News Release
For Immediate Release
1/23/18
For more information: 603-515-6001
“Sacred
Trust” Now Available in Bookstores and on Amazon
Wayne
King’s New Novel Echos New Hampshire’s Own Ongoing Battle Over Northern Pass
If the
cover of “Sacred Trust”, created by Mike Marland, doesn’t clue you in, it won’t
take long to realize that this novel is written as a vicarious homage to New
Hampshire’s own ongoing battle over the controversial “Northern Pass” project
and other similar projects.
Author,
former State Senator and 1994 Democratic Gubernatorial nominee Wayne D. King adroitly
weaves a story with a familiar ring . . . the clash of ordinary people
confronting money and power in an epic battle to protect the land they love.
“Sacred Trust” is the tale of a
rollicking campaign of civil disobedience against a private powerline, pitting nine
unlikely environmental patriots, calling themselves “The Trust”, against the “Granite
Skyway” transmission line and its powerful, well-connected consortium of
investors.
With an
obvious deep fondness for both the people and the land, King weaves a
fast-paced tale filled with both real and fictional stories from the
political world and life in the Granite State. In a rich tableau that includes sometimes
hilarious and sometimes hair-raising stories of Senators driving North in a
Southbound Interstate lane after a night of drinking at the Highway Hotel;
Doctors sneaking a pregnant Llama into a hospital surgical ward for ACL surgery;
A bear and a boy eating from the same blueberry patch atop Mount Cardigan as
his father, the Ranger, watches helplessly from the fire tower, and more.
Among the heroes of the story is Sasha Brandt, an Iroquois
woman from Canada. While hiking the Mahoosuc Range of the Appalachian Trail
with her companion - a wolf named Cochise - Brandt meets Daniel Roy, a New
Hampshire “boy” and now a guide and outdoorsman. After a unique first encounter
they continue their trip together, eventually finding themselves camping with an
unusual assortment of people including a former Olympic paddler, a conservative
deer farmer, a retired spook, sidelined when he became the first US victim of
Lyme disease; and an iconoclast and former Army Ranger named Thomas who lives
in multiple backwoods abodes in the Great North Woods and rides a moose named
Metallak – aptly named for the “Lone Survivor of the Megalloway” tribe, who in
the late 1800’s was reputed to ride a moose himself.
The group quickly discovers that – despite their very
broad range of ideological beliefs - they are united in their deep concern
about the Consortium’s proposal to bisect the most beautiful parts of the state
with massive 150 foot towers and clear cut forests for the sole purpose of transporting
electricity from Canada to more affluent markets beyond its borders. Like Oligarchs of the Gilded Age who minimized
their costs by creating a legacy of polluted land and water, these modern
Oligarchs stand to reap 100% of the benefits while passing off a large portion
of their costs through the generations-long visual pollution of the public
commons and all the economic shockwaves that result.
Determined to do more than shuffle papers and employ
lawyers, the compatriots form a band of brothers and sisters - along with Cochise
and Metallak. Armed with only their wits and a lot of heart they embark on a rollicking
campaign of civil disobedience that would make Thoreau and Dr. King proud.
Although “Sacred Trust” is a work of fiction, King says
that educators will find the novel a great classroom resource as well. Adding a
new dimension and lively discussion to classes on the emergence of the
renewable energy era, sustainability, and the American tradition of protest and
its place in an “Era of Terrorism”.
“in the coming “Age of Electricity” “ King says, “a
principal battleground will be over who controls the production and
distribution of electric power. Across America today, the battle lines are
being drawn. Utility companies, many in an existential battle for survival, are
pitted against advocates of a new distributed energy paradigm where small,
renewable power sources replace today’s large electricity generation plants.”
“Most Americans” King asserts, “notice that things are
changing, but have yet to fully grasp what a sea change in life it will be for
every American.”
“Sacred Trust” follows the trail of heroic citizens banding
together to stop one especially egregious powerline. The citizens who stand to
lose most are dead set against the project . . . but the political winds are
against them. It is in this setting The Trust takes on the Consortium.
As the actions of The Trust gain traction and momentum, other
citizens join in support including a wave of supporters on social media; “The
Gazetteers”, a group of citizen activists writing
in the style of the Federalist Papers; and journalists including one business
writer who weaves together details of the historic record leading his readers through a virtual primer on the evolution
of a post-carbon energy paradigm beginning with the 1972 election of Jimmy Carter
and the passage of the National Energy Policy Act into which NH Senator John
Durkin inserted an eight word amendment that rocked the world.
"Sacred Trust" is a hilarious and vicarious,
high voltage campaign to stop the “Granite Skyway” leading the reader through
the hijinks of The Trust, and the series of choices we all are currently
confronted in the emerging “Age of Electricity”.
For each of the members of The Trust it is a sacred campaign fought against
an impending legacy of steel towers and scarred lands - an existential threat
to an entire way of life. The Trust is all that
stands between the people and their worst fears . . . and they are
willing to pay any price to prevail.
“Sacred Trust”
Paperback: 354 pages
Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
ISBN-10: 1981490302
http://bit.ly/STPaper
Price: $14.95*
Sacred Trust Kindle eBook
http://bit.ly/STrust
Price: $2.99*
https://thesacredtrust.blogspot.com/
* Special discounts are available to schools, libraries, and nonprofits.
Please contact 603-515-6001
