Remembering the evils of socialism/ communism

The Cold War came to an end more than a quarter-century ago. When the winds of change started to blow in the eastern bloc, and then the Berlin Wall finally came down, many of us wondered what the future would bring.

I remember in the summer of 1990 driving through the Shenandoah River Valley of Virginia with a veteran leader of the anti-communist movement and talking about what life would be like without the Soviet menace dominating our foreign policy.

“Will we forget what they were like, and will it be easier to bring socialism to America after the Soviet Union is gone because we have forgotten?” I asked. He agreed that this would be a great danger—America might forget the horrors of socialism when it was no longer an armed doctrine threatening our very existence.

Evidence that much of America has forgotten the horrors of socialism in the 20th century seems to be emerging on college campuses and among the citizenry. While those of us who grew up during the Cold War will find it shockingly hard to believe, socialism is growing as an approved political/economic system in America.

Read my full article on re-reading Alexander Solzhenitsyn

New Novel--Under Construction

On this last day of 2012, I am happy to report I have surpassed the 30,000 word mark on my next novel.  And, I am very happy to report to the world for the first time that there will be a new novel--someday!  I am calling it, so far, The Sword of Destiny.

My muse had been silent for a couple of years.  Then in May I was visiting Oxford, England with a group of terrific students.  I spent the last day largely alone visiting the Pitts Rivers Museum and then sitting with my notebook in the Lamb and Flag--a favorite pub of both J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis.  There I forced the muse to come out and play and help me draft the first scene of a new novel.  That scene takes place on a dark and rainy night (I know! I know!) at the Eagle and Child where Tolkien and Lewis are sharing a pint and discussing something important. A man on the verge of death stumbles in, dripping on their table and urging them to care for a document he pushes into Lewis' hand.

The book shares the same legendarium as my first two novels (The Sporran and The Iona Conspiracy) though this one takes place during World War II.  The basic plot finds the Blitz over London to be a diversion for an attempt by the Nazis to find and retrieve the Spear of Longinus--the spear that pierced the side of Christ.

It turns out that the spear was not really "of this world" at all, but connects in a deep way to the story of Isildane who brought the treasures into our world so long ago.  The blade was never meant to be found, but has a way of bringing itself into the hands of those who do not suspect its power--and evil nature.  So did it find the hands of Longinus 2,000 years ago at Calvary.

It must not be allowed to fall into the hands of Adolf Hitler!

Well, I should really get back to writing the book, instead of telling you about it!

Wish me luck in preparing something worthy of the gift.