The Fire was first, and we are its Shadow...       The Defenseless by Amos Keppler    454 tightly spaced pages. Hardcover edition. ISBN 978-82-91693-41-5    Release date June 21, 2025.    Sales price US $42.50, Europe 37.50 Euros, UK 35 pounds (probably considerably less on some online stores). The novel is 178 000 words.    Mike Cousin, Ted Cousin, Linda Cousin, Tilla Stevens and Elizabeth Kendall hiking up the South Platte River the spring of 1968 Ted Cousin and Tilla Stevens in Denver the summer of 1974    Author's word From Eric Carr's Scrapbook From Eric Carr's Scrapbook       Some places you can buy this one and others, and description of other Amos Keppler novels    If the store near you desn't have the book or claim that they can't order it for you, give them the author, title and ISBN number and insist that they order it. Several of the world's largest distributors offer the book. That means it will be available also in non-english speaking countries. If you, for instance live on continental Europe and your store has an English language book section (which most stores have today), it should most definitely be available there.          CONTACT mail    IMPORTANT: To at least prevent automatic generated Spam the e-mail address above is fake or/and incomplete. To send e-mail add 2 - the number 2 - before the @       Or use the yahoo-address below.    Secondary E-Mail: manofhood@yahoo.com       Amos on Twitter: @HoodedMan and @truindependence                THE BOOK    Most events and things start small, like butterflies flapping their wings eventually growing to a storm.    Ted Cousin hardly ever felt special during childhood. There was stuff that he, in hindsight should have paid attention to, but he didn’t really do that. And he felt small, very small.    He is growing up with his brother Mike and his sister Linda in the city of Denver, Colorado in the Sixties, a time of upheaval and unrest unlike any other. Ted observes the vast and exciting changes, but he does not really feel touched by them. His dire personal problems take center stage, and they stay there. He imagines he can see a better future, for himself, for his sister Linda and the world.    But most of the time it is nothing but mud.    He is different, somehow. It isn’t just his despair, the vast desolation surrounding him speaking, he knows that, or desperately hopes he does. There is something there, on the edge of the eye, something he can’t quite grasp, a spark, one that can change everything.    The fire stirs within, both burning and warming him. The shadow is both a source of comfort and fear. He reaches for it, for everything that might not be there. In one brutal turn of events, he gets his answers, or at least their modest beginnings. The spark is struck, and the fire explodes, and terror rises with it, making everything he has experienced to that point look like a pale ghost in comparison.    The giant bird of fire and shadow is flapping its wings and creates a storm, one that might eventually rock and change the world.    The first book in the Janus Clan series - twelve stories about the wild man in the modern world.       "You deny the shadows because they do not fit into your perception of what life is about".          Eric Carr       The texts and clippings on this website are gathered from many sources and viewpoints. My hope is that it will be known as the definite authority on The Janus Clan and Phoenix Green Earth, their life and struggle.    Images, text, music, art and web design Copyright Amos Keppler First night on the web 2025-06-21       There will always be Storytellers by the campfire.       Return to The Janus Clan main page Return to Midnight Fire Media main page Return to Firewind main page    first edition    Amos Keppler's stories, poems, music and art published on the web. 99 percent of everything published on the Midnight Fire Arena is done by him.