Blazing Reader,

As I shared in a previous post, my son and I ended up getting off at the wrong train station (here in the Netherlands).

While trying to figure out how to get back on track (literally), a man with a bushy beard heard us talking, and said in perfect English, "You guys sound like you're Americans."

"Canadians," I replied.

"Whereabouts in Canada?"

"Ontario. What about you?"

"Boston."

"Ah!" I replied. "A New Englander. Hey! I'm actually just writing a book about Henry David Thoreau."

I figured he'd be thrilled — Thoreau is a legend in Massachusetts.

"Who?" he said

"Henry David Thoreau. He lived in Concord."

"Oh, yeah! He was a rock n' roll singer in the 70s, no?"

I laughed. "Walden Pond's Greatest Hits, eh? No, he was a nineteenth-century philosopher and naturalist famous for writing about simplicity and civil disobedience."

"Oh. Never heard of him."

So much for Yankee pride.

Anyway, if you missed my video update about my forthcoming novel — which dramatizes Thoreau's night in jail for refusing to pay the poll tax — you can still watch it here:

It's available on YouTube, Rumble, BitChute, and X.

I rather hope that one day (probably in the far future), great men like Thoreau will achieve rock star status.

John C.A. Manley

P.S. And if you missed the video of my reading COVID Disobedience on the streets of Munich, you can still watch it here:

Available on YouTube, Rumble, X or Bitchute.

John C. A. Manley is the author of Much Ado About Corona, All The Humans Are Sleeping and other works of philosophical fiction that are "so completely engaging that you find yourself alternately laughing, gasping, hanging on for dear life." Get free samples of his stories by becoming a Blazing Pine Cone email subscriber.