Stephen J. Mulrooney

Normal Vision? is the fourth book in the Normal? series. These books fall into the humanist style. Humanist authors seek to elucidate the societal and personal injustices of their times. While the Normal? series mentions many contemporary societal and personal injustices the various characters have faced, or are currently facing, the focus is much more on the universal solution to all injustices-that being love. In the previous books of the Normal? series, Stephen Mulrooney's stories not only bring the reader through some of the most basic and universal struggles of individual, familial, and societal life, his characters transport the reader to the answers and solutions to each of these struggles in their expressions of awareness, wisdom, open-mindedness, acceptance, mutual support, community, caring, charity, relationship, and love. Once again, Normal Vision? introduces the reader to new characters with their own individual and yet universal struggles. And just as in the past, with each new character, with their own individual "flaw", Stephen Mulrooney shows us the "flaw" is but a shadow cast upon the character by others, or society in general. As Victor Hugo stated in Les Mis rables, "The guilty one is not the person who has committed the sin, but the person who has created the shadow." As in the previous books, here in Normal Vision? Stephen Mulrooney reminds us of our own missed opportunities to see or do better, or more in our own lives. And then he provides for us new perspectives, new solutions to complex struggles and problems, and most importantly, new paradigms for us to consider and adopt, just as easy as every new member of the extended Poole-Hall family. Jerome Van Wert, Publisher Busterfly LLC Prologue Our son Surdas was born blind. But that never stopped him from having better-than-normal vision. Mother says, "Foresight is the best substitute for sight. It allows you to see something that everyone else is blind to, and to envision something that no one else has ever seen. When it comes to vision, the eyes do not always have it." A person with foresight has the unique ability to think and plan for the future with imagination and wisdom. We call these people visionaries, because they have the foresight to see what is invisible to everyone else and bring it into reality. They see things as they can be. They see things as they should be, not just the way they are. Their visions are the building blocks of the future. Mother says, "A visionary takes a set of Legos and turns it into a time machine. What the world does not see, the builder has already envisioned. Superman may be able to see through things, but a person with vision will see things through." Mother has inspired our entire extended family to always see things through. In doing so, he has given us better-than-normal vision. Surdas is in every sense of the word a visionary. He believes his blindness gives him insights that sighted people often don't recognize. It allows his imagination to run wild, unfettered by the weight of how things appear when they become too familiar. It allows his other senses to more than compensate for the one he is missing. It allows him to perceive things from a new perspective. He has vision where others merely have sight. Mother believes that people with sight, but who lack vision, lead normal lives, because they are blind to the magic in the world. But Surdas's life is anything but normal. Surdas has vision beyond sight. Life without vision is merely living. It is a place where dreams and fantasies come to die. Life with vision is creating. It is a place where dreams and fantasies come to life. Surdas intends to lead his life as a creator ... a builder of dreams ... a life-giver to possibilities. He intends for all his dreams and fantasies to come to life. Surdas doesn't need a mirror to see who and what he is. He sees it within.

Mother once told me, "Every life is a series of stories, and most lives are hundreds of stories tall. It's impossible to read them all, and it's often difficult to distinguish between the fiction and the non-fiction chapters in each one. So, the only way to get to really know someone is through the Reader's Digest version, one issue at a time." The point is, there are hundreds of stories behind the story I'm about to tell you, and every character is an anthology unto themselves. If you have followed their stories before, you are aware of their back issues. If not, I trust that there is enough of the Reader's Digest version that follows to give you enough gist for the mill.This is a story so real, and yet so magical, that you might well think it's fiction. But only those who don't believe in magic will find it so. For the rest of us, the only difference between a literary life, and a physical life, is that a literary life lasts forever. As Mother says, "The Circle of Life is just one big learning curve." NORMAL CURVE? takes us along the Poole-Hall extended family's passage through countless twists and turns, and around a few curves that are anything but normal ... but then again, I'm sure that's what you've been expecting. As he did in the previous two books in this series, NORMAL? and NORMAL TOO?, our narrator, Gene Poole-Hall takes us on a journey that is so real, so extraordinarily full of love, humor, and magic, you may well find yourself wanting to become a member of this fictional family, where you too will live forever. If that doesn't sound normal, welcome to the family.

"Sometimes it takes a village to raise a child. Sometimes, as in our case, that village looks more like The Village People. And sometimes, it is not the village that raises the child, but the child that raises the village ... often to heights they never imagined." With these words, Gene Poole-Hall takes us on another wonderful journey to show us that the love we have for one another is the most beautiful expression of who and what we are, whether it is expressed between or within genders, generations, or the rainbow of races and creeds that comprise the human experience. He reminds us that the important thing is not who we love, but that we love; and that a true family is a creation, whether we are born or evolve into it. In this sequel to Normal?, Stephen J. Mulrooney shows us again that when it comes to the trials and tribulations of growing up, infatuation and love, the experience for us all is the same, no matter where we stand in the spectrum of the human rainbow. Normal Too? begins with a simple trip by Gene's brother Robbie to New York City to celebrate his brother's birthday. On his return from a memorable celebration, Robbie encounters a young runaway in Grand Central Station. The boy looked hungry and in need of help. Robbie, being Robbie, was hungry to help. The exchange between these two seemingly very different characters will have a profound effect on their lives, and the lives of Robbie's entire extended family. The young boy, Chris, arrives at the family home weighed down with more baggage than the few possessions he is carrying. His fears and secrecy belie an otherwise compelling nature. In Robbie's words, "this boy is a lot like an onion, and there are bound to be tears behind the peels." What follows is a story that grows and evolves in love, as the story of every loving family must; and illustrates that when it comes to family, "at the heart of the matter, it is the heart that matters most." Chris's introduction to a predominately gay extended family that includes a few retired drag queens, and even a straight rabbi, is not an easy one for a rural southern orphan. The boy has never experienced anyone or anything like what he's about to. But as his preconceived notions, fears, and the story of his life begin to peel in one adventure after another, what unfolds is one of the most beautiful stories of love and family you will ever read.