In a complex world a man can wake up and realize he has chosen the wrong road, realize he is not happy with his life. Another man might find himself stuck the time warp of some life-changing event. A Song in the Park is the story of two such men.
Justin Brooks realized something was not right as he watched his beautiful bride come down the aisle. He panicked, fled, became a pariah in his own east Texas home town. Confused by the demons that kept the answers hidden, he bummed around Texas and ended up in Big Bend, working as a park ranger and living a solitary life.
Fifteen hundred miles away, Michael Anderson, a San Diego surgeon, lost an eight year old girl on the operating table. He had stayed out the night before, indulging his misguided lifestyle. Rightfully so, he blamed himself for the little girl’s death. He vowed to abandon his profession, abandon the endless bathhouse sojourns, the countless faceless men. He would leave San Diego and set out to find himself and start a new life.
Heading east, driving through the vast west Texas desert, he discovered the inspiring beauty and mystery of the Big Bend, where he located a secluded place on the Rio Grande and built a small campfire for coffee.
Four days later, driving his routine patrol of the River Road, Justin spotted the illegal campsite and stopped to write a citation. After a few awkward moments, somewhere in their conscious minds, both men realized, in addition to an intriguing man, they were looking at the answer to many unanswered questions. A friendship was born.
As unlikely as it seems, there are unexpected places in this world a man can search his soul, discover his identity, ponder what matters in life, even fall in love . . . in this case a desert, the boundless panorama of mountains, canyons, arroyos, arid terrains, incredible sunsets and a river called the Rio Grande; a place known as Big Bend National Park.
I have spent a lot of time in Big Bend. It’s one of my favorite places on the face of this earth. I have hiked the desert, traversed the arroyos, climbed the mountains, walked up on rattlesnakes, and swam naked in the Rio Grande. More than once, I have pedaled it’s three hundred miles of roads on a bicycle. I have listened to a kind of quiet I’ve never experienced anywhere else, watched sunsets I couldn’t believe, breathed warm dry air that seemed to dissolve life’s nettlesome concerns. I have fallen in love there.
…the basis for my novel, A Song in the Park.
In a manner of speaking, Big Bend is one of the characters in this tale. The desert and all of its mysteries provides the setting for two men to shed their demons and focus on the essence of life, and each other. They learn what’s important in life: things that touch the heart, things the rest of the world seems to not have time for.
Justin and Michael, together, learn the real meaning of being a man, the ability to trust, the ability to enjoy their own bodies, and enjoy another man’s body with all five senses. They learn the ability to enjoy life, which both found impossible until they found someone to share it with.
Not an action thriller, or a ‘cling to your seat’ mystery, A Song in the Park is a story about two men at odds with their past, who help each other conquer their demons and have set their stride toward a new horizon. I’m always thrilled when someone writes to tell me they read the novel again, that they wanted to go back to Big Bend.
Big Bend is in far west Texas, on the southern border where the Rio Grande forms a large bend in the boundary between Texas and Mexico. The River Road (not shown on the map), where Michael and Justin met, runs close to the river along the southernmost section of the park. Justin’s house is located just west of Lajitas, not far from the river.
If you are interested in reading this book, be sure to order the revised version published by CreateSpace. The earlier version, by another publisher, was very badly edited. Read the first chapter here.
No related posts.