J. Conrad Guest's Blog
January 15, 2017
A Life Unlived
A short excerpt from my new work in progress:
“It’s a hell of a thing, killin’ a man. You take away everything he’s got, and all he’s ever gonna have.” —Bill Munny, Unforgiven
PROLOGUE
“Even the smallest person can change the course of the future.”
—Galadriel, from the movie adaptation of Lord of the Rings
FLOATING, warm and safe and comforted by the rhythm of life, in a black hole of perpetual darkness. Not blinded by obscurity, uncaring of lack of sense of sight, sound, taste, touch, and smell. Nothing exists in this crèche to delight or disenchant, save the bean.
Muffled sounds from nearby—voices, words that mean nothing, not having mastered language—other times cadences of varying tempos, some canorous, soothing; others cacophonous, unsettling…
Accosted by upset, fear, anger: emotions not understood but eschewed, embracing, always seeking to commune with the constant rhythm of life. The voices intensify in volume—short, clipped words. Meaningless, they communicate more upset and anger and hurt …
The passage of time has no meaning, not hours, days or months to mark the growth of the bean—change, evolution, thirst.
Stirred by sorrow followed by great distress. Sobbing, the darkness wracked by great waves of anguish, then dizziness and a feeling of sickness, followed by euphoria. But the euphoria, too, sickens, alters. Turns perfection into something less… perfect.
More time passes but something changes. The rhythm of life distorts. Still floating, still warm, the previous tranquility gone, replaced at first by indifference, then a growing loathing, directed at the bean that has done nothing save only desire to grow, to become more, to seek meaning, acceptance. To love and be loved…
In time, immeasurable, more words, filled with vitriol, spoken by a single voice, hurled at the bean. After the words comes acceptance, the anger gone, replaced by a singular purpose.
The seat of creation, a safe house, invaded.
The fluid that sustains drains, air rushes past unformed ears, lungs sear, pressure exerts on limbs.
In that split second, as the pain grows to excruciating proportions but just before being torn asunder, an unlived life flashes before unseeing eyes…
“It’s a hell of a thing, killin’ a man. You take away everything he’s got, and all he’s ever gonna have.” —Bill Munny, Unforgiven
PROLOGUE
“Even the smallest person can change the course of the future.”
—Galadriel, from the movie adaptation of Lord of the Rings
FLOATING, warm and safe and comforted by the rhythm of life, in a black hole of perpetual darkness. Not blinded by obscurity, uncaring of lack of sense of sight, sound, taste, touch, and smell. Nothing exists in this crèche to delight or disenchant, save the bean.
Muffled sounds from nearby—voices, words that mean nothing, not having mastered language—other times cadences of varying tempos, some canorous, soothing; others cacophonous, unsettling…
Accosted by upset, fear, anger: emotions not understood but eschewed, embracing, always seeking to commune with the constant rhythm of life. The voices intensify in volume—short, clipped words. Meaningless, they communicate more upset and anger and hurt …
The passage of time has no meaning, not hours, days or months to mark the growth of the bean—change, evolution, thirst.
Stirred by sorrow followed by great distress. Sobbing, the darkness wracked by great waves of anguish, then dizziness and a feeling of sickness, followed by euphoria. But the euphoria, too, sickens, alters. Turns perfection into something less… perfect.
More time passes but something changes. The rhythm of life distorts. Still floating, still warm, the previous tranquility gone, replaced at first by indifference, then a growing loathing, directed at the bean that has done nothing save only desire to grow, to become more, to seek meaning, acceptance. To love and be loved…
In time, immeasurable, more words, filled with vitriol, spoken by a single voice, hurled at the bean. After the words comes acceptance, the anger gone, replaced by a singular purpose.
The seat of creation, a safe house, invaded.
The fluid that sustains drains, air rushes past unformed ears, lungs sear, pressure exerts on limbs.
In that split second, as the pain grows to excruciating proportions but just before being torn asunder, an unlived life flashes before unseeing eyes…
February 24, 2012
The Cobb Legacy
Apex Reviews has awarded The Cobb Legacy its highest rating of 5 stars, hailing the book as “... an eye-opening tale of drama, scandal, and intrigue highlighting the living, breathing history of a fatally-flawed, intrepid folk hero.”
February 7, 2012
The Cobb Legacy Now Available!
It’s official: The Cobb Legacy is now available for download for your Kindle, Nook, EPUB, MOBI or in PDF. Normally priced at $2.99, I’m offering you a special discount—you can download The Cobb Legacy for only $1.99.
Just contact my publisher at info@pulsepub.net and provide them the promo code “FFTCLJCG” and let them know which format you wish to download and they’ll forward to you a PayPal invoice and, once your payment is processed, you’ll be able to download The Cobb Legacy.
Just contact my publisher at info@pulsepub.net and provide them the promo code “FFTCLJCG” and let them know which format you wish to download and they’ll forward to you a PayPal invoice and, once your payment is processed, you’ll be able to download The Cobb Legacy.
January 29, 2010
Win an Inscribed Copy of Backstop and a Signed Baseball!
Is baseball your game? Then be sure to check out J. Conrad Guest’s contest. To win a signed copy of Backstop along with a baseball signed by Backstop, submit a personal account, between 200 and 400 words, of your most memorable baseball date. It could be disastrous; it might have led to marriage. It can be fictional or factual (fact is sometimes stranger than fiction!). The outcome of the game is unimportant; what is important is what happens between the couple. For further information, check the Second Wind blog at http://secondwindpub.wordpress.com/20...
January 18, 2010
Backstop Part of 2W January Launch Celebration
Second, Second Wind Publishing is having a launch party on January 29 and 30, which will include my novel Backstop: A Baseball Love Story in Nine Innings. As part of the event, I’m inviting readers to submit a personal account, between 200 and 400 words, of their most memorable baseball date. It could be disastrous; it might’ve led to marriage. It can be fictional or factual (fact is sometimes stranger than fiction!). The outcome of the game is really unimportant; what is important is what happens between the couple. In addition to a signed copy of Backstop, the winning submission will receive a signed baseball from Backstop himself!
Please submit your entry to secondwindpublishing@gmail.com. I’ll select a winning entry, which will be announced the following Saturday, February 6. I look forward to reading your entry!
Good luck and best regards,
J. Conrad Guest
Please submit your entry to secondwindpublishing@gmail.com. I’ll select a winning entry, which will be announced the following Saturday, February 6. I look forward to reading your entry!
Good luck and best regards,
J. Conrad Guest
October 26, 2009
Birth of a Novel
I’ve always loved the game of baseball. What’s not to love? A simple game─hit a round ball squarely with a round bat─with simple rules: reach base, move the runner along, and score more runs than your opponent.
My dad took me to my first ballgame, a Tigers/Angels night game at old Tiger Stadium, a game which the home team won. I was but seven years old. The Corktown district in Detroit, in the early 1960s, had not yet fully deteriorated, and the 1968 race riots were still a few years away. Al Kaline was my childhood idol, and I dreamed of playing major league baseball, of roaming the outfield the way Kaline did, of hitting for average, for power, and of winning a World Series.
Unfortunately, my parents had other ideas. I’m sure they meant well, to protect me from disappointment, by steering me toward a more attainable career. Pete Rose was still more than a decade away from signing a three million dollar deal with the Phillies.
I started writing my first novel, January’s Paradigm, when I was 35. A science fiction affair with an alternate reality theme written around a Chandleresque character who was a private detective circa 1945, two more novels would follow to complete a trilogy. The project took nearly 15 years to complete, during which I lost both my parents. Funny, what losing one’s parents does: drive home the reality of one’s mortality. When my father passed away, I realized what I’d already known for quite some time─I was never going to play major league baseball.
After I finished the January books, I started looking for my next project. I was 51, in the first year of my sixth decade, and it seemed only natural that I write a novel with a baseball theme. In Backstop, I started with the boy I once was, with a dream of playing professional baseball. His parents, too, had other ideas. But where I succumbed, this lad ignores his parents’ wishes, to make his dream come true. Sadly, Backstop’s father dies before Backstop is drafted by the Detroit Tigers. A major theme is Backstop’s drive to prove himself to his deceased father.
What’s a good story without romance? In his rookie season, Backstop learns that lovin’ can be readily found around the ballpark, but true love eludes him for a time─until a chance meeting with the owner of a small business in Chicago. What follows is a season-long courtship followed by an offseason marriage.
Twelve years elapse, and when the Tigers make the playoffs for the first time during Backstop’s tenure, he goes out to celebrate with team mates, and he falls prey to a younger woman.
Perhaps my most accessible novel to date, Backstop: A Baseball Love Story In Nine Innings is composed of multiple themes─the importance of dreams (and our drive to make them come true), of loss and love, and of redemption in the aftermath of infidelity.
Backstop is now available through Second Wind Publishing and in Kindle format from Amazon.
─J. Conrad Guest
My dad took me to my first ballgame, a Tigers/Angels night game at old Tiger Stadium, a game which the home team won. I was but seven years old. The Corktown district in Detroit, in the early 1960s, had not yet fully deteriorated, and the 1968 race riots were still a few years away. Al Kaline was my childhood idol, and I dreamed of playing major league baseball, of roaming the outfield the way Kaline did, of hitting for average, for power, and of winning a World Series.
Unfortunately, my parents had other ideas. I’m sure they meant well, to protect me from disappointment, by steering me toward a more attainable career. Pete Rose was still more than a decade away from signing a three million dollar deal with the Phillies.
I started writing my first novel, January’s Paradigm, when I was 35. A science fiction affair with an alternate reality theme written around a Chandleresque character who was a private detective circa 1945, two more novels would follow to complete a trilogy. The project took nearly 15 years to complete, during which I lost both my parents. Funny, what losing one’s parents does: drive home the reality of one’s mortality. When my father passed away, I realized what I’d already known for quite some time─I was never going to play major league baseball.
After I finished the January books, I started looking for my next project. I was 51, in the first year of my sixth decade, and it seemed only natural that I write a novel with a baseball theme. In Backstop, I started with the boy I once was, with a dream of playing professional baseball. His parents, too, had other ideas. But where I succumbed, this lad ignores his parents’ wishes, to make his dream come true. Sadly, Backstop’s father dies before Backstop is drafted by the Detroit Tigers. A major theme is Backstop’s drive to prove himself to his deceased father.
What’s a good story without romance? In his rookie season, Backstop learns that lovin’ can be readily found around the ballpark, but true love eludes him for a time─until a chance meeting with the owner of a small business in Chicago. What follows is a season-long courtship followed by an offseason marriage.
Twelve years elapse, and when the Tigers make the playoffs for the first time during Backstop’s tenure, he goes out to celebrate with team mates, and he falls prey to a younger woman.
Perhaps my most accessible novel to date, Backstop: A Baseball Love Story In Nine Innings is composed of multiple themes─the importance of dreams (and our drive to make them come true), of loss and love, and of redemption in the aftermath of infidelity.
Backstop is now available through Second Wind Publishing and in Kindle format from Amazon.
─J. Conrad Guest
