The Blues

About the Book

This is a half truth/half fiction tale about a band of would?be menders of modern?day social ills and injustices. These perceived wrongs range from trying to outfox an elusive property investment firm, called Wespac, to retrieve lost money, to waging a compaign against the manner of the Kenneth Starr investigations and the court's handling of same, to the way the O.J. Simpson trials were conducted, to taking on a wellknown publishing house regarding a?. plagiarism issue. That's just for starters. The group goes to Congress to argue abuses in the Medicare system. They try hard to halt mistreatment of animals. and they slam t1re media on numerous occasions, for one reason or another. Although the group has some minor successes, most of their efforts end in embarrassing fizzles. But they always mean? well. They call themselves The Blues.

The Blues members hang out at a bar overlooking the blue Pacific in Long Beach, Calif. While pursuing their various causes, their unofficial leader, Steep Rhode, keeps to himself his suspicion that he hovers between sanity and insanity. In fact, the story opens with Rhode sitting in a doctor's office, concerned about his mental health. He's amazed when the female physician comes into the office and appears to have wings on her back. What troubles him still more is that she seems familiar to him, although he's never seen her before.

As the Blues' campaigns progress, here are examples of other events that disturb and perplex Steep Rhode.

? It seems to Rhode that Santa Catalina Island, which is visible from the bar overlooking the blue Pacific, is always blinking at him. He can't understand why, especially since no one else seems to notice it.

? Both in dreams and in reality, Rhode has encounters with a big black guy, who always is asking him what kind of shoes he's wearing.

?Rhode and his best pal, Sinbar, meet up with a beautiful nun while they are searching for Wespac in Peru. As it turns out, the nun is actually a spy for the Peruvian government, and she causes them to be arrested on suspicison that they are seeking to steal treasured Peruvian documents. Eventually, the pair are released as just a couple of nuts, and they are returned to the United States. Shortly thereafter, the nun/spy shows up at a Blues meeting in Long Beach, ready to join them. Rhodes is delighted to have her, as are the others, but he's secretly puzzled as to her motive and who she really is.

Other weird incidents occur, especially to Rhode, but in the end, as he and Sinbar are about to embark on another adventure, he comes to a startling understanding of how and why all the disturbing Pieces of his life fit together'.

About the Author

The author, J. D. Chaney, is a graduate of The American University Washington College of Law, an assistant professor emeritus of Ball State University, and a writer/journalist of some 50 years experience. Most of his work as a journalist was performed on daily newspapers in Southern California, including the Anaheim Bulletin, where he was city editor for five years, and the Orange County Register. In addition to his newspaper work, he has published many articles in such periodicals as "Quill," "Editor and Publisher," "Journalism Quarterly," and "Media Law Notes." He resides in Long Beach, California with seven stray cats.