*Artwork by Adia Sharpe

@oshmitty

Policeman’s Handbook

A Book By James L. Boanerges

Imagine such a book existed. 

It’s the time of the L.A. Riots, Spring 1992. John Limon is the proud proprietor of Lemonade Bookstand, a used bookstore in a disfavored Seattle neighborhood. His life changes the day he finds a book in his store that does not belong. It’s a handwritten notebook, the contents of which provide detailed instruction of how to be a police officer. Instruction that includes bias, abuse of power, use of violence, intimidation, profiling, false arrest and falsifying evidence. 

John Limon knew these unofficial rules of the police, as he’d suffered his own encounters on the wrong side of the law during his youth in Oakland. It was a time he’d acted under the moniker Black Jack Lemon, a time, and a past, John Limon thought he’d left behind for good.

They had lost a copy of their secret handbook, and would stop at nothing—blackmail, threat, mayhem, abduction, ransom, arson, even murder—to retrieve it, nothing. And they were the police. 

A decision of conscience versus comfort: Will John Limon expose the handbook and with it a corrupt police state, or will he stay silent and safe in his new life as a legitimate member of society? 

The answer can be found in a book that itself calls into question the nature of a police force dedicated to preserving the status quo of power, Policeman’s Handbook.

Boanerges captures a time and place in this flavored tale of crime and conspiracy. 

*Artwork by Allisyn Thompson

Guised Passage

A Book By James L. Boanerges

The canyon wasn’t displayed on the map. 

Four friends embark on their annual backpacking escape, this time into a remote section of the Canadian Rockies. Stumbling upon a canyon not marked on any known map, the women are faced with the decision between safety and adventure. A chance meeting with an academic research team adds mystery when they learn the haunting mythological lore the local Indigenous People hold toward the canyon. When the medicine man and his unsettling apprentice enter, the camp takes on a threatening tone. While finding an exciting wilderness experience is high on their list, the canyon might be more than the friends bargain for. The promise of adventure is foregone in what ends up being a decision that was never theirs to make. 

Word Factory - Social Construct, Episode II

A Book By James Boanerges

At the center of this story is Penelope Jenkins, a college graduate ready to start her career who is going to a job interview at what she thinks is a normal company. Society is not the self-determining amalgamation we think it is. There is actually an organization behind it all. Social Construct is a real building housing departments and employees whose jobs are influencing, critiquing, defining and redefining, questioning and challenging, upholding and destroying, subverting and buttressing those factors comprising society. Social Construct, where answers remain unquestioned, and solutions never find their problems. Follow Penelope behind the scenes in this madcap covert world on what becomes her first day and perhaps what might be her last, due to the synchronized arrival of a mysterious note. A note she inherits. How can she solve the riddle of the note when she does not even understand its message? Employees of Social Construct seem more interested in winning Penelope to their interests than lending her assistance. She does learn that this note calls into question the future relevance of the Department of Language known on the inside of Social Construct as Word Factory.

*Artwork by Josh Murano

Uneven Sidewalk

Parallel universes exist within McClain Towers, two self-sustaining galaxies that unexpectedly synthesize through an uneventful event.

This is not the premise of a sci-fi tale, rather a metaphor to describe the disparate worlds of the people occupying McClain Towers: that of the wealthy residents enjoying luxuries of doors held open and elevator buttons pushed, and the employees who provide the services of said luxuries.

We enter their worlds as a valuable painting has gone missing, a catalyst that introduces and reinforces the complexities behind the otherwise anonymous faces we might pass day to day. Reminding us that behind nametags, mailbox designators and nonprofit donor lists there are people with personal journeys and relationships, motivations and opinions, and perhaps unexpectedly their stories begin to interweave.

As each person's role in their own narrative becomes more significant we witness discussions and interactions mundane and deep, and realize that the characters all have a part to play in the bigger picture of their little lives.

Wit and humor, trademarks of Boanerges' style, make for a thought-provoking and enjoyable read featuring characters, identifiable, yet who may not be what they appear. In this story, as in life, the seemingly inconsequential can lead to the most significant twist because, as in life, we sometimes stumble upon an uneven sidewalk.