J von Minden
Overcoming untreated autism
and learning disabilities, J. von
Minden graduated summa
cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa,
from St. Joseph University in
Philadelphia,
PA,
with
elections to Sigma Tau Delta
and Alpha Sigma Lambda. His
first novel, The Dream Zone,
was published when he was
only nineteen. Since then he
has published two more—
Widow’s Byte, and Bird of
Paradise. When not writing, he
is a woodworker and private
tutor. He has one son, and
lives in Olympia, Washington.
Although I had been writing
since age eight, I did not
become a true author until age
fourteen when I received a
precious gift. I was sitting on a
bench in downtown St. Paul,
Minnesota, waiting for my
bus. An old black man
approached me, smiling as
though he recognized me from
a past life. His ragged clothing
and dishevelled hair betrayed
his life as a well-seasoned
homeless man and yet he
asked
no
one
for
a
coin. Instead, he pulled a
harmonica out and played a
few lines. Then in a gritty
voice he told me about his
days playing music with the
legendary Muddy Waters. He
played a little more on his
harmonica then continued on
his walk to nowhere, playing
his harmonica, and smiling at
the people he passed. He
never told me his name, but as
you can see, I never forgot the
gift he gave me—the gift of his
story. I returned that gift by
remembering him in this
book’s sequel, Pieces of
Rainbow.
We are our stories.
LIGHTNING IN THE CRADLE
Release Date 06/01/2014
Rītva is a twelve year old girl growing up
in a convent in the Latvian highlands. As
an orphan, she endures the social
backlash by retreating into local
mythology and fantasy. As she comes of
age, coming to terms with who she is and
what she is, the shifting lines of World
War II sweep through her home, first
bringing Russian occupation and then
Nazi subjugation. Amid the trauma of
forced indoctrination into a Hitler Youth
division, she learns the real secret of her
parentage
and
its
incestuous
consequences that could send her to
concentration camp.
As an ethnic Prusiaskai, the pre-Christian
ethnicity of the Baltic coast from the
former East Prussia to modern day Latvia,
Rītva is the only characterization of this
race to appear in fiction. Officially listed
as extinct since WWII, the Prusiaskai are
but one of the many smaller ethnicities
that were exterminated in Eastern Europe,
a crime we must not forget, a voice we
must not lose.
This series follows the interconnecting
lines of those people, most based on
actual lives that have touched the author
of his family or are a part tree.
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