This is the author’s dedication and the first chapter from my book on Amazon/Kindle, BABY BOOMERS’ LOVE-BETRAYAL, a romance-noir under the pen name of Ben Leiter.
Seventy-six million Baby Boomers, retiring at the rate of ten thousand a day, want to know: “What happened to true love?” Meet Bill Peters, an aging boomer grasping for romance on his life quest for the love grail.
AUTHOR’S DEDICATION
THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED TO THOSE WONDERFUL PEOPLE OF THE OPPOSITE SEX WHO MAKE THE WORLD SPIN ON ITS AXIS, EVERY DAY. YOU KNOW WHO ARE.
I DO BELIEVE OUR MATRIX OF EXISTENCE WOULD BE A FAR BETTER PLACE IF WOMEN WERE IN CHARGE. THERE’S SOMETHING ABOUT CARRYING LIFE THAT CHANGES YOUR PERSPECTIVE ON HOW ONE SHOULD LIVE AND HOW A SOCIETY SHOULD BE ORGANIZED AND HOW WE SHOULD LOOK AFTER ONE ANOTHER.
I’M TIRED OF ALL THE MALE POSTURING.
CHAPTER 1
LOVE’S BETRAYAL
This is what your life looks like when you are afraid to love.
Do I hear someone in the back of the room saying, “Hi, Bill!”
This isn’t AA.
We’ll skip the background noise — my good friend Holden Caulfield calls it “all that David Copperfield kinda crap” …who my parents were…how I grew up…
If I did talk about it, I’d share suspicions that my parents, shortly after my birth, threw away the owner’s manual.
I was a captive of earnest declarations of love — needing to receive them but not compelled to give them. Maybe I was afraid to deal with important questions: “What does true love feel like? How does true love behave? Does true love exist?”
Like Holden, it seems I had trouble connecting, drifting from relationship to relationship. But one thing Holden had going for him, he seemed to be a reliable narrator. Me, the jury is still out.
I refuse to write for the desk drawer. Since I don’t have any kids that I know of, I’ll send this to my godson, Richard Friel.
This manuscript is messy, the way life is, you know? Richard can advise me if I should publish or perish. Somewhere in the manuscript I want to say “I was born into prison and received a life sentence and was looking forward to parole” — if you get my drift.
I am just a man and aren’t we all pretty much working from the same dog-eared script?
But I may not be a good man.
A footnote: I was curious and checked it out. I excerpted this from medical literature on the internet.
Signs and Symptoms of Broken Heart Syndrome: The most common signs and symptoms of broken heart syndrome are chest pain and shortness of breath. In this disorder, these symptoms tend to occur suddenly in people who have no history of heart disease.
I gave up smoking decades ago. I run three and a half miles at least three times a week. I watch what I eat.
No chest pain and no shortness of breath; if anyone is asking.
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Ben Leiter 