Every Sunday, I try to post an excerpt from my novel, The Awakening of Russell Henderson. Here’s another. The book is available at http://www.amazon.com/author/edwardlehner.

One evening when Hanna and I were coming in from the hot tub, I noticed a I had a voice mail from Mom, “Russell, Dad’s in the hospital. Please call me as soon as you get this.” 

Panicked, I called back immediately, “Mom? I got your message. Hospital? What’s wrong? Is he okay?” 

He had a little heart attack.”

I couldn’t say anything for a few breaths, “How bad? When?”

“Yesterday. He’s in the Iowa City Hospital Heart Unit.”

“How is he? How serious was it?!”

“He had a dual by-pass. There was little a complication so he has to stay in the hospital for a few days. He would like to see you and Karen. Could you come home?”

“Of course we’ll come. I’ll try to get us a flight tomorrow. I’ll call you when I know. Are you okay?” I asked desperately.

“No, not really. There’s Donny and now this. I’m at my wits end. But the doctors here are very good. They say Roy’ll have a complete recovery, but he’s going to have to start watching his diet and start exercising. That’ll be the hardest part for him.”

“Mom, I’ll call you soon as I know something. Tell Dad hello and we’ll be there as soon as we can.”

“Thanks, Russell. I’ll be so happy to see you two kids. This’s all been real hard on us you know, Donny and everything.”

“I know, Mom. I know. I’m sorry. I will call as soon as I know something. Okay?”

“I know that’ll make Dad happy. Hear from you soon.” She clicked off.

I called Karen who started to cry. Hanna overheard and she was upset. “When you go, I’m going with you.”

“Not a good idea. You know our family dynamic.”

“I don’t care about that. I care about you. You and Karen both. I’m coming, no argument!”

I have just reissued my first novel, San Juan Sunrise, now available on Amazon.

Every Sunday, I try to post an excerpt from my novel, The Awakening of Russell Henderson. Here’s another. The book is available at http://www.amazon.com/author/edwardlehner.

The three of us practiced until we were bleary eyed. We fine tuned, we honed. I kept working on new licks and rhythm patterns. We were becoming a true unit, feeding off each other, commenting, criticizing, encouraging, growing. 

We invited some others, the violin player and the whistle player from our jams, and, of course Frank, to sit in on various tunes. They were eager and we worked out those tunes as well. Other than Frank, the other two played professionally and had recorded before. Frank was a novice like we were but was up to his part.

Our session date arrived. Hanna and I packed up our gear, picked up Mick and Karen and headed to the studio which was in a nondescript building in an industrial area of other nondescript buildings. We were greeted by a twenty something woman, with purple hair and numerous tattoos and piercings, who introduced herself as Bobby, who led to an office where we met our recording engineer, Johnny, who was somewhere north of forty but south of sixty. He was a heavy set man with droopy eyes, and the requisite pony tail. He was professional to the point of being standoffish, but, as we got on, he turned out to a really nice guy.

He asked about our style of music, acoustic or electric, did we have pickups, what were our goals, and had we ever recorded in a studio before? Hanna, our only true professional and spokesperson, answered for us. He explained that we could each lay out separate tracks individually or do it together as a group. We chose the later option. So, We would be in separate recording booths and Hanna would be center where we could see her. At the end, we signed a bunch of paperwork including the contract. 

The rooms were completely sound proof so the only way we would hear each other was through our headsets. We would each be recorded on a separate track so we could over-dub any mistakes or anything we might not like.

We were led to our separate rooms and made comfortable. Bobby brought us each a bottle of water. Before we separated, we got in tune and we were ready . . . as ready as we would ever be and went to our respective places. I closed my door and all sound was gone. It was a sound vacuum. It was weird. 

I put on the headset and heard Derek talking. It was like he was right in front of me, his voice was so sharp and crisp it was unnerving.

I could see Hanna standing about ten feet away, but Mick was in a room outside my vision. Derek was in his control room off to my left. 

I have not been posting much as of late. The collection of short stories that I hope will be published by Christmas has taken up much of my time. Plus, I’m writing another novel (slow going) and several more short stories. And my luterie work can take up much of my time when needed repairs roll in. There are so many projects I need to post, but, for some reason I think, everything I post needs to be more extensive than is sometimes needed.

And another thing, I keep getting frutrated with WordPress and its sometimes weird behavior. I was going to try to move to another platfrom for blogging, but found the one that was supposed to be so user friendly was worse that WordPress. So goes the battle.

Til later . . .

Every Sunday, I try to post an excerpt from my novel, The Awakening of Russell Henderson. Here’s another. The book is available at http://www.amazon.com/author/edwardlehner.

The next day Karen and I went to meet Robert, our young, soon to be, long term therapist. The three of us had a brief discussion centered on our family issues. Karen went first. She came out later with red eyes, but smiling. I gave her a quick hug and followed Robert into the inner sanctum. I told him about everything, including my earlier aborted counseling. 

I quickly liked his laid back but direct approach. I gave a brief overview of what I had discussed with my first counselor back in Chicago, mainly my parent’s reaction to my perceived failure. I talked briefly about my journey and my relationship with Hanna. That took up most of the session, so other than taking copious notes, he didn’t have much time to give much direction other than encouraging me to get back to my journaling the had fallen by the wayside after I left the retreat center. 

He said, “When you write your thoughts and feelings down in black and white, they become real, concrete, we can look them as more real than simply internalizing them. It truly helps us to understand ourselves better.”

“I never thought of journaling in that way. Thank you.”

“So, that’s your homework. Also, bring questions. From what you have told me, you seem to have moved on a lot, but there are some family things we need to talk about. Can you come next week same time and day?”

“Sure. I’ll be looking forward to it.’

I found Karen reading a magazine in the small waiting room. She too had rescheduled for appointments the next week. Neither of us talked on our way to her house. Once parked, I asked, “So? How was it?”