American Hero: Italian Style

In my historical novel, American Hero, I have tried to tell the truth through fiction. The never named main character is kidnapped and brought to a mysterious organization in Florence sponsored by the De Medici family and called The Academy. From there, he is sent on a secret mission with Columbus to Spain.

Actually, it was no secret. For years, Lorenzo De Medici had been dreaming of creating a democratic republic that would emphasize every individual’s right to pursue happiness. Though they based their plans on Plato’s Republic, being Italian they couldn’t help but go beyond Plato and include a primary place for music and art in their ideal society. Unfortunately, the Inquisition burned their dreams away and the tyranny of the Church and Court one-percenters ruled. Any parallels to today’s American political climate are purely inevitable.

The De Medici Academy, whose members included Leonardo Da Vinci, Niccolo Machiavelli, Amerigo Vespucci, and Cristoforo Colombo, contracted with Spain to finance a voyage going west to get to Asia. This was mostly a cover. Spain, flushed with its final victory in their seven hundred year war with the Moslems and anxious to take on their rivals, The Portuguese, was ripe for De Medici manipulation.  The Academy really wanted to reach a rumored island—perhaps Atlantis itself—where their dreams of a true republic might be realized.

This has lot to do with the true origin of the unprecedented value on individual potential hard-wired into the political system of the United States. You can read more about it in American Hero.

"Let everyone open his ears well:
Let no one feed on tomorrow;
Today, young and old, let's be
Happy, everybody, women and men:
May every sad thought fall away;
Let's be celebrating always.
Let him be happy who wants to be:
There's no certainty of tomorrow."

Lorenzo De Medici

Interviews: Squeezed

Before I reformed my wicked ways and became a respectable teacher, I plied the dark alleys of the fourth estate. Touring through my back pages, I intend to report here on some of the bits and pieces that I--and hopefully you--find interesting.

Chris Difford and Glen Tillbrook

My first interview for RockBill, a magazine that mysteriously hired me as its editor-in-chief at the ripe age of 23, was with the British pub pop band, Squeeze. The two mainstays, Glen Tillbrook and Chris Difford, had written several bobbity semi-hits such as “Tempted,” “Cool For Cats,” “Goodbye Girl,” and, my favorite, “Black Coffee In Bed.” I met the blokes in a motel in Albany, New York. Their shared room was strewn with Guinness bottles, a just-bought Ella Fitzgerald record (yes, a long playing vinyl album), and a well-worn biography of Winston Churchill, along with the debris of clothes, personal grooming products, and greasy fast food paper bags. Posh. We talked a lot about the Beatles, an obvious influence, the unfettered joy of live gigs, and the endless struggle to resist becoming a “product” of the musical-industrial complex. The boys, though exhausted from life on the road—they had a gig to get to 500 miles away within 24 hours—livened up when talking about their experience with American bigness. “In Britain,” said Chris, “everyone cringes about, but you’ve got more room to breathe here, don’t you? Riding on the tour bus, passing all these farms, wheatfields, silos, highways—our driver playing ‘Home On The Range’ on his harmonica—I was about in tears watching this big country rolling by.” On the other hand, Glen pointed out, “America is so big that it makes it easy not to meet people. You have to drive to get anywhere and aren’t likely to meet chaps you know on the street. It’s easy to be anonymous in America.” A few stouts later, when the talk inevitably came to nuclear apocalypse, as it always does, there was some joking about making the Top Ten as the world ended. Better never than late, one of us said as I stumbled away, my rock and roll cherry popped.

American Hero: The Tide Is High

Unofficial Prologue

I'm still catching up with New Year's Resolutions made ten years ago. If time isn't illusionary, it should be. 


My goal is to get my new historical novel, AMERICAN HERO, out into the world. It is fiction--there's an exciting adventure story about an immortal teenager--and it's factual; the people and incidents encountered are all real. The major figures speak mostly in their own words. The book works wonderfully well as a supplement to an American history middle or high school class, as well as on its own. I've been using it in my own class for a couple of years much to the satisfaction of discerning teenagers.

AMERICAN HERO developed because there are more things in American history than are dreamed of in most middle school textbooks. I want to help people see the truth through the lens of fiction.