North Korea’s subtle shift. Climate Change surprise: a real curve ball. Ethics: Greatest Good for the Greatest Number or the Golden Rule, or something else? All of these themes are tackled in TGFI! Well, Book 2 of the Ur Legend, The Girl from Ipanema, is now hot off the press.  (Buy now on Amazon) In it we continue the story of Ur, who holds worlds together with her mind. But can she and should she affect outcomes?  Read on to find out.

Sun Valley Moon Mountains was a very personal book, for me. And, thematically, it was very different as well.  It was a combination of pure fantasy and magical realism, which I like to call Fantastical Realism. And although I didn’t realize it when I wrote the book, the plot structure followed the Hero’s Journey, elucidated by Joseph Campbell (Google it).  The story was a true Quest.  It was a chance, as well, to recount my wife, Linda’s, and my struggle with the catastrophe of losing a child.

But Ur, and Mattie as well, are all grown up now. I’ve been able to sketch them as young ladies and that has been exciting and challenging.  I hope you all like the result.    I’m pretty crazy about my daughter!

But this work is more topical than SVMM, even though elements are still ‘fantastic’.  We land first in North Korea and the reader is given a suggestion of what that country could be with a more benign direction. But that is the background and just a hopeful thought.  This is not a tract on Political Science (is that an oxymoron?). It’s the story of the people that really matters.

As for Climate Change, we’ve thrown a curve ball.  The scenario derives from geologic history and, while plausible, I certainly haven’t run the numbers.  But this is fiction after all.  Still, if global warming were to melt a good portion of the Greenland ice cap, what would be the result?

Finally, I don’t know how many of you enjoyed the philosophy in SVMM, Ur Book 1. It was epistemology, or how we come to know things. In Books 2 and 3 we will explore moral philosophy, ethics.  Now, I’m even more of a dilettante when dabbling in ethics than in philosophy of mind.  But it is a subject we should all think about as human beings.  What ethical choices should we make that shape how we live our lives? We’ll be talking more about ethics and Dharma, in future blogs.  Until then, get TGFI and let me know what you think.