EXCERPT:
The
special child seemed almost weightless in his arms as he approached the niche
in the rocks where he intended to place her. Ayar continued to gauge his ascent
carefully, constantly scanning the path below and the horizon. Special concern
was necessary, as the Chimu had not yet settled the war between their nations.
They still sent out raiding parties even as far south as Huaraz.
The
body of the four-year-old girl he carried was the daughter of Cuca, wife of
Maita Capac. Cuca herself was now sick with the plague that lay like a dark
hand on the people of the White Mountains. That disease had quickly taken the
life of her firstborn, the lively and adored Cocohuay, named for the
turtledoves kept in a dovecote outside her window.
The
sickness spread almost faster than the noble runners could report. There was
news about strange white people at Tumbes in the north. They wore silver
jackets and sat on four-legged beasts three times the size of the largest
llama. They had huge wooden houses that went on the sea, and sticks that
carried thunder.
The
plague began at Tumbes, and the wooden houses left two of the strange men there
and sailed away. Huayna Capac sent to have them brought to him, but they were
lost along the way. Now the ruler’s people in Chavín de Huántar were dying. The
embalmer’s services were in high demand.
Cuca
called Ayar when her little daughter died. As wife of the regional
administrator, Cuca was highly placed and her demands took priority. Not that
the embalmer would have denied her. Once he saw the frail little child
carefully arranged on the low table among sweet-smelling grasses and flowers,
and noted the florid flush of her face and body, his heart went out to the
grieving mother. He would do all he could to prepare the little girl.
BLURB:
Wylie Cypher,
suffering from a mid-life crisis, decides to challenge fading youth by taking a
trekking vacation across the Cordillera Blanca (White Mountains) of the High
Andes in Peru with his daughter, Mercy, just graduated from college. It is
1981.
While working
with legal clients in Lima, he inadvertently acquires documents that contain
explosive and damning evidence about the Peruvian government’s extreme
interrogation techniques. He learns that something is amiss when police detain
and torture him. He loses his little toe. A series of misunderstandings
precipitate a heart-pounding chase across the high mountains as two sets of
villains - government thugs and members of the communist guerrilla Sendero
Luminoso – seek out the Cypher group with murderous intent. Combat in the thin
air of the mountains, deceptions of numerous sorts, hairbreadth escapes,
torture, action in underground caves populated with mummies, and unexpected
plot twists fill the pages of this book.
It is in the
United States’ national interest to observe the growing communist threat in its
hemisphere, so C.I.A. agents are involved. While Wylie and his cohorts are
running for their lives, the author also reports on international smuggling of
historical artifacts, the fate of a 600-year-old child mummy, and the ancient
spirit of the mountains, Pachamama.
AUTHOR Bio and Links:
The author of Public
Information has had a varied career. He
has been a scrub nurse in an operating room, a professional photographer, a
soldier during the Korean War, a correspondent for the Pacific Stars and
Stripes, an attorney specializing in international corporate law, a volunteer
executive running a not-for-profit dedicated to housing the homeless, a manager
of large and small businesses and, lately, an author and Master Gardener.
He first published short
stories as an English Major from Yale.
Finding the double-digit pay for that work insufficient to support a
wife and one and a half children, he went to law school in hopes of finding
better paying work. Fortunately, that proved to be the case.
When the author discovered
that his wife kept all the 300 plus letters he wrote her from Korea, he decided
to use that material as the basis for a novel about the Korean War. It was a
story he had wanted to tell for many years.
Public Information is based
on his experiences as NCO in charge of a combat Infantry Division Public
Information (hence the title) Office in Korea.
It tells the story of Wylie Cypher, a hapless young soldier who arrives
in Korea in the midst of bloody combat.
Wylie manages to survive his sixteen-month tour of duty as Margenau
recounts in gory, ribald, poignant and accurate detail. His adventures are recounted in military
jargon and his sometimes abrasive involvement with the “Army way” describes the
good, bad and incredible of life in the military. Along the way, Wylie manages
to find and lose love.
Other veterans have found
the story authentic and highly illustrative of the background and details of
the Korean War. Publisher’s Weekly
commented on the author’s ability to create a sense of time and place. During the summer of 2012, Public Information
became an Amazon.com Kindle best seller.
Pistils and Poetry is the
author’s second book. It is a
compilation of Margenau’s favorite Elizabethan poems (Shakespeare, Marlowe,
Donne, and numerous others) juxtaposed with the author’s photographs of
flowers. It is a rich and engaging
poetry book, enhanced and complimented by luscious photos of flowers. The book is considered as an elegant way to
tease reluctant poetry readers into an appreciation of the beautiful sentiments
and language of long ago masters of the English language.
Encouraged by the reception
for his first novel, Margenau published Master Gardener, his second novel, in
March 2013. It is a story that explores conflicts between the benefits of
engineered crops and their potential for ecological disaster. Wylie Cypher, the hero of Public Information,
is now seventy-five years old. He uses
his life and legal experience to defend one of the women in his life, Anne
Proctor, against the machinations of malevolent BIG AG. Senior citizens band together as eco-terrorists
to save the monarch butterfly, and Dick Geier, the ruthless and profane CEO of
BIG AG, engages in corporate shenanigans that reflect current headlines. The story is set in Middletown, New Anglia,
not too far from Philadelphia, and episodes along the Amazon River in Peru
bracketed by episodes along the Amazon River in Peru..
His third novel, published
in August 2014, is High Andes. The central narrative follows Wylie Cypher, in
his mid-forties and suffering from a serious mid-life crisis, and his daughter,
Mercy, as they try to elude various villains chasing them across the White
Mountains of Peru. The story deals with armed insurrection by Maoist guerillas,
smuggling ancient artifacts, “disappearances” of troublemakers, a five hundred
year old child mummy, and the CIA.
Rolf Margenau lives in rural
New Jersey with his wife, three dogs, a 1932 Chrysler convertible, and a flower
garden favored by monarch butterflies. He is now working on his fourth novel.
Tentatively titled National Parks, the story recounts what happens, in the near
future, when Congress decides to nationalize America’s National Parks.
Contact links:
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