A to Z: B for Boyhood

Boyhood is a time of innocence, a reverie, the short-lived golden age of youth that we look back on with the fondness of nostalgia. We try hard to remember, and our memories are tinged with self-serving aggrandizement -- all the games we played, the tears we cried, all the lessons learned, the mistakes made, the loves won and lost. Boyhood leads slowly into manhood, and many men wistfully call themselves "old boys" and hope to retain the luster of youth long past the days when the grass was really greener. Hope springs eternal, and at this time of year it's difficult not to feel a bounce and catch a whiff of the heedlessness and carefree days of the past, that foreign country where they speak a different language and do things differently, to paraphrase.

In SAVIOR, Ricky Lyons, Al's son, is that paragon of boyhood, an athlete and a scholar. His father has hopes for his perfection which are just dreams of extending his own glory and reconquering the ecstatic joys of those never-to-return days.

Ricky has struggled with developing his own personhood and ambitions, a conflict that has led him to the depths of suicidal ideation and self-hate. But in Guatemala, he finds an inner peace while the two, father and son, wrestle with the big waves of the Pacific in the surfing town of Monterico. Now he sees he is stronger than his father, but curiously, he needs him more than ever, and when Al is taken prisoner by the Santos Muertos, Ricky dedicates himself to finding and saving his father, a quest that will lead him through the underbelly of the Americas to the Santos Muertos compound deep beneath the Canadian oil tar belt. This is a coming of age journey like no other, and in the end we will know, as will Ricky, the true meaning of heroism and sacrifice.

SAVIOR will be published April 18th on the Amazon Kindle platform by Harvard Square Editions. Visit the SAVIOR page on the HSE website, and then check back here throughout the A to Z challenge month to learn more about SAVIOR and publication launch details.