Chris and Peachy are suddenly important

Under normal circumstances, becoming an obscure monk to write coloratura noir romance is a thankless task. Old fashioned, Cass says. No hope of a movie deal which, believe it or not, was my sole purpose in writing the four-volume Case Files of Cable & Blount. Do I remember it correctly? Over 600 pages of comedy, mystery, steely resolve, gunfights, and some of the hottest boy-girl sex ever presented in frank language. For fun, look up coloratura. It does not refer to "persons of color" as the expression goes, which dimly implies that I'm as white as paper and that only Africans and mestizos have meaningful color. How silly. Negroes are inky black or mahogany brown, except for mixed race people like Barack Obama. If a caucasian is mixed race like I am (French, Prussian, and a dash of Norse) we're called mutts. Mutts are more surefooted and less fractious than thoroughbreds, which is why mules were important in the Old West, pulled heavy wagons in teams.

I pulled the heavy wagon of literary drama solo. It had to be that way for an authorial voice to emerge. Why is that important? Because voice infuses story with life, if the writer is a rebel in command of original work. When I worked in Hollywood, everyone religiously repeated a tired sermon "There are no new stories" because they were incapable of original work.

I mentioned Case Files of Cable & Blount in the context of tyranny. Chris and Peachy live in a world that no longer exists. I recommend that you read it. Something very important was lost recently, and it behooves you to experience an exposition of what liberty means. Chris and Peachy never heed regulations, never follow the rules of common sense. If they did, they would be no different than the folks next door, which other novelists endeavor to celebrate, especially people of color writing about their favorite aunt or antebellum hardship. Stephen King concocts malevolent ghouls, and P.G. Wodehouse laughs at Roaring 20s English pajama boys. I write about hard white American heroes and lovers, people in trouble typically self actualized as their professional duty. Private investigators know that cops do little and solve nothing. Chris and Peachy have the advantage of ample power and unbreakable devotion to each other, keenly aware of the palpable pulse of life on life's terms, male and female.

I may be the only contemporary writer who knows what liberty is.

In a nutshell, liberty means no handouts for Africa, no matter how many millions of women and children are starving, ignored and penalized by their governments and threatened with Wuhan virus on top of rising prices, food shortages, no sanitation, widespread HIV infection, malaria, and police orders to lock down, forbidding men to work. Liberty means a bright line between self and others, no matter how others exercise their powers, or whether they are doomed. Liberty is not fair or benevolent. It is a universal legal and moral right to thrive, to the extent that one can. What Africa needs is what America needs, less government, more liberty, pandemic or murderous gangs notwithstanding. America has murderous gangs that government has failed to eradicate. Gang threats cease in the Second Amendment liberty of personal self-defense, which Chris and Peachy consistently exercise with excellence. More people could and should defend themselves instead of remaining hapless victims, hoping that government will protect them, feed them, and make life happier. Every dollar that the state gathers to itself is a dollar taken from victims that they pretend to shelter. The truth of government is arbitrary power very thinly disguised as patriotism. That's why Chris walked away from his legacy as a sprig of institutionalized power, and won personal autonomy.

How well a man lives today is less important than his liberty because liberty is an open door to a freer life tomorrow, or a higher challenge, depending on what opposes his progress. In today's Covid-19 tyranny, the human right of liberty seems distant. Hah! -- an illusion, easily sidestepped. Buy a set of surgical scrubs, a stethoscope, and a pair of paper booties. Shazam, you're an overworked neurosurgeon. If an undocumented immigrant can get a fake ID in Los Angeles, so can you. A mail carrier outfit is not hard to fabricate. Learn a foreign language.

But all such disguises are unnecessary. Your search for liberty should have begun years ago, as a teenager, right? Liberty is not a new subject to any man or woman on Earth. Tomorrow is a blank page in an unfolding drama, of which you are necessarily the author and actor. There could be a pivotal choice today, if it's time to reclaim more of your liberty, independent of whatever chains of sorrow have kept you from the pursuit of happiness, a fundamental right that no government or family can legally abridge. I realize that there are moral ambiguities and impossible conflicts. Without difficult challenges, there is no story in your story.

I like the story of Chris and Peachy, both of them challenged repeatedly by government and family pressures. They have the advantage of long experience as self-reliant rebels, seeking greater liberty and personal happiness, neither of which is easily won. The first three Case Files novels are $5 in a Smashwords edition. Charity, my favorite Chris and Peachy adventure, is available on Kindle, and the concluding double mystery Finding Flopsie is at Amazon. All four Case Files novels were revised and published together in a collector's edition. The cover photo is a fictional "Treloar Building" in salute to Ray Chandler. Chris met Peachy on the 3rd floor corridor. He was drilling into a bomb. She became curious and wouldn't go away.

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