Please join us for an author talk, Q&A, and signing with Rhode Island based author David R. Schoorens (‘Captive’ and ‘Refuge’).
When: Wednesday, October 21st - 6-7pm
We recommend arriving by 5:30 pm to secure a seat and have time to grab a drink and mingle ahead of the event!
Where: Corner Bar, 3842 Main Road, Tiverton, RI 02878 (parking available at shop or throughout Tiverton Four Corners).
Other info: We will have beverages and snacks available for sale.
About ‘Refuge’:
What happens if democracy falls? Refuge: A Novel of Lost Democracy, Schoorens’ debut novel published in November 2022, is a military and political thriller. It goes beyond the usual tactical thriller. It is a moral thriller.
Set in our near future, the story imagines the rapid descent of American democracy into autocracy. The fall does not come in the aftermath of economic collapse or war. All it took was an election. Gerrymandered districts. Laws suppressing the vote. Disinformation and lies. Promises of former glory. Apathy and ignorance. Political violence and above all, fear. Democracy fell because it was our choice.
The story opens in Saint Andrews, New Brunswick, Canada, where American dissidents hope to start a new life. Mike and Debbie Whynot, both retired U.S. Air Force officers and leaders of their fellow expatriates, face threats from the new autocratic U.S. government. They will pay dearly for their continued fight for democracy. Across the Saint Croix River in Eastport, Maine, others remain in service to the new U.S. government. A few will find the moral burden unendurable. Meanwhile, the authoritarian U.S. president hurtles toward open warfare with Canada and NATO. Refuge is a prescient cautionary tale. A political horror story where the monsters are real and they don’t go away when you close the book.
About David R. Schoorens:
Originally from Bedford, Massachusetts, in 1979 I earned a B.S. degree in Biology from Southeastern Massachusetts University – now the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth. By January of 1980, I stepped aboard Officer Candidate School with the United States Coast Guard. Commissioned as an Ensign, I was assigned to the U.S. Coast Guard National Response Center in Washington, D.C. before serving as the Operations Officer of U.S. Coast Guard Group Baltimore. My knowledge of coastal search and rescue and small boat station operations proved useful in my writing. One such station found in Eastport, Maine plays a prominent role in my political and moral thriller Refuge: A Novel of Lost Democracy, published in 2022. Leaving active duty in 1985, with my Cathy we started a family while she attended medical school through the Department of Defense University of Health Sciences, later serving in the U.S. Air Force as a primary care physician. In 1990, the next move was on military orders to Geilenkirchen NATO Airbase in Germany. We left for overseas with two children and returned with a third. Germany was followed by a move to F.E. Warren Air Force Base in Cheyenne, Wyoming. Then back to Geilenkirchen once more before returning to the States at Hanscom Air Force Base, ironically in my hometown of Bedford. Living in other parts of the United States and in Germany and travels through much of Europe, yielded many experiences, friendships and memories. These have served me well, adding richness and authenticity to my novels. Along the way, I picked up two graduate degrees. A M.A. in Education and Human Development from The George Washington University and a M.S. in Business Administration from Boston University’s campus in Brussels, Belgium, while living overseas. Recently retired as a high school biology and chemistry teacher, we now live in Rhode Island.