I wanted to call my collection of poems and short stories subrosa but I don't know where my poems and stories are. Somewhere in Canada. I'm not in Canada. And I don't care about the old poems and short stories so much anymore. They were a process to take me through the next stage. That stage was writing subrosa. Since the title subrosa fits for this novel, I used it here. I won't use it for anything else but it is a really excellent name. Which is only fitting. This novel starts in an underground laboratory. Gene manipulated boys are created in a DNA project. Perhaps not so unlike Hitler's projects which hoped for a super being. Unlike Hitler's project, they don't have to be blond; they are made to be healthy of body, mind and soul. Theoretically, the project is a success. The trouble is: The one eyed man is not a king in the valley of the blind. He's an outsider, perhaps even seen as a mutant. That was a short story by H.G. Wells, if I'm not mistaken (correct me if I'm wrong). It's a good introduction to this novel. I you have it in an old school book, read it once again. It is a simple message but one with which we still struggle. The story gets underway with our narrator finding himself starting his membership in our society around the age of seventeen. Though a well educated smart boy, he's ignorant. He finds adventure, friendships and love, or better said, they find him as he blunders through his growing up. That's what life is all about. Isn't it? Peggy said the first novel a writer writes is always about the author. I wouldn't deny that there are some similarities to the narrator and me but the narrator likely is more similar to Jose Wombat. The content of the first several chapters where taken from Brian's report of a similar trip we took together. I wrote this book but it is like it is because of Brian's friendship and support through the process of learning to write. I was told once by a professor at the University of Western Ontario that had read subrosa, that I was an anarchist. "So you're an anarchist," I think was his comment after reading an earlier draft of subrosa. I didn't have an answer. I had never considered the thought, but perhaps there is an underlying tone in this book. Perhaps in all my books. Okay, maybe it isn't so underlying. But I'm not a bad guy. I'm not looking for chaos rule. I'm giving you another way of looking at it. subrosa is now online at The Jose Wombat Project. Click the pic.