THE BLOG: Growing Up Boomer

THE WILLOW CHRONICLE (Prelude)

Disconnected and Drifting is a novel duo: one volume composed of two novels. Disconnected is the prelude novel to The Willow Chronicle, the first novel in the book, and the novel that earned a

5-Star editorial review by

 Self-Publishing Review.

CLICK TO READ THE FIRST PAGES OF

DISCONNECTED

Drifting is a bonus novel in which, in a cameo role, Willow “Billie” Benton is first introduced to The Willow Chronicle. 

From Flo: "Please be advised that Disconnected and Drifting is a gritty read. Readers in the 21st Century may find offensive some of 1950s language and actions I have recorded. I was born in the 1940s, and although but a child in the 1950s, I was a very observant child, and as such, I can attest that during the two years in which this novel duo is set, what you will be reading is language I heard firsthand. The misogynistic language you will read mimics that which I often heard directed at my mother by my father, as well as the abusive language (and the physical abuse described) that my father directed at me and my brother. The racially offensive language that is included herein is what I remember often hearing adults use when they spoke about African Americans. In addition to my actual memories, the sexual and other behaviors of Jerry and Vivian Peterman mirror what I read in a journal I discovered after my mother’s death, a journal she kept from 1958 to 1961 at the behest of a therapist at a time when she was struggling to avoid suicide, a struggle that she managed to overcome. I am confident that what you will be reading faithfully reflects the words and actions that an unknown number of white, middle-class families endured, usually, but not always, behind closed doors during one of the most opaque decades of the 20th Century." 

Disconnected begins as a police drama set in Lewes on the Delaware Bay, which focuses on the murder of two young boys; the story also explores why Carl Meyers —  Lewes Police Chief and Willow Benton’s father —  decides to leave Lewes in search of Willow's mother, Laura Benton, who had left Meyers without a trace in 1939. 

Drifting, the second novel in the novel duo, is the story of Carl Meyers' search for his wife and Willow's mother, Laura Benton. His search leads him to Port Townsend on the Olympic Peninsula where his experience as a police chief ropes him into becoming involved in the investigation of three murders. Willow Benton is introduced in two cameo appearances as Drifting reveals how Willow's parents' reunion has consequences that inspire the subsequent volumes of the WILLOW CHRONICLE. 

THE WILLOW CHRONICLE, VOL. 2

Whirlwinds, Waves, and Willow is a character-driven work of "New Adult" Literary Fiction. It begins in 1956, when 17-year-old Willow Benton finds her hometown — Port Townsend on Washington's Olympic Peninsula — has become claustrophobic due to the arrival of her father. Her mother had told her he had died in WW II. Bambi Macey, a year older, has her own problem: an unwanted pregnancy. It is the start of an epic journey when the two girls decide to run away to the South Pacific aboard a stolen 60-ft yawl.

From the 5 STAR ONLINE BOOK CLUB Review:

 “Whirlwinds, Waves and Willow” is a beautifully crafted story ... From the start, this author’s expert writing is evidenced by the way the story completely engrosses a reader in it ... Following the lives of the characters was made easy, thanks to the proper character development in the book. Willow’s rebellion with her new friend, Bambi, is typical of their ages; Laura’s dissatisfaction with her husband and (his) reactions to all these happenings, coupled with the death of his best friend, made relating to the characters very natural. The way emotions flowed from one character to the next made relating to the story easy and made me eager to learn what happens next. This was crucial to the overall excitement the story contained.

The mystery element of this book was what I enjoyed the most. There was no unnecessary bombardment of characters to conceal the culprit in the aspect of "who-done-it,” and I appreciate such straightforwardness. This eliminated any sense of bloat in the story while streamlining it in a way that never felt tiring. The suspense did not feel too dragged on and the elements that led to it did not seem redundant. All these are testaments to expert and mature storytelling, and I commend the author for taking the time to do that.

When it came to describing the boats at sea, most of the references used would only be understood by people familiar with sailing, a demographic I don’t fall under. As a result, I was thrown overboard in this aspect. Besides this, there was no other aspect of this book that I did not like, leading me to rate it 5 out of 5 stars. My limited knowledge of sailing narrowed my enjoyment, which was in no way the fault of the book. Additionally, the proper editing, with just a couple of typos, adds to the book’s professional attributes. There's a lot of mystery, sailing and elements of romance in this book. Readers who enjoy such topics would appreciate it a lot. 

From the Self-Publishing Review: "The narrative is remarkably detailed and well-researched, seamlessly diving into nautical terminology and sailing lingo that feels authentic and colloquial. From multilayered narrative musings and creative descriptive passages to explosions of raw emotion that reveal the unbridled ugliness of human nature, there is attention to nuance in every aspect of the prose. This captivating story is an ambitious, unpredictable, and undaunted examination into the dark corners of human connection, resulting in an intimate and revelatory novel."  

THE WILLOW CHRONICLE, VOL. 3

All but the last book in the Willow Chronicle comprise an epic "New Adult" coming of age saga.  

At Sea and Found and Lost in Paradise comprise the account of the months when Willow "Billie" Benton and Brittany "Bambi" Macey run off to the South Pacific.

Each of these novels can stand alone; however, together they tell the story of two young American women who begin a great adventure in 1956 by escaping from the puritanical world of small town America to what they hope is a liberating world of French Polynesia aboard a stolen, 60-foot yawl. 

The two women — Willow "Billie" Benton and Brittany "Bambi" Macey — endure tumultuous months that erase whatever remains of their adolescent innocence. Under the mentorship of Oliana Teriierooiterai, the last  Marquesan Chieftainess on Hiva Oa, Willow and Bambi learn to cope with a world where the only restraints to satisfying their desires are consent and imagination. 

The inclusion of significant doses of greed and betrayal, a touch of cannibalism, and a beautiful and faithful mahu — a third gender person named Mahana who becomes a friend and lover to both Billie and Bambi — creates a story set in a world that is far different from the America that Billie and Bambi have left behind. 

But the greater world remains, and it is a world to which they must return, a world where they learn that conflicts are resolved by fate, courage, perseverance, and a strategic return.

THE WILLOW CHRONICLE, VOL. 4

All but the last book in the Willow Chronicle comprise an epic "New Adult" coming of age saga.  comprised of At Sea and Found and Lost in Paradise. 

At Sea and Found and Lost in Paradise comprise the account of the months when Willow "Billie" Benton and Brittany "Bambi" Macey run off to the South Pacific.

Each of these novels can stand alone; however, together they tell the story of two young American women who begin a great adventure in 1956 by escaping from the puritanical world of small town America to what they hope is a liberating world of French Polynesia aboard a stolen, 60-foot yawl. 

The two women — Willow "Billie" Benton and Brittany "Bambi" Macey — endure tumultuous months that erase whatever remains of their adolescent innocence. Under the mentorship of Oliana Teriierooiterai, the last  Marquesan Chieftainess on Hiva Oa, Willow and Bambi learn to cope with a world where the only restraints to satisfying their desires are consent and imagination. 

The inclusion of significant doses of greed and betrayal, a touch of cannibalism, and a beautiful and faithful mahu — a third gender person named Mahana who becomes a friend and lover to both Billie and Bambi — creates a story set in a world that is far different from the America that Billie and Bambi have left behind. 

But the greater world remains, and it is a world to which they must return, a world where they learn that conflicts are resolved by fate, courage, perseverance, and a strategic return.

TTHE WILLOW CHRONICLE, VOL. 5

All but the last book in the Willow Chronicle comprise an epic "New Adult" coming of age saga.  

Click this link to read the Book Commentary 5-Star, Literary Review

of Consummate Confidences. 

 Set in 1957 and inspired by Charles Dickens’ reflection on the hidden mysteries within every human heart, Consummate Confidences weaves together hidden secrets, murder, organized crime, and deeply interconnected lives to create a layered mystery that keeps questioning every character's motives. 

The novel weaves an intricate web of relationships, moral complexities, and the tension created by organized crime, personal loyalties, and carefully guarded secrets into its historical setting, while it examines themes of personal freedom, sexual repression, and the lasting influence of the past, including the cultural realities of a transformative period in history: America after World War II.  

At the center of Consummate Confidences is Brittany “Bambi” Macey, a new mother, scandal survivor, and reluctant investigator. With echoes of Dickens’ reflections on mystery within every human life, this novel is intended to pull readers into a world where every heart harbors secrets and where some individuals kill to preserve them. While Macey attempts to rebuild her life in her father’s vacant house with her infant daughter, Becca, she must also reconcile her sexual identity, which clashes with the conservative societal norms of the era and complicates her intimate relationships, an identity that has been influenced by months spent immersed in Polynesian culture along with Willow “Billie” Benton, the principal protagonist in The Willow Chronicle.

Affecting Macey’s challenges is the encompassing worry about the long-overdue return of Willow’s yawl from Honolulu, a worry about which Macey commiserates with Carl Meyers (Willow Benton’s father). Meanwhile, what the Seattle Press has coined “The Waters Edge Murders,” apparently related murders of young women in Seattle and Port Townsend, threaten to unravel PT’s veneer of tranquility. 

Meyers is a former Baltimore cop who grew up in Baltimore’s Little Italy as a progeny of one of Mobtown’s principal crime families. He was once married to Laura Benton, Willow’s mother and a progeny of another crime family that is the arch rival of Meyer’s family. Having divorced Laura, Meyers is now the committed partner of Mirabelle Rhodes, a Klallam woman and the former wife of Meyers’ murdered Marine Brother. Rhodes is a passionate woman who has an uncanny ability to ferret out the essence of secrets that comprise the insidious foundations of small towns like Port Townsend. 

Meyers and Rhodes have been providing Macey and Becca with unconditional support, the origin of which is their acceptance of a months-long relationship between Macey and Willow (that is portrayed in previous volumes of The Willow Chronicle). And as the story develops, Rhodes, Meyers, and Bambi become entangled in the investigation of a secret and years-long web of sexual intrigue perpetrated by a small group of young women; in the criminal plans of the New York Mafia’s Five Families to which the Baltimore Crew and Laura Benton are linked; and in a web of intimacy that the needy hearts of Macey, Meyers, and Rhodes have spun. 

 The story culminates in a set of dramatic events: Willow is pulled from her drifting yawl and saved from starvation, the Water’s Edge Murders are solved and the killers apprehended, and illusions and a murder are used to satisfy the illicit expectations of the Five Families. And beneath Port Townsend’s idyllic veneer, Macey, Meyers, and Rhodes agree to maintain a secret that explains the web of intimacy which binds them together, a consummate confidence they will maintain as long as each draws breath.  

From Charles Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities: 

A wonderful fact to reflect upon, that every human creature is constituted to be that profound secret and mystery to every other. A solemn consideration, when I enter a great city by night, that every one of those darkly clustered houses encloses its own secret: that every room in every one of them encloses its own secret; that every beating heart in the hundreds of thousands of breasts there, is, in some of its imaginings, a secret to the heart nearest it! 

 THE WILLOW CHRONICLE, VOL. 6

All but the last book in the Willow Chronicle comprise an epic "New Adult" coming of age saga. 

Click this link to read the Book Commentary 5-Star, Literary Review

of The Long Run to Love.   

 At a time when America has a right foot stuck in the congealed mores of the 1950s and a tentative left toe dipping into what is becoming the boiling stew of the 1960s, a chance meeting between two accomplished young women — Willow “Billie” Benton and Sidai “Sid” Ackroyd — becomes a love affair for the ages in The Long Run to Love. The novel carries the weight of an era in upheaval, the ache of two women navigating a world that is not ready for them, and the fierce, unrelenting hope that love can survive even the most turbulent of times.   

 At its core, this is a sweeping, ambitious, and deeply human exploration of what it means to be a responsible human at a time when longstanding norms are under fierce attack. The author understands that love is never just about two people; it is about the world that shapes them, the forces that try to tear them apart, and the courage it takes to choose connection over conformity. That understanding has been rendered with such emotional depth, historical richness, and narrative ambition that it feels less like reading a novel and more like living through an era alongside characters who will stay with you long after the final page. 

 Billie and Sid are not presented as perfect heroes or simple lovers; instead, they are revealed as complex, accomplished, deeply human women who are navigating a world that is only beginning to question its own rigidities. The emotional burden of this book is carried by moments like the shared national trauma of JFK's assassination, which drives Billie and Sid into a deeper emotional dependence upon one another, and the murder-suicide of a lawyer and his life partner, which forces Sid to return to England. In those moments, The Long Run to Love demonstrates that love is not just about the joy of connection but about the grief of separation, the courage to endure, and the resilience required to keep choosing each other when the world seems determined to pull you apart. . 

 When macro issues like Civil Rights, political assassinations, and the Biafran Airlift are woven together with micro issues like divorce, personal threats driven by racism and the hovering specter of sodomy laws, a tapestry is created that is both epic and intimate, a story that captures the spirit of an era while remaining deeply and achingly personal. 

 This book feels incredibly important right now, when the struggle for love, identity, and acceptance is as urgent as it has ever been. It honors the complexity of love in all its forms, acknowledges the historical context that shapes our lives, and it serves as a testament to the enduring power of love to survive even the most challenging circumstances; offering hope without denying the darkness. The Long Run to Love is for the reader who believes in the transformative power of love, for the person who appreciates richly drawn historical fiction, and for anyone who has ever felt that the world was not ready for who they are. This book is a gift for those who are ready to be transported, to be moved, and to be reminded that love, in all its complexity, is always worth the run. 

 The Long Run to Love is for the reader who believes in the transformative power of love, for the person who appreciates richly drawn historical fiction, and for anyone who has ever felt that the world was not ready for who they are. This book is a gift for those who are ready to be transported, to be moved, and to be reminded that love, in all its complexity, is always worth the run.  

THE WILLOW CHRONICLE 

VOLUME 7

THIS NOVEL IS CURRENTLY UNDER CONSTRUCTION

Prologue 

(Borrowed from the last pages of

The Long Run to Love)

11 Gramercy Park South

Manhattan

1970

During the days that followed my visit to Port Townsend, I distanced myself as much as I could from Pinctada,[1] and began to think about what lay ahead for me. Something Sidai[2] had whispered to me in a dream was a suggestion that might provide a significant distraction from obsessing about her loss. It would be a challenge I could dedicate to her; the challenge of sailing the Ultima Thule from Port Townsend, around the Horn, and up the Atlantic to what I expect will become my home base: Manhattan. 

The voyage will cover roughly twenty-thousand miles and take more than five months with stops to reprovision along the way. I will need a crew of five, each of whom would be willing to join me for six weeks of training and participation in reconditioning the Ultima Thule[3] before embarking. 

Considering how to recruit a crew became revelatory when I learned, competitive collegiate sailing for women had mushroomed in the 1960s, with a first national championship held in 1967. This gave me the idea to contact the coaches of women’s sailing teams to see if they might be able to recommend young women who might wish to postpone a year of college — all expenses paid with a weekly allowance to boot — in order to join me on this great adventure. 

The response to my queries has been overwhelming, and I’m currently in the midst of going through dozens of letters and resumes from interested young women who are competitive sailors from schools like Wilson, Radcliffe, Pembroke, Boston University, Wellesley College and more. The five girls I select to join me are certain to have the adventure of their lives. 

As I know full well from my own experience, testing oneself, one’s crewmates, and one’s boat during a voyage across thousands of miles of ocean is a life-affirming experience unequaled by anything else I might imagine. And I know my Dear One will be with me in spirit the entire way, and with her in my heart, the voyage to come will serve as a worthy commencement for whatever challenges remain for me before my final sunset.
   

[1] Willow Benton is the Founder and CEO of Pinctada Holding LLC, a multinational corporation involved in shipping, shipbuilding and resort development around the globe.

[2] Dr Sidai Ackroyd, a British economist and author who was Willow Benton’s significant other until Sidai was killed in 1969 while delivering food by helicopter at an airfield near Calabar, during the Biafran Airlift. 

[3] The Ultima Thule is Willow Benton’s 60-foot, 29-ton, steel-hulled yawl, which was christened as such based upon Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's

  Ultima Thule, a dedication to G.W.G.

With favoring winds, o’er sunlit seas,

We sailed for the Hesperides,

The land where golden apples grow;

But that, ah! that was long ago.

How far, since then, the ocean streams

Have swept us from that land of dreams,

That land of fiction and of truth,

The lost Atlantis of our youth!

Whither, ah, whither? Are not these

The tempest-haunted Orcades,

Where sea-gulls scream, and breakers roar,

And wreck and sea-weed line the shore?

Ultima Thule! Utmost Isle!

Here in thy harbors for a while

We lower our sails; a while we rest

From the unending, endless quest.

THE WILLOW CHRONICLE 

VOLUME "LAST"

If time and life allows, the author hopes there will be additional volumes written for The Willow Chronicle that will precede this "last" volume.

 The Deepest Abyss is the last episode of The Willow Chronicle, which begins in 1955 in Lewes, Delaware, and concludes there in 2016. In the intervening years, Willow "Billie" Benton, has traveled the world in vessels large and middling but at 77, she must come to grips with how to deal with legacy and relationships juxtaposed against aging and death. Billie knows full well that she is uncertain about what her life has meant, but she is determined to live whatever life she may have left as though there are only 24 minutes remaining. 

Billie has been a resident of Manhattan since 1970, but Lewes has been her second home since 1973, By the time we join her in The Deepest Abyss she has decided to settle permanently in the first town in the first state. 

The sea and Lewes are inseparable because of proximity, but the town’s existence and longevity are due to the pre-eminence of the Delaware pilots that have been guiding shipping in the Delaware Bay and River estuary since before the Revolution. Like the town, Billie has been intertwined with the sea her entire life, but her life has also been intertwined in relationships with significant women who complicate her attempts to unravel what should be important at the end of one’s life, including understanding her role as a mother and understanding how to best apply the power her great wealth provides. 

The Deepest Abyss is set in the few days before and after the 2016 Presidential Election, which makes the story relevant to what is happening in America in 2024. 

Click this link to read the first pages of Unci

Abridged from the 5 Star 

Book Commentary Review:

Dombey's Unci is a powerful and gritty exploration of the interconnections between family, identity, and the struggles of contemporary life ... It is unflinching in its portrayal of childhood abuse and its lasting scars, which makes the novel a poignant reflection on identity, cultural heritage, and the spirit of resilience. Dombey's writing is superb and delectable, and the novel stands out in its originality and in the emotional currents that move the plot forward. 

What follows is from the SPR review of an earlier edition of Unci that had been published under another title:

The author has plumbed the depths of human darkness and resilience in what is a gritty, visionary novel, an intersecting tale of disparate lives in the deadly orbit of fate. Scrawled across the canvas of New York City and far beyond to realms past reality in the Connecticut countryside, The author has crafted a spiraling story of redemption, destiny, and survival.

After the high society son of a cleric is attacked by a gang of homophobic skinheads, Unci and her granddaughter Martha Beauvais bring him home like a wounded animal, across state lines, where he embarks on a journey of healing and self-discovery he never expected. Bound inexplicably to Martha and Unci, through visions and a soul-linked instinct, David is a complicated figure, battling demons of shame and guilt, with a lovestruck ironworker — Martha — for a guide.

Martha is an imposing and enigmatic character, with a streak of compassion and curiosity. Unci is a similarly unique slice of magic, seeming to flit between dreams and reality, and the dynamic of matriarchal solidarity between the two is empowering and refreshing. Together, they seek out the maniacal subject of their dark dream world, where they must stop a crusade of evil haunting the most innocent souls of Manhattan. This is an intentionally genre-defying work of literary fiction with a kaleidoscope of narrative threads that clarifies into an unexpected conclusion.

The author's attention to detail is evidence of the research and preparation that was put into this book, and the nuance of Native American philosophy, ritual, and tradition is compelling and adds another powerful layer of meaning. The narrative voice effortlessly slips into other cultural backgrounds and contexts, from high rises in Central Park West to the haunted bedrooms of childhood memory, seamlessly bouncing from one plot piece to the next with a true sense of believability. This is all important to the character development that is the soul of literary fiction.

The author has created vivid metaphors and a lyrical, reality-catching edge to the prose, which allows for tapping into the desperate sickness of a murderous zealot and the ancient wisdom of a mystical healer while allowing the author to build the world of the story in as immediate and immersive manner as is possible. The author also dissects the quiet insecurities of writers desperate for validation and includes the overlapping visceral danger and soul-freeing liberation of the LGBT experience. The author has also addressed a number of other important psychological conditions, emotional dynamics, and traumatic blocks explored through these characters, from repression and PTSD to parental failings and grief processing, with the hope that “Unci” will be both insightful and exhilarating for a wide range of readers. 

Traveler is a character-driven work of Literary Fiction, a tale about Sue Reinhardt and Mimi Smithson, two teenagers who fall in love in the summer of 1962 only to be unwittingly separated for decades shortly afterwards. 

Sue was raised in Blain, a small village at the end of a valley bordered by the Tuscarora Mountain in Pennsylvania, where she grew to adulthood in a world confined to the stifling isolation typical of rural America in the 70's and 80's. 

In 1969, Mimi, after having hiked the Appalachian Trail from Georgia to Maine following her graduation from Penn State, returns to her high school alma mater in suburban Harrisburg as a teacher and track coach. 

Already stressed by a complicated sexual relationship with her landlord, a psychiatrist named Lydia, Mimi is caught in a compromising position with a girl on her track team, which drives Mimi toward a maelstrom of events that leads to a murder for which Mimi is blamed. In deep panic, Mimi disappears onto the Appalachian Trail for three decades where she becomes known as The Traveler. 

In 2001, The Traveler wanders into Blain and Sue’s Tuscarora Hotel and Café with her sidekick Grits, a large black dog of indeterminate lineage. In their teen years, Sue and Mimi had been intimately linked to Charles Miller, who is now the multi-term Harrisburg Mayor. Despite his having a penchant for graft and a problematic wife, Miller decides to run for Governor of Pennsylvania in 2002 as a step toward a Presidential run in 2008. 

The past collides with a turbulent present when Traveler, Sue, Lydia, and Charles converge at a campaign rally in Blain. 

A COLLECTION OF SHORT STORIES

The Promise provides a variety of genres and forms in this collection of short stories from the short, short story (Relationship Thing and Brothers) to longer reads (The Favorite), but each story in the collection is character-driven and reflects upon the human condition, with the inner stories of complex characters often driving the plot using a style that is layered and complex. Written with an eye to themes that relate to events connected with the Twentieth Century, each story contains events and characters that deal with themes readily relatable to readers of any age.