Brown Widow

About the Book

They called it the 'wild land', that area with its verdant hills that led to lesser hills ending with the vastness of the Pacific Ocean where the land kissed the sea.

The inhabitants were Indians who occasionally fought among themselves, tribe to tribe but their bloodshed was minimal until the Spanish Army arrived, then the blood flowed as never before in the name of Christianity.

But this is not a story of the Indians; it's about one of those Spanish soldiers who visited a fortuneteller, who almost gets it right. He respects the Indians' fighting ability with what weapons they have. After soldiering he retires on a land grant of vast proportions. It is about his family and acquaintances and the human condition of comedy, religion, love, sex, hate, greed, violence, lust, avarice, murder, with periods of quietude and haunting memories and somewhere in the novel about a woman who thinks temporarily, she is a widow when she is not.

Any resemblance of anyone dead or alive is purely coincidental. This is a fictional novel and is NOT HISTORICALLY or POLITICALLY CORRECT. Read on and enjoy.

About the Author

About The Author: Ralph Brune

Born in Arvin, California in 1926. Attended kindergarten in Wasco, California, then moved to Castroville, California, and graduated from grammar school. Then a series of high schools, Salinas High School, Santa Barbara Junior High, and finally Templeton High School in Templeton, California, where the curriculum was agriculture, agriculture, agriculture. Went into the U.S. Army near the end of World War II (the one that was supposed to end all wars) and served in the military police in St. Germaine, France, and Wiesbaden, Germany.

In grammar school, during vacation, I worked driving horses in the haying season and had a paper route during the school year. While a sophomore in high school during summer vacation I worked underground in the Buena Vista quicksilver mine. The following year I worked on a spreader box covering the highway with asphalt on the Hunter Ligget Military Reservation near Jolon, California. Immediately after leaving the army I knocked almonds in an almond orchard at the Butterfield ranch East of Paso Robles, California.

I attended San Jose State College for two years and went on the San Jose Police Department in San Jose, California. Attended Lincoln Law School classes at night and earned an L.L.B. degree. Spent my off time during my police career as a swamper and a dockworker at truck terminals.

In my early childhood I loved Monterey and had two old maid aunts living on Abrego Street in that beautiful city. While in grammar school I tried to get a job with a buddy, Ernest Keema, as a caddy at the Del Monte Golf Course (depression era). The head man looked at us and said, "Get outa' heah.'"

Served on the San Jose Police Department for twenty-nine and a half years. It was full of excitement and camaraderie. I loved my job and the people in law enforcement, but that's another story, which I may or may not ever get to.

I moved to the City of Shasta Lake (before it was incorporated) in Shasta County, California. I started writing the Brown Widow in about 1990 or 1991, a twelve year project. It is a helluva' novel ... read on. When the last page is read you will be sad because you will want it to continue on. No copying of material in this book without the written express permission of the author.