MORNING COMES: The Pre Dawn Blues (The Books of Gem: 2)

Updated 2015, MORNING COMES is a kingpin for The Books of Gem. Couched within sci-fi fantasy, Jennifer Green is a human female struggling with an other worldly origin. Through light satire, Morning Comes uses the right brain hemisphere to playfully enhance Ayn Rand's strict left brain focus.

Below are excerpts from reviews of MORNING COMES by John W. Cassell, author of several novels focusing the late 1960's - early 1970's. Cassell retired in 2006 after a 25 year career in law enforcement and prosecution:

At one point in her agony poor Jennifer, perched upon her rock in the middle of nowhere wonders: "Who would be interested in the sour heart song of an insecure writer who might or might not be from another planet, advanced beyond Earth's brain waves?"

Who? Well me for one, and getting more involved with each segment. But that is Linda Shelnutt's specialty. Her descriptions, whether of sunbeams slicing through the curtains, or that delightful long dark hair brushed from Jennifer's face by the zephyrs of her rocky hideaway, put you right there with ALL your senses. I swear I'm a bit more tanned every time I spend a day with Jennifer on her solitary perch... thirsty too. It's DRY out there. Now some people might be offended by this masterful "Build-A-Religion Erector set", but relax. Linda makes it very clear she is playing in a fantasy sandbox... combining what apparently are autobiographical details from her life with the many and fascinating 'what-if's' of a Way Of Living that if adopted would bring Heaven to Earth, and replace suffering with joy. It's a fantasy all right... a giant, fulsome drumstick that benevolent, caring, creative minds of the rare caliber of this gifted writer enjoy chewing on. And yet through the medium of fantasy... faction... or Theo-Fi cometh Truth... even unto the Gentiles.... I'm finding all this self-talk increasingly persuasive and addictive... but for the fun of being persuaded and being addicted. Over and above that simple self-indulgence, however, is some pretty eloquently stated wisdom. For example, in Part Four [from the Amazon Shorts serialized edition of this book] some lordly universal powers are talking to Earth... and make this comment:

"You have CONDEMNED your cities, machines, architectural accomplishments.

“YOU'VE CONDEMNED THE WHOLE INDUSTRIAL AGE, the sophistication of your varied cultures and games to play, outlawing all the ways of life developed in your history except living in simple, non creative, socialistic, bee hive communities...

"BECAUSE YOU WERE AFRAID OF POLLUTION and POVERTY?"

Now is that an on-the-mark commentary of today's hazy-gray social and regulatory hang-ups in this country or what? Brilliantly expressed. In her fascinating treatise The Price of Black Diamonds she [Linda Shelnutt] discusses in persuasive detail the sapping of America's creative, productive spirit by regulatory bureaucratic drones increasing their self-importance by suffocating the people who are ACCOMPLISHING things. What makes this all the more palatable is the fact that the reader is partaking of this intellectual, soulful nourishment while hoping a cute little vixen is going to find her True Mate before being consumed with self-doubt or destroyed by creditors. Few writers could envision a viable literary fabric wrought from such diverse threads. Within this select group, only a very few could pull it off. In Morning Comes Linda Shelnutt establishes herself at the forefront of this literary elite.

I know this would be difficult to appreciate until you've read the book, but for all my skepticism about any philosophical construct that sees a united humanity enjoying peace on Earth, something wonderful is taking place: Linda Shelnutt's incomparable use of words to create mood are carrying me with her...