THE LAST TRIN HAS LEFT THE STATION!

My fortune is in friends and family, not circumstances, and I’m happy to say that its lack could not stop the wheels of time from grinding forward. Now, I’m mostly up and running on my laptop, and my novella came into the light beginning on my 61^st birthday, November 20^th, and hit Amazon and Barnes and Noble on the 21^st. I was really hoping for that since the publishing process overshot my plans for an October release. Wrought with problems and processes, which I had never done without a full-package deal, was more time consuming than I knew. We live, we learn.

Many of my friends have helped in my word-of-mouth, or look-of-type campaign, if you prefer, to shake up a small part of our world with the great announcement. I am so grateful to them all! You see, I’m not an entrepreneur, or advertising genie. I’m personable. Maybe the grand promotion designs will catch up with me. I’ll watch, but my goal is to entertain, not to overwhelm with ads.

Yes, I know. The more you sell, the more people you entertain. I don’t know how intensely the public wants to know how I shook the world, or how much they pant for my ads. I am to assume they do. This is the backbone of advertising. Bug potential buyers now or they may have to live less enjoyable lives. My product, I am to say, is the miracle cure for sadness.  

Do I believe in my product? Yes! “The Last Train” was such a delight to write. My characters pulled me this way and that, sometimes by the heart, and sometimes by the hair. I’m durable, but I felt every tug. At least they let me have the last two words: The End.

As most of my writing friends say, “I love creating something out of nothing, but I hate that advertiser’s hat once the party’s over.” We are wordsmiths. We have a gift to share.

My voice has spoken up again, not for my usual nonprofit causes, not for web pages and e-Zines that come and go, but back in the world of books; lasting, precious books. Alas, that cheers my heart and I hope to catch up many others with my prose; yours perhaps?

SYNOPSIS:

THE LAST TRAIN

By Richard Alan

In this short and witty novella, Jake traverses a treacherous path between heaven and hell to reunite with his beloved Bernadette. A vacation celebrating their Silver Anniversary goes very wrong, and so the bizarre journey begins. Jake’s premature death is the catalyst for this comical, suspenseful, and thrilling page-turner. Love is the fuel that empowers his resolute stubbornness.

“The Last Train” is a romantic comedy with a symphony of twists that defy an accurate genre classification. You will face the most unusual life-after-death situations throughout. Angels and demons fight, and crazy people roam the pages. Humor and horror face our sarcastic hero, labeled “heaven’s most wanted.”

It has been described as, “Laugh out loud funny” and, “Bloody brilliant!”

Like many small packages, it contains an amazing and memorable gift from Richard Alan to you. Only 99 Cents!

Amazon: http://amzn.to/11HP8LN

Barnes and Noble: http://bit.ly/11nOhjz

Thank You, to all my wonderful friends, and to new readers whom I have not met. Please, Enjoy!!!

The Last Train Is Rolling Again

Allegorically:

I followed a pine scented trail into rugged mountains. It began sweet with the submission of “The Last Train” to my distributor. Accomplishment shined like a sunrise. I purveyed the land from my perch on a ridge. It overlooked a valley surrounded by hills and mountain painted with three main landscapes: massive granite walls and peaks, the forest, and the snow clinging to high crevices. The morning fog settled below and revealed more of the living carpet of trees. It was majestic.

My assumption was for a pleasant journey in nature’s splendor. That was not what followed.

I stood and took a long breath of the cool, fresh air before continuing on the trail down the other side of the ridge. Storm clouds were approaching. I was prepared for inclement weather, so I continued towards my planned campsite. I had been there before and had hidden years of my written treasures in a chest. It was easy to remember where I buried it. My back would face an aged redwood tree, and seven steps towards the granite-cradled lake at the end of my box canyon retreat.

Knowing my destination was one thing, getting there was quite another. My jacket was retrieved from my backpack and on before I went to meet the storm. I kept the head cover turned down until I needed it and its drawstrings that pulled it close around my face.

The winds picked up in an instant, considerably stronger than expected. The tears of the storm began to fall all around me. High gullies quickly accumulated torrents of runoff water, mud, and rocks. My path was eaten away before me. I could not turn back to my iron steed. A bird told me it was gone. My backup steed, and my brother’s iron horse had all vanished in a day. Only my wife had hers and she was on a trip of her own.

The treacherous way ahead was becoming worse as the minutes passed. From the crumbling ground came a cyborg that knew all my codes and dependence on cyberspace. Its hand sparked and flashed like a welder’s torch and suddenly it produced my laptop. The other gripped a tree. I thought it held tight for stability during the storm.

It did the inconceivable. It crushed my laptop in its powerful hand and threw it to the ground. Then it ripped the tree from the ground and slammed it down, destroying anything left of my link to Cyber World.

I was trapped and looking up at the towering cyborg. It reached for me and upon its touch, I was suddenly inside an unlit box. It wasn’t a coffin but confined me in a small cube. I could not stand, I could barely breathe, and my body was racked with pain.  

*******

Celebrating was robbed from me. My rainy day savings vanished. Two cars broke down, one will never serve me again. My brother’s motorcycle starter went out in the absence of a kick-starter as I once had long ago. My laptop died, and my new laptop was delivered. That had the potential for a happy thought so I could fly again. Then the simplest setup projects failed at every turn.

I spoke with strangers who charged hundreds of dollars to fix the problems. The first program run on it to do an easy transfer and setup gave my new laptop a limp before it could even walk. Days passed into weeks. My car took three weeks to repair due to distant parts on order. My world crashed in around me and I could not escape. I was cut off.

Seasons come and go, and I hope this one is behind me. I finally proofed the formatted version of my book today, and it will be out in a matter of days at least on Kindle and Barns & Noble. I checked it on Adobe Digital Editions, which reads Epub. I trust I will see the sunrise again.