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| Click image to go to the novel |
By Moristotle
We now fulfill our promise to publish the whole of Drinking Kubulis at the Dead Cat Café, which you can read in its entirety at your own pace in our Back Pages. The author plans to have it available by the end of the year in paperback and as an e-book, for sale on Amazon.
As you may remember, when Roger and I suspended the serialization of the novel, he presented some background information about Dominica (its dark nights, its rain, its beauty) and about the Rastafaris. Please indulge Roger for another outpouring of praise for Dominica:
Dominica: The Jungle Paradise
By Roger Owens
Dominica is the most beautiful of the Caribbean Islands, an opinion shared by the inhabitants and many thousands of other islanders who take their vacations there every year. I offer this introduction so the reader may envision the island and the reality of this hidden paradise. Dense, mountainous rainforest covers about eighty percent of the island, with only a tiny shelving shoreline on the coast before the mountains leap up from the beach to the heights.
In the interior you don’t need air conditioning; it may reach 78 degrees during the day, and is usually about 70 at night, and the frequent rains cool and clear the air. You don’t need screens, there are no biting insects, no poisonous snakes, no dangerous animals of any kind. Giant lightning bugs will fly in your windows at night to entertain you with their headlights and taillights. Tiny songbirds will fly in your windows in the morning, and if you put out food they will come every day.
A simple walk down the road reveals wonder after wonder of foliage, flowers, fruits, birds, and lizards. Tiny hidden rivulets trickle down the hills, and new waterfalls and sinkholes are discovered every year. Every tropical fruit imaginable grows here; many of them are not native, because they were imported for slaves to grow, either to sell or to feed to the slaves themselves. When Captain Bligh sailed to Tahiti on the Bounty to obtain breadfruit, it was to bring breadfruit to the island as a cheap food source for slaves. Breadfruit is a nasty, tasteless food, intended only to keep the slaves alive, not fed well, just…fed.
You see, as always, there is a serpent in Paradise. It is poverty and crime, drugs and prostitution, and worst of all is the government corruption that goes right down to the bone in every single Caribbean country.
So welcome to The Jungle Island, The Jungle Paradise, hail Dominica, “How tall and beautiful she is!”: “Waitukubuli!”
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[The additional background information referred to above is still available as a refresher: “Drinking Kubulis at the Dead Cat Café [Intermission].” It includes videos of a Dominica jungle night, with and without rain.
And then, don’t forget to read the “novel with a really dead cat”!…Enjoy!
We now fulfill our promise to publish the whole of Drinking Kubulis at the Dead Cat Café, which you can read in its entirety at your own pace in our Back Pages. The author plans to have it available by the end of the year in paperback and as an e-book, for sale on Amazon.
As you may remember, when Roger and I suspended the serialization of the novel, he presented some background information about Dominica (its dark nights, its rain, its beauty) and about the Rastafaris. Please indulge Roger for another outpouring of praise for Dominica:
Dominica: The Jungle Paradise
By Roger Owens
 |
| Click image to enlarge |
In the interior you don’t need air conditioning; it may reach 78 degrees during the day, and is usually about 70 at night, and the frequent rains cool and clear the air. You don’t need screens, there are no biting insects, no poisonous snakes, no dangerous animals of any kind. Giant lightning bugs will fly in your windows at night to entertain you with their headlights and taillights. Tiny songbirds will fly in your windows in the morning, and if you put out food they will come every day.
A simple walk down the road reveals wonder after wonder of foliage, flowers, fruits, birds, and lizards. Tiny hidden rivulets trickle down the hills, and new waterfalls and sinkholes are discovered every year. Every tropical fruit imaginable grows here; many of them are not native, because they were imported for slaves to grow, either to sell or to feed to the slaves themselves. When Captain Bligh sailed to Tahiti on the Bounty to obtain breadfruit, it was to bring breadfruit to the island as a cheap food source for slaves. Breadfruit is a nasty, tasteless food, intended only to keep the slaves alive, not fed well, just…fed.
So welcome to The Jungle Island, The Jungle Paradise, hail Dominica, “How tall and beautiful she is!”: “Waitukubuli!”
_______________
[The additional background information referred to above is still available as a refresher: “Drinking Kubulis at the Dead Cat Café [Intermission].” It includes videos of a Dominica jungle night, with and without rain.
And then, don’t forget to read the “novel with a really dead cat”!…Enjoy!
| Copyright © 2020 by Roger Owens |
Just to let anyone know who may not have scrolled to the bottom of the announced publication in the Back Pages to see whether there have been any comments yet: YES! This informative one from the author himself –
ReplyDeleteRoger Owens has left a new comment on your post "Drinking Kubulis at the Dead Cat Café":
Drinking Kubulis is without a doubt the craziest and most fun story I have ever written. I will say that nearly all of the events in the book actually occurred, including the storm itself, which went on to be Hurricane Charlie that kicked Florida's butt, the young girl at the bus stop. The wife was with me but it happened just like that, with me literally unable to discern MY OWN NAME as the name of the town she lived in (Roger). The young stud from the Dominican Republic on his expensive bike on top of the mountain in Attley is a real person; he literally fell over on the bike 3 times and he wasn't even riding it, just standing there drinking his bush rum. I indeed guzzled some of it; nothing but good ol' moonshine rum!
Posted by Roger Owens to Moristotle & Co. at Friday, September 18, 2020 at 6:33:00 PM EDT