2nd Novel - "Sunbury"

My second novel is a more humorous story about a fictional person, Bongo Bucky, and a life of bizarre events and misdirected paths leading to fame and fortune.  He grew up in Millville, NJ and moved in late adulthood to Sunbury, Ga.  He angered, no, pissed people off along the way and then he made good efforts to restore bridges with friends and relatives he previously chased away.  Check it out on Amazon, Kindle Store or at JMichaelSmithBooks.com

Best purchase prices are Kindle for ebooks and https://www.createspace.com/3944524 for paperbacks.

"Norah's Oak" - 1st Novel

Here is an excerpt from Chapter 14 of my novel, "Norah's Oak" available at JMichaelSmithbooks.com and Amazon.com So the first word out of Rev. Tim’s mouth was loud. “GREED,” he yelled and then he paused long enough to let it sink in. He went on to say what a sin it was and how God disliked it. He preached about the wheel of progress and how if powerful people were not greedy, than there would be enough to go around for everyone in the whole world: enough jobs, enough food, enough wealth, etc. He pointed out how poverty and starvation could be conquered by attacking greed inside our own souls. ‘Equanomics’ was a term Rev. Tim coined to describe his belief that all levels of workers should be paid close to equal amounts of wages. It was a design of equal profit sharing throughout the many levels of a company. The success of the company depends on everyone, so everyone should share the risks and the benefits. Trash collectors should get the same bonuses as vice-presidents and managers, but obviously, people would prefer the easier job if they qualified. Teachers should make the same as administrators in municipal governments, after all, they were just as important, if not more so, for the success of the programs. Equanomics was a new and untested arrangement but one that Rev. Tim thought pointed out the fact that all parts of a business are necessary for the overall integrity and thus the bottom line. Some businesses had tried a form of it like Ben & Jerry’s, or other employee-owned factories, true profit sharing by some small corporations, but none of these had gone all the way. Unions were formed to negotiate reasonable wages and benefits for employees and guarantee that certain positions made certain amounts, but they had great differences in pay scales and they did not include management or other salaried employees, the most serious abusers. The result was that some workers were free to pursue greed or to be lazy and steal from the business and union workers were under watchful eyes at all times. Most attempts eventually failed to maintain the equality it took to work successfully and the unions became corrupted and abusive themselves. Another idea surfaced in this theory of Equanomics, CEO Licensing. Rev. Tim suggested that upper management had a great duty to the health of the populous, the rights of individuals and the strength of our country. As in other fields, those who have responsibilities to the citizens, CEOs should be held to certain standards. All those in medicine, nursing, law, electricians, plumbers, massage therapists, even hair stylists must be tested and licensed and most need continuing education in classes approved by licensing boards to protect the citizens. He believed it would help to license CEOs, since they had trouble maintaining ethical, moral and societal standards to strengthen the economy. Instead they cared only for the bottom line, their stockholders and their own severance packages. But Rev. Tim explained that the world could benefit by such a policy. It still leaves room for wealth, but wealth without greed. “Wealth achieved by better businesses and from working harder than the other guy. Wealth accumulated by loyalty to the company, the employees and the public, something fading from our society. It is not socialism as some would claim because people could earn more by working harder, having two or more jobs, working for a more profitable business, having better management and lower overhead, and still investing and creating wealth from entrepreneurial initiatives. It just takes out the huge gap between the hard working blue-collar employees and the over paid management levels. It could make the team work together and it would develop unity, loyalty and integrity through equality.” He never preached about attacking others with violence or force to accomplish equality and integrity, but he taught about the inner war. To Rev. Tim, the Muslim belief of a “jihad” was correct because we all had a war between good and evil taking place, but it is within our own souls, not with others. It is an internal jihad between love and hate, the holy and the infidel, and we must attack and conquer the sinner inside of ourselves, we must win out over the urge for greed and thievery if we want to reach God’s heaven, nirvana, the holy land. “But it is greed that is winning that war in powerful people and those wanting to obtain power. Greed is putting a cog in the spokes of business and industry and not just in the industrialized nations. It is occurring in third world countries as well because militant leaders are hoarding food and supplies meant for starving populations in order to gain power. But then, these are people who are fighting for survival and in some cases you can hardly blame them. They have no good role models. They are starving and need food and, evil or not, joining an army or militant group means they will provide you with food, among other things. “But not so in the industrialized nations. The greedy are not hungry, in fact, they have everything they need and more and yet they cannot nor will not stop stealing from those who have little. And they rationalize that they are just smarter and use their brains instead of brawn. But it is this kind of rationalizing of greed that makes them blind to the effects of their actions. They do not realize that they are destroying the machine of commerce by abusing the workers and stealing from the very ones who do their work for them. “It is not a new problem. In every society where wealth is limited to a higher class than the working class, greed meant power and control until the scales tipped so much that revolution and mutiny prevailed. It happened to the Greeks, the Romans, the French, the Russians, the British Monarchy that once ruled the world, and now it is happening in the United States, except that there is no revolting...yet. The educated middle and lower classes in this country are not starving or slaves, as was the case in previous cultures. These are peaceful people who are being stolen from and lied to about their own government and their own corporations, their own employers. But God is not blind. “God will intervene and level the playing field once again. He may have to destroy the very foundation of our society just to equalize the yin and yang of commerce. He may have to alter the very geography of the planet just to close the gap between classes and bring the world back to a peaceful, loving order, where men and women honor each other and are considerate and, yes, where love of God, love of fellow man, love of father and mother, love of brother and sister, love of neighbors and ultimately, love of one’s self conquers all evil and wins the inner jihad of our souls.”