A local Kent County author and dedicated Dem seeks relief
Sometime in the fall of 2019, an abusive or perhaps simply misadvised White House policy had driven me again into semi-functional depression. Nothing seemed to get better and many issues and Federal organizations I had admired seemed to be hollowed out or in sharp decline.
This had happened once before in 2016 during the campaign when I could not believe any political party ever, could nominate the current president. It wasn’t so much depression as disbelieve that drove me to write my first election-related novel. In it Ben Franklin sends his young protege Tom Paine into the future to check out how democracy was doing. As I imagined Paine’s reaction to the 21st Century and modern Americans, I happily prepared him to report back to Franklin that all was well and a very qualified woman would soon be president. Franklin died reassured shortly thereafter.
And then the next four years unfolded. Along with many friends and colleagues, I threw myself into worried activity to ensure a sane and experienced president and vice president were elected on 11/03/20. However, by late 2019 concern was mounting and I realized I needed to start writing a second, more realistic, novel without predictions.
Called the Great American Expulsion, it tells the story of a wealthy Guatemalan family that moved to Florida after a coup forced them to leave. All goes well for some years and then they run afoul of the owner of Mar-a-Lago, who eventually places them on a black list for continued persecution. It finally ends during the first year of his reelection.
The therapeutic results were good and once again, thank God, I got the outcome wrong. I’m planning to give copies for Christmas presents, suitably autographed.
–Tom Timberman 11/27/20
(if you’d like to order a copy, contact Tom at maxwellfiskellc@gmail.com)