Ron Breazeale will speak about First Night: The Conflict Between Hope and Cynicism

Friday Local Author Series

Friday, January 23rd at noon in Meeting Room #5

Portland, Maine - Dr. Ron Breazeale, a Portland-area clinical psychologist and author, will be at the Portland Public Library on Friday, January 23, at 12:00 p.m. to discuss his latest novel First Night: The Conflict Between Hope and Cynicism. A sequel to his first novel, Reaching Home, his latest work explores the themes of resilience, conflict and hope, and overcoming adversity.

“The conflict between hope and cynicism is one each of us must face each day,” said Breazeale. “Questions such as: do we limit ourselves through fear and through the belief that things in our lives must be as they have been? Or can we grow our science and technology without destroying the basic fabric of our society? The answers to these questions will determine our direction and the direction of our civilization.”

First Night raises these questions in a compelling story. It is set in the future, the year 2019, Breazeale resumes the story of Dr. Lee Brazil who has returned to his clinical practice in Maine after being detained by federal agents in Boston for almost a year. He had been implicated in what was mistakenly believed to be a terrorist plot.

The story begins in mid-December. Dr. Brazil receives an unexpected visit from federal agents. He is
asked to pick up a package in London and deliver it to Paris. Out of fear he agrees. Little does he know that he will become caught up in the Singularity, the race to develop a supercomputer that could do amazing things for the human race and could possibly open the entire universe to colonization by our race. 

In the end, he is pulled into the conflict between those who would win this race at any cost and others who believe human beings lack the moral compass to have such power.

Praise for the book has been notable. “First Night is a wonderful tale of hope and cynicism spun from the whole cloth of down home Maine humor and fundamental values. The book is a page-turning flight of fancy that captured modern man’s struggle with assimilating new technologies without losing the fabric of past times,” wrote Captain W. Russell Webster, CEM, US Coast Guard (Ret.), Maritime Author and Historian.

Dr. Breazeale is one of the founders of Maine Resilience and has designed, administered and edited numerous programs and publications that focus on the psychological skills and attitudes that can prevent emotional problems and increase life satisfaction. He writes the In The Face of Adversity blog for Psychology Today.