May 2007
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Read an Excerpt of Spero
"Spero is an imaginative fantasy that subtly instructs, entertains, and intellectually provokes the reader. It is fascinating reading. I'm definitely hooked on this series." Jean Heimann at Catholic Fire.
"...intelligent as well as inspiring..." Terry Barga at whattodoabout.com.
Please visit www.birthpangs.com/cart to buy Spero
(and Fidelis) from the author or to buy from Amazon.com
Fidelis, my first book, is Latin for faithfulness. The second book,
Spero, is Latin for hope. Spero is an exploration of what hope is and why we need it. It is an exploration of what things are good to put our hope in and what things are bad to put our hope in. In the fictionalized America of the future portrayed in the Birth Pangs series, all of the things that people have traditionally put their hope in have been brought low. There are no government agencies, no schools, and not even churches. In the face of daily perils, people have to figure out how where they are going to place their hope.
It is interesting to me that the political candidate running on 'hope' is also running on 'change.' I think this illustrates the root of the problem. The best place to put your 'hope' is where it won't shift beneath your feet. Also, we need to be clear about what things we hope to overcome. Nearly all of our systems and institutions are geared to address certain day to day realities that are important but not, I'm afraid, ultimate. There is one problem that surpasses them all: death.
Spero is about people- even good people- putting their hope in lesser means to tackle lesser problems and being confronted with the consequences of that approach.
Spero is about being confronted with our chief problem and challenged to consider what possible solutions there might be to that problem... and whether any of these are within our control, or obtainable by our own effort.
Yea, ok, that was a long time ago now, but I’ve been WAAAAAY too busy to come in here and mention it. Here below is the link to the feature article that was done on me and appeared in a couple of the local papers. Below the link is the full text to the article.
http://www.holmencourier.com/articles/2007/04/19/features/01author.txt
Holmen author A.R. Horvath — Tony to his friends — found inspiration for his debut novel on the road. by Adam Bissen
There is plenty of precedent for that in the American literary tradition, but Horvath didn’t look to racing speeds, madcap adventures or the freedom of the highway when he plotted out his story.
No, when Horvath conceived the trajectory of a planned seven-novel series, he was a professional truck driver, kept away from his family for 10 days at a time as he drove across the country.
After half a year as a truck driver Horvath came off the road, returned to Holmen and wrote “Fidelis,” book one in his “Birth Pangs” series, in just four months. Fittingly, it is about one man’s struggle to return to his family after being stranded halfway across the country with obstacles in his path.
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