The Secret Journals of Adolf Hitler: Volume 1 – The Anointed goes where no other novel I’ve read has gone before: inside the head of the most notorious monster in the history of the human race, a man who either directly or indirecty led to the deaths of an estimated 50 and 80 million people.

A.G. Morgan introduces us to the four-year-old Hitler the day he is rescued from drowning, after he fell though the ice of a frozen river. It was impossible not wonder what terrors might have been avoided had Hitler the child perished that day.

That the boy is troubled is obvious. He paints his father as a sadistic brute and his mother as a saint. He is self-centered, devoid of empathy, and, as he grows older, his delusions of grandeur and the belief that he is anointed to save Germany become overwhelming.

Those around the young Hitler simply laugh off his grandiose claims and bizzarre behavior. Today, such a child would be sent to therapy in order to sort out their deranged and sometimes violent actions. What’s clear is that Hitler, a puny boy who felt bullied and betrayed by most everyone he came in contact with, would carry rage and insecurity throughout the course of his life.

I have studied a great deal about Hitler’s rise and fall and, as a teacher, have had the opportunity to share my findings with my students. I am also a former reporter. I mention these facts because I am extremely impressed with Morgan’s extensive research on the dictator and his times.

It must have been difficult for Morgan to insert herself inside the mind of such a repugnant individual. Hitler’s thoughts on race issues are noxious, and are rendered even more obscene when he shares them publically, giving voice to his dream of racial purity and his belief in the superiority of the Aryan people.

In a different time and place, Hitler might have died a homeless beggar, muttering to himself in the streets. In fact, for several years after his dream of becoming a famous painter dissolved when he was not accepted into art school, Hitler was starving and destitute. But he lived in post-World War I Germany, beaten to a pulp by the unyielding Treaty of Versailles, which left the country in tatters.  Germany was the perfect breeding ground for Hitler. A nation of desperate people, distrusting of the establishment they blamed for losing the war, and eager for scapegoats they could condemn for their own failures.

The Secret Journals of Adolf Hitler: Volume 1 – The Anointed paints a chilling portrait of the molding of a megalomaniac. The book ends with Hitler in prison, following the failed Beer Hall Putsch in 1923. Book two in the series is The Struggle. I plan on reading that one, as well.

 

Here’s a look at my novel A Light in the Desert which is set for release on

November 6, 2018.

Mystery/Suspense

Blank Slate Press/Amphorae Publishing Group

298 Pages

Price: $16.95 Paperback, $9.99 eBook

http://www.midpointtrade.com/book_detail.php?book_id=261955

As a Vietnam veteran and former Special Forces sniper descends into the throes of mental illness, he latches onto a lonely pregnant teenager and a group of Pentecostal zealots – the Children of Light – who have been waiting over thirty years in the Arizona desert for Armageddon. When the Amtrak Sunset Limited, a passenger train en route to Los Angeles, is derailed in their midst in a deadly act of sabotage, their lives are thrown into turmoil. As the search for the saboteurs heats up, the authorities uncover more questions than answers. And then the girl vanishes. As the sniper struggles to maintain his sanity, a child is about to be born in the wilderness.

 For the first half of my adult life I didn’t know any children.

I was only around kids when I officiated amateur sports, but as soon as those games ended, I went home. What children did off the fields where I blew whistles and called balls and strikes was completely out of my purview.

When you consider that I also never had any biological children – though I tried – and came from a small family devoid of any regular kid contact, you can see why I never gave much thought to children. I don’t know if I blocked young people out of my mind once I realized I would never produce any of my own, but I might have.

And yet, today, as an author, the plight of children often takes center stage in my novels.

Almost two decades ago, I walked into my first classroom as a teacher. A mid-life career change following my years as a sports reporter propelled me into a Title I high school in Phoenix, where the vast majority of students live in poverty and are often afflicted with the privations inherent in a world where there is not enough food, where drugs and alcohol run rampant, and where children are sometimes left adrift without caring adults to guide them.

I did not notice right away that children kept appearing in my books. It could have happened after the child who told me she was repeatedly raped by a relative and her family blamed her. It might have been after a 15-year-old student called me from a group foster-care facility and told me he was hungry. Or it might have been the day I chastised a student for being repeatedly late to class, only to discover he was homeless.

Whatever the catalyst, young people and their ability to adapt and thrive in severe situations have become part of the stories I tell. My upcoming release, A Light in the Desert, recounts the life of a lonely pregnant teenager, one with a facial deformity that has made her the subject of ridicule and prevented her from attending school. And yet, Kelly shows grace and grit when faced with challenges, and possesses an understanding of human nature that sometimes surpasses the adults around her.

Today, I spend my work-days surrounded by my students. And, by a quirky twist, I am a mom, as well. Though my boys – former students who came my way via the foster care system – are now in their twenties, they remain my children. (I don’t think they’ll mind if I call them that.)

So, I’m guessing, young people and the issues they face will continue to appear in my writing.

 

 

Mystery/Suspense

Blank Slate Press/Amphorae Publishing Group

298 Pages

Price: $16.95 Paperback, $9.99 eBook

As a Vietnam veteran and former Special Forces sniper descends into the throes of mental illness, he latches onto a lonely pregnant teenager and a group of Pentecostal zealots – the Children of Light – who have been waiting over thirty years in the Arizona desert for Armageddon. When the Amtrak Sunset Limited, a passenger train en route to Los Angeles, is derailed in their midst in a deadly act of sabotage, their lives are thrown into turmoil. As the search for the saboteurs heats up, the authorities uncover more questions than answers. And then the girl vanishes. As the sniper struggles to maintain his sanity, a child is about to be born in the wilderness.

 

 

 

Authors are often asked how they create characters. In my case, as my friends and family now realize, they are sometimes inspired by people I know.

My long-time sweetie pie seemed shocked when he read his words coming out of a character’s mouth.

“Hey! I said that!”

“Yes, you did.” I admitted. “Thank you.”

As a former reporter, I tend to think everyone’s words are fair game. If you’re going to fling them out into the universe, don’t be upset if I catch them and keep them for my own.

At other times, I’ve incorporated friends’ stories into my characters. In my upcoming book, A Light in the Desert, which is scheduled for release on November 6, 2018, I borrowed numerous times from the life of my dear late friend Don Clarkson. I have written before about how Don and I met umpiring amateur baseball, a time during which I struggled with debt, a crumbling marriage, and joblessness following what would be the end of my TV-reporting career. That I spent a great deal of time feeling sorry for myself is an understatement.

Don, on the other hand, complained very little. This was astonishing in retrospect, considering the suffering he endured. Don was a decorated Green Beret, a sergeant who served alongside South Vietnam’s ARVN soldiers in the 9^th Infantry during the war. His time in country was brutal and, like many servicemen and women, Don relived those experiences until he died at the age of 61 from a combination of Post Traumatic Stress and the myriad devastating effects of Agent Orange poisoning.

Don and I umpired baseball together for five years. During that time, he shared his stories with me. He was gravely wounded and left to die, but was saved by a South Vietnamese soldier who returned to the aftermath of a jungle fight to look for him. He was sometimes crushed by guilt, because of war-time life-and-death decisions and because – unlike many of the men he knew – he had managed to survive and come home. Tears would well in his eyes as he spoke about the soldiers – his brothers – that were lost.

And still, when we would sit in our folding chairs in a school parking lot, waiting for the second half of a double-header to begin, he sometimes spoke about the beauty of Vietnam and his love and admiration for the people who lived there.

One of the main characters in A Light in the Desert, is, like Don, a Vietnam veteran with memories that torment him. But Jason Ramm is also a sniper turned post-war governmental assassin, which Don was not. What they share is a deep desire for peace and forgiveness, which neither of them believe they deserve.

I wrote A Light in the Desert for Don. His wife Marie read the story to him before he died. I believe he understood Jason Ramm and recognized him as a brother. I also know that Don seemed appreciative that I shared some of his story and that I dedicated the book to him.

I miss my friend and the talks we used to have. Though he struggled mightily, Don always looked for the best in people and for beauty in the world.

As a Vietnam veteran and former Special Forces sniper descends into the throes of mental illness, he latches onto a lonely pregnant teenager and a group of Pentecostal zealots – the Children of Light – who have been waiting over thirty years in the Arizona desert for Armageddon. When the Amtrak Sunset Limited, a passenger train en route to Los Angeles, is derailed in their midst in a deadly act of sabotage, their lives are thrown into turmoil. As the search for the saboteurs heats up, the authorities uncover more questions than answers. And then the girl vanishes. As the sniper struggles to maintain his sanity, a child is about to be born in the wilderness.

In 1995, I became intrigued by a crime. The deadly sabotage of the Amtrak Sunset Limited near remote Hyder, Arizona remains a cold-case 23 years later. The FBI continues to offer a $310,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of those responsible.

My novel, A Light in the Desert, is based on the crime and, as a former reporter, I made sure the facts surrounding the event are as they occurred.  The book was originally published in 2004. That said, I am very excited that Treehouse Publishing, a branch of the Amphorae Publishing Group – the folks who released my novel The Scent of Rain – decided to reissue the book.

But A Light in the Desert, which is set for release on November 6, 2018, is more than a detailed account of an act that could be a copy-cat crime based on a similar unsolved sabotage that killed 24 people in Harney, Nevada in 1939. My novels are always about people who struggle with events and issues in their lives and communities.

I am looking forward to sharing introductions of those characters with you over the next weeks. There’s the protagonist, a former military sniper who is succumbing to a strange form of mental illness called the Jerusalem Syndrome, the pregnant 16-year-old shunned because of a facial disfigurement, the Children of Light who have secluded themselves in the desert for decades as they wait for the rapture, and others.

Thank you for joining me on this adventure.

 

Anne Montgomery’s novel, The Scent of Rain – winner of the 2018 Independent Publisher Book Awards West-Mountain – Best Regional Fiction Bronze Medal – tells the story of two Arizona teenagers whose fates become intertwined. Rose flees into the mountains to escape from her abusive polygamous community where her only future is marriage to a man older than her father. Adan, whose only wish is to be reunited with his mother, is on the run from the cruelties of the foster care system. Are there any adults they can trust? Can they even trust each other?  The Scent of Rain is available at https://www.indiebound.org/book/9780996390149 and wherever books are sold. 

The Anomaly

Michael Rutger

Grand Central Publishing

What a romp!

I had just finished a deep, insightful, and quite frankly, difficult-to-read novel, and Michael Rutger’s The Anomaly was the perfect antidote. I am not generally a fast reader, still I finished this book in 24 hours. (OK, I was on vacation at the time, but for me, such rapid reading is quite a feat.)

Rutgers’s tale centers around the often hysterical and periodically terrifying story of Nolan Moore, one of those supposed “experts” we are often introduced to on those TV shows that purport to prove that aliens do exist, the pyramids were built by extra-terrestrials, and monsters walk among us. That Moore is very intelligent and well-spoken does little to boost his self-esteem. He’s pretty sure he’s a boob, which makes both his internal and external dialogue hilarious.

The basis of the book can be found in a 1909 article published in the Phoenix Gazette documenting a strange set of Grand Canyon caves and relics, supposedly linking the American Southwest with ancient Egypt. Moore, with his camera crew in tow, is on a quest to locate the caves, though he doesn’t really expect to find anything. That’s his shtick.

The story, which can be labeled as mystery, suspense, and horror with some comedy thrown in, borrows liberally from well-known films. Which makes sense since Rutger is a screenwriter. There’s actually a giant, rolling stone ball – à la Indian Jones – and a horrid monster clawing its way out of an unfortunate reporter’s belly – think Alien – still, as silly as that sounds, it works.

The hunt takes the crew down the Colorado River, up the Canyon walls, and into the cave system. Note that this is not a story for the claustrophobic. Lots of squeezing though tight tunnels and brushes with bizarre creatures in the dark. What they find is … really not the point. It is the journey that matters and who is alive at the end to recount the tale.

I will admit here to being an avowed Trekkie and a lover of the original X-Files. And I read all of Eric von Daniken’s books about the mysteries of the unexplained as a teenager. So, I am probably right smack in the middle of Rutger’s target audience. But, even if your not part of that crew, read The Anomaly, just for the fun of it.

 

Anne Montgomery’s latest novel, The Scent of Rain, tells the story of two Arizona teenagers whose fates become intertwined. Rose flees into the mountains to escape from her abusive polygamous community where her only future is marriage to a man older than her father. Adan, whose only wish is to be reunited with his mother, is on the run from the cruelties of the foster care system. Are there any adults they can trust? Can they even trust each other?  The Scent of Rain is available at https://www.indiebound.org/book/9780996390149 and wherever books are sold. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My 93-year-old mom insisted on having hip-replacement surgery.

“You might die on the table,” the doctor said.

“I don’t care!” She jutted her chin at the man. “I’m sick of the pain.”

That my mother would eventually win the argument was no surprise. People who know Mary Anne stopped disagreeing with her years ago. There’s simply no point. She’s always right.

She’d had the other hip done 11 years earlier with no complications, so she was shocked when she recovered from the anesthesia and was overwhelmed with pain and nausea. She refused to take pain medication and claimed that the surgery had been botched.

I explained that recovery would take time and she needed to reconsider the pain meds. She had in-home nursing and physical therapy, professionals who repeatedly reminded her that it might be months before she would feel better.

Prior to the operation, I had tried out for a play. When I got a part, I explained to my mom that I would be required to attend rehearsals. She insisted that I not let her surgery get in the way. So, I went home.

Mom struggled. Not only with the pain but with my 95-year-old dad. He’s in perfect health, and can tell you vivid stories about World War II and growing up in a coal-mining town in Pennsylvania. But he can’t recall what you asked him to do ten seconds earlier.

The caregivers knew to call me, if I could be of some assistance. I spoke with my mom and dad on the phone. My brother came down to help out for a while. Still, I felt guilty for not being there.

Last weekend, the Starlight Community Theater production of the musical comedy Company ended its eight-show run. Both my mom and dad were in the audience, the first time they’ve seen me perform in a play in over 40 years.

It was not until I returned to their home in Tucson that I would learn how the play helped my mother heal. As I was leaving the independent-living facility, a woman stopped me.

“How’s your mom doing?” she smiled.

“Feisty as ever. I just brought them home. They came up to Phoenix to see me perform in a show.”

“The play. Yes, I know.” She stared for a moment. “When your mom first started rehab she was depressed and stopped eating.”

“Really?”  No one had told me.

“Then she announced that she would be attending your play. And she started eating again and doing her exercises.”

“I had no idea.”

On the drive home, I wondered whether my mom would have rebounded had she not had the play to look forward to. While I don’t know the answer, I realized the importance of looking ahead to something that gives us joy. Anticipation is a dying art in our instant-gratification world. Perhaps, we should practice the emotion more often.

 

Anne Montgomery’s latest novel, The Scent of Rain, tells the story of two Arizona teenagers whose fates become intertwined. Rose flees into the mountains to escape from her abusive polygamous community where her only future is marriage to a man older than her father. Adan, whose only wish is to be reunited with his mother, is on the run from the cruelties of the foster care system. Are there any adults they can trust? Can they even trust each other?  The Scent of Rain is available at https://www.indiebound.org/book/9780996390149 and wherever books are sold. 

When I was a teenager, I was in school and community theater productions. But as I got older, I left that part of my life behind, and focused instead on a career in sports reporting. I have also officiated amateur athletics for almost four decades. The world of the stage seemed to no longer fit in my life.

Last weekend, more than 40 years after leaving the theater, I performed in Starlight Community Theater’s production of the musical comedy Company.

What I learned might astonish you. Sports and theater have a surprising number of commonalities. Really.

Actors spend much of their time back stage, waiting to go on. The area is chaotic and a bit messy, strewn with props and makeup, costumes and odd bits of scenery. But it wasn’t until I was applying lipstick above the actors’ cubbies that I smelled a familiar odor, the aroma emanating from a pair of well-used taps. Sweaty shoes. The comparison to a locker room was unmistakable. Don’t think me strange, but I smiled.

Before the play begins, the actors gather for what, in my mind, is a pre-game pep talk. The director discusses what we did well in the last show and what we can improve upon in the next. Actors and stage-crew members who have gone above and beyond are singled out for praise. Then we give a rousing cheer and wait for kickoff … um … curtain.

As anyone who’s ever acted in a play surely knows things don’t always go as planned. Just like a running back who lets the ball slip through his hands, actors occasionally fumble their lines. And that is where teamwork comes in. The other performers step up, grab those dropped words, and get things back on track. In fact, by definition, a play is nothing but teamwork. Just as in football, baseball, ice hockey, soccer, basketball and any other team sport, one player is simply not enough. All the components in a performance – actors, stage managers, costume and make-up designers, director, and producer – must work together, if the play is to succeed.

And then there are the heroes. Don’t scoff. I witnessed a hero 24 hours before opening night. One actor was felled by an emergency appendectomy, and another, with no knowledge of the play, appeared for Thursday night’s rehearsal. Company would open the next evening. If anyone deserves a Most Valuable Player Award it’s Andrew Driggers who got off the bench and saved the show.

I’ll be honest. This sports/theater connection never occurred to me before. But the comparisons are hard to miss. There is one thing, however, that I wish would happen when I referee football. Backstage at intermission, actors are sometimes presented with small trinkets attached to handwritten cards, notes penned by audience members saying what a great job we’re doing. I’d really like to get one of those at halftime. One from a coach would be especially nice.

A girl can dream.

Tickets are still available for this weekend’s production of Company.

Come out and join us.

https://www.starlightcommunitytheater.com/tickets

Anne Montgomery’s latest novel, The Scent of Rain, tells the story of two Arizona teenagers whose fates become intertwined. Rose flees into the mountains to escape from her abusive polygamous community where her only future is marriage to a man older than her father. Adan, whose only wish is to be reunited with his mother, is on the run from the cruelties of the foster care system. Are there any adults they can trust? Can they even trust each other?  The Scent of Rain is available at https://www.indiebound.org/book/9780996390149 and wherever books are sold. 

Sometimes, we teachers feel a little bit guilty about our long summer break. Though I sense that some of my students may think we just curl up under our desks to hibernate, waiting for their return, we do take vacations.

I’m going to guess here that many of my brethren continue to look for learning opportunities, even when they’re off sipping iced rum and lounging by the sea reading naughty novels. Searching for things we can share with our students is just part of a teacher’s DNA.

I had just such an educational opportunity recently during a trip to St. Croix in the US Virgin Islands. I’m a scuba diver, and while there is much to learn from the sea and its creatures, for me it is a place of peace and serenity, baring the sometimes off-kilter dives when we lose the boat or must maneuver in swift currents or water with little in the way of visibility.

On a previous trip to the island, we learned about chaney, small pieces of pottery that can be found on land and in the sea. There are several explanations for the fragments, most centering around the fact that when plates and cups and teapots broke, they served no further use and were simply thrown away. As archeologists know from studying ancient pottery, the stuff is pretty hard to destroy. Sure, it breaks into smaller pieces, but the firing of clay makes it one of the most durable substances on the planet. In fact, fragments of ceramics found in southern China have been dated back 20,000 years.

We were diving under the Fredriksted Pier, which, despite the ravages of last fall’s Hurricane Maria, is teeming with interesting and beautiful sea life. While the original structure was destroyed and rebuilt after Hurricane Hugo in 1988, the area has been welcoming passenger and merchant ships for hundreds of years.

My sweetie pie swam over to me holding out a piece of plate, which he later said he found sticking up out of the sand. I could see the delicate pink and white design swirling on the rim. But I had no idea how old the fragment was until we visited the Chaney Chicks. The shop, and yes, it’s called Chaney Chicks, is on the other side of the island in Christiansted.

“Oh! That was made in the 1500s,” said Denise, one of the Chicks.

She would explain that sea chaney is rarer than land chaney, and doesn’t hold up quite as well as the pieces that are found in the soil. The fact that the pink design on our chunk was still clearly visible after centuries in the ocean was shocking.

A quick glance around the shop showed chaney of all sizes and colors, many delightfully wrapped in silver and gold wire for dangling in one’s ears or about the neck. And, of course, I couldn’t resist.

I know there’s a lesson in all of this somewhere. I’m working on it.

Anne Montgomery’s latest novel, The Scent of Rain, tells the story of two Arizona teenagers whose fates become intertwined. Rose flees into the mountains to escape from her abusive polygamous community where her only future is marriage to a man older than her father. Adan, whose only wish is to be reunited with his mother, is on the run from the cruelties of the foster care system. Are there any adults they can trust? Can they even trust each other?  The Scent of Rain is available at https://www.indiebound.org/book/9780996390149 and wherever books are sold. 

The Weight of Ink

Rachel Kadish

Mariner Books

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

The Weight of Ink, by Rachel Kadish, tells two stories. One is the fish-out-of-water tale of a 17^th century Jewish orphan who is taken in by a rabbi in London following the horrific persecution of the Jews in Portugal during the Inquisition. The young woman, Ester Velasquez, is the unfortunate victim of an insatiable intellect. Unfortunate solely because scholarly women were frowned upon. A woman’s place, as in most cultures until relatively recently, was in the home making babies. There simply were no other options for a “normal” woman.

A modern-day counterpart to Ester’s tale is that of Helen Watt, an ill, bitter historian who has spent much of her life buried in musty libraries, forever wondering if she made the right choice in leaving the brooding Israeli she once loved.

The two women are united by a cache of documents found hidden under a stairwell, papers that Helen and Aaron Levy, a self-centered, American doctoral student, begin translating, an endeavor that leads them to the mysterious scribe who appears to be dutifully documenting the teachings and letters of the blind Rabbi HaCoen Mendes, but who soon begins sharing her own thoughts with the great religious philosophers of her time under assumed names.

Kadish does an admirable job of relating the frustration of Ester’s world where there are no half-way options, and the life of those in the nascent Jewish London community where members often wore crucifixes to hide their true religious leanings. Her descriptions of the city during and after the Great Plague are both evocative and chilling.

It’s clear Kadish spent a great deal of time researching the beliefs of 17^th century religious scholars, especially in regard to man’s relationship with God. Often, these opinions are presented as letters. I did struggle at times with the depth of the concepts presented and perhaps should reread some sections, as I probably did not get the gist of all the philosophic discussions. Also, I struggled to understand the connection Kadish was trying to make between Helen and Esther, aside from their similar approaches to marriage and domesticity. But that is probably no fault of the author’s.

Clearly, The Weight of Ink is no summer beach novel. However, it is a worthy, though challenging, read.

 

About Reviews: Since I have asked so many people to review my books, I thought it only fair that I do a few myself. As I am a slow reader, my reviews will be sporadic. Also, I will review books, movies, and TV shows of my own choosing and will not take requests.

Anne Montgomery’s latest novel, The Scent of Rain, tells the story of two Arizona teenagers whose fates become intertwined. Rose flees into the mountains to escape from her abusive polygamous community where her only future is marriage to a man older than her father. Adan, whose only wish is to be reunited with his mother, is on the run from the cruelties of the foster care system. Are there any adults they can trust? Can they even trust each other?  The Scent of Rain is available at https://www.indiebound.org/book/9780996390149 and wherever books are sold.