Shingle Creek Sagas Series

Finalist, Pirate's Alley Faulkner Society Novel-in-Progress Contest When blue collar workers confront a factory owner for stealing soup at a neighborhood meeting, millionaires start a war against the community's budding campaign for worker's rights.    Teenaged Friends Paul Mäkinen, son of a truck mechanic, and Karen Ahlberg, daughter of a railroad engineer, have just begun leading the Shingle Creek Park Teen Council and its programs for kids.       They realize that something is making neighborhood adults grumpy and angry, but they don't know what it is.    Working with two adult neighborhood leaders, they hold a soup 'n' sandwich community meeting. Paul and Karen make huge vats of homemade soup. Creekers bring their own sandwiches.    When Paul asks, "What do you want to see happening here?" they find out most Creekers do not feel respected at work. They're furious that the bug spray factory owner stole community development funds to stop fumes and smoke from poisoning their air. They're also terrified by run-away inflation. So they decide to campaign for a raise in the minimum wage, respect on the job, and the return of the stolen funds.    The factory owner is at their meeting and accuses Paul of being a socialist. The Creekers ask if the owner paid for his soup, which is only free to neighborhood residents. He didn't. So they make him pay for it and escort him out of the meeting. The factory owner then starts a lawsuit against them for slander.    As they work closely together, Paul discovers Karen has a crush on him. They both realize they have a kind of magic between them they've never felt with anyone else. But because of his personal problems, Paul's fear of having a romance with her intensifies, even as they grow closer. His anxiety causes such violent physical pain, Paul imagines he has snakes biting his insides. He begins to understand he has to somehow resolve his problem and starts counseling with a therapist.    Right before the second soup 'n' sandwich community meeting, Paul and Karen get anonymous death threats. A paid provocateur accuses them of running a kidnapping ring that sells children. More troublemakers try to disrupt their meeting.    Paul has nightmares that the provocateurs are going to kill him. Karen and Paul are terrified. But they realize they don't have a choice. They have to keep organizing and fighting for working people's rights.     It's a matter of survival.    "I Can Still Feel Her Hand in Mine," excerpted from chapters 3 and 4 of No Free Soup for Millionaires  was first published in Newtown Literary Spring/Summer 2020.  No Free Soup for Millionaires was first published as The Real Paul Makinen? Part 1. Length: 129,051 Words, 386 pages.

When workers get legal authority to stop industrial hazards, and successfully sue a factory owner, panicked millionaires sabotage community meetings, hire armed spies, harass their kids, and raise their real estate taxes four times over.    Teenaged Friends Paul, son of a truck mechanic, and Karen, daughter of a railroad engineer, have just begun to organize their blue-collar community in Shingle Creek. Despite a blizzard of death threats, the Creekers start a daily newspaper and a radio station. Form alliances with other working-class communities. Win their lawsuit which makes the bug spray factory owner return stolen community development funds.    When the bosses force railroad track maintainers' pay below minimum wage, the whole Shingle Creek community votes to support a strike. And they manage to get a charter for an industrial safety commission which will permit them to legally repair or remove unsafe factory equipment and railroad tracks.    All of which provokes the bosses' fear and anger. A slander campaign against the Creekers gets more vicious. The county raises Shingle Creek real estate taxes by 450%. Thugs at the community meetings shift from threats to violence, which shuts down the Creekers' gatherings. Assault charges are filed against a Creeker who defended herself from a thug attack. And the police assassinate a powerful longtime Creekers' ally.    While all this happens, Paul and Karen become closer. They kiss for the first time. They're sleeping together, but not having sex. She asks him to make love. He says he can't and he doesn't know why. When she tells him she loves him, he wants to respond but his anxiety attack prevents him and keeps him from talking about his problem.    He builds a wall around himself so nobody will know he's a weakling fighting a losing battle. Karen finally confronts him about not letting her turn him on, and not telling her he loves her. He says he can't.    Karen, who has a powerful need for emotional and sexual validation, has an affair with a guy she met at the university. Paul is devastated. But he doesn't blame her. He talks with his therapist about what he has to do to win Karen back and starts taking steps to do that.    Despite their problems, Karen and Paul stand together in their commitment to lead the Creekers to victory in their fight for workers' rights.    Midwest Book Review calls They Break the Laws We Must Obey an "… outstanding … bittersweet depiction of love, loss, growth, and social and political involvement …"    "My Mommy Questions" and "My Bonnie Answers," poetry excerpted from Chapter 16 was first published as "Two-Poem Dialogue" in Pangolin Review. They Break the Laws We Must Obey was first published as The Real Paul Makinen? Part 2.