Good morning folks,

I hope all is well with you during these unprecedented times and that your families are safe. We now have a lot more reading time on our hands! This is a recent interview I did about the writing of Narican that you might find interesting.

To Narican and Back

An Interview with the Author

By Deborah Huyett

03/21/2020

From the outer reaches of space to the most inner, intimate places within the human spirit, Doug Robbins newest book takes readers on a journey that is both adventurous and philosophical. In his new book, Narican: The Cloaked Deception, Robbins weaves together a modern tale meant to entertain but to also provoke thought.

Doug Robbins’ characteristic social conscience continues to shape his themes, but within a genre that’s a departure from his usual style. His recent book is a science fiction story with a philosophical underpinning.

Epic Battle Between Forces of Good and Evil

In Narican, Robbins’ universe consists of a hierarchy of sentient beings with humans in the lower order and Naricanians above. The higher order species earn their place in the hierarchy as enlightened beings, connected to omniscient being. Just under the Divine, the Naricanians are responsible for overseeing Earthlings’ growth toward enlightenment, but now, all are in danger. Creatures of darkness bent on destroying the universe have infected Narican.

As the infection grows, Naricanians lose their connection to enlightenment and experience unspeakable suffering. As the light of their souls darken, so darkness falls from the upper realm to Earth, trickling down and suffocating their souls, too, unless Claremone a coming-of-age boy and Tanz the accountant seer can stop it. Human beings, Naricanians, the Universe, and all existence is in dire peril.

Impossibly, it’s up to a young human boy born with powers that enable him to fight against the darkness to save Earth, the upper realms, and the Universe. Against forces far greater than him, this young boy must rise and find his inner strength to push back and defeat the pervading darkness.

All The Hallmarks Of Robbins’s Work

While this may be a departure in genre, Robbins does not stray too far from the themes that define him, concepts that capture and reflect on the human condition. On the surface, the story pulls from science fiction elements like life on other planets, mythical beings, villains out to destroy the universe, and a hero coming-of-age, but these are only vehicles for deeper meanings behind the scenes that delve into philosophical concepts about the human condition.

Robbins does not use a hammer to get across his philosophical points about human nature and society, but a much more subtle and elegant device: allegory. In Narican, the real protagonists are humans who fight to stay aware of themselves in context to the negative forces in society pulling them towards bitterness, self-recrimination, angst, and all the other types of thinking that erode one’s power.

Within Narican, Robbins grapples with the very foundation of human intellectual and emotional growth; he explores the importance of the self, the makeup of a human soul. Through his main character, Reuben, Robbins identifies and demonstrates the power that comes from valuing and trusting in oneself. Through Reuben who evolves into Claremone, like the chrysalis of a butterfly, he explains the way our souls are constructed by our thoughts, feelings, and actions, and as such, we can direct and control our growth. We can empower ourselves.

What happens when humans walk around with shrunken souls? What happens when we stay true and let our souls soar? Imagine the possibilities of the latter and the tragedy of the former. That’s just what Robbins does with the characters in Narican.

The Lessons of Narican: The Cloaked Deception

These are important ideas in today’s tumultuous, discordant political and social climate. Against the disappointment in world leaders and shock at world events, we must stay strong. To do so, we must stay true to our values and beliefs and keep our personal power; conversely, when we let negative forces influence us, we reduce our own value and therefore shrink our soul. Herein lies the inspiration for Narican.

Robbins’ novel is a contemplation on the current state of the world and offers a way out. He sees the shortcomings of a society grown rife with criticism, rejection, blame, hostility, etc. He sees countless ways that people’s hopes and ideals have been cut short. He wants to offer a solution.

The human condition that Robbins grapples with in Narican is the ability for the empowered individual to withstand against the forces of a dark society that seeks to oppress enlightened values. In an era dealing with aftershocks of a pendulum swinging so far back that major issues of civil rights have reared again, Robbins reacts with a novel that aims to identify as much as fight back against the repression of the human condition.

In many ways, Robbins sees the fate of the world hanging in the balance with current politics and social epidemics of angry rhetoric designed to divide people. He translates this division into his book as a Dichotomy, a split between our ability to think well about the world versus our temptation to succumb to suffering, pain, and distrust. Enlightened souls will strive to feel and act positively, to stay empowered, while souls that regress entrap themselves in the negativity, giving up their power. It takes effort to be a positive, good person.

Too easily, people are derailed by negative experiences and weighed down by negative thinking. In the world of Robbins’s fiction, that weight is a force, an entity, a being that allegorically seeks the demise of anything good, from the far reaches of the universe to inside the human soul.

Philosophically, Robbins believes that the soul’s desires drive behavior, but the soul can be contaminated by suffering, a cloud, or Haze, part of the dark forces in the book, that covers any logical thinking and positive feelings. Therefore, the dichotomy exists, a struggle between pain / suffering and instinct / trust in oneself; the enemy of empowerment is self-doubt.

Robbins sees that it’s so easy for human nature to accept negativity and forget about the beauty of the soul. It takes work to pursue joy, passion, and positivity. To put it simplistically, to save the world, one must actively work to seek the positive (empowerment) and let go of the negative (self-doubt).

Brilliant Example Shines Light on The Path

In a brilliant example of his philosophy, Robbins steps outside of allegory to make a literal demonstration of his theme by publishing this novel himself. The choice to self-publish is Robbins’s declaration that he believes in his worth and trusts his instincts to share this work with the world on his own terms.

Like Reuben, Robbins fights against the negativity and self-doubt that plagues us all as he stands squarely on his merits that this work deserves publication and that an audience awaits. He’s not wrong.

The plot and themes of Narican will resonate with any reader who loves a hero’s journey or cares about the plight of the human condition. As Robbins’s faith in himself leads the way down a path toward empowerment, readers will come along and discover that at the end of his road is enlightenment—for Narican, for himself, and for them.

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Hi, I’ve decided to begin video blogging. There are things I’ve wanted to say and maybe the written word has kept me hidden from saying them. The subjects will range from writing, to struggle, to living a purposeful life.

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Today is Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday and it is a national holiday. Public employees have it off while many private employees do not.

This is a “floating” holiday for many, like Veterans Day has also become. I don’t know how you “float” celebration of MLK Jr. or Veterans or what he or they have done for this nation. A holiday is just that, to acknowledge on a national level some part of our history and what makes us who we are.

Is national pride and history a choice? It is if we allow it be swept under the rug.

President’s Day is a combination of what used to be two separate holidays: Lincoln’s Birthday and Washington’s – two obviously important leaders. Without them, we wouldn’t be here. Lincoln had to make a crucial decision about slavery that was tearing the nation apart and Washington fought against all odds, though the military was outgunned by the British and had little money. After winning and there being a power vacuum, several generals encouraged Washington to become king. He said no, this is to be a republic and he handed back the power after the war had ended. He fought for a new world. Washington put his life and career on the line as did many soldiers who fought barefoot and without pay.

We used to have both days off. We honored them. We celebrated them. Now no one gets President’s Day off(except for school kids), and no one pays it as much mind. All presidents, good and bad, should not be lumped into this day. These two days, their birthdays, were to honor these two great Americans.

And now today, a day of divisiveness, Martin Luther King Jr’s birthday. Many companies let you float the time as if it’s just some meaningless day to go to the DMV, and yet the DMV is closed. By making this a floating paid day off, or pto, we diminish the importance of this man and the absolute searing indignation endured during the civil rights period and the hundreds of years leading up to it. Now I can float it and go to the dentist on a later date, not caring or even noticing it has come at all.

How do African-Americans, how do we as a people, with our history of slavery, not stop and acknowledge with reflections upon our past? If we are working a full day, it is hard to. By reducing the meaning of these national holidays we reduce our heritage and integrity by brushing them under the rug.

The leaders who formed this nation were rebels themselves, challenging the old ways through bloodshed and sacrifice to forge new ones. All of these great men deserve their day of respect and acknowledgement.

And we damn well better pay attention soon. Not only public workers but ALL WORKERS!

We are Americans and it’s time we started acting like it again. We cannot move forward from the past by hiding and allowing big business to dictate what and who we honor, how and when.

I never wanted kids.

At least that’s what I thought. I was too busy writing and exploring this country, quitting jobs when I had enough cash, or even when I didn’t.

However, I never felt I was missing anything.  It never weighed on me. Never was I concerned with perpetuating my name and certainly I had no desire to perpetuate the human race.

It seemed as if my spark was to flare up then burn out, and that would be that.

In my early forties I was still not married. Rebellious, I never cared for institutions and legal documents governing my life.

Through those years women pressured me to marry them, yet I resisted, knowing they weren’t right.

Some thought I was selfish. Nope, just stubborn.

But when life presented the right woman to love passionately, I knew in an instant that I would marry her. She also happened to have three children. This was certainly not what I expected, yet I jumped on in knowing it was right.

Some friends didn’t understand. Those same ones judged and condemned me that it would never work. A few others thought I’d stay a single free-spirit roaming the roads and earth alone.

In some ways, I didn’t fully understand it myself. But love and one’s path isn’t always something you lay out on a table with facts and reason. The truth is I had always sought answers to life’s pockets of emptiness.

I’ve heard people say- By thirty I want kids and a house. I’ve done it myself with other things, but life doesn’t care about our time-frames, demands, and equations.

Before meeting Jen, one week earlier, I’d left my apartment and was staying with a friend. I had no job and little money. A long month later we were living together and a part of me finally found peace.

This past fall, late October, I was outside with Adam (my twelve year-old step-son) and Jessica (my five year-old step-daughter) throwing a Nerf football. There was a small breeze then a booming gust. About a hundred feet up at the top of the oak tree leaves began blowing and gently spread across the sky. One by one they floated in an ethereal wave together like starlings, thousands of them floating and drifting with the wind then dropping.

I ran inside to get my camera. When I came back out the leaves laid prostrate on the lawn and driveway.

“I missed them.” Disappointed, I said to Adam, with camera in my hand.

“No, you didn’t.” he said. “You got to see them.”

The kids began chasing each other and I looked up at the tree now standing silently after releasing its children.

“Adam, catch.” I threw him a bomb at the far-end of the lawn.

He missed it as the Nerf bounced off Jessica’s head still chasing him unaware of the descending ball. She dove on top. Adam tried to get the ball from under her, but she got up and ran with it over to me.

“Here you go, daddy.” Yes, she now calls me daddy. I swear sweeter words were never uttered. She bent and picked up a leaf studying it, then handed me the leaf.
“Now you have one.” She smiled her big smile standing close to me. The temptation to chase Adam again was too great. She zoomed away and I stood there.

After roaming the earth like a nomad seeking answers, I’ve finally found a few. Years have past with my family and certain answers have been found. However, I still roam the earth, though less frequently, seeking other ones.

We live out in the woods, not the sticks(sticks are small) of New York near the Catskills, and every winter I covet other people’s wood piles. Often I drive by homes with neatly stacked rows of beautifully cut hardwood. The land we have is not great for cut wood. It’s mostly pine, which is good for starting a fire, but burns too hot and because of the creosote gases inside, is often blamed for chimney fires.

For some time now I’ve had fantasies of other people’s wood piles.

Because we like to burn fires in the fireplace, I ordered my first cord of wood, ever. Cords of wood are hard to find right now. Last year’s winter was so bad many loggers sold out or are behind this year. I’m a city and suburb kid. So buying a cord of wood is quite foreign and exciting.

The cord is $225 but should last a few months. It took me a while to find this logger with split dry wood.

Update: My wife was on her way to the kid’s school when she called with urgency.

“Doug there is a sign with free wood. Free wood!” She shouted into the phone. “Beautiful big rounds stacked up. Free wood honey. You dreams are coming true.”

I sat dumbfounded as the words went around my cerebral cortex. “Free?” Better words were never uttered. “Free wood, honey?”

“I had to call or you would’ve killed me if I didn’t.” We hung up as I sat in my home office surrounded by work and piles of paper.

Twenty minutes earlier I’d gotten off the phone with my boss and knew he wouldn’t be reaching out to me again today or at least for a few hours. I contemplated the pile of work on my desk and imagined having to fight others off for the free pile of wood, fighting them off with a stick. To the death!

Hmm, free wood. I will no longer have to covet other’s piles. A whole tree had been cut down, cut up, and is waiting for an anonymous taker. That taker could be me.

Plus the cord, we will be burning as many fires this winter as we like.

I grabbed my work phone and grabbed the keys to our big truck, and burned rubber ten minutes to get over there.

The sign said in big bold letters FREE WOOD with an arrow pointing down a small grass hill to a large field. At the far end of this field sat the untouched pile towering like a small wood pyramid. No one was there to fight off. No Egyptian warriors were defending this sacred ground. Large wood rounds sat glistening, each one two feet long, waiting and inviting. Wood fuel. Wood fires in the large living-room fireplace will crackle and heat as the snow flies and cold chills.

I drove the truck fast across the grass field and loaded up the back quickly, while looking from side to side. I got almost all of it.

I brought the chunky rounds home, laid out a tarp, and stacked ‘em up. I stared proudly. I’ll let them dry a few weeks in the sun then split them using a log splitter. Others may now covet my wood pile. But sorry folks, it’s all mine. There will be no signs of free offerings.

Update: I just spoke with another wood guy, $180 a cord. Even better. This was a tip from a friend. Get in line people. But sorry, I can’t give you his phone number. I’m loading up this winter and selfish.