"The Will to Misbehave"

Blazing Reader,

Here's a short extract from chapter five ("The Will to Misbehave") of my forthcoming novel, COVID Disobedience

“'Mr. MacLeod,' said Thoreau, 'as you say, if I refuse to pay the poll tax, Constable Staples will order me into custody. But if I refuse to cooperate with such an arrest, then violence will be used against me, will it not? Yet, ironically, the threat of physical harm is the only reason I would concede to such a command. Just as schools threaten children with violence, so does the State threaten us all. The only difference being that many children have not yet had the will to misbehave beaten out of them.'"

As you can surmise, the novel is partially set in 1856 Concord, Massachusetts, starring America's great moral philosopher, the author of Civil Disobedience, the one and only, Henry David Thoreau.

After reading the last line of that paragraph, my editor left this comment: 

Actually, I'll have to take most of the credit for that one — the line is not from any of Thoreau's writings. Though he did lose his first job (after returning from Harvard) as a school teacher because he refused to use a switch on the children. So, I believe the line is in keeping with what he might have said.

I must admit, it has been a little intimidating to write a fiction about such a historical figure. Inevitably, you have to put words into their mouth.

So far, Thoreau's ghost has not come to haunt me. Or if it has, only with inspiration. 

—John C.A. Manley

P.S. The other half of the chapters in COVID Disobedience take place in April 2020 — a few months before the events that take place in Much Ado About Corona. While either novel can be read first, I highly recommend (if you haven't already) reading Much Ado About Corona before the prequel is released. COVID Disobedience includes many fun references and foreshadowing that will only make sense if you've already read Much Ado About Corona first. Copies available in print, ebook and audiobook at: MuchAdoAboutCorona.com

John C. A. Manley is the author of Much Ado About Corona, All The Humans Are Sleeping and other works of philosophical fiction that are "so completely engaging that you find yourself alternately laughing, gasping, hanging on for dear life." Get free samples of his stories by becoming a Blazing Pine Cone email subscriber.