PN_09_06 Fun profile of me in PinotFile Vol. 9 Issue 6, pages 13-14. Click on preceding link to get PDF. Happy Holidays! CJ

Side entrance to Aqus Cafe from 2nd Street

View of 2nd and H Streets from the Outdoor Patio at Aqus Cafe

Latter Half of My Foundry Sandwich, Fruit Bowl and Earth-Friendly Go Cup

Table art by Doug Ballou

Back Bar at Aqus: Espresso Machine, Beer Taps, Guinness Mirror, Chalkboard Menus, Pastry Tray

Aqus Review by CJNewton. CLICK HERE to get PDF. This “Third Place” Wins First Place! Review of Aqus Cafe, Petaluma, California by C.J. Newton

To read a synopsis or the treatment of  Batting Second as registered with the Writers Guild of America, West, you are welcome to Browse the Monthly Archives and select May or June 2010. Otherwise I invite you to browse some other samples of my work. Leave a comment if you wish. Cheers, CJ

For a 1-page PDF click on link to download Bonsoir Mon Reve by C.J. Newton

Sometimes songs write themselves to me in French first.  This one came to me this week in the proverbial shower and I wrote it down as soon as I dried off. Enjoy this mini vacation in the tropics of imagination. Ceejay

Click here to download a PDF: TWICE CHRISTMAS

Twice Christmas recreates in contemporary San Francisco some of the circumstances facing the Holy Family in Bethlehem. The author uses a cinematic style of shifting viewpoints to tell the tale of a young couple arriving near Christmastime and about to deliver their child. With the help of three wise men—a retiree, a policeman and a mechanic—plus an angelic figure who happens to reside in Golden Gate Park—the new family finds a redeeming grace in the holiday, and a magical welcome in the City of St. Francis.

Click this title to download PDF of: Sail Into the Dawn by C.J. Newton

This is the story of Vasco Da Gama’s voyage from Portugal to India and back, starting with 4 ships in 1497 and returning in 1499. At the time, this was more sensational than Christopher Columbus’s discovery of America. Portugal now had won the “Spice Race” to the Indies and this broke the monopoly of the overland route caravan drivers and the Mediterranean traders. Both groups wanted Da Gama dead. This is the story of triumph not only over nature and distance, but also over the human dangers he faced.

A historical novel, this book recreates the Portugal of the late Middle Ages as it stepped right into the Renaissance of world exploration. Da Gama makes it around the storms of the Cape of Good Hope, eludes attacks in Mombasa, is welcomed in Malindi, and sails on to win the spice jackpot in Calicut, India. There he must navigate a human labyrinth of intrigue by the local leader, the Zamorin, and his Arab adjutant, the Catual, who puts a price on the Portuguese captain’s head. A suspenseful escape is followed by a harrowing return to his homeland, but King Manoel the Fortunate gives Da Gama glory and reward at journey’s end.

Written by C.J. Newton to commemorate the 500th anniversary of the voyage, in 1997, this was a labor of his love for the Portuguese people and their sonorous language. Obrigado, meus amigos.

Justice Campos and the Quest for Elixir From the novel Costa Azul by C.J. Newton. We meet the esteemed judge who presides over the trial that is the main story, who is interrupted in his quest to brew the perfect cup of coffee.

Click HERE to get PDF of Horse of the Emerald Isle  This is the story of Dorado, a golden horse from County Kildare, Ireland. He wins his first race and it’s a bittersweet victory; he is given to Sir Bedivere who takes him away to England and separates him from the mare Kelly, the love of his life. He begins a journey that will take him to France and service to Sir Lancelot, watching his battles and is charmed by a female unicorn. He witnesses young Arthur pull Excalibur from the stone, which starts the march to establish the glory of Camelot. He meets Merlyn, Nimue and Morgan Le Faye and sees sown the seeds of tragedy with her son by Arthur, Mordred, as well as the ill-fated love between Lancelot and Queen Gueneviere and her trial. He also retells the macabre tale of Gawain and the Green Knight, escapes a Viking raid, and suspensefully survives shipwreck to race across Ireland to get Kelly to safety with the future St. Brigid. If you liked Lord of the Rings, you may enjoy this magical, humorous and unique viewpoint re-imagining old tales anew, told in C.J. Newton’s distinctive narrative voice, this time with an Irish lilt.

Three trips to Ireland and painstaking research inspired and produced this novel of 15 chapters. May you enjoy it! Slainte!

On the Wings of the Morning - Poetry by C.J. Newton

LUSH AND ROMANTIC, the poetry of C. J. Newton celebrates the sound of language.  Newton was profoundly influenced by Welsh bard Dylan Thomas in some of the “incantatory” poems in this volume.  Some readers may also notice influences of William Blake and William Wordsworth.  The majority of these poems were written in a burst of creative activity between 1987 and 1989 with vivid settings in and around San Francisco. Click on the title above to download the 59 poems in this collection in a PDF. Enjoy! CJN

About the Author

C. J. Newton primarily writes fiction.  His novel Costa Azul, a satire of lawyers and bureaucrats set in an imaginary country in Central America, was published in 1999.  Costa Azul and Say Goodbye to Midnight, a new-age mystery set in atmospheric Half Moon Bay, California were published in electronic form by Bookware.  He also wrote Twice Christmas, a holiday tale set in San Francisco, published in 1997.  He has a Master of Arts degree in the Humanities, with a concentration in Literature, from California State University Dominguez Hills. 

Wide travel has given him a choice of backgrounds for his work.  Newton began writing poetry during his bohemian days as a student at San Francisco State University, and continued through time spent working in the Financial District, lounging in the Tenderloin, and people-watching in cafés in North Beach and the Latin Mission District. He now divides his time between Petaluma, California and New Orleans, Louisiana. He has written a screenplay treatment entitled Batting Second, for a film about “Baseball, New Orleans, Love and Ghosts, featuring Screw Loose Toulouse.”

Click HERE to view 1-page PDF, To the Muse, to charge your creative batteries.