6 Crows Gold ** SIGNED ** & As the Crow Flies ** SIGNED **

I was doing okay with the Covid lockdown...mostly. Gail and I are lucky to have a large house to rattle around in; there are daily chores with the horses; and a little money put aside. I've been backing off touring anyway. But in June 2020 I was getting antsy. I contemplated tackling some long ignored handyman chores, but that implied that I might be "handy." And I'm not.
If the human race survives, a group of archeologists will someday discover a circle of the tools I’ve launched into the air in frustration. They’ll conclude that a small cult called "the Tool Hurlers" once occupied this ground. I've learned to leave skilled work to young men. Muscular types with tool belts and tattoos, and a barely concealed disdain for the tottering old fool who doesn't realise a simple clockwise twist of an 11/16ths deep socket wrench would have fixed the problem. I do actually own that wrench, but I use it for slide guitar.
I desperately needed a project. I'd carried the first chapter of this book in my head for some years, and decided to give it a shot. I began in July, to see where it led. It wasn't until three quarters of the way into the story that I myself knew who organised the bombings.
Some characters took on lives of their own. The hacker, Izzy, was only supposed to appear briefly, but she became pivotal, if wildly out of control. Reverend Billy James and The Divine Fire need their own story, if I can figure out how to write about a 50s Rockabilly Gospel preacher with a predatory sexual bent, who escapes from a jail in Bristol, Tennessee in a hail of bullets, to die of old age in Juarez, Mexico...
Some folks might find the book overly political, particularly those on the right side of the aisle. Politics are only part of the story. I explored the friendship between Callum and Danny, against the backdrop of an increasingly fractured USA culture, the disappearance of reasoned discourse, the rise of White Power, and the ever more violent attacks on women's rights and human rights. To quote a phrase: "Women's rights are Human rights." The reader will have no trouble discerning what side of the question the narrator is on.
At the same time, I wanted to have a little fun, so it is by no means a completely serious book. It's nearly impossible for me to tell any story without looking for the humour. Oh, and there is a bit of awkward Canadian romance in there as well.