Showing results by author "Nowick Gray" in All Categories

Fresh with discovery of African rhythms, a beginning djembe player tries to fit in with the local jam group, bucking the convention of cover tunes led by frontmen with guitars. On the one hand, he’s emboldened by freedom’s mantra, “It’s all good.” But harmony is not a given, when anxiety and impatience meet ego and status. Leaning on the upbeat and offbeat, a compromise might be struck in the reggae mode, a Third World feel. One way or another, the drop-ins and old hands at the Friday Night Jam have to find a way to get along, and more: to find gold in the moment. Part prose riff ...

One human species has lived a million years in peace and safety on a remote island. Another is advancing with predatory intent. With nowhere to flee, how can one young woman face the danger and live to tell the tale? Floresia, princess of the primeval forest, emerges out of the shadows of a forgotten history to chronicle the last days of her people. This half-size human, Homo floresiensis, thrived on the Indonesian island of Flores until fifty thousand years ago, and the invasion of the El, Homo sapiens. The way Floresia saw it, we are all part of Earth’s creation. Why not coexist, with ...

British Columbia columnist Nowick Gray takes on the challenge of truth-telling in an era of mainstream censorship, propaganda, and gaslighting. From draconian Covid policies to the illegitimate rule of Woke, Gray unravels the yarns of groupthink, in language charged with pithy humor, inspired by the living poetry of nature, and dedicated to an apolitical philosophy of common sense. Core concerns of survival and solidarity are brought to light filtered through forest wisdom, with appeal to the enduring qualities of human nature, affirming life and the spirit of freedom. These essays appeared...

Would you be willing to change everything to follow your heart and feed your soul? In his search for alternatives to corporate conformity and the looming threat of apocalypse, Nowick Gray's self-exile from East Coast suburbia spirals through campus rebellion, California dreaming, a testy Canadian romance, and an Inuit village preparing for its own revolution.The end of the winding road beckons--a back-to-the-land utopia in the mountains of British Columbia. My Generation charts a fast-paced, passionate, thoughtful and humorous journey of personal growth. One man's quest serves as an ...

This third volume of haiku poetry by Nowick Gray introduces the reader to the unique cultural flavor and natural beauties of Salt Spring Island, BC. Includes sections on Homecoming, Housekeeping, Zeitgeist, Equanimity, Expression, Insight, and Witness. Original photographs complement over fifty haiku and senryu, blending personal observation with larger social issues and redeeming spiritual grace.

A romantic wilderness cabin becomes a dream-box of catastrophe and survival, in this true adventure with a paranormal twist. Will, a treeplanter, hikes with a companion to meet his wife and 3-year-old daughter in BC's remote Jumbo Pass. An overnight storm pushes them to the brink of deadly choices, at fate's mercy. Caught in the strands of a deadly time-loop, Will must navigate a series of doorways to survival. Each choice means a different outcome, a different life… or even death. The story’s mystery plays out against the backdrop of vast natural beauty in the Purcell Mountains of ...

A collection of stories of the depraved or disappointed, haunting or haunted, seeking love or redemption. Infused with the dark humor of a twilight zone, these contemporary fairy tales expose the hearts of quirky characters in transition. Serving offbeat narratives, edgy realties, shifting identities, the stories blend the ironic with the erotic, nature and rural environments with the paranormal and surreal. Blending the minimalist aesthetic of Carver with the macabre touch of Saunders, this is “standout fiction... subtle and altogether lovely... impressionistic, quiet and very real” (...

A marriage ends. A life begins. In between is Charlie’s story of our journey home, breath by breath. His canvas is a life cracked open, to reveal the cost of freedom and the power of love. Set in backwoods British Columbia, Charlie Utopia is a cautionary tale with a redeeming outcome. Chasing Utopia—from community, to relationship, to success itself—Charlie loses all, then finds himself torn between two new loves. Does he need to heal first in order to love, or does he need love in order to heal?

Programmer Joe Norton awakes to an alternate reality, courtesy of an AI mind-control virus, a crash course in tough love. Is there someone to blame—Moira, his office mates, the honchos from head office? Get used to it, chum: the only way out is to go further in. Caught between worlds, with a mission to kill and a menu of false choices, Norton must find his way back to the home brain, and the promise of a new life, before the bug spreads. Published in an earlier edition as PsyBot, Chameleon is recast in Vancouver in 1992. More than a retro reboot of the cyberpunk era, this timely dive into...

Romantic honeymoon or midlife crisis? Wilson and Noella trek the wild backcountry and shores of Spain and Portugal, balancing bliss and burnout. Their postmodern pilgrimage to the enchanted island of Formentera tilts at windmills of fabled palaces, descends into inner child wells. The walking tour gives occasion to reflect on imperial history’s passing, in the light of the raw beauty left behind. In the crucible of their creative retreat, Wilson and Noella challenge each other to discover the most of who they can be, in their personal fulfillment and for each other. Rich with “...

Essays spanning three decades—reflective yet contemporary, philosophical and practical—address human nature and environmental ethics; personal and metapolitical intention; radical insight and live freedom in thought, emotion and action. While it might be said that everything pre-2020 is irrelevant in the light of our global paradigm shift, it is important to recognize both the long history of our present oppression, and the more ancient tradition of positive human spirit ever capable of rising to the challenge, to assert the primacy of our fundamental values and aspirations.

Both reckless and lucky, this serial survivor seeks meaning in a life full of brushes with death and passing glimpses of fame. The life-threatening accidents and mishaps come in many shades: from full-fledged out-of-body experiences, to near misses and close calls, to highway mishaps, dodging bullets, edgy adventures, stupid risks, fights and wars; sometimes just witnessing disaster, or knowing others not so fortunate to escape it. The narrator emerges with a guarded view of the shadowland of death, and brief tastes of the wonderland of stardom. Always coming back home again, chastised and ...

Metapolitics speaks to our deeper human nature, our intrinsic freedom and sovereignty. Amidst an accelerating war on humanity, Metapolitical offers an empowering deep dive for free thinkers, righteous rebels, and awakening activists. In these collected essays Nowick Gray exposes the abuses of hierarchical power, disempowering the old paradigm of false narratives and party politics in favor of a more creative and open-ended future.

Arriving at their romantic rendezvous at Mirror Pass, Will calls into the void for his missing wife and three-year-old daughter. Once reunited, Will, Faron and Suze, along with hiking companion Matt, discover with an overnight storm that their challenge to survive has just begun. With each paranormal time loop, the plot twists to offer a fresh threat to survival. From flash flood and whiteout, to enraged grizzly and blindside betrayal, Will faces disaster behind every door. Think Groundhog Day meets the Twilight Zone, in the heart of the Canadian wilderness. This magical realist novella was...

Young con-man Felix Krull, narrator of Thomas Mann’s last, unfinished book, resumes his escapades of romance and subterfuge in old Lisbon. Teased by the alluring Zzazza and threatened by her jealous mother, Felix flees to the New World with pride barely intact. His hopes are tied to the woman of his dreams—astral mentor and future first woman president, Sophie Vaughan. On the road across 1970s America, his quest galls with disappointment. Will they ever be reunited for that final, multidimensional battle with the Dark Forces for power—and a lifeline of enduring love? A digital ...

Mountie Jack McLain, baffled by a series of unsolved murders, knows the latest case will make or break his career. Eighteen-year-old Nilliq, chafing under the sullen power of her father in a remote hunting camp, risks flight with a headstrong shaman bent on a mission of his own. Their paths intersect in this tense mystery charting a journey of personal and cultural transformation.

Back-to-the-land memoir weaves essay, story, nature, magic realism, homesteading, and wilderness survival. My Country expands the containers of essay and story, adventure and lyric, and naturalism and fantasy to overlap and mingle in this collection unified in its spirit of place: the forests and mountains of interior British Columbia.

“A computer virus and a human virus are two different things, right?” Not anymore. Programmer Joe Norton finds his reality turned inside out when an AI bug crosses the brain-machine interface. With instructions to kill and a virtual menu of bad choices, his all-too-ordinary life in Philadelphia is coming apart at the seams. Is the only way out, to go further in? A visionary dive into into the slipstream of emerging transhumanist technologies, PsyBot exposes a dark underworld of mind-control black ops. PsyBot, like the novels of Michael Crichton or Philip K. Dick, explores the limits of ...

Midlife crisis, his life’s dreams at an early end, it was time to bust out and see the world. Nowick Gray sets out with backpack and drum to find out what he’s been missing. Tropical warmth, better health, inner peace… He scours Asia and the Pacific, Europe and Latin America for that perfect beach, a new tribe, a winter home. Will ayahuasca heal his woes, or an ayurvedic cleanse? Beset by desperate touts on an abandoned Bali shore, he knows he’s a dying breed: the last tourist. With this fourth book in the My Country series, Nowick’s travels extend across the globe, caught in ...

Contemporary poems and photographs celebrating nature, love, and spiritual insight. British Columbia poet Nowick Gray counters the dehumanizing new world order with the ancient ritual practice of haiku: condensing truth and beauty, celebrating wisdom close at hand.