TESTIMONIAL FROM BASTIAT SOCIETY

"We were delighted to host Gen LaGreca. She is a great intellect whose writing talent is very apparent. We enjoyed the screenplay, Just the Truth, and we will continue to highlight her works to promote limited government, free speech and freedom of the press. We need more intellectuals of her stature to continue in the literary tradition of promoting classical liberalism." Brad Taylor, Executive Director, Bastiat Society of Raleigh

JUST THE TRUTH WINS A DOZEN FILM FESTIVAL LAURELS

JUST THE TRUTH: A FILMED STAGE PLAY

For all updates on me, please see www.WingedVictoryFoundation.org. We're working to advance the ideals of a free society through the magic of novels, plays, and films. Our first film is coming out in spring/summer 2023. JUST THE TRUTH has won 5 film awards and been accepted in 8 film festivals (so far!). It's a story about how freedom of the press is at stake and how a newswoman battles overreaching political powers to solve a murder and to keep our cherished values of truth and free expression alive. Our 2-minute trailer gives an excellent idea of the plot, characters, and theme. Here’s a link to the trailer on Youtube: https://youtu.be/gLpNySekU_g

Wishing you freedom, happiness, and prosperity (which means wishing us all a society of liberty, individual rights, and capitalism!).

The filming of Just the Truth is completed!

See the trailer of our new political thriller, Just the Truth. We have been accepted at two film festivals so far: The Kingdomwood International Film Festival in Atlanta and Louisville's International Festival of Film. Coming your way soon!

Teaching People to Love Liberty!

 The Winged Victory Foundation is teaching people to love liberty! See our Dec. 2021 newsletter.

WINGED VICTORY FOUNDATION'S NEW VIDEO: Our Purpose and Mission

 Watch this new video on YouTube and see how exciting storytelling and liberty can be! 

Winged Victory Foundation: "Our Mission"

Second Book Award for JUST THE TRUTH, a thriller about freedom of the press in danger!

 

WINGED VICTORY FOUNDATION, OUR FOUNDER'S STORY

PLAY ADAPTATION OF MY NOVEL, JUST THE TRUTH, LIVE ON STAGE IN CARMEL, IN

 

Glad to Win First Book Award for Just the Truth

 

As Close to My Life Story as I'll Every See!

Aleeplus.com published this article about me.

Career Transition Interview with Gen LaGreca (aleeplus.com)

Career Transition Interview with Gen LaGreca

December 10, 2020

Ellen Freed

There are very few individuals who are fortunate enough to make a living or earn money through creative expression. For these privileged artists, work, although difficult at times, is infused with moments of joy. One such person is Genevieve (Gen) LaGreca, whose path to becoming a successful award-winning romantic suspense novelist began in childhood. 

At age 5, she saw King Kong about a man who rescues the woman he loves from danger. Because of this dramatic film, the concept of romance was first instilled in Gen’s young mind. Then in 2nd grade, without an assignment, she started spontaneously writing poetry in class. When her teacher read the material, she put the work on the bulletin board for all to read. Early in life, Gen displayed an artistic bent toward writing. And then she read Gone with the Wind and was blown away by the interweaving of vivid historical events with a romantic love story. Again, she was struck by the power of romance and also took note of dramatic depiction of events rather than the dry approach one encounters in history books. These flashes of artistic awareness remained latent in the back of her mind for decades covered up temporarily by an interest in science.

After completing a BS in Chemistry from Polytechnic Institute of New York, Gen worked as a pharmaceutical chemist for several years. The discovery of Ayn Rand during this period reactivated her interest in novels because of the author’s interweaving of philosophical themes with riveting plots. Rand’s influence led to a desire for work in the humanities and a subsequent MA in Philosophy from the Columbia University Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. This degree cemented the fact that Gen had become a “thinker.” However, it was not a prescription for employment, and after searching for work, she became a waitress at a Steak and Brew chain restaurant.

Although this job bore no relationship to Gen’s educational achievements, it did serve to start her on the road to becoming a writer. There was a contest for who could sell the most specialty cocktails, and she won. Being noticed for excelling at suggested selling, she was asked to put together a training program on that subject. This involved writing participant materials and serving as a facilitator. Eventually, she became Director of Training first for the Steak and Brew corporation, then for Windows on the World at the World Trade Center.

 With this track record, Gen was able to start her own company. Called Hospitality Industry Training, it included the writing of video scripts and served as a significant turning point in the strengthening of her artistic voice. Noticing that her scripts were becoming more and more plot oriented, Gen began to realize for the first time that she wanted to write novels. This internal message was supported by feedback from a restaurant client who said: I can’t have romance in a training program about restaurant sanitation.

Read the rest at:

CareerTransition Interview with Gen LaGreca (aleeplus.com)

Walter Williams, RIP

The great free-market economist Walter Williams has died. I loved his work and was especially grateful to him for giving me a testimonial for my first novel, Noble Vision. I always admired his ability to explain economic principles in a clear, common-sense way that everyone could grasp---and with a touch of humor. Read Thomas Sowell's moving tribute to his longtime friend:

https://townhall.com/columnists/thomassowell/2020/12/02/walter-e-williams-19362020-n2580965

Patrick Peterson's review of Just the Truth

 Here's a very thoughtful review of Just the Truth posted on Goodreads by Patrick T. Peterson. I love how he grasps the essential issues of the book and points out the timeliness of what I wrote to the disturbing trends that are actually going on today in our streets. He also mentions the optimism; I wanted to leave the readers with hope.

Review of Just the Truth by Patrick Peterson on Goodreads:

Just finished this last night on a tear - Wow!
So timely. - Presidential elections, free speech, demonstrations/vandalism/mobs, etc.

So full of reasonable optimism. - Easy to get depressed these days due to so much bad news. This book is a good antidote.

Great ideas and analysis of important issues. - Descriptions of bogus and destructive but popular ideas and convincing and short refutations abound.

Characters that ring true - good and bad - some bigger than life to look up to or down on, but also some about exactly as mediocre (morally) as one often sees in real life.

This is the latest book by Gen LaGreca, who's other books:
Nobel Vision
A Dream of Daring
Fugitive from Asteron
I have really enjoyed and have reviewed on GR.

Here are a few quotations to show you how timely the book is:
"The Advocates for Peace and Democracy held a demonstration yesterday in Atlanta that got a little out of hand.” “I’ll say. Ten people hospitalized, dozens of stores looted, police cars overturned, and a fire set in a shopping mall. Very few of the rioters and thugs were arrested, and they promise another round of street fighting tonight.”

"What would Laura think of me if I equated the police with the rioters? But reluctant to challenge his new boss, Sean conceded."

From The Epoch Times, "Gen LaGreca’s ‘Just the Truth’: A Mirror for Our Time"

The Epoch Times just published a glowing review of Just the Truth, tying it to major cultural and political issues of our times! My thanks to Jeff Minick for this insightful review and for his revealing look into the troubling cultural and political trends of the past century. This article is eminently worth reading, not only for its analysis of my novel, but also for Mr. Minick's penetrating historical perspective on how socialist/communist/fascist movements of the past century have destroyed free expression and caused an upheaval around the world.

Here is an excerpt:

Given the pandemic and the socialist mobs that today dominate our news, we must wonder what crystal ball LaGreca consulted while writing her novel. The plot and themes of “Just the Truth” could not be more pertinent to that news and our current unrest. Here we see the corruption of our politics, the machinations of the “deep state,” the growing threat of federal agencies to private enterprise, and the constant calls to change our way of voting. Here too we see the means by which mobs “spontaneously” appear out of nowhere to attack free speech and American liberty, and the misinformation and sometimes downright deception provided to us via “fake news.” 

Read the rest at The Epoch Times.

My Interview for Authority Magazine at Medium.com

Authority Magazine

Top Lessons. Top Authorities.

Author Gen LaGreca: “We need to discuss what’s happening to truth in journalism. Are we in danger of losing it?”

Read the interview at:

https://medium.com/authority-magazine/author-gen-lagreca-we-need-to-discuss-whats-happening-to-truth-in-journalism-are-we-in-danger-5c99c7f11647

The Many Reasons to Love America by Gen LaGreca

 On Independence Day let’s remember to honor our country—and to fight for its future.

I love America for being the place where an upstart group of colonists, imbued with the ideas of liberty, launched an impossible battle against the Goliath British Empire, the most powerful force in the world—and won.

I love America for establishing a groundbreaking new country in which every individual has sovereignty over one's own life and possessions, and government’s only purpose is to protect that sacred right.

I love America for recognizing that not only is it illegal for a criminal to steal your property, rob you of your liberty, or hijack your life, but the government cannot do these things to you, either. I love America for being the first country in history to establish through its founding charter that government cannot act like a common criminal, but must be accountable to moral law, which means it must respect the rights of the individual.

I love America for igniting a firestorm of liberty that led to the abolition of slavery, the suffrage of women, and the expansion of freedom around the globe. It was America's founding principles that fueled the movements to bring liberty to all people.

I love America for unshackling the minds of its people so that they could think, dream, create, and achieve, triggering an explosion of scientific and industrial advancement and a standard of living unmatched—and unimaginable—in history.

I love America for being the place where wealth was created and earned, rather than looted and plundered, a place where it was understood that if persons were to be free, then their economic activities had to be out of the grip of government.

I love America for being the place where it was possible for genius to flourish, where the greatest innovators formed ground-breaking new industries that moved mankind forward.

I love America for spawning the American Dream, the worldwide symbol of the boundless opportunity and achievement that results from the freedom to carve one’s own destiny.

I love America for offering freedom and opportunity to so many of our ancestors who arrived as immigrants, who came here to work—not to collect handouts or to break the law—and who knew that in America nothing was owed to them and everything had to be earned, and who rose to the challenge, creating a spectacularly better life for themselves and for us, their descendants.

I love America for its vision of a truly civilized society, one of independent, resourceful, industrious, wealth-creating, and life-loving people, who live in peace and good will toward their fellow man because no one can stake a claim to anyone else’s life, wealth, or property.

I love America for being the country where people could work hard, rise, and be proud of their success, because production, profit, wealth, and achievement are life-giving values to attain and enjoy, not to envy and loot.

The America I love is fast becoming a distant memory. Every day we wake up to frightening new assaults on our statues, our heritage, our sports events, our culture, our children’s education, and more. America is under assault by growing nihilistic bands that want to force totalitarian speech and behavior codes on the rest of us, replacing our liberty with their whims. They want zones of “autonomy” to make demands—but where’s their autonomy to support themselves? They’re destroying our America, with their form of government ready to step in when the time comes.

No matter how much angry mobs try to erase our country's moral stature, I will never forget that I am an American. I will never forget that our ancestors forged a continent not with big government, intrusive restrictions, public aid, and bailouts but with the shining vision of a better life and the self-reliance to attain it.

When we enjoy our barbecues and fireworks on the Fourth of July, let’s remember the real meaning of this holiday. The day America was born is the day the individual broke free of the shackles of government to forge his own life. The result was unprecedented and spectacular. The cause was liberty; the effect was the flourishing of human life.

Speaking of statues, there’s one that the expropriators and budding tyrants would love to topple: the Statue of Liberty. We the people must never let them molest her.

The Pioneer vs. the Welfare State: Essays on Liberty in Peril

Get your FREE EBOOK, The Pioneer vs. the Welfare State: Essays on Liberty in Peril. FREE ON AMAZON KINDLE JULY 2 THROUGH JULY 6, 2020.

Gen LaGreca is also the author of four novels that celebrate individualism and liberty. Her latest one, Just the Truth, explores: What is happening to our free press? Are we in danger of losing it? Available from Amazon and other retailers.

Copyright© 2020 by Gen LaGreca. Permission to reproduce this essay is given with attribution to the author.

June 14 is Flag Day

To those of us who will never apologize for America and her founding principles. To those of us who will always stand for the National Anthem. To those of us who will always defend America against her enemies that want to tear her down. To those of us who cherish our liberty and the great nation that spread the ideals of freedom across the globe. To those of us who will always strive to correct injustices in a lawful way and never excuse violence and anarchy. To those of us who honor individual rights, capitalism, limited government, the rule of law, and a free society. We honor Flag Day.

Listen to Johnny Cash’s “Ragged Old Flag”---and never forget this special day! 

"An intriguing, original, and well-written story. Highly recommended."

I love this Amazon Customer Review of JUST THE TRUTH written by Don Hauptman:

5.0 out of 5 stars Page-turning new thriller is amazingly relevant and timely in 2020

Years ago, a popular way to describe a book was “Ripped from the Headlines!” That phrase applies perfectly to Gen LaGreca’s new novel, “Just the Truth.” As the story begins, an imminent presidential election may be compromised by voter fraud. The setting isn’t primarily politics, however, but rather a media empire run by a family dynasty. Its heir, a courageous newswoman named Laura Taninger, investigates and discovers the plot. When her key source within the administration is murdered, she faces retaliation herself, but persists in a quest to uncover the facts. In addition to a gripping story, the novel spotlights an important theme: the threats to a free press in an era of growing, unchecked government. You’ll cheer the indomitable spirit of an intrepid heroine who risks her career, her reputation, and ultimately her life to defend the pursuit of truth in journalism. An intriguing, original, and well-written story. Highly recommended.

Why We Love Fiction, and How it Touches our Lives by Gen LaGreca

Are there great novels, short stories, plays, and feature films that thrilled you, shocked you, gave you moments of nail-biting, edge-of-your-seat suspense, or steamy, passionate love scenes? Are there works of fiction that got you thinking about important issues? Did you ever wonder about the power of fiction to inform and inspire us?

News stories, text books, essays, articles, white papers, and nonfiction books give us a straight-forward account of factual issues, whereas works of fiction tell us a story. Fiction comes from the imagination filled with adventure, excitement, romance, intrigue, suspense, and the full gamut of emotions.

Nonfiction or Fiction? Which do you remember more?

The difference between nonfiction and fiction is like the difference between reading a flight manual and actually being in the cockpit of a plane and going for a ride.

For example, let's take an historical event: Sherman's March and the burning of Atlanta during the Civil War. How do we remember it? Through a textbook account of military strategies, generals, battles, and timelines? Or do we remember Sherman's March far more vividly from a scene in the novel and film Gone With the Wind? We’re in the middle of Sherman’s seige. Atlanta is wildly ablaze and in utter chaos. Scarlett O’Hara and Rhett Butler are in a teetering wagon with a half-dead horse driving it. A mother and her just-born child are in the back of the wagon, with the mother trying to shield the infant from falling debris from the fires all around them. The characters are desperately trying to escape Atlanta, but the Confederate army is in full retreat coming at them, slowing them down—and an ammunition depot is about to explode.

You can see how fiction makes that historical event come to life in a haunting, shocking way.

Fiction depicts great struggles for freedom and independence.

The ancient myth of Prometheus relates how he stole fire from the gods and gave it to mankind. This empowered humans so that they were no longer subservient to the deities who ruled them. The gods were so infuriated by losing their power over mankind that they chained Prometheus to a rock and cruelly punished him for eternity. The quest of humans to break free from a ruling class echoes through time and is a great theme for works of fiction.

Did you know that storytelling played a role in the American Revolution? The popular 18th century play "Cato: A Tragedy" dramatized the struggle of a political leader of Ancient Rome, Cato, who fought for republicanism against Julius Caesar's tyranny. This play was so important to George Washington that he defied a Congressional order banning the performance of plays during wartime and had the work performed to inspire his troops after their harsh winter at Valley Forge. Washington didn’t give his troops a lecture or a pep talk to boost their spirits. Instead, he used the sweeping drama of a play.

In the prelude to the American Civil War, the most influential abolitionist writing was a novel, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, by Harriet Beecher Stowe. It was this book—a work of fiction—that became an international bestseller and galvanized the North against the evils of slavery.

Fiction has also shown us the face of evil in grim detail. The term Big Brother, which originated from George Orwell’s novel 1984, has become the enduring worldwide symbol of tyranny. We still use this term today, over 70 years since the novel’s original publication in 1949.

Novels have contained moving messages about freedom. Ayn Rand’s epic philosophical novel, Atlas Shrugged, shows us the role of the individual’s free, creative mind and productive activities as the generator of human progress. This novel has inspired millions to embrace the glory of freedom.

Stories that dramatize important ideas have always inspired me in my writing.

With no pretensions to the above works intended, I strive in my novels to create riveting plots interwoven with thought-provoking themes. My new novel, Just the Truth, is a political thriller that portrays the threats to a free press in an era of growing government power and the fearless spirit of one journalist who risks her career, her reputation—and ultimately her life— to uncover a plot that just might subvert free elections in America. This courageous newswoman battles a powerful bureaucracy to keep journalism, a free press—and truth—alive. It’s an entertaining novel that brings to life the importance of a responsible and independent press, a limited and accountable government, and the rule of law. It’s not only for those who care about modern threats to our country's founding principles, but for anyone looking for an absorbing political thriller and murder mystery.

I love to write fiction that offers a full plate of plot action served with a generous pour of intoxicating ideas. Are you ready for a sizzling read? I’m inviting you to my table.

Celebrating Women's Independence by Gen LaGreca

The year 2020 marks the 100th anniversary of the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which insured women's right to vote throughout our country. So let’s take a moment to celebrate women’s achievements and independence.

The heart of a woman’s independence lies in the right to think for herself. This year’s anniversary is a perfect time to reaffirm every woman's right to think, speak, and act according to her own best judgment and to hold true to her convictions, even if that places her outside of the mainstream. (While we honor women on this anniversary, of course the great virtue of independent thinking should be encouraged and celebrated in men, too.)

In a proud tradition that continues to this day, woman have gone against the tide for noble causes and played an active role in fighting injustice throughout our nation's history. For example, women were leaders in the abolitionist movement, enduring vicious denunciations and even physical violence when they spoke out for what they believed. In the period leading up to the Civil War, it was a novel written by one of them—Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe—that became an international bestseller and provided the most powerful arguments against slavery. Legend has it that Abraham Lincoln referred to Harriet Beecher Stowe as “the little woman who wrote the book that started this great war.” Whether or not we like the “little woman" tag, and whether or not the anecdote is actually true, no one can deny the tremendous influence of one impassioned woman who dramatically exposed an unspeakable injustice and had a profound influence on righting it.

Fast-forward to women writers and journalists today. When public polling shows the nation's opinion of the media is at an all-time low, there are notable newswomen who courageously hold to the highest standards and integrity. For example, investigative journalist Sharyl Attkisson, whose motto is “Untouchable subjects. Fearless, nonpartisan reporting,” has written two books containing shocking behind-the-scenes exposés of political corruption at the highest levels of government. Lara Logan, a veteran foreign correspondent who proudly declares, “Nobody owns me,” suffered a brutal attack in a war zone that nearly killed her. Her response was: "I may have been a victim that night, but I am not a victim for the rest of my life." In our modern age, we have another towering woman writer, one who has offered profound ideas to the general public through the enchantment of fiction: Ayn Rand. This novelist and philosopher was a courageous, impassioned fighter for the freedom and sovereignty of the individual.

My new novel, Just the Truth, celebrates the storied tradition of women leaders and journalists in their fight for the truth. The heroine of the novel, newswoman Laura Taninger, risks her career, her reputation, and even her life to uncover a secret plan implicating powerful public officials in a scheme that just might manipulate an upcoming presidential election. Laura faces the crushing retaliation of her political foes as they pull out all the stops to silence her, but her resolve is unwavering. She’s an inspiration to all independent women as we celebrate our special year, our glorious past, and our boundless future.

Let’s keep making ourselves proud!

My new novel, JUST THE TRUTH, is coming out June 1, 2020.

A newswoman battles a powerful bureaucracy to keep journalism, a free press—and truth—alive.

Set in Washington, DC, in the near future, JUST THE TRUTH portrays the threats to a free press in the era of growing, unchecked government and the indomitable spirit of one journalist who risks her career, her reputation—and ultimately her life— to uncover a plot to subvert free elections in America.

JUST THE TRUTH is a political thriller and murder mystery that explores a pivotal issue facing America today: What is happening to truth in journalism? Are we in danger of losing it? This riveting drama raises questions and issues that concern us all. The novel examines how abuses of power can undermine our foundational freedoms, and it promises to have a profound and lasting impact on its readers.

“Find the truth, wherever it hides” was the slogan of firebrand newspaper mogul Julius Taninger (JT) in the mid-20th century. Then, politicians feared his scathing editorials. Now, 70 years later, with JT deceased and his son Clark and grandchildren Irene, Billie, and Laura Taninger running the company, have the tables turned? In modern-day America, does the press—and the broader business community—still have the freedom to criticize public officials, or do those officials have the power to silence their opponents? Laura Taninger is about to find out.

“Fox…” James Spenser whispers as he lay dying in Laura’s arms.

She cannot let Spenser die in vain.

As the president of Taninger News and host of its prime-time television show after the death of her intrepid grandfather, Laura becomes the sole journalist to hold President Kenneth Martin’s administration accountable. The signature program of his administration, SafeVote, puts control of national elections in the hands of the federal government, rather than letting the states manage the voting in their own jurisdictions. SafeVote is scheduled to launch with the upcoming presidential election in which Martin hopes to win a second term. Laura suspects foul play when she discovers a $400 million line item in the SafeVote budget allocated to pay an elusive company for performing undisclosed services.

James Spenser, who was Laura’s source within the administration, had vital information for her but was gunned down before he could reveal it. Facing the crushing retaliation of her political enemies against her family’s businesses, a smear campaign to destroy her reputation, and the intense pressure of her family to give up her investigation, Laura persists in her quest to learn the meaning of Spenser’s dying word and the secrecy surrounding SafeVote. As she gets closer to unraveling the mystery, she realizes that the facts point to shocking revelations about the man whose memory haunts her, the man who was her greatest business competitor and her most passionate lover—until he betrayed her and the ideals they shared. With Election Day looming and the country at a crossroads, Laura is determined to pursue the truth wherever it leads.

With controversies abounding about the integrity of today’s journalism and the election process, the plot and theme of JUST THE TRUTH could not be more timely.

Pre-order you ebook today at:

Smashwords https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/1004049

 or Amazon https://www.amazon.com/dp/B084M65GZ3/ 

Something to Remember on Constitution Day . . .

James Madison Was Right About Property Rights

Adapted from an article by Marsha Familaro Enright and Gen LaGreca, originally published in the Daily Caller.

Constitution Day on September 17 celebrates the 1787 signing of the document that established the United States of America. But like the victim of a terrible accident, the government that was formed that historic day in Philadelphia is hardly recognizable today, and the heart that propelled it—the principle of individual rights—is on life support.

Ironically, what started as a government of radically limited powers now mandates that the nation’s schools “hold an educational program on the United States Constitution” on the holiday of its signing.

In fact, the best “educational program” comes from James Madison, the man who scoured political thought and history to create the blueprint for our government, earning him the title Father of the Constitution. He has a crucial lesson for us on property rights.

Consider the growing onslaught against property rights, with public officials, presidential candidates, academicians, and many others calling for a “wealth tax,” “wealth transfers,” a “guaranteed income,” and many other schemes to “redistribute wealth.” Ideas abound on how to confiscate the wealth of some people to support the politicians’ favored voting groups.

Are these attacks on our possessions accepted because the right to property is a lesser right, one that isn’t unalienable like others rights, such as freedom of speech, press, and religion?

In his article Property, Madison emphatically says no. He explains that our right to property is as untouchable as our freedom of speech, press, religion, and conscience. In fact, he views the concept of property as fundamental, pertaining to much more than merely our material possessions.

In the narrow sense, Madison says, “a man’s land, or merchandize, or money is called his property.” But in a wider sense, “a man has a property in his opinions and the free communication of them . . . in his religious beliefs . . . in the safety and liberty of his person . . . in the free use of his faculties and free choice of the objects on which to employ them.”

He then concludes: “[A]s a man is said to have a right to his property, he may be equally said to have a property in his rights.”

This statement represents a profound expression of the individual’s sovereignty over his possessions of every kind: spiritual, intellectual, and material. According to Madison, a human being is master of his mind and body, his beliefs and possessions, his person and property. It is all the province of the individual to create and control.

Madison argues that there is no parceling of rights. Our rights to life, liberty, and property are indivisible. The reason for this was explained with unusual clarity by Ayn Rand two centuries later: “The right to life is the source of all rights—and the right to property is their only implementation. Without property rights, no other rights are possible. Since man has to sustain his life by his own effort, the man who has no right to the product of his effort has no means to sustain his life.”

Government, according to Madison, is “instituted to protect property of every sort,” and is judged solely by this yardstick: “If the United States mean to obtain or deserve the full praise due to wise and just governments, they will equally respect the rights of property, and the property in rights.”

But what does our current government do? Instead of respecting our material property at least as well as it does our other rights, its redistribution of wealth, strangling regulations on business, and deeply ingrained entitlement mentality are blatant assaults on our right to property. As Ronald Reagan famously remarked: “Government's view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it.”

It’s as if Madison looked into the future as he observed: “When an excess of power prevails, property of no sort is duly respected.” That is precisely our current situation.

Because our rights can’t be divided, if we lose one, we could lose them all. That’s why we have to fight against government intrusion in the free market with the same moral certitude—and the same fire-in-the-belly—that we’d have if the government invaded our homes without a warrant, or forbade us to peacefully assemble. We have to treat the government’s encroachment on the economy as we would an encroachment on our opinions, beliefs, and conscience.

On Constitution Day, let’s remember Madison’s lesson on the full meaning of property—and fight for our right to property as if our lives depended on it, because they do.

(All quotes from James Madison are taken from his essay Property, originally published March 29, 1792 in the National Gazette and currently published online by the University of Chicago Press.)

Gen LaGreca is an award-winning author of liberty-themed novels, including her soon-to-be-published fourth novel, Just the Truth. Marsha Familaro Enright is president of The Reason, Individualism, Freedom Institute sponsoring The Great Connections educational programs.

USA Today Review of an Excellent, Must-see Movie, “Little Pink House.”

By Glenn Harlan Reynolds, Opinion columnist April 16, 2018

 Susette Kelo's 'Little Pink House' movie shed lights on an often-ignored subject: Whether or not the government has the right to take your property.

Like some sort of HGTV dream, Susette Kelo found a house in the perfect location and within her budget.  She lovingly restored and updated it, and lived there happily ever after. Well, until she was thrown out, to be precise.  Because it wasn’t an HGTV dream, but an eminent domain nightmare.

Her “little pink house” (the color was actually called “Odessa Rose”) was condemned to make space for an industrial development project. She fought the condemnation all the way to the Supreme Court but — in what was something less than the usual rosy Hollywood ending —she lost. Her home was taken, her neighborhood was demolished, and then, adding insult to injury, the industrial redevelopment fell through and it turned out to have all been for nothing. . . .

I was fortunate enough to get an advance screener, and showed the film, which opens later this week, to my Constitutional Law class at the University of Tennessee. (You can see a trailer here.) My verdict: Little Pink House is an outstanding and moving treatment of a legal issue that gets far too little attention: The extent to which the state can take your property away just because it thinks it has a better use for it.

The Bill of Rights is supposed to protect your property. It provides that private property can’t be taken from its owners except for public use, and with the payment of “just compensation” to its owners. But the way that both of those concepts have been applied by the courts is problematic, to say the least.

Few people have problems with taking private property for obvious public uses like roads, bridges, or schools. But courts have interpreted “public use” to mean pretty much anything the government says is for the benefit of the public, or for a “public purpose.” . . .

Read the rest at: https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2018/04/16/little-pink-house-susette-kelo-pfizer-supreme-court-column/519093002/

Remembering Dr. Edith Packer

Clinical psychologist Dr. Edith Packer has passed away. The world has lost a magnificent person. She was my longtime friend and mentor. She was the one who encouraged me to write fiction, which changed my life and greatly enhanced my happiness.

For those of you who knew Dr. Packer, there is a beautiful eulogy for her that her husband, Dr. George Reisman, wrote, posted on his blog. Included in it is the heroic story of how she escaped the Holocaust. The link to the eulogy is: http://bit.ly/2BsDhHq

Dr. Packer wrote a ground-breaking book on psychology, available as a Kindle ebook. It’s called “Lectures on Psychology.”

Here is a link to the book’s Amazon page: https://www.amazon.com/Lectures-Psychology-Edith-Packer-ebook/dp/B00ENAPR3S

Below is an excerpt from my Amazon review of her book. I hope you’ll want to read “Lectures on Psychology,” an important work for anyone interested in understanding the psychological requirements for achieving happiness and for living in a free society.

From Amazon review, posted by Winged Victory Press (Gen LaGreca):

The lectures describe Dr. Packer's theories and methods, many of which are original and ground-breaking. Throughout the narrative the author clarifies and illustrates her points with numerous examples from her clinical practice. The result is a book that offers new and important concepts for professionals in the field, as well as a remarkably easy-to-read text for laymen to understand and digest.

In a world awash with irrationality, as our world seems to be, we are prone to suffer at least some degree of psychological damage. Starting in our formative years and continuing into adulthood, we can be pulled down into the quicksand of inexplicable emotional reactions, fear of failure, self-doubt, anxiety, debilitating anger, and other psychological downslides. Dr. Packer's work provides a lifeline to the solid ground of reason, self-esteem, values, and the pursuit of happiness, where human life thrives.

One of Dr. Packer's many insights that I found to be extremely helpful is her identification of "happiness skills," i.e., her therapeutic techniques for helping a patient to overcome his fears, to think for himself, to identify his values, and then to take action toward achieving them.

Another breakthrough concept is the way in which Dr. Packer demystifies emotions. She explains how emotions are not causeless, and how they can be traced back to past evaluations we've made. This puts our emotions within our cognitive control to understand, to evaluate, and, if necessary, to change.

All of her methods put us in control of our lives in a fundamental way and help us to achieve self-confidence and happiness.

In giving us the psychological tools to create a healthy mental state, Dr. Packer also gives us the necessary foundation of a healthy political state and society. She shows how to become the kind of person that is suited to living in a free society---a person who is self-sufficient, able to take responsibility for his own life, and supremely eager, confident, and happy to be the master of his own fate.

This is a book that applies and integrates the philosophy of reason to the field of psychology. In doing so, it is a pivotal work in our journey toward a new Age of Enlightenment, i.e., toward a rebirth of the ideas of reason, individualism, and freedom. For a free society to exist, we not only have to have rational philosophical, political, and economic ideas. We also have to have healthy individuals who possess the mental resources to live by reason, to be self-reliant, to take care of themselves, and to prosper and thrive in a free society. Such individuals embrace their freedom and wouldn't have it any other way. "Lectures on Psychology" paves the way toward this brighter future for the individual and for society.

Pioneer vs. Welfare State

My Kindle e-book, "The Pioneer vs. the Welfare State," is FREE today on Amazon. It's #1 in Political Freedom on Amazon Free Books today. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00I3QCLWS

Gen LaGreca's Novels Take 2 Awards in 2017 Eric Hoffer Book Awards

The 2017 Eric Hoffer Book Awards are in, and A DREAM OF DARING won an award in Legacy Fiction and FUGITIVE FROM ASTERON won an award in Young Adult Fiction.

A DREAM OF DARING and Life Under a Master Then and Now

The link below is to a 60-minute talk I recently gave at Americans For Prosperity-Indiana, titled: “A Dream of Daring, a Novel of the Old South, and Life Under a Master Then and Now.”

The first half is about my novel of the Old South, A Dream of Daring. The winner of six literary awards, including a Foreword Book of the Year and Eric Hoffer Legacy Fiction Finalist, A Dream of Daring delves deeply into the conflicts of the period that still plague the world today—the clash between progress and control, between freedom and servitude, between the creative human spirit and the forces that work to suppress it—giving the story a relevance and immediacy in our own time.

In the second half of the talk, I discuss the findings of my research: the 10 eerie parallels I found between the freedom-stifling climate of the Old South and the threats to liberty that we face today.

I hope you find it informative.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sjiSkhxsvNA

NOBLE VISION is #5 Amazon Best Seller in Medical Fiction

This week NOBLE VISION hit #5 Amazon Best Seller in Medical Fiction. It’s also #9 Amazon Kindle Best Seller in Political Fiction. This suspenseful, eye-opening, provocative thriller is challenging prevailing ideas about mixing government with medicine.

Author of the Day: Gen LaGreca - To Savor Freedom

Today I'm the Author of the Day at Many Books. See the in-depth interview: Gen LaGreca - To Savor Freedom

Below are excerpts. For the full-length interview, please go to Many Books, Gen LaGreca - To Savor Freedom

Gen LaGreca is the award-winning author of several Amazon bestsellers that were all written in different genres - or so it seems. Her first book might be a contemporary medical thriller, the second a murder mystery set in the Old South and the third a sci-fi thriller, but they all share similar themes such as freedom, individuality and being ahead of your time. As our author of the day, LaGreca talks about what she calls the "Gen-genre", reveals her writing habits and chats about why she likes to let her books stew a bit before publishing.

 Please give us a short introduction to what Fugitive from Asteron is about

 The story begins on Planet Asteron, which is a grim world of tyranny controlled by a despot named Feran. The Asteronian people are on the verge of starvation, and the only thing in abundance is misery.

 One young man named Arial is a pilot on Asteron. He struggles to have a real life for himself in an environment completely hostile to that. In a place where the life of the individual is suppressed and where everything he does is controlled by a ruler, Arial tries to pursue his own interests and take his own direction. He loves flying, and although people’s work is assigned to them by the leaders and Arial’s assignment did not involve flying, he managed to skewer the records so that he became a pilot in the military. He yearns to travel to other worlds and is fascinated by the stars he sees in the Asteronian sky, wondering if a better world exists out there. He’s curious about everything, but there’s little opportunity to learn the answers.

 On Asteron, mates are assigned to people. Romance and love have been taken out of sex, and there is no intimate family life to speak of, just communal life. In that setting Arial falls in love with someone of his choice, the beautiful Reevah, who’s a rebel like himself, with a proud attitude and a defiance and scorn for their rulers. He secretly meets her in the dead of night, and their encounters are the high point of his life.

 So, in this bleak world, Arial has two things that he cares about: flying and Reevah. Then he loses them both. One day Reevah disappears. She no longer meets him in their secret place, and he doesn’t know what happened to her. (He finds out in a shocking scene.) Then as a military pilot, he’s ordered to drop bombs on a village that’s in revolt. He can’t do it. When he fails in his assigned mission, he’s stripped of his pilot’s job, beaten, and thrown in jail for sedition. He’s sentence to an unbearable future. That’s when he decides to escape from Asteron—or to die trying. He knows that Feran is about to embark on a secret mission of great importance, so Arial devises a scheme to escape from his cell, steal Feran’s spacecraft, and take off. Against all odds, he succeeds.

 There’s a mysterious cargo onboard the spaceship that Arial has stolen. It’s a seemingly impenetrable metal box like nothing he’s seen before, which Feran was taking with him on his mission.

 The spaceship takes Arial on Feran’s pre-programmed course to a world completely unknown to him, an opposite world of peace and freedom—the future Planet Earth. There, humans like him live, and shockingly, are in control of their own lives and have freedoms unimaginable to him. Even more shocking, the people he meets speak his language, which he calls Asteronian but they call English. (The astonishing relationship between Earth and Asteron is revealed as the story unfolds.)

 As the wounds from Arial’s past start to heal and he establishes a new life, he realizes that Feran is in hot pursuit of him and the mysterious cargo—and closer than he thinks.

 Arial’s life is about to change forever—and with it, the fate of two planets.

 Tell us about Arial. Who is he and what makes him so special?

He’s a 21-year-old, handsome, daring pilot, and very brave in general. He’s a rebel. He can never conform to a life of drudgery on Asteron. He can’t buckle down and obey. He gets in a lot of trouble. But he never gives up on the idea that there’s something better out there, and he wants to find it. He fights and risks his life for the things and the people he loves. He’s a great hero for teens and young adults, which makes the novel a good crossover for that audience.

When Arial arrives on Planet Earth, he’s an abused, angry, emotionally scarred young man. He meets a young woman who sees a deeper potential in him and helps him. We’re with him as he discovers his newfound freedom. He learns about many things that we’ve known all of our lives and take for granted, but that he’s experiencing for the first time as an adult. For example, he ate tasteless dried protein cakes in his starving homeland, but now he gets to try food unimaginable to him, like cheesecake, which he consumes with great enjoyment. He gets a job doing what he loves as a pilot, and amazingly he can choose his own work from innumerable other opportunities. He earns money for the first time, and buys things he wants with it. He discovers that he can date anyone he wants to and no one can stop him. But just as he’s learning what it means to be happy, he realizes that Feran and his spies are on Earth, in hot pursuit of him for the mysterious cargo. Arial, his new girlfriend, and his oasis on Earth are in danger. He needs to summon all his skills and courage to outwit his pursuers and uncover the mystery of the cargo and Feran’s mission to Earth.

 Does the book contain an underlying message? What do you hope your readers will take away from Fugitive From Asteron?

 The broad message of all of my novels is that good people, who have courage and passion, and who want to live to the fullest, can fight for their world and win. I want to entertain people and leave them with hope. Although grim things happen and there are villains in my novels to be sure, my focus is on the good, on the great potential of people in the exciting adventure of life. I want to inspire and lift people up.

 More specifically, the important theme in Fugitive From Asteron is the need for freedom of the individual. When we control our own lives, we can set our own values and goals, and work to achieve them. That leads to a fulfilling, happy life. When we don’t control our lives and others dictate to us what we must be and do, then we’re subjugated. We’re defined by something outside of ourselves. Freedom makes happiness possible. We have to be masters of our own lives in order to define and attain our own happiness. We see this message vividly in the adventures of Arial on the 2 planets.

 On Asteron, Arial loses all his values and wants to escape, or else to die. On Earth, he’s free to choose what his life will be like. He can take a job and pick a woman of his choosing. He can have his own apartment and not have to live communally. He can come and go as he pleases, and he doesn’t have to account to guards and always fear their punishment. He finds he can experience something new to him: pleasure. The message is: We should never take freedom for granted. We should savor it, as Arial does.

You’ve written 3 novels, all in very different settings and genres. Tell us about them and why you chose to write such diverse stories.

 Perhaps it’s unusual among contemporary authors, but I love to write in different genres. My first published novel, Noble Vision, is a contemporary medical thriller set in New York City. My second novel, A Dream of Daring, is a murder mystery set in the Old South. And now my third novel, Fugitive From Asteron, is a sci-fi adventure, set on two planets in the future. I find that these different contexts and settings are a fascinating canvas on which to paint my stories.

 Noble Vision is the story of a young neurosurgeon with a new cure for nerve injury and an injured ballerina who needs the treatment as her only hope, but the doctor’s efforts to help her are thwarted by bureaucratic red tape. When I did my research, I got to be in the OR and see surgery performed, to interview neurosurgeons and work out the plot, to read books and journal articles on neurosurgery, to learn about the political controversies that doctors and patients can face, and to learn about the life and career of a ballerina. It was all fascinating.

 My second novel, A Dream of Daring, takes place in Louisiana in 1859. It exposed me to a completely different world from anything I had known. The story is about a young inventor who develops the precursor of the tractor and foresees the new age of mechanized farming that will replace slavery. This puts him in intense conflict with the planters of his town, who want to keep their world of slave farming intact. Tensions mount, and his invention is stolen and someone dear to him is murdered. In my research for that novel, I got to tour and stay at historical Louisiana plantations, go to many museums and historical collections, learn about cotton farming, the history of the internal combustion engine, and many other things. In a special archives collection, I held in my white-gloved hands the plantation journals from cotton planters who actually lived in the 1850s in Louisiana. It was exciting to journey back in time a century-and-a-half through their handwritten accounts.

 Then for Fugitive From Asteron, I got to use my imagination and create my own world, or 2 worlds to be exact. The main character is a pilot, and there are daredevil flying scenes in this novel, so I got to study aerobatics and fighter planes. I also got to learn about space travel and about certain scientific issues involved in creating the “mysterious cargo” in the novel. All of that fascinated me.

 Although my 3 novels might seem very different because of their diverse settings, I think that on a deeper level they’re all similar. I call it the Gen-genre. First, all 3 novels are thematically related; they all involve characters who think outside the box, are struggling to achieve their freedom and individuality, and they’re ahead of their times and the societies they’re living in. Second, all 3 novels involve a scientific invention or discovery of some kind. I have an undergraduate degree in chemistry and worked early in my career as a pharmaceutical chemist, so the breakthrough medical discovery in Noble Vision, the prototype tractor in A Dream of Daring, and the mysterious cargo in Fugitive From Asteron (which involves a surprising scientific discovery) all appeal to me. Third, all 3 novels have strong romance—love triangles and conflicts that are interwoven in the plots. Those similarities in my approach explain why novels set in the past, present, and future feel as if they came from the same heart and soul.

Is there something that compels you to write? And do you find that writing helps you achieve a clarity about yourself or ideas you've been struggling with?

 Yes! I love fiction’s power to dramatize ideas and to clarify important issues. This has been true throughout history, starting with ancient mythology and continuing to modern times. For example, in the 1850s, it was a novel— Uncle Tom’s Cabin—that galvanized people against slavery. During the American Revolution, when our troops were suffering great hardships at Valley Forge, George Washington turned to fiction. He had the highly influential play of his time, “Cato, A Tragedy,”—about a Roman hero of republicanism who opposed the growing tyranny of Julius Caesar—performed for his troops to motivate them to fight on. People turn to fiction for inspiration, for a refueling of their spirit. That’s why good novels are treasures.

 I also love the emotional impact that fiction has, how it puts us right there in the action in an unforgettable way. For example, how do we remember Sherman’s march on Atlanta during the Civil War?—through a textbook account, or through the dramatic scene in Gone With the Wind, with Scarlett O’Hara and Rhett Butler in a teetering wagon pulled by a half-dead horse, desperately trying to escape Atlanta in the middle of Sherman’s siege, with the entire city wildly ablaze and in utter chaos?

Once I discovered fiction-writing, I knew there was nothing else I wanted to do more than to write novels. The work is what I call a sweet torture.

 Do you aim for a set amount of words/pages per day?

 No, I don’t block out the work that way. The research and the outline come first. So, for months I don’t do any writing. Then once I have a really good chapter-by-chapter outline, I start writing. When the story is well thought out in advance, it saves me from having to rewrite. I’m a strong plot writer, so I subscribe to what people say about the theater: If you see a gun on the fireplace mantel in Act One, you can be sure that gun is going to go off in Act Three. I write like that. I like to drop clues early in the story, which you can be sure will all play a part later, hopefully in unexpected and surprising ways.

 When I start writing, scenes will deviate somewhat from my outline, but I’ll definitely know the ending, key characters, and the essential progression of events at the outset. Yes, I do set deadlines, but the writing always takes longer than I expect.

 What has your journey as an author been like? Was there ever a defining moment when you suddenly realized "now I am an author"?

 Yes, there was! I worked for a while as a management consultant. One of the things I did for clients was to write and produce videos for staff training. I found that these videos were becoming more and more imaginative and plot-oriented. Finally, one of my clients, the publisher of a magazine for the foodservice industry, said to me, “Gen, I can’t have romance in this video about restaurant sanitation!” That was when I thought to myself, “Hey, I ought to try writing a novel.” And so I did.

 What are you working on right now?

I’m working on my fourth novel, which is called Just the Truth. It’s a contemporary political thriller about the world of journalism. The story explores the question: Is truth still the ruling principle in today’s world of journalism and politics, and what are the forces working against it? In this story, a young female journalist will be the leading character.

For the full-length interview, please go to Many Books, Gen LaGreca - To Savor Freedom