Seven Two

The Penn State scandal that erupted in November 2011 added a big incentive to finish drafting Seven Two after Book 1 of the novel had been completed in October 2011. The pipenozzle.com post titled "of cowards and firefighters" generated 1825 pageviews on November 20, 2011, and remains the post with the greatest number of views.After that, the contrast between Spanier's cowardice at Penn State and the values of fire service courage was bigger than ever and the book finished itself by answering this question: At an emergency, would you rather have a high school educated firefighter at your back or Graham Spanier and his ilk? And therein lies the central paradox of the narrative. Blue collar, working class firefighters and medics would not hesitate to risk or give their lives for another if necessary. The National Fire Protection Association estimates 80,000 firefighters are injured each year. But highly education academics who venerate intellectual and creative freedom run away from defending a colleague from being fired for First Amendment use--at least those I knew at Oregon State University when Spanier worked there as provost. The offense is compounded when the colleague being attacked teaches writing.But don't worry, Seven Two, has plenty of action. The first two books in the narrative embellish old fireground stories and add new stories with more detail than I've used elsewhere. Much more. You'll read about working fires from a backyard shed to a furniture store to a board of education building, about firefighting in summer and winter, about firefighting embedded in history from the Pequot War to the Chelsea conflagration, about firefighters and medics as the first line of defense in civilization against the never ending threats of natural disaster and human stupidity.The third book in Seven Two brings one of those firefighters into direct confrontation with Graham Spanier and Sandra Spanier and corruption at Oregon State University. There the firefighter had to make a simple choice to defend or reject the values he lived in the fire service as well as defend or reject the First Amendment, the first line of defense against tyranny in civilization (contrary to what Second Amendment fans argue). He could have shut up to get along and go along, say nothing like his co-workers, allow Spanier and his cronies get away with treating him like a second class citizen. But this is no choir boy morality tale. Any firefighter instinctively helps people, hates bullies, and can not fathom people like Spanier who act with the blind self-interest of an arsonist, or worse--people who stand by, say the hell with Voltaire, and sure as hell would not even put their jobs in jeopardy defending the First Amendment. Little wonder Spanier got away with what he did at Penn State for so long.But no, Seven Two is not a roman à clef any more than Malamud's A New Life was a roman à clef. For all you literary types who want a category, try this: working class picaresque historical narrative. You can also call it a book that unifies themes from my other work, puts short work back into context and connects it all again. Someone recently called me a writer with varied interest. But they're all connected and always have been.