Three main characters in the story are Levi, Purah, and of course Belial. Later on, Lucifeil plays a very large role as well.

Levi – “Levi 19:1, Testament of the Twelve Patriarchs. Levi tells his children to chose between the law of God and the work of Belial”. He tells them that “when a soul is constantly disturbed, the Lord departs from it, and Belial rules it”.

Levi was an actual person written about in the bible who was the first to record anything about the demon Belial. In it they state that it is not known how Belial came to be or how Belial came to oppose God. So I have taken Levi to be an old angel in Heaven (Then called Avarot), who is an inventor, and has created Belial for the purpose of overthrowing the Lord.

Purah – Angel of Forgetfulness. He is a conjurer, and he is called the angel of forgetfulness because you will not remember him after you meet him. He started out as a pawn in my main character’s game, but he is quickly becoming a main character himself as his personality develops out of my control.

“Purah – fallen angel of forgetfulness. Conjurer of the dead. Angel of oblivion. Also Puta or Poteh.”

The most fascinating thing is, no one knows where Belial came from. No one can agree if Belial is the devil himself, or the devil’s bride. Or someone else entirely. There is nothing in any bible testament that says how Belial came to be, just that Belial appeared.

“Belial was visible along with 666 fallen angels…” – The New Testament.

Word of Hell and the dark forces against God span across many different religions: The Occult, The New Testament, The Hebrew Bible, Pop Culture….Even the Catholic Church has reference to demons and possessions and exorcisms. But none of them can explain why the angels fell, or how those demons were created. GOOD FAITH IN MEN can tell you.

More on Lucifeil later. First, I want to give some facts (as far as anyone can actually call them facts) about demons – I’m writing about the creation of them here.

Demons do not give up their name. In exorcisms, the priest’s main hurdle is getting the demon to say his name. As soon as he has the name, the demon can be controlled. I believe this to be because different demons have different ways they can be controlled and different words that will do them harm. Without knowing who the priest is dealing with, it is very difficult to know which weapon to use.  Having the demon’s name also gets the demon’s attention. Often the demon is so busy creating chaos, it can’t be bothered to pay attention long enough to be exorcised. It’s excited, so calling it by name gets it to pay attention.

I’ll be back shortly.

I read something today, “Today is the start of a 365 page book.  Write it well.”

A lot has happened in 2013, and as my readers have probably noticed from my lack of any activity, there has been a lot of things slowing down my progress and productivity.  So a few of the things that turned 2013 into a snowball of bad luck included a computer crash, a car accident, among the other things that were going on behind the scenes, and of course it all fell on me at once so I was crushed under it all. But today, that is all behind me. In the last few days of 2013 I had already started to turn things around, finding some new motivation as my husband’s job keeps him late some nights and I hate being alone at night, so I needed distractions. I picked up my violin for the first time a few weeks ago in what had been years.  I picked up the novel I was working on (GOOD FAITH IN MEN) again since I don’t remember when. I started to rebuild.

Now then, as my sensei always says, On To The Next.  The Next being, GOOD FAITH IN MEN.

As you may have noticed, Superman Disposition’s Facebook page has changed back to GFIM’s theme, and I have begun to reveal some things about the novel there. I will put them all together in a post soon enough, and while I’m at it (since I’m writing about the creation of demons here), I will also be posting some information and interpretations about demons as well.

So then, あけましたおめでとう and happy Shogatsu, and I will be back shortly.

First let me start by saying that there is a difference between ‘writer’ and ‘author’. A writer has not yet been published, but an author has. This means publication in any form, not just books.

So, genre writing – what is it?  Genre writing is writing to a specific theme, context, historical era, or character preset.  For example; fantasy, western, vampire, sci fi – those are all genres.  Genre writers are the writers that write in only one genre.  All their books would be about sci fi, or all their books would be about fantasy, etc. Literary writers are that small percentage of writers who will cross genres.  Genre writing is generally mainstream, and extremely marketable, because the demographic is easy to target.  The writers know what their respective demographics are interested in, and can direct their techniques to specific groups of people.  Literary writing is a lot more challenging to market. Since the genre, themes, settings, and character presets are always changing, it’s hard to know exactly what demographic will be interested in a work at what specific time. That’s the bare bones of it, and I won’t go into too much detail because there are extensive resources out there to read up on the subjects if it interests you. Actual blogs by authors on the subject are the most fun.

It would be interesting to have a percentage of genre vs literary writers, but such a thing does not exist. If I were to guess, I would say the percentage is somewhere along the lines of 85% vs 15% respectively.

I am a literary writer. Even my most mainstream work, THE REALITY FILTER, can not be put into a specific genre in its own, because it is not simply a ‘murder mystery’.  It is not simply a ‘thriller’.  It is not simply a ‘psychological drama’.  It is all of those things, and does not follow the rules and guidelines of any of those genres. 

The other main point that makes me a literary writer is the fact that to date I have written or am in the process of writing 12 novels, and none of them are the same genre from the one before.  I am a special case, and I have not yet heard of another author who does this.  There are pros and cons to this approach to a writing career, the most obvious one being the marketing aspect.  When marketing a book, I am essentially starting over in the process with each new publication. One demographic may have liked one book, but the next one that comes out, they may not. Then I have to go out in search of a new demographic that does like the new book.  There is also the question of keeping the previous demographic interested, therefore my name must be the brand that they want to buy, no matter what I write.  The pro side is, after I have say, 3 books out, I have 3 times the size demographic than a genre writer with 3 books.  The genre writer is selling to only one targeted demographic, but I am selling to 3 different ones.

In short (really that was quite long), Superman Disposition is titled as such because I have taken on the challenge of multiple identities in my career, and they are ever-changing. Just like Superman – mild mannered reporter by day, crime fighting superhero by night. 

I’ve been blogging actually for many more years than I have been on WordPress.  I was sharing my writing on Livejournal way back when it was cool, and G+ had not yet taken over the online journal revolution. But Livejournal was a more private community, and there was not much room for growth as a blogger, because the platform wasn’t really meant for that type of journaling. I moved to WordPress after looking at its various competitors and determined that I could do what I wanted with my blog in only one place.  It is clean, it is neat, it can help you to any stage of blogging you want it to, and it will let you do your thing without much resistance when you want.

On that note – if you are not a programmer or don’t have much working knowledge about how to write a website, use your chosen platform’s templates for your blog’s design. This will virtually erase the chance of there being any compatibility issues when switching internet browsers.

So, I’m not a career blogger or anything like that (though that would be the ideal life), and I only blog to share my experiences in my writing career with fellow writers and writing enthusiasts, and also to share my work with my audience.  In that sense I think I’m a typical writer – I tend to disappear for weeks even months at a time because I’m working on something and have become to engrossed in it that I forget about my audience. But every writer is that way, and I don’t think you can make a truly avid blogger out of a writer. A journalist, sure, but not a writer. Having said that disclaimer, there are a few tricks I’ve learned over the years both blogging and in marketing.

1. Keywords.  Tag everything, put keywords everywhere. It is how search engines will find your blog when people are looking for info on your topic. The more keywords you have, the better chance you will be found. Make use of SEO guides. They have invaluable information that is easy to learn on your own. Posting something with only pictures?  Use alt tags to get your keywords in there, because search engines don’t discriminate alt tags from real text.
2. For first time bloggers, it’s hard to get noticed out there in the blogosphere with everyone and their dogs (literally) blogging about your topic.  How many writers out there also blog about their work?  How many beauty bloggers are there out there?  You have to market yourself with one true quality that sets you apart from the pack.  Why should people read your blog?  What is it about your personality that people are going to love?
3. Along with point 2, is it important to always stay current with trends in whatever industry you’re blogging about, and make posts about what’s popular. You’re a beauty blogger?  Well, BB Cream is the latest beauty craze, so make a post about it!
4. Being a blogger is all about research.  Essentially what you’re doing is communicating information to people who trust you about your experiences with products, services, trends, and anything else.  It’s not just a conversation with your best friend, it’s possibly introducing many people to something, giving them information about it, giving them background knowledge, and giving them your educated opinion.  They trust you because you have all that information, and they trust that you are not misinforming them. You have a huge responsibility, really, and while blogging is a lot of fun, it’s also a lot of hard work.

So I hope that has shed some light on being a blogger.  As I said, I am not a career blogger, but I do have extensive knowledge of web marketing and I know how to entertain an audience, so that’s where my credibility lies.

The Tokugawa Shogunate was in power, and the purity of Japan’s religion and culture was “threatened” by the invading Christians, mostly coming from Brazil. The Shogunate was of the impression that Japan was an island, it was self sustaining, the culture was strong because everyone was the same.  A policy of isolation was in place in 1635, called Sakoku, and it said that no non-Japanese person was to enter the country.  They had rules for some necessary trade, but that was all. Christianity was banned, and a civil war was brewing as the Shogunate tried to vanquish the Japanese from practicing it, and destroy any means for the Portuguese to spread it.  Many Shinto shrines were destroyed.

Seishin was born in 1621, and was twelve years old when the war began in 1633.  That is where his story also begins.  He is 17 during the main events of his story, in 1638. All the elements for him to thrive were right – the civil war separating the men and women, the blasphemy and religious obsessions that shunned him, and the lonely and hard working samurai that he worked for.

There was no other time or place in the world that he could have existed.

TETHERED ROMANCE is the next of my novels that I am preparing to begin sending out to the battlefield of the publishing world, and seeing how many sharks out there will bite.  From today, I can say the manuscript is ripe for the picking and everything is aligned to begin the journey through the process of the industry.  Along the way, I want to share the experience, as this is not the first time (in fact, I am quite seasoned) I’ve made this journey, and I feel that it will help a great deal of new authors out there to gain the courage to make the adventure themselves.

Please refer to Superman Disposition’s Facebook Page for updates as well.  The decor over there has changed to reflect TETHERED ROMANCE’s setting, Edo Japan, 1638.

To start off, I would like to post an introduction to the world of TR. Then, as the journey is unfolding, I will be posting segments of the story, and updates about the publication.

TETHERED ROMANCE began as prose that I whipped up after the main character’s face (Seishin) popped into my head.  I began writing the prose with no direction, no back story to the main character, just some monologue.  I had about half a page when I was done getting it all out of my head, and I fell in love with Seishin’s voice and character.  I knew that a half page of nothing was not enough to satisfy his voice in my head, and that he had to have a novel.

In Edo era Japan, 1638, main character Seishin, a male geisha turned vampire, exploits the weakest sides of the human condition while seeking a side of himself he can come to love.  As a Rounin, a swordsman without a cause, fighting to hang on to an honorable samurai life, he struggles with his disposition; a training Samurai by day, and a renowned Geisha by night. Thriving from circumstances of the civil war that separates the population, Seishin works a nightly scandal appeasing the samurai he is apprentice to, proud to bear the tabloid existence. But revenge is what he seeks as his hate for the greedy monster in him grows, and revenge is what carries him across the ocean to England in his attempt to escape his sins.  He is driven by his vanity and ego, and his belief that love is the root of all evil leads to his downfall.

Stay Tuned.

This goes back to my post on Brian Tracy’s webinar, saying that everyone has a book in them, you just have to have the right tools to get it out.

Creativity comes from imagination, and most of us grow out of that as we enter society.  “…everything you see, from the chair you’re sitting on to the light over your head, it was once just an idea kicking around in somebody’s brain.”  If you look at children playing, you’ll see the raw state of imagination. It’s not forced, like in most other people who are not children. The sad thing is that once those children enter the school system, the rigid structures of society will being to crush their imaginative abilities.  So how, now that we are grow up and are told we are left brain functioning creatures of society, do we get that creative imagination back?

Creativity is about desire and curiosity – the desire to share/change something, and the curiosity to explore every outlet to get the desire fulfilled.

At the University of Southern California, research is taking place to better understand the process of creativity in the brain, and therefore eventually be able to help enhance creativity in people.  They are now beginning to understand that creativity is not only a right brain activity, but the left (detail oriented and logical side) brain is involved just as much.

To harness all your creative power, you need to exercise your brain just like you would exercise your muscles through learning new things, and practicing.  By learning new things, you’re filling your brain with more and more things that it can then combine and create something original with.  These exercises that work are things like puzzles, word games (crosswords or word searches), number games (sudoku), anything that gets your mind working in a dimensional way, rather than a linear way.  The goal is to improve memory so you can take in more knowledge, and change the linear way you think so your brain can make more combinations or your repertoire.

Inspiration comes when the mind is relaxed, and can start floating around all those pieces of information and putting them together. That’s why your inspiration comes when you’re in the shower, or relaxing to go to sleep.  For me, the inspiration for THE REALITY FILTER’s main character Ren, came when I was walking.  He would only speak to me if I was walking, and otherwise, I couldn’t write him at all.  But now that THE REALITY FILTER is finished and published, I always expect something like that to happen again.

Inspiration moves quickly through the relaxed brain, and is not retained for very long, so you have to record it immediately.  So you don’t let the inspiration slip away, it’s a good idea to carry a tape recorder or small notepad. Also keep something by your bed.

Unrelatedly but still related, my little kitten Legion is almost 3 months old now, and has been living with me and my husband for a month. She is as crazy as they come, but is most adorable when she is chasing toys or just beating the crap out of them. She is certainly suited to her name. She runs so fast, at times she is actually many.

When Aberdeen, my first cat passed away almost 4 years ago, I hadn’t realized at the time, but I stopped writing. I hadn’t realized because I was so engrossed in getting THE REALITY FILTER published, and in the evenings when I would open another novel to write, let it sit for an hour and close it untouched, that was good enough for me.  Now that Legion is here, I am writing again, and not only is TETHERED ROMANCE complete, but GOOD FAITH IN MEN has gotten an excellent start.

Meet Legion, the new addition to my family.

My husband and I moved into a bigger house on July 1st, but had been waiting for Legion’s arrival since she was born, May 15th.  Now she is 8 weeks old and is home with us, getting used to this giant space.

She has been home only since 11pm July 10.  She kept us up all night while she got used to us, and yesterday we made great progress.  She has already learned her name, comes when she’s called, and has decided what her favourite toy is.

Legion is a Caliby – she’s part calico and part tabby, which makes her black and orange colouring very rare. The trademark tabby M on her forehead only just came out, and before it was so pronounced, we mistook it for lines like devil horns.  Legion was named after the demon himself, “I am Legion, for I am many”.

There were three main ideas that Mr. Tracy wants you, as a writer, to understand:

• As soon as you put a message out there, people go to you.  They want your business, they want your ideas, they want your knowledge and experience.  So learn to monetize it.
• You don’t know what effect what you write is going to have one people’s lives.
• The bottom line is – YOU CAN DO THIS.

There are a lot of people out there who think “I don’t know how to write” or “I’ve always wanted to write a book but I don’t know where to start”.  Everyone has a book in them, the key is to just start writing if you want to write.  If you can put ideas on paper (or a computer screen), you can write.  So how do you start out?  There are a few key points to the process:

• Chose a topic/message and title – Ask yourself, who is the person who is going to read my book?  Chose a large demographic to target with your message and title the book based on what is going to get the attention of your demographic.
• Outline – Mr. Tracy swears that this stage must be done on paper, and I believe him.  What you want to do is just write down everything.  All your knowledge, all your storylines, all your quotes etc.
• Organize the Outline – Mr. Tracy came up with this 20/80 rule.  The first 20% of the process of writing a book is the outline, and in the outline, 80% of the work of writing actually gets done.  Here’s where you want to decide chapters, and put all your information in the right spots.
• Write the book!
• Market and Publish – Here’s where all the tricks come in.  You have to SPECIALIZE.  Focus on the subject and who the book is for.  How is your book different from all the other books written about the subject?  How are you different from everyone who has written about the subject?  Focus in on the very best segment of the market to buy the book.  And for a publisher, they all want to know how the book will be packaged, and how you are going to contribute to the promotion.

So there we have it, advice from the pro who wrote and published 52 best sellers, Mr. Brian Tracy.

Next time – I’ve already covered the agent query, so now I want to tell you about the Cover Letter.

I was watching Ellen Degeneres last Wednesday and Randy Jackson was on.  He said something that caught my attention:

 If people have tried to discover you, there’s just something else you need to know/learn

Those were not his exact words, but pretty close.  So how does this have anything to do with writing?  Literary agents and publishers is what!

Some years ago when I was in college, I had a literary agent.  She was in love with my writing talent, and wanted the manuscript that I had pitched to her, but she wanted it in just a slightly different way.  She asked me to make the changes, I did, and sent it back to her.  Then she wanted it a slightly more different way than the first.  She asked me to make the changes, I did, and – well, it went back and forth for a while before we both just got tired of it.  The point of the matter is – She was a literary agent.  It was not her job to be an editor as well.  And at the time I was still refining my own craft and knowledge of it.  I was on the brink of something, but the opportunity evaded me because I had more to learn.

If I knew then what I know now, I could have saved that chance, so here it is….in case you are eve in the situation on the brink of discovery:

• If an agent asks you change something, reply to them saying that you will change it and you want to afford yourself a couple of days to make sure it’s perfect.
• Take your time and soak up all the knowledge you can that pertains to the changes the agent asked you to make, even if it means getting in contact with a pro editor.
• Be sure you understand the demand exactly, and don’t be afraid to ask for clarification.

Before the brink of discovery happens:

• Polish your manuscript until you can’t anymore – okay that’s a dangerous thing to say to a bunch of writers.
• Research the crap out of all your subject matter you’re writing about and become an expert – don’t stop at the minimum you need to know in order to write the story
• Get all your grammar and timeline mistakes as far away from your manuscript as you can!