, and the irony of taking up the family
business back then is not lost on me. Those were crazy and dangerous times, but the
bonds between myself and the other discarded children went far beyond friendship;
we were brothers and sisters that relied on each other for our safety and
well-being.
I wrote The Dark Side of Joy, as a sort-of autobiography, with names, places, events,
etc. changed to protect… well, me. Coincidentally, at the time it was written there
was a big brouhaha going on about the children of immigrants entering the USA
illegally being held in captivity, and I wanted to point out that this happens to
kids of US citizens all the time, yet no one makes a big deal about it.
Writing the story was cathartic, and proved to be the creative outlet I was looking
for in retirement.
After publishing The Dark Side of Joy on Amazon, I received several messages asking
what happened next? I took that as a compliment and wrote a more fictional story
titled: The Last Dragon in response. That book is about
adjusting to a normal lifestyle after leaving the chaos of the street, while also
striving to preserve and protect the family of kids I left behind. Once that
story was written, I packaged The Dark Side of Joy and The Last Dragon together
as the Outlaw series on Amazon.
Purchase books from the Outlaw Series now.
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