What Went Wrong?

            I have heard that one’s character is developed by the time he or she is around six or seven years old. And what is character? It clearly involves one’s moral discipline (knowing right from wrong), the way one appropriately relates to others, and one’s self-sufficiency that must include an inner strength that dictates to one’s own “person” the correct path. It's one's inner voice. The worn saying, “To Thine Own Self Be True”, comes to mind. 

            I suppose other things are involved: environment, health, education, poverty or wealth, parental support (or the lack thereof), adaptability, and nature or personality that include disposition, temperament, and mentality. Is one who is humble and disciplined more likely to stay on the right track than one who is impulsive, hotheaded, or willful?

            I thought a great deal about the issue of character when I wrote my second novel Nine Bucks And Change. In the book two individuals of completely different backgrounds play havoc on those around them. In both cases, something is missing in the character's moral development and his actions and behavior appear somewhat beyond his control. The similarities and differences in the two characters give way for the reader to wonder – what went wrong?

Below is the passage on the back cover of Nine Bucks and Change inviting the reader to take a peek inside:

Navigating life without a seeming wrinkle is ideal but impossible, for change will come, ready or not. Sheila Jenkins discovers that truth, as does her mother, Sara, in Nine Bucks and Change, a contemporary novel that casts the two into a tangled web of events that throws them into unexpected and uncharted territories. 

They are not alone, however. A plethora of folks – friends, family, and strangers, alike – enter into and exit their lives just when they least expect it, and the ramifications of those interactions leave all of them pondering the very essence of change and its fickle impact. 

Integral to the story are two unsavory characters who, although opposites in looks, upbringing, and status, are ironically very much the same, for theirs is a mission for power and control at any cost. Gregory Blackstone, an esteemed doctor and secret psychopath, and Bull Walston, a street-wise thug, wreak havoc on the lives of people who are simply attempting to get by in and around Nashville, Tennessee. The two men victimize Sheila, her family, her friends, and complete strangers; some succumb to their domination while others rise above. 

Nine Bucks and Change offers the reader an insight into the mindset of individuals who slip, almost unwittingly, into a warped need for power and control but paradoxically fall prey to their own misguided intentions. It also reminds the reader that one’s ability to choose, to respond, or even to reject life’s contradictions, is indeed, a gift.


Nine Bucks and Change, Big House Dreams, and Tumor Me, the Story of My Firefighter are available on Amazon.com.