2012: Seeking Closure [Paperback]

Gregory Bernard Banks (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 28, 2009

It's December 21, 2012. The President of the United States has just gone on the air to inform the world that in three hours time, the world will end, and there is nothing he can do about it. And then he and all the world leaders walk away and leave the people to fend for themselves. What would you do? Based on a story by Tom Townsend, and soon to become a motion picture from Inner Glow Pictures, 2012: Seeking Closure is the story of a world gone mad in a time of chaos, of disaster and destruction and people desperate to seek closure while the society goes mad. To learn more about the upcoming film, visit: www.seekingclosurethemovie.com

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Gregory Bernard Banks began his pursuit of a writing career in 1997, after spending years studying his other creative love, graphic design. Over the years since he's served as moderator for the Zoetrope All-Story Writers Workshop, as a site administrator for Scrawl: The Writer's Asylum, and as webmaster for the WRITER and MARKET Literary Search Engine. He's currently co-Webmaster for the Speculative Literature Foundation, and A forum administrator at Lulu.com, and and is the owner of both BDDesign LLC and it's publishing imprint, WheelMan Press. Banks is also a contributor to Audacity Magazine (AudacityMagazine.com) with his column, "A Sedentary View", and continues pursuing his dream of landing a 7-figure book deal by the time he's 80. He's published five books prior to this one, Crossroads and Other Tales, Phoenix Tales: Stories of Death & Life, A Writer's Journey in Poetry & Prose, An Interview with Santa and Other Christmas Treats, and The Summoner. Banks lives in the rapidly growing city of Stockbridge, Georgia with his parents, his computer, and far too many books on his Amazon Kindle to count.

Product Details

• Paperback: 190 pages
• Publisher: WheelMan Press (April 28, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0982436106
• ISBN-13: 978-0982436103
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.5 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,879,442 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Gregory Bernard Banks began his pursuit of a writing career in 1997, after spending years studying his other creative love, graphic design. Over the years since he s served as moderator for the Zoetrope All-Story Writers Workshop, as a site administrator for Scrawl: The Writer's Asylum, and as webmaster for the WRITER and MARKET Literary Search Engine. He s currently co-Webmaster for the Speculative Literature Foundation, and Community Leader/Support Aide at Lulu.com, and and is the sole proprietor for BDDesign LLC, where he now helps others make their publishing dreams come true.

Banks is also a frequent contributor to Audacity Magazine with his column, "A Sedentary View", and continues pursuing his dream of landing a 7-figure book deal by the time he's 80. His list of publishing credits include The Rose & Thorn, Story House, StoneGarden.net, Creative Brother's Sci-Fi Magazine, The Writers Post Journal, AlienSkin Magazine, The Speculative Fiction Centre, Amazon Shorts, and Axxon Online. In addition to having stories finish in both the quarter-finals and semi-finals for the prestigious L. Ron Hubbard's Writers of the Future Contest, his story, Into the Every, title story for his latest book, finished in 6th place in the 2006 Preditors and Editors Readers Poll. He's published three books, Crossroads and Other Tales, the Foreword Magazine 2005 Book of the Year Finalist Phoenix Tales: Stories of Death & Life, and A Writer's Journey in Poetry & Prose." His fourth book, Into the Every: Tales of Magic and Science, is scheduled for an August 2008 release.

Banks lives in the rapidly growing city of Stockbridge, Georgia with his parents, his computer, and far too many books to count.

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Fiction credits:

Short Fiction:
- "The Master of Perfection" - October 1999 issue of The Blue Review.
- "Crossroads" - November 1999 issue of The Amateur Poetry Journal.
- "Fading Away..." - Sept 2000 premiere issue of The Story Garden.
- "A Lazy Afternoon in a Small Georgia Town - 6-26-01 issue of GiggleWithMe.com.
- "A Stormy Relationship" - 10-27-01 issue of GiggleWithMe.com.
- "An Interview with Santa" (run in three parts) - Dec. 2001-Jan. 2002,GiggleWithMe.com.
- "The Sacrifice" - The Summer 2002, The Rose & Thorn - A Literary Ezine.
- "Devour the Sky" - Story House, April 2, 2003.
- "Kachina Dawn" - StoneGarden.net, August 3, 2003.
- "Escape Velocity" - Creative Brother's Sci Fi Magazine #1, August 14, 2003.
- "Home Going" - Creative Brother's Sci Fi Magazine #3, to published January 2004.
- "An Elysium Dream" - StoneGarden.net, February 9, 2004.
- "He Rocked" (reprint) - The Writers Post Journal, to be published May 2004
- "The Last Living Thing" - AlienSkin Magazine published September 2004
- "For Whom the Midnight Tolls" - The Speculative Fiction Centre 2005 Anthology "Horizons," November 2005.
- "A Love Everlasting" (reprint) - The Speculative Fiction Centre 2005 Anthology "Horizons"
- "He Rocked" (reprint) - The Speculative Fiction Centre 2005 Anthology "Horizons"
- "The Circle" - The Speculative Fiction Centre, Fiction: Winter 2006 Issue #5
- "A Tale of Black and White" - SCARAB (Wanganegresse Press, 2006).
- "The Summoner" - Amazon Shorts, April 28, 2006
- "Web-elations" - The Speculative Fiction Centre, Fiction: Spring 2006 Issue #6
- "Two By Two" - Amazon Shorts, August 5, 2006
- "Into the Every" - The Speculative Fiction Centre, October 2, 2006
- "The Nothing" - AXXON Online's AXXON 100x100 (First Series), October 2006
- "The Highest Curse - Part I" - Amazon Shorts, November 15, 2006
- "Home Going (reprint)", New Works Review, March 28, 2007
- "The One and Only" - The Speculative Fiction Centre, July 21, 2007
- "Law of the Land" - Amazon Shorts, October 26, 2007

Books:
- "The Art of Poetry - Collection #1 (chapbook) - First published in 1998.
- "Crossroads and Other Tales" (fiction) - January 2004.
- "A Writer's Journey in Poetry & Prose" (nonfiction) - October 2006.
- "An Interview with Santa and Other Christmas Treats" (fiction) - November 2007
- "Phoenix Tales: Stories of Death & Life" (second edition) - March 2008.
- "The Summoner" (fiction) - November 2008
- "2012: Seeking Closure" - April 2009

Poetry:
- "Striving for the Heavenly Kingdom" - Poetry Club Newsletter - Vol. 4, Issue # 7 (8-9-97) (no longer in publication).
- "Perfection Is..." - Summer 1998 Edition of "Treasured Poems of America" by Sparrowgrass Poetry Forum.
- Various poems - Past issues of The Amateur Poetry Journal (no longer in publication).
- "There in Your Eyes" - Volume one of A Generation X Anthology - "In Our Own Words", March 1998.
- "Our Love" made into song by LaTonya M. Peoples and appearing on her 1999 album, "The Spirit Within".
- "Truth" - Second issue of The Story Garden, March 2001.
- "Reflections" - Volume three of A Generation X Anthology - "In Our Own Words", March 2001.
- "Emergence" - The Writers Post Journal, to be published April 2004.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Fast-paced, quick reading, May 24, 2009

By 

Mark McGinty "Author, "The Cigar Maker"" (Minneapolis) - See all my reviews

This review is from: 2012: Seeking Closure (Paperback)

A contemporary twist on a quotidian premise, Gregory Banks fictionalizes the 2012 doomsday prediction with a stock disaster story heavy with religious overtones that sees the human race tumbling towards apocalyptic calamity. It is December 21st, 2012 and the President of the Unites States has alerted the world that they are on a crash-course with an asteroid, and that in three hours all will be destroyed. We're familiar with this scenario, the movie Deep Impact comes quickly to mind, but I was curious to see how the author would reconcile this seemingly Christian morality tale with a doomsday scenario based on Mayan paganism.

The fast-paced story quickly unfolds into a series of character-driven vignettes centering on the terrible mistakes people have made and the various ways they decide to address their past. Violent and even savage at times, Banks paints a bleak picture of humanity where people are "sophisticated beasts who must be given direction" and whose souls can be freed only by death (with just hours remaining the Israelis and Palestinians still can't stop killing each other). Once the three-hour fuse is lit, the story moves quickly towards disaster and the situation becomes more desperate as we move along. In such a character driven story it was odd that I felt more compelled by the doomsday scenario than by the people it would affect.

This is a very easy read, with short chapters that are never boring but there are so many characters that there is not enough time to get to know anyone, or to develop those characters we are supposed to care about the most. One of the most interesting threads concerns a bizarre religious cult reminiscent of the Heaven's Gate UFO group whose mass suicide in 1997 coincided with the appearance of Comet Hale-Bopp. We also get to know a fictional American president whose controversial decision to hide in an underground bunker while the rest of humanity awaits destruction drives his guilt and ultimately becomes his undoing. And the story of three immoral men trapped in an elevator with three hours to live would be a great setting for a one-act play but we are never with them long enough to develop a strong personal connection or a sense of involvement with their feelings.

Speckled with drug use, violence and gang warfare the story is balanced with mushy themes of repentance and redemption. The end of the world seems to be caused not by man's own doing but by a cosmic or even supernatural event out of our control and it is our reaction to certain doom that sparks destruction, instead of the event itself. What ensues is a chaotic exercise where evil men are just as damned as those who repent and where no one has anything to lose. In the end, 2012: Seeking Closure is an exploration of man's ability for chaos where one wonders why anyone deserves a second chance and why humans need to find greater meaning even if there isn't one. Banks succeeds by addressing the question: how would we react if we learned we had only three hours left? The answer won't be pretty.

Strengths: compelling use of a countdown, fast-paced, easy reading that is never boring

Opportunities: familiar premise, lots of characters

Will appeal to: light readers, persons of faith, fans of doomsday/apocalyptic literature

Mark McGinty is the author of ELVIS AND THE BLUE MOON CONSPIRACY

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars 2012 seeking closure, June 14, 2009

By 

Capital One "webarts" (Canada) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: 2012: Seeking Closure (Paperback)

Strong recommendations. Exciting, great imagination and just waiting for the movie to be release in the fall.
Tks

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A book I probably could have READ in 3 hours if I had the time!!!, May 23, 2009

By 

J.R. Reardon "J.R. Reardon, author of Confide... (Boston, Massachusetts) - See all my reviews

This review is from: 2012: Seeking Closure (Paperback)

Gregory Bernard Banks' 2012: SEEKING CLOSURE is a very fast paced read, and difficult to put down. It tackles a disturbing question - what would you do if the President announced that the world would end in 3 hours....and there was nothing - nothing that could be done?

I found the chapters to be well-written and the characters interesting. Banks' descriptions made me feel for many of the characters and sympathize with their stories. I didn't just ask myself what I would do with my last 3 hours....I wondered what I would do if I was in these characters' places in their last 3 hours.

I don't want to call this book a fluffy read, as it is deeper than that. But it is extremely fast paced and difficult to put down. Well done, Mr. Banks!

J.R. Reardon
author, CONFIDENTIAL COMMUNICATIONS