The Pecan Park Eagle

I’ve just learned that my old St. Thomas buddy Rob Sangster is now the published author of his first fictional work. From the looks of the things, “Ground Truth” is a tightly wound political intrigue action thriller and, if it’s even half as engaging as the mind of the fellow who wrote it, we are all in for a delightful escapist trip to a world of adventure that has pulled ay my friend forever.

Here’s a brief look at Rob’s website description of his new book. Once I’ve obtained and read my own hard copy,  I will review it here – objectively as possible. And I do not shill for anyone, not even my old friends. If you tell me that it’s a book that’s hard to put down – it had better be – and that truth better rest in the writing quality, story drive, and character credibility of the narrative – and not because each book comes coated with super-glue.

Rob and I sometimes muse over the fact that his life has carried him all over the world while mine only got me as far as New Orleans for graduate school at Tulane and a brief stay of employment at Tulane Med School before coming back to Houston by way of Austin in 1966. My world traveling has included a couple of trips to Ireland and a beautiful one two years ago to Italy, but no flat-out, throw-your-life-to-the-winds of an all-out adventure on the Sangsterian level.

Richard Nixon

Still, through my reading and the international character of my local life play, I’ve done some mind and soul traveling of my own through my private practice and non-fictional publication years. I also have a completed novel, but it sits in dust in hard copy form only from 1998 on my grandfather’s old writing desk. It’s called “Sisler’s Legacy” and its an occultish baseball fiction novel about something that happens to the great George Sisler and the St. Louis Browns in 1920 that forever alters the face of baseball through the Bud Selig era. Richard Nixon even gets thrown into the mix of things along the way.

In the end, “Sisler’s Legacy” implicitly predicts the coming of the great steroid scandal, even though the thing was finished in the year that McGwire and Sosa both broke Roger Maris’s single season 61* homer mark.

New York @ St. Louis, ppd.

Maybe Rob’s big step away from non-fiction will now inspire me to dust off the old ‘script to see what’s salvageable and let the spit hit the fan from there.

Here’s a link to Rob Sangster’s website and the marketing pitch for his new book, “Ground Truth:”

http://www.robsangster.com/books.html

And finally, I will close today with a bit of whimsy. The first two paragraphs on Rob Sangster are straight from the About Me section of his website. The second two paragraphs on me are simply a parody I wrote today on the roughly comparable experiences I’ve had in my own younger life.

Rob Sangster

Rob Sangster

Chased by a Cape Buffalo in Botswana and then by a corrupt governor in Tennessee. Abducted by a black market money changer in Mombasa. Spent one New Years Eve in Paradise Bay, Antarctica; another in the Himalayas. Is this from the plot of a novel? Nope. It’s Rob Sangster’s life.

And throw in swimming with Humpback whales, spending the night on top of a Mayan temple in Tikal, Guatemala, and traveling in seven continents and more than 100 countries – all of which were more important to him than earning the last possible dollar. And that attitude led inevitably to . . . becoming a writer.

Bill McCurdy

Bill McCurdy

Chased by a Houston Buffalo Stadium cop in the city’s East End and then all the way down Cullen Boulevard by a corrupt ballpark vendor for the change he tried to steal from me. Abducted as a hitchhiker by a crazy girl driver of a cool rumbling 1954 2-Door Red & Black Ford Hardtop Sedan on Buffalo Drive (Allen Parkway). Spent one New Years Eve in Pasadena, Texas; another in Hempstead. Is this from the plot of a novel? Absolutely nope. It’s Bill McCurdy’s life.

And throw in swimming with bully Tod Herring and his Deady Junior High School buddies at the Mason Park pool, spending the horror movie night in the very top row of the balcony at the Eastwood Theatre on Telephone Road, and traveling to seven different drive-in burger joints in one Houston Saturday night 100 mile cruise – that was in itself as a journey more important than his arrival at any of his drive-in destinations. And that attitude led inevitably to . . . becoming a writer.

Have a nice day, everybody. Have a happy and literate Wednesday – and may all your dearest thoughts today be complete ones.

Tags: Ground Truth, Rob Sangster

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