A couple of years ago I switched to a pen name and wrote a two book political-thriller. I called it the Deadly Gambit Series. (You can learn more about it on http://hollybarbo-books.com/k-h-bixby/) Times being what they are, with the tribal fractures forming crack lines in families, neighborhoods, cities and in every corner of our nation, a pseudonym seemed the prudent thing to do. I’ve decided to come out from the cloak of anonymity. The thing is… I can’t be silent anymore.
Shell Game and Minefield’s main character was a boy from the middle east who grew up with his uncle in New York City after his family died in a terrorist attack in his village. His ethnicity, homeland and the large countries around his birth territory all were fictitiously named because I didn’t want the reader to have a knee-jerk reaction but to see the trials and conflict with fresh eyes. Even though I changed the name of his people, I patterned them on the Kurds and somewhat, the Palestinians. I studied maps and placed the disputed territory where it exists in the real world of today.
Some of the themes in the story were: ethnic profiling in this country, international corporate, political and banking ruthlessness, ethnic cleansing and the danger of not knowing who you can trust.
The reason I bring all of this up is because of recent current events. Though I didn’t go into graphic detail on every page, I communicated the horrific devastation these brave people have endured for countless decades. I admire them in many ways and feel the terrible and tragic unfairness of their persecution. To see our country’s leadership callously turn its back on them, a people who have fought beside our soldiers as honored allies in the battle to push back against ISIS, makes me enraged and heart-sick.
Because of my research and how deeply I strive to understand my characters, I felt the blow as if Sam’s Kurdish family were my next door neighbors. I’m helpless to stop what is happening. It is horrific, awful, cruel and gut-wrenching.
Holly Barbo aka K.H. Bixby
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