What is my next project? Space Cadet 3, Space Ranger 1, Veraxus? Unfortunately none of the above. For the next few weeks I'm working on interrogatories--yes interrogatories. For those of you unfortunate enough to have been forced into the legal system interrogatories are an exhaustive list of questions for a trial. We leased a horse out four years ago to a young lady for 4H. When she finished with 4H at the age of 18 the horse was supposed to come back to us so that our daughter could start to ride "Mommy's horse." You see Nicki was borne 24 years ago in our stable. He's been with us all his life. We leased him out to a girl in 4H so he could learn the routine of formal shows. He was a mountain horse, a hunter and a trail horse. Only one problem. When the lease was up the girl decided not to return Nicki. She felt entitled to him because she'd won some jumping competitions with him and now he should be hers.
This would never have happened to my generation. We didn't feel entitled to anything. If someone loaned something to you; you returned it with thanks.
The police told us to repossess the horse and so we did. Then the blank hit the fan. The girl and her 4H friends, even some of the adult 4H leaders, stormed our horse trailer while it was in motion and took Nicki off while my wife was boarding a ferry. She got his lead rope and Nicki stayed right next to Mommy, but the fracas kicked off a court battle. Now, instead of working on my next project I'm responding to legal questions as to why this poor little spoiled brat of a girl shouldn't keep Nicki just because she wants him soooo bad that no one else counts. Reminds me of Veruca Salt.
Anyway, I hope to get back to more enjoyable things soon. One miracle at a time. In the meantime enjoy Alexander Galaxus 7: Destroyer and let me know where you want Alexander to go next

So what does Paris have to do with Alexander Galaxus?
For those of you who keep up with my books you'll notice that I follow the examples of the founders of this craft, Heinlein, Van Vogt and Asimov; i.e. I weave real life into my science fiction in order to make it more real. Some have  complained that they don't want any politics in their 'escape' oriented pastime  and I sympathize as well as empathize with them. However, I would remind them  that my heroes, my protagonists, always need an antagonist and that antagonist  always, always needs a believable reason to behave the way he or she behaves.
If they don't then the story is nothing more than a comic book. Yes I rail about socialism, communism, authoritarianism, etc.--true, guilty as charged. Why not?
My main characters are all rugged individualists. Alexander doesn't wait for some federal program to whisk the Methuselans away in the depths of their  bloated bureaucracy; no, he confronts them and takes care of the problem.  That's what heroes and heroines do.
My main characters are based off of people I admire. You've heard them quoted and lauded, even criticized, Lincoln, Churchill, Washington, Patton, Rommel--and yes--Alexander the Great. These were people who didn't wait for someone to do something for them but instead did
something for themselves. Yes, I admire that.
Besides, no one ever read a book about the hero who signed up for food stamps when he didn't
need them. We all need a hand up sometimes--Alexander's bacon has been saved more than once--but eventually we all need to stand up on our own two feet.
I'm in Paris today. I was in New York last week. The streets in Paris are equally as dirty as New York but in Paris there's an army of government laborers in fluorescent jumpsuits paid for
by the national 75% tax rate. Yet the streets aren't any cleaner. What's worse in my mind is the Parisians don't seem to take any pride in cleaning up their city. It's almost as if they expect the government to do it; after all, they're paying enough in taxes aren't they? The laborers don't seem to get that. Why should they? If it's as hard to fire a federal worker in France as it is in the
US (take the IRS for example) then they don't have to worry about it.
So why do you think Alexander ends up dealing with these very issues that sap the
strength out of our society?  Hint. Read Heinlein. Read Van Vogt. Read Asimov. You'll see politics is the center of conflict in all of the giants of the craft. It has to be. It's the Human condition. Really, all the adventure aside, isn't that what these novels are about anyway?

Fortunately, that hit home for me early in the process rather than later. My wife of eleven years was moving out after I discovered she was having an affair, she was going to pursue her new life because the old one “isn’t working for me anymore.” I was caught completely off guard, you’ve heard it before; I was the last to know.

When I did find out it was worse than I thought. He turned out to be a parking attendant—a beer bellied, Harley riding, parking attendant. I was a clean cut family man, an airline pilot (I hear you, but I was a faithful airline pilot!) and hands on dad—hey, I changed diapers and did the 3am feedings. It was a blow to be traded in that way; what about a doctor, a lawyer or even someone younger or taller—give my ego something to work with!

I was hurting as a man, but one day while we were all in the car she started screaming at me, completely losing it in front of the kids, all about how I was in the way of her moving on with her man and her new life. I asked her to calm down—not in front of the kids! It wasn’t until I looked back at my children that it really hit home.

I’ll never, ever, ever forget the terrified expressions on their faces—never. My son had just turned five. My beautiful daughter was just shy of four. Their eyes were wide as saucers, their lips quivered and they shrank back in their car seats as far as they possibly could. Their entire world was collapsing in front of their eyes and they didn’t understand why—how could they?

I got it. Who cares if he’s a Parking Attendant or a Doctor? I’m a big boy; I can take rejection, (High School saw to that) but my kids, no, they don’t deserve that.

Unable to calm my wife down, I got the kids out of the car, one in each arm, and I held them close until they settled down. Right there I knew what I needed to do—the divorce would take care of itself, I needed to take care of my kids.

What should I do? How do I support them, make them feel safe and give them some confidence at a time when all the experts said they’d be blaming themselves? I thought back to when I was their age and some of the things my parents did with me and my siblings.

I remembered Jack and the Beanstalk.

My dad used to read us Jack and the Beanstalk during the cold winter evenings in Minnesota. As he read, we would act out the adventure of Jack. We’d climb the Beanstalk, sneak around the castle and run from the giant with the goose in our arms—it was great fun. Unfortunately, it was one story. I thought of doing the Grimm Fairy Tales but not all of them are suited for a boy and a girl to feel involved—besides, there’s no way I could use Hansel and Gretel!

Then it struck me. Hey, I write adventure books, why not write a book for my kids where they were the main characters? So, I talked to them about who they’d want to be in my fantasy world. My son wanted to be a wizard and cast fire spells. My daughter loves animals and unicorns especially; she became a druid with a unicorn as her best friend. With that my book The Primordial Flame was borne.

I’d write chapters at night when they were asleep or in the hotel during my trips. After dinner, I’d read the chapters and the kids would act them out, learning the spells in Latin and everything else. It was escapism, and it got their minds off things for a bit, but I also took the opportunity to put some lessons in the material. I stressed self-confidence and I wanted them to know that whatever happened in the world of adults they were loved.

Nothing that you do as a parent can take away the hurt and fear of something like a divorce, but the more time you spend with your kids doing stuff they want to do the better off you’ll both be. Let them have your time and let them have control over that time; it may be the only thing they have control of in their lives during this difficult time.

We created some lifelong memories with The Primordial Flame, but it also caused problems. As the kids grew older they each wanted their own books. Being the dutiful Dad, I hammered out a dinosaur book about a little Tyrannosaurus for my daughter called Lone Pup and a science fiction adventure for my son called the Methuselan Circuit. It’s been fun, but of course now they want sequels. I’ve agreed, so long as they’ll help edit their books—I hope they don’t discover how much editors get paid!