Daniel V. Jr. Meier
ABOUT ME
ABOUT ME
STORY BY Daniel V. Jr. Meier
No Birds Sing Here
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The search for the literary life. Satire at its Best! In this indelible and deeply moving portrait of our time, two young people, Beckman and Malany set out on an odyssey to find meaning and reality in the artistic life, and in doing so unleash a barrage of humorous, unintended consequences. Beckman and Malany"s journey reflects the allegorical evolution of humanity from its primal state, represented by Beckman"s dismal life as a dishwasher to the crude, medieval development of mankind in a pool hall, and then to the false but erudite veneer of sophistication of the academic world. The world these protagonists live in is a world without love. It has every other variety of drive and emotion, but not love. Do they know it? Not yet. And they won"t until they figure out why no birds sing here. Meier"s writing is precise and detailed, whether the situation he describes is clear or ambiguous. Fans of Franzen and Salinger will find Meier to be another sharp, provocative writer of our time.
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Guidance to Death
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Amertec Electronics company jet carrying the Senior VP and soon to be CEO mysteriously crashes shortly after taking off from Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport. It was a cold, rainy day with low visibility.The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) says it was an accident. The victim"s wife says it was murder. Frank Adams, retiree from the NTSB, now independent aviation accident investigator, has been hired to find out. Mounting evidence and an additional murder of a former Amertec employee convinces Adams that there was indeed foul play.As the investigation continues, evidence indicates what seems to be disparate events that are linked, revealing a crime of international dimensions. Accustomed to working independently, Adams is forced to call on the help of an old girlfriend and a retired DC cop. But unraveling the truth could cost him his life as well as those of his friends.Daniel V. Meier is a retired Aviation Safety Inspector for the FAA and knows the world of air traffic control. He will take you on a realistic behind the scenes adventure into the world of air travel.
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The Dung Beetles of Liberia
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Liberia’s oligarchy: The beginning of the end.2019 Grand Prize Winner - Red City ReviewBased on the remarkable true account of a young American who landed in Liberia in 1961.The story weaves drama, dark comedy, and romance throughout a rich tapestry of narration - The San Francisco Book ReviewKEN VERRIER IS NOT HAPPY, NOR AT PEACE. He is experiencing the turbulence of Ishmael and the guilt of his brother"s death. His sudden decision to drop out of college and deal with his demons shocks his family, his friends, and especially his girlfriend, soon to have been his fiancee. His destination: Liberia - The richest country in Africa both in monetary wealth and in natural resources.NOTHING COULD HAVE PREPARED HIM FOR THE EXPERIENCES HE WAS ABOUT TO LIVE THROUGH. Ken quickly realizes that he has arrived in a place where he understands very little of what is considered normal, where the dignity of life has little meaning, and where he can trust no one.Flying into the interior bush as a transport pilot, Ken learns quickly. He witnesses, first-hand, the disparate lives of the Liberian "Country People? and the "Congo People" also known as Americo-Liberians. These descendants of President Monroe"s American Colonization Policy that sent freed slaves back to Africa in the 1800"s have set up a strict hierarchical society not unlike the antebellum South.Author Dan Meier describes Ken"s many escapades, spanning from horrifying to whimsical, with engaging and fast-moving narrative that ultimately describes a society upon which the wealthy are feeding and in which the poor are being buried.It"s a novel that will stay with you long after the last word has been read.
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Blood Before Dawn
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Death of a 130 year Oligarchy. Volume 2 in The Dung Beetles of Liberia series. In April of 1979, Ken Verrier and his wife, Sam, return to Liberia to buy diamonds. They did not return to get caught up in a rice riot and a coup de"etat. But that"s what happens. Ken witnesses and unwittingly participates in a period of Liberia"s tumultuous yet poorly documented history---the overthrow of the Tolbert presidency and ultimately the end of the Americo-Liberian one hundred thirty-three years of political and social dominance. Details of President Tolbert"s assassination are sketchy, but through Ken"s association with his Americo friends from the past, the CIA agents he meets, and the Liberian military he is forced to deal with, a believable scenario emerges. While describing the once beautiful country and a kind and generous people, Meier intertwines terrifying tales of the atrocities committed that account for the future pain of an entire nation.
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Bloodroot
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The beauty and the horrors of Jamestown 2609 A gripping account of survival in America"s earliest settlement, Jamestown, Virginia. Virginia, 1622. Powhatan warriors prepare war paint from the sacred juice of the bloodroot plant, but Nehiegh, The English son-in-law of Chief Ochawintan has sworn never to kill again. He must leave before the massacre. England 1609. Matthew did not trust his friend, Richard"s stories of Paradise in the Jamestown settlement, but nothing could have equipped him for the violence and privation that awaited him in this savage land. Once ashore in the fledging settlement, Matthew experiences the unimaginable beauty of this pristine land and learns the meaning of hope, but it all turns into a nightmare as gold mania infests the community and Indians become an increasing threat. The nightmare only gets worse as the harsh winter brings on "the starving time" and all the grizzly horrors of a desperate and dying community that come with it. Driven to the depths of despair by the guilt of his sins against Richard and his lust for that man"s wife, Matthew seeks death. In that moment of crisis, when he chooses death over a life of depravity, he unexpectedly finds new life among his sworn enemy, the Powhatan Indians. What will this new life mean for Matthew, and will he survive?
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