Hidden Impact

by Charles B. Neff
Fiction
299 pages
ISBN #1-59457-942-3

"Hidden Impact, a debut novel by Charles B. Neff, hits its mark with exceptional writing, a riveting story, and fascinating characters."
-- Dana E. Blozis, writer, editor, and book reviewer

Set primarily in Nicaragua, author Charles Neff tells the tale of a middle-aged Jim Nordberg who is looking for meaningful work to energize his solitary existence. Nordberg returns to the setting where he first became a Peace Corps volunteer in the early 1970s, hoping to help rebuild Nicaragua while infusing himself with much needed life. Shortly after his arrival, Nordberg's past returns to him in waves as business associates, friends, and enemies reappear in his life one by one.

Nordberg quickly finds himself entrenched in the search for a missing document containing sensitive information about those who supported the Contras in the 1980s. To find and protect the document, Nordberg faces difficult decisions and is thrust into the face of danger at every turn. Nordberg, suspicious of the novel's other characters, finds himself drawn to a woman from his past, Luci Fuentes, who was a young teenager when they first met. Fuentes joins Nordberg in the adventure, trying to save her family and a struggling Nicaragua in the process.

Hidden Impact is a well written book full of politics, history, and adventure, with a slice of romance thrown in for good measure. Neff artfully presents each of his characters, slowly unfolding the subtleties of each one while drawing them into the action. As the novel's main character, Nordberg is the unlikely hero whose past failures undermine his confidence. Despite his flaws, Nordberg is a good guy at heart and easy to relate to.

In Hidden Impact, readers will find an extraordinary first novel that is well written, easy to read, and hard to put down. Neff's storytelling skills will quickly enrapture even the most stubborn of readers, drawing them quickly and completely into the adventure ahead.

For information about this book or the author, visit his website at www.booksbyneff.com.

Exclusive commentary by Author Charles Neff - only available to Virtually Yourz

"There’s a popular warning. Be careful what you wish for, because your wishes might come true. In my secret heart—secret even from me—I must have had a yearning to become a writer.  After all, I’d seen my mother sit in front of her old portable, every day without fail.  To my brothers and me, our wives and children, and now her great-grandchildren, she left two books of non-fiction, six novels for pre-teens, and what was in its time the most-used second-grade reader in America.  So I had a model.

I myself had also accumulated countless hours of writing reports and grant proposals, before I edited a book on cross-cultural learning and then co-authored a book on searching for college presidents.  But fiction and poetry?  Did I have that gift?  First, I needed time to find out; and that came with retirement.  Could I come up with an idea to start me writing?  Curiously, one had been with me for more than a decade, a fragment of a conversation with a former US diplomat: what if someone had taken notes of secret meetings that were held to plan Iran-Contra—a scandal that involved sending arms to Nicaragua and resulted in Congressional hearings?  That affair was still a largely-unknown piece of our recent history.  What might have happened?

One day, I suddenly knew the identity of the main character, Jim Nordberg.  I found a location (that was easy): Nicaragua.  I started to write.  Other characters joined Jim.  In four months, I was finished.  Or so I thought.  In fact, I had just begun.  Rewrite followed rewrite.  I dropped a quarter of the text—too explanatory, too stilted, or too unnecessary.  I found that the whole story worked better if told from the first-person point of view.

Hidden Impact has been published, about three years after I started writing.  By the time it appeared, I was well into a second book.  Now it’s a natural thing for me to write every day. Did I need that warning about wishes?  No, I think not, though not a day passes that I don’t neglect something because of the urge to write.  What is creative change if not a flirtation with (some) danger?  Luckily, there’s also the chance to discover exhilaration in something unexpectedly fulfilling; and I found plenty of that in writing Hidden Impact."

-- Charlie Neff for Virtually Yourz

To buy Hidden Impact, click on the Village Books link below.