Author: Alfredo Casuso

David Church Announces the April Release of The Magi Solution,
the Thrilling Final Chapter in the author’s acclaimed Edison Trilogy

media contact: David Perry & Associates, Inc / (415) 676-7007 /news@davidperry.com

8 January 2025 – Palm Springs, CA:  “It’s lovely over there,” were the last words of Thomas Alva Edison –  arguably the most famous inventor of all time. As he lay dying, he seemed to glimpse into another world, a world that he believed with which he could communicate via a device he called “the spirit phone.” Now, award-winning Palm Springs author David Church has “resurrected” and reconstructed “The Wizard of Menlo Park” through his acclaimed “Edison Trilogy” (www.edisontrilogy.com) of alternative fiction, set for completion with the April publication of the ultimate volume, Thomas Edison and The Magi Solution. In a rollicking hold-onto-the-seat-of-your-pants literary rollercoaster, the seminal inventor’s quest for life beyond the grave has him partnering with other historical figures such as Eleanor Roosevelt and Noel Coward as he saves the world from Adolf Hitler, the Nazis and Satan himself.

“Edison’s genius wasn’t just about invention—it was about seeing possibilities where others saw limits,” says Church, 69. “I’ve always been captivated by how his work continues to ripple through history. With The Magi Solution, I wanted to explore the profound ways his legacy intersected with the challenges of war and the enduring human spirit. Concluding this trilogy has been deeply rewarding, and I hope readers find it as thrilling and thought-provoking as I did writing it. Literally, Edison ‘lit the way’ for everything that came after.”

A former advertising executive, Church has written for publications as wildly diverse as Soap Opera Digest and Interview, authored an environmental children’s book, Larue and the Brown Sky (illustrations by Toby Bluth), co-authored the cult-musical, Judy’s Scary Little Christmas (with Jim Webber and Joe Patrick Ward) and developed a variety of films for United Artists, CBS and NBC, including Psychic Housewife, and Saving Grace. David is a member of the Dramatists Guild and the Writers Guild of America West. 

“You’ve never read a World War II story like this one,” says John Hanc, award-winning journalist and author of The Coolest Race on Earth. “Church’s ability to bring historical characters to life as disparate as Noel Coward and Adolf Hitler continues to amaze. This final book in the Edison Trilogy is exhilarating.”

“The epic conclusion of the Edison Trilogy delivers the voltage,” agrees Larry Dean Harris, Artistic Director, Strong Words.” It’s been a perilously entertaining adventure for our heroes, both fictional and factual, but David Church has saved the zest for last to deliver a deliciously satisfying finale behind enemy lines and beyond our expectations.” 

Thomas Edison and the Magi Solution opens in the Spring of 1945. As World War II comes to an end, John Dawkins, Edison’s intrepid former assistant, is summoned by an ailing President Roosevelt to investigate a terrifying secret report that Adolf Hitler, faced with certain loss, has made an unholy deal with the Devil to annihilate the world.  Along with his wife, Sophie, an ace newspaper reporter, and their ten-year-old son, Joshua, John journeys to war-ravaged London to join forces with theatrical playboy (and undercover agent) Noel Coward. Along the way, they are reunited with the reincarnated spirit of Thomas Edison. Together, they embark on a final, death-defying adventure that propels them from the ruins of Dresden to the bizarre mysteries of the Fuhrer’s bunker, to the bowels of Hell itself.  All in all, it is a journey to find ‘the Magi’ – the only three souls left on earth who can stop Hitler’s satanic endgame.

Magi builds on the chronicle of Church’s previous two critically-acclaimed novels.

Thomas Edison and the Purgatory Equation is “the popcorn movie of novels, unadulterated fun”(Literary Titan). The book hypothesizes the untold saga of Edison’s greatest invention: a machine designed to penetrate the barrier between life and death. The inventor is joined on his metaphysical expedition by John Dawkins, his heroic, young assistant with a tragic past, Emily Auburn, a Ziegfeld Follies showgirl and her wise-cracking rehearsal pianist, the teenage George Gershwin. Destiny propels them from the mind-boggling marvels of Edison’s secret library to the Captiva Island compound of the Seminole Indians, to the frontlines of the Great War where they journey into the dark heart of the dead zone and wage a decisive battle for the soul of mankind.

Volume II, Thomas Edison and the Lazarus Vessel is “a free-wheeling, enjoyable blend of real history, derring-do adventure and early cinematic comedy” (Kirkus Reviews). Edison, John, Emily, and Gershwin reunite to realize Edison’s final invention, the simu-dermis, a manufactured vessel of skin capable of housing a soul and allowing the dead to rise again. Accompanied by their new companions, Groucho Marx and Eleanor Roosevelt, their pursuit propels them from the Hollywood dream factory, to the metaphysical vortex of Sedona, Arizona, to the 1933 Chicago World’s Fair. Their odyssey culminates on Andros Island in the Bermuda Triangle, where they battle a cabal of terrorists and come face to face with one of the greatest villains in human history.

Despite being known for his scientific achievements, Edison displayed a significant interest in esoteric spirituality, particularly the idea of communicating with the dead, and publicly stated his desire to create a device he called a “spirit phone” that could capture the voices of deceased individuals, which he believed was possible through scientific means. This fascination stemmed from his unique belief system that life consisted of “life units” that could persist after death and potentially be detected through technology. 

“What has always interested me about Edison is that, although he was fascinated by the concept of communicating with the dead, in addition to being a fantasist, he was a pragmatist,” explains Church. “He believed that such communication could be achieved through technological innovation, such as the manipulation of sound wave frequencies, rather than traditional spiritual practices.”As for Church’s own equation for a potent mixture of fantasy and reality?

“My love of history, adventure and a sense of ‘what if’ propels my creativity,” he happily admits. “Many of my readers write me to say that my books ‘read like a movie’ – and I’d certainly love to see them translated onto the screen. For me, the pace and energy of a genre mash-up is cinematic. I’m simply painting an adventure film in words.”

And next?

“Everyone loves a trilogy,” laughs Church, noting that the triangle and pyramid are classically strong geometric forms. “After this, I’m not sure which historical character I might re-discover and thrust into an adventure. But since my Edison books have opened the door to the afterlife, the field is wide open.”For more information about the Edison Trilogy, visit www.edisontrilogy.com and to preorder The Magi Solution, go to https://www.amazon.com/Thomas-Edison-Solution-David-Church-ebook/dp/B0DPRDZL4G 

DES KIRKPATRICK:   1932-2024

By Bill Miller

“His shell is just a shell. His spirit is free to travel again (and what he loved most)” from Angson Sim

How very fortunate:  I knew Des Kirkpatrick for almost 40 years.   He became a dear & cherished friend – and altogether was a most remarkable man.  I’ve known many world travelers, for example, but very few as well traveled as Des – he’d been from Bombay to Bhutan, and from Angola to Antarctica.   He also rode the great liners and tiny Arctic expedition ships, flew just about everywhere, rode trains & mountain jeeps (and, yes, camels too), and even made 2 trips on the supersonic Concorde.   It was an extraordinary life, all beginning from a small, Depression-era village outside Manchester in the north of England.   

But his grand journey came unexpectedly to an end on December 17^th.   Des passed away following a fall and an illness.    He will be deeply missed – and altogether is irreplaceable.  

(PS:   And, by the way and just in case you might need to know,  was there possibly any place still on Des’s bucket list?   Well, yes – the ancient ruins at Lalibela in Ethiopia;  the monasteries at Mount Athos in Greece;  the lost city of Petra in Jordan;  and the Copper Canyon in Mexico.   Well, perhaps his next lifetime!)

In kindness, Des himself tells part of his story in his Foreword for my latest book Serving on the Big Ships, published by Fonthill Media over in the UK.  And so and among other ways, he & his words & his life’s story will live on.

For me, life at sea, working on ships, has been wonderful.  Growing-up outside Manchester and surviving the dark, austere days of World War II, my very first time outside the UK was over seventy years ago,  back in 1950.   I was eighteen, in the British Army and stationed in Austria.   That posting ignited my interest in travel, to see the world, visit new places.

Before the Army, I had worked for the Manchester Ship Canal in their head offices.  When I returned, I was re-hired, but to the harbormaster’s office in the Salford Docks.   I would see all the ships, coming and going, and wondered where they had been and where they were headed.   At lunchtime, I wandered along the docks, saw the ships at berth and even visited some of them.  My curiosity about ships and travel was peaked further.

Later, I wrote to several shipping lines and Royal Mail Lines was the first to reply.  I was summoned to London, interviewed and soon hired.  I became the ship’s clerk (and later promoted to assistant purser and then full purser).  My first ship was an elderly freighter, the Gascony, which then was the second oldest in the Royal Mail fleet and managed to survive the War.   I had a little cabin just aft of the funnel.  I earned 3 or 4 pounds a week ($25-30).   The Gascony was very, very slow and made only about 10 knots at best.   She just crept, it seemed.   On one voyage I recall it took us three weeks to go from Kingston, Jamaica to London.   We carried sugar and lots of rum.

I later served on Royal Mail’s luxurious flagship Andes and then joined the Furness-Bermuda Line and served on their Ocean Monarch.  My interest in travel continued and grew steadily – and ships were the “vessels” to travel, to see the world.  And life at sea is interesting and rewarding in itself and, especially on passenger ships, where you could meet all sorts of people.   

I have been very fortunate to have had a life of travel, much of it in ships.  I am therefore happy to write this Foreword to Bill Miller’s latest book of recollections of staff and crew of so many ships.

Des Kirkpatrick

New York City

Spring 2022

Former shipmate Dave Townsend from up in Canada wrote:

It was 61 years ago this month (December) that I first met Des, when I joined Furness-Bermuda liner Ocean Monarch in New York after my first jet flight.  My BOAC 707 was hours late out of Manchester and I found the ship almost deserted, but the officer of the watch kindly led me up to what turned out to be Des’s empty cabin to wait for my new “family” to return from their evening ashore.  The glass door of his liquor cabinet framed an aerial photograph of his almost eponymous Royal Mail cargo ship Deseado.

Less than three weeks later, we assistant pursers gathered in that same cabin, somewhere at sea, and toasted the New Year with what Des had magnificently mixed in a large silver bowl borrowed from the galley: the first and finest egg nog I ever tasted.

So this time of year always reminds me of Des.  As usual, I’ll have to make do with the store-bought kind, but I’ll be toasting his memory with it this year.

After time on the New York-Bermuda cruise circuit (1966), Des went on to plan extensive tours & shore excursions for the mighty American Express Company in their Lower Manhattan headquarters, then did the same but uptown for the impeccable Swedish American Line and finally  dabbled in exotic adventures & tours for select Lindblad Travel (including countless jaunts to Antarctica, stays in Indian palaces, a ride on the Trans-Siberian Express and even a lengthy stint in a guest house in the still-restricted Forbidden City in Beijing).  He also hosted Lady Bird Johnson on a Nile River cruise, looked after Mr & Mrs Howard Johnson on a 125-night circumnavigation of the globe and charmed more than a few bejeweled dowagers.  He rode in the cockpit of a small plane over soaring, roaring South American waterfalls, helped a navigating office to, well, navigate, off Venezuela and assisted the captain while getting the liner Kungsholm off a sandbar in the Caribbean.  Yes, all in a day’s work – and Des had his many adventures! 

But Des’s story doesn’t stop with travel and ships & the sea.   He was also a remarkable, most learned and all but madly enthusiastic collector – mostly of very vintage, usually 17^th & 18^th century English porcelain   And let’s throw in some select Chinese & Japanese pieces as well. And while collecting, thousands of pieces in all, he also amassed a vast knowledge of the same subject.  Just days ago, he spouted off the lineage of some ornate English bowl, a gold-trimmed butter dish and a well crafted little jam pot.  He also learned to spot, say, a 17^th century Worcester teapot at a 1,000 feet – say in some Manhattan antique shop, Connecticut country flea  market or even a roadside garage sale.  His apartment, in Lower Manhattan’s East Village, was absolutely museum standard.   Cups and saucers and plates were mounted, in glass-shielded display cabinets, like soldiers at rigid attention.   But there was more – no, much more – crystal, glassware, paintings, unique “souvenirs & keepsakes & little treasures” from the likes of Afghanistan, Ghana, Uzbekistan, Pakistan, Upper as well as Lower Mongolia, and add some pinhead island in the South Pacific.   And then there were shelves & cabinets of other diverse collectibles and of course books, 1000s of books.   Saturday & Sunday afternoons in Manhattan were happy times for “Des the Collector”. His eyes & senses & intuitions were very keen.    Other items made their way home from journeys, from the likes of Hong Kong, Sydney, London and Tokyo in carefully packed cases, aircraft overheads and under the beds in the staterooms of ships.   Yes, Des also became a master at packing, safe & secure packing, at that.    

From down in Bermuda, another Furness-Bermuda Line shipmate Allan Davidson wrote:

We shared our sea-going days without realizing that they were not repeatable. When Judi and I got married, Des took a voyage off, in Bermuda and he was the only Furness representative present! He also came to our 50th Anniversary!

After I went into the retail trade, I was the Smith’s [dept store] China Buyer and discovered that both Des and I shared a great appreciation for the artistry and beauty of the product. He certainly had some very interesting pieces in his collection!

From Shropshire over in England, Howard Franklin wrote:

I remember when he was staying with me here in Shropshire, I took him to the Coalport Museum. Coalport is a small village in the Ironbridge Gorge, and originates in Shropshire. He was like a child in a sweet shop! And so very knowledgeable on the exquisite pieces we were viewing, I can vividly picture his excitement at seeing such spectacular exhibits.

Des emigrated to the USA (to join a ship and for a future career in shipping) in the late ‘50s on the grand old Queen Mary and went on to sail the seas on dozens of great ocean liners:   the United States, France, Michelangelo, Bergensfjord, Rotterdam, Kungsholm, Argentina, QE2 and Queen Mary 2.   Years later, we took dozens of trips together as well – Australia, Siberia, South Africa, the Amazon, New Zealand, Alaska, the Norwegian fjords.  As recently as this last month, he was thinking of yet another jaunt (next spring was the plan and “his final trip!”) over to his beloved Japan and maybe squeeze in a cruise to another favorite spot, Bermuda.  

Des had many other useful skills & interests.   He all but memorized the immense bus & subway system of New York City (it seemed he could get anywhere & all on a senior ticket), followed the City’s exhibition circuit (from themes such as Sudanese vases to antique Italian jewelry) and, in his otherwise small kitchen,  whipped-up  some of the very best deviled eggs this side of Cleveland.   He was also always a fine, caring host – drinks & what he called “nibbles”.   He also had some favorite neckties, always had his little camera in hand and was rarely seen without his blue Lindblad carry-on bag.  He also much enjoyed documentaries on nature, classic old films, steam locomotives, the morning news and, rather expectedly, was totally loyal to weekly episodes of Antiques Road Show.

One of my great, good fortunes in life was to know Des.   He was kind, interesting, funny, so very knowledgeable & on so many subjects – and so much more.  Expectedly, I have a million memories & images of him.   But one that springs readily & happily to mind was a suddenly showery afternoon in Southampton, England.   We were walking to our hotel when the clouds opened.   Quickly, we fled to a shop & bought folding umbrellas, if merely inexpensive ones.   En route and while crossing a large park, gusts of wind formed and which soon ripped the black fabric from Des’s umbrella.   There he was standing in the pouring rain and suddenly holding upright nothing more than 5 or 6 empty umbrella spokes.  We just laughed and laughed!  

The ever-beautiful Margo Singaliese penned an added tribute:  I am so sorry for your loss of dear Des. Whenever we were in the same company, he had that rare gift of true interest in the other person. Never self-possessed, he always made me feel deliciously seen. Such a generous man!  A bright light has gone out, but I’m sure you’re thankful for the many years of your friendship. I’m happy Michael is your angel.  I am always here for you for a chat, a visit, a hug. Ahhhh, dear sweet Desmond, his spirit lives in you.

From over in northern England, Des’s niece Fiona sent this comforting selection:

Des has one sister in England, but herself struggling with dementia … the photo (above), from 2008 & seen in Alaska, is the one that she keeps by her bedside

And Below:    Des & younger sister Jean in a long ago snapshot (early 1940s) & holding a wartime soldier’s guns

Conclusion:   And from down in Florida, Sir Allan Duddle added: “I am so very sad. Memories, memories, memories!   Des was a most wonderful and special person to me in all my cherished years at sea … a dear buddy … sharing our cocktails each evening before facing the passengers. We laughed, we joked, we enjoyed each day. Now I have just the memories!”