Many first-time authors attempt to get published by sending off hundreds of query letters to literary agents in hopes that one will be interested in representing him/her, and will promote their manuscript to big publishing houses for review, and hopefully a contract to publish their book. Meanwhile, they sit around waiting months for the dreaded rejection notices.

 I was one of those authors completing my first book in 2007. I learned that agents will rejectalmost every query, because they’re not taking on any new authors. Or if you’re lucky you might beasked for a chapter or the first fifty pages to be sent, only delaying their final rejection.

 Getting published can really become a disheartening task to first-time authors. There’s no doubt that a lot of good manuscripts are collecting dust on shelves, or are stored in the memory of apotentially good author’s computer.

 Some new authors may choose to self-publish their work, presenting a whole new set of problems, but they can be overcome. Even though self-publishing is an alternative, you’ll still need to gather the information needed to do it yourself, and approximately $10,000 to $25,000 investment to get started. This will cover printing of two to four thousand copies, based on the size of your book.

 This option is not available to struggling authors that lack the funds, and if you’re not a good salesperson, or have a contract with a marketing company to promote your book, you’ll have cases of your books collecting dust instead of your manuscript, and be out the money invested.

 Say good-bye to the rejection of traditional publishers and the two-year publishing cycle. Say good-bye to the hassles of independent self-publishing, like guessing print-runs, managing inventory, and the responsibility of order fulfillment. In the last few years the brick and mortar bookstore sales have dropped, while the growth of internet and eBook sales have grown exponentially.

 The growth of internet book sales and eBook market, if anything, has picked up pace, which​means that the growth of potential buyers for self-published books is growing faster than ever. Of course, so is the number of available eBooks, but it is still time to catch the wave and get a book out there.

 The rise of eBooks slowly began in 2006 reaching global annual revenues of $3 billion, with projected annual revenues from eBooks delivered to portable devices growing to $9 billion by 2016.This robust growth is due to the increasing penetration of eReaders and tablet devices in householdsthroughout the world.

 For self-published writers, this is good news. The success of a well-known self-published authorsuch as John Locke, who sold over 1.1 million books in five months, was due in part to the fact that they caught the eBook wave at the beginning of its rise. He also chose Telemachus Press to produce and print his books sold over the internet.

 I chose Outskirts Press to produce my books. Outskirts Press offers you the best of both worlds by combining the advantages of independent self-publishing with the advantages of traditional book publishing.  Before, during, and after publication you will receive the assistance of a dedicated group of publishing professionals, all the while maintaining 100% of your publishing rights and 100% of your profits. Their “Diamond” package costs $1000 to design a front and back cover, produce a quality book, ISBN number, listing your book on Amazon and Barnes & Nobel, and providing marketing instructions to sell your book over the internet.

 The top two selling items on the Net in the United States are software and books. So if you’regoing to write books and sell them on the Internet, you’ll have a very large and responsive market. The only difference will be that your books will be available through internet book stores and in a digital format, allowing you to publish your book through Amazon Kindle, Smashwords, and othereBook publishers.

 Finally, you’ll have full control over your book and when it gets published. You can set the selling price, receiving 70-80% royalties. But, before you go off and start the process, make sure your book has been professionally edited. No one wants to read a book with a bunch of ​errors, even if they only paid 99 cents for it.

 Now that you saved all that money from not self-publishing a book, and you’re ready to publish,and sell on the internet, you might consider hiring an internet marketing company to promote your book, or learn how to do your own promotion. Now the only question is: Will you take advantage of this exciting and rapidly growing market?

–

Andrew J. Rafkin, was born in 1946 in San Pedro, California, grew up in a commercial fishing family. He served in the Navy during the Vietnam War and later graduated from California State University, Dominguez Hills with degrees in economics and marketing. Louis Pagono, was born 1947, in San Pedro, California. He worked on the docks on his family’s commercial fishing boats, and later in his parent’s restaurant, Luigi’s. Later he joined the Merchant Marines, and worked on the freighters moving cargo up and down the Pacific Coast. Find out more at: www.andrewrafkin.com

A new writer finishes his first book, confident that the manuscript is error free and complete. Now it’s time to get an agent, get the book published, and make a ton of money. So he or she writesa query letter, and sends or emails a couple of hundred to prospective agents. Then the rejectionletters come back, one stating that the fifteen pages of the manuscript and even the query needed editing.

 Most published authors have a page set aside in their books acknowledging their gratitude and thanks to their agents, publishers, experts, and always their editors. Most people read the acknowledgments; maybe this new writer should have.

     Too often inexperienced writers hire the first editor they encounter without really checking the person’s credentials, or referrals. I remember when I was looking for an agent. One asked for my manuscript, and later informed me that he wanted to be my agent, sending me a contract. He stated that before he could present the manuscript to a publisher it needed to be re-edited by one of his associates for only $3,800. Didn’t sound legitimate to me, so I checked it out on websites such as,Writers Beware and Predators and Editors, and found that this agent was not recommended.

     So, where exactly does one shop for an editor? There are many places, ranging from internet searches, professional organizations, personal recommendations from successful writers and writing conferences.

     I’ve hired four editors. Readers of my first novel Red Sky Morning spotted some errors, so I had it re-edited, publishing the revised copy. Next editor was good but was also an author and too busy writing to edit. The next used Word to correct mistakes, leaving numerous errors; again I was forced to re-edit my book. This took a lot of time, and was expensive.

     Hiring the right editor takes time and often involves trying out or interviewing several before you find one that you can feel comfortable to work with and trust to do the best with your ​manuscript or other writing projects. I now feel very comfortable with my editor.

     Some editors get so carried away with corrections that your manuscript no longer feels like your voice, but more like the editor. Other editors who I have encountered leave glaring errors in their rush to move the manuscript along.

     It’s very important to remember that you are the employer in the editor/writer relationship. Respect your editor when it comes to serious critiquing and carefully review his/her suggestions before making significant changes to your manuscript.

     Trust corrections made regarding punctuation, passive voice, dialogue construction, andgrammatical errors. That’s their job.

     How much should you pay for a professional editor?

     Editors charge differently. Some charge by the word, like 1- 2.4 cents per word. Some charge by the page, and some by the hour. I wouldn’t recommend paying by the hour, because there are justtoo many variables. Price doesn’t always equate the quality of an editor’s work. Just remember that the person you hire as an editor needs to be able to communicate with you, work within your style of writing, ending up with a polished manuscript you can be proud of, and confident to submit to anagent, or have published as an e-book.

–

Andrew J. Rafkin, was born in 1946 in San Pedro, California, grew up in a commercial fishing family. He served in the Navy during the Vietnam War and later graduated from California State University, Dominguez Hills with degrees in economics and marketing. Louis Pagono, was born 1947, in San Pedro, California. He worked on the docks on his family’s commercial fishing boats, and later in his parent’s restaurant, Luigi’s. Later he joined the Merchant Marines, and worked on the freighters moving cargo up and down the Pacific Coast. Find out more at: www.andrewrafkin.com

I just finished my next book Reaper 6, the true story of Staff Sergeant Larry FitzGerald, the leader of a thirty-man black ops team that was deployed to Vietnam in 1966. After three tours, and receiving eleven Purple Hearts, Larry returned to the States unable to adjust to our society, along with most of the veterans coming home from war.

 What I learned about our veterans was overwhelming, and I closed the story with a short piece titled, “Our Soldiers.”

 They’re only kids, eighteen or nineteen, just out of high school, volunteering or drafted, to fight for our country. They joined because they were patriotic, following their peers, an opportunity to learn a trade, make money, pushed in by their parents, or forced in by the draft.

 But every soldier coming home from combat arrived crippled, some with visible life-altering injuries, which left them without limbs, crippled physically, without hope for easy integration back into society.

  What’s not visible, but devastating, is what all war veterans deal with upon returning home. They suffer with PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder), TBI (traumatic brain injury), drug and alcohol issues, high rate of suicide, family issues, financial issues, psychological and psychosocial issues, and future employment problems.

 Many veterans, although emotionally scarred for life, were later attacked by cancer caused from Agent Orange and other carcinogens they were exposed to in the jungles of Vietnam, and ended up suffering an excruciating painful death.

 The negative sentiment and discrimination of Vietnam Vets was overwhelming. No one likes rejection, and to avoid it, a vet simply let his hair grow out, maybe grow a beard, and disappear into ​the crowd.

 The current war our nation is embedded in is a war against terrorism, with no remorse and little support. We cannot forget about the war veterans coming home with life-altering injuries, previous unseen diseases, radiation sickness from depleted uranium in weapons and armor plating. And, high rates of lung cancer from exposure to “burn pits” where hundreds of tons of contaminated materials are burned partially, included sewage and various carcinogens. This is all just emerging. The military says they probably had cancer before deployment. How can the military state something like this?

 These healthy, physically fit young men and women volunteered to join our Armed Forces, returning crippled with physical and psychological disorders, and we can never forget the soldiers that paid the ultimate price, dying for our country.

 There are over a million veterans collecting VA disability and close to a million that are unemployed. The Veterans Administration is overloaded with cases for Vietnam Veterans, and new cases are flooding in every day.

 So, America must ask itself, what is being done to help these men and women get back onto

their feet and become beneficial members of society?

 Too many veterans who served our country decades ago still suffer from horrible medical problems stemming from their time in the military. Time and again, the federal government has failed to provide them with the quality care they have earned. Sometimes, it is the bureaucracy that stands in the way. Other times, it is red tape or cost-cutting measures that prevent vets from getting the care they deserve. But for the hundreds of thousands of Vietnam veterans, it is a shameful technicality in the law.

 Many Vietnam veterans who were initially entitled to 100% disability were surprised to see their benefits changed to 30%, with no prior notice or examination. These veterans suffering from PTSD, and physical injuries were literally driven into poverty. They would complain to the VA, ​who informed them that they were re-evaluated. Evaluated by WHOM and WHEN? This travesty occurred over eighteen years ago. By whose authorization? No one in our government would ever admit to this.

 Currently the media says the VA is better now in recognizing war-related ailments and disabilities, and President Obama recently ordered recognition of such maladies without the previous burden of proof from the veteran that the Iraq/Afghanistan war is responsible. They previously had to pinpoint a time and place where they were injured or contaminated or became ill.

 Obama, known for his distaste of the military and the war, has a reputation of making big promises, only for political advancements, as many other presidents and their administrations have been, in the past. Veterans are not impressed with boisterous platitudes for selfish political gain. Our veterans want action. They deserve action!

 Our older veterans need all the help they can get, and our Iraqi/Afghanistan men and women need assurances that they will not fall in disregard, as the vets before them.

 Never forget that these men and women were only innocent teenagers when they embarked on their journey to protect the country we hold so dear. We have to make sure that they can assimilate with society, and that our government protects and provides them with medical and financial benefits, now, and in the future.

They deserve it!!

–

Andrew J. Rafkin, was born in 1946 in San Pedro, California, grew up in a commercial fishing family. He served in the Navy during the Vietnam War and later graduated from California State University, Dominguez Hills with degrees in economics and marketing. Louis Pagono, was born 1947, in San Pedro, California. He worked on the docks on his family’s commercial fishing boats, and later in his parent’s restaurant, Luigi’s. Later he joined the Merchant Marines, and worked on the freighters moving cargo up and down the Pacific Coast. Find out more at: www.andrewrafkin.com

Mac was a big, black, forty-year-old Mr. Universe-looking guy, who August met inside Terminal Island Prison in the seventies, while waiting to be transferred to the Pleasanton Federal Prison where he would do his time for a bust. He was using airplanes to smuggle pot at the time.

In the early seventies, Mac and August’s friends, Roy, Burl, and Gary rode choppers together. Mac was a CHP motorcycle officer earlier in his career. When he was finally released from prison, Mac and a good friend, a previous lieutenant in the CHP, started the Jet Strip located by LAX.

In the early eighties, Mac moved to Rolling Hills Estates on Colt Road, a horse community on Palos Verdes Peninsula. August lived close by; they became good friends and partied at each other’s homes. They had various business dealings, but mostly Mac helped August launder money. Everyone knew that Mac’s money came from prostitution and strip clubs that he owned throughout Southern California, and that he handled a lot of cash.

At times, Mac would ask August to ride around with him while he picked up money from other strip club owners. He extorted them for a percentage of their income to be paid on a monthly or bi-monthly basis. Anyone who wanted to open a strip club in Southern California had to have the okay from Big Mac and even though most of them didn’t like to pay their vig to Mac, they did it, because Big Mac McKenna, was a bad motherfucker.

Later, in 1990, Mac was killed, machine gunned in his limo in front of his heavily ​secured home in Orange County’s remote Carbon Canyon. It was believed that the other strip club owners were tired of paying the vig and put a contract out on him. Later, the authorities arrested Mac’s partners, Mike Woods and English Dave, for the murder.

One of Mac’s girls walked up to the table and told him that he had a phone call. He excused himself. Diz turned to August. “Mac’s got a good thing going on. It’s too bad we can’t get a piece of that.”

“Mac’s got this down; let’s stick to what we do best. Fuck! I don’t think I could handle fifty naked bitches every day anyway.”

“Yeah, you’re right.” They both laughed.

Diz was six-foot tall, good-looking, and strong as an ox. He was half-Italian and half-Mexican, born and raised in Compton. He grew up on the streets in a tough neighborhood, and was in and out of juvie; he later did some time in state prison.

Diz was tough and smart, knew how to come out on top, and where to put his alliances. He was a no-nonsense, solid motherfucker that you didn’t want to cross or screw with. August developed a strong alliance with him and the Nieto brothers; eventually Diz became a partner in some of his operations.

August’s pager went off. He looked at the number and knew the call came from Chip Jones. They went to high school together. He became the student body president, was popular with the girls, and a good friend of August’s, who eventually went to work for him. August walked over to the phone booth and made the call. Chip answered.

“It’s August. What’s up?”

“Bruiser, Snydo, and one of Bruiser’s men are here.”

Snydo was a skinny, blond-haired surfer dude whose family had operations in the harbor.

August had a bad feeling that Bruiser was behind pressuring Snydo to take him to Chip’s house to convince Chip to contact him. “This guy a hired gun?”

“Could be.”

“Are Bruiser and this guy armed?”

“Yeah . . . They asked me to call you. He wants you to come by and have a meeting.”

“He asked you, or threatened you?”

“Bruiser said he was unhappy about the way the deal went down. Apparently, some of the off-load from Gonzalo’s shipment was wet and he didn’t get the money he expected, and got charged back from Gonzalo.”

“Does he really want a meeting or is he gunning for me?”

“I don’t know, but he thinks he has some additional money coming to him.”

August heard Bruiser say, “Give me the fuckin’ phone. I think you cherry picked the load, and I want to negotiate a settlement.”

“Look, asshole, I told you I don’t do that sort of shit.”

“Then come over here and convince me.”

“Put Chip back on the phone.”

“Yeah, August.”

“Tell him I’ll be there in half an hour, and be sure to stay out of the way when we get there; it could get ugly.”

“Okay, I’ll tell him.”

August knew it would only take twenty minutes to get to Chip’s house, but intended to be there early. Diz jumped into the driver’s seat of August’s Mercedes; August got in the front passenger seat and Little Chucky Nieto got in the back.

While they drove to Chip’s house, August laid out his plan. “Let’s not get hot with these guys and start shooting immediately. Let me try to get these motherfuckers out of Chip’s house quietly, so the man doesn’t show up.”

“Those motherfuckers are the ones that caused the scene by going to Chip’s house in the first ​place, packin’ guns. We need to fuck these guys up! You pay me for security, if you don’t need me, then fuck it,” Diz protested.

“Come on, Diz, you know I need you, but there’s a time to use force and a time not to.”

“Look, August, these guys are packin’ guns, they’re not fuckin’ around, and there’s no chance for us to make any mistakes. We need to make a point.”

“Okay, Diz, let’s just see how they’re going to act, before we do.”

Twenty minutes later, Diz drove by the house and parked a block away. August knew that Bruiser and this guy were waiting inside, and if August just walked in, they could get the drop on them.

He had Little Chucky sneak around to the backyard while he and Diz hugged a hedge bordering the property and moved up to the side of the house. Then they quietly approached the front porch and climbed the stairs, while pulling out their guns.

Each side of the front door had louvered glass panels two feet wide, running from the top of the doorframe to the bottom for ventilation and light. Diz wasn’t going to wait to see how these guys were going to act. He swung his silenced .380 automatic through the louvered strips of glass, shattering them as he drove his gun to the bottom, then stepped through the opening followed by August, both firing their weapons.

Bruiser and the hired gun were caught off guard; both started shooting wildly as they moved to the kitchen for cover.

August dove behind a large wing chair, while Diz took cover behind a wall. The hired gun hid around the corner, reached out and fired a few shots, keeping August and Diz pinned down. Then Bruiser and this guy made a break for the laundry room and the back door.

Bruiser opened the back door and Little Chucky opened fire, causing splinters of wood to shatter around Dozer’s head, as he ducked back in, pinning them inside the house, caught in a cross fire. While Snydo and Chip remained flattened out on the floor, Diz and August moved ​toward the kitchen, guns held with both hands, ready to shoot at any movement.

While Dozer fired at Little Chucky, the hired gun covered the entrance to the laundry room. Nieto’s gun jammed. Sensing the lack of return gunfire from the rear, Bruiser yelled, “Let’s get the hell out of here.” He turned and dashed toward the back door, firing blindly, while running for his life. The hired gun opened fire on Diz and August while he backpedaled for the door, but took a bullet in the gut and went down. Bruiser ran out the back door, shooting wildly.

August and Diz kept running, jumped over the body, and out the door.

Bruiser already had a shoulder wound. As he ran through the backyard, he got shot in the ass as he jumped the rear wall and escaped.

August walked up to the hired gun as Little Chucky walked in. “What happened out there?” asked August.

“Sorry, man, my gun jammed. By the time I cleared it, he was over the wall.”

August looked at the guy on the floor. He had long blond hair and wasn’t wearing any shoes. He turned to Snydo and said, “You know who this fucking guy is?”

“Only that Bruiser was boasting that he was a Vietnam Vet, a real badass, trained in Special Forces.”

“The guy’s in pretty bad shape. Since you brought him here, I think it’s your fuckin’ job to dump him off at a hospital. I don’t even know this prick.”

“I’m sorry, August; I really didn’t have any choice.”

“Yeah, right. Well, you’re damn lucky; if any of my guys got hurt, Snydo, you would have ended up in the hospital next to this cocksucker.”

“I’m really sorry, man,” said Snydo.

“Sorry doesn’t cut it. I know that Bruiser and this motherfucker threatened you. They probably filled their noses with coke, got jacked up, and decided to come to town and fuck with me. You tell that piece of shit Bruiser that he better stay the fuck out of my way, or else.”

The wounded former GI started to cry out because his wounds were serious and he needed a doctor. “Shut the fuck up,” yelled Diz. “You should have thought about that before you came over here acting like some fuckin’ Rambo.”

August chuckled at Diz’s comment. “Chip, I need to get out of here. Clean up this mess as quick as you can, in case the cops come snooping. I’m sorry your house got fucked up. Have it fixed and give me the bill.” He turned to Snydo. “Take this guy to the hospital and dump him off in front of the emergency entrance, and get the hell out of there.”

August turned and left, followed by Diz. They jumped into the Mercedes; Diz put it in gear and took off. August shook his head. “Fucking unbelievable.”

* * *

A week went by. With revenge on his mind, Bruiser tried to get even. He sent a couple of his men to pour sacks of marijuana seeds in August’s boats as evidence. They towed them into the harbor and set them adrift. He hoped that the boats would be retrieved by the Harbor Master or Coast Guard, get searched, and that they’d bust August’s operation.

One of the problems in off-loading marijuana was that the decks constantly required cleaning. But, if you wanted to incriminate someone, pouring seeds in their boats or warehouses could do the trick. One of August’s friends spotted the Skipjacks being towed out; he warned him in time for August’s crew to retrieve the boats.

Bruiser thought he was vindicated, but he had gone too far. August had to put him out of commission. Bruiser was force fed a half-ounce of cocaine, causing him to go into violent convulsions. He was picked up by an ambulance and admitted to the hospital. He never really recovered; his operation eventually dried up.

–

Andrew J. Rafkin, was born in 1946 in San Pedro, California, grew up in a commercial fishing family. He served in the Navy during the Vietnam War and later graduated from California State University, Dominguez Hills with degrees in economics and marketing. Louis Pagono, was born 1947, in San Pedro, California. He worked on the docks on his family’s commercial fishing boats, and later in his parent’s restaurant, Luigi’s. Later he joined the Merchant Marines, and worked on the freighters moving cargo up and down the Pacific Coast. Find out more at: www.andrewrafkin.com.

Andrew J. Rafkin

Q. Why did you decide to write this book?
A. I was talking to a friend about my upcoming vacation to Palm Springs. He said I should look up a mutual friend, Louis Pagano, who owned a chain of restaurants in the desert. When my wife and I arrived at our condo, I gave him a call, and he invited me to his restaurant for lunch. We went way back; we even went to grammar school together. While sharing the gap of over forty years since we had seen each other, I told him I was an award winning author and had published three books, and working on my forth.

He asked if I remembered August Felando, who he had spent some quality time with, before he died of cancer. During that time, August told him an incredible story about a heist that took place in 1984. He thought that his story would make a great book, or a movie, but needed someone, preferably an author to write the book with. He briefly went over the story. I was fascinated, because this crime and the smuggling, was committed in our backyard, San Pedro, where we grew up. He felt it was fate that we had got together, and ask if I was interested in co-authoring the story he later named Angels Gate.

Q. Do you have any secret writing tips you’d like to share?
A. You need to be consistent. For myself, I get up around 5:30, read for an hour or so, then go on a 3-4 mile walk, where I mostly think about the book I’m writing. Now that I exercised my brain, and body I get ready to go to work. I try to write, research, and basic editing, for three to four hours a day, sometimes more, if I get on a roll. Writing is fun, but requires dedication and a lot of work. Just like any other job, take some time off, when you feel you need to. One other thing. When you think your work is complete and polished, find a good professional editor. You just spent a year writing a novel. You will miss things, and need another pair of eyes, if not two pairs, to go over your work, before your manuscript is complete.

Q. Tell us a funny or quirky story about you!
A. A. I grew up in a commercial fishing family. Through high school, I worked on sportfishing boats, and at seventeen went commercial fishing with his father, captain of a large Purse Seiner, during summer vacation. Two years later, I worked aboard a ninety-foot fishing boat, and was caught in a hurricane force storm, where I almost lost his life.

That was the last time I went commercial fishing, but continued to sport-fish. Fishermen love to tell stories. Mine would always get the same response. You should write a book, or, it would make a great movie. I was twenty-five, telling my story to some friends during a fishing trip, and got the same response. I said, “Yeah right; I’m going to write a book.”

We were in the galley. The boat slowed down to fish. We started to walk out on deck. An older guy with a gray beard grabbed my arm and said, “Could I have a word with you.” I said, “Sure.” He continued. “I listened to your story, and I agree with your friends. Take some advice from an old man. When you get home write and outline of everything you can remember about the trip with your dad, and the incident on the other boat. Because some day, when your older and have the time you will write a book about it.”

Thirty-five years later, I was on a three day fishing trip with some friends. Having a lot of time to talk and tell fishing stories. When I finished mine, I received the same comments. That night, I thought about that old man, probably the same age I was now. I thought, “You know, I’m going to write that book. I dug out the old outline, and got to work. A year later, I finished my first non-fiction true-life adventure, Red Sky Morning.

Q. Have you ever battled writer’s block? How do you deal with it?
A. I’ve never experienced writer’s block. I think it’s self-induced, by not being prepared. You need to live, and breathe your story, the characters, how the next chapters will unfold. I also maintain a continuous outline, where I list my thoughts, and research. I try to list everything I can. It’s easy to delete, and easier to forget. I think you need a life, to be a good writer, able to reach into your memory of past experiences. But to write an 80-100,000 word novel will require more than your experiences, and the better you are prepared, the less chance of getting bogged down.

Q. What’s your favorite quote?
A. “Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing.” –Benjamin Franklin

Q. Who inspires you the most?
A. I guess that old man who recommended to write and outline of my experiences as a teenager that later served as inspiration to write Red Sky Morning, recipient of the Readers Favorite Book Award, and the EVVY Literary Award. Other than that, I don’t require any inspiration to write, because it has become a passion of mine

Most of us here in America think of ourselves as the wealthiest nation on earth. Then why are so many of our citizens so impoverished? We have tens of millions of our citizens who are hungry. We have tens of millions of our young whoare not educated for the rigors of the twenty-first century. “Tens of millions” is an understatement. Maybe a third of our young folk are adequately educated, another third educated to be functional but not particularly successful, whereas the bottom third is grievously disadvantaged, which is a problem that spirals down through generations. Is this the hallmark of the wealthiest nation on earth?

Part of the explanation, I think, lies in the fact that the wealthy elite of our civilization circulates almost exclusively among their own kind and does not see theplight of the masses. They surround themselves with success and make believe this is the norm.

What are they thinking? This is important, because often we are subject to decisions by the wealthy elite that affect the welfare of the whole body politic. Theyapparently think they are different and more deserving. How else could they justify to themselves that we have so many left out, in such distress? How else, for instance, can they explain the meagerness of our national minimum wage? Anyonedepending on that wage for full support would be hungry and homeless.

To think we are different is to fear that in the eyes of God we are the same.When I use the word “God,” I am referring to the Source of all that is, which isbeyond gender differentiation. Those who think they are different are fearful, because if we are all the same in the eyes of God, there is no justification for thegrotesque inequity in the distribution of wealth we find today.

Are we the same in the eyes of God? Of course we are! We are all His children. And God loves His children with Equal Love. And it does not matter who you think you are, or what you think you believe, or even whether you think you believe in Him or not. It does not matter what you think your “sins” are, or how virtuous you think you are. There is nothing we do, or do not do, by which we gain His favor.

We have His favor by virtue of our creation, and His favor will not be withdrawn, no matter what! I might accuse you of some failing, and think your failing is yours alone, and that I have God’s favor because I do not have the failing I think I see in you. But I do not have God’s favor because of any behavior of mine, and He does not withdraw His favor from you because of any behavior of yours. His favor is given, wholly and without condition, to all of us.

Now it is undoubtedly true that we are happy, or unhappy, as a consequence of our behavior, but none of this, either our happiness or unhappiness, can detract from Perfection, and God is Perfection. God is lonely when His children are unhappy and do not know Him; but His Will, and our will, too, is that we unite with Him, in Paradise, and we can accept that as inevitable. What God wills, happens, not in time, but in eternity.

How does all this relate to our wealthy elite, who think they are different and more deserving? Our wealthy elite is in a state of fear, because if they are wrong, if God really loves us with Equal Love and they do not deserve theirspecialness, then those disadvantaged masses have suffered at their hands, and that suffering may come back home to them. What we do, we do to ourselves. We cannot ​escape the fear that our treatment of others may someday boomerang back to us. Because in our heart of hearts, we know God loves everyone, and how can we expect His blessings when we do not love those whom He loves? We are His creation, and even if some of us do not behave to increase our happiness, He still loves His creation and is pleased with His creation.

In the political arena, how does the fear-ridden, wealthy elite behave? Theelite worries about their own kind first and want to secure the welfare of thosewith the means and wherewithal to help themselves. They want to pile riches on riches. Conspicuously, the wealthy elite sees little interest in securing the welfare of the two groups of our citizenry who are least able to fend for themselves: the young and the elderly.

Consider our young folk. In America, “the land of the free,” we incarcerate our young folk in greater numbers than any civilization on planet earth. The elitefears that the young will not docilely bear the burden of being denied the fruits of prosperity, and to keep them subjugated they will deny their freedom for the most flimsy of excuses. By arresting and confining so many of our young folk, we are creating and perpetuating a permanent underclass.

As far as educating our young, here the fearful elite is working actively to undermine our civilization. They fear that an educated populace would divine what a raw deal they are getting and rebel. So now the elite proposes to divert funding from our public schools to charter schools and private schools. The wealthy eliteeducates their own children in private schools and has no real interest in the publiceducation. Their own children will receive the best education money can buy.Rather than a service for the public good, the elite views education as anopportunity for private profit.

For their higher education, our children are now expected to indebt themselves personally; collectively, their debt is now a trillion dollars and a bonanza for the banks. We are transferring public support for education to a private expense for individuals. Our state public universities receive less and less of their funding from our states, and must partner with the private interest of wealthy corporations, which is also true of our wealthy private universities. Lost in this partnership is the disinterested search for truth.

What about our elderly? The elite declares that our society cannot affordSocial Security, our retirement plan, or Medicare, our plan of medical assistance forthe aged and disabled. Once again the elite sees an opportunity for private profitrather than a shared responsibility. The elite does not see a public interest in securing compassionate care for everyone in their old age or in providing the means to pass from this life with dignity.

What are the politics of fear abroad? Those of us in the English-speaking world, at least since the Magna Carta of 1215, have sought to limit the arbitrary power of the executive over the lives of ordinary people; but since the tragic events of September 11, 2001, we Americans have ceded our power back to the executive in ways that defy understanding. Under false pretenses, to protect ourselves from nonexistent weapons of mass destruction, we fearfully embarked on a trillion dollar war in Iraq that has cost untold lives and destroyed an ancient civilization. What needs of humanity have gone unmet to wage this war? And now, under the guise of fighting terrorism and defending our freedoms, we give toexecutive authority the power to detain and confine for the duration of their livesanyone suspected of terrorism, even citizens of our own country, with no due process or evidence presented in any court. The global elite is engaged in “The ​War Against Humanity” both at home and abroad, which can only be arrested by the awakening of the people. See The Book of Ernest for further discussion.

“The only sovereignty on earth resides in thefellowship of mankind.” –The Book of Ernest, p. 318 

Are we free when we have ceded the power of the people to an unconstrainedexecutive?

Under any imagined threat, we will attack first, preemptively. We useimpersonal drones overseas to target our enemies and accept the collateral damage to civilians as regrettable publicity. Since we have the most lethal military on the planet, why do we feel threatened? I submit it is because we think we are different, or special, or exceptional. Consequently, we are fearful and feel compelled to fortify ourselves against intrusions from “inferior”cultures and peoples. This feeling is born out of our ignorance of our shared humanity and our common fate. We cannot thrive as a civilization allowing so few to flourish and so many to suffer. It is true that in the eyes of God, we are the same. To think we are different, or special, is to fear that God loves His children with Equal Love. Of course, He does: with Love, whole and impartial.

–

Ernest Clement has written his first book, The Book of Ernest, which is intended to be a spiritual primer for the New Age for everyone. He has consciously lived that life, as a father, a civil servant, and student of our times. Heattended graduate school in English for three years, giving him extensive exposure to the English language. For more information, please visit www.ernestclement.com.

My book, which curiously enough I have named The Book of Ernest, has a lot to say about God, and for that reason can be very disconcerting for some people. This is also curious, because my first name is “Ernest,” and I have the same visceral distaste for anybody talking to me about “God” as you may have. The religious believers who clog the public discourse with their views on “God” tend to be insufferable, I am sorry to say. In fact, many of our concerned and thinking citizens are so offended by those who talk of their “religion” that I think it is fair to say that for them “God” has been given a bad name. These folks may be very moral and caring, even spiritual in the practice of their lives, but “God” is a kind of outmoded idea that is no longer useful. Giving them comfort and company, we have some very learned, highly intelligent academics and purveyors of current thought who argue that there is no “God.” And, of course, they are impossible to refute because there is no proof that God exists, except in your own personal experience. If your will is to have faith that a Creator of Life does exist, your experience will confirm your faith. In matters of the spirit, our faith is a precondition for knowing.

At any rate, I find many of those folks who want to publicly discuss their “religion” and their thoughts about “God” not to my liking because they seem arrogant, or ignorant, or off in fluffy clouds of misinformation and ungrounded speculation. So how is it that I find myself talking about “God” and where does that leave you, my reader?

I felt an urgent need I volunteered to fill. Midway through the century just past, mankind received a revelation, the fifth revelation to our world thus far, in the form of a book entitled, The Urantia Book. Urantia is the name of our world. This book is a very serious, detailed communication from a group of celestial personalities, some of whom affirm that they know God personally, have been in His immediate personal presence many times, and know whereof they speak. Among other personalities giving us this revelation, there are some who have been here with us on our world, and who have witnessed personally the whole of our history. They speak to us with great authority. Our common culture knows almost nothing of this book. The Urantia Book is an epochal event, but at over 2,000 pages, and dense with detail, it is not easy to penetrate. The big picture of this new revelation is not hard to see, but assembling that picture can be difficult. One of the urgent needs I volunteered to fill was to paint the big picture of the revelation for a wider audience.

Not long after the revelation, midway through the last half of the century just past, mankind received a second communication, which if anything is even more of an epochal event than the revelation. This book is a miracle, and is entitledA Course in Miracles. The book A Course in Miracles is a first person communication from the personality who can declare of himself, without boasting, that “time and space are under my control.” These two books, which are both epochal events in my opinion, are ​connected in this way: The Urantia Book identifies the first person who is communicating to us in A Course in Miracles. There are a great many people reading the book, A Course in Miracles, but not many have detailed knowledge ofThe Urantia Book. The second urgent need I volunteered to fill was to make the connection between these two books. By “epochal event,” I mean that these two communications fundamentally change our history. The heavens have opened up, and we have received new and better information than ever before, authoritative information, about who we are and our place in the universe.

So what makes my talking about “God” in my book different from all those folks mired in confusion who so often give Him such a bad name? I believe I am relying on the highest authority, which has been overlooked by the mass culture. And do you need to have any particular beliefs about God or religion to appreciate my message? Most emphatically not! You do not have to believe in God, or subscribe to any particular religion to have a whopping good time reading my book. I will introduce you to a new world that most of you have never dreamed of, and your spirits will be lifted. I am asking that you undertake a joyous adventure with me, so be not of faint heart. Have courage. I promise you the rewards will be many. The message I bring is of hope and clarity for all humanity.

–

Ernest Clement has written his first book, The Book of Ernest, which is intended to be a spiritual primer for the New Age for everyone. He has consciously lived that life, as a father, a civil servant, and student of our times. Heattended graduate school in English for three years, giving him extensive exposure to the English language. For more information, please visit www.ernestclement.com.

“Whoever teaches fear in any form does not know God.”
The Book of Ernest, p.108

We are deluged from every quarter with “inside” information regarding global events about to unfold here in the year 2012, which does promise to be a year of unprecedented change. Is this the end of time, as we know it, or the inauguration of a wonderful New Age? There is a widespread recognition among many observers that we are at the end of an epoch, and some significant change in the trajectory of mankind will be necessary. Without being unduly credulous, how do we separate the true from the false about all the claims made? There are many sincere souls putting their credibility on the line, but we desire much more than sincerity. We want the highest truth.
To begin with, we should first remind ourselves that anyone who claims to know the whole truth about how our impending planetary crisis will resolve itself is suffering from delusion. That is not to say that all this speculation is without worth, or that we should refrain from these speculations ourselves. We certainly learn from exploring these possibilities, and to deny ourselves this pleasure serves no purpose. We are human, and we will speculate about the unknown.

There are a couple of general rules that will help us here. First, we should be skeptical of anything that smacks of there being some benign, divine intervention that will relieve us of the hard work of “saving” ourselves and our dear planet Earth. One of the supreme spiritual lessons we are about the receive, it seems to me, will be that all the powers under heaven are ours to employ, and that by and through the highest sources of divinity, we will manifest every miracle needed to co-create loving order and sanity here. If we understand our ego to be our sense of separateness from one another and our Creator, the end of the ego’s rule is at hand. And we can sense a new kind of global unity consciousness emerging, which is the precondition for peace on earth. So if the “insider” you are following has a tale to spin about how some agency outside ourselves is on the verge of “saving” us from ourselves, be aware. The divine wisdom we are being offered will be an unexpected lesson in self-knowledge, as we come to understand that we do have the power to make things right. We are not victims. Time is ours to command, and miracles are in store.

The second general rule to follow is to be skeptical of anyone who spins a tale of fear, or who establishes fear as a basis for our motivations. The universe of universes is made, of Love, and that love banishes all fear. Many livelihoods are made peddling fear, but we should not assume all this is cynical manipulation because many of these folks are honest about their fears. This is still no reason to follow them into their fearful world. From the book, A Course in Miracles, let us listen to the Voice of supernal wisdom:

“Every loving thought is true. Everything else is an ​appeal for healing and help, regardless of the form it takes.”
p. 215 (newer editions)

This gives us the key to understand that the disarray of our modern civilizations is but a cry for help by those under great duress. Still every individual has free will to choose a path of higher consciousness to participate in what will be our joyful new beginning. And all the angels under heaven will rush to help. Those who cling to the ways of the world we see now, where all of us are separate and worried about our individual selves, are about to have their world overturned. From their perspective the change underway will be shattering, but all this is preparing space for a world more aligned with the highest purposes of divinity, and therefore our highest happiness. The old will be cleared out for the new, and our lives will be filled with cooperation, community, and abundance. Epochal change is in store, and soon, but there is nothing to fear.

–

Ernest Clement has written his first book, The Book of Ernest, which is intended to be a spiritual primer for the New Age for everyone. He has consciously lived that life, as a father, a civil servant, and student of our times. Heattended graduate school in English for three years, giving him extensive exposure to the English language. For more information, please visit www.ernestclement.com.

This book has been a long time in the making, so please bear with me. At the beginning, as we embark on this adventure of the unexpected, you may feel dazed with new names and places, but I would have you rest in my assurance that you will not need to remember these particulars. All you need is one basic idea and an impression of grandeur and majesty. I propose to share with you a true sense of our place in this universe which makes our exploration necessary.

Midway through the twentieth century just past, our world received a revelation, a new revealing of God to man. We now have more knowledge about the true history of our world and of our place in the universe of universes than ever before, and we can take heart at this sudden opening up of the heavens. Fast on the heels of the revelation, we received a miracle, and the heavens are now wide open.

I am the herald of the New Age. Two events of epochal significance occurred in the recent history of our planet. Both events are communications, which we have in the form of books given to us in the English language. The first is a revelation, imperfect and incomplete, but inspiring awe; the second is a miracle, both perfect and complete, and inspiring gratitude.

The revelation is The Urantia Book published in 1955 by the Urantia Foundation of Chicago, Illinois. Urantia is the name of our world. The mir­acle is A Course in Miracles published in 1976 by the Foundation for Inner Peace based in California. The publishers, in both cases, were groups formed just to bring these communications to print.

My purpose is to bring these two books to the awareness of the world. This is my will, a task I have chosen. I make no claim that God chose me to do this. Yet I am asking Him that my will be His. Since I am a personality just as He is, this will be a personal communication from me to you.

Do not mistake the boldness of my initial declaration as an extravagant exaggeration. I do herald the New Age. The two books we will be considering are artifacts of history. Time will leave these two books, these events, in ever more vivid relief against the artifacts of merely human hands, and historians, among others, will eventually have to grapple with what they mean. The meaning I will make of them involves my personality, which being a gift from God is unique to me and is the means by which I unify my experience. So when I say that this will be a personal communication, I am allowing that many others will not see what I see. This does not detract in the least from the universality and the truth of what I will be saying.

Now that you know this will be personal, you may be curious about me. My history is the same poignant series of errors, all forgivable and forgiven, that yours is. I am confounded daily, just as you are. I once thought you would need to know my history, or at least how I came to write this book, before you would accept this of me. But ultimately, my history, while it may ​be intensely interesting to me, has no bearing on whether this will be true, and any attempt I might make to explain how or why I gave myself this task will detract from what I want to say. I will only say this is my will.

Nevertheless, it will help you to know some things. I am giving you my actual name. I was born in early 1945. I am Caucasian or white, although I presume without any knowledge that I am an admixture of many racial bloodlines. From the first moments I can recall, I have lived in various parts of the southeastern United States. Except for a five or six year period up to age twelve in Texas, and several years away at college in Tennessee, I lived in Alabama for all that I remember of my formative years. I have a loving and supportive wife, and we are the parents of two children, a son and a daughter, who are now, as I begin this in 1997, teenagers. We left Alabama in 1982, and after a brief stay in Florida, settled in North Carolina, where we live now.

I have an ordinary career of no particular distinction. I am not a scholar. I am not an artist, or a recognized writer. I will not be collaborating with others, except for my wife. At the present time she is the only person in the world who believes in me concerning this. It is only her faith and belief that makes this possible. In a very fundamental way, what you will be receiving from me is through and by means of her. Our relationship is the bedrock on which this effort will be based.

I am not part of the community of people who are reading and studying either of these two books. My wife and I briefly participated in a study group for The Urantia Book, and we found they could not accept what I wanted to say about A Course in Miracles. I suspect that most people reading the first book are content with having found the revelation, and that most readers of the second book feel the same about having found a miracle. Either book could fill lifetimes of devotion and study. In the case of both books, I am cer­tain there are many readers who have greater knowledge than I have about the book they are reading and studying.

I intend the world as my audience. I am limited by knowing only the English language and only my native, American culture. As best I am able, I will keep the world in mind as I proceed. If I unwittingly betray any preju­dice that offends you, please be gracious, merciful, and ​forgiving with me. Accord me every allowance you would have me extend to you. I am asking your forbearance because I have something to say that the world has great need to hear.

As a last word before I begin, I should tell you that I have had this book in mind for nearly thirty years now. It defies all reason, but I wholly desired what I want this book to be, even before I discovered the two books or events that will be the focus of what follows. I first purchased The Urantia Book in 1976, and a very dear friend gave me a copy of A Course in Miracles maybe nine or ten years later, neither of us can recall exactly when. Before I knew either of these books existed, I wanted with all my heart to write something that would help you to know God, and I knew it would take nothing less than a miracle to do so. In my confusion, I thought I would have to write something four dimensional, something so true and so vivid that the reader would be induced to have the actual experience. Reading this work would be the same as being there. All this was very gratifying to my ego because I would be the first person to write in four dimensions, as nonsensical a conception as that may sound to you now. I suffered with this delusion for years. I agonized over how and when I would do the impossible. I am amazed now to look back and know that the means for doing what I so fervently desired for so long are at hand. Certain as I am in my heart that what I want to say is true and needs to be heard, I am still uncertain I will have the courage and strength to finish this in a fitting manner. So I ask God’s blessing on this undertaking.

October 19, 1997

–

Ernest Clement has written his first book, The Book of Ernest, which is intended to be a spiritual primer for the New Age for everyone. He has consciously lived that life, as a father, a civil servant, and student of our times. Heattended graduate school in English for three years, giving him extensive exposure to the English language. For more information, please visit www.ernestclement.com.

Ernest Clement

Q. Why did you decide to write this book?
A. In the century just past, mankind received two books, both of which are epochal events. These books are The Urantia Book, which is a revelation, and A Course in Miracles, which is a miracle. My purpose was to introduce these two books to a wide audience, show how the books are related, and offer a personal commentary on what this means with reference to the current planetary dilemma.

Q. Do you have any secret writing tips you’d like to share?
A. Good writing is hard labor. There are no shortcuts. To succeed, you have to focus your will and your intention.

Q. Tell us a quirky or funny story about you!
A. At my first college, I was the member of a fraternity. My last year in school there (I did not graduate), for fun the fraternity organized a baseball game among ourselves, where everyone was expected to play. The last time I had played baseball was in the neighborhood as a grammar school kid, and my skill level left a lot to be desired. And besides, I was woefully out of shape.

On defense, they put me out in left field. As fate would have it, someone hit a fly ball straight to me. I rushed forward as soon as the ball was hit, saw that I had overreacted, and in the attempt to backpedal and turn around, lost my footing and fell ignominiously to the ground. What the spectators must have seen was my just twirling around and falling down. The fly ball fell to the earth almost exactly where I had been standing before I made my moves.

The moral: if you stay in the right place, your life will come to you.

Q. Have you ever battled writer’s block? How do you deal with it?
A. You must clear out all distractions and focus your intention. As I said, writing is hard labor, and you have to commit yourself to all the editing and correcting and amending to refine and perfect the expression of your thought.

Q. What’s your favorite quote?
A. I have many favorites, particularly from A Course in Miracles. Here is one from page 552 of the Text in the newer editions: “And all of time is but the mad belief that what is over is still here and now.”

Q. Who inspires you the most?
A. I am inspired by spirited, heartfelt, and open-minded discussions with other truth seekers, and, in particular, my family.