Friday, December 3, 2010

World History Can Turn in a Footstep, Or With an Assassin's Bullet

Prime Minister Winston Churchill gives the &qu...Image via Wikipedia
In 1931 Winston Churchill was hit by a car in New York and nearly killed. Fast forward to early May, 1940. Facing the German military machine, the UK Prime Minister is set to quit. Now suppose Churchill is dead, killed in the accident nine years before. There is no politician of any stature left who can stand up to the Germans. In less than two weeks, British, French and Belgian forces would be defeated and fleeing to certain destruction at Dunkirk. In London, there is talk of conditional surrender to the Germans...

In 1791 Robert Carter of Virginia in his will freed nearly 500 slaves. Many Revolutionary War veterans were becoming uncomfortable with bondage and struggled to reconcile the practice with the principles of Liberty that they fought for. George Washington and Thomas Jefferson were disillusioned with slavery. In addition, with a shift in American agriculture methods, slavery was losing its economic attractiveness. What if, in the 1790s, those trends had accelerated, and slavery became insignificant to the U.S. economy?

In 1963, President Kennedy drove past a building that offered a clear sniper's view to a loser named Oswald, who had once tried to kill himself because the Soviet Union didn't want him as an American defector. Oswald was revived in a Russian hospital and would later return to the U.S., where he would later take out his frustrations on a passing political motorcade...

Strong currents of world history often turn on the step of man into the path of a passing car, the swirls of revolutionary politics and economics or the fateful path of a Dallas motorcade. So it can also be said of friends happily living their lives near Washington in my contemporary fantasy novel, Gettysburg Passage, available from Amazon.

In the book, the life of Rick Reynolds and his friends turns on a chance discovery of a mysterious ancient artifact found in downtown Washington. The artifact soon influences their lives in ways that are disruptive, interesting, dangerous -- and seemingly impossible. And ultimately leads them to a burning cave near the Gettysburg battlefield, where soldiers from 150 years ago gather to fight in one of history's most decisive battles. At this cave decisions must be made that could effect modern history -- and civilization's development 10,000 years ago.

To learn more go to Amazon.com where many readers have positively reviewed this literate, action novel. Gettysburg Passage, by John Callahan. Just $2.99.


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