The year is 1989. Two decades have passed since the Summer of Love and the San Francisco of '67 seems a distant memory to a group of friends facing the challenges of sustained idealism after the Reagan years. Kathleen Murray, now a criminal defense attorney in Berkeley, is passionate about the clients she defends. Among them is a young woman, trapped by mandatory minimum sentencing guidelines and facing nineteen years in prison as part of a cocaine conspiracy; her crime-- accepting three phone calls from her boyfriend's contacts. Another of her clients is threatened with sixteen years for carrying drugs for a Mexican cartel; her choice--either become the mule or watch as her mother and young daughter are tortured. An older man from Texas drives a load of marijuana to California; arrested, he learns what it means to become ill in prison. A mother and father living in Humboldt County in California are targeted for the Cannabis seedlings they are growing as medicine for their autistic son; their proposed sentence compounded by the district attorney's ire with their political promotion of legalization for the sick. Interwoven with the stories of Kathleen's clients are the twenty-year adventures of the Tribe, members of the old Haight-Ashbury commune. Over the years, they have traveled from the Bay Area to counties north of San Francisco, to Mexico and Nicaragua, to the Ecuadorian rainforest and war-torn Afghanistan. The once flower children are now experienced adults balancing families with sustainable businesses, higher education, and new political policies. At its heart, In Violation of Human Rights speaks to the tragedy that has become the American criminal justice system--the young trapped in juvenile detention, men and women buried behind walls for non-violent offences, the lack of compassion for the aging and the sick, the for-profit prison system reaping billions from human misery. More, this is a story that explores the courage and desperate efforts of those who work to promote true justice.

In Violation of Human Rights

Mystery, Thriller & Suspense

Johnson, Pamela

Thrillers & Suspense

Stone Harbour Press

Jamaica, October, 1720. The pirate ship of Calico Jack Rackham is captured off the western coast of Jamaica. While most of the crew is too drunk to defend against the onslaught of the King's navy, two of the crewmembers stand to fight against overwhelming odds. When finally forced to surrender, the commander of the governor's ship is amazed to discover that the two who defend are women disguised as men--Anne Bonny and Mary Read. Based on the true life story of the legendary Anne Bonny, Heart of a Pirate traces Anne's life, beginning with her parents and their subsequent arrival in the New World, Anne's upbringing among the society people of Charles Town, her marriage to penniless seaman, James Bonny, and their departure to New Providence, the pirate capital of the Bahamas. As a girl of sixteen, Anne makes her way among taverns, notorious sea captains, and life aboard ship disguised as a man. Eventually leaving Bonny, she flees from New Providence with Captain Jack Rackham, to share both joy and tragedy, on land, sea, and in battle, finally meeting the woman who will become her closest friend, Mary Read. As Anne matures from the girl who leaves Charles Town, she faces the moral questions of emerging slavery in the South and the Caribbean, and the poverty, prejudice, and war that defines the men who become pirates, all the while fighting to take control of her own destiny among men who will 'knock a woman down for her sex', the drama set against governments determined to rid the oceans of the sea robbers who threaten to cripple the world's emerging new capitalism.

Heart of a Pirate: A Novel of Anne Bonny

Literature & Fiction

Contemporary

In A Nation of Mystics, author Pamela Johnson deftly explores the youth subculture in San Francisco and Berkeley in the mid-1960s, with all its initial goodwill and naiveté--its dedication to free speech, promise to end war, commitment to racial equality, new art and music, and the exploration of spirituality based on mind-expanding hallucinogens. In this epic story of intimacy, metaphysical exploration, and coming of age, the Haight-Ashbury becomes home to genuine and unforgettable characters: Christian Brooks, haunted by a fiery riot in India, leaves the ministry for a new path to God. Kathleen Murray arrives seeking to change the world and exchanges picket lines for a more direct method of altering consciousness. Brilliant young botany student Myles Corbet must choose between prison and betraying his oldest friend. Jerry Putnam, seeking knowledge through science, instead discovers the shamanic calling. Opposing them is drug agent Dolph Bremer, who vows to crush the counterculture movement through any means necessary, while attorney Lance Bormann carefully walks between worlds to defend his young clients. Book I, Intentions, is the story of the communal family's growing commitment to the creation of a new culture--to social action, expanded awareness, new insights into the nature of mind, and the courage to make change. Although set in the 1960s, A Nation of Mystics is strikingly relevant, addressing conflicts between political idealism and the old order, violent police overreach, and the beginning of America's War on Drugs.

A Nation of Mystics: Book One: Intentions

Genre Fiction

In Book Two of A Nation of Mystics, author Pamela Johnson resumes her skillful exploration of the late-1960s and the counterculture through the eyes of a communal family, following the strengthening relationships of the tribe as they search for enlightenment through mind-expanding hallucinogens and work for political change. 
Christian Brooks, now twenty-one years old, expands his underground activities by moving into Europe to acquire chemicals for his high-yielding LSD lab in Los Angeles. Kathleen Murray struggles to develop her own business in a male-dominated world, searching for a balance between spiritual enlightenment and money, while trying to find a way to resolve binding love and independence. Forced to leave the Bay Area, Myles Corbet becomes an undercover agent working for Interpol in Germany and Amsterdam. Using all the botanical talent of his young life, Jerry learns to produce the beautiful and vision-manifesting mushrooms of the Mazatec shamans of Oaxaca. Supervisor Dolph Bremer, more frustrated and therefore more ruthless, turns his police investigations on Lance Bormann, attorney, as he contemplates a way to pay Bormann back for his successes in the courtroom. The different threads of the family’s conflicts, acquired knowledge, and personal resolutions finally intersect in the building of a community park on university land in Berkeley. As the youth movement pits itself against the establishment, the conflicts ultimately explode in tear gas and gunfire over the idealism of People’s Park. Although set in the 1960s, Book Two: The Tribe addresses questions that continue to be relevant today—what constitutes true crime, police reaction to civil disobedience, the nature of religious freedom, and needless violence when legal access to sacramental hallucinogens, money, and spirituality collide.

A Nation of Mystics, Book Two: The Tribe

In this final book of Pamela Johnson’s epic trilogy on the 1960s, the story of communal family and their search for enlightenment through religion, mind-expanding hallucinogens, and mysticism continues. Although the social and political bruises of the Berkeley People’s Park riots begin to heal at the Woodstock Music Festival, the family soon faces new danger from both murderous competitors and law enforcement. In Journeys, the decade draws to a close, and as time passes, members of the Tribe are forced into making difficult choices. Christian Brooks finds he must return to India to face his demons. Kathleen Murray searches for a way to continue to hold to her ideals, even though hard men take her innocence. Myles Corbet, now a full agent working in Europe and Asia for Interpol, must finally come to terms with his actions, including the betrayal of his best friend, Jerry Putman. Narcotics Supervisor Dolph Bremer faces the case of his life; he will win all or lose all in his contest with attorney Lance Bormann. Through its characters, A Nation of Mystics explores eternally relevant human questions—how to seek peace in the presence of evil, the life-altering implications of personal choices, the discovery of strength, and the fortitude to transform idealism into action. Book 3: Journeys, ties together the important threads of America’s counterculture beliefs into a single knot, the ideas and actions of a generation poised on the threshold of a new decade, ready to stand the test of time.

A Nation of Mystics, Book Three: Journeys

Pamela Johnson

In this final book of Pamela Johnson’s epic trilogy on the 1960s, the story of communal family and their search for enlightenment through religion, mind-expanding hallucinogens, and mysticism continues. Although the social and political bruises of the Berkeley People’s Park riots begin to heal at the Woodstock Music Festival, the family soon faces new danger from both murderous competitors and law enforcement.
In Journeys, the decade draws to a close, and as time passes, members of the Tribe are forced into making difficult choices. Christian Brooks finds he must return to India to face his demons. Kathleen Murray searches for a way to continue to hold to her ideals, even though hard men take her innocence. Myles Corbet, now a full agent working in Europe and Asia for Interpol, must finally come to terms with his actions, including the betrayal of his best friend, Jerry Putman. Narcotics Supervisor Dolph Bremer faces the case of his life; he will win all or lose all in his contest with attorney Lance Bormann.
Through its characters, A Nation of Mystics explores eternally relevant human questions—how to seek peace in the presence of evil, the life-altering implications of personal choices, the discovery of strength, and the fortitude to transform idealism into action.
Book 3: Journeys, ties together the important threads of America’s counterculture beliefs into a single knot, the ideas and actions of a generation poised on the threshold of a new decade, ready to stand the test of time.

A Nation of Mystics/ Book Three: Journeys

A Nation of Mystics In this epic trilogy of intimacy, metaphysical exploration, and coming of age, author Pamela Johnson deftly explores the youth subculture in San Francisco and Berkeley in the mid-1960s. Although set in the Sixties, A Nation of Mystics is strikingly relevant, examining the beginnings of ideas that have become the cornerstone of visionary culture and progressive politics. Book 1: Intentions 1967. The Summer of Love. The Haight-Ashbury becomes home to characters arriving from around the world with all the initial goodwill and naiveté of youth ready to change the world. Forming a communal family, the story follows their growing commitment to the creation of a new culture, one based on social action, expanded awareness, new insights into the nature of mind, and the courage to make change. Christian Brooks, haunted by a fiery riot in India, arrives in Berkeley after leaving the ministry, seeking a new path to God. Kathleen Murray hitches to San Francisco with best friend, Marcelle Arceneaux, and exchanges picket lines for a more direct method of altering consciousness. After an arrest for a small amount of marijuana, Myles Corbet must choose between prison and betraying his oldest friend. Seeking knowledge through science, brilliant young botany student Jerry Putnam discovers the shamanic calling. Lisa leaves the man she loves to enter an ashram to become a celibate, a bramachari, and study with a Hindu Master. Attorney Lance Bormann carefully walks between worlds to defend his young clients. Opposing them, drug agent Dolph Bremer vows to crush the counterculture movement through any means necessary. Book One: Intentions significantly addresses contemporary issues of relevance--those conflicts between political idealism and the old order, violent police overreach, and the beginnings of America's failed War on Drugs.

A Nation of Mystics/ Book One: Intentions

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