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In a previous life, Jay Bern was an engineer and worldwide corporate jetsetter. Twenty
years ago he retired to Yucca Valley and began writing for the first time.
Born in Holland as Joop (pronounced Yope) Homburg, the 86-year-old drew on his life
experiences and worldviews as inspiration for his writing.
After just a few minutes of speaking with him, Bern’s sense of humor shines through his accent. He is charismatic and knowledgeable, and his outlook on life is as broad as the topics of the novels he writes.
Bittersweet Crude, a science fiction take on non-renewable resources; Now What?!,
a suspense thriller; the political Blinds: A Long Way, a semi-autobiographical social commentary; and his newest compilation of mixed genres, Uncommon Sense. This book is full of
short stories and tidbits that deal with issues ranging from environmental conservation and alternative fuel to the publishing business, fortune telling, and racism in South Africa and New Zealand.
“Language is a living thing,” said Bern, who fluently speaks, in addition to English,
his native Dutch, German, Swedish, Malayan, the Romance languages, and a form of Viking dialect called Frecian. “I know about many different cultures, and I am an American by choice.”
The cover of the self-published, through Lumus Press, book Uncommon Sense depicts a black-and-white orchestra formation and is described as a “literary orchestra, composing intriguing diversified stories into one melody of life.” Bern explains how the orchestra is a metaphor for our lives and our communication as humans. “Every orchestra has the assignment of instruments in the same places—it’s the same the world over. It’s one of the few things which we do the same in total the world.”
“When you go to a concert and the players are warming up, they make all kinds of
noises. You listen as an audience and you hear uncoordinated sounds: ‘ba-bu-buah.’
But when the conductor arrives and takes the baton: silence. Then the music starts, and when [all the instruments] play together you have music. The message is: If we play our lives and our environment together we have music; if not we have the cacophony.”
Although Bern believes Uncommon Sense is just a cluster of unrelated stories, it is like a symphony with all the separate parts coming together as a whole to tell a unified story about the world we live in. From ancient native struggle in “Stone Age Papaus” to science and ecology in “Wake Up, America!” these uncommon threads somehow relate.
“I like history because we can learn from it if we want,” said Bern. These ancient
stories are mixed with tales of soothsaying and palmistry, modern-day publishing snafus and a platform for converting to hydrogen fuel. “There’s ‘Papau’ or ‘The Holy Apostles of Ayetoro’ and then you get
technical stuff about what we’re doing to Mother Nature by continuing to pollute.
Fossil fuel is making the [world’s] misery and conflicts. Hoping to make people aware about hydrogen fuel. That kind of stuff you find because there are things that do not make sense at all.”
He recently visited family in New Zealand and returned with a heightened awareness of
the issues abroad and in our desert environment.
“It’s a very fascinating part of the world. Australia was just hit with a drought alarm and had water restrictions in a few areas. They could only use 40 gallons per day, per family. That includes flushing the toilet and doing laundry; so when people here in the high desert think about water and think we will have it for tomorrow... We will do solutions for that.”
Bern referred to researchers in Holland creating systems of reverse osmosis to convert
ocean water into drinking water. “The capacity to do that is a very promising thing. If we can take potable water out of oceans we will be on our way.”
“I hope that we are not continuing screwing up the nation too much,” said Bern.
On another local issue he says “the Joshua Tree is a trademark. It’s a very special item and they have to be saved, you cannot cut them down. Replant them or leave them alone, whatever you are building. It’s close to my heart because we are taking away something that is special to all of us.”
Bern writes articles about these and other issues for the Hi-Desert Star as a way of “relieving his thoughts” and is a member of Coalition of Authors. “I do it mainly to stay out of trouble, and secondly, I love to talk about situations not specifically American.” He is also the Past President of Yucca Valley Toastmasters. “I thought with my experience that I was going to teach them about body language. . . I did not teach them—they taught me.”
On writing, Bern advises hopeful authors: Writing is a very lonely activity. “There are
days that you can be very productive and there are days that absolutely nothing comes out. When you have days that nothing comes out of your mind--people try to control their minds.
Don’t make an issue and don’t force it, because it will be of no avail.”
Bern’s personal writing style is to accomplish things in spurts of up to five
hours. He is currently working on yet another genre book—fantasy.
“I don’t think I will ever make best seller or best this or best that. I am not shooting for it. Not getting it won’t destroy my lifestyle.” Although he is not overly optimistic about his personal success, he encourages others to get their ideas on paper. “Writing is as old as we are as humans,” Bern says. “When you have the mind, the influence that you can go—use it. In whatever way or form.”
A self-proclaimed “global wonderer,” Bern admits the settings for his stories are in
various countries because of his experiences as a traveler. Before her death, his wife pointed out to him that in 57 years of marriage they had moved 37 times.
After so much international travel, Bern is satisfied with life in his “tin can” in Yucca Valley. “I have an open ear and open eye and an open mind for a lot of things,” he said. “I like it here in the high desert very much. The people are so different here and it makes it a very interesting cocktail.”
Bern still travels to visit family around the world. He has two sons and a
daughter who, unsurprisingly, work in the fields of science, business, and art. On life, Bern is optimistic. “I hope to reach 87.
I do everything normally, and I love keeping a sense of humor—without it you are like a fish in dead water.”
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