A 47 Trees Kind of Thing

Hello and welcome to my delusional world of optimism and imagination, and sarcasm! My name is Thom with an ‘h’ as in Thomas on my birth certificate, yet all through grade school I was Tom without an ‘h’―not Thom with the ‘h’ or Thomas, just plain old common h-less Tom, or sometimes affectionately Tommy, which of course are all fine names.

But this was only the beginning of my identity problems. My family name is Costea, as in at the school cafeteria: “Hey Cost-yah that’s a nice lunch you have there, how much did it cost you, Cost-yah?” You can probably imagine my problems. It’s a Romanian name roughly pronounced Coast-ee-yah, anglicised by us Romanian-Canadians as Cost-ee-ah. However, just to complicate things further, my grade school teachers kept adding a ‘u’ on the end of my name thinking it was French, as in Jacques Cousteau the famous oceanographer. Ironically, or not, my mother is French Canadian (née Chevalier), but nonetheless I am a not-so-simple Thom with an ‘h’ Romanian-French-Canadian who writes in English for a living―imagine that. The rest suits me fine.

"My life is in shambles, but I'm a happy man," is the answer I often give to describe myself. I'm a bit of a nomad living across Canada; on the western prairies, the populous south and the nation’s largest city, the boreal north and cottage country, and landing in the Ottawa valley for now. Now an adult (old man by many definitions) and recovered from my identity crisis, I’m happy to jump into social media networks with my ‘h’ in print, especially considering my career as Thom the published journalist and author, along with other sorted occupations such as speech and script writer, managing editor, photographer and video director/producer. My true love is fiction―as in novels, short stories and poetry―but the world of literature is a tough market to crack and does not pay very well unless you are lucky or have some connections inside the tent. Alas, I’m trying to change all that.

I’m hoping and praying in my “mature” years that a certain novel will navigate my lifelong ship into harbour. 47 Trees: A Cosmic Crusade, Part I is the first in a scintillating science fiction and fantasy trilogy series. I’m definitely excited to tell everyone about this clever pop culture tale; the ultimate quest for universal clairvoyance! It’s a cosmic crusade that comes to words through my vivid dreams, some meditation with visions and hallucinations, maybe a revelation or two, and numerous pages of research notes. And in the end, hard scientific research and primitive but extremely powerful conduits of ecological features such as rocks, trees and owls, all meshed together in a whirl of creativity.

This new millennium tale is the culmination of a lifetime for me, originally drafted on a manual typewriter in the 1980s, with a second draft in the 1990s on an electric typewriter while working as a newspaper, magazine and radio journalist. I expanded the novel into an epic size during the recent pandemic on my laptop computer, finally turning it all into this―Part I of an exciting and thoroughly unique sci-fi fantasy trilogy. I published Campfire Symmetry in 2001―a book of short fiction stories, essays and poetry complete with paintings, drawings and photographs―and while raising a family for the next two decades writing speeches, editing magazines and producing videos, I also found the time to research physics, sociology, astronomy, political systems and various earth sciences to create this multi-dimensional, multi-universe world of 47 Trees: A Cosmic Crusade, including a fictional ancient language dictionary in Part I and a futuristic operations manual appendix to come.

In the meantime, I also offer a varied collection of current, cultural and entertaining material―including short fiction and photography, commentaries otherwise known as blogs (they used to be “columns” in print), various theme essays on observations of life, some journalism, and a shared appreciation for the wonders of nature and wilderness―all available at the website www.FHREEYA.com where my creative work is featured, and where the Freeborne Universal Network is promoted as the FUN Revolution: an optimistic and hopefully realistic platform with objective middle of the road perspectives on life, social values, nature and natural resources, and possibly some good laughs too.

While working as a writer in high-pressure politics and public relations after several years as a journalist, I lived out of the city in the countryside where I would decompress every night following stressful days (although it was quite invigorating I would say). Sitting around a campfire one of those nights under the tall 100-year-plus white pine trees beside the pond on my 10-acre rural paradise, a good friend was impressed that a poor writer could relax, enjoy life and remain happy with only a few simple pleasures like nature and an evening outdoor fire. “This is awesome h-less Tom; a few beers, a cozy campsite in the trees, and the dancing flames reflecting on the pond,” he observed. “It’s a great way to chill out. You’re like some kind of expert on enjoying life.”

I took solace from his comments realising I could be critical as a journalist, or wrapped in the hectic pace of a spin doctor, and still be happy at the same time. I come by a certain inherent optimism honestly; fortunate as a child to be raised in a middle-income loving family, as a teen to have many opportunities in a free democracy, and as a young adult to earn a good education (that I could pay for with summer jobs). I studied political science and journalism at university and became quite the radical skeptic in my early career. I questioned aspects of politics and society through editorials in the media, influenced by the Generation X revolt of the 1980s and the punk rock anthem cries of “New Wave” music in particular. I then learned some of the dirty secrets of corruption in politics and business which made me even more cynical, but eventually I came back to the principles of objectivity to find the middle of the road; optimistically, ideally, foolishly, naively or wisely―probably a little of all those things―looking for a path everyone can walk down together, acknowledging we have many fine comforts and embracing the simple pleasures in life that keep us happy.

I’ve always considered myself the luckiest person in the world: I’m a Canadian, I live in a dwelling with indoor plumbing, I can walk into a store and buy food, I have great friends and family, I’m reasonably healthy, there’s still natural wilderness to roam and enjoy in my country, and currently there are not any bombs flying over my head. I’m extremely grateful for these things, which definitely helps bring optimism and happiness into my life. I’m also very fortunate to have experienced a fairly balanced life. Totally by fluke I’m sure (that’s why I’m so lucky) I have developed friendships in a variety of settings, both urban and rural lifestyles. I value these different perspectives, find myself comfortable with many cultural attitudes and seem to fit in with most crowds, happily relating to conservative and liberal opinions alike.

I started wilderness camping off-road when I was 14-years-old (nice and close to home) and then began hiking and paddling deeper into the bush ever since. I was sentimental about the environment all the way back to the 1970s because of my camping background, although I considered tree huggers a little too extreme for me. I do enjoy dancing and singing around trees though. But I also see the benefits of a renewable forestry sector (as long as we keep planting new trees). These days I’m still concerned about our environment but not totally convinced of all the non-negotiable doom and gloom, and I’m just as sentimental about all the polarized hatred and negative criticism in the world, so I will try to spin a positive story about the planet and all the socio-economic and political issues we face.

My intention is to bring a responsible voice spiced with some humour to humanity’s current culture and Planet Earth’s natural ecology, encouraging practical solutions to our many issues based on common sense consensus; that’s when the extremists from all sides stop grinding their own axe and listen to sensible debate. I advocate a balanced approach to reaching democratic objectives, like equality for all people by eliminating persecution and prejudice, respecting the will of the majority, bringing an end to corruption and exploitation in their many forms, preserving freedom of choice including through regulations, and supporting private enterprise ingenuity combined with a streamlined government bureaucracy.

All of this is implied in an entertaining fashion (I hope) with my new novel. Many aspects of my life’s journey have gone into 47 Trees: A Cosmic Crusade, Part I. I might be described as one of those utopian lunatics looking for an unattainable construct of society, but I prefer to think the answers for a promising future are right in front of us; we just need to calm down the rhetoric and find the solutions through prudent dialogue instead of sensational publicity. I say with confidence my story of 47 Trees does in fact convey this optimistic message through a tale of thrilling adventure, while searching for the clarity and understanding that comes with the balance of harmony.

I welcome everyone to check out 47 Trees: A Cosmic Crusade, Part I published by Austin Macauley. If you “like” these ideas and this stuff I’m throwing out there, you can find me at ThomCosteaAuthor and ThomCostea on social media. Take care and live your dreams.

And here's a small pictorial collage of the progressions in my life; from a crazy young lifeguard to a journalist, an older father, and now a new older author.

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