Murdockinations

Death of Heaven - JZ Murdock Big Horror now available in paper!

2012-05-27T09:00:00.006-07:00

Finally! My book "Death of Heaven" is now on Amazon as a trade paperback! I'm very pleased to now have it available in this format.

Please feel free to visit DeathOfHeaven.com for more on this book as well as more interesting graphics by cover artist, Marvin Hayes! Thanks also to Cal Miller of Zilyon Publishing!

Death of Heaven is the story of two guys, Jimmy and James, who have been best buds since childhood. At one point they suffered a horrific event, destroying James' family. He moves in with Jimmy's family and they go through school together. After High School, they get a job together but then drift off from one another for some years. That, is when their lives get interesting. But not as interesting as it gets once they hook back up together.

Jimmy ends up going into the military and then special ops for the government. James just beats around through life until something extraordinary happens, leaving him a wreck. At that point they get together again by way of James' therapist. He is quite a wreck so Jimmy invites him to move in with him for a while, just until he can get things together again.

They hold up together in Jimmy's home while they piece together just what in the Hell is going on. Jimmy has a big decision to make. Is James insane? For that matter, is Jimmy? Eventually they come to find that Life, their World, in fact, all of History is not what Humankind has always believed it to be. God, Jesus, Mohammed, Moses, Joseph Smith even, are who the are, or were, for reasons entirely different than what we have been lead to believe. Very possibly the end of the world as we know it, is about to break out across the world.

What these two friends then discover, aside from the true History of the Earth and its situation, is that something massive is about to happen. Something that will either maintain the status quo, or change the entire Universe forever!

Is this the Death of Heaven? Will the Earth survive?

Voting to legalize Gay marriage should be illegal

2012-05-21T04:20:00.002-07:00

Of course we should not vote for Gay marriage!

But... why? Because it is a rule of law issue, not morality; a consideration of constitutionality. NOT Public Opinion. Either it is a right that people deserve to get, or it's not. But this country was founded on the principle of pursuit of happiness and the right of the minority being equal to the majority without prosecution of opinion by groups or church, against other church or groups.

Why is it that a country founded upon the principle of not persecuting people because of their religious choices has turned into a country using religion as a reason to persecute people?

So no, we should not vote on or be allowed to vote on, gay marriage. Either they can have it under the law and it should then be granted, or it is illegal under the law and it should not. But Sam and George, or Sally and Jane, should not marry because Joe Bob at First Christian thinks it's wrong. That is what should be illegal, not Gay marriage.

Otherwise, what are we doing here?

What happened to religious freedom anyway? And how come religious polygamy is illegal? I would argue because there has been too many men in a hierarchical religious setting who ruled the roost and pressed women into mental (and let's not forget, sexual) slavery. That's illegal because it's too easy for it to happen. So yes, that should be illegal. Hmmm sounds reminiscent of Islam too doesn't it?

But in a typically male dominated religious setting where God is the leader, it's pretty oppressive to women if they would rather be doing something else. They don't get a choice where the foundation of the principles are male dominated. And it can be insidious. So to protect women, it would seem, polygamy needs to be illegal; as an institutional consideration. But there is also probably tax reasons behind it, too. Would it somehow shelter too many from paying too little in taxes? Or is that negligible and to be no concern? But we have a lot of tax issues that are a big deal when in reality they will only supply a small deal in money.

But this type of thing has nothing to do with the situation of Gay marriage. Considering how badly "straight", religious types have screwed up in institution of marriage, don't you think they really have little or no leg to stand on in keeping marriage to themselves. When you look at people like Newt Gingrich and how badly he has abused marriage, what right does he have to be speaking out? Pompous idiocy, really is all I'm seeing from people wanting their thirty seconds of fame. All I see in this argument about marriage and sanctity are big egos by those in power and those who shout loud enough to be given a platform in the media from which to eschew total nonsense.

So no, we should have no voting for or against Gay marriage. It is NOT a religious matter. Give it up either way on rule of Law. And guess what? There is nothing saying that I can find that is saying no to it. Only, yes.

If you don't like it, move to Iran. Or some other country that enforces the rule of religion. Myself, I'm not a masochist. I like my freedoms, what little I still have left in the land of opportunity and "freedom".

As I said, if this truly is "America the Free", then Gay marriage is either legal or not under the Constitution. Joe Bob down the street at your local church should not have a say in an other's lifestyle if it is not harming anyone else and is simply who that person is, and they aren't breaking any laws. Any constitutionally supported laws that is.

Remember "Jim Crow"? Remember religious persecution? How is it the reason the pilgrims moved to America, those who had oppressed them in their home country, any different than what Christians are now doing to others outside their realm of magical and superstitious beliefs? I mean, it really points out how bad religions are bad for America.

Should we ban them? Do they have precedence and allowability just because they've always been allowed, and burdened by the public? My country really annoys me anymore. Too many ignorants have been given the bully pulpit to spew nonsense and separatism.

America should be a melting pot (yes, yes or a mixed (tossed?) salad, whatever) but we've turned into country of pigeonholes for a vocal minority who don't even want to belong in the same pigeonhole cabinet. As "good Christians" they really should be ashamed of themselves. "Turn the other cheek". What a bunch of nonsense. If you're not going to practice your beliefs then shut up.

Shouldn't we be more focused to helping those not of our lifestyles to adhere to the values and principles that your religions profess? Those of community, relationship, bonding, family, love and children? There are always going to be those who live differently than you do. Better to find a way to help them become more like the positive qualities in your beliefs, than force them outside into the wilderness to go whatever other direction you still haven't considered, so that in the end, things become far worse than your efforts have already spawned. Spawn love. Don't be a hater. It's actually Human nature to be promiscuous, that's why religion set standards in the first place.

Who would you rather have move in next door to you? A Gay couple who are promiscuous and single? Or a Gay couple who have publicly committed themselves to each other and at least practice to have a committed and monogamous relationship? After all, can they really do any worse than straight couples have for millinea.

Censorship?

2012-05-14T04:20:00.032-07:00

Censorship is there to protect people. The question is, do people need protecting? Are people that morally or intellectually weak or uneducated that they need protecting? And who decides who the protectors are? Once decided, who decides what is too much censorship? The need for protection only comes in as necessary by the uneducated or the religious. I think the rating system in movies has been very handy in that people who care, can moderate their intake of concepts and orientations.

The comments about Casablanca are well taken. It is perhaps my favorite film. But you are delusional if you think that back when it came out, it wasn't as racy as bare-breasts and swearing is now. it's allusions to Bergman having had sex with Bogey are really less powerful than having shown it more as they would do now?

Yes, I think it was classier how they did it. But the meaning is still there. The intent and corruption is still there. But was she corrupt in having sex with Rick, in order to save her husband, someone needed by the resistance and the world? Or was it a sacrifice and a noble thing for her to please Rick to save her husband? Even if you don't read it that way, she was leaving with him. Was it only out of love for Rick, or a noble sacrifice of salvation? there is a lot of pseudo science on the claims of what the "f" word has done to society, conjecture and self belief in what you want to believe. Maybe it's true, maybe not. But certainly not something to base needing censorship upon.

Do you read a scene where there is coarse behavior and language (coarse to whom?) when it would be there in reality, or do you read a scene that is censored so that it is an unrealistic portrayal of such a scene? Does that cripple a society in thinking they are reading a accurate portrayal of a situation? Do we as a society and as individuals want to be informed in realty or delusional in our assumption that we have an accurate view of real life through the filter of censorship?

Censorship always takes the path of eventually overstepping necessary limits. The film industry in acquiescing voluntarily to the Hayes Office led to fear of the Hayes office and some ridiculous self censorship at times. Did they turn out good films regardless? Yes, there were some great films. Did it lead the country down a somewhat delusional path and did that lead to things like the 60s? No doubt it did. Is it better to fear (censor) media than not? Shouldn't censorship come from the individual, not an umbrella organization? Should you censor yourself as an author?

There are free citizens who do not want censorship. In a "free" society, do we take that freedom away from them because an entity or group thinks it should be? If we freely censor can we guide society down a path that can come back on us in a negative way? Do we want a society that is fundamentalist Christian? Or Muslim, a group who censor images of their Prophet, as well as women's faces and bodies, and behavior? Is that not enough censorship, not enough control and we need more?

Censorship has been warned about for decade after decade and still it raises its ugly serpentine neck from time to time. But always from the members of the same groups. What we need isn't censorship, but a way for those desiring freedom to maintain that which is guaranteed by the constitution; but also a way for those who are concerned about their mental, emotional, spiritual "garden" from being polluted with "weed" thoughts and conceptual blight. Or genre that only those concerned with such things can go to for their style of entertainment and enlightenment.

But we have to remember this is a country of diverse beliefs and they all have the right to be here if legal under the law of the land.

I swear a little, sometimes, but I attune it to my audience if any. Meaning most the time, I speak G rated, but my concepts are more sophisticated. The young, uneducated usually don't follow if I feel like swearing and think it's inappropriate. Besides a HS teacher of mine told us once that someone who swears every other word, or uses things like "ya know" are being lazy and wasting people's time taking up more words to speak. Never lying, never swearing, I think makes one more intelligent because you have to be more clever to have the same impact (if not more).

I do love General Audience, "G" rated material in comedy, in films, etc., if of good quality; they have to be well done after all. But there is also too much "G" rated pablum around. Still, I do prefer it. Of course, I love the other end of the spectrum, too. I like quality in all its senses. But to censor is to eliminate some of the things that need to use "questionable" words and situations in order to show them, to know about them, to experience them, to be aware of them. Sometimes you just have to take the good with the bad, however you define them.

Knowledge after all, is power and knowing about things is just another step toward making them better. I much prefer having my eyes open rather than shut, remaining ignorant. There is a reason why we have freedom of speech in this country. Once you start curtailing it, you begin that ride on the downward slope of losing that freedom. And so, the only step to take is to allow it.

Censorship simply is not the way to go.

Be Wise. Be Brilliant. Be... Aware. Since this is Mother's Day weekend.... "There never was a child so lovely, but his mother was glad to get him asleep." - Ralph Waldo Emerson Cheers to those who can celebrate a satisfying familial tie to their progenitors! Having children is a privilege, but some treat it only as a burden. We dole out marriage certificates like they are candy; guns like toys; driver's licenses with more care than the most important thing we can ever do in our life, which is to create and raise our children. Parents are just people who have had sex and a baby came from it. And some people have really bizarre beliefs. When they become parents, especially if they are the types that should never become parents, they treat their children through these strange beliefs and pass on their ridiculous thoughts to them. I heard a guy the other day saying how he was on a plane and a kid was making a fuss. The dad got in the kids face and trying to be quiet but exhibiting terrifying passion to the kid, told him to shut up or else. The observer said he wanted to stop the parent, realizing the kid had just lost this last hold on safety and security and was probably traumatized, but instead, he went to the back of the plane to regain his equilibrium. While he was calming himself, he realized something. He realized that if that man had done that to a dog, the guy would have punched him out, but because it was the guy's kid, he didn't lift a finger, or say a word, or even project a look to affect the parent. What does that say about us as people? That we are living in a litigious society or age? That we are cowards? That children truly are still object of property? That these little people, the future leaders and rulers of our world when we're too old to manage, are being raised to be defective, untrusting, insecure, fearful? I think we need a page for people who's mother's are not what they should be. There are many people out there for whom Mother's Day (or Father's Day, or both) is a painful thing. If you have had a bad relationship with either of your parents, well, consider this, have you ever had a bad breakup with someone, your girlfriend or boyfriend broke up with you leaving you raw, scarred, in emotional pain that almost feels like physical pain; maybe a divorce, or even a death? Death is a cop out though. As with a martyr, it leaves you with a different set of dynamics; unless it was a relief that they died. My point is that when you have that breakup, have you ever noticed that you hear and see reminders of what you lost, simply everywhere? You turn on the radio for a distraction and it's all love songs. Every movie you try to watch or that is available to watch seems to be a love story. Or you find a good one, maybe a good thriller or horror film, something that in no way is going to have a love story in it by your reasoning. But then, there in the middle when you least expect it, bang, someone breaks up with someone, or someone is enjoying what brings you the most pain, romance before the down side in the film. Maybe that down side makes you feel better in a kind of negative feedback sort of way. My point is, Mother's day is like that for some people (or again, Father's Day for that matter). Everywhere you turn this past week, has been marketing, marketing, marketing. Mother this, that and the other thing. For those who have no Mother, or whose mother is a horrible person, these people have to suffer through that. It's a tough time for these people, but no one thinks about it. If they think about it, they tend to think openly, or surreptitiously, what a horrible person, they don't love their mother, they have a terrible attitude about their mother, etc. But inside, those people want to have a loving relationship with their parent(s). They just can't, and for most people in that situation, the responsibility is weighted on the parent's side, leaving the child with a painful wound that will never heal until either the parent dies, or that person does. Not only does the child have to go through life with a damaged parental relationship, a seminal touch point for every human being alive that needs to be healthy, they have to suffer hiding their feelings. Or if they open up about them, they only get ugly looks, negative feelings, or bad comments from people who don't, can't, or won't understand or try to understand, putting down people who simply do not deserve it. Most people can't understand what these people have been through. Luckily, these people are in a minority. But they are out there. So, the next time you start going on about your loving relationship with your parents, or their Day and what you are going to do for them, be aware of the people around you and how they react, what their body language is. If they wince, if they suddenly for no apparent reason come off negatively, perhaps in an entirely unrelated way, consider, you may have just unintentionally wounded them. As with Thanksgiving and Christmas, New Year's even, being the "silly season" for the higher rates of suicides, Parent's Days, are one of the other, hidden and sad times of the year where we need to be a touch more aware, that not everyone has had, or continues to have, a pleasant live because of a random choice of who their parents are, or were. That all being said, do give the respect and love, attention and care to your parents who deserve it and enjoy the time you have left with them; espeically, if they have been good parents to you. Because the good ones, deserve all you can offer them in thanks and love. Happy Mother's Day! "To nourish children and raise them against odds is in any time, any place, more valuable than to fix bolts in cars or design nuclear weapons." - Marilyn French "The most important thing a father can do for his children is to love their mother." - Theodore Hesburgh "Having children makes you no more a parent than having a piano makes you a pianist." - Michael Levine

2012-05-13T04:20:00.001-07:00

Because this blog article has been so popular this past week leading up to Mother's Day, I wasn't going to do a blog for today, but I will post this as a reprise. All the best to you all and a Happy Mother's day to all Mom's everywhere (who haven't killed us by time we finish with puberty). For those Mom's who have killed us, well, hopefully we deserved it. I know I probably did.

Be Wise. Be Brilliant. Be... Aware.

Since this is Mother's Day....

"There never was a child so lovely, but his mother was glad to get him asleep." - Ralph Waldo Emerson

Cheers to those who can celebrate a satisfying familial tie to their progenitors!

Having children is a privilege, but some treat it only as a burden. We dole out marriage certificates like they are candy; guns like toys; driver's licenses with more care than the most important thing we can ever do in our life, which is to create and raise our children.

Parents are just people who have had sex and a baby came from it. And some people have really bizarre beliefs. When they become parents, especially if they are the types that should never become parents, they treat their children through these strange beliefs and pass on their ridiculous thoughts to them.

I heard a guy the other day saying how he was on a plane and a kid was making a fuss. The dad got in the kids face and trying to be quiet but exhibiting terrifying passion to the kid, told him to shut up or else. The observer said he wanted to stop the parent, realizing the kid had just lost this last hold on safety and security and was probably traumatized, but instead, he went to the back of the plane to regain his equilibrium. While he was calming himself, he realized something. He realized that if that man had done that to a dog, the guy would have punched him out, but because it was the guy's kid, he didn't lift a finger, or say a word, or even project a look to affect the parent. What does that say about us as people? That we are living in a litigious society or age? That we are cowards? That children truly are still object of property? That these little people, the future leaders and rulers of our world when we're too old to manage, are being raised to be defective, untrusting, insecure, fearful?

I think we need a page for people who's mother's are not what they should be. There are many people out there for whom Mother's Day (or Father's Day, or both) is a painful thing. If you have had a bad relationship with either of your parents, well, consider this, have you ever had a bad breakup with someone, your girlfriend or boyfriend broke up with you leaving you raw, scarred, in emotional pain that almost feels like physical pain; maybe a divorce, or even a death? Death is a cop out though. As with a martyr, it leaves you with a different set of dynamics; unless it was a relief that they died.

My point is that when you have that breakup, have you ever noticed that you hear and see reminders of what you lost, simply everywhere? You turn on the radio for a distraction and it's all love songs. Every movie you try to watch or that is available to watch seems to be a love story. Or you find a good one, maybe a good thriller or horror film, something that in no way is going to have a love story in it by your reasoning. But then, there in the middle when you least expect it, bang, someone breaks up with someone, or someone is enjoying what brings you the most pain, romance before the down side in the film. Maybe that down side makes you feel better in a kind of negative feedback sort of way.

My point is, Mother's day is like that for some people (or again, Father's Day for that matter). Everywhere you turn this past week, has been marketing, marketing, marketing. Mother this, that and the other thing. For those who have no Mother, or whose mother is a horrible person, these people have to suffer through that. It's a tough time for these people, but no one thinks about it. If they think about it, they tend to think openly, or surreptitiously, what a horrible person, they don't love their mother, they have a terrible attitude about their mother, etc.

But inside, those people want to have a loving relationship with their parent(s). They just can't, and for most people in that situation, the responsibility is weighted on the parent's side, leaving the child with a painful wound that will never heal until either the parent dies, or that person does. Not only does the child have to go through life with a damaged parental relationship, a seminal touch point for every human being alive that needs to be healthy, they have to suffer hiding their feelings. Or if they open up about them, they only get ugly looks, negative feelings, or bad comments from people who don't, can't, or won't understand or try to understand, putting down people who simply do not deserve it.

Most people can't understand what these people have been through. Luckily, these people are in a minority. But they are out there.

So, the next time you start going on about your loving relationship with your parents, or their Day and what you are going to do for them, be aware of the people around you and how they react, what their body language is. If they wince, if they suddenly for no apparent reason come off negatively, perhaps in an entirely unrelated way, consider, you may have just unintentionally wounded them.

As with Thanksgiving and Christmas, New Year's even, being the "silly season" for the higher rates of suicides, Parent's Days, are one of the other, hidden and sad times of the year where we need to be a touch more aware, that not everyone has had, or continues to have, a pleasant live because of a random choice of who their parents are, or were.

That all being said, do give the respect and love, attention and care to your parents who deserve it and enjoy the time you have left with them; espeically, if they have been good parents to you. Because the good ones, deserve all you can offer them in thanks and love.

Happy Mother's Day!

"To nourish children and raise them against odds is in any time, any place, more valuable than to fix bolts in cars or design nuclear weapons." - Marilyn French

"The most important thing a father can do for his children is to love their mother." - Theodore Hesburgh

"Having children makes you no more a parent than having a piano makes you a pianist." - Michael Levine

Why do we need big Sci Fi?

2012-05-07T04:20:00.039-07:00

Some might label my new book Death of Heaven, as a massive big Horror / Sci Fi novel, but I suppose technology doesn't play that big a role in it; not a lot of science is involved, really. Though it does span the entire history of the Earth and goes far into deep space. So that makes it more speculative fiction, but it does kind of walk the line. It does however step outside of our comfortable understanding of history both natural and social and redefine the entire history of our world, how we understand who we are and where we came from.

One of the most important things that the old Sci Fi stories did for me as a youth, was to open my mind to new ways of thinking. They redefined how I viewed the universe. As examples of those books I read, see the Foundation books, the Dune series of books, even Ender's Game, and Gibson's books.

The Sci Fi of the early years that I grew up with from the 50s and 60s (I started reading them in the mid 1960s but I read back to the 1920s), were very tech savvy and space heavy. Well, we're there now. So why would it now hold the same fascination for us as it did then? What has become our next fascination, as that would be our new "Sci Fi"?

Possibly, "magic"? Defining "magic" as a technology so far ahead of us that we can't see it's source or mechanism, we do see a big upsurge in fantasy tales recently which current films of the superhero stories certainly fall under. I'd even include in those, Lord of the Rings and the Harry Potter franchise of films and books. Though those do fall more under entertainment than Science Fiction, they do something that Star Trek did for us in the 60s, they can examine things outside of our daily lives, because obviously those people on the screen cannot be us. For instance, Star Trek could point out race issues, something very difficult to talk about back then, by showing us how foolish aliens acted over their race issues.

We want total fascination. Immersion. Escapism, surely. But also to look forward as a hope to something better, some better possible future, perhaps one that we will one day see. Tech just isn't so fascinating for us as it once was, as we're all more educated now and it's really just every day life for us. We basically have Star Trek communicators (cell phones). We're not beaming around... yet. But we are very close to having a true "tricorder", a device with multiple sensors and a conglomerate readout.

I actually have a "Tricorder" app on my phone utilizing the capabilities of my Droid and it's really pretty cool for what it can do; certainly from the perspective of someone who was once fascinated by the original Star Trek TV show when that was all we had.

So, why should it still be as fascinating as it once was? We have more recently seen the Steampunk genre on the scene, a hybrid of tech and old societal nuances which I find interesting to some degree and rather charming. So much so actually, that I included a pair of demon hunting Steampunk subculture women in my screenplay, "HearthTales" (currently out on MovieBytes.com and Inktip.com). They are Steampunk for a very good reason in the story and not just for fake, aesthetic purposes.

All that being said, we do still need Sci Fi and Spec. Fiction, as much now as ever. We're just not as fascinated by it all because of having it all around us, of being immersed in it on a daily basis. It has indeed made us a bit jaded and inured to it. But also through all of my life, and I've seen this happen in my own interests: there seems to be a trending cycle, both personal and societal of going from Sci Fi, to Fantasy, to Science, and then it starts all over. It could be that we're just in the non Sci Fi part of that cycle right now. Not to mention Science now a days has replaced Sci Fi in many cases as it is simply reality for us in many ways and no longer Fantasy or Fiction. Turn on the Science channel, and you are watching "Sci Fi", but for real and not for Fiction.

Sci Fi and Speculative Fiction allow us to step outside of ourselves and view the world around us and where we are heading in a way that is far less threatening, as well as entertaining, if it is done well. It is almost imperative that we do this now in a world that is changing faster than we can keep up with. One of the most powerful tools we have in life is awareness, anticipating what is coming and being prepared for it. Politics doesn't do this for us, it seems to fail time after time in this arena. And so we have to turn to the Arts, specifically Films and books and now, even computer games. Games which even become books and films now.

Paramount in this kind of consideration should always be History. But along with that also, Science and Speculative or Science Fiction.

In the end I would say that yes, big Sci Fi is necessary for us now a days. The bigger the better. And as much as ever if not more. It's just that it only seems less necessary than in previous times.

But don't let that fool you.

Death of Heaven on Indies Unlimited Freebie Friday Listing TODAY!

2012-05-04T09:30:00.033-07:00

Awesome! Death of Heaven has been selected for Indies Unlimited Freebie Friday Frenzy Listing!

Death of Heaven, my latest Horror novel of Epic Speculative Fiction proportions (hmmm... yes, cross pollinating here), has been selected by the kind folks at Indies Unlimited to be listed on their beloved Freebie Friday Frenzy listing.

One of Marvin Hayes' great graphics of "Blue" in Death of Heaven

So yes, we made it on Indies Unlimited Freebie Friday Frenzy (you see, Death of Heaven is free today (and I figured what the heck, also through the weekend), so get your copy, ASAP!). Or not....

Really, now that I think about it... oh wait, it's now also on Amazon.com Kindle... and if you prefer the hard copy version, it will be out in paper format soon, too!

Anyway!

Best not to try and read this book. I don't know anyone who could handle it without therapy afterward (if not during) and believe me, no one will pay for it, for you, because they will be like, "So you read Death of Heaven? What, are you an idiot? So, you jump off a bridge and what? You expect no pain, or death? You expect US to pay for it? Look, you got what you deserve... stupid."

So my advice? Run away, run away now!

And, don't stop!

Death of Heaven is finally out and free through the weekend!

2012-05-03T10:30:00.020-07:00

My new book of Horror and Dispair, Death of Heaven, is now available for free through Sunday, May 13th, on Smashwords in various formats.

It will be out soon after on Amazon and in paperback. Let me warn you, this is not your Daddy's Horror novel and there is something to offend just about everyone, but there is a reason for everything in there. You can visit the book's web site at DeathOfHeaven.com to see more information and more graphics by our brilliant cover artist, Marvin Hayes.

The History of this unique Universe is further explained in the novella "Andrew" available in "Anthology of Evil".

Draft of Death of Heaven back cover

Two brothers-in-arms since childhood, in learning that the answer to literally everything is what nightmares are made of, will foremost along with all of Humanity experience, the Death of Heaven.

This novel Horror novel questions everything and resets it in a completely different light. For more, see the website DeathOfHeaven.com.

This was a massive conceptual effort. I do hope you like it.

Why do 1,209,600 seconds make such a difference in life decisions?

2012-04-30T04:20:00.003-07:00

What is it about 1,209,600 seconds that seems to make such a difference for me?

I was just thinking about major life decisions I have made in my past and it seems that it's about that many seconds, or if you prefer, 203,493 minutes, or 3,391 hours, or 14 days, or two weeks, or a fortnight as they used to say, seem to make all the difference in the world to me in making major life decisions.

Before I went into the military, I spent two weeks thinking about it. I researched the world's situation. What was going on in the world? Where might I end up? If I joined the military, the Air Force as it turned out, what would happen to me? I read newspapers, listened to the news, talked to people. I "educated" myself about what I was about to get myself into.

Then, before I started college I also spent two weeks thinking about it. What's there to think about? I considered that before college, I was to some degree both knowledgeable and ignorant. After I finished college, I would then be some larger degree of both knowledgeable and ignorant. More ignorant? After all that learning? Wouldn't I be less ignorant? Actually, no. Because the more you learn, the more you learn how much you do not know, and so by increasing your degree of "smarts", you are also increasing your known degree of ignorance.

And that actually in part, was what I spent two weeks thinking about.

So, did I really want that increased knowledge and hopefully, wisdom (experience plus knowledge)? I was blissfully ignorant before college. I knew that. But once I got a degree I would have increased my knowledge of the world, History and the universe and I would then know more about what was good and what was evil, if you will. Anyway, the Yin and Yang of the Universe, overall more knowledge of Life. I knew I would increase the quality of my life in learning more about the Arts and Sciences, but I also knew I was be more aware of the evils in the world, possibly (probably) many things I should know about, but maybe do not want to.

And so, I "educated" myself about getting an education. Along with great knowledge, can come great heartache, great responsibility. Could I handle the painful side of acquiring a university degree as well as the fun and happy side? I really wasn't so sure at first.

But in the end, I decided that the military was my best option at that time. After I got out I decided that going to college was also my best option, at that time. I went for a two year degree and got it. Then, considering I had hated school in my K-12 years and although I swore when I graduated High School that I would never step foot back in school ever again, I had to decide if I wanted to continue on.

I liked the idea of a University over that of a college, because you are taught by Professors who have to have a Doctorate. You are not taught by teachers with only a Masters degree. Don't get me wrong, a Masters degree is a better than just a B.A. degree, but I have always tried to get the best instructors and teachers I could find.

As it turned out, in some ways the Military wasn't the best choice for me, for my personality, as it isn't for a lot of people, I'm sure. But I made it through and it woke me up to life (like getting a "wood shampoo", hit in the head with a wood bat, repeatedly), and I also got my college education paid in full. So even though I pretty much hated Military life, I loved going to college and really loved university life. I liked the people, the learning, the stretching of your mind and your limits, much in how I did in the Military. The Military taught me that I could do anything. College taught me things I couldn't have learned if I hadn't first had that basic understanding that I could do it, I could achieve seemingly impossible goals. Then the University tightly packed massively more amounts of information in my head.

At my two year college, my Philosophy teacher (a guy with a Master's degree who was working on his doctorate while he taught us), said that if we decided to go to a University and get a four year degree after we get our two year A.A. degree, that it would seem at first a shock and impossible. It would be painful, but he believed, he told us, that we could, all in his class there before him on that day, "rise to the occasion when necessary.

In fact he said that for the most part, people do tend to rise to the occasion", as we tend to do in life when are called upon. But we tend to spend a lot of time worrying about how we won't rise up and so frequently we won't end up in those challenging situations. Fear can drive us sometimes not to try. Which many times, is simply too bad for us. Because then we never get a chance to experience just how much we can achieve when we have to.

And to be sure, on my first day of my University life, at 28, my first Professor ever told us to read forty pages out of the text book for tomorrow's lecture. I was a little stunned but I thought, as did the others I spoke to about it after class, that we would just somehow, get it done. Now, many of us were used to showing up the first day of school (for all our lives up till then) only to do nothing until the next day, or in some schools, the next week. But this was a University. Time was short between classes so we all headed to our next class with only a little trepidation.

But, my next Professor said the same exact thing at end of class. I couldn't believe it, what was the deal with forty pages, again, and by next class time. By end of school day, I ended up with over one hundred pages total that I had to read before the next class. Needless to say, I was in shock. By end of day, my girlfriend and some of our new (and old) friends were also in shock.

But I survived. And so did they and eventually, two years later, we were all graduating and considering, should we go for a Master's degree? Which was another two years of classes. Having seen what my Master's Teaching Assistants (TAs) were being put through, I decided I wanted some time off and so, I now only have a Bachelors of Arts and Letters from Western Washington University.

Still, it all comes back around to those nearly a million and a quarter seconds that I had to take to make up my mind about making a major life change; whether or not to go into the Service, and then whether to go to college, or not. Those are only two examples in my life of the two week period of education and rumination and there have been others. But for some reason two weeks seems to be my cutting off point.

So whenever I do have the luxury of time, I try to use that two week period to learn about the decision I'm about to make, and the really think about it, over and over. Not to stress out about it, not at all, but to academically, emotionally, even spiritually, consider all the obvious and newly learned about elements, and then in the end, feel that I can effectively and hopefully accurately, make a good, solid, informed, decision.

But why two weeks?

Considering switching careers and becoming a Fiction Writer?

2012-04-23T04:20:00.018-07:00

Three years ago next month I decided to switch careers and finally, after many fitful starts and stops over the years, to get something going with my writings. I'm currently still in IT in the Health Insurance industry. That's not been doing that great or being as stable as it once was. There's been many layoffs over the past years and I had to face facts that it was entirely possible I could be out of a job at some point. But I've been one of the lucky ones who has retained my position and I'm still there. It has paid the bills, raised the kids and gotten them out the door to adulthood. So now I'm living alone, writing, and taking it as a full time job, as well as maintaining my full time day job.

Since I started three years ago, I have begun a Blog with now over 1,000 articles on it and I'm not ever sure how many readers there are with all the feeds going on. Originally I was doing two blogs a day and now I'm down to once a week, simply due to lack of time. I joined Twitter where I now have over 13,000 followers at the time of this writing. As of recently, I have a several websites including JZMurdock.com, and two for my books, AnthologyofEvil.com, and DeathOfHeaven.com.

And please feel free to drop by my new interview with Indies Unlimited, live as of yesterday.

Because of my screenplays that I have online on MovieBytes.com, I was asked to adapt the first book of a paranormal romance book series. That began several professional relationships, got two of my short stories into two separate horror anthologies (both for charity), I got my first short story on Amazon (Simon's Beautiful Thought, which has a very nice review on it there now), my first Horror book, Anthology of Evil is now on Amazon and Smashwords as both ebook and paper versions; and my first Horror Sci Fi book, Death Of Heaven about to go up on those sites.

I completed a horror comedy screenplay "HearthTales", which I have been told, could easily go into a franchise film series just from the two female Steampunk demon hunter characters alone (named, Gray and Lover). To get an idea of their dynamic and how well this worked, see "Lost Girl" the TV series. They are still very different characters than the TV show, but you'll get the idea; and I created them before that show was ever on the air. I have also worked with a mentor/producer on a Frank Capra type, small town America screenplay and well, I have many more concepts to write in various formats than I have time for. Basically one of the things keeping me from being more productive is my day job.

I still have to write around that job and it's a lot of work, but as my son pointed out when I got burned out a while back, I have really accomplished quite a bit since I start all this. As he put it, I kept thinking I was on the bottom rung in making this all happen, when in reality, I was several rungs up already, and that was a year ago.

Had I waited till now to get all this going, look at how much I would have to achieve to catch up. That just screams that if you want to make changes, Now, is the time. My goal and dream at this point is to quit my day job and I have a series of reasonable financial goals to achieve leading up to that point, and after. I figured that since any new business makes it or fails in 5-7 years, I am doing pretty well over all, even though at times it all seems rather hopeless. But really, that has a lot to do with keeping one's energy up and available. And using it economically. It's a marathon after all, not a sprint.

I started all this with the concept of working two full time jobs for a while, set fully in the front of my mind. After all, if you play with this as a hobby, you are probably wasting your time. Though not necessarily. I'll grant you, there are "accidental" over-night successes, but really, they are very few and very far between when you consider the number of writers trying in that way, and failing. If you are serious, you really do have to put in the sweat labor.

I also decided in the beginning that I wouldn't turn down any job offered and there were a few I would normally have turned down, but I didn't. Most of what I have achieved up to this point wouldn't actually have happened, had I not given myself those two initial challenges; to write as a full time job and to accept any offer if it was reasonable and I could fit it in. All, so that I would make more connections, acquire more finished works in my catalog, and learn, learn, learn.

So, for any of you who are trying to do this, all I can say is:

Cheers!
And never say die!

My Indies Unlimited Interview goes online today at 11AM Pacific

2012-04-22T10:50:00.004-07:00

FYI, this is today in 10 minutes, my interview with Indies Unlimited. Thought I'd mention it, because they asked me to, but also so people will know it's a, well, an interview and a potential source for writers from Indies Unlimited.
Do note that there will be nothing on the page until after 11AM today Pacific time.
As an added benefit my book will also be featured in the Indies Unlimited Store.
Please stop by. I hope to "see" you there!

Rejection slips and wearing your endurance on your sleeve

2012-04-16T04:20:00.046-07:00

I was just reviewing an old folder with all my rejection slips going back to the 1980s. I got so many I had to start a second folder. Oh, I really don't think I recommend this journey down memory lane for anyone. It's making me want to jump off a cliff. All the frustration came rushing back up off those pages and smacked me hard, in the face.

This blog article is for those new writers who have never been published. But also for those who are still trying to get somewhere and thinking it will just never happen. I can think of three things you need for it "to happen". You have to have skill, perseverance and, action. Anyone can write. Pen to paper, move it in the form of letters, words, sentences. Put a few sentences together in a cohesive theme and you have a story. Come up with a unique "voice" and an unusual story, hit your right market (at the right time) and there you are, you've sold a story.

But in putting that all together just right and in having the Luck to hit it at just the right time; that is, get it to the right publisher at the right time when the have room and need it, especially if it is at its Zeitgeist; then you will have something happen.

One of those rejected stories of mine is now published in an anthology with other authors. Yet, it had rejection after rejection. Of course, I had brushed them up over the years and learned a lot and had become hopefully, a better writer. In some cases I was ahead of things. A story I couldn't sell in 1980 sold just fine in 1990. So sometimes, that has something to do with it. Being progressive, ahead of the times, is all fine and great, but being too far outside the scope of popular understanding can really work against you.

I once heard one of the most famous writers in American history say that you should start a hobby of collecting your rejection slips. Wallpaper your home office with them and when the wall fills, fill another. When the walls all fill, do the ceiling. When the office is full, start on another room. Fill your house if you have to. The point being I think, not to give up.

I put my heart into it. So, I started to just collect rejection slips with no thought to actually selling something. Therefore, I was no longer looking for an acceptance letter. I wanted a rejection slip. I have rejection slips from The Twilight Zone magazine, and others (see below). I started focusing my submissions on magazines I wanted to be rejected by. Of course, the hope was always to be accepted one day by one of them, but more importantly I needed to survive yet another rejection, and then go on to submit to another story, to most likely get another rejection.

As a writer you have to survive. Somehow. Tricking oneself, works.

All that being said, here are some of my favorite rejection slips....

Seriously, how could I NOT want to get a rejection slip from The Twilight Zone? "Dear Writer." At that point it became a "thing" to get a rejection slip with other than a form letter, with a personal inscription of some form on it.

Still a form letting, but so what? It was Playboy! I'm not sure there is really anything to really say about this one. What guy wouldn't want to have a story published in Playboy? As I remember it, stories went for $2,000, going up $1,000 each successive story sold. A great deal for a writer that got hooked up in that system. But it was an almost impossible market to break into.

Now this one is interesting. The short story they are rejecting there is now in an anthology published in 2010.

I remember when Omni started up. I have the first issue still, somewhere around here in a plastic cover. I would have loved to have had a story in Omni. But, I knew I didn't have a shot. As you can see, I was trying hard to get published but I was also making it a game. I LOOKED forward to getting a rejection slip from Playboy or Omni. That really went a long way toward buffering the rejections at magazines where I thought I had a chance and really wanted a story published there.

I would say I probably sent of 1 in 10 submissions where I knew I had no chance of getting accepted but you have to shoot for the stars sometimes because you never know when something might click, and you get a boost in status where maybe you shouldn't have. We have to "pay our dues" but what's wrong with jumping a rung on the ladder here and there? Right?

This one would have just been cool. I thought I had a chance and I was kind of sad about this rejection, but then, as I put it in my folder with the others, I felt good in having one from them and now I knew what their rejection slips looked like. Not everyone could say that, could they?

Analog is another one that would have lead to a big party, had I gotten other than a rejection slip from them.

Don't you love that? "Dear Writer." So personal. Makes you feel all warm and ugly inside. I mention this particular rejection slip for a good reason. No matter how hard I tried, I would still from time to time, run into a magazine that had gone dead after I found information about them, or sometimes, way before I had found them but my information was, for whatever reason, completely out of date. I remember at least one instance where someone told me I should submit and when I did, I got a nasty letter back saying they were no longer in publication. Hey, you takes your shots.

So yes, sometimes I got chastised by the editor for bothering them when I had sent them a story and they were no longer publishing, or it was just the wrong genre. Or as in one case, they had gone out of business and even when they were publishing, had only published non-fiction. That one really was my fault and a complete waste of time. Of course, even though it was only a few stamps and an envelope or two envelopes actually (an SASE for a return of my story), it was a waste nonetheless.

I found that in the end that you do the best you can and you simply never give up. Not completely, anyway. From time to time you have to bolster your ego, boost up your energy and take another full contact attempt at it. It is a long term marathon kind of endeavor and by no ways a sprint. The efforts can come in waves of productivity. Some people misinterpret that and quit. Don't. If you find you've slacked off, ask yourself, "why?" If' it's because it all seems useless and pointless, look at why you feel that way, reorient yourself, get up some steam and hit it full force again. Then just do that, over and over and over and--

Presently, we have many more options open to us as writers than I did when I received those rejections above. I suggest you find what those are now if you want to get published. Resources are everywhere online now. Use all of them. If you do, you will get published somewhere, eventually. Just keep going.

Under those circumstances, you almost can't avoid it.

Does your TV show run a minute longer now?

2012-04-09T04:20:00.118-07:00

Have you noticed that lately some TV shows are running just a minute over their normal thirty or sixty minutes time slots? If you have noticed, have you wondered why? Did you think, "Oh, awesome. An extra minute of my favorite TV show!"

First of all, are you actually getting an extra minute of your TV show? Or are you getting an extra minute of advertising? Do you use Tivo or a DVR to record your shows? Do you ever record two shows when one is on a different channel and one is running a minute long? It is really annoying. Especially, if you are trying to record three different shows on two different stations. My HD DVR can record two separate stations at the same time. If some of you still have systems that can record only one station at a time, this may not be as interesting an article as it will be for others.

Some DVRs have a fix for this extra minute beyond the 30 or 60 minute show; it just "clips" a show for that minute. Excellent. Well, maybe. My old nonHD Tivo DVR does that. The one that is now in my bedroom. But my new, more expensive, main HD DirecTV Tivo DVR does not have that capability. One might wonder why, right? Wouldn't you think that the more expensive system would have the extra capabilities? I would too. Yet, it doesn't.

What does this extra minute being added to shows mean then?

I submit that it is just one more abuse heaped upon the viewer by the networks and the middle media suppliers like DirecTV. It's bad enough that we have the studios and networks, now we also have to contend with the middleman of cable and satellite providers. No, this is nothing new really, it's just that it got me really annoyed this past week. Why? Because it's happened before, and one has to assume that it will happen again; and probably get worse in ways we have yet to think up.

I don't know about you, but I'm tired of it. I'm sick to death of being abused by these companies internal issues. Last week I put on "House", one of my favorite TV shows and now in its last season. I sat down, turned on the recorded show on my DVR while it was still recording, and all I got was a static screen saying they are sorry but the FOX Network is to blame as they forced them to not carry their signal anymore due to lack of payment, or agreement, or something, and they (DirecTV) hoped it will end soon. After all it wasn't their fault, it was the fault of the big bad FOX Network. Right. Lovely.

I think back to when there was only the big three stations, ABC, NBC and CBS and this was something that would never have happened. Why? Because they had advertisers to answer to, they had the public to answer to. And back in those days, probably the FCC. If this happened back then, someone would be getting fired, or God knows, going to jail or something.

So what does this mean now? Maybe that they just don't have us all to answer to anymore? So, how is that?

All this diversity in having so many channels available now has not only given us more viewing options, it apparently has given the studios, networks and media providers more options, too. Like to act unprofessionally and treat their customers like lower class citizens. It would seem that we just don't matter that much, anymore.

So we now find ourselves at the beck and call of those who should be at the beck and call of we the public, the viewer, the ones who are really, in the end, footing the bill for all this nonsense. We should all remember that they, believe it or not, work for us, and not the other way around. It is the same thing with all corporations now a days and we need to realize that this kind of thought has even been seeping into our government.

We the general public, have allowed ourselves to be pampered into submission so that now we take pretty much anything that is offered to us. We grumble and then allow it. Well, Occupy the Networks, Occupy the Cable and Satellite carriers! We need to kick some digital signal carrying ass!

We really need to speak up. Obviously, the best thing would be for all of us to just cancel them. This situation would end, overnight. But let's face it, that will never happen. No more than that internet thing that floats around every so often saying that on some certain day, no one is going to buy gas from the oil companies. Right! Like that is going to happen.

Still, we can make some noise about it. And we should. But I have to tell you, exactly what that noise will be, I'm still trying to figure out. If you know what that is, well, we're all ears.

Anthology of Evil free ebook through Friday April 6, 2012

2012-04-05T07:00:00.010-07:00

"Anthology of Evil" by JZ Murdock Free through Friday, April 6th, 2012.

I'm also happy to announce that I got a mention on the very cool Indies Unlimited Freebie Friday list of free ebooks!

I am offering my new ebook free through Friday, April 6th. This is a unique opportunity to read a collection of my short Horror and Sci Fi stories. This includes a favorite of actor Rutger Hauer, that he chose in an international writing contest he personally selected, “Poor Lord Ritchie”. Previous blogs of mine give more detail, but what do you have to lose?

Oh, yes I did.... This is the "proof" copy

The final story in the collection, “Andrew” is the prequel for my epic coming out later this month titled, “Death of Heaven”. Check it out.

https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/146744

Controversy over Death of Heaven, my new book

2012-04-02T04:20:00.070-07:00

This is similar but different, to my last blog article over the weekend about my new ebook having hit Smashwords and Amazon.

"Anthology of Evil" is of course, my collection of short Horror and Sci Fi stories. Look at my last article for the cover image. The proof just came in for the paperback version. Which is, awesome!

This time though I'm talking about my next book to come out, "Death of Heaven". Hopefully it will be out within a week or so. By the way, if you do read it and you had already read the Anthology, let's just say you will get an extra, added experience out of it all.

Now about "Death of Heaven". I'm pretty sure I am going to get some noise over it. I didn't intend for that to happen and I didn't even realize it might until I was more than half way through with the writing of it. At some point, and any author will tell you this, the characters can take on a life of their own, or the book just starts to write itself heading in a direction different from where you had planned to go. You then go where the story goes because telling a story that holds together, that maintains its conceit, is the main idea. Sometimes you don't like it, sometimes it's a real fun roller coaster ride.

What brings this all to mind is that today a reader of mine who is most of the way through the book now, warned me that this is probably going to get banned by some religious group or other. Well, isn't that special?

But that's not why I wrote it. I wrote it to entertain but also to supply a vastly different and more logical, speculative fiction story. That is to say Science Fiction and Horror in this case. An Alternative History of the entire Human Race; an explanation for everything we have believed up to this point that is radically different from whatever we had talked about before.

The name "Death of Heaven" actually made sense after it was written and so I named it that because it was so very appropriate. What will come after DOH (pun intended) gets published and read, only time will tell. Regardless of whatever ends up happening, it should certainly be interesting.

Feel free to stand by as specator as it would be an extra entertainment. One that could in the end open discussion and make people think, in Humankind's ongoing march toward lucidity, clarity and enlightenment, and away finally from the ironhold of the lunacy that it has been gripped in for thousands of years. If you find you agree in anyway feel free to speak up. Remember that it's not so important to preach to the choir, but to speak in the face of adversity offers the biggest chance at change and progress.

Of course, first we have to find people to read it. That is my problem to solve and something that I am working on. Also, we have to finalize the cover and we're working on that, too.

So, with all that being said there really is only one thing left to say:

Cheers!

Free Sci Fi ebook - Celebrating my new book coming out

2012-03-31T17:42:00.002-07:00

My new ebook has hit Smashwords and will be available soon on Amazon once they have approved it.

"Anthology of Evil" is my collection of short Horror and Sci Fi. This is the final design of the front and back covers.

So in celebration for a short time I'm opening up for free, my currently available short story eBook, Simon's Beautiful Thought. If you haven't yet heard, it's about a guy who falls for his sixth generation cell phone digital assistant, after teaking it a bit. One day he takes her out for lunch (you have to read it to understand how that makes any sense), and from then on his life will never be the same.

Getting back to my Anthology, the titles are as follows, along with a few interesting pieces of information:

In Memory, Yet Crystal Clear - Social Horror, a man turns himself into a computer chip to rule the world, or at least, the US
Gumdrop City - Horror moves into the neighborhood
Quantum History - How is it to wake and not feel quite yourself?
The Mea Culpa Document - Life for a witch hunter in old England
Poor Lord Ritchie's Answer (To A Question He Knever Knew") - Rich kids have it hard even in medieval times
Sarah - psychological horror where Alzheimer's meets Geology
The Fall - be careful who you allow to fall in love with you, not that you have a choice
Japheth, Ishvi and the Light - The apocalypse hits a religious commune
Andrew - what's it like to be five and see the most horrible thing in the world?

My next book to come out will be "Death of Heaven" and hopefully will be out within a week or so after the Anthology. By the way, if you do read it and you had read the Anthology, let's just say you will get an extra, added experience out of it all.

Cheers!

Head Medical Aurhority in British Columbia speaks out on marijuana war

2012-03-28T07:30:00.002-07:00

Really, we need to stop being afraid of the unknown, as they were at the alcohol prohibition time, and make this work. She has some very good points in this statement. Fact has got to outweigh belief. Arianna Huffington said this week that she believes in God because she just knows it. Okay, fine but admit it, that does not work in government millions of people. Decisions have got to be made on fact and the facts here are that warring on one's own citizens, even in metaphor, is untenable and unsustainable. Grow up, stop it.

Oh, and when you're done reading this, check out medicalmarijuana.procon.org.
From the article:

Dr. Evan Wood, founder of Stop the Violence BC, said experts are advocating not for easier access to marijuana but for a regime whereby purchases and production are regulated and taxed.

“If anyone takes a sober look at the current situation we’re in, it’s a totally unsustainable model. We could do a lot better job in terms of bending public resources in a way that would actually reduce crime and increase public health.

“There’s some bad irony that we’re expecting a federal budget that will make cuts to health and social services, yet billions of tax dollars will go to building prisons to lock up minor drug offenders.”

The report is co-authored by British Columbia’s provincial health officer.

“Despite the fact that there’s a lot of social costs to illegal drug use, there’s also quite a gulf of evidence that shows what isn’t working with marijuana prohibition,” said Dr. Perry Kendall, the province’s top doctor.

This report was published in Open Medicine journal and outlines the support from the public-health community for a new approach to these "drug wars" Finally, acknowledging the ineffectiveness of, and the great harm that has been caused by the war from national levels on its on citizenry about drugs.

For the original article

Theists: "Well, I have Faith"

2012-03-26T04:00:00.001-07:00

The woman in this video, brings up a good point. First of all, Faith or not, I would consider listen to anything she has to say. Second-- well, I'll let her explain: Hot woman in video talking about talking to a Theist who ends a discussion on religion by saying, "Well, I have Faith," as a way to explain away any thought to questioning if they should be having "Faith" in the first place. Okay, you don't really have to watch the video. I just thought it was a very pleasant video to watch. I mean, to listen to.

The point here is, when you are having a discussion with a Theist, someone who believes in God, or religion (typically, their own religion), and especially if you think you are making a very logical argument against Theism and they hit a wall so that their final response is, "Well, I just have Faith", that does not have to end your argument; as they are hoping, wishing, and praying it will end and you will leave them alone and not question them any further, because you just might "shake" their "faith". And I use a little "f" here on faith because if your "Faith" can be shaken, what the Hell good is it?

Here's the thing....

If you believe in something, you had better understand it well enough that you can find solid ground in believing it. "Faith" in something requires that you have at least a fundemental basis in believing it. Saying that "someone told me and so I believe", or "I believe because my parents taught it to me as a child", are actually reasons NOT to have faith in something.

Furthermore, if you are going to have Faith in anything, you had best check it out beyond simply hearing about it and believing it. Otherwise, you are really kind of a fool, don't you think? And I don't really think any "God" wants fools for believers. Maybe the "Meek" but where does it say anywhere that the Meek are also fools? Where does it say anywhere that "God" goes through all this merely to claim a bunch of weakminded people who do not check anything against anything substantive, in order to "believe" that they will reap rewards in the "afterlife", by doing whatever random thing they are told or taught to believe by others who have been randomly told or taught what to believe by still others?

Now, you can say if you like that people who belive in science are doing exactly the same thing, but they are not. In science you can look at actual physical evidence to prove a point and logic follows. In religion, you are following the "physical evidence" of the written word and religious pundits.

Look, I'm a writer. I write "Speculative Fiction". I take a premise and write fiction from that point on. My writings make more sense than the Bible does. Now don't fly off the handle on that, my writer's are more focused and thought out. Even most Theists should see that is true. The writer's of the Bible were guided by no more than I am: a belief in what is being said, making sense. But, much of what the Bible says simply doesn't make any sense. And I don't pass my works off as non-fiction. I'm sure those people in the past who wrote the Bible meant well, but perhaps were just misguided. On the other hand, they were tasked to do it and people died over it in the end, not to mention "book burnings". It could also have been a situation where it simply worked for them then. But sometimes you do something that is good for now, but 1,000 years from "now", it can become quite destructive.

So, the next time you are in a discussion, a debate on religion and suddenly the other person tries to end it by saying, "Well, I just have Faith" as if that is the end all be all, simply ask them to prove that "Faith" by explaining how what they believe in, makes any sense beyond their having that "Faith". And no, you really cannot go simply back to the Bible to prove what you believe.

Here is another video on research that was done. Ask yourself, why it is that Atheists have more knowledge about religion than Theists do about their own beliefs? Actually you need to ask the opposite question. Who in their right mind would have "Faith" in something, when they don't even know what it is that they are really having "Faith" in? It's scary, really. Terrifying, in some cases.

Another interesting video is by Ajahn Brahm about Buddhism and Atheism and gives examples of situations where a belief in a God actually leads people to make choices they should know are not good but they proceed anyway because they believe that they are expected to, by their "God".

People are voting for political reasons in a way to support what they believe, what they have "Faith" in. They are putting it to the real world test. They are bringing their Theists beliefs into the secular world. Secular because it is in a forum that includes others not of their "Faith" or at times, not of any Theist Faith at all. It would be like my believing in some bizarre sexual lifestyle and wanting to vote that way so that you end up having to live some elements of that. I'm not comparing Theism to sexualism or perversion (well? Uh, no, perhaps not....), I'm pointing out how wrong that would be, to try and bring others into whatever that sick fantasy might be. And no, I don't live a sick fantasy. You can have "Faith" on that.

The point is, in my own examination of what Theists believe toward their having their "Faith" has been much in the same with what they talk about in the video of having found out in the public of today. Many people are simply clueless about what their "Faith" actually entails. At times, believing in total nonsense that even educated Theists within their own "Faith" know to be wrong. So what does that say about all this Right Wing Conservative Political talk on what is "Right" and "Wrong" and what "God" wants of them?

We have masses of people trying to change our country and in some cases the world, based on beliefs of an arcane and somewhat insane fantasy.

If you are going to have "Faith" in anything, Ladies and Gentlemen, PLEASE, at least learn what that Faith is all about. Then, dig even deeper, find out where that information came from. Then keep digging, because you will find what I have found, that it is on a foundation metaphorically based in a "desert of sand during an earthquake". It is a shaky foundation that begins to be lost quickly once put under the bright light of examination.

And that does not make it a "sin" in "God's" eyes. Because to examine your beliefs, your "Faith" better assures you are believing in what your religion desires for you to believe in. Do you realize how many people are out there beliving in total nonsense within their own religion? Quite a lot!

My own Catholic mother years ago was telling me some total nonsense about Catholicism. I asked, where did you learn THAT? She said, "My parents taught me that and I belive them. I have 'Faith'." I couldn't believe it. Then one day a couple of weeks later, we had our Parish Priest over for lunch and this topic came up. He looked at her and I waited to hear who was right, her, or logic and the teachings of the Catholic Church. Trying to hide his being stunned, he said,"Who told you that?" She hesitated. He continued, "Because that is not what our religion teaches, that is not what the Catholic Church tells us. It is completely incorrect." Boom! She had to change her belief. Not that it evoked any fundemental changes in her belief, her Faith.

This was from one of the people in a religion who should know. He was a vibrant, intelligent, educated Priest, not some doddering ancient old fool who is loosing his mind, and there are plenty of them in religion. There are also plenty of fools in religion talking total nonsense. I mean really, there is nothing that complicated about archelology. It's not "Magic". You dig down through layers of dirt and you do essentially go back in time to see what was what. Dinosauers did not live with man or exist a few thousand years ago.

If that is not true and functional then what? "God" is lying to you on purpose? Does THAT make sense to you? The ancient Greeks and Romans used to think their "Gods" were like that, playing Humankind for fools as pawns upon a chessboard of sorts, abusing us for their own amusment. If that is the case, then we are lost and might as well give up now.

So, the next time a Theist tries to end an argument with "Well, I just have Faith," don't let them get away with that cheap shot. Ask them, "what exactly is it that you have faith in?" Give them a chance to convert you. It won't happen. Trust me.

Forbidden Zone 2

2012-03-22T06:00:00.002-07:00

So, I just heard Rick Elfman is doing Forbidden Zone 2.
That's all I have for now, but I had to mention it.
I've very happy to hear this. I have a signed copy of the original.
Excellent!

On Writing "Death of Heaven" and "Showing the Monster"

2012-03-19T04:20:00.024-07:00

As I've mentioned here before, I have a new book coming out called, "Death of Heaven". Actually, I have two books coming out soon. You know, I've been told all my life that I was a very good writer but I never really believed it, or that I could ever actually become a writer. Even though I was a Senior Technical Writer for many years, so I suppose in a way, I already am a writer.

But they say the" truth is in the pudding", don't they? And I do love my pudding. Or was that "putting"? I put it as good as I can, could, uh, goodly can-- would? Actually it is, "the proof of the pudding is in the eating". And so, "the proof is in the pudding". Actually actually, the pudding in question was probably a savory and not a dessert. In William Camden's "Remaines of a Greater Worke Concerning Britaine" (1605): "All the proof of a pudding is in the eating." Camden's list of proverbs also includes, "If you eat a pudding at home, the dog may have the skin"; and so we are most likely referring to a typical sausage.

Well, well, well now.

Well? I was told frequently as a child how that was a deep subject for such a shallow mind as mine. But I won't let an infirmaty or a disability stop me now. Finally, I've decided that I'm going to grab it by the tail and see who salutes. That is, run it up the flagpole and hold on for dear life.

Possibly, I'll just publish and see if anyone reads it.

My first short story online, "Simon's Beautiful Thought" is currently on Smashwords and Amazon. People seem to like this little Sci Fi tale of romance. So far so good. However, compared to my works coming up soon, it's pretty lightweight, almost sweet in a way. My new book, "Anthology of Evil", is a collection of my short stories of horror, humor and science fiction. Shortly after that will be, "Death of Heaven".

We now have the cover done for the anthology and we're working on the cover for "Death of Heaven". This last book is going to be huge in its scope. Perhaps I'm just working out some demons, but I wanted to go as big as I could. There is a little of everything in it. It has links to a short story in the Anthology and one of my Horror/Comedy screenplays (HearthTales) that I have written. Once these are all produced, I think it will be a lot of fun. I think that is all I will say about it for now.

PreRelease version of "Anthology of Evil" cover
Cover art by Genius Artist Marvin Hayes

Okay, on to the point of this article.

JJ Abrams gave a talk on TED a while back. It's pretty interesting and entertaining. It got me to thinking about my book and what I have done with it. I saw three issues to consider in Abrams talk: imagination, how it relates to the entertainment experience ("showing the monster" or not), and communication between artist/author and audience.

First let me point out a couple of things about imagination and "showing the monster" which has a lot to do with how I structured my book and how I tend to work in my writings. Since Abrams is using film points in his talk, I'll use that as a way to exemplify my own points.

When I was very young and in the years following, movies never wanted to show the monster. Because what they had to work with back then was pretty lame. Before I started watching in the 60s, they used to show the monster in those old horror and sci fi movies. I later saw them as a young kid and they almost always let you down. But back then they were at the caveman level of creating (especially Science Fiction) special effects. So the F/X sucked for the most part. Like Robot Monster (1953) where you had an actor in a gorilla suit and they stuck a "spacesuit helmet on it. Pretty sad.

Robot Monster (1953)

Of course there were better ones. "Creature from the Black Lagoon" (1954), was just an actor in a suit, but it looked pretty cool. And it went underwater. Even though you could see the zipper down the back, you didn't care because they actually let you see the monster and they put enough time and money into it and the story and production values, that it was really pretty cool.

The Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954)

So we knew it could be done. Not to mention "King Kong" (1933), various photo enlarged bugs, and others. I loved BEMs back then, Bug Eyed Monsters. I think the show "Outer Limits" back then did a lot to explore that area. They were kind of the BEM version of "The Twilight Zone", the gold standard of bizarre speculative fiction. Rod Serling was a genius.

"Them" (1954) was a valiant effort and we accepted it because it was a pretty good movie and they played it for real. But the giant ants in that film, once shown were pretty fake looking. Still it was such a good effort that we appreciated it and accepted it.

"The Incredible Shrinking Man" (1957) is still one of my favorites, and probably the most philosophical Sci Fi of that time. But that was more tricks with cameras and lenses. Still, it looked great. They showed the monster, even though it was either a cat, or a spider made to look far bigger in sight and danger than we were used to seeing it. It took the ordinary and made it terrifying.

Producers and studios realized that it was difficult, expensive and time consuming coming up with good monsters and in the end many times, the audience didn't buy it or appreciate it. So they started not showing the monster. That put the impetus upon the viewer to create what scared them and it worked very well.

The unshown monster in that way is scary to each individual viewer. Hitchcock figured this out and Psycho is a perfect example. He did not show in that shower murder scene 90% of what people think they saw. After viewing that film for the first time, people said they remembered seeing Janet Leigh stabbed and naked, neither of which were true.

But let's face it after a while you get tired of doing all the mental drawing yourself. You want to see the monster and you don't want to be let down. So, along came films like "Jaws" (1975) and "Alien" (1979) which frankly, is understood to be "Jaws in Space". Those were scary movies! And in them when you finally see the monster you sure as Hell are not let down. Well, Jaws' shark was questionable but a valiant effort and the rest of the movie was so good that we let it go.

So, they proved that it can be done.

The other issue is in going bigger. Bigger than life. As big as possible. Bigger. And I don't mean, explosions. The James Bond franchise was one of the worst transgressors of this buffoonery for decades, where they really repeatedly went off the deep end time and time again. Of course I blame studio Execs for this kind of idiocy. And the viewing public certainly has its share of the blame to bear.

It's always been my experience that when you hit a certain level, to continue is to simply make a fool of yourself and your project. So it's best to do a 180, otherwise you jump the shark. And Fonzie jumping the shark on his motorcycle has many times been a far better scene than those in some of the films that thought adding gas to the fire made for a more pleasing filmic experience; when in reality it just made for a bigger fire (or explosion).

At some point the bigger is better paradigm breaks down

As for James Bond, give me a more thrilling experience, not a more action experience. I want to leave that theater drained and exhausted, not bored with yet another but bigger explosion. You get into Nukes eventually. Which is what we're supposed to be avoiding, right?

The turn around for me with Bond was "Casino Royale" (2006) with Daniel Craig. The opening scene was excellent. But again, was it a huge explosion? No. It was two people going against each other and exceeding what is thought to be Humanly possible. The opening chase scene with Sébastien Foucan and his "Freerunning" or "parkour" sport display was amazing and I found it far more thrilling than any explosion.

So, when I was putting my book, "Death of Heaven" together, I wondered: just how big can I go?

And I thought to myself: go as big as you can. So I did. But what? Bigger than a nuke? Okay, I can do that. But then what? What's bigger than a nuke? Exactly.

I went to the biggest things I could think of. For me, that would be the concepts of God, the Universe and the MultiVerse. Or to go the other direction: dark versions of God, the subatomic domain, as that direction seems to go on forever in the same way the Universe does. Some of it you can leave to the imagination, but at some point you have to show, something. At least how I see it.

The connecting factor between those two concepts of big and small is to go far beyond what we know, where anything is fair game and from our current knowledge and experience, anything is possible.

Still when showing the monster you have to show something, but you also have to leave something to the imagination. In films, you actually have to create and show something, be it with physical F/X or digital.

Now a days there is a lot of digital blood spray, fire, smoke, steam, water effects. And they're getting better, but they are still pretty bad in many cases. But they need time to work through it until they evolve and get better. The more they use it, the sooner they will start to appear realistic. And they will as soon as software, hardware and talent get better at it.

So we put up with it knowing it saved money elsewhere in the film and perhaps gave us a better overall experience. Eventually, we really won't know what is real and what is digital. In some cases we are there now, but in many we are still in the fledgling stages of special F/X. I can remember when the really good digital F/X started but were only in films like Star Wars, or Star Trek.

I remember saying that they will really have matured once they are not noticed in films like Braveheart or RomComs, where they blend and enhance the film without anyone realizing they were there. Now, we are pertty much there. But still, the cutting bleeding edge, are the heavy special F/X users, such as sci fi and horror films. Smoke and fluids seem to be the tough ones still to crack.

But in fiction writing, you don't have those constraints. You can use the reader's imagination more and if you do it properly they won't even know it. But I wanted to give the reader as much to work with as possible. So I felt I had to show my work as well as try to draw on the reader's imagination. There is a balance there and when you hit it just right, both reader and author can be highly satisfied and know that they will return to do it again.

Whether or not I have achieved this lofty goal is yet to be seen. So far though, I've gotten good feedback from readers. I put a lot of work into it over a long period of time and I have at some points stretched myself beyond my own creative limits. Because that is how you get better so that one day you will exceed your present capabilities, as you hopefully will the next and the next time. It took a lot of work, and it has caused me some degree of concern.

I think there is definitely a dynamic between author and reader where one can help the other along. It's symbiotic, or it should be. Yes, the author should write what feels right, but you have to pay attention to your audience. Communication of any kind is a two way street. Don't get angry if someone doesn't follow what you are saying, you are the one saying it after all. If they don't get it, you have to adjust so that they do; and yes, they do need to put in the effort to try and understand you. As in any relationship if you both take on the responsibility when the communication isn't working well, to enhance communication from each end, then you will both have a far better experience and understanding than you would originally have had.

If the author is not getting across what they are trying to say, then who is wrong? The readers? Well, maybe. Sometimes marketing goes vastly wrong. A Romance reader may very well not get a hard Sci Fi story. And the far religious right will probably hate my writings. Mostly because I have put a lot of thought and research into my works and I'm not limited to any artificial boundaries like religion sets for its followers.

I read the Bible many years ago and such books as: The Bhagavad Gita, The Koran (as most Westerners seem to spell it, but then they also say "Buddhist" when really it is "Buddha Dharma", referring to the study of those teachings), and others. But I also researched where the Bible came from, and the others. And I read many other non religious books, historical, scientific, physics and metaphysics, and so on. I also got a University degree and studied psychology (my major) and Anthropology and Sociology.

My brother used to like to tease me saying that college students are "college stupid"; and there is something to be said for that. College isn't the end all be all if you come out of it closed minded in merely a more educated way. And when I graduated I thought again, as I did in graduating High School, or in becoming a teenager that I knew everything. I didn't.

In fact, what college taught me was that as I grew more knowledgeable, I grew to know that I knew less and less about more and more. Religion is the opposite; as you learn more you actually want to know less and less. You don't want to eat from the Tree of Knowledge, right? Because once you start thinking that way, religion starts to fall apart.

Anyway, I was still better off than before I went to college. In the end you just have to come to terms with exactly what you know.

"A good man knows his limitations", someone once told me. And that is a powerful thing to know.

Whenever you push your limits, as I was mentioning earlier, you are always going to be sweating bullets until the consensus is in. Was it positive? Or negative? Basically, you want to hear what direction it is heading. I just want to know if it's negative or not, at first. Then I want to know the specifics so that hopefully I can learn from it, adjust what I am doing and in the end, turn out a far superior work next time.

All that being said, sometimes you just have to write. Sometimes you are ahead of the times. Like Van Gogh. But truly, there is no reason as an artist to starve if you pay attention. You can always "do your art" as well as make a living. Being too much the idealist, is immature really, not purist.

If my book isn't selling in say, Spain, then maybe next time around I'll distribute copies there in Spanish. Yes, you should write what you feel, but you should also consider how you need to communicate to your audience. "Art" is not all about doing what you think is right. It's also a form of communication, sharing an experience, taking your viewers into your mind and letting them feel what you feel.

Then again I read some authors because I know they are better at their Art than I am at understanding it and I want to get to where I can understand them, because I know I'll be better for it.

In the end, I just want people to know that I certainly put in the effort in my writings and that I took a chance. Because I felt I really had to. And I always will. That's just who I am. Otherwise, why am I doing it if not to entertain and progressively develop my skills in order to do it again and again? Then hopefully the next time I will be even better at it.

I'm here to entertain and hopefully offer a different way of looking at things, especially the mundane in life. And if I can do that and you take a few new ways of looking at things after reading my works, then I will be a satisfied and proud writer indeed.

What is a religious state?

2012-03-12T04:20:00.004-07:00

I thought this was an interesting comment that I heard from Director Godfrey Reggio, the Director of 1982's ground breaking film, Koyaanisqatsi:

"Life unquestioned, is life lived in a religious state."

That explains so much, really. Why things are in such a mess in many places as in the most religious there is the least questioned and the most taken on "faith", the bane of scientific inquiry. And we should question, everything. To go through life with one's eyes closed is to leave the innocents to the ravages of nature.

And yes, that includes questioning "God".

Because even if you are religious, if you do not question your God, you are not questioning the posibility that some individual between you and your God, injected something that God never intended.

And if anything is a sin, that is.

The comment was from the Director of Koyaanisqatsi, Powaqqatsi, and Naqoyqatsi, and he should know, he has the acumen and wisdom to be accurate in such a statement over that of most of us, I should think. His having gone into a monastery at fourteen and come out at twenty-eight, makes him much more educated on this topic than those of us who have haphazardly learned our beliefs out in the world where the level of ignorance is heightened not unusually blurred; sometimes even, purposely.

So don't be ashamed, fearful, or reticent to question authority, at whatever level. Because any true God will not be offended but appreciative that you are trying to find the True Word and not one adulterated by nefarious injections.

Or, just trust Scientific Inquiry.

It's up to you. Just remember what being in a "religious state" means and don't let it turn you into one who is too scared of your own shadow to ask questions, or use the brain that your God allegedly gave you. Because, someone gave it to you for some reason. Or it was mere happenstance and so you essentially gave it to yourself and so if that's the case, I would make the best use of it possible.

But either way, I'm pretty sure that wherever it came from, it wasn't meant not to be properly used.

When am I a writer?

2012-03-05T04:20:00.001-08:00

On Bill Moyer's new show on PBS, "Moyers & Company", the Poet Chis Wiman said that he hadn't written a poem in two months and he doesn't feel like a poet. He said that when he writes a poem, then he feels like a poet and then he is a poet. But in between those times, he is only a person like anyone else. Prose, he said, you can do anytime, but poetry is something that comes only on those occassions when you are tapped into something special.

I think that is an important and salient point.

Many people like to say they are a Writer. There are many ways for people to be whatever they like now. You can write a book and throw up a first draft online and say you are now a writer. You can talk about writing and never do it, and tell people you are a writer. You can write not a letter and claim you are a writer.

But what makes you a writer? More importantly, when, are you a writer?

Are you a writer because you write? Or is it about the quality, or the volume of your writings? Is it if you get paid for your writings? Is it if you are given a lot of money by a single entity, a company, a corporation? Is it if you are paid individually by the individuals who read your writings? Is it by peer review, or by critique by knowldgeable other writers who designate you, a Writer?

If you want to be a Writer, get up in the morning, and put pencil or pen to paper and write. Put your fingers on the keyboard and write. Lift them when you have to. Any less than that slows and decreases the speed at which you will achieve your goals.

Of course you have to eat, work, clean, have a family, rest, relax, make love and be loved. But it is a fine balance. The more of one, the less of another. You decide what your priorities are. Would you prefer that TV show? Or produce a piece of writing? Enjoy time to play, or become what you want to become, sooner?

I liked what Mr. Wiman said about being a poet.

When I write, I am a writer. But further, it has to have some quality to it. Surely, a bunch of letters written, is not writing. So, when I am producing a piece of writing that has a quality that is above what anyone can do; when it is above the quality of most writers, then I am a Writer, and especially so.

When it is accepted as good enough for me to be paid for it, I am a Writer. When I am given praise by readers who spend their hard earned labors turned into currency, that they transfer to me for what I have produced, then I am a Writer. When I write a piece that touches my own soul, even if I show it to no one else, then too, I am a Writer.

But as Mr. Wiman indicated, I am first and foremost a writer when I write. That, is the first step. You have to write first, to be considered a Writer. You have to continue being a Writer, to continue being considered a Writer. If and when you do that, only then can you consider yourself, a Writer.

And when you stop? Then you are no longer a Writer. So if you want to be considered a writer....

Write.

Gender Bender article

2012-02-27T14:15:00.002-08:00

I was recently in a writer's group on LinkedIn and was contacted by another writer about something I had posted regarding a story of mine, and Rutger Hauer. She was very curious about the story that Mr. Hauer had liked so mcuh, and I ended up sending her the story and another I had just finished.

She found the whole story about Rutger and my story intresting and asked if I minded if she posted an article she had in mind. I pleased to hear what she had in mind and told her to please feel free to write and post it. She has. It was fun and very pleasing to read.

I thought you might find it entertaining too and I wanted to share it with you. If you go to her aticle Gender Bender, on IndiesUnlimited.com, you can read what she wrote and see my reply posted beneath it. The two stories of mine that she references will be in a book I'm preparing this week to release, so if you are really curious, it won't be long before you will be able to find out what all the fuss is about.

As posted in her article, the stories in question are "Poor Lord Ritchie" (short title) and I had also sent her "The Fall". Both stories will be out in my new book any time now.

It's a very nice article. I hope you check it out. I've been on IndiesUnlimited for a little while now and it's a pretty cool site.

From the IndiesUnlimited.com About page:

We are at the beginning of a technological revolution in how books are written, published, marketed, purchased, and read. This site is dedicated to the independent authors, publishers, reviewers and readers who are on the cutting edge of that technological revolution.

A major challenge for any indie author is the lack of established infrastructure in place to market indie books. It can be challenging and time-consuming to get the word out about your book, to find reviewers, and to drive traffic to your website or Facebook page. As a new author, I was delighted to discover a very high level of mutual support and camaraderie in the indie author community. This platform is born from that spirit of mutual aid and support.

Please make Indies Unlimited your home for engagement with others who are interested in the Indie Author Movement. Be sure to “play nice” with others. Write informative, educational, or opinion minded comments, guest posts and other contributions. You can promote your books or yourself by participating in discussions and providing valuable content. Please do not spam us or use this system to send unrequested self-promotion, marketing, or sales materials. Instead, please use this platform to engage, inform, discuss, and build quality relationships.

I hope you will find this site both entertaining and informative and you will make a visit to Indies Unlimited part of your daily routine. You can also find us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.

Sincerely,

Stephen Hise

It's okay to write

2012-02-27T04:20:00.007-08:00

Someone was just pointing out that perfectionism stifles writing and creativity.

I hadn't really thought about it that way, but I think that years ago, between that and a kind of fear of exposure or being called out as being substandard in various ways, it made it almost impossible for me to write.

I loved to read when I was young. To be a writer was the highest goal I could think of. But I didn't really consider it. I "believed" I wasn't capable. But in 10th grade, my English teacher recognized my ability and tried to get me on the school newspaper. But I came up with reasons not to out of fear and a belief I was unworthy, incapable, or just too stupid. See, I had a step-father who told me that on a regular basis, "You're stupid." he would say when I was frustrating him. So I believed him. I don't believe him anymore.

When I started college, my first English comp teacher told me that of anyone in our class, I had to be a writer. He said that I had a skill and passion for it whether I knew it or not. He could see it in my class assignments. He had said that I had an energy that was undeniable; I had ideas that jumped off the page. I remember the lighthearted gleam in his eye, the energy he had for me to go on writing.

But I told him that I knew I didn't have a good, conscious comprehension of the rules of grammar. He smiled knowingly at me and said, "Look, just write, don't worry about all the mechanics and peripheral things; just write. Then go back and worry about all that later."

Once I heard that from someone I respected, that it was okay to throw caution to the wind, and just write, I tried it. It felt like dipping into a cold lake, naked at first, but after a while, the waters began to warm (or I to it) and it got easier, and easier. That stage lasted for me for a few years. But it allowed me permission to continue with the practice of writing, for it to happen more frequently; and more importantly perhaps, for it to happen more enjoyably. Until and so that eventually, the quality of what I wrote began to increase.

If not for that one English teacher giving me permission to write horrible prose, I may never have gotten past that initial fear of not being perfect. The rest really just took practice-- and listening productively to criticism.

He made it clear to me that it wasn't that hard. If I just did that, "listened", I would get better. He took the fear of writing, almost completely away for me, so that I could simply enjoy doing it. I didn't have to be perfect. I could just enjoy myself; and of course, try to become better over time. No matter how long it took. Because the other element in being a writer is, perseverance.

The fear of outwardly being perceived by others in a negative light, took a different kind of practice to overcome. I don't think it was so much growing a thicker skin as it was learning to accept people's criticisms. To recognize that criticism was a tool, something to divert from my feelings and instead over to making changes during rewrites. Then incorporating those learned components into future writings. One should also be aware and recognized that some criticism should be thoroughly discarded.

It is important to learn to recognize useful criticism as useless criticism. Some people are either mean spirited, or are fools and simply don't know what they are talking about. They are certainly out there and sometimes they can be emotionally close to you. They either have standards far higher for you than are useful to you; they want you to fail; they simply believe you will fail; or THEY fear that you will let THEM down. Because as we all know, with those types of people, it's all about them, right? Just ignore them. Move on. Instead zero in on those who are useful to you, to move your writing along, onward and upward

Criticism isn't about your feelings. It's about using comments on your writings as a tool. Use that tool to forge your current and next writings into a far better piece of art, or production. The trouble is, like in learning to ride a bike, it's scary, sometimes painful; but if you keep at it, you will get through it. Every professional writer, or rider, has had to go through that painful period.

They just had to learn how to make it through to where they finally ended up. To turn things around to where they buoyed themselves up and carried them forward, instead of impeding their progress, which can be all to easy to let happen.

Perhaps most people, most of the time, give up. Since most people do not seem to continue on after initially being shot down; and we're almost all shot down by someone in the beginning, This is especially true for writers, artists and musicians. Sometimes we get stuck in that first stage of fear and pain. Sometimes, we deny ourselves our own greatness.

Of all those people who will tell you that you can't, don't be one of those who believe them. There are enough people out there already who will tell you that you can't. Can't make it, can't do it, that you can't be what you want to be.

At this point, let me say that I've finished editing my new book, Anthology of Evil and we are working on the cover art. It should be out soon. Very quickly after that will be a second book which has an interesting connection to the first. I have recently gotten my first work up as an epublication, on Amazon and Smashwords.

Cover image for "Simon's Beautiful Thought"

It's been a long time from my first short story in 10th grade to now with this short story "Simon's Beautiful Thought" and it is a very rewarding time for me. I'm not even quite sure how I got to this point, except to say that it took a lot of hard work and immersing myself in what I love to do.

For yourself, if you wish to write, or anything you think you would love to do, just remember that it's okay. Work through that first stage and work hard to make it be as short a period as possible. And don't forget that the more you ride that bike, the faster you pass that painful and scary training period.

So-- write. Do you Art.

"Simon's Beautiful Thought" cover art reworked

2012-02-21T06:30:00.014-08:00

Update: My brother kindly reworked the cover art on my Sci Fi short story, "Simon's Beautiful Thought" both on Smashwords and Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing. And this was a good reason to mention it again....

Cover image for "Simon's Beautiful Thought"

FYI [Tuesday 2/21 - 11:15AM] It looks like uploading the new cover graphic last night put the Amazon KDP version into draft mode which may take a couple of days to come on line. But the Smashwords version is still available. Sorry for the inconvenience.
Check it out. It's visible on Smashwords, Amazon is taking their sweet time replacing it the graphic.
I worked massive hours this weekend on my Anthology of Horror and have 100 pages left to get through, then I will be getting it out to be published. I was slowed down by a birthday party on Sunday and ensuing events, as well as the short story in the anthology titled, "Andrew", which is written in a difficult to edit style but I believe to be a good work.

Once I finish the Anthology, then I will finish up my book and get it out to the public and then it's back to my "America" screenplay that I've been working on with Producer Chris Soth.

Have a great week and for those of your who only have a four day work week, congrats and enjoy!

Cheers!

Lying to get a job

2012-02-20T04:20:00.000-08:00

First of all, I try never to lie to anyone about anything. It's my thing. :) The only place I've lied is on a resume and in an interview and honestly, I probably wasn't lying, but it was close enough to me, that I felt like it was. But I got the jobs, I succeeded, they were always very pleased with me and my results. Win, win.
It takes more intelligence to always tell the truth than it does to lie. Unless you are a professional liar which is a conman, but I've found few who could keep track properly and they aren't people to be around; unless you're a conman, too.

I was once told that you're a fool if you don't try to sound better than you are in the interview / resume process, to strive to get a job as far above you as is reasonable and possible. How close to a lie or beyond is up to your credentials and skills.

You can lie to get a job, you cannot get caught in the lie; so the easiest way is not to lie. Plus in some jobs, you can find serious repercussions if getting found out. I'm not saying break the law, I'm saying use your discretion and shoot for the sky. And if you do lie (or stretch the truth which is much safer), you'd better be able to perform when tasked to do so.

I understand people want to be better than what they are and I praise that effort. I know some people can do more than they have been and just need the chance to show what they can do. I like when people who are striving to rise. I don't hold a resume against someone as long as 1) they succeed in what they have claimed and 2) that is the only place they are being so inaccurate. That being said, you have to check out that resume, check their skills. If it all proves true (even if it's not) you may be getting a good employee that will be a plus for both you and them. Win, Win.

Now, all that being said, it can be a fine line, you can end up with a very questionable employee who will lie to get the job. Like that woman we hired that time. If she had fooled me, quickly learning, showing what an expert she was, fine. As long as I didn't notice, I don't care. Good for her!

But she failed and therefore had to accept the consequences (but wouldn't); and she was questionable in many other areas aside from work. Funny, if she had succeeded in her lie, I would have respected her and her skills. There are geniuses out there who can do or quickly pick up almost anything and you could luck into that. And others who will lie and walk all over anyone to get up that ladder. So in her lying and failing, I lost all respect for her.

Just being honest here. :)