Dave

In 2003, I took a trip to Galveston, Texas, with my wife and my two youngest daughters. While we were there, I spied (with my eyes) a plaque on the waterfront commemorating the disaster that occurred in 1947 across the bay in Texas City. Dang! I thought to myself, that's a story I've never heard, and one that needs to be told. Around that same time, my Rotary Club had a famous author as a guest speaker. Feeling grateful for his granting us a peek into the life of a successful novelist, I felt compelled to buy and read his latest work. I couldn't get past the third chapter. Throwing the book down, I exclaimed to nobody (I was in my office alone), "This is complete crap! My words had no more left my mouth when my phone rang. It was the Managing Editor at the Round Rock. "I just read your latest column and honestly, I think it's complete crap." "Damn!" I thought to myself, "I have what it takes to be a best-selling writer." Thus began my journey writing Crimson Bay, my first novel. I've spent the next two decades rewriting it again and again after getting rejected by prospective Literary Agents. In all fairness, they have also repeatedly rejected my second novel, Eviction. I'm still looking. CRIMSON BAY, (historical fiction, 88,000 words) is a narrative of events surrounding an actual disaster that happened in Texas City on April 16th, 1947. A French stevedore, who missed getting killed in the explosion by a stroke of luck, partners with a Texas highway patrolman. Together, they embark upon a rescue effort that quickly becomes a gruesome recovery mission. Three dockworkers partner with a tugboat operator and his mate to search for the wounded, finding only the dead. A clerk, who is spared from the worst of the explosion when her boss sends her on an errand, becomes a nurse at a make-shift trauma center and tends to many of the injured. The Safety Officer for the terminal company takes on the administrative duties of the rescue and recovery effort, while his wife scrounges much-needed medical supplies for the victims. The rescue/recovery operation is bolstered by the presence of the United States Army, which erects a major field hospital, a kitchen to feed the rescuers, a command center to coordinate affairs, and troops to maintain law and order. In the course of this disaster response, our characters stumble across a cover-up being instigated by the company that manufactured the explosive material. This cover-up is aided by mysterious Federal agents who are looking for a scapegoat. Another ship loaded with the same chemical is on fire, but nobody is raising the alarm. When it explodes, it will destroy all of the evidence of the chemical company’s malfeasance. As thousands of rescue and relief people flood into the stricken city, another explosion like the first would be even more devastating. Our protagonists discover the incipient danger and alert the authorities, who call for an evacuation. Meanwhile, our heroes on the tugboat try to pull the burning ship out into the bay to mitigate the damage another explosion would cause. The tugboat fails to move the doomed freighter before it explodes. The loss of life is minimized because of the evacuation, but there are still fatalities. The cover-up succeeds, but our protagonists prevent the Federal Agents from finding someone to blame for the explosions. The truth behind the Texas City Disaster is never told. EVICTION (Science Fiction- Fantasy, 74,000 words) is a humorous account about a very ordinary retired businessman, RICH COSA, who suddenly finds himself tasked with the job of saving the world. When Rich discovers that the business he’d sold the previous year had suddenly and mysteriously closed, he decides to investigate. Rich goes to his old place of business and finds that it has indeed been shuttered. Looking for answers, he enters an unlocked door in the main building and encounters a bizarre, abandoned setting with an underlying sense of evil. Spooked, he quickly leaves the premises, only to be followed by a very odd car that’s pacing him. In his effort to get away from that strange-looking car, Rich triggers a series of events that take him down a road that he would never have imagined he’d be on. Because of that encounter, Rich discovers that a race of shape-changing aliens, the BBS, are buying up Earth with the intent of evicting humanity, and then selling it to another race. In order to save our planet, Rich forms a team to combat this threat. Key members of this team are his AA sponsor, Ashton Sinclair, Rich’s youngest daughter, Dani Cosa, who works for a secretive government agency, and yet another shape-changing alien, Ruff, who is a competitor of the BBs and looks like a large, black dog. In the course of their efforts, Rich and his team discover that the BBs have made a valid case to the Intergalactic Justice Council that man is not worthy of this planet. Mankind had been deemed to be an infestation, and that in the best interests of Earth, they should be removed. After their well-planned effort to destroy a great number of the BBs fails, Ashton has a stroke of genius, and he and Rich are able to do the job. Then the Intergalactic Justice Council intervenes to determine what the fate of Mankind shall be.