an excerpt, ex continuo, from The H.E.R.O. Act
(you have been warned)
11 July 2020
Death strikes all around us, and it manages to get closer with every pass. During the year and a half in which I prepared this work,
I’ve lost some friends — two men and a cat.
One of these men was a friend and former colleague of mine. We worked together at the local QuikkStopp™, which is why I paired Jon Brady with Chuck Partridge. (In part, it was an echo of Friday Night TV nostalgia.) Writers are lazy, and it’s easier to steal characters than to make them up and as long as I’m stealing characters I might as well steal their names, too. If they really are my friends, then they won’t sue me. Brian was a more casual friend, we were mainly fan-buds, comicbook and sci fi geeks who would occasionally get together for video and weed. Still his death, by suicide, was startling and disturbing, both saddening and angering me. Obviously, I, like so many others, wonder how I failed to save him, even as I realize that I, like so many others, probably couldn’t. That’s why I created Brian James, so I could save him twice.
“Miss (Callie) Calculation” was a sweet sixteen when she left us. To salute her I changed the name of the Langdons’ cat, Jasperilla. Callie loved her Mommy’s lap more than any other, but it sometimes seemed like she would settle for any other. She was a cuddlin’ bundle o’ joy.
The other of these men was my Mom, Rosalie Grace Williams.
After several years of gentle decline, as entropy took its steady toll, my sister reported that our mother seemed to have taken a bit of a steeper dive of late and that I’d BETTER get in touch with her. As it happened, I had just finished the first draft of this book and was delighted to telephone and invite her to proofread it for me (as well as a few other confidantes, three of whom are cited up front.) We had a lovely talk, as usual, and told each other “I love you” and “I miss you” and four days later, on my father’s birthday, she was dead. I don’t know if I’m that much luckier than most; I’ve generally had a good relationship with my parents, even not so bad when I was a teenager and they were idiots. Overall, they have both been positive role models, particularly insofar as they have been cordially divorced for some sixty years. As a child I never heard one raw or unkind word to or about one from the other. As “adults” we might exchange arch observations over a cold beer (Dad) or a colder whisky (Mom). As a couple they were maybe not so hot, but as parents they were top notch.
17 November 2022
Au revoir, Tichelle LaBelle. Bon voyage, mon pauvre petit chat.