Let’s be honest. Movies, today, aren’t just one step away from being left wing propaganda, they just plain suck.

We’ve gone from Dirty Harry to Jason Bourne (or whatever his name ended up being; the camera was too shaky for me to ever tell what was going on). We’ve gone from Humphrey Bogart to George Clooney.  We’ve gone from John Wayne fighting Indians to Na’vi fighting Americans.

But, don’t fret. For there is an answer to our problems, fellow film buffs. I know you’re six feet from that ledge, but let me give you hope…they are called books. They are these contraptions with bindings and pages with words on the inside. Together this all creates a story one hundred times more fulfilling than today’s dim-witted liberal flavor-of-the-month films.

Hollywood has always been a liberal town. They give us anti-Iraq war movie after anti-Iraq war movie despite the fact that they all flop at the box office. But what of the literary world?  They must surely share Hollywood’s contempt for conservatives and enriching stories, right? Wrong. The publishing world seems to get it, for the most part. They like to publish what sells and what seems to sell today are right-leaning stories.

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A WORD ON STEVE JOBS…

Jobs was not only a great man who changed the world for the better, he remains an example of how one person is capable of doing extraordinary things when he or she is lucky enough to be born and to grow up in a country that allows you to fulfill your potential.

When I think of a man like Jobs I think of the millions of abortions that have occurred in this country, our own history of slavery, and countries that to this very day restrict human potential, I wonder how many Steve Jobses weren’t allowed to reach and risk and dream. We can’t even begin to imagine the price humanity is paying for snuffing out the man or woman who would’ve cured cancer or ended world hunger or come up with something like the computer — something we haven’t dreamed of that would’ve changed everything.

Rest in peace, Steve Jobs. I don’t even know where to begin to thank you or the country who let you be you.

ANDREW KLAVAN’S ‘VERY SERIOUS COMMENTARY’ DEBUT… STIMULUS II

As some of you may already know, my pal Drew Klavan is now working for Glenn Beck TV where he continues the series of exceptional videos and commentaries he started at Pajamas Media, where he still blogs.

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Novelist Andrew Klavan wanted a break after penning his 2010 thriller “Empire of Lies,“ a grueling expose on liberal media bias in the Age of Terror.

“I had to do something different. I needed a change,“ Klavan says.

What Klavan got instead was a phone call imploring him to get back to work.

“Have you ever thought of writing a young adult novel?“ his publisher asked during an out of the blue cell phone conversation. The only other time Klavan had dabbled in the genre was while living in England. He recalled coming home every day from that gig telling his wife, “it was the most fun I ever had [writing].”

“I instantly said, ‘yes,‘” Klavan told his publisher, and the Homelanders series was born.

“The Final Hour,” the fourth and final book in the series following “The Last Thing I Remember,“ “The Long Way Home” and “The Truth of the Matter,“ finds young Charlie West trying to halt an impending terrorist attack. He’ll have to escape from prison, risk his life reclaiming lost memories and find enough people to believe he holds the key to stopping a jihadist assault on a major city.

Writing for a youthful audience required a different approach, but Klavan says that helped him broaden his range as a writer.

“It changed the vocabulary I used, and a lot of my attitudes … it limited the number of tools I had,” he says. “It’s always an exhilarating experience as an artist. You have these limitations and you have to make them work.”

Klavan, who grew up in Great Neck, Long Island, says he wanted to write for as long as he can remember.

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–FINAL CHAPTER OF ANDREW KLAVAN’S HOMELANDERS’ QUADROLOGY RELEASED TODAY–

A very well-written, page-turning adventure series for the kids. God, country and values are treated as good things. On the other hand, terrorism and narcissism are treated as bad things. I think the word we’re searching for in this upside day and age is: Iconoclastic.

You can order the book here. I recommend all four. Klavan’s an amazing talent who also happens to be on our side. What more could you possibly ask for. Did you just say a film based on the series?  Done.

Klavan blogs here and here.

–KEVIN COSTNER UP FOR VILLAIN ROLE IN NEW TARANTINO FLICK–

I’ve always liked Kevin Costner and was sorry to see his career all but derail 15 years ago with the triple-punch of the underrated “Waterworld,” the truly dreadful “Postman” (which even Tom Petty couldn’t save) and the stillborn “Wyatt Earp.”

Costner’s masculine, has a genuinely likable screen persona, and seems like a decent guy in real life — and in the right role he’s a very, very good actor. Try to picture someone else in “Field of Dreams,” “The Untouchables” or “Dances with Wolves.” You can argue he’s no Olivier ( I would counter with his unforgettable work in “A Perfect World), but at the same time he’s always managed to hold his own on screen with some powerful actors: James Earl Jones, Robert De Niro, Robert Duvall, Morgan Freeman, Sean Connery, etc — which is a talent all on its own.

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One of the benefits of living on the East Coast (besides being … home), is that it allows me a three-hour jump on Hollywood and the time needed to do what I hope will become a regular feature and, of course, forever change the face of Hollywood as we know it.

First off,  I would be remiss if I did not thank Associate Editor Alex Marlow and all the contributors who gave me great peace of mind during my cross-country move. Big Hollywood didn’t miss a step while I was away. A great job was done by all.  Also, a big, BIG thanks to Andrew Breitbart and his business partner Laurence Solov for simply saying “yes,” when I asked about moving home and, most importantly, for creating the kind of work environment I was eager to return to.

The Morning Call Sheet is planned as a new Monday through Friday feature that will be a sort-of summary/round up of the day’s big news from Hollywoodland, as well as other things as they come up. While the marquee is mostly devoted to the intersection of pop culture and politics, the Morning Call Sheet will give you a rundown of that as well as the day’s straight entertainment news. The hope here is to eventually turn this into a regular newsletter. With help and input from others, the Morning Call Sheet is likely to change and evolve over time. Meaning: tips and suggestions can either be noted in the comments or emailed to jnolte@breitbart.com.

But for now, it’s inauguration time…

–BOX OFFICE:

Transformers, Horrible Bosses, and The Zookeeper are doing well. As if movie stars aren’t already having enough trouble (see below), two star-driven vehicles have flopped miserably. The duo of Julia Roberts and Tom Hanks has already collapsed in week 2 and Jim Carrey’s latest is DOA in week 4.

–ANDREW KLAVAN’S FINAL CHAPTER OF HIS “HOMELANDER” SERIES, “THE FINAL HOUR,” IS ALREADY AVAILABLE AT AMAZON. SOME EARLY REVIEWS HERE.

The Homelander trilogy is not only an exciting, extremely well-written, page-turner of a series (even though they’re written for young adults, I read the first two with little difficulty), it’s the rare fiction novel any parent who believes in God, America, and the evil of terrorism can hand to a child without worrying that after they close the back cover, they will demand you throw away your 100 watt light bulbs.

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In a celebrated 2008 essay for the Village Voice, David Mamet made the startling announcement that he was “no longer a brain-dead liberal.” I think it only fair to mention here that I rejoiced. Mr. Mamet is a terrific playwright, maybe even a great one (“American Buffalo,” “Glengarry Glen Ross”) and a screenwriter of the first rank (“The Verdict,” “The Untouchables”). That a writer of such talent and stature had become a conservative seemed to me to promise some relief from the soporific political conformity of the American arts.

So I rejoiced—and I also sympathized. Breaking free of leftism while working in show business is like escaping from “The Matrix” only to find oneself in “Invasion of the Body Snatchers.” You wake to a risky but bracing new reality of individual liberty, limited government and free markets and are instantly beset by zombified statist dreamers determined either to make you rejoin their ranks or to destroy you. Mr. Mamet reports that a certain prominent left-leaning newspaper actually panned his first openly conservative play not once but twice for good measure. (Libertarian humorist Greg Gutfeld has introduced a “Mamet Attack Clock” on his late-night cable show to measure just how fast critics will now downgrade their opinions of the playwright’s work.)

Under such circumstances, it is natural that Mr. Mamet would develop the urge to cry out, like Kevin McCarthy in the famous last scene of “Body Snatchers”: “Listen to me! Please listen!” From that urge, no doubt, arises Mr. Mamet’s new work of nonfiction, “The Secret Knowledge.” It is his attempt to explain and disseminate the thinking behind his conversion to the right.

“Liberalism is a religion,” he writes. “It affords a feeling of spiritual rectitude at little or no cost. Central to this religion is the assertion that evil does not exist, all conflict being attributed to a lack of understanding between the opposed. Well and good, but this does not accord with the experience of anyone.”

Full article here.

You can purchase “The Secret Knowledge” here.

Author’s note: Informant Peter Patterson is on the run from the homicidal police lieutenant Brick Ramsey.  As he tries to escape through a storm-drenched city, he encounters an almost apocalyptic disaster.

He drove north through the empty city.  He drove slowly, careful of the storm.  The pavement was slick where it was level and there were troughs and hollows where deep puddles gathered, where the water thundered against the undercarriage and gripped the tires of the old car as they passed through.

As he got away from downtown, the streets grew even darker around him.  It took him a while to notice it:  the electricity here was out.  He looked past the laboring wipers.  He saw rainswept boulevards empty as alleyways, storefronts boarded against the tempest.  He was glad to be inside and warm with the heater on.  The unreasoning urgency in him—the anxious conviction that he had just been in some kind of danger—was already beginning to recede.  Maybe he’d just spooked himself.  Maybe he’d just let his nerves get the better of him.

He turned on the radio.  Hoping for some news, some voices for company.  Nothing came out but static.  He pressed the scan button and listened as the tuner automatically ran the band.  Still nothing but that hiss, end to end, that hiss with broken fragments of words in it like men sending messages from the belly of a snake.

Look at this.  Look at this.

The hollowed brownstones.  The vacant businesses.  The broken windows like phantoms’ eyes.  He was in the north now, at the edge of the neighborhoods.  He was thinking:  The wages of sin. (more…)

There’s a reason Andrew Klavan has seen two of his classic suspense novels turned into big name Hollywood movies – he is simply one of this country’s best writers.  His latest, The Identity Man is a masterwork by an author clearly at the top of his game. 

It is hard to choose where to begin because there is so much to praise in this deftly plotted and incredibly well written thriller. 

What grabbed me from the start was Andrew’s style.  It’s smart, hard, slick, gritty and real.  When he sets his scenes, he does so with a brilliant economy that puts the reader right there, right then.  A perfect example comes at the very beginning of the novel: 

“The rain spat and whispered against the madcam as if it were falling in an empty field.  At moments, when the wind subsided, you could hear the stoplights changing color.  You could see them swaying there above the intersections, one gleaming circle of red after another in the storm-streaked dark.” 

While his descriptions of what’s happening outside his characters are superb, Andrew is just as talented when describing what is happening inside those figures – their angst, their panic, their cynicism and hope. 

At its rapidly beating heart, this intelligent, fast-paced novel is about redemption and those who lie beyond it.   (more…)

Author’s Note: Two time loser John Shannon agrees to go in on a robbery with psychopath Benny Torrence.  Just as they get to the money, everything goes bad—and Shannon does something that will change his life forever. 

A floorboard creaked on the landing.  Shannon tensed, his hand frozen reaching for the cash.  He turned to see Benny’s dark shape likewise frozen by the door.  In their silence, they heard light footsteps running on the hall carpet.  All the pieces—all the half-acknowledged thoughts—fell into place in Shannon’s mind and he understood:  There was someone in the house.  There had been someone in the house all along.  That’s why he’d seen a glow at the door.  The someone must have heard them break in.  The someone must have turned the light off in order to hide his own presence.  Now the someone was trying to get to the stairway and escape.

For another second, Shannon hoped things might still turn out all right.  All they had to do was let the someone go.  Then they could grab the money and get out of here before the police showed up.  Even with Benny’s supercharged engine roaring for all the world to hear, they might still get away without being spotted.

But then Benny moved—and he moved so fast Shannon had no time to stop him or even call out.  His shadow flashed through the door like a streak of black lightning.  When he flashed back he had the someone in his hands.

It was a woman.  Benny was gripping her by the throat.  He shoved her up against the wall hard, hard enough to make the room shudder.  He shone his flashlight in her face and then down the whole length of her.  She was in her twenties, very pretty, with a curvy figure pressing through her blouse and skirt.  In the outglow of the flashlight beam, Shannon could see Benny’s bright eyes and the teeth in his fierce smile as he breathed over her.  His breath was a low, laughing growl of triumph and desire.

Shannon jumped to his feet.  He shone his own flashlight on Benny, the blue beam crossing with the white beam in the dark.

“What the hell’re you doing?  Let her go,” he said in a harsh whisper. (more…)

“When I finished writing Empire of Lies I looked into the mirror and said, ‘Son, you’re never going to win another writer’s award.” Successful novelist, screenwriter and political/cultural pundit Andrew Klavan grins at me over his coffee in a decidedly left-of-center “enemy camp” coffee house. Meeting with Klavan in a place like Studio City’s Aroma Café makes me feel like Patton’s Third Army has just shown up to support my tiny and outnumbered rifle squad.

Empire of Lies is Klavan’s fast-paced, gritty novel that features a conservative Christian protagonist who uncovers an extremist Muslin plot to kill hundreds, but can’t convince a duplicitous media of the terrible truth. Think of it as a kind of North by Northwest meets the War on Terror.  The 2008 political thriller was a daring poke in the eye to the elitist New York and Hollywood left. His flawed heroes are part of what sets his writing apart. They’re made of flesh and blood with their own personal failings. “That’s my nature, I can’t write them any other way.”

Klavan’s erudite style and gutsy prose in books and screenplays like True Crimes, Don’t Say a Word, The Animal Hour, Corruption, Dynamite Road and the recently released Identity Man have earned him dazzling reviews, incredible sales, prestigious writing awards and international acclaim. His popular and no-holds-barred young adult series The Homelander, deals with the exploits of a teenager who wakes up to find himself in a radical Muslim United States and fights back.     

“As a writer you’re artist and business man. You are your business, but you have to speak the truth, too.  In the past I’d get two-hundred reviews on any of my other books, all great. Empire of Lies got one major review, which accused me of being a right-wing crackpot. Can I prove that happened because the central character is a conservative Christian and the bad guys are the media and Islamic jihadists?  No, but it all seems pretty strange.” 

Last year Klavan caused more than a few Hollywood lefties to choke on their morning croissants when he published a Los Angeles Times opinion piece dealing with the liberal blacklisting of film industry conservatives. Several so-called Hollywood journalists attacked Klavan demanding proof with a snooty attitude of, “We all know that conservative writers and filmmakers are just not as creative as liberals.”  (more…)

#24: The Uninvited (1944)

Roderick (Ray Milland), a music critic and fledgling composer, and his sister Pamela (Ruth Hussey) have escaped the stuffy city of London for a vacation along the rocky, wave-crashing English seaside when they happen upon a vacant, near-Gothic mansion, fall in love with it on the spot and on a whim decide to see if they can convince the owner to sell. Rather than feel wary when Commander Beech (Donald Crisp) immediately agrees to unload the place for an absurdly low price, the duo thanks their lucky stars and embrace the move as the first step towards the simpler life they’ve always dreamed of – something that only ever seems possible in the movies.

Just as soon as Roderick and Pamela move in, two unexpected things happen. The first is Stella, the Commander’s daughter, a luminously gorgeous and fragile Gail Russell … and then there’s the sobbing. Because he’s a healthy, heterosexual male, Roderick’s immediately smitten with Stella and they begin a forbidden romance behind the back of her stern, sheltering father; less troubling, at least at first, is the eerie sound of an unseen woman crying that fills the old house night after night. Needless to say, mysterious pasts and age-old scandals will all require some unraveling in order to bust this particular ghost.

“The Uninvited” must be watched in the evening with the lights off and preferably alone. The spell it casts is almost immediate, as the moody atmosphere and ethereal intrigue slowly catch you off guard until the hairs on your arms are standing straight up. (more…)

My pal Andrew Klavan surprised me with his review of “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” and not just because everything was spelled correctly. What caught me off guard was his description of the Swedish mystery/thriller as a “bucket-load of socialist-feminist tripe and propaganda” that takes place in “one big leftist fantasy world.” Klavan’s 100% correct but believe or not, I saw the movie just a few months ago and missed all that. For reasons that make perfect sense, I’m well aware that most everyone pictures me at screenings with notebook in hand and pen at the ready to record and raise hell over anything political. But that’s just not the case.

Like any true-blue movie fan, as the lights dim my silent prayer is offered up to the mighty movie gods asking them to bring the awesome, and if that prayer’s answered, if the filmmakers know what they’re doing, my getting too lost in their world to take notice of socialist-feminist tripe is quite possible. What will pop my radar are moments of bad storytelling, especially when those moments arrive in the form of ham-handed political messaging.

Propagandist junk like the bug-eyed Colonel who lets the Iraqi prisoner bleed to death in “The Hurt Locker,” is a good example. Another is the jelly beans director Phillip Noyce placed on the President’s desk in “A Clear and Present Danger.” Gee, ya think the Prez will end up being corrupt? That kind of off-story and unnecessary stupidity jolts me out of a movie and pisses me off both as a film lover and an American.

After reading Klavan’s take on “Tattoo” I gave it another look, this time on DVD, and have to say that once again the story was so consuming that the politics washed right over me. Same goes for my pretty wife, who’s to the right of me and yet loved the film so much that we dashed out to a theatre to see the sequel, “The Girl Who Played with Fire,” the very next day. I bought her popcorn, she let me hold her hand. It was nice. (more…)

For over a year, Big Hollywood contributors have been documenting Hollywood’s intolerance towards all things conservative — both when it comes to our ideas being given a fair shake in the industry’s product and, most importantly, the intolerance towards individuals whose beliefs stray from the liberal plantation. Again and again, people have come to us to share the stories of how their social and political beliefs hurt their show business careers in ways both big and small. And to their great credit, most of these individuals have said so on the record; with their names and faces prominently displayed in the upper left-hand corner of their Big Hollywood testimony.

Without fail, every single time someone tells their story here, the insulting snark hits from every corner of the web, dismissing out of hand our ever growing list of witnesses to this new blacklist. Sure, the Gawkers and the Farkers are entitled to their fun. They peddle in shallow superiority and there are plenty of buyers. Welcome to Al Gore’s creation.

Lately, however, Patrick Goldstein, a film writer at the L.A. Times, has been taking his own partisan shots. Tuesday, after Jonathan Kahn came out in the Wall Street Journal, there was this:

[I]t’s seems like quite a stretch to say that Kahn’s politics have held him back. But that’s what all too many conservatives do. They put the blame for their stalled careers on liberal Hollywood, when lack of marketable talent might be a far more likely source for the problem.

What’s curious about this argument regarding Kahn needing “marketable talent” is how Goldstein willfully ignored this part of the WSJ story:

One person stunned to hear of Mr. Kahn’s double life as a tea-party troubadour is top Hollywood record producer and Grammy Award-winner Walter Afanasieff. The two have worked on projects for years and are now midway through writing and producing an album for a young singer.

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The dream of every young filmmaker is to have one of their cinematic idols watch their work and respond positively. Nothing would make me happier than to get that praising phone call from Steven Spielberg (pre-”Munich” Spielberg of course). So imagine the slow creeping disappointment at the nether regions of my soul when I clicked on Andrew Klavan’s blog to see an article in which he disagrees with me.

Not merely a disagreement on the issues mind you. No, the article is specifically a response to my review of the film “Kick Ass.” Andrew Klavan disagrees with ME.

I admire and respect Andrew Klavan. He’s one of the writers who inspired me to not only push for a spot at Big Hollywood, but to out myself as the “dangerous right-wing nut job” that I am. After all, I figured, if he could brave the backlash from the industry, I too could certainly afford to lose a few gigs and a few dates. (more…)

Hollywood’s favorite examples of how “evil” conservatives are, and how “wrong” the 1950s were, is the Blacklist and the McCarthy hearings, even though they were unrelated. It’s a popular theme in many films and TV shows that the Red Scare was a bad, bad thing. The act of making communists, who wanted to destroy and subvert our way of life, out to be villains, has been maligned and pilloried for years. Yet these events that America is supposed to be ashamed of only lasted a few years and was the work of a mere handful of people. Ladies and Gentlemen, let me turn your attention to a worse case of rampant bigotry, phobia and persecution. I am referring of course to the New Red Scare…  Hollywood’s rampant hate mongering of the Red States and Middle America.

You want cliched stereotypes? You want blacklists? You want cruel and vicious hate speech? You want people revealing their dark hearts for all to see? You want to see fanatics spewing bile like possessed, head spinning, profanity spouting Linda Blair imitators? Well, step night up! It’s almost a daily occurrence in Tinseltown. Check out the celebrity rags and blogs. In the allegedly “tolerant” and “inclusive” City of Angeles it’s perfectly PC to show your hatred for anyone who doesn’t toe the leftist line. Yes, even people who are apolitical or libertarian who happen to merely dissent from the progressive hive mind, they too are judged!

Forget the screeching TV evangelists calling people sinners; they have nothing on the judgement that flows like a river of sewer waste from Tinsel Town. Hollywood’s TV and films have been bashing on average Americans going back to Green Acres. Green Acres was the way Hollywood saw the flyover states. A bunch of ignorant, inbred hicks with no electricity or indoor plumbing. Something to be mocked to canned laughter. Times have changed, but only for the worse. (more…)

I read kids’ books because the fun the author had writing shines through and drips from the pages. I think that’s the secret behind the Chronicles of Narnia, Harry Potter and Percy Jackson and the Olympians series. Kids and adults enjoy reading what authors enjoy writing. 

I was reminded of this a couple months ago when I read author Andrew Klavan’s “The Long Way Home,” second book of his The Homelanders series. You can read the first chapter here on BH. The series centers on high school student Charlie West, who wakes up one morning to a world turned upside down. The last year of his life has been erased from memory, and he’s running from police for a murder he didn’t commit. He’s also running – for his life – from a terrorist group called the Homelanders, who claim he’s a former member and want to silence him. Faced with prison from one side and death from the other, Charlie must rely on his karate black belt, a few high school friends and his faith to maneuver the fog of uncertainty surrounding him and discover the truth. 

“The Long Way Home” is a fast-paced read that feels like you are watching the opening sequences of “Casino Royale” over and over again. For example, the book starts: “The man with the knife was a stranger. I never saw him before he tried to kill me.” It doesn’t let up from there.  (more…)

—–

Tuesday morning Nikki Finke posted Andrew Klavan’s online interview (above) with CNSNews where the successful novelist and screenwriter (and my pal) – who just had his Homelander series optioned by Summit – discussed, among other things, the difficulties conservatives face working or looking to work in a very liberal Tinseltown. Finke’s opening comment pretty much confirm Klavan’s:

Sure, this has long been the complaint from Hollywood Republicans. But I’ve witnessed the atmosphere out here becoming far less toxic for politically conservative or religious right or other non-liberal Industry types.

“Less toxic.” What a relief.  Tolerant, open-minded Hollywood sure has come a long way.

Of course, Finke then goes out of her way to contribute to this admitted toxicity, closing her piece with the spreading of  the provably false claim that Klavan “characterizes his liberal biz counterparts as ‘Anti-American’.”

That’s a helluva charge to make against Klavan. But… (more…)

Charlie West went to bed one night an ordinary high school student. He woke up a hunted man. Terrorists are trying to kill him. The police want to arrest him for the stabbing death of his best friend. He doesn’t know whose side he’s one or who he can trust. With his pursuers closing in on every side, Charlie makes his way back to his hometown to find some answers. There, holed up in an abandoned mansion, he’s joined by his friends in a desperate attempt to discover the truth about a murder he can’t remember-and the love he can never forget.

 Chapter One
The Killer In The Mirror – Part 2 

You have to understand:  a trained man with a knife is as deadly as anything, even more dangerous in some ways than a man with a gun.  You might grab a gun.  You might wrestle it away.  But you can’t get hold of a knife without getting cut.  And if the knife-man knows what he’s doing, he can carve you up with a blade just as fast as a bullet.

And this guy knew what he was doing all right.  All the karate training in the world wasn’t going to save me if I didn’t act fast and act smart.  If I fell and he came down on top of me, I’d be dead in seconds.

I knew it even as I was falling.  The panic raced through my belly.  The thoughts raced through my head:  I have to do something. (more…)

Charlie West went to bed one night an ordinary high school student. He woke up a hunted man. Terrorists are trying to kill him. The police want to arrest him for the stabbing death of his best friend. He doesn’t know whose side he’s one or who he can trust. With his pursuers closing in on every side, Charlie makes his way back to his hometown to find some answers. There, holed up in an abandoned mansion, he’s joined by his friends in a desperate attempt to discover the truth about a murder he can’t remember-and the love he can never forget.

Chapter One
The Killer In The Mirror – Part 1 

The man with the knife was a stranger.  I never saw him before he tried to kill me.

I was in the Whitney Library when it happened, about seven miles from my hometown of Spring Hill.  I’d been there for about forty-five minutes.  I had come with a plan—a plan to clear my name, to get free, to get home to my family and out of danger.  Now I had to leave.  It wasn’t safe for me to stay in any one place for very long.

I was in the main research room on the library’s second floor.  I went down the hall and pushed into the men’s room.  I took off my black fleece and hung it on the door of one of the stalls.  Then, wearing just my jeans and black t-shirt, I stood at the sink and splashed cold water on my face. (more…)

Part 1:

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