The Kite and the Coin Toss
The Kite and the Coin Toss
“Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Fill’d with death, ya pens’ll hang ya."
The Kite and the Coin Toss
The Kite and the Coin Toss
“Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Fill’d with death, ya pens’ll hang ya."
Heads will roll, or tales of freedom.
Heads will roll...or tales of freedom
…the American rEvolution
How much are you willing
to pay for freedom?
Heads will roll...or tales of freedom
…the American rEvolution
How much are you willing
to pay for freedom?
The Kite and the Coin Toss is an Alternative History about Joshua Franks, a young scientist who does not have the luxury of taking freedom for granted; he has never been free. His brightest light is a royally funded project to tap into lightning as an alternative energy source and may finally provide electricity to those not directly in service for the crown; those in the villages like Cloister where his parents live. But fate and lightning have so much more in store for this young and unknowing rEvolutionist.
“The weight of the crown
Bearing down on me
In darkness I’ll drown
Got to fight to be free
A thread from the heavens
Only light I can see
Struck me by fate
And lightning is key”
The Kite and the Coin Toss
a story about the value and the cost of freedom
In an event now famously coined The Signers' Day of Reckoning, Benjamin Franklin swings from his noose. His son William watches on until his feet stop swaying. Benjamin and fellow rebellion leaders meet their ends en masse on July 2, 1782, the sixth anniversary of the ratification of their treasonous declaration.
Two hundred and thirty-nine years later, in the year 2021, Joshua Franks works as a scientist in a royally sanctioned lightning lab. The lab’s goal is to use lightning as an alternative energy source. He aspires to illuminate villages like Cloister where his parents live. These villages stand in destitute and dark contrast to the royal cities they surround and support. In a world where efforts that do not benefit the king do not get sanctioned, the rare opportunity to light these villages provides Joshua his first to let his skills shine a positive light.
Joshua lives within the province of Burgoyne, in the royal city of George’s Cross; formerly known as Philadelphia within the colony of Pennsylvania, though that had been over two centuries and a revolution ago.
While attending a college history course, Joshua learns in greater detail what the government allows to be taught surrounding the treasonous revolt that occurred so long ago. Any details gained merely support the biased and filtered stories of events he and all subjects of the crown had been forced to swallow all their lives. As if everyday life's reminders are not enough, the annual and royally celebrated holiday, The Signers' Day of Reckoning, serves as an official reminder to all royal subjects about what happens when you commit an act of treason against the crown.
On Joshua’s 21st birthday his parents pass on their most secret and prized possessions, Benjamin Franklin’s journals. Joshua learns he is a descendent of Mr. Franklin. In one journal, he reads a completely different telling of the causes and events that occurred during the revolution, up to and including Signers' Day. Among other truths, he learns his newfound forefather once sailed a kite in a lightning storm.
Revolutionary revelation strikes.
More than two centuries stand between Joshua Franks and Benjamin Franklin. Joshua may be the only person since with an opportunity to complete the task his forefather and fellow revolutionaries started so long ago.
Digital cover concept for the novel.
The enigmatic message witnessed by billions of eyes around the empire...
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania… …Fill’d with death, ya Pens’ll hang ya
…the story heard ‘round the world and started the American rEvolution
“Heads will roll...or tales of freedom.”
Hung, Drawn and Quartered...
...or life to a different drum.
(Click to play video)
From the novel, The Kite and the Coin Toss, "Philadelphia, Pennsylvania...Fill'd With death'ya pens'll hang ya" - King's Guard Jonathan Elder ronswan.com pass it on...
An Excerpt from The Kite and the Coin Toss
General George Washington, the Hung, Drawn and Quartered version...
to his fellow revolutionaries and soldiery, collectively known as 'The Signers,' as they sit in jail cells awaiting their fates...
“I think on all we have accomplished, and all we have not. I know in all my efforts, I have done everything an ordinary man can do. I know this, as it is woven throughout the very fabric of my soul. There is no mirror I could stand before, mine eyes unto my reflection’s, without honour in facing that ordinary truth.”
Staring into the eyes of the men as he spoke, the General could see there was not a man among them in doubt.
“In my efforts I have attained the heights of all that could be ordinarily expected. All the same where I have failed myself, most importantly where I have failed all I have served, is in the lack of extraordinary. I now realize that I have failed in finding and capitalizing on opportunities that did not knock. These opportunities were there just the same. It is against extraordinary odds one must take extraordinary measures. It took the light of our darkest hour to shine on this revelation. I know what I must do now and it is likely all that remains I can do in redemption for all I have not.
An ordinary man such as I, would normally and naturally relent to this so-called monarch, allowing him, through servants’ hands, to push me from the gallows. An extraordinary man would jump, for in this fated equation no other result could be so extraordinary as the final act of a free man.”
In that moment, General Washington had erased all fears and replaced them with purpose; for an extraordinary man, even in his darkest hour, will find the light to shine.
(Click to play video)
“Heads will roll, or tales of freedom.”
“Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Fill’d with death, ya pens’ll hang ya.”
Completed manuscript for The Kite and the Coin Toss
Catching Lightning With My Hands
I now know
What I must do
It won’t be easy
That’s nothing new
Like counting tyrannized
Grains of sands
Or catching lightning
With my hands
He owns the cards
Recognizes the faces
Deals heavy hands
Keeps us in our places
But now it is he
Who has forced my hand
So count him out
As you count the sand
For his sands of time
They are quicksand
And as each grain counts
For each grain you see
As oppression’s pressure mounts
Pushes back to be free
So as he is pulled
Down by the sands
They lift me up
To bid my plans
To catch the lightning with my hands
To catch the lightning with my hands
And though the catalyst
Now me
He brought it on
And soon will see
As King
He brought his own demise
The Suicide King
Seen through mine eyes
A king who will not live to see
The coronation of the free
The price is life
The price I pay
To let freedom see
The light of day
For lightning spares
Not king
Nor sands
Who try to catch it
In their hands
But I will gladly pay the price
And make my final sacrifice
For freedom, it is never free
But by paying the price
I will finally be
It is not for credit, nor for me
And none of the living
Those soon living free
Will have witnessed the sacrifice
Made by me
Catching lightning with my hands
They will be too busy being free
Counting their blessings
And their sands
They will be too busy
To think of me
Catching lightning with my hands
The Coin Toss
“Philadelphia, Pennsylvania,
Fill'd with death, ya pens'll hang ya.”
In the words of a King’s guard
To the wards of the King’s Guard
“Where you belong,
Jailed in small quarters,
Soon to be hung,
Soon drawn and quartered.”
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania,
Fill'd with death, ya pens'll hang ya
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania,
Fill'd with death, ya pens'll hang ya
Of events unfolding, happenstance
They flipped the coin
The coin of chance
Heads or Tales
Called in the air, we’ll see
Heads… will roll
Tales… of freedom
There’ll be no best of three
Either side up, they’ll end up free
Either side up, they’ll end up free
“Philadelphia, Pennsylvania,
Fill'd with death, ya pens'll hang ya.”
“Philadelphia, Pennsylvania,
Fill'd with death, ya pens'll hang ya.”
Heads… will roll
Via death warrants signed
Warranting freedom for eternity
Tales… of freedom
By declaration signifying
Freedom from tyranny, victory
Though they signed it only once
It has two sides, just like their coins
Be it death warrants, they signed their own
Be it declaration, for posterity known
Which one will it be
Flip the coin and we shall see
Which will be our history
“Philadelphia, Pennsylvania,
Fill'd with death, ya pens'll hang ya.”
In the words of a King’s guard
To the wards of the King’s Guard
“Where you belong,
Jailed in small quarters,
Soon to be hung,
Soon drawn and quartered.”
Jonathan Elder
Redcoat soldier
Otherwise merely
A bitter old codger
And so it was, but just the same
What gave this pawn, this man a name
And ultimately everlasting fame
Was what he said to those he caged
Was what became the historic catchphrase
When upon the prisoners, he fired a gaze
Unto their treasonous eyes, tired and glazed
He stared directly, he stared and said
“Philadelphia, Pennsylvania,
Fill'd with death, ya pens'll hang ya!”
And from then on
That’s how it’s known
For warranting death
By death warrants shown
Signed by the men
Who signed their own
Signed by the men
Who signed their own
The coin toss...the signers of the Declaration of Independence knew when they signed how they were either signing for their freedom or signing their own death warrants.
“The coin toss that started the American rEvolution.”
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania...
Fill'd with death,
ya pens'll hang ya!
King's Guard Jonathan Elders
Founding Dads
on
The Kite and the Coin Toss...
Overall it went well.
Thomas Jefferson was a little concerned
as he believed the jail cell scene
made his butt sound big.
Bookends of time.
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