Constance Caraway P.I. Coming Tomorrow

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Posted on May 16, 2018

What’s Next on WIF

… We are going to take a break from the Space Family McKinney {for a while} and revisit a book I posted in 2014…

CONSTANCE CARAWAY ~FOREVER MASTADON~

A private eye and her colleagues are blinded by science…and a greater power

Historical Fiction from Gwendolyn Hoff

Creation vs. Evolution, Heaven & hell collide on Earth.

CONSTANCE CARAWAY ~FOREVER MASTADON~ 75,000 words that chronicle an early case taken on by CONSTANCE CARAWAY INVESTIGATION, a Tallahassee Florida based private detective agency, consisting of the title character and her partner Fanny Renwick.

Constance and Fanny are drawn [paid] to Chicago to investigate the disappearance of Willard Libby, a University of Chicago biochemist who has been working on a breakthrough project. They are hired by an associate of Libby, who does not trust his conventional local options.

Set in 1951 Chicago, Forever Mastadon (Mastodon is intentionally misspelled) is an organization that is bent on permanently quieting Libby, as it applies to radiocarbon dating. Bottom line: the devil himself is behind a conspiracy that includes textbook publishers, the United States Justice Department, a cult leader and a handful or two of 2-bit hoodlums.

As a result of good detective work and some dumb luck, the scientist is located…catatonic–at a mental hospital. But that is just the beginning; his mind will be fully restored, he is hidden away and his death wrongly reported, all the while the antagonists behind his abduction are about to be found out.

It is not long before a supporting cast comes together to combat the unknown forces behind the “Great Deception”, the lie being that carbon dating has identified life on Earth as 100 of millions of years old. A Chicago taxi driver, a pilot friend of Constance, a Tallahassee lawyer and a CIA rogue, unite to see that Willard Libby’s truths see the spotlight of day.

While God has his angels, the Libbyites (13 people who are his advocates) get help from a young Southern preacher named Billy Graham, who incorporates the science supporting Creationism into his Crusades and finally a Revival Meeting for the ages, a finale that will either make you sit up in your chair or stand up and cheer.

I have branded my own style of Historical Fiction, which I first brought to the world with my book, THE LIFE AND TIMES OF A BLACK SOUTHERN DOCTOR (1896-1959),(ISBN13 978-1-4691-9018). Constance Caraway and her friends give me the wings to bring history to life, with this riveting story.

I have been updating the format [to match my recent books], as well as creating the graphics.

Constance Caraway P.I.

Coming Tomorrow

From The Desk of Gwendolyn Hoff

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Posted on September 19, 2017

From The Desk of

Gwendolyn Hoff

…If you are reading this post and you are one of the hundreds who have also been reading THE RETURN TRIP, I want to personally thank you for the privilege of sharing my very 1st book… originally written in 1986…

And truth be told, I had to do mucho updating to make the book currently relevant. As I edited and posted and posted and edited, it was an absolute GAS adding in graphics, music and others’ photography and art into each & every Episode.

If you would bother to take the time and click thru the Episode Catalog – from 1 to The End – what a transformation from 100,000 words into a picture-book-potpourri-experience.

When I envisioned posting one of my books in this fashion (original & my way), I thought it would be a convenient way for readers to take in approx. 400 words/day and be entertained along the way… 10 minutes/day and off you go with life. Finding & keeping a repeatable format from episode to episode was important to me… every day it has that consistent, comfortable comportment.

It is also important that I properly credit each artist or photographer if I use their works to enhance the theme of the day’s post. So, if you click the link to the painting or photo, it may take you to THEIR or another website.

Like many of my “original” creations, it probably will not catch on. I am either to far ahead of my time OR better off doing this 30 years ago … or whenever the Internet hit town.

So as THE RETURN TRIP is in the can, so-to-speak, I proceed undaunted by dubious success. The NULL Solution will begin tomorrow 9/20/2017, virtually where the last book ended, as the saga of the Space Family McKinney soldiers on.

I hope that Sampson, Celeste & Co. have the depth of character necessary to make you want to care ABOUT them, as well as what happens TO them. They have been a part of my life for 30+ years and I am writing a 3rd book in the series (Chariot of Chaos) as I am penning this love letter to all of you.

-Gwenny

From The Desk

of Gwendolyn Hoff

THE RETURN TRIP – The End

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Posted on September 17, 2017

THE RETURN TRIP – The End

…“President Crippen! Stellar Explorer is back on our screens, it made the Pluto turnaround…

^#Gus McKinney travels in a vehicle of which there is no match. He will return to the 251.025 time-stem without knowing how the improvements came to be. He will experience strange dreams in the aftermath, dreams that will haunt him, taunt him and cause him to search for their meaning.

^#We on Eridanus will be watching and waiting^#

Those that Gus leaves behind, The Space Family McKinney on Eridanus stand together, bolstered by the wise Ekcello, pinning their hopes on Gus and his indomitable spirit of exploration.

Back on Earth

January 9 2051 {Years Earlier}

“President Crippen! Stellar Explorer is back on our screens. It made the Pluto turnaround!” The crew of the SLAV revises their previous report. “There is no way they could have made that turn at Sol x3, but they did, Crip!”

Roy Crippen crumples in a heap, relieved beyond measure at this turn of events. He could not bear the loss of more family, adopted or otherwise. “Thank you my dear Lord,” is all he can say.

The entire SOL Project Mission Control, led by Braden King erupts in applause when they hear the voice of Gus McKinney, “Lovell Space Center, this is Stellar Explorer… we’re heading back to Earth!”

Francine Bouchette-Crippen and Mindy McDonald melt into an embrace, as women who love test pilots do.

At that declaration of success, Gus McKinney glances over from the co-pilot seat, to check on how brother Deke McKinney came through the intense G-Forces of the turn screaming, “We did it man!!!!”

The pilot seat is empty ___________

The End of THE RETURN TRIP

THE RETURN TRIP

The End

& the Beat Goes On

Coming next @ WIF…

Sequel to THE RETURN TRIP Coming to WIF

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Posted on September 3, 2017

Sequel to THE RETURN TRIP

Coming to WIF

Beginning on or about September 20th.

The Sci Fi – Family Saga of the Space Family McKinney continues, as the connection between Eridanus and Earth is inescapable…

… BUT nothing is as easy as it seems.

Sampson, Celeste, Deke, Gus & Deimostra McKinney are spread out across the Milky Way, at the mercy of superior alien races and an omnipotent higher power Earth has named Lorgan.

In the middle of the 21st Century, the planet Mars has been restored to its former glory – with even greater enhancements as it becomes the unofficial/official headquarters for Universal harmony…

… BUT before intergalactic harmony can be achieved, a puzzling riddle must be solved AND everyone has a crack at it.

Ultimately, the solution comes from an unlikeliest of sources.

The future of the Space Family McKinney, and their planned reunion, is at stake.

Day by day – 250+ Episodes w/art, music, graphics and more

The McKinneys have become a daily part of hundreds of readers here at WIF. THE NULL SOLUTION picks up where THE RETURN TRIP leaves off.

I want to personally thank you being a part of my fiction.

If you good wholesome Science Fiction, you have come to the right place.

Sequel to THE RETURN TRIP

Coming to WIF

History a la Carte (Op-Ed)

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Posted on August 27, 2017

History A Lá Carte

Picking and choosing which “past”

is worthy keeping around

What or who is next?

Let’s delve into the growing trend of tailoring history to suit individual sensibilities in what I am calling:

History A Lá Carte

There are important milestones in the academic discipline we call history.

Pre-History
Antiquity
Modern History

Pre-history happens to academia’s best guess as to what happened before written/recorded language like:

3 million B.C., when an upright-walking ape-man appears on the Earth
Or the invention of the wheel (to whoever’s family is owed an incredible royalty)
We can’t include fire because lightning probably made the 1st fire and God made lightning

Antiquity is the period around 3400 B.C. when that civilization called the Egyptians got going and was clever enough to record history using hieroglyphics, which normal people cannot read b/c it is a conglomeration of stick-men and lions. That and the rest of antiquity requires too-smart people to reassemble properly and we don’t question them.

Modern History revs up somewhere after the dark ages (our thanks to Wikipedia for providing the details). It has been labeled as a time of intellectual darkness between the fall of Rome and the Renaissance.

Perhaps we should add the category Revisionist History.

Are we currently entering a time of “intellectual darkness”?

This author believes so. If all the statues and tributes to people and events in history are removed from sight, can the recorded evidence of those people & events be stricken as well?

However misguided or heinous some periods of history may be, they did happen and should be remembered, lest we repeat the mistakes of the past.

Statues of Robert E. Lee or Jefferson Davis are meant to be memorials, not edifices of glorification. These men were an integral part of a young nation. Yes the “cause” of slavery was a weak foundation which to champion, but only 100 years in to the country of the United States of America, nearly half of the country legally seceded. The CIVIL WAR settled that dispute after a huge price paid by loss of life. Look it up – it happened and the “South” lost. Destroying visual reminders does not change the facts.

Will the movie Amistad be banned because that ship brought slaves to America in the first place?

We have entered a time of toxic political correctness, where anyone who is offended by anything has the power to overpower history. The needs of the few are outweighing those of the many.

And even tough our nation was founded on the Word of God, for the express purpose of religious freedom, the questions need to be raised:

Are Jesus and tributes to Him to be eradicated because some of us are offended?
Will atheists overrule common sense, just because they can?

Unfortunately, those who either don’t believe Jesus to be who He said he was OR do believe he and The Bible is a figment of 1st Century imagination.

History a lá Carte has arrived.

And do not be surprised when the next “offensive” part of history is covered by the “tarpaulin of sensitivity”.

Our God has the power to strike down a vial nation. He has done it before.

The preceding article are the express opinions of Gwendolyn K. Hoff. This is solely her work. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

History a lá Carte

100,000 Milestone

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Posted on August 16, 2017

Milestone

Thank You!

“We The People of the Superior States of North America”

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Posted on August 13, 2017

“We The People

of the Superior States

of North America”

“Hereby secede from The United States of America.”

Solemn Declaration:

Let it not be said that disaffected citizens of an existing nation cannot band together, in their like-mindedness, and create a land that is established with the blessing of God, to live together without beholding to a government which insists on ignoring the majority in favor of a raucous and gaudy minority.

We do not enter into this union lightly or without regard to its obligation to the greater community of the planet Earth.
We stand on the Word of God and adhere to its Superior guidance.
We are people of good moral standing, who treat all as equal under the sun and expect the best from ourselves.
We take complete and total responsibility for our actions, whether as individuals or together.
We shall defend our borders with fervor, respectful of our neighbors (Canada) to the North and (United States of America) to the South.

We the citizens of Superior States of North America hereby reject:

The blatant ignorance of the Constitution of the United States of America on which the country was established, but has been trampled upon by those currently in power.
The aggressive suppression of religious freedom as previously contracted by the Founding Fathers.
The inability to enforce the laws of the land as set forth by previous members of the United States’ Congresses.
The notion that “political correctness” takes precedence over common sense.
The Tax Code has become the personal toy of the Economic Elite, thereby creating an unsatisfactory disparity among the very rich and the very poor.

Within the Superior States of North America:

Sound moral code will rule the day
Compassion will rule the day
Common Sense will rule the day
From each according to his ability, to each according to his need
The One True God will rule His people

DISCLAIMER

“I was temporarily insane and disillusioned at the time.”

This is a postulate set forth by the goals & aspirations of Gwendolyn Hoff and her alone, with the hope of inspiring like-minded people to action. She is not a card-carrying member of the Tea Party and does not endorse continued participation as citizens of the United States of America.

The map as shown is subject to the approval by referendum by the entire individual states of Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, North & South Dakota, Idaho and Montana. It is also subject to the approval by referendum of counties bordering the following states, Michigan, Illinois and Wyoming.

“If you believe in this cause, get a hold of me & we will talk.”

Gwenny

We The People of the Superior States

of North America

Alpha Omega M.D. – Final Episode

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Posted on October 23, 2016

Alpha Omega M.D. – Final Episode

…Alpha O. Campbell, M.D. deserved a better fate. Gwendolyn Hoff has given it to him. Thank you for the privilege of writing this story.

A.O., God rest your soul. It has been one wild ride!…

In chapters 8 and 9 we are introduced to suffragette Emmeline Pankhurst, who is an admitted sidetrack. The company town Blountstown is the Calhoun County seat, but it is mere fodder for the overall story. Company towns can really be like Blountstown.

All the above is a lead-up to our late involvement in WWI, where we meet Sir James Matthew Barrie, the prolific playwright and cousin to John Ferrell. John Ferrell’s supply ship, the Panama City, never sailed, was not sunk by U-Boat submarines, though the elder Ferrell did indeed die in 1916; such a blue-blooded way to die, helping your Scottish ancestors through a tough time.

Chapters 10 and 11 encompass that bloody 1^st world war, along with the deadly influenza that started in Europe and traveled back to the US. 30 million people died worldwide and that is about the time that Alpha Omega Campbell began practicing medicine.

After the doctor and Maggie wed in 1918, they both had affairs that produced children. Maggie’s dalliance produced middle daughter, Laura. That little child was so fair-skinned, right banker Lewis? Alpha, for his part, did father a child; it’s just that whether it was with Camille Diaz is buried amongst the Careless Whispers. Camille is fictional.

Alice Paul did argue for the cause of the right for women to vote, which was a hard fought and contentious lead-up to the Roaring Twenties, but is window dressing for my purposes.

Those Roaring years of flappers and debauchery are bypassed here, as is the Great Depression. It Image result for r.i.p seems the author does not deal well with hard times, which resurface in the closing chapters, a.k.a. the happy, or rather, calm ending. So From the Ashes emerges the mid-1930’s. We lose great characters Harv Pearson, Herb Love and Phoebe. We’ve already left the Endlichoffer’s behind and the elder Ferrells.

James Ferrell becomes the Dr.’s lawyer and we are (re)introduced to Carolyn Hanes (Constance Caraway – Private Eye) and her lover Sara Fenwick (Fanny Renwick). Like the incest episode between James and Agnes, this Lesbian relationship is a glimpse into life in the South, as well as real life. This statement is not meant to offend, it’s just that things happen down there that are “different”, perhaps more frequently or just a figment of a fertile fancy.

Chapters, Hospitable, Inhospitable fly us to Area 51 and an alien contact. Good ol’ Newt Swakhammer, what a guy? The government calls him a crank. But the year 1947 harbors UFO’s, as well as the brick & mortar of Laura Bell Memorial Hospital… born of Alpha O. Campbell’s spirit, the building itself is one large lightning rod; meant for good, yet attracting an onslaught of controversy and hardship.

We look back at Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks, along with the world of Cinderella. And then we are bounced ahead to Michael Rennie and Walt Disney; what an odyssey of entertainment.

As for the remainder of The Life and Times, not so many pages back, your imagination is the king. My imagination has splattered the backdrop of history from way-back 1896, all the way up to the dawn of John Fitzgerald Kennedy… Just the dawn, mind you, then you are reeled back to 1955.

Isn’t that rude? But look at the payoff. Instead of an old man in jail, we happen upon a Laura Bell Memorial Hospital with a future. What a shame that this was not the ending to the saga of one of the first Black doctors in Florida. In my rosy reality, we all have access to Alice’s Wonderful Looking Glass.

Alpha O. Campbell, M.D. deserved a better fate. Gwendolyn Hoff has given it to him. Thank you for the privilege of writing this story.

A.O., God rest your soul. It has been one wild ride!

Image result for the end gif

Alpha Omega M.D.

Image result for thank you gif

– Final Episode

Alpha Omega M.D. – Episode #333

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Posted on October 21, 2016

Alpha Omega M.D. – Episode #333

… pure fictional genius…

Nearly all of the main Tallahassee characters were real people. I used their actual names and because of the volatile nature of the events, especially in the 1950’s, I may have the legal department pulling out their hair. If I had fictionalized their names, I could never have kept them all straight. Who they were and what was their relation to A.O. Campbell needed to be as is. Perhaps it is due to my simple mind, but George Lewis, Charles Wilson, Franklin McLoud, the Dr.’s nurses, the Dr.’s attorneys, the Prosecutors, Starke Prison and Audrie Franich, all appearing in chapter 1 & subsequently, are real.

Now, some of the machinations surrounding his trial and subsequent imprisonment, well that is a combination of speculation and fictionalization on my part. None of this tinkering affects the end result.

Carolyn Hanes and Capt. Robert Ford do have a big role in the book. Bob Ford did indeed pilot the Pacific Clipper at the outbreak of WWII and had to fly it back to New York counterclockwise. Carolyn Hanes is pure fiction. You may think she is my alter ego. That is left for you to imagine.

In chapter 2, the Ferrell family is foundational to the story line. Most all of them are true, in the fact that they did exist. I may have exaggerated their role, but they do and did contribute to Leon County past.

Laura Bell/Olla is a key to the complicated bloodlines of the Campbell family. She is the mother of Maggie Lou, though Maggie’s erotic conception may be subject to my imagination. Maggie Lou does go on to marry the doctor in 1916.

The Campbell family, headed by Willy and Amanda, is the all-in-all. Alfrey (A.O.) Campbell had four brothers and sisters. Hosea is the most infamous, but was he such a rascal, I do not know?

More than likely, the Campbell’s were slaves at some point, but the evil Jefferson Smythwick did not exist and his Fort Sumter South plantation occupies made-up ground. You must admit though that the escape by Alfrey et al was an exciting treat. Take that mean old slave owners!

Chapters 3 and 4 contain the fictional Southeast Anti-slavery Society, headed by the great Herbert Love. I call him great because he is the person, who I posit, providing for the Dr.’s education. In fact, I have since learned that A.O.’s extended family may have sacrificed holdings to finance his education.

Love never made Secretary of Agriculture in a McKinley administration, but he would have had the qualifications. He was engaged in farming of some sort, though he takes on a lion’s share philanthropy for my purposes.

Siegfried and Frieda Endlichoffer, the German couple across the lake from John Ferrell, are based on a personal acquaintance. They are a sweet augmentation to the Tallahassee landscape and what better neighbors could anyone have?

Of course the Spanish American War was real. It represents the USA’s first foray into imperial policy, which has led to our global role as policeman to the world.

The Horizons of chapters 5 and 6 are the recounting of what was going on the last time we entered a new century. 1900 had as many amazing changes as we have in the year 2000. President McKinley was indeed assassinated in 1901 and that was preceded by the Galveston hurricane, the Great Plague and followed by the San Francisco earthquake of 1906.

Harv Pearson is a huge player in LATOBSD. He marries Judith Eastman in chapter 7, who is fictional and they start the Pearson-Eastman Journal, a make believe publication that gives this book the legs to reach out to the entire flat world… pure fictional genius.

… one Episode to go…

Alpha Omega M.D.

Episode #333

Alpha Omega M.D. – Episode #331

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Posted on October 19, 2016

Alpha Omega M.D. – Episode #331

…A double barrel dose of help: Kenty Johnson has money saved up and Kenty Jr. has the fresh blood of knowledge…

A.O. is taking his new lease on life in, in the spirit in which it is presented. Even as he watches familiar landmarks pass by as they ease up to his Virginia Street address. He is thinking about the future.

Maggie is waiting on the front steps of their house. What a welcome sight. There too are daughters Alpha, Laura and Zillah and their families. Maggie is seated in a wheelchair, one and all waving a hearty ‘welcome home’.

“Thank you, gracious Lord,” he proclaims tearfully.

But that isn’t all. There are other familiar faces.

“What’s Kenty Johnson doin’ here?” Dr. J. Kenty Johnson is with his son, himself a newly minted doctor.

“I needed a reliable source of information about your situation and Kenty came to mind. He filled in the particulars of your life, practice and such. AND he mentioned that his son was looking to make a difference in the Tallahassee community. And did we say that he fresh from medical school? A double barrel dose of help: Kenty has money saved up and Kenty Jr. has the fresh blood of knowledge.”

One month ago, Alpha Campbell would have been bloated full of irrational pride, having suffered in silence for the better part of a decade. He was determined to find a way out of their money struggles and did not need outside help.

We all know what path that led him down.

“Well boys, don’t you think it is time we roll up our sleeves?”

Upon hearing Dr. Alpha O. Campbell utter that inclusive statement, his nurses who were hiding in LBMH for fear of their lives, come sprinting out the front door.

Somehow, Laura Bell Memorial Hospital looked whiter than normal that day… From down the street, a car streaks to the emergency side entrance, a man screams out, “My wife’s water just broke! Please help!”

“Scrub up, you Johnsons; we have a baby to deliver… Edwina will get you gowns and get her to the second floor…”

… The LBMH wing for whites.