From Double Dragon Publishing

Cold River

By Jozef Imrich

 

 

From the desk of D. P. Roseberry

I write this on September 11, 2005, with  voices from a television program behind me telling the horrendous stories of the terrorist attack of the World Trade Center in the United States on a September 11, 2001 -- a long time ago.  Yes, it seems long ago for many.  I can tell by the way a great portion of the world is reacting.

But I’m here to tell you about another horrendous time.  The story, Cold River, by Jozef Imrich,  is a surreal slice of the Communist Iron Curtain and a man who took the path less traveled to explore the cold and bitter reality of freedom. 

I’ve learned a lot from this book, I’m ashamed to say.  Yes, ashamed; and worse -- frightened.  Hmmm, you may be thinking if you are privy to the writings and ramblings of Roseberry Books.  Isn’t this a writer who leads readers to believe in giant rats and bugs, haunted elevators and the mysteries of the tarot.  What could possibly be so frightening?

 Freedom.  Yes, I now find that freedom frightens me.

As I’ve edited Cold River for Double Dragon Publishing, I’ve lived the life of Jozef Imrich – right along side him, eavesdropping from that reader’s place just outside the turmoil, the love, the fear, the bravery.  That safe place – you know the place.  The one that calls for the dinner dishes to be washed, the day job to be worked, the bills to be paid.  The place that provides a nice soft bed allowing you to wake to four walls that are familiar and safe.  A place that allows you to put a story aside.  But inside this book, inside Jozef’s world, things were different. There was no safe place.

 Jozef was free at one time – and then that freedom was ripped from him.  Sliced away as surely as a sword tears through one of the horror creatures I’m prone to write about.  Not only was his personal freedom severed, but also there was a severing of family, of country, of life as he knew it.  I traveled with him through those times.  This true story is of his escape to freedom and the price he was forced to pay to have that liberty.  It talks of a precious thing, a thing of beauty -- this freedom. 

 And as I read his story, I thought about my parallel life.  I was born to freedom.  I’ve known nothing else.  I’ve taken my independence for granted and struggled with the concept that someone else might not desire it or understand it’s importance.  This is a thing that I’ve never had to fight for.  This fight for freedom has always been taken care of for me.

 And now I read and realize that I have much to be ashamed of.  And worse, I know that there are millions of free people around the world who are just like me.  We stand inside the circle of freedom, looking out at the rest of the world.  We think that no one can take our independence away.  No one can change our way of life. 

 And yet, September 11 proved that notion to be wrong.  Other attacks around the world continue to emphasize what we have chosen to minimize.  We do not learn the lessons.  (My husband, watching the 9/11 history as I type tonight, is saying, “How soon we forget…” and he shudders at the films showing the terror.)  Freedom.  Do we just let those who would oppress us take that from us as they did to Jozef?

 So what of our freedom?  We fight among ourselves, pointing fingers of blame at political parties and others around us.  We look at our government and say:  You should have protected us – but do we consider our own responsibility where freedom is concerned?  No, sadly not. We shake our collective heads and wonder how all this could have happened.  Eventually, we just go back to comfortable . . . ignorance.  Or we choose not to see.  It can’t happen here. 

 But back to Jozef’s story!  Cold River is about a different time of evil than that we fight right now.  It brings back the horrors of The Iron Curtain.  Communism.  Through a swirl of personal history, insights, and quotes that are alarmingly appropriate, Jozef relives his life and shares it with the world around him.  Why?  He wants us to know that there is the ability to change the face of the world, to survive and thrive – to not collect rust in the cold river.  He wants us to know that freedom is worth the price.

 I hope that those of you who are fortunate enough to take this journey with Jozef in Cold River will begin to cherish your own liberty – as he has taught me.  Jozef will allow you to feel the cold truth of freedom.  Feel it proudly.  It is a honor like no other.

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Officer Richard Berry has a problem. Not only has a smuggling ring for robotic transistors  set up shop in his district, but a fellow officer had turned up dead. So now Berry must infiltrate the neighborhood posing as an immature dysfunctional robot-–a robot that looks and acts very much like a human child-– o find the culprits. But who knew that in this disguise he would meet Dannielle Lawrence, the woman of his dreams? And his nightmares.

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