JDB Communications, LLC, is proud to announce the publication of The Past Not Taken: Three Novellas
History is part legend, part fact, but mostly interpretation of those who have gone before us
We make history every day. From one moment to the next, our decisions—small and large—shape our future and, as we travel along that path, shape our past. How do we want it to read? Should we care? Or should we just get on with our lives and hope for the best? The Past Not Taken is three novellas that show that not all “authorities” are authoritative.
Two roads diverge in a yellow wood…
In a small archive, documents that could upend American history are found. Did Jefferson suggest that Washington was an ignorant bumpkin and that America bounded by the Constitution would fail?
We may make history, but it’s the “authorities” –the scribes and narrators of the future–who write it based on what we leave behind.
Curtis is a budding historian at a small university. Meli is a friend-who-is-a-girl…
“How long have we known each other, Curtis?”
“Since the fall of ‘73, so going on nine years,” I answered; she squeezed my hand. She IS pretty…
“Do you like me?” Easy to get along with…what’s with…?
“I do; a lot.” She’s funny, and a good listen…WHAT? I stopped; she took a step ahead, not letting me go. “Are you in trouble, Meli?”
“Yep.” She didn’t turn. Her voice was but a whisper above the game, but I heard it as if it were thunder overhead.
“Want help?” WHAT did I say…?
“I need help, Curtis,” she said quietly. “The consequences for Dad would be….”
“Yeah. If this place were any more straight-laced, we’d need diagrams to tie our shoes.” God have MERCY on me…“I’ll be proud to, Missy.”
From “The Past Not Taken“
The Past Not Taken explores choices, parenthood and responsibility, and how history is written.
Fair warning: History isn’t always based on facts.
A young pregnant woman knocks on a stranger’s door. Her story is inextricably linked with the family behind that door. But the institution that is their livelihood won’t let her stay.
“Hello?” The voice was young but strangely familiar.
“This is Curtis Durand. What can I…?”
“Mama had a message so you’d know I was the real deal.”
“OK….”
“No matter what you do, you can be both right and wrong.”
Ho-Boy. That was OUR phrase. HO-boy…Joan and I didn’t REALLY connect, not COMPLETELY, though I was REALLY close THAT time…HO-boy!
She could be my DAUGHTER!
From “Daughter By Choice“
How “authoritative” are the documents that make up the basis of our history? Just because a document appears to be old and is in an archive, does that make it “proof” of the past?
Daughter By Choice explores how the past catches up to everyone. It also explores the nature of being a parent, and how there’s so many different kinds of families. It, too, speaks of how history is written and how the long-forgotten can become so important so fast.
Whereof what’s past is prologue…
A man appears out of nowhere, both known and unknown. He asks for little, but that little means so much. He says a girl’s future is in peril. And what he asks for can be simply devastating for everyone.
History likes to teach about “turning points.” 1776 is one for American history. But what if…?
“Let’s suppose that we wrote a history of America that pivots on the year1619. Think about it. What would its thesis be? It would have to elaborate on why that year….”
“When the first Africans were landed in the English colonies.”
“Yes; August 20th, 1619, on Point Comfort, Virginia—today’s Fort Monroe. The ship was the English privateer, White Lion. These lawful English pirates traded twenty or thirty Angolans—the record is unclear as to how many—for supplies. Suppose we wrote a history that said that those people were intentionally brought here for the sole purpose of being enslaved in 1619. How would we, writing such a thing, continue such a story?”
From “The Past and The Prologue”
The Past and the Prologue is a story of recurrence, sources, narratives, what it is to be a parent, and, once again, how history is written.
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