Thoughts on Vacation

Paperback: HiT MoteL Press, January 2005, 1st Edtion
Ebook: HiT MoteL Press, 2010, 2nd Edition.
324 pages. Paperback ISBN  9780965584265

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See the other books in this sextet HiT MoteL Press.

Summary

Thoughts on Vacation is the 6th book of the My Years of Apprenticeship at Love sextet. Walker and his new wife Samantha, in their 40s are raising their child. The novel starts with a conversation between Walker and his three year old son, in which the wee bairn is talking to him about what’s going on in a painting he is making. To Walker it sounds like Kandinsky talking about the spiritual in art. Walker is delighted by the lad’s purity and hope. The children teach so much about love and hope. There are chapters about a family vacation camping in the California Sierra, hence the title. There Walker has to suppress his feeling of lust for the (grown) daughters of a friend as beautiful as summer itself; this chapter is titled The Man Who Glowed in the Dark.
The back cover of Thoughts on Vacation is a collage of MRI images to illustrate a long chapter in the novel, Mr. I (Crossing the Brain / Blood Barrier), about using magnetics to see beyond normal human perception. This theme of the novel, is reflected in the image of a child seen through a window holding up a magic wand at elements of the universe. Mr. I is a long chapter about developing a futuristic healing system involving self programming with visualization and culturing cell growth. Walker is swept up in writing this story about a character who is the head of a lab driving the development team for this future healing system in which humans learn to use language of images to encourage the growth of new tissue in themselves to repair. Love has inspired him to create the tools to repair. This story is about Walker’s attempt to use his mind to do something about his sister dying of cancer in San Antonio, and as such reveals his valiant sense of helplessness.
The last chapter How I Spent my Christmas Break is about Walker breaking his ankle in a skate-board accident while trying to take up that break neck sport with his now 11 year old son. Hobbling around on crutches, he learns how important it is to be able to rely on his wife and little family.

Table of Contents

1 Blood and fire and thunder. . . 1
2 The Yellow Park. . . 7
3 Ambivalent Man to the Rescue! 14
4 Dreamcatcher 21
5 The Man Who Glowed in the Dark 31
6 Some Thoughts on Vacation 53
7 Mr. I (Crossing the Brain / Blood Barrier) 101
8 The Little Girl in the Corner 255
9 How I Spent My Christmas Break 300
        

Writing Notes for Thoughts on Vacation from the Author

I majored in physics in college, and even though I took graduate classes in group algegras and the vector space theory of matter, I did not go on to get a Ph.D. because I realized I was not of the right stuff. I graduated from UT Austin in 1972 and started drifting down the downward path to become a writer. Because I didn't have an advanced degree I could only teach and run labs in trade schools and junior colleges. I could work as a technician. Subsequently I worked as a technical writer for a number of years become a desk top publisher and eventually an interface designer. Much of the work history is covered in the previoius volume 4 of the sextet Seeing Through the Spell of Transference. This book is devoted to thoughts on vacation.