Inspired by a true character born in 1892 to the son of former slaves, Norvell Jamison grows up in the violent and racially impoverished south under the harsh Jim Crow laws after witnessing a young boy get brutally beaten to death by the Klan. Norvell is traumatized for life. Norvell grows up to be a quick tempered 6-foot 7 inch, 350lbs ultra-violent world wind of destruction whose blood thirsty path leads him to fighting in WWI.
Welcome to this edition of Newsgram!
Today you’re going to meet a man named David Goodman. David is a natural born storyteller. He is fascinated by history, he studies martial arts, and he is also a construction worker. He is a certified Crane Operator who also writes fiction novels.
Crane operation is a demanding job. It requires constant awareness under all kinds of different working conditions and as you can probably imagine falling asleep on the job can be very dangerous.
David Goodman – I had a buddy of mine, he fell asleep. He was on his crane and I guess they caught themself playing a joke on him and what they did was they got some string and a cardboard and put it across him. He was leaning against his crane asleep and so when he woke up he saw on that cardboard around his neck, ‘You Fired!”
You don’t want to fall asleep. But what do you do when you have a large block of downtime and your sleep deprived. David put his talents to work during the downtime telling stories.
David Goodman – A Buddy of mine named Colton Carl said, what are you are writing and I said here, read this. So he read it and gave it to Joseph Miles and he read it and said you need to go on and finish writing it. So those two guys inspired me to finish writing this book.
The book is called The Adventures of Norvell Jamison and I’m telling right now, Norvell is not a good guy. He’s an anti-hero because despite his deeds I think you’re gonna like him. He’s a real life example of what can happen when you push a person too far.
David Goodman – Norvell—he was born the son and daughter of sharecroppers. Norvell always stood out from the other kids because he was always getting into trouble and he had a really bad temper. But the thing that really put him over the edge was when he saw his best friend get killed. That traumatized him. At the time Norvell was eight years old so when he saw his best friend get killed that pushed him over the edge and he became a whole totally different person from that day forth. Over time his temper grew as much as his size.
Yep Norvell saw his best friend beaten to death by Klansmen. That left a mark on a boy that grew up to be a very big, bad dude. Something else I found interesting about him was, he was based on a real guy.
David Goodman (Big Guy) The guy that I based my book on , he was a big old guy. He was 6’7” ‘bout 300 pounds. This guy was a hell on wheels man. He was hell on wheels.
So Norvell is a fictional character based on a real guy and he was a bit of a bad seed from the very beginning but seeing his best friend get killed — that flipped a switch that unleashed a monster.
David Goodman (Bad Guy) He was a bad guy. He terrorized the whole community. The only thing that saved the community was he went off to war. When he went off to war everybody started celebrating.
A reading (Norvell Goes to War)
“The year was 1917, and the world was at war. Every country around the world was involved in the global conflict. The United States was a latecomer to the fray, but it would have a major impact on the outcome of the war. The American doughboys, as they were called, came from all over the country to make the world safe for democracy. One particular person-Norvell Jamison-
had his own reason for going to war. Norvell had an appetite for violence and a lust for blood.
Abraham, Norvell’s father, asked him, “Skippy, you sure this is what you wanna do? I need you here, helping me tend the farm. Plus, you’re my only son.”
“Daddy, I got to do this for our country. I’m a man now. I’ll be back. I can handle myself. Besides, Mama said that if I don’t leave, I’m going to end up dead or in prison ’cause of my temper. Maybe the army will give me some discipline.”
“Good luck, son. I know you’ re not a big religious person, but try to keep the Lord close to your heart.”
Norvell’s mother, Anna, and two of his sisters came out. Anna said, “Mama loves you, baby. Come back to us, and don’t get in any trouble-“
Abraham cut her off mid-sentence. “Anna, leave the boy be. He’s a full- grown man. He can handle himself.”
David Goodman – World war One. World war One. changed everything. I’ve always been fascinated with history and this is right after the civil war and you know, all the slaves have been freed. You had the Jim Crow laws and everything that’s gong on that the African American people had to endure and so Norvell gets traumatized with all this and stuff and the war is really what saved Norvell’s life cause, just like, he had done so much dirt and terrorized everybody and his mom and everybody was afraid that if he don’t leave something’s going to end up happening to him. So that’s why I picked WW1 and that date.
After the war, Norvell travels the world seeking adventure. He winds up in the Belgian Congo.
David Goodman …but now it’s called Zaire.
Right, back then it was the Belgian Congo and it’s there that he encounters the natives who take Norvell on a bloody path of destruction that sadly I can’t tell you all about because that would ruin everything…
David Goodman – Well one of the main messages that I’m trying get a lot of people to understand is you can see what can happen to a child when they get traumatized. When you traumatize a child you mess with their mind and there’s no telling what kind of effect it will have on them and us as parents supposed to protect our kids from those things.
There is plenty of compelling evidence to indicate that childhood trauma can reshape a developing brain. It can have a profound impact on the neurological development of children. One of many reasons why it’s important to look out for kids, especially those in difficult communities or dealing with trying circumstances. But, since Norvell is a work of fiction, I would like to see him released in a band of Nazi’s. Who knows, maybe he will be. David has plans to write six different Norvell adventures.
David Goodman – The book that I have now that’s under construction is Norvell Jameson Volume two the Ordinance of the Monster. It’s basically going to say what happened to him from the time he was born right before he went off to war. it’s going to chronicle his life in between there and if you thought this first book was exciting wait till you pour this one. It’s up under construction right now even as we speak.
So in the first two books we get to know Norvell and understand him and then we’ll see where life takes him. The good news is Norvell is out there and you can decide, is he just a bad guy or a bad guy with some redeeming qualities? Check out the first installment, The Adventures of NorvellJamison it’s available right now at Amazon, Barnes and Noble and all the places you like to go for books. We put links in the show’s description for you. And that will do it for this edition of Newsgram from Webtalkradio.com.
David Goodman was recently interviewed on the books on air podcast with Suzanne Harris. Take a Listen.