AZpiR8king

There is...and without treading into what will end up being a war of words with "The other biological contributor", Morgen's Mom and I met while we were stationed in Iceland in 1982. She became pregnant, told me a tale (not mine sort of thing), and moved on. Had him in USA (FL) and moved to Aus with a man. Eventually she married him and he adopted Morgen (Hence the last name). Fast forward 18 years and I see her name on an Military reunion site. Give the old "Hope your life turned out well" post and get back the "You have a Son" message.

Fast forward four more years, and he and I still had not spoken, a lot of "dangling", "not yet", and games. I sent a care package to him, since he had joined the Aussie Military by then. I was editing a Motorcycle (Biker) magazine at the time to make some extra scratch.

I don't hear anything for awhile. Then I get a weird email from a guy in California. He says "I was told to find a biker mag guy that goes by "PiR8" and tell him to call this number." The number was like 12 characters long. I used to get "Put my naked girlfriend in your magazine" emails all the time, and the whole Russian scam call thing was hot at the time, so I shelved it.

A couple of weeks later, I get a message over Yahoo from his Mom and he is asking for my number.

My brain has one of those "connections" moments, so I find the email and check the time in Australia. I had to get international calling turned on my phone, but I call the number that morning.

"Hello?" (Aussie accent) "Hi, my name is Tom. They call me PiR8. I was told to call this number." "Yeah, mate, my name is Shannon, and I got a story for ya."

What was I gonna do? Cool Aussie accent and this guy wanted to tell me a story, whoever he was. So I listened. He continued "See, when I was 8, my Mum comes to me and says my Dad died. Just like that. I was sad, but what could I do? Anyway, years later, we're having a row, me and Mum, and she says 'Why don't you just go live with your father then' and she throws me his phone number."

Now, I have had some shitty things done to me, but what Shannon's Mom did to him? Bad. Anyway, Shannon continued,"So, anyway, me and my Dad got to talking and became best mates. So, with that out of the way, here's your son."

And he handed the phone to Morgen. First time we ever spoke. it still give me goosebumps.

Shannon was Morgen's roomie in the service, and had read the magazines I sent. He kept after Morgen that no matter what he had been told, or he thought he knew, I seemed like a pretty cool guy. That was it.

LOL!! Not originally being from the area (Lived in AZ until 2008), I am NOT a Packers fan...but these people are insane for them. My friggin' insurance agent has a Packers "mini-store" in his lobby selling their stuff.

I am a tried and true Steelers fan...because I could never get into the Cardinals..

Best fish fry up here? It's always the small joints. Pike Lake house. Another one used to be the Lamplight Pub. MJ Stevens as well. The rest all kind of blend together.

The 16 hour time differences (he lives in Australia, me in the USA) and overseas call rates that were what hindered us. We had to have sessions where his work and my work allowed us to spend some time Skyping, messaging and texting.

And it was started pre-skype. We sent Text messages back and forth about a book idea phone (Even those cost more at the time).

It was back burnered until I published my first book "Threads" and realized he and I could really turn our ideas into a book.

That's easy. Take out "or" and make it "and". NEXT!!!!

Some people don't like it, a lot of people voted for it in cover contests. It is original art done by John Gallagher (https://www.uncannyknack.com/) and captures the mood of the first chapter.