EL PASO SUNRISE & EL PASO SUNSET
by Louis Bodnar
Publisher: Morgan James Fiction
Pub Date: September 24th, 2019 | January 5th, 2021
Pages: 292 | 238
Categories: Thriller / Terrorism / Conspiracy
From a Constitutional Republic to a Marxist Dictatorship led by a Muslim President in a Second American Civil War
“Kill him,” the gravelly voice said on the speaker to the cream of the Russian and Muslim terrorist assassination squad infiltrating America from Canada and on their way to El Paso to kill lawyer Steven Vandorol. Steven was leading the Texas prosecution of Federal government corruption and with national implications before the fall presidential election.
El Paso Sunrise is the first of two stand-alone novels that together tell a grand story of love, passion, intense hate, violence and horror all brought keenly alive against the intentional radical transformation of America in a Second American Civil War by progressives, Muslim radicals and the American Left from a Constitutional Republic. It is also a portrayal of a future with the literal choking of Canada, Great Britain, Europe, the Middle East, particularly the sovereign State of Israel by Islamist radicals, ISIL, Hezbollah, Hamas and the spreading cancerous malignancy of a worldwide Muslim Caliphate.
Steven Vandorol had it all but lost everything when he fell hard from grace in the ultra-rich Sunbelt. Escaping to Washington, D.C., he found himself embroiled in evil, corruption, sexual obsession and addiction but, confronting his own demons, found peace and serenity in El Paso.
Then stunning Vanessa Carson, Steven’s attorney friend and confidant amid the evil of D.C. brings her sunshine smile back into his life in El Paso and together as one, face their worst nightmares or rape, kidnapping and murder during the ultimate crises of a second American civil war started by powerful forces and only Steven and Vanessa stand in their way . . .
While El Paso Sunrise is a graphic story of evil in this world, it is also a timeless love story about goodness, faith, grace and friendship blossoming during a national emergency — a clarion call to the world to remember what truly matters — asking the question . . .
Can Steven force his own country and government to face their own demons before it’s too late?
Purchase: *LouisBodnar | Amazon | Barnes and Noble
El Paso Sunset
Within El Paso Sunset, Steven and his friend, Vanessa Carson, face their worst nightmare of rape, kidnapping, and murder during the ultimate crisis of a Second American Civil War started by dark, sinister, and shadowy forces and only Steven and Vanessa stand in the way. El Paso Sunset is the second and continuation of two stand-alone novels that together make a story of love, passion, obsession, intense hate, pure evil, violence, and horror, all brought keenly alive against the panorama of the radical transformation of the great American Constitutional Republic.
Purchase: *Louis Bodnar | Amazon | Barnes and Noble
*Special Discount if you buy both books through Louis Bodnar’s Website
“MY OWN JOURNEY”
(originally published, April 25, 2021)
While this book is a work of fiction, rather than the fictional character in this novel, Eddie Egen laying in an upside down police cruiser after the attempt to kill him failed as he drove back to El Paso as detailed in Chapter 14, it was me.
The actual time was September, 1997. I was then practicing law in El Paso and was on Interstate 10 returning from Pecos after a pretrial conference. It was early afternoon, and I was some forty miles from El Paso when I entered a heavy construction zone.
The divided highway had two lanes going east that were closed for the construction, so the traffic was redirected and could use only the west bound lanes both ways, which were then further divided and had massive concrete abutments between those now just two lanes.
As I was driving to El Paso in my four-door sedan, I had the concrete dividers to my left and a sharp drop off on my right after the pavement ended with only sand, gravel and the endless west-Texas desert. The construction zone speed limit was 55 MPH.
I caught up with a large semi-tractor trailer ahead of me and slowed down behind it. Suddenly, the trailer ahead of me started fish tailing and went off the sharp drop off into gravel and sand. I swerved to avoid a collision, hit my brakes and went off the pavement myself. When I turned sharply to try to get back on the pavement, my right front tire dug into sand…and I was completely airborne… doing a one and a half gainer. The car landed, rolled and ended up stationary on its roof. I was in the driver’s seat, strapped in and held by the harness seat belt, upside down and the engine still running.
I smelled gasoline and looked up and very clearly heard a voice say, “turn the engine off” which I did immediately by reaching up and doing so.
There was complete dead silence and stillness.
After what seemed like just a few seconds, I unbuckled my seat belt and crumpled onto the car’s interior roof. All the windows were broken out, and to my left was an opening, maybe a foot wide of jagged glass out into the desert and swirling sand.
I took several deep breaths and agonizingly started to crawl out. Seemingly seconds passed again and I was out in the sand on all fours, stood up and looked around. The wind was picking up, the sand was swirling and I was completely alone. I looked all around and there was absolutely nothing visible all the way to the horizon. I noticed that the large accordion file I had beside me on the passenger seat was out in the desert and papers were flying all around in the sand. I walked over and was compelled to start picking up all those papers…
The next thing I knew, a fireman was walking beside me, saying “but sir, we have to immobilize you.” To which I said, “I’ve got to pick up all my court papers.”
I woke in a hospital emergency trauma unit two days later hurting and badly bruised. I had suffered a broken collar bone, had a severe concussion and suffered serious wounds on my arms crawling out of the car. Both of my arms were heavily bandaged. I learned that a passing driver reported my car lying upside down in the desert. From that time to the fireman’s question was apparently almost four hours that I spent in the desert alone!
I was saved by the Grace of the Lord.
That was the beginning of my journey. I ended a very destructive personal relationship, wound down my law practice in El Paso and relocated to Dallas where I continued to practice law for a time. Later, I retired from a Dallas, Texas law firm and returned home to Oklahoma to be with family.
This book is a work of fiction but is also an autobiographical account of my deeply personal emotional journey where I not only learned much about the therapeutic cycle, Freudian psychology and intimate relationships, but also learned a great deal about myself. Most important, however, I learned about Faith, Grace and Love and learned for an absolute certainty that the only things of value that really matter in this world are my Lord, my wife Joan and our marriage, my family and our friends.
I was helped in this journey and during my entire life since birth by the Lord’s designated Angels and many are detailed in this novel as being in Steven Vandorol’s past, his early life and later emerging self-awareness. In that regard, I wish to acknowledge another of the Lord’s designated angels, my Christian Counselor, who for privacy reasons in this novel I call Doc Bill. Thank you Doc Bill for teaching me about the Good Lord’s Grace which is humanity’s unmerited gift.
As I state in the beginning of this novel, this book is dedicated to my wife, lover, partner, best friend, love of my life and the Good Lord’s designated angel, Joan Carol, without whose help, support, encouragement and very practical suggestions, this book would have not been finished. She is truly my partner dolphin swimming in the wake ahead of an R.O.W. rest-of-world symbolic tramp steamer bearing down behind them that hung in fictitious Steven Vandorol’s bedroom on Golden Hill Terrace in El Paso. Thank you, my Joan! I love you with all my heart, mind, body and soul, forever and always and am your Louis until death do us part but then join as one in Paradise.
Ultimately this book is dedicated to our Lord, the Father, and Jesus Christ, His only begotten son, that are in both or our hearts, minds and souls and will join in Heaven hereafter when we are called by our Lord.
For those readers that are interested in further “blah, blah, blah…” that my practical wife Joan has been so very helpful in striking from my earlier drafts of this novel’s manuscript because I, the dreamer, do have a tendency toward overdoing everything both in daily life and in writing. As she, the practical one, has told me on occasion that my writing needs “less blah, blah, blah… rather than more!” said with great affection and tenderness. I took her words to heart in finishing this novel but just can’t resist a little more “blah, blah blah…” for those readers that are as interested in human nature and motivation as I am…
Continue reading at: https://louisbodnar.com/my-own-journey/
GIVEAWAY! GIVEAWAY! GIVEAWAY
ONE WINNER receives autographed copies of the two-volume set of the El Paso books.
(US only; ends midnight, CDT, July 2, 2021)
A RAFFLECOPTER GIVEAWAY
Louis Bodnar is a retired attorney currently living in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, with his wife Joan. As a naturalized American citizen, he was born in Vilshofen, Germany, immigrated to Brazil with his mother and brother, and came to America in 1958.
He was educated in the United States in Oklahoma, receiving an undergraduate degree from Oklahoma State University, a Juris Doctorate from the University of Oklahoma, and was a candidate for an LLM in International and Comparative Law at Georgetown University Law Center in Washington, D.C.
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| 6/22/21 | Excerpt Book One | Texas Book Lover |
| 6/22/21 | BONUS Promo | LSBBT Blog |
| 6/23/21 | Review Book One | Forgotten Winds |
| 6/24/21 | Guest Post | It’s Not All Gravy |
| 6/25/21 | Dual Review | Bibliotica |
| 6/26/21 | Excerpt Book Two | StoreyBook Reviews |
| 6/27/21 | Excerpt Book Two | Chapter Break Book Blog |
| 6/28/21 | Review Book Two | The Clueless Gent |
| 6/29/21 | Author Interview | Hall Ways Blog |
| 6/30/21 | Dual Review | Reading by Moonlight |
| 7/1/21 | Series Spotlight | Missus Gonzo |
