Category Archives: Eden Underground

Life In The Shire

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One of the most interesting things about fiction is that, for the most part, it is really just life— artfully arranged. Almost all of the scenes, incidents and characters we read about in novels can also be found in real life, in fact most of them are based on living people and actual situations. It is the same for “Tribes of Eden.” When I was writing the book I drew heavily from my own life experiences.

The Shire, for example, is really just a compound of the place I lived when I was growing up and the years Jude and I spent on the farm at Summer Hill. Sure some of the features were changed, exaggerated or diminished but the novelist has a right to do that to make the story flow more smoothly. It is true that Jude and I lived “off the GRID” and it is also true that when I was a child I lived close by my older relatives and had close relationships with them.

There is nothing simple about living the simple life and I think the greatest shortcoming we experienced on the farm was the struggle to do without all the modern conveniences and also do without a close network of friends and family to support and be supported by.

The Hobbits of the “Lord of the Rings” had a pretty good handle on things– they understood that living simply requires ample access to the gifts of community.

This video includes some further thoughts on the Shire and the GRID and the conflict that develops between them.

The Magic of Magical Realism

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When I am writing fiction, my taste runs toward something called “magical realism.”

The wiki has a good summary of the concept:

Magic realism or magical realism is an aesthetic style or genre of fiction[1] in which magical elements blend with the real world. The story explains these magical elements as real occurrences, presented in a straightforward manner that places the “real” and the “fantastic” in the same stream of thought. It is a film, literary and visual art genre.

I admit to being fascinated with the idea that the most magical things are often those that are the most real and the firmest grip on “reality” often includes things that are just plain magical. I should add that by “magical” I don’t mean warlocks and wands and spells (not that there is anything wrong with all that) but rather events that seem supernatural but exist side by side with perfectly natural happenings.

Perhaps some examples might help. It would be an example of magical realism if:

“a character in the story continues to be alive beyond the normal length of life and this is subtly depicted by the character being present throughout many generations. On the surface the story has no clear magical attributes and everything is conveyed in a real setting, but such a character breaks the rules of our real world. The author may give precise details of the real world such as the date of birth of a reference character and the army recruitment age, but such facts help to define an age for the fantastic character of the story that would turn out to be an abnormal occurrence like someone living for two hundred years.”

I like the friction that occurs when something that seems unreal or impossible exists, side by side and without comment with things that are perfectly normal.

Matthew Strecher defines magic realism as:

“…what happens when a highly detailed, realistic setting is invaded by something too strange to believe.” This critical perspective towards magical realism stems from the Western reader’s disassociation with mythology, a root of magical realism more easily understood by non-Western cultures.”

Ahhh. Mythology, that’s the thing. In fact, mythology is the tap root of all magical realism. I think that the great myths all had two intertwined objectives. For example,

A) The city was attacked by an invading army and destroyed which is a truth.
B) “Whom the gods would destroy, they first make mad,” which is a TRUTH.

“Tribes of Eden” blends the ordinary with the extraordinary in an effort to create a mythical story.

I hope you like it.

Strawberry Pop Tarts

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At a recent meeting of our local county legislature a report was given on disaster preparedness.

Very nice.

The presenter concluded with the observation that, whenever, disaster threatened to strike our area, the number one selling item at the local Wal-Mart was…

Readers of Tribes of Eden will no doubt guess this right away.

Yep, that’s right.

Strawberry Pop Tarts.

Life and Fiction are hardly strangers.

Tribes of Eden Is Here

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Today is the day — Tribes of Eden is going out into the world. Order your copy at Amazon.com.

Have you ever wonder what would happen if the economy actually did collapse? If the grocery shelves went bare for good and the pumps dried up, how long before society unraveled?

In his gripping debut novel Tribes of Eden, published April 2, William H. Thomas envisions a world ravished not by zombie pandemics or nuclear holocaust but by the total collapse of an unsustainable culture.

A crossover novel targeting teens-to-elders, Tribes of Eden uses a post-apocalyptic scenario to show how trust, community, and wisdom can overcome even the most tyrannical power and repair a broken world.

On the run after America’s sudden and utter collapse, Tribes of Eden follows a mother and her two children as they find refuge in a singular, self-sufficient community. But when the lure of a totalitarian virtual new world order divides the family, the elders of the community recognize that humanity’s fate rests with a chosen girl and a unlikely alliance between the least powerful – the young and old.

In the Journey of Life Choices Matter

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Warm praise for “Tribes of Eden” from Facebook fan Mike Pliss:

Every life is full of choices and every life struggles with birth, hunger, disease, old age and death. We all face these choices like forks in the road and we must make the difficult choices to yield to fear or to embrace love. One choice leads us further into isolation and the other deeper into kinship. One choice makes us less human and the other makes us more human.

Imagine then a family, a village, a shire; even an entire nation that chooses love over fear, patience over anger, understanding over condemnation, compassion over cruelty and you will be closer to Kalimos. This is the promise of Kalimos, that in each of our hearts we have a compass that points the way through every storm, through every fork in the road; that guides us if we choose, homeward to our fullest humanity, our greatest potential. The promise does not waiver. The promise does not fade even when the shock and awe of life devastates us. It promises us each a personal map to fulfillment, to a return to Eden.

Reading “The Tribes of Eden” will awaken your inner remembrance that we each entered life with this promise written in our hearts, and like a fortune cookie, it only waits for you to open it and read the message to regain the wisdom you require to complete your journey with your deepest hopes fulfilled.

Advance Praise for TRIBES of EDEN

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Advance praise for TRIBES of EDEN by Ronni Bennett, author of Time Goes By:

“With Tribes of Eden Bill has written classic tale of good and evil built on a solid, substantial world where elders are woven into the everyday fabric of life, valued for their experience, knowledge and wisdom – a story that needs to be repeated far and wide.

Most of all, the book is a load of fun, a page turner that will leave you thinking about it long after you have finished.”

 

Read the full review here.

The Real TRIBES of EDEN

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Here is the funny thing about “Tribes of Eden,” the book. The story it tells is actually inspired by the REAL tribes of Eden, by us. When you stop to think about it, what could be crazier and more hair raising than a small band of like-minded people deciding to change the very nature of a major component of the American health care system?

That’s us and we are doing it. A few years ago it became clear to me that not only would the real tribes of Eden need to work as hard as we could INSIDE the field of long-term care, we would have to work outside the field as well. Changing the way America views aging is going to help us change the way America cares for elders.

But how do we get “outside the field?”

My thoughts returned to the thing that has, more than anything else, helped Eden to grow… Stories. The book “Tribes of Eden” takes the story of the real tribes of Eden (that’s us!) and moves it to the biggest stage. The book presents a future where our entire society has been “institutionalized.” Except. Of course. A small band of people who believe in the power of relationship, of dignity, of truth, of age — we are them and they are us.

I won’t give much more of the plot away but I can say that the “Tribes of Eden” won’t be able to do its job of changing social attitudes toward age and elders unless and until, the real tribes of Eden take up the cause and help bring this book to the wider audience of our friends, our families and our neighbors.

All of the money from the sales of the book go to The Eden Alternative in support of our shared work so this is a pleasing triple win; the book is a fun and exciting read, the money goes to Eden and it can help us challenge and overcome our society’s pervasive ageism.

What do you say REAL tribes— are you ready to ride?

TRIBES of EDEN To Publish April 2 — How We Did It

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Tribes of Eden Reviewers Copies

Advanced Review Copies of TRIBES of EDEN

I have good and bad news for fans eagerly awaiting the print edition of Dr. Bill Thomas’ new novel TRIBES of EDEN. The good news is last week we received a shipment of the “advance review copies” (ARCs) for media and book reviewers and we set the official date for publication. The bad news — you still have to wait a couple more months to purchase TRIBES, which will be released April 2, 2012.

Check out the official Press Release at www.PitchEngine.com/TribesofEden.

Why the long wait? Actually, in book publishing time we’re managing to bring TRIBES to print faster than the speed of light. Working with a small team of dedicated professionals we were able to do in two months what most New York publishing houses take a year or more to accomplish. And it we didn’t do it by cutting corners.

With financial backing from The Eden Alternative non-profit (who will receive 100 percent of the proceeds from TRIBES) Bill launched an independent publishing company called SANA Publications. I was tasked with assembling an editorial, artistic and marketing team capable of producing a  finished novel of the highest caliber and executing a grass-roots social media-based marketing campaign to rival any publishing house. I enlisted the help of Right Livelihood, LLC, a book publishing consulting firm headed by Melissa Brumer.

As a start-up publishing house, our production team was able to focus exclusively on TRIBES, which is something you never get working with a larger publisher. In just weeks graphic designer extraordinaire Jonas LaRance produced more than a dozen concepts for the cover art, which we were able to vet through focus groups and market testing. Melissa, our lead editor, book designer and an expert in sustainable publishing practices, took what was already an excellent manuscript and hammered, scraped, sanded and polished it into a beautifully laid out finished book. We also brought in an eBook designer, Natalie Goudry and a small team of copy editors (who are still picking tenaciously through the final paperback manuscript before we send to the publisher at the end of the month).

In fact, the marketing aspect of publishing a novel is turning out to be more time consuming than the actual production. We can match (and in my opinion exceed) the production expertise of the publishing industry, but we cannot compete with their clout when it comes to distribution and marketing. Typically, the big New York publishing houses publish a few thousand new novels per year. But only a small handful those — a few dozen at most — are actually touted as potential bestsellers and given full marketing and distribution support. That means printing tens of thousands of copies sent out to all the major book chains and getting prime access to national media and book reviewers. Even with all that support fewer than five on average attain bestseller status.

Now, you should know that Bill worked with one of the best literary agents in New York — Lane Zachary of Zachary Shuster and Harmsworth – for three years in an attempt to get that kind of support for TRIBES. It was through this process that we learned that as a first-time novelist, Bill had virtually zero percent chance of getting the bestseller treatment, even if he landed a big publisher. (With nonfiction it’s a completely different story — as readers know, Lane easily sold Bill’s upcoming nonfiction book, The Second Crucible, to Simon and Schuster last summer. But they wouldn’t even look at the novel.)

It was a no-brainer when Bill finally told Lane to quit pushing the novel and decided to publish it independently. Why give the publishers 90 percent of the profits when they’re not even going to work very hard to promote your book? Instead, we can deliver it directly to our audience and 100 percent of the profits will go to supporting elders through The Eden Alternative, the inspiration for TRIBES.

So how do plan to compete with the big publishing houses in terms of marketing? One word — relationships. We have the message, the tools and the network at our finger tips to foster and grow the kinds of relationships it takes to make a book a bestseller. The publishing game has fundamentally changed and bestsellers are no longer determined by big shot newspaper book reviewers and the chain book stores. The number one driver of book sales is Word of Mouth, and that is something we know how to generate.

Working closely with Jonas (also an experienced expert on marketing and branding) and Melissa, I’ve laid out a three month campaign focused on building word of mouth support for TRIBES. Rather than focus on mainstream media book reviewers, we’re reaching out to Amazon’s Top 100 Reviewers, real life readers whose book reviews have potential to carry more weight than the New York Times. Already we’ve got Amazon’s No. 2 reviewer “Scott” and No. 6 “C.F. Hill” committed to reviewing TRIBES, and we’re reaching out to dozens more.

Rather than depending on Oprah or the morning talk shows to give Bill airtime (although we wouldn’t say no!) we’re coordinating a massive virtual Blog Book Tour through the ChangingAging Blogstream and influential book blogs to help us reach millions of viewers when TRIBES launches.

And rather than depending on massive book distributors dumping thousands of copies on chain bookstores, we’re calling on the REAL tribes of Eden, the entire global Eden Alternative community, in all 50 states and more than a dozen countries worldwide, to help get the word out.

The clock is ticking and we’re making the final push. If you’d like to get involved, don’t hesitate contacting me at editor@changingaging.org.

 

The Novel Idea

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I thought this would be a good time to put up some thoughts about my new novel which has been four years in the making. I’ll start with the facts.

Title: Tribes of Eden

Format: ebook for now and paperback at the end of February.

Premise: This book picks up after the point where “In the Arms of Elders” leaves off. It’s action is set in the future and it tells how the Eden Alternative builds an alliance between young and old that can challenge a tyrannical power.

Now for some opinions…

Why would I spend four years writing a novel?

I like writing fiction; it is more work and takes more time than writing non-fiction but it is also more rewarding. The story in this book just wanted to be told.

What good will a novel do for the cause of changing aging?

People who have been following my work know that I am a believer in the power of stories. We humans use stories to explore our world, what we want from our lives and how things work– or should work. The Tribes novel examines the role of Eden in the wider world. It places Eden in a broader context.

What are my goals for the novel?

Like any writer, I feel that the most important thing is to be read. I am eager to talk to readers about their ideas and I look forward to airing these conversations in person and on this blog over the coming year.

So…

If you have a Nook or a Kindle or an Ipad, “Tribes of Eden” is out there waiting for you. We are working hard to build a community of readers and we welcome you into its fold.

For those of us who still prefer to get our books in the non-digital form, the paperback is on its way and we will keep you up to date with our progress toward a publication date.

– Bill Thomas

Introducing Tribes of Eden

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Message from the author

In the mid-1990′s I decided to write a book about aging. It was going to be a serious, deeply researched non-fiction book that would update the state of knowledge regarding aging. In the evenings, when I sat down to write this book — I had trouble concentrating.

Instead of working on the book, I spent hours thinking about, dreaming about and writing stories about a magical place that seemed to be calling to me.

I called that place “Kallimos” and I imagined it to be “the heart of the world,” a place where elders were woven into the fabric of the community. I began experimenting with a literary form called the “fictionalized memoir.” These stories were first published in 1996, the book was titled, “Open Hearts Open Minds” and it outlined the values embodied in The Eden Alternative. I did all the illustrations myself and, if you can find one, snap it up because it has become a collectors item. Jude and I only have two copies.

In 1999 a revised and expanded version of the story of Kallimos was published as a hardcover under the title “Learnging from Hannah.” Jude and I organized a 27 city bus tour for a stage play that I adapted from the book. It was during this tour that I first started to imagine the “Eden” with a clean sheet of paper that became “The Green House Project.”

In 2004, “Learning from Hannah” came out in paperback, retitled as “In the Arms of Elders.” It was at this time that I started thinking about a sequel to the story of Kallimos. I began by telling stories to my wife, Jude. She deserves, at the very least, a Medal of Honor for the many hours she spent listening to me as I haltingly brought this new story to life.

Those stories coalesced into a new novel, a sequel to the earlier books. This new book is called “Tribes of Eden.” It picks up the story about a dozen years after the end of the last book. Bill and Jude are living at Summer Hill among people who have believed in and practiced the Eden Alternative. Working together, they have constructed a string of villages along the unpaved Turnpike Road.

Outside of this “Edenized” settlement, the world is starting to come apart. We meet a family in Chicago who struggles to make sense of and remain safe from the collapse of society. Fleeing the chaos and ruin, fate seems to deliver the woman and her twins to Summer Hill, where they are welcomed into the community by Bill and Jude and the Council of Elders.

After that… well, lets just say complications ensue. Continue reading →