JESS’S WORLDForeword from Sable Hunter: Jess Hunter is my younger brother. We have a book FOR A HERO, a collaboration, which was released not too long ago. Jess is a renaissance man. He graduated from the University of Texas in 2011. He is eloquent and handsome. He is brilliant, but hard-headed. He is too popular with women for his own good. He loves pick-up trucks and names his – the current one is Leroy, Jr. He loves Superman. And video games. We have had thousands of discussions about romance novels and the construction of them. Jess finds inspiration in everything for his writing – - even video games. When I first received this blog in an email so I could forward it, I looked at the subject and shook my head. When I talked to him at 10 pm, he asked what I thought. I said it looked boring to me. BORING? WHY? I said because it’s about video games. I don’t like video games. READ IT! He demanded. JUST READ IT! I laughed at him, but I agreed. And I was wrong. He was right. He is onto something. I almost cried.Just listen. . . . .SPOILER ALERT!If you have not played the video game, “The Last Of Us,” AND intend to play it in the future AND want to NOT know how it ends, then DO NOT read the rest of this post.I don’t take very many days off. I work all the time. If I’m not writing, then I’m editing, or planning, or outlining, or at my other job which is a full day commitment half of each week. When I am not doing those things, I have to sneak in as many workouts and meals as I can. Occasionally, on my leftover time, I try to see my brother (best friend, actually) and his family, my sister (SABLE) and her hijinks or my good friends in Austin. And finally, when I am not doing that, I am sleeping. So the amount of time I get to do something strictly to entertain myself is very little. However, when I DO get that time, I really enjoy the art that is the video game.I tend not to hop on the bandwagons. I am not a huge fan of first person shooters or war simulators that are so popular now. I have my own criteria for what constitutes a great video game experience. As far as I’m concerned, a movie is a book with the imagination done for you. In that same vein of thinking, a video game is a movie in which you can interact. Imagine if, when Leonardo Da Vinci painted his famed “Mona Lisa” that the viewer had the choice to walk a complete circle around her, watch time pass, and even choose to start a conversation with her. How much work would he have had to do to bring that experience and creativity to one of his appreciators? It’s quite unfathomable.Because I put WAAAY too much thought into things like this and can’t just play a game like a normal guy in his twenties, I am always looking for the art in a game. I need a powerful character, or an ingenious method of interactivity, or a deeply compelling story, or content that is particularly meaningful to me. For example, the game “Dante’s Inferno” which is based on the first chapter of Dante Aligheri’s influential piece, “The Divine Comedy” was right up my alley. You controlled Dante as he followed Virgil through the nine circles of hell. You got to fight off demons, start conversations with recognizable tormented souls made to perish (like Brutus or Judas) and even come face to face with Lucifer himself. It was an incredible experience.The reason why I am making you read all about this is because I just finished a game that may very well be this generation’s magnum opus in the art world. It was a video game, exclusive to the Playstation 3, (right at the end of its generation, too) that is shaking up the entertainment industry. It has received more perfect scores in its reviews than any other game in history. The best thing about the game is not the violence or the sex, (of which there is some of the first, but the game makes you feel guilty for resorting to it, which is a powerful directive choice, and none of the latter, which is appropriate) nor is it the gameplay, (which is very simple. you pick up items, you use them to survive.) What made the game wonderful was its story. It may be one of the most powerful narratives I have ever experienced.You play as Joel. He is a twenty-something contractor living in Austin, Texas with his preteen daughter, just down the road from his younger brother. You watch then as the world ends around them, and in the panicked aftermath, he loses his daughter.Twenty years later, a mutated cordyceps virus has left the world population a single digit percentage of what was left. Almost all governments have been disbanded and the few people that remain are either infected with the virus and soon to die, a bandit that pillages and kills to survive, or a shadow of a person hiding in the darkness, waiting for their time to come. Joel has been earning food rations as a smuggler and thief, estranged from his brother over ideological differences and perpetually mourning the death of his daughter.He is eventually given the task to take on his most dangerous job yet. He is to smuggle a young girl, about the age of his daughter when she passed away, from Boston to Wyoming. It is a journey of almost certain death, but after learning that the girl may have within her the cure to the virus, takes the burden in his hands. Traveling across the country in a wasteland of cities-turned-jungles and archaic forts and death traps, he defends the girl from infected monsters, cannibal bandits and other normal people like them that just needed to kill or die themselves.Joel bonds with the girl, and lets fall away the husk of callused feelings that kept him from loving another person since his daughter passed and eventually begins to care for her as he did his own little girl. At their journey’s end. (SPOILER ALERT – LAST WARNING) Joel learns that in order for the cure to be made, his little girl companion has to die. Making a last-minute decision, Joel murders the surgeons, and the militia that protected them and whisked his little girl back into the wild. When she wakes up, he looks her in her little face and lies to her. He tells her they were not able to find a cure and have given up trying. The girl begins to cry, feeling a very powerful survivor’s remorse. She begs Joel to swear to her that he was telling the truth, and he did not doom the human species to death just so she could live and he could be with her. Joel looks at her, and without taking a breath, or pausing for an instant, he says, “I swear.”“The Last Of Us” was an intense gaming experience. A novice to survival or adventure games will be challenged, and the heaviness and complexity of the story definitely aim it for an adult audience.However, it was beautiful, elegant, visceral, realistic, and knew the heart of a human better than most pieces of art ever will.I write this to you because you are appreciators of art and story. I want to share this experience because you need to know that there is beauty and wonder in a million other forms of art in the world. A romance book is not the only medium that can show true love. I encourage you to pick up “The Last Of Us” and play it for yourself. I also encourage you to taste all the art and expression you can get your eyes on. You will be rewarded.I love you. Here is my author page. https://www.facebook.com/ForAHeroHere is the link to my book.
FOR A HEROMy email is:  jesshunter247@gmail.com Here is an excerpt from FOR A HERO where David rescues a little girl – the same hero spirit lives on.
Flames licked every wall of the once-beautiful Victorian home. The fire danced and made every hue transform into a dark orange. David knew exactly what to do. He felt more comfortable in a fire than out of one. A loud crack sounded above his head as a support beam gave way. Its heavy descent ended abruptly in the sturdy, solid palm of David’s broad hand. He effortlessly tossed it aside and continued searching the house.Between the crackling of the burn, David’s ears caught a strangled cough. A child. Probably a young girl. He could hear her in one of the bedrooms in the back hallway. He sturdied himself. His self-contained breathing apparatus allowed him to stand tall without the smoke filling his lungs. The muscles on his back hardened, preparing to support whatever burden he was called upon to bear.“Hello? Is anyone there?” David didn’t want to waste time searching each room. He needed to know exactly where she was.“I’m in my room,” a tiny voiced choked out through sobs of fear. David checked, but the door was jammed. The hinges may have warped or the walls become compressed together due to the fire eating away at the studs and ceiling. Fire can kill in so many ways.“Step away from the door,” David shouted. With a mighty shove, he broke the door open quickly and cleanly. A lonesome young girl lay on her bed, clasping a teddy bear wearing a red ribbon, while fire ate the room around her.“Are you ok, Sweetheart?” David asked gently. . He would have liked to stop and check her for injuries, but there just wasn’t time.“I want my mommy. I am so scared.”“It’s ok, Honey. I know where your mommy is. I am going to help her save you. Is it alright with you if I pick you up?”The young lady nodded and held her arms into the air, one still holding tightly to the teddy. David gently lifted her to his chest, flexing his biceps until his arms were solid as oak. She was wrapped in armor.David walked back the way he came, it was imperative that they leave the building as soon as possible. It might fall any moment.
The house creaked at David, warning him of the impending collapse. He lengthened his stride. She mustn’t know what danger she was in. David had made her safe now. That was his purpose.He was too late. Just as the light of day could be seen through the front door, fire ate through the ceiling and it came crashing down, blocking their way with embrous debris. The scream of the child’s mother was muffled behind the mountain of white-hot wood, insulation and sheet rock, obstacles fire had placed in his way. Ceiling tile and a large wooden board clashed with David’s back. The plank snapped on his trapezius. He felt no pain. This was his job. However, the sound of the crash caused the child to bury her face in David’s chest. He hated her to be afraid while he held her.He turned around. Homes like this always had another door. He marched through the kitchen, shielding the child from spark and flame. He found it. The side door. It stood near the cooking appliances and the danger of electric shock kept most of the emergency response team clear of the area. David, however, had no choice.Without a hand to open the door, he stepped back to ready his kick.“Hold on, Honey. We’re almost there. Protect Teddy.”A wicked snap resounded through the house and the door flew through the air into the back yard. The breeze of freedom wrapped their bodies in cold and comfort.From the front, the snap could be heard clearly. Police held on to the woman, her screams echoing down the street. The house trembled and cracked. With a belch of smoke, her home imploded into rubble.“NOOO!! God, no!! My baby! Why did nobody get my baby?” She screamed accusatorially at the firemen and police who stood idly watching fire steal her world from her. The news reporters had nothing to say. The cameras just rolled on.“The Fire Chief, David Conlon, was in the house, Ma’am. He went in after your daughter.”“He went alone?!?! Why was he trying to save her alone!?!? Where are they?!?!”The team hung their heads while the fire hose rained life-saving water down upon the house. It would be hours before the firemen and EMT’s could retrieve and transport the bodies from the smoldering ruins. Despite the ruckus, a silence stole the minds of the spectators between the sobs of the mother.At that moment, bursting forth from the cloud of smoke and water and despair, an angel walked calmly into the street, a little doll cradled in its arms. A wave of cheer and celebration erupted from the crowd. Where once there was silence and sadness, joy and hope popped like fireworks.
David handed the baby to her mother. Tears of joy streamed down her face and she petted the little girl’s face with kisses. He peeled off his hat and mask. His black curly hair framed his face. The ash-blackened silhouette of his SCBA encircled his brilliantly blue eyes. She gasped at the beauty of the man that saved her only child.“Thank you so much. You have no idea what you did for me today. You are my hero.” Her thankfulness welled up within her. This man was her savior. Without him, she would have said goodbye to her daughter instead of hugging her.“Please don’t, Ma’am. It’s just my job.” David accepted the gratitude, but he did not bask in it. He did not do what he did for the “thanks.” He smiled a little smile at the woman and kissed the girl on the crown of her forehead.Without an ounce of pride or boastfulness, he turned and walked away. The excitement faded. The police and rescue teams retreated. The mother took her child to start a new life elsewhere. Fire rested to attack another day, and David returned to his home alone. He cleansed himself of the ash, treated his wounds and waited for another chance to do the only thing on this Earth he knew how to do.