Book Feature: The Man Who Transformed Africa: The Rebirth of a Continent

The novel opens with Vatican intrigue between liberal and conservative cardinals, which leads to the unlikely selection of an Indonesian pope. Seizing the opportunity, the new pope uses his ex-cathedra (papal infallibility) to declare poverty to be an immoral human condition. The pope decides to lead by example, taking the provocative step of selling Vatican treasures to fund a long-term plan to build a strong middle-class society in Africa. The novel follows the pope, an ex-president of the United States, and an African nationalist during the first two years of an estimated twelve-year project to build a strong African middle-class society.

After a year-and-a-half of steady progress, the ex-president and the African nationalist realize they have miscalculated the costs of irrigating the African tropical savannas, and the project stalls. A brilliant, young autistic project employee, originally hired to oversee the use of Africa’s natural resources, solves the irrigation problem, allowing the plan to continue moving forward. The autistic project employee later comes to the rescue once again when he clears the name of the ex-president, who had been falsely accused of bribery. The author believes the fictional narrative of this unique story will show the need to stabilize Africa’s social order, infrastructure, and land use, which would result in an economic rejuvenation of the continent, eventually turning Africa into an agricultural giant.

5 Things You Should Know About This Novel

1. This novel is a work of fiction that is dived in two parts. Part 1. The Vatican and Part 2. On the ground in Africa.

 2. This novel includes only the first two years of a twelve-to-fifteen-year project to build a strong middle-class African society. Attempting to include all the years of this project would result in a dictionary length book. Second, development of characters during fifteen years would be counterproductive.

 3. The Epilogue included in this novel is a snapshot of many of the characters beyond the first two years, and the increase of donations due to the surprise ending.

 4 In the Vatican part of the novel there is reference to Catholic cardinals who argue over conservative and liberal Catholic interpretation.

 5. Ever since elementary and going further in schooling the author was always confused by teachers who would on the one hand talk about the wealth that was underground in Africa, and the severe poverty of the African people.  

Author Peter Cimini was born in New York City, in the borough of the Bronx. He attended both a Catholic elementary and high school. Mr. Cimini holds bachelor and masters degrees from New York University. He was a teacher both in New York and Connecticut, and served students twenty years as a curriculum specialist, overseeing and writing curricula. He is also the author of The Secret Sin of Opi, on the topic of missing and exploited children. His favorite novel is Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett. Author Cimini admires the works of writers Kristin Hannah and Nicolas Sparks. He lives in Connecticut.

Author JT Maicke on Research for Historical Fiction

 

I believe most fans of historical fiction would agree that thorough research and detailed knowledge of the location and period of the story is of utmost importance. This is key to developing a solid and believable plot line as well as interesting and convincing characters who speak and act in a manner appropriate to the culture of that time and place. The Humble Courier takes place in Germany during the interwar period and I put a great deal of effort into researching German history from the end of the Great War to the beginning of World War II. The study of German history, politics, culture, customs, geography, and cuisine has been one of my lifelong passions. As you can imagine, I have amassed a rather sizeable library on all things German. While researching and writing this story, I consulted a score of textbooks on German history and culture during the period 1914 through 1939, including books on the role and activities of the Catholic Church in Germany.

I also am a German speaker who had lived and worked in Germany and Austria for roughly five years of my life. These years allowed me to experience German culture firsthand along with the opportunity to visit over 100 cities, towns, and villages throughout Germany and Austria, including many of the locations depicted in The Humble Courier. In addition, while drafting the story, I had the opportunity to revisit Trier, Germany—location of about one third of the action in the novel—to refamiliarize myself with many of that city’s landmarks, including St. Matthias’ Abbey, the Electoral Palace, the Kastilport, the Episcopal Seminary, and the High Cathedral of St. Peter. This proved invaluable and led me to redraft a few chapters to modify the plot and to improve the richness and accuracy of my descriptions. I realize that overseas travel is expensive, not to mention difficult during this pandemic period, but it is vitally important in helping to create a believable portrayal of the scenes for your story.

Many friends and colleagues have asked me whether I relied on the Internet and whether I believed that this is an appropriate research medium. I did indeed use Internet websites to research several aspects of my story. Why not? There is a wealth of information available on the web. That said, I was careful to substantiate this data by examining multiple sources—both electronic and hard copy—to ensure accuracy.

I had a wonderful time creating the characters in The Humble Courier. Several characters were not part of the original plan for the story but came into being as my writing progressed. Several characters are introduced early in the story only to reappear later to play key roles in the plot line and to move the action forward. A handful of true historical figures also appear in The Humble Courier. The actual fates of several of these individuals, however, differ from their outcomes in the novel. I consulted biographies on these historical figures in an effort to ensure that their words and actions were commensurate with their personalities, positions, and circumstances.

The Humble Courier also contains several paragraphs of historical information designed to provide readers unfamiliar with Germany’s interwar period the necessary background to understand the environment in which the story is taking place. These passages were designed to avoid bogging down the action or converting the novel into a history textbook. I also included an Author’s Note at the end of the novel informs the reader which characters in the story are fictional and which were historic persons. This is a device used by some of my favorite historical fiction novelists, including Bernard Cornwell and Robert Harris.

I believe readers will enjoy The Humble Courier. The story contains a new and compelling plot line, heroes the reader will care about and root for, as well as villains they will love to hate. One doesn’t need to be a historian, or even a fan of historical fiction, to enjoy this tale of a brave and caring Catholic priest, living in an extraordinary and brutal time and place, who decides that passive resistance against evil is simply not enough.

About the book: Father Hartmann Bottger, a Benedictine monk and priest, has confronted bullies his entire life, including pompous clerics, local thugs, and callous and corrupt French Army occupation authorities in the German Rhineland. But Father Hartmann faces his greatest challenges with the rise to power of the Nazi Party and the brutality of the dreaded Gestapo, which threaten the rights of the Church as well as the lives and spiritual beliefs of Father Harti and the members of his small village parish.

The Humble Courier takes place in Germany during the turbulent years from the end of the Great War to the beginning of World War II. It is the story of a German soldier who believes he has been called to the Roman Catholic priesthood and tasked with fighting evil and protecting the weak from the strong. Although Father Hartmann initially employs passive resistance to fulfill what he perceives to be his mission, he comes to the conclusion that more aggressive—even violent—means are necessary to confront the awesome power of the SS and the Gestapo. Employing unlikely allies and extraordinary methods, Father Hartmann sets out to take the fight to his enemies, justifying his actions with St. Augustine’s proverb “Punishment is justice for the unjust.”

About the Author: A self-described Germanophile, J.T. Maicke writes historical novels that take place in Germany or among German American communities in the Midwest. The study of German history, geography, language, culture, and cuisine has been one of his life-long passions. He has spent several years living and working in Central Europe and has explored many of the locations mentioned in his stories. Maicke is a great fan of historical fiction, and his favorite authors include Ken Follett, Bernard Cornwell, George MacDonald Fraser, Umberto Eco, Robert Harris, and Morris West. He was educated by Benedictine monks and nuns in the Midwest and several of his stories have a Roman Catholic theme.

On Writing a Memoir in a Child’s Voice but with Present-day Adult Reflections

Neill McKee takes readers on a journey through his childhood, adolescence, and teenage years from the mid-40s to the mid-60s, in the small, then industrially-polluted town of Elmira, Ontario, Canada—one of the centers of production for Agent Orange during the Vietnam War. McKee’s vivid descriptions, dialog, and self-drawn illustrations are a study of how a young boy learned to play and work, fish and hunt, avoid dangers, cope with death, deal with bullies, and to build or restore “escape” vehicles. You may laugh out loud as the author recalls his exploding hormones, attraction to girls, rebellion against authority, and survival of 1960s’ “rock & roll” culture—emerging on the other side as a youth leader. After leaving Elmira, McKee describes his intensely searching university years, trying to decide which career path to follow. Except for a revealing postscript, the story ends when he accepts a volunteer teaching position on the island of Borneo, in Southeast Asia.

In writing Kid on the Go!, I learned that it is possible to write in a child’s voice with the descriptions, perceptions, thoughts, and dreams of a child, accompanied by dialog between me as a child and other children, as well as adults, while also adding a present-day, historical perspective or reflection in a more mature voice. I did this by simply putting the latter in brackets. For instance, I was born less than a year after my brother—what we called “Irish twins”—a lack of birth spacing. We were not Catholics but then again, birth control was haphazard in those days. At any rate, right after I was born, I was all withered and wrinkled, looking like a little old man. When my mother brought me home and showed me to the Mennonite lady who lived downstairs, the lady said, “I’m sorry Alma, but you won’t raise him.” I added a possible explanation in brackets, using a mature voice on why I looked so malnourished: [Years later, I concluded my mother was breastfeeding my brother and robbed me of a lot of nutrients while I was in her womb—a major problem one can encounter when entering the world as an Irish twin.] Although the story of what the Mennonite lady said was an oft-repeated tale by my mother, the part in brackets is clearly something that I would not have known about as a child. Possibly my mother did not know it either. To give another example, starting in the 1940s, the chemical factory in our town made an insecticide called DDT and two herbicides, 2,4-D and 2,4,5-T, which were sprayed on lawns, gardens, and parks. The town council aimed to make Elmira “the first weed-free town in Canada.” I introduce this in Chapter 1 in brackets because I never knew the exact chemicals when I was a child and knew nothing about the town council. I only knew that on many days the town stank! Then in Chapter 14, when I am in high school, I reveal that our chemical factory was one of seven North American facilities that made the infamous Agent Orange used as a defoliant by the US Army in Vietnam. Agent Orange was produced by mixing 2,4-D and 2,4,5-T in equal and high concentrations. It caused thousands of innocent civilians to die or become severely ill and crippled, deformed fetuses in wombs, and produced much long-lasting environmental damage that continues to have effects on humans and animals today. I didn’t know this was taking place in the early 1960s (as was the case with most residents of Elmira). So, I put this information into a kind of “flash forward” and put it in brackets. In the book, I also changed my writer’s voice as I mature and included a postscript from a present-day point of view to tie up some unresolved issues. For instance, I briefly include the findings of my research on my hometown’s involvement in making Agent Orange and other chemicals, such as DDT, and their long-lasting effects. Many reviewers and readers seem to appreciate that I did not leave this hanging.

About the Author: Neill McKee is a creative nonfiction writer based in Albuquerque, New Mexico. He has written and published three books in this genre since 2015. His latest work is Kid on the Go! Memoir of My Childhood and Youth, a humorous and poignant account of his growing up in an industrially polluted town in Ontario, Canada, and his university years. This memoir is a stand-alone prequel to his first travel memoir Finding Myself in Borneo: Sojourns in Sabah (2019) on his first overseas adventures in Sabah, Malaysia (North Borneo), where he served as a Canadian volunteer teacher and program administrator during 1968-70 and 1973-74.

Author’s website: www.neillmckeeauthor.com

Kid on the Go! book page: www.neillmckeeauthor.com/kid-on-the-go

 

Movie review: A Castle for Christmas

A Castle for Christmas follows the path of rich and famous romance author Sophie Brown who flees the wrath of her irate fans, after she killed off the hero of her best-selling series, to Scotland, where her father grew up. Particularly at a place called Dun Dunbar which is, of course, a castle. This castle is owned by the Duke of Dunbar, somewhat impoverished since his profligate ancestors had managed to bankrupt the family fortunes and the fate of the estate hangs in the balance, that balance swinging inexorably in the direction of the bank. The castle is up for sale although the duke denies things are that bad and thinks he can pay off the monstrous debts through historic tours and the castle gift shop. Enter Sophie who is desperate to connect with her family history. To the curmudgeonly duke’s horror, she offers to buy the castle. He concocts what Baldrick would call ‘A Very Cunning Plan’ to slip a non-refundable hefty deposit into the sale price and then make her so miserable she will leave and forfeit the deposit. But our Sophie is made of sterner stuff and while she braves it out, the village knitting circle, the duke’s right-hand man, and even the duke’s dog Hamish fall under Sophie’s spell. The problem is, will he?

I have seldom enjoyed such a charming Christmas romance as I did this one. Carey Elwes is handsome and well worth watching (especially in a kilt or actually in anything, or nothing – see bathtub scene). Although he was panned for his Scottish accent, to my untrained ear he did very well and I have to confess, I could listen to him read the telephone book. Let’s make that a Chinese telephone book… Brooke Shields is the star of the movie and with just cause. At 56 she is still very beautiful and appears not to have succumbed to the Botox brigade that has rendered several actresses of a certain age almost immobile in their expressions. She is lovely and natural and plays the feisty Sophie to perfection. As an author, I felt for her trying to get those first words down. The castle is glorious, and I could be happy there, the scenery is magnificent, and the village is picture perfect pretty; even the sheep are clean. Of course, this does not exist in real life, but in a Christmas movie, who cares about real life?

There is a distinct lack of rabid social haranguing that has spoiled many a movie recently. It was refreshing to enjoy a story without having pious social justice issues thrust down your throat. The cast is diverse in a gentle, very natural way and everything and everyone flowed together quite seamlessly. Need I say, the dog stole the show. Hamish is played by Barley, a Lurcher cross who has already achieved some fame in the entertainment industry, having also appeared in Poldark, Midsomer Murders, and has shared screen time with Chris Hemsworth! Hamish’s performance was so eloquent he could almost speak. He was very sensible to transfer his affections almost instantly to Sophie. I also enjoyed that the main characters were over the age of silliness and looked and acted like real people their age. There is romance for everyone is the message! Plus, it is quite amazing how good men look in a kilt. The duke’s right-hand man (played by Lee Ross) rocks a kilt. What else can I say but this is the perfect Christmas movie to relax with. There’s snow, Christmas trees and decorations, crackling fires, delicious food, reunions and reconciliations, and a season of joy and good cheer for all.