Toy Shadows

About the Book

Thirty years into the 21st century and civilization struggling for survival after every volcano around the Pacific Rim had erupted within days, Brian and John were determined to battle the ever-blowing, slashing, 100 mph winds and shifting earth's crust to travel south in search of Brian's wife, who they had not heard from for weeks. Arriving after a twisting journey and discovering she had died Brian is shattered. After a mourning period while living and working in an underground city, they team up with John's new lady friend, Atlantic, and her son, to trek into the high mountains and join a clan they had met earlier; a clan that was digging for gold in the changing mountains and had established an alternate living style.

Brian carries his baggage of depression. He has met a younger woman, Carrie, who loves him, her father, Springer, October who becomes another close friend, and a clan of fascinating personalities. Challenges and changes, life and death, are thrown at the clan like gunshots. To endure, they must all battle the torturous natural elements, marauders, contend with the internal upwelling of emotions, and balance them all into a civility within their extended family.

About the Author

Patrick M. Kennedy has been a professional writer and graphic artist for over 30 years. He has worked as a paperboy, musician, elevator operator, shipping clerk, soldier, bartender, bar owner, janitor, creative director, copywriter, salesman, and technical writer. All this, of course, was research for his fiction-writing career. He is especially proud that he writes a regular lighthearted column, Inside Out & Round About, that is available and distributed through the Senior Wire News Service, and contributes a regular column to the Concrete Heraold and to Menstuff.org. Many of these articles have been published in his new book, How to Have Fun with Retirement.