[November 2009  Midwest Book Review]

Green In Our Souls
John B. Rosenman
Damnation Books
P.O. Box 3931, Santa Rosa, CA 95402-9998
9781615720026 $2.50 Ebook www.damnationbooks.com

There is a new trend in ebook publishing, not only to make full-length novels available, but all manner of fiction in a variety of lengths. Damnation Books, one of the newest on the market, has debuted with longer fiction books as well as some tasty short stories and novelettes. This has been a boon for new writers who want to dip a toe in the publishing pool and who don’t want to get lost amid the other offerings in an anthology. But printing short fiction is a plus for readers, too, who may wish to sample an author’s style and ability to tell a story or his or her subject matter, without forking over the sum for a complete anthology. With the demise of a lot of genre-specific magazines, it gets to be harder and harder for readers to find new authors. Plus, quite frankly, writing a solidly constructed short story is no easy feat.

One of Damnation Books’ latest ebooks is a story by John B. Rosenman called “Green In Our Souls.” It is a strange tale of a successful lawyer Derrick Thomas who has suddenly developed the ability to share the mind of his beloved, but deceased, grandfather. Derrick finds that he has gained this ability because of a drug his mother took while she was pregnant with him. Soon Derrick discovers that he can do more than just think his grandfather’s thoughts. He becomes his grandfather, fully experiencing the feelings and sensations his grandfather felt in a moment in time both Derrick and he shared long ago. Though these experiences are unsettling enough, Derrick’s situation soon becomes worse when he’s kidnapped by his own doctor and taken to a strange facility where Derrick’s gift will be used for sinister purposes.

“Green In Our Souls” is an interesting tale about death and psychic ability, and John B. Rosenman offers a unique twist on those themes. The characters are as developed as Rosenman can make them in a few pages, with Derrick, obviously, being the most fleshed out. I really enjoyed this ebook and would gladly read more of Rosenman’s work.

I think, also, that “Green In Our Souls” is a timely read, especially since there have been news programs about Long-Viewers, people recruited by the government to use their psychic abilities to see into enemy territory, looking at facilities or into minds. The film, Men Who Stare at Goats, being released in the fall of 2009 also deals with this subject. “Green In Our Souls,” however, presents quite a different view of phenomenon like this. Well done.

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