RANDOM THOUGHTS

SHARING RANDON THOUGHTS For many years now I’ve made it a habit to read from several books each day of the week – titles and substance of interest to me. No day passes that I don’t comb the local and world news for information – I think knowing what’s going on close to and far away from me has some value and perhaps some effect on my life. Being a free thinker I don’t allow any belief system to dictate what I can or should read – I certainly won’t allow any person, living or dead, or yet to be born to take the freedom of my own will. Since I don’t believe in a God, a Heaven, a Hell, a Virgin Birth, a Christ, some would classify me as an atheist. I don’t debate my freedom with those who live within a belief system; nor do I attempt to dissuade them from their sanctuary. I’m happy to say that those who know me respect me enough not to try and dissuade me from my freedom. I live within what a call a universal notion – I don’t know how we began but I think we have the power to determine whether we will continue to live or die forever. www.adolphusward.net

WHY I WRITE NOVELS 11

WHY I WIRTE NOVELS – 11 In my novels to date I have examined how significant historical events influenced character behavior. I think human beings are making the history of tomorrow today – what we are doing or not doing today will create the historical events of tomorrow: we are making our tomorrows every minute of today. Our trees, our water, and our weather systems play a major role in filtering the air we breathe. The air of our earth has become so polluted the trees, water, and weather systems can no longer filter (clean) it. We need clean water to drink and grow food – we need clean air to live. Climate Change is well into becoming a significant historical; human (our) behavior will change significantly – not for the better. www.adolphusward.net

WHY I WRITE NOVELS - 10

WHY I WRITE NOVELS – 10 HARVEST THE DUST is my first book of family fiction. I set the story in the time of my grandparents – it’s the mid-1930s in west-central Arkansas. Most people in this small farm town rode in wagons or walked – few people owned an automobile. Water came from a hand-pump outside houses not from faucets inside. There was no running water inside houses so toilets were built in an outhouse. Milk came directly from a cow not from a grocery store. Black and White people were separated by law. Jacob is a black man and the head of this family – his wife, Clara, is a black woman who could easily have passed for white. As a boy Jacob witnessed a black man being burned alive by a mob of white people. Clara’s father was a prominent white doctor who never acknowledged her as his daughter. These early experiences of Jacob and Clara not only influenced their behavior but also the behavior of their children. My own life experience convinces me that my behavior is influenced by not only my experience but also the experience of others. www.adolphusward.net

SHARING WHY I WRITE NOVELS - 9

WHY I WRITE NOVELS – 9 The Pasadena Play House produced a work of Peter J. Harris at a history making event Sunday 31 August 2014. The dramatic poetry was directed by Alison M. De La Cruz, a staff member of the Play House. The historical event is the First Annual Leimert Park Village Theatre Festival, Los Angeles, California, presented by The Leimert Park Vision Theatre Consortium. Ten black male actors of diverse backgrounds and impressive resumes used their crafts to animate Harris’ characters giving them life. “THE BLACK MAN OF HAPPINESS,” became a living organism, a choral synthesis of what makes a black man happy. As one of the ten black men chosen to be in the performance I became a part of this historic event. For some time now I’ve been doing two things with my life-time: I write and I act. I love life, I love story – when I’m not on stage or in front of a camera living a story, when I’m not reading story from a book, I’m sitting with my laptop creating a story. www.adolphusward.net