This first book in The Dreamer Series is an intriguing mosaic of images, ideas, and actions across time. There is an Indian that does not belong to an ancient tribe and an old man that challenges him, a foreboding childhood drama and a country radio station that provides comfort, a grandfather's stone and grandmother's poem. There is a midnight close encounter and a beaten child saved by an afternoon home run hit. A coyote teaches a lesson, a tree makes a surprising gesture, and an antelope runs with a man. On a woman's arm is a rose-like scar. There is the sale of the world's greatest guitar. A guitar falls from the sky, and a slavery survivor heals a wounded girl. Two sex-crimes detectives plan to trap a knife-wielding rapist. An ill elderly woman fears she is losing her mind. Two sophisticated women hear a song and fall off their chairs laughing. A grizzled old cowboy and a stoic gray-haired preacher listen and weep. The book asks if there are horses, a Redbone hound, and a stubby-tailed cat in heaven. It explains the apple of a father's eye and shares the country tune Redneck Feminist. It tells of an economy with no money or spoken words. There are spoken words carried by the wind and a nation of clouds that hears them. There are real mysteries and unreal coincidences. There are good reasons to die and better reasons to live. Finally an alien invasion unfolds. Is life measured in time or courageous acts of love? Can little choices fulfill a great destiny? What of discernment and deception, passion and apathy? What of defiance and surrender, blessings and tragedy? Indians & Aliens is a book of wildly diverse themes. It is also a book of an uncommon love between Grace and her husband Jack, a man fond of pointing out to those who fail to think of it, "Before there were cowboys, there were Indians." May unexpected stories, dear reader, bring you unexpected blessings. --Jeffery Kirkendall
About the Author: While working as an around-the-clock caregiver for the greatest love of his life Carol, Jeffery Kirkendall began compiling a portion of his years of fictional writing into "The Dreamer Series." His first book in that series is "Indians & Aliens and unexpected short stories." Jeffery draws his fiction from a deep well of personally meaningful pursuits which overlap with considerable professional accomplishments. For 20 years he has been devoted to sacred Native American ceremonies and oral traditions he calls the Red Road. Among his red relatives, he is known as a dreamer. Sometimes he has precognitive experiences, sometimes retro-cognitive experiences, and sometimes dreams of profound insight. Jeffery has been a singer/songwriter/musician and public performer emphasizing themes of human dignity, humor, tragedy, relationships, the environment, and Native culture. Jeffery has been a professional presenter on the subjects of childhood trauma, the nature of masculinity, feminist issues, and religious diversity. He has been a carpenter, mason, concrete finisher, job foreman, project manager, and personnel director in the field of construction. While pursuing his Bachelors Degree in Psychology at Arizona State University, he worked in experimental psychology. When starting his Masters Degree in Counseling at A.S.U., he began an eighteen year career as a well-respected trauma counselor and educator for organizations that included the Center Against Sexual Abuse (CASA) in Phoenix, the Arizona State Prison at Perryville, the Rape and Sexual Abuse Center of Nashville (RSAC), and the Psychiatric Hospital at Vanderbilt University. Jeffery was National Board Certified, licensed by the state of Tennessee, and profiled in The 1985 International Who's Who of Sexology. Jeffery co-authored with his late wife, Carol Jarvis-Kirkendall, the critically acclaimed and ground-breaking book Without Consent: How to Overcome Childhood Sexual Abuse (1989). They were the first husband and wife therapy team in this field of research and treatment to publish a book for adults recovering from early-life trauma. Their book received praise from organizations as Child Abuse and Neglect: The International Journal, American Association of Counseling and Development, Southern California Clergy Report, Pastoral Life, Psychotherapy Book Club, and SIECUS - the Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States.