A friendly warning to those easily offended.
Although this tome is certainly not offensive, in toto, from commencement to completion, and many of the characters are truly sweet, sincere, and loving, there are an abundance of passages scattered throughout this fictional tale that are quite graphic and raw with respect to vulgarity, violence, and erotica. Also, several of the characters are extremely bigoted, misogynistic and racist, and make their positions known, sans varnish. And more than one character happily carries a heathen banner.
That being said, these flawed characters simply mirror the rabble who wander amongst us, whether we like it, or them, or not. And if we turn an honest eye inward, aren’t we all, some certainly more than others, damaged, defective, imperfect, or broken? Who knows, maybe you’ll spy a bit of yourself, and those around you, in the faces of the characters who reside in this strange little neck of the woods called Belvidere.
And, in the end, it will be interesting to see if justice plays a larger role in this fictional setting than it does out there with you, and yours, in the real world.
An important note to those not yet 21.
If you are a minor, at some point you are probably going to want to get your hands on this set of books. Why? Simple.
Because the characters talk in explicit detail about things you certainly shouldn’t do, moves you shouldn’t try, remarks you shouldn’t make, and ideas you shouldn’t share. It offers up some pretty graphic sex, raw violence, crude language, and more than its share of racist and bigoted slang, all provided by characters who really don’t care what you think of them. The kind of people you would love to meet, but from a safe distance, probably not alone and certainly not at night.
Alas, as much as you might like, you are not getting corrupted here. You have to grow to the ripe age of 252 months before you can hit that enter button and cross the threshold. The official your-just-a-kid brush-off is coming; here it is:
WARNING: IF YOU ARE UNDER 21 YEARS OLD, YOU MUST LEAVE THIS SITE. DO NOT PROCEED PAST THIS PAGE.
To the reader who is a self-appointed observant orthographer.
To this special group, the spelling and grammar police, please put your pencil down; the author will save you the suspense.
This novel may be a grammar and sentence structure nightmare to people who obsess about such things. The pages that follow are vaguely, or not so, reminiscent of Beat literature, which can be described, by some, as a rejection of standard narrative and linguistic values, including, but not necessarily limited to, syntax, punctuation, sentence structure and morphology. The writing style is idiosyncratic; it is how the author thinks, and how the author believes this fictional account should be told. And just as important, it’s how real people speak and communicate in the real world, which is rarely textbook or correct. It is real, or at least how this author perceives reality, which is all that matters between these end-papers.
In any event, there will be mistakes. And all the mistakes in this book were purposeful, and will be defended as such, even if they weren’t. After two long years of editing, this writer simply got tired of re-reading and proofing. So, what you see is what you get, whether it’s right or not.
My suggestion is to take the broader view: simply enjoy the characters and enjoy the ride they take you on. Along the way, if you feel the need to get enraged, do so at the abject violence, the graphic sex, the racism, the bigotry, the coarse language, the heathenism…