James Southern

The Chronicles of Jay South, Two tales of one birth, is my first book. I intend it to be the first in a series based on my life. It is in novel form because after asking people back home if they would allow me to use their names and honestly tell my autobiography it quickly became clear that it was not a popular idea. I got some very sound advice from someone I went to school with. He said basically that he had worked as a cop for about 20 years and in one town he served in to guys who used to be great friends wrote biographies which ended up being one attack after another when the initial book was published. They spent many years writing opposing biographies and suing each other. When my classmate left the town the two men were both broke, had lost their homes and everything else in lawsuits between each other, and no one wanted to help them. It would be wiser to write it as a novel and create names and new characters. I agreed since only one person back home agreed to have their name used. 

      Anyway the reason I am writing the series is to get people introduced to my characters and in the 3rd or 4th book I will begin showing the severe physical and emotional abuse that I was subjected to growing up with a psychotic drunk step father. I and other family members also went though sexual abuse due to certain people but I am not addressing that in the novels. I am saving those horrible things for  a self help book that is the reason I actually am telling my story. You see, a very dear old friend of mine and I were chatting a few years ago and she had asked me to tell her one of my stories about something. I don't even remember what it was at this time. I typed it in and sent it to her and after reading it she told me. "James, you really should wrote these stories down and publish them,  you write so beautifully." I replied that I had often thought about doing that but wasn't sure because publishing costs so much. She then said, "What you should really do is write about the abuse you went through from a secular point of view then give people practical advice on how to deal with it mentally, ways to get help, and ways to escape it along with the healing process."

     I was taken a back and didn't say anything for a significant pause.  She asked if I was still there and I said, "I know that kind of book is neeeded but I don't think I want to write it. That's to much bad stuff I would have to concentrate on just to get it on paper. I only think about it when someone brings it up or I have some reason to use it to help someone. It's not something I like to think about." She the insisted that, "We always hear about it from girls or women but never from man. It really needs to be out there." I thought about it a minute or so then I told her, "The only way I would feel okay about writing it is if you tell your story and we get others to tell theirs. People at different stages in the healing process, and since you are a counselor I would want good advice from you and others who have been through it and know what they are talking about and not some bone head that went to school, has a degree, but no real first hand knowledge of what it really takes to not only survive but heal and thrive after you escape the abuse. We would have to come from Christian, Catholic, secular, and as many points of view as possible to do it right. But as I said, you'd have to tell your story too." She had set me up and I knew it as soon as I started that response. Her reply was short, "Absolutely." So these novels are just to show the readers ahead of time that I have been through years of serious abuse. Even being shot in the foot at one time.  This way when the other book comes out they will understand that we are not just some licensed individual who knows nothing of what the abused people are going through. We know the pain, torment, and isolation along with all of the mental/emotional issues they face. Hopefully those who read my books will then recommend the other to someone who needs it. I plan to add a few pages of organizations, websites, and counselors who can help them escape or at least realize there is someone willing to help.

     FYI am not some wimpy little whiner. I was in the Special Forces training Battalion for almost 4 years. On my time off I actually got the instructors to allow me to do the training unofficially. I also was a troubled kid that got into fights at least weekly and sometimes daily partly do to my family reputation and sometimes because some other kid wanted to make a name for  himself by picking on me which usually ended badly for them.  I am not some bleeding heart political weenie that can't take anything either. Being raised often on my Grandfather's farm, being a wuss wasn't an option. 

    Anyway, I hope that you enjoy the first book because it lays the foundations for the rest of the series and gives some insights to my mindset. It is set in mostly Benton County Oregon back in 1965. My mother finds out that she is pregnant with me and this book tells of the many obstacles she faced, the lack of help from my biological father, the fact that they lived in a house built in 1887 that had no indoor plumbing except for a pipe from the kitchen sink and another from the bathtub that was also in the kitchen that went to a soak pit under the house. It also had only two electrical outlets. One for an icebox in the kitchen and another that was used for the radio and a lamp in the living room. Two electric lights also in the kitchen and living room. Of course we had a moldy old well and the original outhouse built along with the house. That made for a whole lot of hard work and nasty odors growing up out there. But it all worked out over the years. 

     You'll meet a fiesty nurse who had been a Nazi drill sergeant, an X-Green Beret, and lots of characters that I eventually grew up with and some good some not so good.  Well I hope you grab my book and get into the first stage of my life and when you do please send me a review about the book. Good or bad that way people can read your critique and decide if they want to read it. I have a high five star review from the Online Book Club and as soon as I am able I will post it here also.  Thank you for your time.