What are the major themes addressed in Seneca Speaks?
·Friendship: loyalties made, lost and remade;
·Power: current bureaucratic endowment has been twisted into something it ought not be and then force-fed to the public. Power’s true nature is revealed in Seneca Speaks. A potential way forward for America is suggested;
·Value: What is value-to what, to who and how;
·Naïveté: Doing a thing for the right reason, and with courage instead of willful ignorance, is a key component of Seneca Speaks’ proposition. Many of this story’s characters turn a blind eye to all that’s exploitative;
·Forbidden Love: the seductive nature of knowingly loving someone diametrically opposed to main-character interests is presented. Going along with what’s ‘naughty’ is thrilling, and nearly-always ends with suffering and/or self-destruction;
·Responsibility: the kind which frees humanity from self-imposed slavery. If all that plagued could be cast away, the able-bodied would be at the center of taking up their personal cross;
·Corruption: the purposeful deconstruction and unintended repurposing of purpose;
·Politics: our current ineffectual and feckless overlords;
·Blood Money: war and fiat bathing in the blood of our young;
·Energy: the US energy sector, its influence on our economy and the world.
What encouraged you to write Seneca Speaks?
After college graduation, I built a line of four city magazines in the early 2000’s. As fate would have it, two vastly larger national publications also competed in those markets. Without providing the tedious details, let’s say that the game on the playground was not conducted fairly. I smile on the inside here.
This short story of woe is vague; and for good reason. While receiving a schoolyard thrashing, many customers questioned my ability to prevail in the market. By simply directing those clients’ attention to applicable state and federal statutes, the status quo (the way media services had always been provided in my market segment) appeared to be “incongruent” with the law. This was enough to quell their concerns of my capacity to provide marketing services.
Imagine the surprise upon receiving a letter from one particular competitor’s legal team; directing the cessation of legal discussions with our shared clients; they considered this to be tortious interference. In laymen terms, it was asserted that by openly conversing about existing fair trade legalisms, I was interfering with their contractual business relations. I could no longer speak about what the law seem to say about the issues.
While my counsel, at the time, felt there was a strong case to be made, it would take millions to wage a drawn-out anti-trust battle. The requisite monetary resources were not available to fight on. Within twenty months, I was financially eviscerated. My complaint was presented to the highest law enforcement offices in the land; being turned away for lack of budgeted resources to take up such a case. Curious…even after two decades.
This experience forever changed my naïve views of American fair business practices. Years later, after living through the “Great Recession”, and for a second time having another business destroyed by corrupt forces outside my control, I decided that it was time to speak up with the narrative laid out in Seneca Speaks.
How did your experience with media corruption shape your approach to this novel series and life itself?
I learned through personal experience that our county's justice is not fair; it’s paid for. While this sounds barbarous, it reflects a state of nature. Meaning, no one hates the shark for feeding on seal pups; not a pretty picture but necessary for life. It takes having been crushed multiple times in business to accept this truism. The protagonist in Seneca Speaks experiences this same revelation.
Early in my career I took on every big challenge and opportunity as if my trousers were ablaze. Chasing a dream can cost everything. As maturity set in, it became more-evident to me that just because I could, didn’t mean I should.
The right to have or do doesn’t come without a price. Responsibility and unpredictable outcomes are ever-near with each choice. Never ever forget this.
Is there evil in the United States of America? Absolutely! Can we fight everything that’s wrong with our culture? Not a chance. There’s simply too much corruption to catch it all; and if that’s all we did, we’d cease to be a free society. Still, we should oppose misconduct. Concede that in so doing, great pain will be experienced. It was a callow assumption that flaunting the law in the face of those allegedly wronging me would be enough to ensure fair treatment-it didn’t. I was punished for speaking out against unfair trade practices that were destroying everything I had worked for.
Shedding naïveté is a violent process, tearing away society’s comforting lies. It’s quite painful. Every human endeavor comes with a marker. Often times the outlay is cruel and challenges a person’s reason for their choices. It’s easy to be naïve—hell it feels good to just go along with the fairytale. If one can look ahead along the path, know there will be injustice, yet accept the trial's sufferings, then real courage can be had—human holism.
That’s the stuff I’m getting at in Seneca Speaks. Eminence is there for the taking. But it’s going to cost you; cost more than you thought. There's no escape once steps are taken towards this desired thing. And if the choice could be undone, you’d be worse off than enduring said suffering-there’d be too much resentment.
There is no getting away from the terrible-better to face it. Face it or be a slave to anyone who’d take up running down a coward for their own gain. Life’s awesome and beautiful; but also tragic.
Do you see Seneca Speaks as a pure work of art or a reflection of the commonplace political morass the United States of America is currently embroiled?
Seneca Speaks is meant to be literature in the high sense. The narratives and personas within do reflect life though. How can one not see the similarities between the theme plot and what goes on in our government today?
How many books are planned for the Seneca Speaks series?
At this time, 8 theme-plot narratives have been mapped. I feel certain that all of the subject matter intended for Seneca Speaks can be addressed by the eighth novel.
Hope and solutions?
There’s always hope. It’s a light in the darkness. Protect hope. Without it, you’re lost.
Solutions are simple. Fight the perversion of what’s good; but do it with your eyes open. Every battle cannot be waged. Be smart about conflicts taken up-don’t pretend you didn’t know what you were getting into. Be faithful to humanity. Be upright. Be honest. Have integrity. Always do your very best and offer that best to everyone you encounter.
