Backstory

“Only Moments” was originally written within the cyclical theme of Birth, Death, and Rebirth over ten years ago.  I focused on the unforgiving world, the false hope of technology and religion, incorporating one’s own search and questioning of the spiritual aspects that provide some measure of meaning, and then tying it into the romance of  total devotion of man and wife.  Some might call it a fairy tale romance, but there are many “high school” relationships that have survived the test of time, however difficult.  These two characters are both heavily flawed but those flaws are what binds and drives them with their deep passion for music. 

The road, throughout the novel is representative of one’s life path and sense of curiosity and discovery.  I spent years coming close to the publication of this book and eventually put it on hold for years until I was motivated to attempt it once more.    

As time went by, I realized that I had to include the events of the World Trade Towers but needed to wait until it wouldn’t seem as if I was using those events just to capitalize on public sentiment.  As it turns out, the waiting was for the better.  The characters lived in New York City at this time and it gave me a chance to expand upon the themes echoed throughout the book as well as break a few rules and show a glimpse of the secondary character in her own words.  I’m sure I will receive much criticism for the breach, but I don’t care, as rules are made to be broken occasionally.  Considering those who do the criticizing most of the time, those critics usually have nothing to show and have taken no chances in the fields that they critique.   

This book contains many real events and is semi-autobiographical.  The writing began with the Big Sur and California coastal highway trip at age 16.  This juvenile escapade radically changed and redeveloped my core perspectives of life.  The turning point of the book that alters time is the “rebroadcast” of the very first 1971 “The Midnite Special” television program that I indeed did attend as a part of the studio audience, blue fringe jacket and all.  That took place on my second trip in the summer of 1971 with a good friend, Tom and a brand new Chevy Vega that blew up four times in Wakeeney, Kansas.  I placed it in 1970 to create the alteration of time from the beach deck in Florida to the beachfront in California.  There are other slight changes to accommodate a deceased artist (Janis Joplin) that I wanted to use in the finale.  A previously written section described the huge outdoor concert called the Atlantic City Pop Festival that precluded Woodstock.  I attended this in 1969, but edited that section out to streamline the reading and keep the essential plot moving.  The performance from this concert I morphed into fiction as the broadcast videotape to be able to still use it later on in the “passing over” sequence. 

I actually did see the rebroadcast late one night in the 1980’s but VCR’s were just coming on the market, I did not have one at the time the old program came on in the middle of night, so I’ve not seen it since. 

Also, as a note, the Ahwahneeche Circle of Time logo was fabricated based on the original Indian symbol that the Curry Company who runs the concessions in Yosemite National Park refused to allow me to duplicate, even though the symbol was created by the Ahwahannee Native Americans not them.  Perhaps if this book becomes popular and there is another run, they will change their mind and let me illustrate the original symbol.  I would be happy if that occurred.

In July of 2003, I left my job at the Tropicana Hotel in Las Vegas to take care of a medical problem that numbed both of my legs and left no feeling in my feet.  I tried a system called Vax-D that pulled the vertebrae to allow the discs to rehydrate. The therapy seemed to help some and my feeling began to return to my legs.

One day in September, as I was driving to a friend’s home, a 16 year-old with no license ran a stop sign at about 35 mph and plowed into me.  I was traveling about 40 mph, and when I saw him, I stepped on the gas and tried hard to avoid him, but he plowed into my passenger side in the rear.  The seat belt didn’t engage and my body slammed against the door causing more damage to my neck and back.

The agony was almost too much to bear.  I contemplated suicide as I didn’t sleep due to the pain for over 3 weeks despite the strongest painkillers.  My right arm was numb and had no feeling in it at all, and that condition remained without getting better.

I continued daily therapy at the Pain Management Center and months later the pain became bearable but still constant.  I began RF (Radio Frequency) Therapy that involved long needles inserted in my back near the areas thought to be causing my problem along with cortisone shots.  This continued until the end of September of 2004.

The first Saturday in October, I woke up and couldn’t move my left leg at all.  I had a fever over 102 and had my wife, Joan take me to the Emergency Room.  It was there that I was diagnosed with a spinal infection, probably caused by cortisone injections.  Dr. Derrick Duke -the man who saved Roy Horn’s life after Montecore, the tiger that had just about severed Mr. Horn’s head from his body accidentally at the Siegfried and Roy Show at the Mirage -was called in and he explained the severity of my situation.  Far from routine, I would be fighting for my life.
I underwent a 5-hour emergency operation that and afterwards had Vancomycin intravenously pumped into my arm directly to my heart for the next eight weeks to fight off the spinal infection.

On the second day after the operation, while in critical condition, about 2 AM in the morning, still hooked up to the heart monitors in ICU, my heart stopped for 12 seconds.  I experienced an out-of-body phenomena that catapulted me into another world.  This happened twice while I was there.  My experience was very similar to the fiction I had written in this book many years ago.  Much like the character Chris, I came back with a different understanding and as I fought to come back to the living, the transition left me with a totally changed perspective.  It was my life imitating my own art.  I spent the next five weeks wired-up in the hospital.

In January of 2005, Dr. Duke operated on my neck and screwed a titanium butterfly on my cervical spine and I got the use of my right arm back. 

In short, I recovered, although my left leg is still disabled from nerve damage that is more than likely permanent, I moved on with a new determination to get this book published among other things.   This non-fictional subject matter will be the basis for my next book, to share the incredible things I’ve been through with my near death experience and how it showed me that the things I believed in, the core of my beliefs, were really right in line with what I went through.  This reinforcement of my life’s search renewed the vigor of discovery within me and regardless of the medical problems that I face daily, I live life knowing what is to come and unafraid of death.

There are many people to thank for their help in this book, but without the skills of Dr. Derek Duke I wouldn’t be here to see it published.  I remain in his debt for my life and that acknowledgement is the most important to me.

“To receive the grace of God. One’s hands must be opened upwards.”
-St. Augustine

“May the four winds blow you safely home.”
-The Grateful Dead

Nick Oliva
2007