Fiction
Date Published: August 26, 2024
Publisher: MindStir Media
Sean Roberts loved farming and his girlfriend. After they broke up she disappeared into San Francisco's drug filled hippie environment of the 1960s. Her parents were frantic and no one in their small-town seemed able to help them find their daughter. They reached out to Sean and he agreed to search for their lost daughter.
His search forced Sean to assume his nom de plume, George Wescot and enter a world of extreme wealth and of people who only cared about their own pleasures and not the pain it caused other people. George uses his skills learned from hunting, fighting and evasion to penetrate this sadistic society. Subsequently, he pursued across the United States, India, and Europe. Finally, Sean stopped running from the Brothers, and started hunting those people who caused his ex-girlfriend's and her family's pain from injuries she sustained.
Interview
Introduce yourself and tell me about what you do.
I am Patrick's L Scott Esq. After I was about six years old my mother and father stopped speaking. I grew up next to the Feather River in Yuba City, California. My neighbors and I did not have much parental control over our conduct. As I described in my first novel, "Farm Tough", I grew up building rafts to explore the river from mid spring until early fall. Thereafter, during their season we spent the time hunting ducks and pheasants and fishing. I wasn't afraid of the river but wasn't stupid enough to do anything I thought would injure me. In addition, I worked on some farms, mowed several of the neighbors lawns, and pruned their trees to supplement our family income.
Our neighborhood was filled with boys about my age and a couple of high school athletes. On weekends throughout the year every Saturday consisted of either a football game, a baseball game, or a basketball game. At night a game of "ditched them" was played with teams who found and constrained the opposition. All of our games were played without equipment except the ball and football and a bat for baseball. It was Full Contact and no holds barred. Nobody complained if they were hurt and nobody cried from an injury. My memory of that time was that we had a lot of fun and a lot of laughs with virtually no major injuries. Because there was a very high levee between the Feather River and Yuba City, that levee was also a source of great fun. During the spring when the grass was green cardboard boxes became sleds. When the grass dried or was burnt off by the county the levee became a ramp for bicycle or scooter jumps.
When I turned 12 years old and my brother Stephen 11, started delivering our morning San Francisco newspaper route; rain or shine. That meant we got up at 5 o'clock in the morning and were on our paper routes by 6 AM so that we could get home in time to get to school by 8:30 AM. That job plus the other gardening jobs helped supplement my mother's income to buy food. The major drawback for two active boys was being tired at school. For me, instead of being able to sleep at school, I became grumpy and mean. Because the boys in my neighborhood enjoyed weekly one-on-one bare knuckled fights, fighting was easy for me. I, however, learned quickly that if I threw the first punch I would be at fault and therefore punished. So I would allow my opponent to throw the first punch in the sight of a teacher. That way I could defend myself with impunity. The paper route, which I kept until I was 17, not only earned us an income it helped make my brother and I strong athletes. Our two routes divided Yuba City and that half meant we each rode about 20 miles a day. Our strong bodies contributed to our ability to compete against most competition when we reached high school football. Subsequently, I played six years of football and through the help of a coach a year of rugby. In addition to working on several farms, after school I also wrestled and boxed. During the summer, my brother and I kept in football shape by sprinting up and down the levee next to my house and as the river dried up during the summer we ran on the remaining sand dunes. Those additional workouts plus weightlifting were done after we returned from working at one job or another.
I was fairly physically active through college. After college at about 30 years old I remained active as an avid Whitewater kayaker, mountain climber, triathlete, mountain biker, backpacker and competitive road biker. In addition I played rugby for 30 years and boxed through my third year of college and a few times after that when I lived in Los Angeles.
At about 20 years old I returned from a hellacious year of trying to help farmers in India to grow more rice. After a brief stop in Yuba City I made an unexpected move to Los Angeles. There I worked at a stock brokerage firm as a teletype operator in the trading department. I lived in a Scientology commune. While I was in India I dropped almost 40 pounds of muscle because of a spastic colon from getting attacked by anti-American procommunists. I thought my life was in danger thereafter. That experience was terminated by the Peace Corps for all of us in Bengal after a year. Later, by the end of those two years living in Los Angeles I regained a considerable amount of muscle mass and conditioning. It was then that I decided to travel to Europe on five dollars a day to obtain a European experience and education. I lived there for a little over a year. Before going I spoke no foreign language. But after living in Paris and taking some classes in French I learned enough French to order food and get a room. During that time because of my limited income I slept on a lot of floors and cohabitated with a number of beautiful women. It was a great experience. My novel "A Just Revenge" climaxes with my year in Europe.
As you can read until I was 64 I was very physically active. In addition, I maintained a highly successful and busy law firm. Most of the time I was practicing law on my own I had six secretaries working full time for me. It was partly because of the stress of work and the needs of my son I returned to a more physically active life. I felt my son needed an activity which required him to focus but wasn't life-threatening. That was when I learned how to kayak and then helped him learn how to kayak. We shared a love for the outdoors while he grew up. My goal was to keep him out of trouble and for the most part it worked. Then at age 60 I had retired from the practice of law so I decided to take a month and bicycle the perimeter of France. I had a good bicycle in France which I used to ride with some French cycling teams. In addition I had become good friends with a professor in France whose home became my home. For a month with several stops and circuits at each of the stops I lived in France. During this time I had been married to my wife Carol for about 25 years. When I came back from France I continued to take 20 and 40 mile rides on a regular basis. In addition, after I retired from the law practice I had more time. On one of my bicycle rides I was with a group of people. We had just completed a 40 mile ride through the mountains about 20 miles outside of Sacramento. One of the ladies was tired and moving slowly and I didn't want her to ride the last five or 6 miles to her house by herself in case something happened and she needed help. But I was bored and stopped paying attention to my safety. While I was playing, I did what was called a bunny hop. My front wheel must have come off and I fell on my head, cracked it, broke my neck, right scapula, six ribs and damaged my lower back. Suddenly I was a quadriplegic.
Tell me more about your journey as an author, including the writing processes.
I have been a writer all my life. I wasn't very good partly because I'm dyslexic and partly because of my dyslexia I was a terrible reader. But I love to write and therefore wrote often. I wrote many stories. One was published in a magazine. Before the pandemic I started writing my first novel,"Farm Tough", and self published it. The book got good reviews from readers but wasn't promoted. Shortly thereafter, I started to write "A Just Revenge" partly about my time at Yuba College, Chico State College, Los Angeles and finally Europe. I found that I write best when I write about something I know, about something I've done or about something I feel.
My writing process is to start with an outline and write. Because I am a quadriplegic I normally dictate my first draft, proofread it and make most corrections by using my pointer finger on either hand. It can be an arduous process but I enjoy the work. Thereafter, I have a trusted friend do a proofread and then make whatever corrections I see necessary. Thereafter I'll have another friend proofread it. With each proofread I have found that I see better ways to write what I want to say. In addition, I'll proofread each book several times. I think I reread and had others read this latest novel over 40 times. Minor changes were made but sometimes those minor changes are significant to the books flow. In addition I have found that some parts of my recent novel were too long and unnecessary to where the novel was going. Finally, once all the parts of the novel fall together the ending writes itself. But the ending must be powerful enough that the reader walks away from the novel feeling satisfied.
Tell me about your Book
"A Just Revenge" is a story about a young man growing up in a small rural town and suddenly finds himself associating with incredibly wealthy, educated and sophisticated people different from his social class. Sean learned how to fit into this new and different world without being phony; without trying to look like he is forcing himself into a class he doesn't belong. Sean's encounter with the country club member at the Hillsboro Country Club shows that most people enjoy being around someone who is authentic and unafraid to display who they are. From that first meeting in Hillsboro, Marty, who was taken with him. Sean learned that despite his poverty he could associate with people far wealthier, educated and socially astute than him. He learns to be himself in all settings. He also learned how to play a character so that people don't learn from where he came or who he is. Because he grew up supporting himself and learning how to defend himself in almost all environments he settles into this upper class social setting comfortably. Yet Sean never forgets who he is or why he is there.
Story
"A Just Revenge" as a novel is self-explanatory. Rarely is revenge justified. But there are some occasions when justice must be delivered and in those cases if the revenge is just; is equal to the crime, then the punishment is appropriate. Sean is compelled by a sense of justice and revenge for injuries done to an ex-girlfriend and other women by a group of self-serving sadistic men. These men believed that because they are wealthy they are untouchable by the rules of society. Sean chooses to find ways to punish the people who damaged his ex-girlfriend and others like her. To achieve his goal over a matter of years he assumes different personalities, participates in athletics which got him closer to some of the perpetrators and subsequently to hide from their attempts to potentially kill him. And he attended several debutante coming out parties Sean appeared to blend into "their" society.
Any message for our readers
Each of us has a duty to protect or defend a weaker person from a bully. Sometimes we may put ourselves in jeopardy to stand against someone who tries to force their will upon a weaker person because they think they can or they think they have the right to and no one will stop them. Sean shows in this novel that each of us has a duty to stand against the tyranny of a person who thinks because they are bigger, or more powerful, or richer they can intimidate, control or brutalize another person with impunity. Sean shows that a bully can be stopped but first someone has to have the courage to stand against that tyrannical person.
About the Author
I have been a writer all my life. I wasn't very good partly because I'm dyslexic and partly because of my dyslexia I was a terrible reader. But I love to write and therefore wrote often. I wrote many stories. One was published in a magazine. Before the pandemic I started writing my first novel,"Farm Tough", and self published it. The book got good reviews from readers but wasn't promoted. Shortly thereafter, I started to write "A Just Revenge" partly about my time at Yuba College, Chico State College, Los Angeles and finally Europe. I found that I write best when I write about something I know, about something I've done or about something I feel.
Purchase Links
Posts
0 Comments