Dream Wrecks

Mitch Alexander, a gifted artist battered emotionally by the horrors of war, claws his way back toward normalcy through the healing power of art. Then he vanishes while painting on the Malibu cliffs-into captivity deep in Mexico. A chance for forbidden love appears and he goes for it regardless of the risk. Armed with an amazing talent and a marine's survival instinct, he faces a savage drug cartel and a rogue government intelligence operation. Dream Wrecks gives the reader a view into Mitch's psyche at the moments of artistic creation that keep him alive-and it jolts the reader with the brutal realities of a high tech drug war with Mitch in the cross hairs. The crackling action rips through central Mexico from lovely San Miguel de Allende to the exotically dangerous Sierra Gorda. Dream Wrecks is a mesmerizing roller coaster of plot twists hurtling to an extraordinary surprise ending.
About the Author: Dick Heimbold hails from Island Heights New Jersey. From there he became: engineer, artist, writer and happily married man. St. Joseph's School, Toms River High School and two years at Newark College of Engineering, from which his grandfather was an early (1897) graduate, finished off his NJ education years-at least the book-learning part of it. After getting his working papers at fourteen he worked most summers on the boardwalk at Seaside Heights, NJ spinning a gambling wheel. One summer he drove a beer truck in New York City and delivered beer from Wall St. to Yonkers. Inspired by Jack Kerouac's On the Road, he dropped out of college and became a dock builder in Point Pleasant NJ. Building harbor works through one New Jersey winter was enough to convince him that he needed an indoor job. In Milwaukee for three years he finished his degree in mechanical engineering at Marquette University. He hitchhiked to San Diego and worked on the Atlas Intercontinental Ballistic Missile program at various locations around the country. Working in Topeka on a missile base he met and married Ursula Hügelmeyer. His varied engineering career culminated as Director of Process Engineering of the Space Shuttle program in Florida. His consultant career continued on for another fifteen years. Oil painting was always a passion of Heimbold's. He started in his teens at the atelier of Geza de Vegh in Tinton Falls, NJ. He studied art at Leyton School of Art at the same time he was earning his engineering degree. In the eighties he studied two years at nights under famous Los Angeles colorist Sergei Bongart. This experience forged the dynamic colors of Heimbold's works that can be seen at www.dickheimbold.com. Writing was another creative passion for Heimbold. In his professional life he wrote and published technical papers and articles. He wrote speeches and prepared proposals on a wide range of subjects. In the last decade his writing evolved to freer forms such as personal journaling and poetry. His debut novel, Dream Wrecks, draws from his life experiences in disparate areas ranging from command and control system engineering to painting and exhibiting art in Mexico. Heimbold belongs to the Alameda Writers Group and he is President of the Glendale Art Association. He and his wife Ursula live in Glendale CA.