Poignant video of a young chimp reunited with his human foster parents

Originally posted at my Facebook page:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5909921/Adorable-moment-chimpanzee-reunited-foster-parents.html


Love is the universal constant that cuts across species. Food and water may feed our bodies, but love feeds our souls. Without it we are like seeds on the moon: unfulfilled potentiality without purpose or hope. We can learn much from our young simian cousin about this one aspect that unites us at a far deeper level than lesser important things such as our species, our race or our tribe. Selfless, unconditional love links our souls for a lifetime and, I believe, beyond the veil of death. Those who seek the answer to the meaning of life need look no further. Everything else is just background noise.

Two July Amazon Giveaways - Copyright Law and SF

Here are my July Giveaway links for two Kindle books. Enter for your chance to win by clicking either on the book covers or on their respective links below them to go directly to the respective giveaway pages [U.S. only --  ends July 8, 2018]:

https://giveaway.amazon.com/p/418dcab0ea0605e0

https://giveaway.amazon.com/p/ef3f8992c394ecb4

June Amazon Giveaway #4: Copyright Law: A Practical Guide -- Ends June 30

Amazon Giveaway - Enter for a chance to win a copy of my Copyright Law: A Practical Guide for your Kindle

This book is based on the material that first appeared in my Intellectual Property Law: A Practical Guide to Copyrights, Patents, Trademarks and Trade Secrets with some updates and expansion. Like my earlier work, it is meant to serve as a resource that provides information in an easy to understand and absorb manner. Unlike my earlier work that offers a survey of intellectual property law, this one focuses exclusively on copyright and will be priced at $3.99 for the Kindle and other eBook editions. It is available from Amazon, iBooks, Barnes & Noble, Smashwords and other retailers. To enter the Amazon giveaway, click on the book cover above or on this link:  https://giveaway.amazon.com/p/b1ae016c97e3b656. The Giveaway ends on June 30.

Amazon Giveaway #3 for June - Ends June 30

Enter Amazon Giveaway #2 for June: "The Day the Dolphins Vanished"

Enter for a chance to win a copy of my SF short story "The Day the Dolphins Vanished" in my Amazon Giveaway promotion (Ends June 30). Click on the book cover below or on this link to enter: https://giveaway.amazon.com/p/a19594e9392569b2

This is a short story (2825 words) reprinted from Book of Dreams Second Edition: Science Fiction and Speculative Fiction Short Stories (C) 2012 by Victor D. López and Mindscapes: Ten Science Fiction and Speculative Fiction Short Stories (C) 2014 by Victor D. López.

Human beings are not the only intelligent life forms on Earth and possibly not the most intelligent. Efforts at communicating with marine mammals such as wales and dolphins whose brains are larger than our own have had very limited success to date, less so than the success we've enjoyed in teaching some gorillas and chimpanzees to communicate using sign language despite the fact that their brains have less capacity than our own. This short story explores the possible consequences of bridging the language barrier with dolphins whose larger brains may well provide them with intelligence that exceeds our own. When a dedicated marine biologist/linguist makes the breakthrough in the near future that allows true communication to take place, what rewards may we expect from her research, and what might our aquatic cousins learn about us and teach us about ourselves?

NOTE: The short story collection is available on paperback, audiobook and eBook versions from Amazon, Audible and most book sellers. The short story is also available in various eBook versions, including the Kindle version from Amazon and other book sellers as well. If you like the preview and think you and others may enjoy reading the whole story or short story collection, won't you consider recommending them to your local library? All are available for library purchase, including through OverDrive for libraries that use the popular Live-brary platform.  Thank you!

Enter Amazon Giveaway #2 for June: "The Day the Dolphins Vanished"

Enter for a chance to win a copy of my SF short story "The Day the Dolphins Vanished" in my Amazon Giveaway promotion (Ends June 22). Click on the book cover below or on this link to enter: https://giveaway.amazon.com/p/9fb738aa96e4992f

This is a short story (2825 words) reprinted from Book of Dreams Second Edition: Science Fiction and Speculative Fiction Short Stories (C) 2012 by Victor D. López and Mindscapes: Ten Science Fiction and Speculative Fiction Short Stories (C) 2014 by Victor D. López.

Human beings are not the only intelligent life forms on Earth and possibly not the most intelligent. Efforts at communicating with marine mammals such as wales and dolphins whose brains are larger than our own have had very limited success to date, less so than the success we've enjoyed in teaching some gorillas and chimpanzees to communicate using sign language despite the fact that their brains have less capacity than our own. This short story explores the possible consequences of bridging the language barrier with dolphins whose larger brains may well provide them with intelligence that exceeds our own. When a dedicated marine biologist/linguist makes the breakthrough in the near future that allows true communication to take place, what rewards may we expect from her research, and what might our aquatic cousins learn about us and teach us about ourselves?

NOTE: The short story collection is available on paperback, audiobook and eBook versions from Amazon, Audible and most book sellers. The short story is also available in various eBook versions, including the Kindle version from Amazon and other book sellers as well. If you like the preview and think you and others may enjoy reading the whole story or short story collection, won't you consider recommending them to your local library? All are available for library purchase, including through OverDrive for libraries that use the popular Live-brary platform.  Thank you!

Amazon Giveaway - Enter for a chance to win a copy of my Copyright Law: A Practical Guide for your Kindle

This book is based on the material that first appeared in my Intellectual Property Law: A Practical Guide to Copyrights, Patents, Trademarks and Trade Secrets with some updates and expansion. Like my earlier work, it is meant to serve as a resource that provides information in an easy to understand and absorb manner. Unlike my earlier work that offers a survey of intellectual property law, this one focuses exclusively on copyright and will be priced at $3.99 for the Kindle and other eBook editions. It is available from Amazon, iBooks, Barnes & Noble, Smashwords and other retailers. To enter the Amazon giveaway, click on the book cover above or on this link:  https://giveaway.amazon.com/p/bf018efd340c5574. The Giveaway ends on June 22.

Memorial Day

On Memorial Day and every day, let us remember the brave men and women who laid down their lives in both just wars and in unwise ones to preserve the freedoms we enjoy paid for with their blood in lonely places far from home and in battlefields too close to home. May we never forget their sacrifice. May we always honor their memory. May they rest in peace. 

Whatever our differences and despite the current unpleasant polarization that divides us, I pray we can be of one mind on the value of their sacrifice and raise one voice for one day to express our gratitude, and to show them that we may yet prove worthy of their sacrifice.

LibraryThing giveaway: 10 copies of the eBook version of my Mindscapes: Ten Science Fiction and Speculative Fiction Short Stories collection

I am giving away 10 copies of the eBook version of my Minsdacapes short story collection through LibraryThing. You can enter the giveaway at the following link  (LibraryThing) by scrolling down until you find my book in the current giveaway page. This giveaway ends May 31. Good luck!

My intellectual property books now available to libraries internationally

As of today, my Intellectual Property Law: A Practical Guide to Copyrights, Patents, Trademarks and Trade Secrets and Copyright Law: A Practical Guide are both available to libraries for the first time in eBook formats. The paperback versions of both books are also available for library adoption. Both books are intended as practical guides for the general public and are brief yet comprehensive in their coverage of their respective subject matter. You can preview these and most of my current books by visiting my Amazon Author's Page at https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B001KMII74.

If your local library uses the popular Live-Brary system, these can be recommended directly by searching for my name (Victor D. Lopez) and clicking on "see all" titles if your library does not already have these in their collection. Regardless of the system used for print and eBook acquisitions, however, my books should be available as of today (my fiction and poetry was already available prior to today). 

I believe you will find both books to be among the lowest priced and most user-friendly introductions on what is not a particularly user-friendly subject matter. Please check them out. As always, I am grateful for your readership and support. 

eBook version available in multiple eBook formats

Paperback version

eBook (various formats) and paperback versions available

Illegal Immigration: The Need for a Discussion Beyond Walls and Sanctuary Cities

Illegal immigration is a topic that is much discussed but about which most people--and politicians--know very little, and what passes for "information" on the subject is often far from the truth. For example, illegal immigrants (undocumented workers for those on the left of the political spectrum) do not just take jobs Americans don't want; a significant number are employed in high paying blue and white collar professions, including law, academia and medicine. Nor is the often touted "fact" that illegal immigrants add significant value to our economy accurate; although many do in fact pay taxes, as a group illegal immigrants are a net drain on the economy.

The push for open borders and the unwillingness of both Democratic and Republican administrations in recent memory to enforce immigration laws pose serious public safety and national security issues, and no debate about immigration policy can ignore the humanitarian and ethical considerations for both illegal immigrants and for the far larger number of would-be legal immigrants waiting in line for years for their chance of a better life.
We have not yet begun a serious discussion of these issues and I fear we never will as the left and right will simply continue to politicize the issue rather than face the inconvenient truths that should be aired in an honest discussion about immigration policy beyond yet another simplistic and counter-productive Reaganesque amnesty by any other name is proposed and implemented. In my article, “Illegal Immigration: Economic, Social and Ethical Implications” North East Journal of Legal Studies (NEALSB) Vol. 22 (Fall 2009), I focused attention some of the vital issues that underlie our current predicament which is only likely to be made worse by any of the simple solutions to a complicated problem that have been aired in recent years and will once again rise from the ashes during the next administration. This is an issue I need to revisit formally in the near future as the data need to be updated, but the conclusions are unchanged.

Whatever your personal views on the issue. I hope you will read (and, if you are so inclined, share) the article, conduct your own independent research and perhaps add your voice in a meaningful way to the ongoing discussion--whether you agree or disagree with my conclusions. NEALSB is a refereed journal that is only available by subscription, but fortunately some of the recent volumes have been made available online, including the Fall 2009 volume in which my article appeared. You can download the article here: Illegal Immigration: Economic, Social and Ethical Implications.

In 2013 I published a second related article, “Dealing with Uninvited and Unwelcomed Guests: a Survey of Current State Legislative Efforts to Control Illegal Immigration Within Their Borders”, Int. J. Public Law and Policy, Vol. 3, No. 1 (2013). At the time, the U.S. Supreme Court had not yet weighed in on the constitutionality of state efforts to enforce federal immigration law in answer to the Obama Administration’s refusal to enforce the law. (No president from Reagan through Obama has made a sufficient effort to enforce the law, which explains why after President Reagan provided a general amnesty to most illegal aliens, effectively reducing illegal immigrants to near zero during his time in office, we find ourselves with more than 12 million illegal aliens today.) When the Obama administration challenged the Constitutionality of Arizona’s efforts to enforce federal immigration law within its borders, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled most (but not all) such efforts as Unconstitutional, holding that only the federal government (read: Congress, the legislative branch) can set immigration law and only the federal government (read: the President, the executive branch) can enforce federal law. The high court would later invalidate President Obama's efforts to grant amnesty by executive order unconstitutional. This particular article is, unfortunately, not available other than through subscription services. The brief abstract can be found at: http://www.inderscienceonline.com/doi/abs/10.1504/IJPLAP.2013.051013

Smashwords Interview Excerpt

I just came across a" Smashwords Interview" from a few years ago as I answered a new question about my latest book.  Here is an excerpt. You can access the full text at the following link: Smashwords Interview.

Do you remember the first story you ever wrote?

Yes. Alas, it is lost along with much of my early work done on typewriters with no backups. I will rewrite it some day as it still speaks to me and, like many of my later stories, it delved into the interplay between the conscious and subconscious mind, life lessons and redemption. My second short story, Eternal Quest, survives in my latest short story collection, Mindscapes, and is still a favorite that is little changed from the one written by a young old man of 19 who had already learned some of the most vital lessons about the things that matter that he would ever learn. My philosophy, too, has changed little over the intervening decades.

What is your writing process?

For both my fiction and non-fiction I tend to compose at the keyboard. I do no outlining and seldom work on plot lines ahead of time. Also, my first draft is usually also my final draft with only minor changes. During the day, I almost always have a cup of coffee on hand as I write. At night, it may be tea, diet Coke or Pepsi or a glass of wine. Less often, when writing late into the morning, especially after a particularly good or bad day, the glass of wine may be replaced by a snifter of brandy or an Absolut vodka martini with olives. (No more than 2 drinks a day on average as a rule, though.) I like to work in significant blocks of time without interruption other than fetching coffee or pestering my wife during very brief breaks until she yells at me and I slink back to work.

What are your five favorite books, and why?

It is impossible for me to answer this. So I'll just list the first five that come to mind that have had a significant impact.

1, Intimations of Immortality by William Wordsworth. I love Wordsworth above all other poets of all times--even more than Shakespeare and Milton. This lengthy Ode encapsulates him for me, and links him to my favorite philosopher, Plato. It has had a profound influence as the first among my beloved Romantic poems.
2. Bleak House by Charles Dickens. "If that is the law, the law is a ass." What more need I say? (A case that drags out for generations until the last farthing is spent and then is finally resolved. That's not fiction. That's an ETERNAL TRUTH! And yet I still went to law school. Maybe I should list Freud next.)
3. Plato's Republic. (And the Socratic Dialogues.) There is Plato's idealism, Aristotle's realism and the rest is largely a historical footnote.
4. Shakespeare's complete works. The comedies. The tragedies. The sonnets. The inferiority complex for the rest of us who dare write anything at all after reading him.
5. Roger Zelazny's Amber series. I know, I know. It's absurd to list it here but it is still my favorite fantasy series of books from one of my favorite writers. I've read thousands upon thousands of pages in favorite fantasy series, including every word in the trillion page (it seems) absurdly long "Sword of Truth" series of books by Terry Goodkind (whom I love). At times I literally screamed in frustration at the repetitiveness GET TO THE F*^%$*#G POINT! George RR Martin (another favorite writer) in his lengthy Game of Thrones series of books (all eagerly digested--likewise the HBO series) also made me squirm and/or skip ahead from time to time lest I tear out the few remaining hairs on my head. I will buy the next long-overdue installment as soon as it is available, though. Likewise many other favorite authors like Stephen King (I almost died of boredom on my way to the Dark Tower on many occasions) -- and on very, very rare occasion even Dean Koontz whom were I pagan I would worship as a demigod. But Zelazny never had that effect on me, especially in his Amber series. Not a single skipped word. Not a single needless, redundant description. Were it not nearly 2:00 a.m. and need I not get up in less than six hours to attend Commencement ceremonies I'd probably rummage through my library for my Book Club two-volume Chronicles of Amber right now.

Describe your desk

Cluttered.

When did you first start writing?

Almost as soon as I learned to write. I was writing (bad) poetry when I was eight years old, and "stories" before that. I kept a journal before I knew what a journal was--and burned it when what it contained was too painful, troubling, embarrassing, or simply too real to deal with at a tender age. I wish I had not for I can't remember what that precocious child found too troubling to keep around. This (no longer precocious) adult would like to know--and smile (mostly) and perhaps shed a tear or two for the unrequited love, frustrations or deep truths learned too young in life to process in a more productive way. I wrote a lot back then. Doubtless it was full of sound and fury, signifying nothing (apologies to The Bard). Some things don't much change.

What are you working on next?

I'm winding down a sabbatical leave as I write this. This semester I completed research on usury laws in all 50 states and how these are in effect undermined by federal law. The research was started last summer and completed in late January, with a paper completed in early April and presented at the NEALSB annual conference in late April. It is now out for a first round of reviews in selected first-tier journals and law reviews. I am also currently in the process of researching "good Samaritan" statutes in all 50 states, a project that will continue beyond the summer and will form the foundation for a paper completed before the end of the fall 2015 semester. This summer, I will also work on a new, expanded 3rd edition on my Business Law and the Legal Environment of Business for my current publisher, Textbook Media Publishing, that should be out early next year. Not much time for fiction or poetry projects in the coming year, I'm afraid, nor for work on my first novel that has been mostly on hold in mid-stream for the better part of a decade due to time constraints.

Published 2015-05-07.

Save 25 percent on my new Copyright Law book until April 15

Just published: Copyright Law: A Practical Guide (25% off until April 15)

This book is based on the material that first appeared in my Intellectual Property Law: A Practical Guide to Copyrights, Patents, Trademarks and Trade Secrets with some updates and expansion. Like my earlier work, it is meant to serve as a resource that provides information in an easy to understand and absorb manner. Unlike my earlier work that offers a survey of intellectual property law, this one focuses exclusively on copyright and will be priced at $3.99. 

Until April 15, the book is available at an introductory price of $2.99 with coupon code EH38H at checkout--but ONLY at Smashwords.

Just published: Copyright Law: A Practical Guide

This book is based on the material that first appeared in my Intellectual Property Law: A Practical Guide to Copyrights, Patents, Trademarks and Trade Secrets with some updates and expansion. Like my earlier work, it is meant to serve as a resource that provides information in an easy to understand and absorb manner. Unlike my earlier work that offers a survey of intellectual property law, this one focuses exclusively on copyright and will be priced at $3.99. It is available today from Smashwords and will be available in  a day or two from Amazon, iBooks, B&N and other retailers. For a free preview, you can click on the book cover above.

Free through April 15 -- two speculative fiction short stories from my Mindscapes collection

From now until April 15, 2018 you can download a copy of the two shortest stories from my Mindscapes collection only at Smashwords by clicking here or on the book cover page below with automatically generated coupon code. You can also send a copy to a friend free of charge by selecting the option "give as a gift" from the book's Smashwords page, but you will need to enter the coupon code manually to gift the story free of charge.

If you do not already have a Smashwords account, you will need to sign up for a free account by providing a  user name and email address to download books, although free previews of Smashwords titles should be able to be downloaded even without an account. This is not my requirement but that of Smashwords. (The same is true for downloading free or paid books from Amazon, B&N, iTunes,  and every other retailer where my books are sold.)  I have never and will never collect email addresses from my readers--not at my blogs or personal web page as I detest spam emails and have not and will not engage in that practice. 

If you'd like to hear my cold reading of the short story "Justice" you can click here for a very simple book trailer with my reading of the entire short story in the background. Rest assured that the audiobook version of my Mindscapes collection has a very different interpretation of this short story and was professionally read and produced by Dale M. Wilcox, not by yours truly.

A belated Happy Easter and Happy Passover to all.

Free book of poetry through 3/20/2018

Free with coupon code through 3/20/2018 "Of Pain and Ecstasy: Collected Poems"

My book of poems is FREE with coupon code KV32D, through March 20, 2018 in any eBook format, but ONLY at Smashwords. (I cannot create coupon codes for discounted or free books at the other retailers where my books are sold.) Make sure to download the actual full book rather than just the book preview sample which is also always available at the book's Smashwords page for this and all of my eBooks.

The book contains samples of my free verse, blank verse and sonnets spanning four decades. It is the smallest, most insignificant all my books, but nothing I've ever written or am likely to write is closer to my core.  To get your free copy, just click on the following link:  https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/181370.

For simple book trailers containing my reading of sample poems from this book as well an one new poem, you can click on any of the following links. You can also get previews from my short story collection (ebook and audiobook versions) as well as my general reference book on intellectual property law from Amazon by clicking on the book covers below.

Unsung Heroes: Remedios: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OX6w1Pwe7gI&t=109s

On Shattered Dreams: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6CV4fGZ2VA8&t=63s

On Fading Dreams: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lJ4EVKhvEYQ

Central Park: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=757IZDfihJU&t=11s

Sample Sonnets: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nrGahdFd9Fs&t=5s

Extra: Unsung Heroes: Felipe (unpublished): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tMhHLYK92Js

For information about most of my books, you can visit the following author's web pages:

Official Author's Web Page (with links to all current published works): http://victordlopez.com/index.html

Amazon Author's Page: https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B001KMII74

You can also download a copy of my book of poems free of charge during this promotional period by clicking on the book cover below:

You can also preview my other ebooks and audiobook from the samples below from Amazon:

Book of Dreams: Science Fiction and Speculative Fiction Short Stories 1st edition free through 3/11/2018

For five days only (March 7-11 2018) you can download a copy of my Book of Dreams (first edition) free of charge in any of the leading eBook formats only from Smashwords with coupon code TG56G at checkout (entered automatically from the link below). Extended free previews are also available at any time from the same link for this and all of my books distributed through Smashwords.

From the Smashwords book page:

This collection of five science fiction and speculative fiction short stories probes the interrelationship between dreams and reality, the nature of reality itself, and the dangers attendant to the single-minded pursuit of wish fulfillment with its attendant unexpected and unwanted consequences. NOTE: The author's Mindscapes collection includes all of the stories in this book and five new ones.

What price would you pay to revisit a crossroad in your life when you had made a terrible, life altering mistake? Would you give up an unfulfilled life for the chance of virtual happiness in a computer-generated alternate reality? Would you sacrifice everything if you could attain absolute knowledge? If so, could you live with the knowledge you attained? It is said that no person is an island, but what if even the least among us is a god in his/her own right? If an alien visitor offered you a lifetime of health and the gift of telepathy in exchange for a small service, would you be quick to accept? And if consciousness utilizes only a small portion of our brain, what function does the larger, presumably unused portion actually serve? 

These are some of the questions explored in this collection of science fiction and speculative fiction short stories that probes the interrelationship between dreams and reality, the nature of reality itself, and the dangers attendant to the single-minded pursuit of wish fulfillment with its attendant unexpected and unwanted consequences. Most of the short stories published here were written and revised over a period of more than thirty years (1977- 2011) and, with the exception of "To Sleep, Perchance to Dream" have not been previously published. 

The author is an Associate Professor of Legal Studies at Hofstra University's Frank G. Zarb School of Business and has previously published seven non-fiction books through traditional publishers. His business law and legal environment textbooks have been used in colleges and universities throughout the United States since 1993. This is his first fiction collection. [Please note: the five stories in this collection and five new stories written from 2011-2014 are included in the author's new short story collection Mindscapes: Ten Science Fiction and Speculative Fiction Short Stories available in paperback and eBook versions through CreateSpace, Amazon and Smashwords and which which will also be released as an audiobook in June 2014 through Audible, iTunes and Amazon.

For a current list of my major scholarly publications, textbooks, trade books, short story and poetry collections, you can visit my official Author's page at http://victordlopez.com.

To download a copy of the book free of charge through 3/11/2018 click on this link:  https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/181335
.

Free with coupon code through 2/28/2018 "Of Pain and Ecstasy: Collected Poems"

My book of poems is FREE with coupon code KV32D, only through February 28, 2018 in any eBook format, but ONLY at Smashwords. (I cannot create coupon codes for discounted or free books at the other retailers where my books are sold.) Make sure to download the actual full book rather than just the book samples which is also always available at the book's Smashwords page.

The book contains samples of my free verse, blank verse and sonnets spanning four decades. It is the smallest, most insignificant all my books, but nothing I've ever written or am likely to write is closer to my core.  To get your free copy, just click on the following link:  Some sample readings are also available at the following links:https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/181370.

Unsung Heroes: Remedios: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OX6w1Pwe7gI&t=109s

On Shattered Dreams: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6CV4fGZ2VA8&t=63s

On Fading Dreams: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lJ4EVKhvEYQ

Central Park: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=757IZDfihJU&t=11s

Sample Sonnets: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nrGahdFd9Fs&t=5s

Extra: Unsung Heroes: Felipe (unpublished): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tMhHLYK92Js

You can also preview my other ebooks and audiobook from the samples below from Amazon:

Amazon Giveaway #1 for February -- "End of Days" plus extended text preview

Amazon Giveaway #1 for February -- "End of Days" SF short story

Please click on the following link to enter an Amazon Giveaway for a chance to win one of the ten SF short stories in my Mindscapes collection: "End of Days". The giveaway ends 3/1/2018 or when the prize is claimed in this lucky number giveaway. Click on the following link to enter: https://giveaway.amazon.com/p/2f906707d945983a

I am also reprinting an excerpt from this short story below where you will also find links to the Amazon version of the book and also the Mindscapes collection. You can click on the Mindscapes cover for a link to the Amazon book's page where a preview of "Eternal Quest" is also available by clicking on the "Look Inside" feature. Thank you for your interest in my fiction! (Information about my current publications is also available below following the short story excerpt.) And check other posts here for current Smashwords free downloads.

________________

End of Days (Preview)

Victor D. López

Copyright Victor D. López 2014

God spoke to me last night. No, I am not schizophrenic or a Jesus freak. Nor am I a conspiracy theorist (well, except for JFK’s assassination, of course--unless the principles of quantum mechanics somehow apply to bullets fired from book depositories with inhuman rapidity to perform a dance macabre through the bodies of governors before striking their intended target), but I know precisely the series of events that will result in the end of the world and will eventually give birth to a new universe. It came to me in a dream. No, really, it did.

It all started pretty much like a bad Hollywood disaster flick (sorry, I know that’s redundant) with well funded mad scientists doing what comes natural in fiction as well as in fact. “Build us a big Hadron Supercollider, and we’ll find the elusive Higgs boson God particle. Maybe we’ll even come up with a unified theory that incorporates the pesky behavior of subatomic particles and allows us to demystify quantum mechanics once and for all.” It turns out, not surprising to anyone, other than scientists of course, that a little knowledge is a dangerous thing, and that allowing children to play unsupervised in a chemistry lab or with a super-duper, neat-o particle accelerator is not such a good thing after all. Who’d have thunk it?

The first hint that something was just a bit off-kilter came in the form of assurances by project scientists delivered with the smug expressions and thinly veiled contempt with which they usually approach any communication with the unwashed masses, that yes, miniature black holes could probably be created by subatomic particles accelerated at nearly light speed through a 17-mile circular particle accelerator and forced to collide in a massive release of energy, but such black holes would quickly dissipate. “No,” they smiled complacently, “there is absolutely no danger in these experiments.”

The second hint of a problem (and by hint I mean claxons going off, red lights flashing, and Robby the Robot’s accordion arms waving wildly while proclaiming “danger, Will Robinson!”) came when the Hadron Supercollider suffered some unspecified problems that caused it to be shut down for months on end after its first full-scale test. When the 17-mile supercollider was once again brought back on line, headlines proclaimed the countdown would begin again for the end of the world. Smile, snicker, hah-hah. What was not reported was the actual reason for the shutdown, since no one, including the geniuses running the experiments, knew the real cause: a miniature black hole that did not quickly dissipate in the lab as expected and caused a nearly catastrophic shutdown as it drilled an invisible hole a few molecules wide, eagerly sucking up anything that crossed its tiny event horizon, as it accelerated slowly but inexorably downward, worming its way through the containment chamber, rapidly vacuuming vital bits of the temperamental equipment on its way to the center of the earth.

Not to worry, though, it is still relatively small despite its voracious, unquenchable appetite, though it is exponentially increasing its mass as it swings like a pendulum through the earth’s core and beyond it in decreasing arcs that will eventually settle it at the earth’s core. It will be many months and perhaps years before we begin to feel the cataclysmic seismic effects of its inexorable violation of the earth’s core, and longer still before the entire planet and every living thing in it is sucked into its vortex, followed thereafter by the moon, and then the outer planets as the growing black hole continues its feeding frenzy, eventually consuming the entire solar system and Sol itself.

But that would be many years, perhaps millennia, in the future given the diminutive size of the black hole at present. And scientists still believe that the equipment failure was unrelated to its actual cause since the unreported black hole the initial full-scale test produced dissipated soon after its formation according to their classified reports. Therefore, the supercollider was repaired, and billions or Euros later, the scientists have their plaything once more and science is free to continue its happy march towards oblivion. If it ended here, we’d have little to worry about in the short term, other than perhaps ever-increasing seismic activity. Even the hungriest little black hole needs a great deal of time to ingest a planet from the inside out, and if later laboratory-created black holes don’t ingest other vital pieces of sensitive equipment on their way to joining their older brother down the rabbit hole in their inexorable journey to swallow our blue planet, we’d probably kill off our species through war, pestilence, famine or other forms of humanity’s endless capacity for galloping stupidity long before daddy’s and mommy’s little darlings consumed the world.

If my prescient dream had ended there, I’d shake it off with a smile and go about my day without another thought, compartmentalizing the certain knowledge of future doom in the nether regions of my mind, right next to the knowledge of the unsustainability of our ballooning federal and state deficits and the possibility of an asteroid hit that would once again eradicate most plant and animal life on this planet.

Unfortunately, scientists are not the only ones who like to play God. They are just more tragic and contemptible in their efforts at doing so because they should know better. They are like amoebas attempting to extrapolate the secrets of the universe by examining in minutest detail the drop of fetid swamp water atop a floating leaf that they inhabit. In a very real sense, scientists are among the smartest amoebas, all hail their boundless wisdom! But others like to play in the hedonistic God sandbox, too. And here is where my prescient dream grows infinitely darker.

It so happens that terrorists pay attention to science. Science, after all, brought us TNT, the A-bomb, the H-bomb, weaponized anthrax and lots of other cool goodies that are wonderful additions to the terrorists’ toolkits. As it happens, one particularly well funded, well connected group in the Middle East thinks it a grand idea to blow Israel off the face of the earth before that even better funded, and better connected state has the chance to do the same to them or to their proxy states. They have acquired a gaggle of disaffected, under-employed Russian physicists and funded them generously to come up with “outside-the-box” ideas for a doomsday device on the cheap. They did not have 17-mile supercolliders to play with, and Jihadist physicists are a rare breed. But not to worry, they had something better: money, lots of it, and the ability to entice scientists who view themselves above pedantic, bourgeois notions of ethics and for whom science is the only religion.

Undaunted by any notions of right and wrong and guided by the simple principle that “if it can be done, it must be done,” these brilliant men and women soon developed a working experiment that presented an elegant solution that their benefactors immediately approved.

Their plan was exquisitely simple and required very little by way of resources beyond two suitcase nukes that could be easily obtained either from Russia (cheap, old-world loose nukes listed simply as “missing” from the former Soviet inventory), or spanking new, state-of-the-art but untried ones from the secret Pakistani stash. They opted for the Russian suitcase nukes, in part because they did not want a trusted ally compromised in the event that their experiment failed to attain the desired end.

***** END OF PREVIEW ****

NOTE: The short story collection is available on paperback, audiobook and eBook versions from Amazon, Audible and most book sellers. The short story is also available in various eBook versions, including a Kindle version from Amazon and other book sellers as well. Both are also available to libraries at very low cost. If you like the preview and think you and others may enjoy reading the whole story or short story collection, won't you consider recommending them to your local library? All are available for library purchase, including through OverDrive for libraries that use the popular Live-brary platform.  Thank you!

View my current individual short stories and and Mindscapes collection along with most of my current books at my Amazon Author's Page by clicking here.

Available at Amazon, iBooks, Barnes & Noble, Smashwords, and other retailers

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About Me

I am a tenured Professor of Legal Studies in Business at Hofstra University’s Frank G. Zarb School of Business. I've earned a Juris Doctor degree from St. John’s University School of Law and a B.A. from Queens College, C.U.N.Y. (English Honors Program – Writing) and am a member of the New York State Bar, New York State Bar Association, the Academy of Legal Studies in Business (ALSB) and the North East Academy of Legal Studies in Business (NEALSB). I've been an academic for more than 25 years and, prior to joining the Hofstra University faculty, served as a tenured Professor of Business, as Dean of Business and Business Information Technologies, and as Academic Dean in urban, suburban and rural public and private academic institutions.

My published books include several textbooks and trade books and I've written poetry and fiction throughout most of my life, some of which has been published in anthologies and literary magazines in addition to self-published collections.

Additional Books

Business Law and the Legal Environment of Business Third Edition (Textbook Media 2017)

Book of Dreams 2ndEdition: Science Fiction and Speculative Fiction Short Stories (Printed through CreateSpace and Kindle Direct, 2012)

Of Pain and Ecstasy: Collected Poems (Printed through Kindle Book Publishing and CreateSpace, Summer 2011)

Intellectual Property Law: A Practical Guide to Copyrights, Patents, Trademarks and TradeSecrets (Printed through Kindle Book Publishing and CreateSpace, Summer 2011)

Business Law: An Introduction 2e, Textbook Media, 2011. (text, test bank, and instructor’s manual) Available at http://www.textbookmedia.com

Business Law and the Legal Environment of Business 2e, Textbook Media 2010. (text, test bank, and instructor’s manual) Available at http://www.textbookmedia.com

Free and Low Cost Software for the PC, McFarland & Company 2000. [out of print]

Legal Environment of Business, Prentice Hall 1997. (text, test bank and instructor’s resource manual) [out of print]

 Case and Resource Material for the Legal Environment of Business, Prentice Hall 1997.

Business Law: An Introduction, Richard D. Irwin/Mirror Press 1993. (text, test bank and instructor’s resource manual) [out of print]

Free and User Supported Software for the IBM PC: A Resource Guide for Libraries and Individualshttp://www.amazon.com/Victor-D.-L%C3%B3pez/e/B001KMII74, McFarland & Company 1990. (coauthored with Kenneth J. Ansley) [out of print]

Author's Amazon page: http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B001KMII74 

Author's Web Page: http://www.victordlopez.comhttp://www.victordlopez.com