A collection of short stories of clarity while lost among the shadows of the Amazon. Rainy Season, 1994 Last night I realized I'd been lost for months: crossing the closed territories of Venezuela, Columbia, Brazil, Guiana, Suriname; paddling the tributaries and backwaters of the Orinoco, Negro, Coppename, Gran, and Maroni; spending weeks at a time off the map, places where there are few roads, almost no communication, and everything closes for siesta-the Amazonas, Vichada, Roraima, La Gran Sabana-a world where the information one discovers by chance is more up-to-date than any official source; places where, by acting confident and staying in control, one can fix almost anything. The best strategy was to simply wait an hour, since no one is going anywhere, anyway. There are no tourists' camps here; these places are not a destination, nor are they stops on any printed route or schedule. These are the interior territories, vast places that are closed, regions that, if you ask, do not exist. Getting here requires taking riverboats, dugouts, paths, and game trails to their ends, then going farther, into the shadows; letting weather and interest be the guide, moving village by village, river to river; like jungle fog, flowing among hidden places and people, then disappearing. By becoming a shadow in a world that cannot be found in any guidebook, I've found clarity. A Shadow in the Forest; Disappearing in the Amazon.
About the Author: George Bernhardt was born and raised in Rowe, Massachusetts, a small hill town in the western corner of the state. After graduating from Syracuse University and Plymouth State University, he joined the Peace Corps, serving two years in Kazakhstan. Currently George writes full-time at his kitchen table, while listening to MPR. In his free time, he and his wife, Angela, attend the sporting events of their children. And occasionally he can be found in neighborhood coffee shops. A Shadow in the Forest; Disappearing in the Amazon, by George Bernhardt An engrossing and fast-paced collection of short stories of clarity while lost among the shadows of the Amazon to be enjoyed by a range of readers. '....The river's surface looks calm, a false image. The paddlers, acutely aware of its massive force and silent energies working to keep everything out. The forest wall is a million hues of green, filled with black holes, voids in the foliage where inexperienced eyes see nothing.... ....The water inside the dugout sloshed one way, then the other, running end to end, splashing over everyone's feet. The flow inside the boat turning red as it mixed with the blood of three dead monkeys.... ....Sliding into the shadows, we knew we were now beyond being found. We had reached the closed territory. Without looking back, we sank into the world of illegal gold harvesting.... ....Tarantulas at one end of the camp, two murdered prospectors at the other end, and the night's darkness upon them. That night the fire was kept burning bright, and everyone slept with a hand on his machete....' A Shadow in the Forest; Disappearing in the Amazon Publisher: CreateSpace, October 2012, fiction, ISBN-13: 978-1478399537, 160 pages Available from; the author, independent booksellers, your local library, Amazon.com and Kindle. Other work by George Bernhardt; Forgotten Mowings, Recollections of a Lawn Boy in a Small Town in Western Massachusetts, Population 350 Publisher: CreateSpace, November 2011, ISBN-13: 978-1466408388, 112 pages Available from; the author, independent booksellers, your local library, Amazon.com and Kindle. Contact the author at: George Bernhardt 3451 Elm Creek Drive, Medina, MN, 55340, georgebernhardt@gmail.com