John Staples says he first became interested in Buddhism when he read Ogden Nash’s lines: “In the winter I’m a Buddhist/In the summer I’m a nudist.” That interest became a passion after he completed a seminar called The Forum and experienced flashes of awareness similar to those reported by Zen Buddhists. The experience led him into the works of Lao Tzu, D.T. Suzuki, Taisen Deshimaru, Alan Watts, Thomas Merton and others. More importantly, he says the practice of living in the present moment attained through meditation, contemplation and simple observance of everyday life provided the foundation for a fundamental acceptance of the world “as it is, not as we imagine it should be.”

In Make Love, Drive Freeway, the author provides a glimpse into the realm of enlightenment that Zen Master Charlotte Joko Beck calls “nothing special.” Nothing, that is, unless one considers living one’s life in absolute joy as something of little consequence.

Charles Edward Edmunds, the primary character of Perfect Imperfection, prefers to be called by the acronym, ‘CEE’. It is simple and similar to the word ‘see,’ which to him is the sine qua non of all human knowledge. He believes science and education must be rooted in observation, which leads to understanding the world in both its objective and subjective manifestations. He believes information based in linguistic concepts tends to distort the average human’s view of reality, creating misunderstanding and chaos. Ironically, he also believes that nature’s direction is fundamentally chaotic and that “the varieties of imperfection in the universe constitute the perfection that God intended, for,” as he says, “that is what She got.”

Perfect Imperfection is the second of two novels based in the imaginary North Carolina town of Conners Hill, located in the state’s central Piedmont region. In it a core of opportunistic entrepreneurs seek to push through a bill in the state legislature legalizing privately owned gambling casinos. Because of the city’s central location, they want to build the first one in Conner’s Hill and to expand outward from there. They enlist the aid of a woman named Vivian Blaine to convince several skeptical town leaders that casino gambling would be good for the state and local economy. Blaine, a vivacious blonde known for her seemingly wanton sexual escapades, has her own strategic agenda. Her agenda changes when she is beaten and left for dead at Conners Hill Lake Park. The event also changes the lives of a number of Conners Hill residents, as well as that of a Mafia-connected “investment banker” from New York City.

Author John Staples began his writing career as a senior at Kernersville High School in Kernersville, N.C. After graduating from Duke University and three years in the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve, he worked as teacher, an automobile claims adjuster, and as a community newspaper reporter and editor for thirty years.

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