A Fhreeya Kind of Thing with 47 Trees

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.

I’m hoping and praying in my “mature” years that a certain trilogy series of novels will navigate my lifelong ship into harbour. 47 Trees: A Cosmic Crusade, Part I is the first in a scintillating series of science fiction and fantasy novels. I’m definitely excited to tell everyone about this clever pop culture tale; the ultimate quest for universal clairvoyance! It’s an intricately meshed tapestry of dimensional metaphysics, thrilling action with sexy twists, ancient hybrid species tree warriors on an enthralling crusade for peace, perhaps a philosophical quagmire or two, and of course really cool spiritually organic space vessels (futuristic commandos and mechanical space ships come later). In the fine tradition of bold imagination, gripping suspense and witty satire, come fly on this compelling literary flight: unrestrained riding the crest of an ethereal wave through spiritual corridors and across interstellar trails, searching for universal truth and embracing the spirit of exploration and discovery on an electrifying journey, and maybe indulging in the occasional binge of intoxicated debauchery and exotic exploits.

I welcome everyone to check out 47 Trees: A Cosmic Crusade, Part I, now available at major retailers, released in 2023 by Austin Macauley Publishers @AustinMacauley.com out of London, England. In the meantime I 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 and videos on observations of life, some journalism, and a shared appreciation for the wonders of nature and wilderness―all available @www.FHREEYA.com the website 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. The FUN Revolution @FHREEYA comes from a diversity of pursuits, hobbies, education, occupations, vocations and advocations; those I have both experienced and observed, as well as the insights of mentors, colleagues, friends and family.

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 working on Parliament Hill in Canada, 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.

This is the Freeborne Universal Network, otherwise known as the FUN Revolution at the FHREEYA website. The revolution is about common sense, optimism and practical solutions, but most of all it’s about enjoying life; acknowledging we have many fine comforts and embracing the simple pleasures in life that keep us happy.

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 flexible options in regulations, and supporting private enterprise ingenuity combined with a streamlined government bureaucracy. All this implies among other things economic opportunities, access to quality health care and education, effective stewardship of natural resources and frugal spending of public funds.