“The Halo Trap” (#1 of the “Mark in the Failing-Land” series) , available for pre-order at Amazon.com

About the short story

~ Visio Magna ~

This could become the spark that will change society, he thought. Life is so improbable, so is our comportment. What tools do we have?, he wondered. What do we teach our kids about it? His mind traveled back to his childhood years and felt the comparison with the present inevitable. It seemed to him that nothing had changed. How is it possible that we leave our kids so unprotected in this aspect? They’re required to study algebra, geometry, biology, chemistry, physics, geography, foreign languages, most of which they might never put in use in their adult lives. Yet, we’ve committed the greatest of all omissions: to teach them about human behavior itself. To teach them that our mind is not the epitome of logic as we indulgently think of it.

“The Analysts” (#1), coming out in 2016

About the Novel

“Distance is such an important factor. Whether one is seeking to explain why persons go to a particular place to get jobs, why they go to trade at a particular store, why they marry the particular spouses they choose, or why they go to a particular neighborhood to commit crime, the factor of spatial distance is of obvious significance. It will dictate who your friends and foes are going to be, the whens, ifs and by whoms of a rebellion, it will signify who the abuser of your child will be and, why not, the murderer of the very woman that brought you to this world, my dearest friend.”

Not nice to have nightmares like this. And they plague Roy Stayer, a self-taught psychologist and human behavior analyst. His childhood was not easy.

Early enough in his life he meets Paul Day, a computer addict, who is burdened by an equally cruel childhood of abandonment and racism.

The outcasts have learned however to be survivors and they set out to prove themselves to the rest of the world. They feel confident, tough, smart and capable of everything. Their chance comes when they’re asked by a wealthy, mysterious and secretive person to accomplish the impossible: steal the millennia-old burial masks of the Iliad’s mythical king Agamemnon and that of the pharaoh Tutankhamen.

The Indiana-Jones-adventure they were expecting to encounter becomes soon wishful thinking. The reality is different and they gradually find out that there is another world out there, harsh, indifferent and lethal. Poverty, racism and cruelty is world’s other facet they come to know.

Will their skills and knowledge prove enough for them to survive and find out the truth? Will courage, compassion, and friendship prevail over tragedy and pain?