Child in Paradise is the story of an American boy growing up in a foreign land; it chronicles his everyday trials and triumphs as he makes the convoluted journey from childhood into adolescence. A story that takes place predominately in the tiny tropical Central American Colony of British Honduras, now Belize. It is a collection of memories as told by the old man this boy became. Biographical materials are usually written to combine the person with the significance they have with particular names, dates, places, or events, history abounds with them. For the vast majority of us who live in everyday anonymity the only important dates and places were where and when we were brought into the world and again when we leave it. Thus it is with my life, it cannot in large part be measured or pinned to any extraordinary events or dates, but rather to a series of everyday happenings some major most minor each woven and intertwined together so that over time they create the tapestry of a person's life, so it is for all of us. This is how I see mine and how I have attempted to write it. There comes a time in one's life when the daily pressures of living life ease and one finally finds time to participate in a little introspection, to look back in an attempt to determine where the forks in the road had been and the consequences of taking the ones chosen. I was able to pinpoint with some measure of certainty just how and when the views I possess of life and my surroundings were formed, thankfully most were beneficial though there were a few I found somewhat disturbing. I found as I dredged up some of my earliest memories I had a tendency to write them down as if I were still that little boy, So in essence much of what follows is seen through the eyes of that child over fifty years ago.
What began as a millionaire's drunken wager and voyage of adventure has become a desperate struggle for survival as the crew of the clipper ship Crucible becomes caught up in the most horrific events in all of human history. This is the account of their epic journey through a world torn asunder by famine, disease, and war. Crucible takes the reader on an adventure filled journey covering half the globe. From sunny Spain to the deserted whaling station of Grytviken on South Georgia Island then continues with the crew to Terra del Fuego where they battle a would-be despot. Venture with them into the Pacific and encounter South Seas Islanders turned cannibal. Discover the tiny Polynesian Island of Rapa Iti so remote that life goes on blissfully unaware of world turmoil. Meet fellow adventurers and learn their stories while sailing the globe in search of a safe harbor and place to call home.
It is October 10th 1860 two young men find themselves on a Louisiana levee in the middle of the night cold, destitute, and the sole survivors of a steamboat explosion. It is just the first in a series of events that will forever change their lives and propel them on a voyage of adventure, romance, mutiny, and treasure. Raptor is also the tale of a na ve boy and his journey into manhood as he finds himself caught up in the intrigue of the American Civil War.
