Stan's latest novel, In the Time of The Feathered Serpent, was released on January 23, 2021 as a free offering on Kindle. It is also available on Amazon.com along with his other novels. I've had the opportunity to read Stan's "In the Time of the Feathered Serpent" and found it hard to put down. It flows with adventure, many twists and turns and raises some very timely and thoughtful questions...it makes you think!
John Mollison, Boys Town Class of 1964
February 1, 2021
February 1, 2021
I would like to thank those who took the time to read the first installment of my Writers Bio published on the BTNAA web site. I think you will find the second installment just as interesting and perhaps even a little insightful into the mindset of fiction writers. The rollout of my newest novel by the Online Book Club, In the Time of the Feathered Serpent, was a success by any measuring stick. Participants downloaded the Kindle version from Amazon.com exactly 450 times on January 23, which was certainly a surprise to me since only 37 people on the Facebook Event Manager indicated that they planned to attend. Most fiction readers have a long queue of books to read, but those who have read it responded with kind words and praise. I’m very grateful. It was difficult, but fun to write, and the story will hopefully be discussed among those who read it for some time. For most of us, the only legacy we have after dying is the memories that our family and friends have of us, and little else. Perhaps my novels will somehow create fond memories for those who took the time to read them. We’ll see. Thanks especially to John Mollison, 64’, friend, alumnus and one of my readers, who encouraged me to put this writer’s bio together for publication. All my books, hardback and Kindle, can be found on Amazon.com.
Stan Struble, Boys Town Class of 1968
Why I Write (Part II, Conclusion)
Stanley Struble
Boys Town Class of 1968
Storyline of In the Time of the Feathered Serpent.
While the Vatican roils under the direction of Pope Lucas, the new reformist Pope, the pontiff plans to travel to Mexico where a ‘Holy Man’ performs miracles with a cup believed to be the Holy Grail, discovered with an uncorrupted body along with seven papyrus scrolls in a Mayan burial box beneath a ruined church in Mexico’s Chiapas State. When a Papal Inquisitor loses his life retrieving the treasures, the pope decides that he must travel to the southern Lacandon Jungle of Chiapas State in hopes that an archaeologist and shaman will lead him to the ‘Holy Man,’ a renegade Catholic priest who preaches and performs miracles among the Maya using a cup retrieved from a two-thousand-year-old sarcophagus of a previous ‘Holy Man’ believed to be St. Thomas, the apostle who disappeared into the east after the Resurrection of Christ. While touring Mexico the pontiff sneaks away from his entourage for a few days to pursue Christianity’s greatest treasures. The trusting pope, who is in very poor health, experiences great hardship and tremendous peril from a manipulative Mayan shaman and is abducted by narco-traffickers on the Usumacinta River on his way to the Yaxchilan Mayan ruin to meet the ‘Holy Man’ and recover the 1st Century scrolls believed lost in a fiery accident three years previous. The Pope, his captors, the archaeologist David Wolf, and the ‘Holy Man’ are all placed in a crucible from which personal redemption or death are the only options. The corpse of St. Thomas, the papyrus scrolls, and ‘Holy Grail’ are the bargaining tools of a Mayan shaman whose only goal is to improve the abominable conditions of the poverty stricken Maya Indians through the success of the Zapatista Rebellion in Mexico’s Chiapas State. All three books in the Feathered Serpent series, beginning with Xibalba are now available in Spanish and English. Whereas Xibalba introduces readers to the Maya civilization, southern Lacandon Jungle, the highlands of Chiapas, and the central characters in the series, books two and three (Gospel of the Feathered Serpent & In the Time of the Feathered Serpent) are essentially interconnected stories – prequel and sequel.
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I have no control over whether anyone ever reads these books, and that’s probably not even important, but I can assure you that they would never have been written had I not had the “interesting” life that was forced on me by the circumstances of birth and it resulted in the opportunity of the second chance given me at Boys Town. As most former Boys Town youth can verify, life is not a straight line. How we get from A to B and sometimes C, can be very convoluted and entail unforeseen events and consequences that permanently shape our lives. I’m very fortunate in many ways. As tough as my early life was, there was always someone around who thought I was salvageable, someone who cared enough to grab me by the ears and point me in a different direction. There are many in the Boys Town community, staff and alumni, who have supported my journey as a writer and followed my progress actively or vicariously. If I haven’t said so lately, I want to thank all of you. You know who you are...and so my journey continues. If anyone had suggested to me as a young man in Cottage 26 in 1968 that I would continue to pursue the “interesting life” that seemed to be in my future and that it would result in my wanting to publish my thoughts, experiences, and speculations on the nature of man, our origins, and the difficulties of humankind searching to find meaning in a world by writing novels, I would have loudly assured you that you weren't talking about me! I think that’s called hubris, and it’s a sure way to make the gods laugh at you.
I'm now 70 years old. Life continues to be an exciting and interesting journey, if sometimes even perilous (pandemic). If you’re like me and locked down, trying to self-isolate during this pandemic, and whether or not you read fiction, perhaps this would be a good time to pick up a good book and take a cheap vacation.
If anyone wants to respond to this article, they can reach me at stanleystruble68@gmail.com. Thanks for listening, folks.