Sacred Heart

Sacred Heart is now live on Wattpad. There's a link to the right of this page. >>>>>>

WARNING: THIS NOVEL CONTAINS POLITICS.

That's a more critical warning than sex and violence these days. Politics is a great divider. As a life-long independent, I genuinely have a both sides suck attitude. I have never been a member of a political party, and yet I never miss an election. Both sides suck for different reasons. In Sacred Heart, I had to play the both-sides card hard to remain as on-the-fence as possible to not offend the snowflakes.

It's not just that I don't want to offend; realistically, it's essential to portray both sides when a nation is roughly divided down the middle. 

I don't know if I have sensitive snowflake readers who get triggered by strongly worded opinions they disagree with, but in this day and this political climate, it's highly likely. I don't always play it down the middle. The pendulum swings.  And because I am unaffiliated and have voted for and against the blue and red teams, I have the skills to piss off both sides.

I wrote Sacred Heart for NaNoWriMo 2020. That means I started the book on November 1st and completed my first draft before November 30th. This novel was born during a contested election. It was crazy, right?  My imagination took a dark turn.

As it turns out, I was not that far off. Then, in this rewrite, I wove in real events since 2020, tying my fictional urban crisis to the real world.

--- NEW YORK CITY 2035 ---

In one long opening scene and conversation, I dispense with much of the political upheaval and divisiveness of the 2020s and 2030s. It will feel all too familiar and may be annoying. After that scene, the story is not about politics, even as the events are shaped by politics.

My lead character, Aiden Regas, is a liberal do-gooder journalist, like most journalists. I mean journalists with credentials and an education in journalism, not cable TV talking heads and pretty-face newsreaders. Print reporters are mostly liberal.

Aiden's book publisher and the newspaper's owners are more conservative. The military men, cops, and prosecutors are all conservative. So, using this basic 'profession as a barometer' approach, I give both sides a voice.

This is the first book I've written with a body count, and it's a significant one. If you don't like violence in literature, you have been warned. I am not a military man, but I have decades of experience working in aerospace and defense, so I have an interest in the technology of war.  I had to do some research.

I try my best to be as accurate as possible. Sometimes I go so deep into a research rabbit hole that I learn more about the topic than I need for the writing I'm doing. In this story, that research was heavily technology and weapons-based. 

This is my first book not set in the 20th Century. I get to have cellphones! Yay! And because it's near-future, I can twist reality just a little. Writing in the modern world was a nice change of pace for me.

I am still working on this book as I release it. For that reason, the days you see chapters may be erratic. I won't guarantee a predictable Sun-Tue-Thu-Sat schedule.

I suspect this book will have far less traction than my punk writing, which barely gets 40 reads per chapter, but IDGAF.  First, I write for myself, what interests and entertains me as a writer. After that, if someone cares to read, great. If not. (shrugs) I'm always proud of my work, even when I beat myself up.