Sometimes, to write a good book…you have to go to prison.
Wearing a suit to Alcatraz…apparently some people are caught off guard by such a maneuver. As I stood sandwiched between the corroded metal bars that seal close the notorious 5 by 9 cells of Alcatraz, I was pummeled by unsure looks from my fellow Alcatraz enthusiasts. They all stared at me, as if alarmed, by my unfitting apparel.
Apparently, there was a meeting regarding the appropriate apparel at Alcatraz…I guess I never got the memo. In place of a suit they opted for cheap fuzzy headphones. The wires for these personal boomboxes wiggled down their fronts, creating a cacophonous knot, but somehow the strings reorganized themselves just as they reached the plug ins of the the 1980’s box recorder. They wore an array of sweat shirts, most of which serving to proclaim their love for a particular city (Usually San Francisco). They even wore accessories such as baseball caps and would even tote their practically packed fanny packs. All those articles put together made a very clear and cohesive uniform…evidently, I was not following protocol and deserved to be on the other side of one of the rowed metal bars.
The real reason for my venture to Alcatraz is because of my book, The Phoenix Cycle. The Phoenix Cycle is set in San Francisco sometime in the future. There is a new government where San Francisco stands alone as a city state, ruled by The General. In The Phoenix Cycle, Alcatraz has been reopened as a place to jail philosophers who have views which oppose The General’s. But Alcatraz has been secretly taken over, and now the philosophers are heading a rebellion against The General.
So instead of being the last stop for America’s worst criminals, Alcatraz is now the jumping off point; towards a brave new world.