Walkabout Thoughts #62

My thoughts, Stream of consciousness, rough and ready, while walking off long Covid and listening to podcasts…August 18, 2023, Friday

Weather for the day… 59° starting out, 62° when I got home
Almost a bit chilly starting to walk today. Overcast maybe there’s a bit of moisture in the air cool it down water temperature so it feels cooler than it is.

Podcast "The Foundation official podcast" from the show S2E3 "Why the Gods Made Wine", finishing off an episode I started yesterday when I was working in my yard. Then S2E4, "In Seldon's Shadow".

This post is much more on Entertainment and the Arts than usual, on a path I have long wished to take...


We have little control over in our life beyond our epidermis layer of skin. Beyond that it’s just wishes and guesses. The further we get away from that outer layer of skin to apply our desires out into the world and onto others, ever increases the amount and degree of abuse we put out into the world. And here’s the kicker… We don’t really have that much control over the area under our outer layer of skin either, we just think we do. Then we get into determinism and fate...

So it’s been a few days since my last walkabout. Since my last walk, I’ve gotten the previous thoughts before that last walk posted yesterday and I think I’ve gained like three or five new international awards for my films since then. Just today my film "Pvt. Ravel‘s Bolero" is now a nominee in the Beyond the Curve festival. It’s always a lovely thing to wake up to.

I’m starting to submit my rewritten screenplay with producer Robert Mitis consulting on it, “The Teenage Bodyguard “, to festivals.

A week ago today or this evening anyway, my sister and her husband picked me up and drove us up north to our cousin's and attended, an event where she is a museum docent and they were throwing a wine tasting benefit. They held it outside in their lovely park grounds. I ran into my old neighbor and friend (who I joined Freemason’s with at his behest, over 10 years ago) and his wife. He made it to Senior Warden, and had to quit because of a new job. I worked my way up to Senior Warden, then had to quit because of family matters. I’m only just now making the connection. We both almost made it to the head guy in the lodge and then, had to leave. I have since moved to a different lodge area here in Bremerton, but have yet to pick up that path again. Still, it was a very fun wine tasting event though I only had hard alcohol from the vendor tables from different distilleries and vineyards and breweries available. We also got a tour of the mansion on their grounds and their museum. I mentioned this in part because, that was last Friday and I think on Wednesday our cousin notified us she tested positive for Covid. We all tested ourselves and we all came up negative. Although I did have some digestive problems this week, which I didn’t have through all my previous three years of Covid issues. I also had dizziness one night this week, which seem to be cured with an antihistamine at bed time. I've felt fine for a couple of days now. Covid can kiss my ass. Although I did waste at least a couple of years with it in which I’ve produced three books (2 fiction, 1 non-fiction on long covid), 2 films (a narrative flm noir and documentary) and have won many awards, so…

Also, since I mentioned it in previous walks, I think I had trouble even walking on my left ankle the last few times, definitely the last time. Since then I have iced and applied heat and some CBD salve and it’s feeling pretty good today.

On this podcast on Apple+, “The Foundation”. I loved reading the Foundation trilogy as a kid. I can’t remember when exactly but it was either the late 1960s or early 70s. So much has come from those books, written in the 40s and 50s, I believe. It’s given us so many things and so many things came from so many things. Star Wars being one. But I do like this rendition in this new series. I found after the first season and into the second, if you keep up, really helped to show me the things I’ve missed in the show and the things different from the books I read so many decades ago. I also hadn’t known until this past month that there were two other books Asimov wrote in the series. I may have known that before… but never knew he never finished the series. Which would now be a sextuplet I suppose. 

This may be the only show other than the "Westworld" series, or possibly "Game of Thrones" where I feel I need to re-watch episodes after watching a new episode. Those I was good with, but they were complicated. This series I feel like I really could benefit from re-watching each episode immediately after watching one. Listening to the podcast has really helped and I highly recommend it if you’re into the series, especially if you’ve read the books. Especially, if you’re into film productions.

To give you an idea of the esteem at which I held Isaac Asimov as a child and into my adulthood, my first published horror, sci-fi story as I’ve said before back in 1990 was “In Memory, Yet Crystal Clear“. The title of which was a tribute to Asimov’s first autobiography “In Memory Yet Green“. I didn’t tell them to follow religion then in that story, but I should’ve. I had previously read "Stranger in a Strange Land" by Robert Heinlein. 

But in hindsight, now I look at my book “Death of heaven“ and I can see the same orientation towards religion from those two authors. As one reviewer on Amazon said of it… "Really great story. Interesting take on the view of our planet and the evolution of religion, without it being only about religion! And if you like gory stories, this one's for you!!!" I do not know that person. 

Religion is an organized system of belief. And once you create one, it immediately starts to devolve and dilute as it spreads through time and around the world. As with the Catholic religion that repeatedly splintered. But my book “Death of heaven” takes entirely another tact, and is a most deeply explored fiction book on the misunderstanding or misinterpretation of religious belief, perhaps ever written. And that’s not even braggadocio, but mere fact. Or at least I like to think so.

That book is written as if one were walking by something happening on the street and then the story is told about the path walked next to it, describing actuality as opposed to the delusional reality of that event on the roadside. Which is religion throughout the history of humankind. That’s why I would say my book is so epic in proportion. It does after all go from before the Earth was created until potentially, it’s ending, by the end of the book. And what happens then, I will leave up to the reader to discover. 

Any sequels I write to follow it, I’ve been considering for the decade or so since I wrote it. Just this past month I came up with the most viable sequel to this story. One I've long planned to dovetail with my screenplay about two demon hunting women, "Gray and Lover The Heart Tales Incident", with one of the greatest endings I've ever seen. Or written.

I’m not trying to be "more than", in saying this ("Firefly" reference). However, I’m starting to see a lot of structural parallels between The Foundation series in my book "Death of heaven". There are things like the unreliable narrator. Things like, who are these voices speaking around an entire planet and species? Plus the origin of this book comes from a previous book in the final novella in that book. That book being my first ever published collection of my older short stories, ending with a novella, as mentioned, “Anthology of Evil”. That novella is titled, “Andrew“, which begin as a short story. The first one I wrote for my Intro to Fiction class at Western Washington University towards my degree in Psychology and Phenomenology. I think perhaps it shows in that story. But it was my first experience in blowing away an entire room of writers, readers, and a writing professor. That story was on such another level from what we had been reading, as all of us were at the time, beginning writers. Although I would say I was probably a writer long being a reader on my way, when I wrote my first short story that I wrote within hours of finishing Frank Herbert's book, "Dune", in 1970, that I titled,“10 Steps to Shadow-Kandom”.
The story that my 10th grade mind came up with, after having read Asimov's "The Foundation" trilogy, and then "Dune", both regarding one youth’s shattered illusions in the path they were on. I belonged to a science fiction book club as a kid, then later while in the USAF.

It’s funny and ironic that 10 steps story I wrote as a 15-year-old was already exhibiting my questioning authority and the concept of shattered illusions. Which comes out again in my novella "Andrew" (in an odd sort of way), which evolved along with my one page short story “Perception“, into my epic, “Death of heaven".

Changing the subject drastically, sort of… Kelly Hughes and I, and put that “I“ out there rather gently, as I'm trying to stay in the background for these events, especially since long Covid… we are gearing up to our next iteration of the "Gorst Underground Film Festival" we started some years ago and which grew out of the small community of Gorst, Washington. Just on the edge of Bremerton. Kelly has acquired a small venue in Silverdale, the next town over, a hub for the area and the Navy and has grown into a shiny shopping center of sorts. There’s a small production studio on its outskirts in a business Park, all owned by the same family. Oh yeah, I forgot, Kelly asked me to watch a short film by the Laszlo‘s who were one of our supporters and would show up, have drinks, show their films at our monthly, late evening events at the historic Roxy theater here in town. They and their films were always a joy to behold. Those were our monthly “Slash Night“ events. Those were a lot of fun. Alas, Covid killed them. From those monthly events, we also got to see and know of the works of the Darkow brothers, Travis and Tyler. We’re still in touch with Tyler and enjoy his Facebook posts about his working on film productions, mostly as an actor now.

Speaking (yet again) of my book "Death of heaven", it is still in the free little library I just walked by...an orphan. Brand new book, never been read itself, and no one’s picking it up. I think the problem with that book has been its title and cover. It gives the wrong impression. Especially since the title has a lower case “H“ in the title for "heaven". Which started out as a cover artist mistake, since the book got reprinted with version two. So I just went with it. I thought he did it on purpose and he later said he didn’t even realize it but somehow it passed muster until it got onto Amazon. Then they started questioning it because you can’t have improper capitalization in a title. Well, fuck them for that. I’ve long put a lot of weight into my titles saying that a title can be half of the meaning of a story. And you have no right to screw with an artist's conception. Proper title grammatical form is the capitalized "H" in Heaven, as a place, or as a religious conception, or merely out of respect. And I leaned on that latter most in giving the word no respect. Why? Well, you have to read the book, so the title's indicating something and it's not just about the capitalization of the book, It indicates something that not just the book cover, as any kind of cover animative graphic. Not hyper realistic like book covers are today. It gives it a feeling of something it’s not. The cover artist, Marvin Hayes, said he thought it added to the breaking of rules in the book. Right, but I think for most people that’s not how they’re taking it. It’s not just something that draws their attention, but may repulse them somewhat. Say, if it’s sitting on a bookstore shelf. No offense intended to the artist, as I think it’s a pretty cool graphic. And it kind of shows the story in one single image, but it also gives people the wrong impression that it’s a book about angels, or something. It is not. There is one story about an angel in the book and that's a misperception by the protagonist in the story. While there are beings in the book that can be misperceived as gods. And their interactions with humanity, over the course of all of human life, from beginning to end (of the book and timeline), does lead to stories of a perhaps religious deity (deities) interacting with humans. While there is something entirely different going on. And that was the purpose in my mind of a lowercase in the word, "heaven".

I think the prime concept of "Death of heaven" is to be careful what you believe, you may be 100 percent incorrect. And here are examples of that.

There’s some great actors and work done on the Foundation show series. But I would like to mention one of the main characters who plays "Brother Day", Lee Pace. I first noticed him in the series, "Halt and Catch Fire" some years back, about the invention of the home PC. And then I see him in a few other things. I noticed him the other day in "Captain Marvel". He’s a big guy, and a great actor.

On the Foundation series, there’s some parallels between the Donald Trump administration's efforts, and MAGA. Foundation has individuals who have become somewhat unhinged, for a variety of reasons. Good reasons. Donald Trump and his administration are also unhinged. And now they are paying the price through the judicial system as they try to claim political divisiveness against those prosecuting them. Typical with criminals at large. Which is ridiculous in this case, because this entire process has been overtly purposely cut off from the political system and executive branch. It’s interesting how the characters in Foundation are unhinged yet people still follow their orders, just as we see with Donald Trump and his fascist autocratic movement of sheer and utter bullshit.

I need to check if my two version screenplay book on Amazon ever got approved because I never heard anything about it and it’s been plenty of time. My first two scream playbooks I got up there recently, were approved pretty quickly. So what the hell? [Update 8/19/23: OK it's up and online and...I just ordered a few, then I'll unpublish it, for now]

By end of 3rd mile I’m happy to know I can do a fourth, but my left hip's feeling something not... comfortable. Which reminds me of two of my good friends since high school. One I've known since I started college in 1980. Both of them having health problems now in our late 60s. I’m not so much myself, except for Covid. Although my knees and left ankle have been a problem since I was born, I think. First world problems? That is, industrialized  nation problems?

OK as much as I want to do a 5th mile today, I’m calling it a day. At least I got four done and at least I got out for a walk at all. I just don’t wanna overtax my left ankle. Although I would like to listen to more of this Foundation podcast, I have only this one and one more and then I’m caught up to the episodes I’m now watching weekly for season two.

It’s nice to know as from the beginning of these walkabout thought blog posts, I’ve been wanting to get more into entertainment, and out of politics. Which is hard because we’re in a politically insane, autocratic nutcase period in American history. And after all Trump's abuses, I look forward to his being abused by way of sentencing and punishment and prison. He's supposed to turn himself in to the police in Georgia next Wednesday, according to himself, then said he's pushing it to the last minute. What a putz. Just get it over with buffoon. According to that police official he will go through, the process every criminal goes through there he will. Seems fair (finally). To which I do so hope we hear what fat boy's actual weight is. Pushing 300lbs? One wonders if his vanity will kill him on that day.

Adding to what I was saying above about my first short story from 10th grade that I wrote, to my book, "Death of heaven" evolved from my novella "Andrew", which started out as a short story and turned into my Intro to Fiction at University, it's prime concept being one of disillusion, and then those I have to add to that, my first screenplay, written my last quarter at Western Washington University, which I titled “Ahriman“, is a sci-fi screenplay about a prince/prophet on a desert planet, unceremoniously and inadvertently transported to earth via a scientific experiment gone wrong. 

Funny how I keep impinging upon that concept. My story, “EarVu” is about an experiment gone wrong. My newer story “Quantum History“ is about kind of the same thing. Also, my latest fiction book which  began as a novella for that series, but grew into a book unto itself (because I was having so much fun writing it, and THAT is what you want to hear from an author), thus the novella intended for the sequel as, "Anthology of Evil II" evolved into book II with that second book becoming, "The Unwritten". I only refer to this because of the three universes in that book where one has suffered through their "Religious Wars" and then their "Science Wars", where in the end, Science wins out. Yeah, reminds me of earth and our religions there to replace science which was non existent until it was existent so religion could die out to be replaced by more sane considerations and yet, nope, still not happening. Well let's hope it doesn't mimic my book...

Cheers! Sláinte!

2 New JZ Murdock Books - Anthology of Evil II

Anthology of Evil has a sequel! It has been released as two new volumes, titled, "Anthology of Evil II vol. I" and "Anthology of Evil II vol. II The Unwritten". 

Volume II by the way, was just nominated for a prestigious award (Nominated, which really means little other than a member / peer thought it worthy to be in the running for an award...still, pretty cool!).

You can hear more about these books and more when I speak with friend and fellow film director Kelly Hughes on his 2-Bit Horror podcast. There, we talk about my writing in general and a variety of fun things. I am also on live radio Chat and Spin, a UK show from Washington, England, recording the same day this blog hits the bandwidth. For more about me, you can visit my website with info about my audiobooks and film productions ("Gumdrop", a short horror, is my latest short horror film).

Brief aside December 11, 2020 update: Amazing news! My play, "Denude, a one act", was just selected by Jocunda Music, Film & Theatre Festival via FilmFreeway.com! Selected: Project has been selected to be included in festival.

It is about two guys in a foxhole during a war...or wars, opening in vietnam. 

Kind of a Twilight Zoneish play, that opens in a cross section of a foxhole so the audience can see the soldiers on stage in it, jungle surrounding them backstage and side. TRAPPIST, a 1972 Vietnam deployed soldier, and MENSES, a 1972 Vietnam deployed soldier

I found it in my writings from college, spiffed it up and sent it off and now it's in being performed a festival in Brooklyn, NY. Event date January 15, 2021

I should also mention my film, "Gumdrop", a short horror, has received another award from the Indo French International Film Festival for Best Short Horror...and is now a semi finalist in the Cult Movies International Film Festival in London.

Now, as for my new books... 

Anthology of Evil II (Kindle version) 

First 50 free ebook download (coupon TE53V) from Smashwords!

Anthology of Evil II The Unwritten (Kindle version)

First 50 free ebook download (coupon KM72X) from Smashwords!

You may notice that the book covers are reversed. That's because they are really one book broken out into two volumes. Why? Allow me to explain.

These books are a collection of my newer short horror and sci fi fiction which have been published in magazines and anthologies with other authors and some, have yet  to be published. Tell now. So you're seeing them now for the first time anywhere.

My first "Anthology of Evil" collection book cover

"Anthology of Evil" was my first published book, a collection of my first and older short stories. It opens with my first ever published short story. That was back in 1990 in an east coast quarterly horror magazine. "In Memory, Yet Crystal Clear", is a story all too familiar to America today that takes place in a dystopian society where the country put all their trust in just one man. A man we discover, who is mentally unbalanced.

My second book, the epic, "Death of heaven"

My second book, "Death of heaven", is an epic tale of two friends who grew up together, then lost touch as they both assumed their roles in life. Broken and somewhat lost, they come together again, one to save the other, who then saves him. They are happy to have found one another again, but under such dark circumstances? Dark circumstances we come to discover, that affects the entire world, the whole of humanity and takes us into an intergalactic tale of fear and escape.

Back to "Anthology of Evil". That collection of stories end with a novella titled, "Andrew". That story grew into the foundation for my second book, "Death of heaven". While my first book was a collection of my short published and unpublished short fiction and it ended with a novella, I wanted to write my second book in that series in the same format.

However, when writing "The Unwritten", what was to have been the ending novella, I went way beyond the reasonable length of a novella. I did not realize that until I was actually formatting "Anthology of Evil II. 

At that point, I was left with a quandary. What should I do?

I went back and forth about it until finally, I settled on the present solution. I would put out two books, volumes 1 and 2 would comprise the second book in the "Anthology of Evil" series. Since I had never put out a series before and had never really considered it, in doing it this way I would end up with volumes 1 & 2 of the second book in the series. I found that a bit entertaining. So I settled on doing that. And that was all the thought I gave it.

It wasn't under I was publishing the books that the consideration of price came into my mind. So anyone saying I was trying to make money by putting these stories out in two books rather than one, that thought had never come into my mind. At that time I did think about it and I did consider going back to a one book format. But I thought I would just price it appropriately and go forward as I had planned.

Until I ran up against Amazon's pricing policy. They would not allow me to do what I wanted to. By then I just wanted to be done with the process (it was 2020 and a very, very long and problematic year, as we all know). I just wanted to see them published at this point and move on to other things. And that led me to another issue, having literally nothing to do with these two books.

It is an issue I'm still trying to work out with Amazon about my first two books. But that mess, for another time. Besides, I do not yet know the resolution though I have suggested a few to Amazon about this.

By the way, what am I doing that I wanted to be done with this and move on? I published my books this time under my film production company, LgN Productions, which I started back in 1993. I also write screenplays. 

It is a true-crime story about a 17-year-old guy who protected a murder witness from the Tacoma, Washington mafia, a biopic screenplay titled, "The Teenage Bodyguard". It is currently being shown to a studio by my producer, Robert Mitas. Robert has produced films with famed actor/producer, Michael Douglas, who along with his father Kirk, all through my childhood had been a film hero of mine for just about forever. 

But right now? I am writing another screenplay that is a Frank Capraesque kind of a feel-good film, which America and the world really could use right now. Frank produced films like "It's A Wonderful Life" (1946) with Jimmy Stewart, which didn't do well at the box office when released, but has been an American Christmas staple for many decades. 

My current screenplay is a "traveling angel" story that takes place in "any town USA". I haven't pitched it to Robert yet, but very soon. I think he'll be excited about it.

Back to my new books:

"Anthology of Evil II" has sixteen stories total in it:

"Red Rain" - A Philip K Dick kind of story about two scientists who have had it with how humanity treats humanity and so, they do something about it. Well, one of them does. 

"Expedition Of The Arcturus" - First published in the online hard sci fi magazine, PerihelionSF - In the style of one of my first favorite sci fi authors as a child, Isaac Asimov. It's a story about Earth's first generational spaceship. Told in reversed timeline. Meaning, it begins at the end and, it ends at the beginning. It was the hook that got me that sale from the editor Sam Bellotto.

"Breaking On Cave Island"  - First published in "Giant Tales World of Pirates (Giant Tales 3-Minute Stories) (Volume 3)" in 2014 by Professor Limn Books LLC  & H.M. Schuldt.  An HP Lovecraft kind of tale about a pirate named Captain Lord Ritchie. This is a prequel to a story of mine in Book 1 of the series titled, "Poor Lord Ritchie". In this tale he is younger, obviously, and a pirate captain trapped in a underworld tunnel on a deserted island. Anyone knowing this character knows he hates wizards. Here you can finally find out why. 

"Jaonny's Apple Tree" - This is a story about a young alien boy on his home planet. Reminiscent of a Ray Bradbury, who is one of my all-time favorite authors. It's a pleasant tale told in a bucolic setting. Where no doubt, all is not what it seems. 

"In The Shade" - Originally published as, "Falling Up!", in "Final Ships In the Neighborhood (Giant Tales Apocalypse 10-Minute Stories Book 2)" in 2014, edited by  Professor Limn Books & H.M. Schuldt - I'd have to say this is based on myself and HP Lovecraft, as well as Isaac Asimov. This is a side story based on the last part of my book, "Death of heaven". If you like this story at all, check out the book. This, is nothing compared to what all happens in the original.

"Simon's Beautiful Thought" - Simon is a tech guy with an AI assistant on his phone like so many of us have. A bit of Isaac Asimov in this tale. Yes, this has been done before. But I wrote it a year before the movie, "Her" (with Joaquin Phoenix) came out. The question in this story is, do AI's get jealous? Or, can one just be a good friend with only your best interests at "heart" (or, at CPU?).

"The Regent's Daughter" - A short, short story that won a tiny award for "best tension" from the group that published two stories of mine mentioned above in the "Giant Tales" series of books. It reminds me of a Robert E. Howard story (he wrote the Conan books, among other things), with perhaps a little more ironic humor n it. It tells of a medieval nobody who gets the unique opportunity to interact with a royal beauty in the town's main square by the castle. It goes well, I think. So does our protagonist. Well, it is a memorable tale anyway.

"Mr. Pakool's Spice" - First published in "Hunger Pangs: Dark Confessions", in 2012 by Mayday Collective. I'm saying this is based somewhat on a Calvin A. L. Miller II zombie book, "Het Madden". Because I've only read two zombie novels and that's one Mine is a story about a widower trying to get his two young children to safety through the back wintry woods of Oregon after the zombie apocalypse hits. There is a slight association at the end with another zombie story of mine: "Japeth, Ishvi and The Light" in the first "Anthology of Evil" book

"Men Of The City" - This is an allegorical story spawned by the famous writer and artist, Clive Barker. He held a contest once based on a painting of the same name as my short story. He did not choose this story. He chose two other author's stories and they were good and did use his painting as inspiration. I just decided on a lark to take it...literally. I really like this weird little tale.

"Pvt. Ravel's Bolero" - This is a poem, based on Maurice Ravel and a bit of Hemingway, but with a kind of Edgar Allen Poe edge to it. What if Ravel came up with his famous "Bolero" while in the trenches of WWI where both he and Hemingway were kept from the main action and made ambulance drivers. What if opposing trenches one night discovered a very unknown thing in this kind of warfare: Humanity?

"Marking Time" (original 1969 version) - With a bit of a Stephen King flair to it, this is a story I wrote many years ago and details what I was told as a child by another child, while we were in the Cascade mountains on a search and rescue training mission, looking for a small downed aircraft. I had reworked this story, updated it, set it in Afghanistan, and published it in my second book, "Death of heaven". That first, second version (or is it second, first version?) is a ghost story and a special operations war story. This one is more intimate and gives the reader an idea of what kids for decades have gone through in the Civil Air Patrol. To be sure it is an extreme example. I got a lot out of being a Flight Commander in the CAP, and it helped, once I was an adult and had entered the United States Air Force. 

"Crashing Indulgences" - Another kind of Stephen King story about how far off relationships can go. Yeah, not much to say about this one, other that there may be highlights of the macabre and extraordinary.

"EarVu" - With a touch of both Isaac Asimov & Clive Barker, this is about a group of cutting edge (bleeding edge, really) scientists when one day, one of them shows up for work, and no one else does. It's a bit of a detective story that all takes place in a top-secret, secure research facility. New technology has been developed that will change the world. If it can ever get out of the lab.

"Rapture" - With the flavor of a Philip K Dick story, this happens in the near future. A private detective, or a "fixer", that's never really clear, is hired by a rich woman to take her to the inner city where she does not belong, to acquire a new illegal drug. That's the upside to this tale.

"Xibalba Unleashed" - This follows the lines of HP Lovecraft if he had turned toward the Mayan ancients and their mythology. It is an origin story that starts off in the action, recedes to the recent past into a famous Mayan cave that is the entrance to the underworld and then returns, making much more sense than when it started. This was written for the British "A-Z Horror Anthology" where I had the letter "X" and twenty-five other authors had a letter their title had to start with. The anthology got up to the letter "L" and then the project fell through. I had a minor motorcycle accident in the middle of writing this. When I returned to finish it, I ran over the word length and rather than possibly ruin it, I wrote another story entirely and submitted it. 

"X The Unknown" - This is that other story I submitted to replace the story just above. With a detective edge to it familiar to Edgar Allan Poe, this is about an FBI Special Agent in Seattle following a lead on a serial killer. Maybe it is the killer, the UnSub, maybe not. 

"Anthology of Evil II The Unwritten" - This is volume two, the second half of book two in the series and has only one story in it. But that is all the story that is needed: "The Unwritten". I detail more on this story in the back of the book. For now, I'll just say what the back cover says: "Three Hells. Three Universes. "One Solution". The book opens with a man strapped to a table in an old cabin in the woods. He cannot remember anything at first and has no idea why this woman is so into torturing him. This shifts to a lab of two scientists in another universe and an experiment and a society that is constrained and complicated. After this shifts to a far darker universe than anyone has ever experienced, we dance between the three until, in the end, it all comes together with an unforeseeable ending. 

My style of writing in my fiction is my own. As one critic put it, she could not figure out who I was from my writings, you can read her own words at the link, but it was high praise indeed.

Another critic in speaking of my book, "Death of heaven", said: "The book starts well and has a Books of Blood vibe, which really works well. It's in these tales that the author's writing ability shines. He demonstrates a lovely turn of phrase and some of the writing is almost poetic in its beauty."

"Books of Blood" were written by Clive Barker and are some of my favorite horror stories. He now has a new show based on these on Hulu. I read my first book of blood of Clive's back in the 80s and wrote to him. He wrote back. I got to meet him a few times but that was the early 90s at book signings. 

So I take the comparison to heart. Are these stories that good? That's not up to me. But if you like any of these, do give "Death of heaven" a read. And then just maybe, you'll find out why the "h" in Heaven" is not capitalized. 

Slainte!

JZ Murdock

Bremerton, Washington USA November 2020

FREE - All My Ebooks Now FREE on Smashwords!

For those picking up my ebooks to read, Thanks . Enjoy! Been getting emails that they are getting downloaded. All of my ebooks on there are now temporarily FREE until April 20th because of the pandemic. Check it out and then check out their other authors, maybe one of your favorites. Get them while you can! 

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More than ever, these ebooks from indie authors and publishers offer readers unlimited hours of low-cost entertainment, distraction, comfort and knowledge during these trying times.

Smashwords is being hammered with downloads. Can't imagine why. But keep trying, they may be up and down with all the requests.

I was just wondering, as all my ebooks are free for a month, which is good (or bad, or bad good?) for pandemic reading?

So I surveyed my available titles. I have a complete other manuscript of new stories as yet unpublished which I've been wanting to get around to, but...not yet.

So...

ANTHOLOGY OF EVIL - a collection of my older writings available in print on Amazon
In Memory, Yet Crystal Clear - Sci Fi / Horror
Gumdrop City - Horror / based on True Crime and my new film
Quantum History - Sci Fi / Humor at MIT
The London Mea Culpa Document - Lead into next story
The Mea Culpa Document - Medieval / Horror
Poor Lord Ritchie's Answer (To A Question He Knever Knew on the knight that the Knight lost all") - Medieval / Horror / Surreal - this comes later from another "Breaking on Cave Island"
Sarah - Horror / Surreal Alzheimer's on Twilight Zone
The Fall - short short Horror that led to an indie industry article written about my writings
Japheth, Ishvi and The Light - Horror / Zombies at a religious commune and ... God
Andrew - novella - Horror / Surreal / Sci Fi the story that led to the next book...

From author and reviewer Michael Brookes: "The book [DEATH OF HEAVEN] starts well and has a Clive Barker, Books of Blood vibe, which really works well. It's in these tales that the author's writing ability shines. He demonstrates a lovely turn of phrase and some of the writing is almost poetic in its beauty."
DEATH OF HEAVEN - epic horror sci fi with standalone stories in it you will understand when you read it. A complex and some have reviewed, a beautifully written book that is hard to describe: Available in print on Amazon
The Conqueror Worm - two 12-year-old boys dig up treasure
Rosebud -beware imposing your mind on your gf
Thirst Divine - terrifying entities from above can be erotic
Harbinger -be good, terrifying entities are watching from above
"Sweet Jane" - be careful who you marry. I wrote this after watching Edie Brickell and the New Bohemians one night back in the 90s when they played on SNL and being inspired.
Marking Time - avoid ghosts in Afghanistan, even if you're special forces. Originally written about my own childhood in the Civil Air Patrol in search and rescue, ported over to adulthood.
Going Home - runaway gets in the wrong car, classic story.
Vaughan’s Theorem - a scary serial murderer story and rather long.
The Mea Culpa Document of London - medieval witch hunter

ALSO other shorts:
EarVu - horror in the lab
Mr. Pakool's Spice - father and 2 young kids in the zombie apocalypse in the back winter woods of Oregon. Originally published in an anthology with other authors.
Expedition of the Arcturus - sci fi on earth's first trans-generational spaceship, originally published in PerihelionSF.com magazine in their second edition ever.. A great hard sci fi mag for free reading.
Xibalba Unleashed - serial murder in a Mayan cave and university campus

Simon’s Beautiful Thought - short sci fi romance I wrote about a guy and his phone's AI, before most or all of the more famous stories like that.

NON FICTION (I have a degree in psychology, thus...)
On Psychology: With Illustration in Psychopathology via Synesthesia and Schizophrenia

Psycho-neurologically Approaching a Field Theory Understanding of Schizophrenia via Research of a Non-normative, Non-pathological Syndrome: Synesthesia, and the need for more information Title Case Recommendation
Unpublished

SO...jump over to Smashwords and look around. Wishing you all the best through this difficult time. But there are options to lose yourself for a time in some great books!

#ebooks #shortstories #smashwords #horror #scifi #sf #novels #free #freebe #freeebook #bookstagram #freebook #ebookgratis #ebooklovers #islamicpost #ebookbestseller #ebookfree #freeebooks #ebookpdf #ebooks #freebie #giveaway #couponcommunity #freestuff

Mea Culpa Document of London Film by JZ Murdock

Finally, I'm beginning the screenplay for The Mea Culpa Document of London. This short horror story that I wrong at university with the advice of one of my professors, one Perry Mills is an interesting tale of medieval horror.

Being a student himself of medieval writings, I would sit in Perry's office in the Theatre department back in the early 1980s and we'd chat about so many things. He has a mind like an encyclopedia.

When I came up with this idea, Perry latched onto it quickly, liking the concept. he gave me some insight and help with it relating to medieval times. In the end, he said I had the language down very well and it turned out so well in his mind, that he wanted me to turn it into a one-act, one-man play that he could himself act in.

Sadly I could never come up with a viable solution to how to write that play and so, it never happened.

I put this story in my first published collection of my first original short stories, Anthology of Evil. I've expanded it into another story, almost a novella, in "Vaughan's Theorem" in my second book, Death of heaven. I've now set up the first draft of the screenplay in Final Draft, having copied the Mea Culpa document into the doc and typing in FADE IN: and FADE OUT:.

The biggest issue I have is the title, which I'm leaving on the back burner until it comes to me as it always does.

I wondered about working out the characters. Which is confusing. We have the Medieval characters with the Judge, his assistant\replacement Truman, the woman and bane of the Judge, and the other woman accused of witchcraft. All circa 1100CE, long before the later massive witch hunts and inquisition (good times, right?).

There is also the modern version's characters to consider and perhaps blending in of the Judge's and his assistant and replacement's descendants in England and that long and disturbing version contained in, "Death of heaven".

I'm hoping eventually to produce a short movie that is of the type that through repeated viewings you will notice more and other things you had missed the first time around. I had originally planned this film out at my last place of residence. Sadly, that did not come to be.

Actor Nikolas Hayes as Reader and Victim in "The Rapping"

I have moved one mile away to my new location back on July 2018. My last home was a big place and we were going to shoot it in the garage under my Garage Tales planned set of stories.

What happened instead was for a first film, I went with a much simpler (perhaps too simple?) under the Attic Tales set of stories (to date, just one). From that came my short film, "The Rapping". It was a festival selection and shown at the Midnight Film Festival in New York this year and also won a slot in the Once a Week Online Film Festival. It was too simple a film to garner much attention, but I believe I've shown I can produce a watchable film. And so, with that in mind...

Actors Jason Lockhart as Rowan the hitman with
Tom Remick as Sampson the supplier in "Gumdrop, a short horror"

My current film now in production is, "Gumdrop, a short horror." That is a prequel based on another short true crime story of mine, "Gumdrop City". The film we're working on now is halfway through principal photography and looks to be evolving into a very interesting project.

What I'm thinking of doing now is to simplify this first version of The Mea Culpa Document of London and just do the document as it originally was. My lead actor, Tom Remick, also my audiobook voice actor and lead in the current film, Gumdrop, will again play the lead. To essentially act out the reading of what is essentially a journal of the character's personal horror.

Gumdrop, especially after The Rapping, has been a challenge. It is difficult subject matter. I first heard of this true-crime in a university class on abnormal psychology toward my psychology degree. I and the rest of the class were very disturbed by the story.

Which left me feeling motivated to write about it, to share it with the public. Actually filming it has been even tougher, a difficult subject to film. One actor even decided not to play one role in the film as he said he had objections from his family about him playing the part.

I've tried to walk my talent, the actors, through the production with care and some degree of delicacy. Also in just how much I should show, what SFX I should use, and how much to put in it to show on a much bigger screen. To an audience. I decided not to push it as far as I could. Much to the relief of some of the actors.

What I'm saying is that after this film is completed, I need a sort of creative palate cleanser.

Not that Mea Culpa is an easy subject itself as it is also a difficult subject as it involves such things as official misjudgment by the State (in this case, by royal decree of an appointed Judge), female torture, death and even worse.

All which leads to the twist in the end.

Still, simply acting out the reading, rather than producing the actual story with all the characters, props, SFX and actors who would be needed, will be less difficult and taxing on the production,, crew and talent. And my budget.

If you notice them, if you do read these stories, or view these films, they are disturbing, if not startling. That is what I do, write and produce macabre stories. to disturb, to at times shock, to make us feel outside of our lives, our experiences. To entertain and hopefully to evoke considerations of things we seldom have to deal with.

It's all in the execution you know. Myself? I love the stylized film. To take a story, compress it down, concentrate it, make it bigger than itself, well...this should be fun to produce and to experience. Not just difficult to produce, but a labor of love with hope of entertaining as well as strumming a bit on the viewer's heartstrings.

And their fears. Your fears.

Actor Aura Stiers as Miranda in Gumdrop, a short horror

But relax. It's all for fun and experiencing that great roller coaster ride that film and stories can give us in taking ur out of our day to day lives, into something more intense. In the end, we can return to our lives and maybe, feel a little decompression, a little light and entertainment, relief from our usual nightmares.

If after experiencing these tiny entertainments, you happen to think of them the next day? Then I've done my job. And then I'll move on, to try harder and to find on the next project, something that will take you a little farther into the dark recesses of the human mind. Or the alien mind. Or the mind of a monster.


#JZMurdock #MeaCulpaDocument #DeathOfheaven #AnthologyOfEvil #Horror #Gumdrop #MeCulpa #GumdropCity

Seven Books Worth Reading Plus One...Plus

I don't usually go in for these posting on demand things on Facebook, however...mostly seems a pain for people to do that too you. Once in a while, one comes about that I feel I can get behind, however. This was one of those. The idea is, choose a book you love, share it and say nothing. Share only seven books, one on each succeeding day.

It was a little frustrating, however. So I thought I'd alleviate some of that through a blog about these books and my reasoning in choosing them. Yes, perhaps this goes against the idea of the effort on Facebook, but I just wanted to explain where I couldn't on Facebook, to give a little background in the hope it might be interesting.

There were obvious books I skipped because so many know of them. A few seeped in below. Like, Dune, perhaps because it was so deeply affecting to me (see below). Others were also deeply affecting but did not get mentioned. Like The Hobbit, or Lord of the Rings, because so very many others also felt those books so deeply. I just felt it went without saying and the time and space could be better used with other books, less familiar to the public.

Here is what I chose and finally...why:

Day 1
Friend and actress; Jennifer True asked friend and filmmaker\director Kelly Hughes and he asked me to post covers of seven books that I love with no explanation, no reviews, etc. With each day, I'm also supposed to nominate more people.

I choose artist Marvin Hayes. Aristotle's Works

When I was in fifth grade I was only allowed at our new house we'd just moved into, to go to the library on my bicycle. I was a bother as a child, not unlike my own son. Curious, investigative, always into...something. It was a wise decision. And I did go, only to the library when I asked. I discovered very interesting things. I'd always been fascinated by the written word. Sick of waiting for someone to read me the Sunday comics in the newspaper, until after everyone else finished reading the paper on Sunday mornings, I strove to learn to read young and never stopped.

On my first time at my new library, I discovered the "Adult" section. Not what you might think but definitely more interesting than the kid's section. It was directly before the door into the library, past the "old" ladies at the front desk, clearly in the open. I sat on the floor and started going through books, occasionally sneaking a glance at the front desk, amazed they let me unbidden at the adult section.

On that first time, I found a very old book by some guy named Aristotle. Single name. Starts with an "A". Had to be something, right? I started reading there on the floor. Something touched me. So I checked the book out. And they LET me! It was a fascinating dive into logic and ethics by the Master.

I knew I was onto something one day when I mentioned something relevant in the living room to my parents, a quote from Aristotle. By then, having looked up who he was in our family encyclopedia, which I also loved to peruse, I knew he was someone important, all throughout history.

My stepfather, who didn't much like me anyway, snapped at me that what I had said was stupid. I heard that a lot from him. I responded I wasn't sure that was right. He asked what would make me say that. Very carefully, a little scared, I said that he was a well thought of thinker all throughout history and many held him in the highest esteem.

He asked me, like who? I was surprised 1) he never heard of Aristotle as I kept running across him; 2) he didn't know people referenced Aristotle a lot and; 3) my response to him that, just about every educated and well-known person in history through highly of Aristotle. And that, shut him up. Thankfully.

From that exposure to Aristotle at such a young age, his way of thinking deeply affected me. All throughout my life.

Day 2
I choose, Nikolas Hayes. Slaughter-House Five,

Day 3
I choose, friend and fellow author Kurt Giambastiani. The Year the Cloud Fell

Day 4
 I choose, friend and photographer Erwin Verweij Something Wicked This Way Comes

Day 5
I choose, author Mark Baranowski. The Star Thrower

Day 6
I choose, author Mark David Gerson. Dune

Day 7
 I choose, author Stephen King. The Books of Blood

Epilogue
I'm going to add one more book. Not just as pure self-promotion but as an honest comment about a book I wrote myself. I wrote it as I do all my stories to write something I've not seen before. At least in some way. I wrote my book, Death of heaven to show something I've not seen before.

I do not like to have to explain its format but for some, it may not have the depth it actually has. I wrote it to exemplify that "Heaven" (that is, heaven) never existed except in our minds, our mythologies, our religions. But even lies can and do have a base in fact. And that is the effort put forth in this horror / sci fi book.

We had a reason, as constructed in the book, to think there are Gods, to think there is an afterlife (maybe there is, but is there in the "Matrix" or is it another thing altogether?). And no, I do not use the Matrix as a foundation but something entirely different.

The Universe is not just as big as it is for us in the ways we conceive of. But in many ways, in many layers, in many dimensions. I tried to write a book that expands on that, expands our thinking, and offers some disturbing concepts and images to stretch concepts even further.

I based this book on Andrew, a novella about a five year traumatized boy who grows up into great things beyond that of any other human being throughout history. Andrew is a standalone ebook and the final story in my first book, a collection of my older and original short horror and sci fi fiction titled, Anthology of Evil. By the way, I have a sequel to this Anthology of Evil II but I have been busy and have not yet found a new publisher for it.

Death of heaven (see link for more) in my mind is the better book. But one leads into the other.

IF you want a book like you've not read before, give it a try. So far people seem to like it. It just hasn't had the marketing and attention it needs. See, m focus has been on film production. I've been focusing for years on screenplays and one of my favorites, the true crime biopic, The Teenage Bodyguard is now in talks with an active producer and we're building a plan for its production.

This past weekend Kelly Hughes hanging with the awesome Alison Arngrim - Meeting actors Warren and Elif at Zombie Joe's Underground Theatre in North Hollywood with Alison and Robert. — with Alison Arngrim and Robert Schoonover.

This week's blog isn't about film production but it's been my primary focus of late. So for an update...along with Kelly Hughes over at his Lucky Charm Studio, friend and fellow filmmaker and founder of the Gorst Underground Film Festival in its second annual event this fall where I have been and I am again judging films.

I hope to get one of my own in there this year or next. Kelly just produced his documentary Hush, Hush Nellie Oleson currently making the round of film festivals. And a music video collaboration with the Italian band Postvorta with the same, We're Nothing. I'm also in his book, Are You A Good Witch, with a shot of Alison Arngrim ("Nellie" from Little House on the Prarie), who "murdered" me in one of Kelly's films.

I'm currently in pre-production on shooting my own short horror film, Gumdrop based on a previous short story of mine, Gumdrop City. A true crime story. After I'm done with the Bodyguard project I'll move over to a horror comedy I wrote that did well in screenplay contests, Gray and Lover The Hearth Tales Incident. It is one that could easily lend itself to a franchise.

Getting back to the seven books, they are all great books. I don't put mine up there in the same category. But I've certainly given it a worthy effort.

I'll just leave you here with these reviews by reviewers. Make up your own mind:

From author and reviewer Michael Brookes:
"The book starts well and has a Books of Blood vibe, which really works well. It's in these tales that the author's writing ability shines. He demonstrates a lovely turn of phrase and some of the writing is almost poetic in its beauty."

From British Book Reviewer Lynn Worton:
"JZ Murdock has written a horror story that had me completely transfixed! I'm intrigued as to what he is working on next! Although horror is not one my favorite genres, I recommend this book to those who do love it."

From WILDSound Writing Festival First Chapter review said:
"The story itself is very strong, lulling the reader into a false sense of security as two young boys hunt for treasure, before ultimately morphing into a violent and sometimes disturbing tale of horror. This is done with such swiftness that it takes the reader completely by surprise, which only enhances the effect."

Check out Death of heaven!

Sláinte! Cheers!

In Memory, Yet Crystal Clear, A New Audiobook

It is finally UP and Available to the public on Amazon, Audible and iTunes:

Original artwork by Marvin Hayes

In Memory, Yet Crystal Clear. The title, an homage to science fiction writer Isaac Asimov's 1979 first autobiography which I found so affective and orienting to me as a writer, In Memory Yet Green.

My story is a tale of how a dystopian society comes to be through the efforts on a single man who takes over much of America's thinking through his managing their daily feed of information.

Sound familiar? Seem a bit too real? A bit too much like today? It is. But this is a reality we can easily escape, simply by finishing listening to or reading the story.

From the Amazon description:

A short story about a world reminiscent of a Philip K.Dick story since the 2016 US Presidential election, or this story here where a world famous surgeon helps his missing son's best friend. Only to find that his actions lead to monumental changes in the United States and as well around the world. All in ways he would never have foreseen.

I wrote this story in the 1980s and eventually saw it sold to an east coast horror quarterly magazine. It became my first published short sci fi horror fiction in 1990. Then in 2012 it became the first story in my first book Anthology of Evil (to which I'm currently shopping to publishers its sequel, Anthology of Evil II). That first book of mine is a collection of my original older short sci fi and horror, including its ending novella (Andrew) that evolved through one other short short story (Perception) into my second book, DEATH OF HEAVEN.

In 2013 I had produced and narrated three audiobooks on my own. The Conqueror Worm (first and standalone short horror which opens my DEATH OF HEAVEN book), The Mea Culpa Document of London (also in Anthology of Evil), and Expedition of the Arcturus (the title an homage to the 1920 book,  Voyage to Arcturus, by Scottish author David Lindsay) and was first published in the hard sci fi free online magazine PerihelionSF.com (thanks there to publisher Sam Bellotto).

I am now putting out audiobooks with friend and professional voice actor Tom Remick in a collaboration we are both finding rewarding and just fun to do. Here is a short video intro to Tom's work. We have since changed our equipment and recording setup for the current audiobook, In Memory, Yet Crystal Clear.

Next up... first, I am narrating my most popular piece, a science fact article I've renamed, On Psychology. It details the history of psychology, proposes new research on synesthesia and schizophrenia and offers some perspective on today\s related political environment.

We already have audio tracks for the next story recorded for Mr. Pakool's Spice, a short story about a single father trying to get his two young kids to safety through the back winter woods of Oregon during a zombie apocalypse. With no food, barely surviving, and with of all people an international terrorist hot on their tail. It's a well drawn and heart wrenching tale.

Included with that story in the ebook and now audiobook is the short short story, The Regent's Daughter, a medieval tale which won Best Tension, in a short short story contest among a group of writers.

After that we will be recording the engrossing and tense sci fi horror story, EarVu about a new and frightening technology. It seems like a fun technology... at first. Then the several scientists who developed it find strange things happening around their top secret lab.

Tom and I are having a great time. Producing audiobooks is not easy and takes a lot of work which we hope genre fans and others, will appreciate. It's especially rewarding for me as some of these stories I wrote a very long ago. My older ones even going back to my university days in the early 1980s.

Having read and re read them so many times during the crafting process, over the years and then to hear a talented voice actor read them, to bring them alive, brings another level entirely to these stories. Some of which I have now updated to be more relevant to today's sensibilities. And in some cases as with this current audiobook, our present reality has only enhanced the intensity of the story.

So many authors have said their stories are in a way, like children to them. This experience has been like my stories have gone from high school to college and who knows, perhaps one day they will achieve professional status to become produced on film. Part of the reason I retired in 2016, buying film production equipment and restarting up my LGN Productions (AKA Last good Nerve Productions, started in 1993) company was to produce my stories in new formats.

But until that happens these stories are available as print, ebook and now audiobooks as we produce more and more of my stories. Please take a look and a listen. I think you'll be very pleased with the result we have culled out of them in bringing new life to them as audiobooks. If you do like what you hear and read in my stories, please do share with friends and feel free to post your reviews. I look forward to seeing what you think.

All the best and do... keep reading and listening!

From the ever beautiful American Pacific Northwest... JZ Murdock.

Slainte!


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Making of Mea Culpa the Film by JZ Murdock

This is a personal journal of how I wrote, shot and produced my new film, Mea Culpa. An LGN Productions project. I'm still at the initial stages. But how did I get into this? How did it get to this point. Where is this going and...what IS this, anyway? For one, it's a way to break into film again. To create a new piece, a business card if you will. A way to create something new, network with new people, build a crew, exercise creative muscles new and old and have a new, fun product to show.

It's a story about a Medieval Witch Hunter, based upon a story I wrote with the help of one of my University Theater Professors back in 1983 titled, The Mea Culpa Document of London. It has something to do in this current reincarnation on video with today and here.

But it reaches all the way back to the 12th century.

The Mea Culpa Document of London front cover

I am writing the screenplay in order to shoot my own screenplay. It is a business card, a show piece, a way to translate my written words to an easier form to view. A door by which I hope to see it opened and other opportunities to come about, to meet other like minds, and to produce even more in the future.

Selling screenplays is a pain. More than writing them and that's not easy. Getting the attention, going through the process, working with producers, money people, whomever. It's a lot.

Just doing it, is doing it. You can wish, desire, think about, but doing is...well, doing. You don't need super studio quality high production values, or a big studio. Really just grit, determination, perseverance, networking, a good knowledge of cinema, equipment and of course, help.

Oh, and skill doesn't hurt.

So I thought I might also try to write a kind of intermittent journal of the process here.

Something I last (had) to do at Western Washington University. Always looking to rack up more class credits toward my degree in Psychology, in Awareness and Reasoning division, I discovered I could get credit by shooting a video on half inch reel to real black and white video tape. I had also decided I had enough credits almost to get a second degree but rather than stay longer than four years including summers in classes, I'd settle for a minor in Creative Writing, in fiction and screen and script writing.

All along I had been studying cinema however, both in and out of class. I took classes like Cinema, Film into Documentary (taught by an almost British stiff but quite intelligent and at times funny, ex Yale professor).

I studied sometimes on my own, specifically the works of Hitchcock, Kubrick and... Woody Allen. Years later I worked with an east coast production company for over five years as a remote "in house" screenwriter. I never got anything on screen, but I learned a lot about things I'd never expected to learn about. Like dealing with producers, and studio squabbles.

When I was a kid, I was an odd kid. No surprise, right? At five I would sneak watching TV detective shows. I watched Perry Mason with my grandmother, and The Twilight Zone. I loved them. I also watched westerns, cartoons, and kid fare as many kids did back then in the 1950s and 60s.

But I also used to listen to an eclectic collection of music. Classical, experimental, blues, hard rock, all which got me some pretty weird looks from friends how came to visit. I remember in junior high a kid came over and I had on Bach Piano Fugues (Glenn Gould). He scrunched up his nose and said, "WHAT are you listening to?" I said, "Oh, sorry, it's Bach." I took it off and put on a rock album which pleased him.

I got into science fiction books and TV very young. Mostly from first watching old sci fi films on TV in the very early 1960s. My mother had always been a fan of Hollywood. Oscar night was an event. Every year our mother made a party of watching the Oscar Award show. They were our American royalty. She especially loved the troublesome, beautiful and talented Liz Taylor, an idol of hers and of course Liz's Richard Burton. Lucille Ball, her biggest idol.

Thank God for that because mom acted crazy fun at times, even though she could be still be strict as hell at times.

I kind of grew up at a drive in theater where my step father was Assistant Manager. My sister worked there as her first job and it was one of our oldest brother's first jobs also.

My first job was (ignoring having shined shoes in a cantina near the beach in Spain in 1958 at about three or four), was in ninth grade in cleaning the field of the theater during the day. I later worked my way up to Snack Bar Manager, then Box Office Cashier. Before graduating high school.

While growing up we were at the drive in watching whatever show was on every Friday night, rain or shine. We had little money and it was quite a benefit. Because it was free. Because we got half off on snack bar food and just had to charge it to my step father's account. So I saw a lot of films. Many I probably shouldn't have seen so young. Like biker movies. Which scared the hell out of me. What if they showed up in our town?

Eventually...I discovered PBS. Ah... Public Broadcasting! Channel 9, KCTS in Tacoma.

In the 1960s they played foreign stuff. I got to learn who Monty Python was but never found out what his Flying Circus was really about, till years later. But I loved them.

I got to watch, to learn about the Auteur directors in Europe, like Francois Truffaut. I saw Samurai movies (Ikura Kurosawa's films anyway). I came to love Francois Truffaut. Also, Michelangelo Antonioni, Federico Fellini, Luis Buñuel, Ingmar Bergman, Alfred Hitchcock, Orson Welles, Jean-Luc Godard, Werner Herzog, Lina WertMuller, and many others.

I'd already grown up with so many other directors and actors and later learned of others still. We loved Hitchcock and I saw his old films on TV and new ones as they came out in theaters.

The point is, I grew up with film. I learned to appreciate Cinema. I studied it on my own as a kid not knowing I was studying it. Then in college and at a university where I studied screenwriting and team script writing. Later still I was a public access cable TV producer with Viacom in Seattle, and late in 1993-early 94 I produced and aired the "25th Anniversary Lost In Space documentary". No one did that. There was only one other I found in the world who celebrated that show, a documentary from Australia for that anniversary. And honestly, with higher production values. But I thought we had more interesting information.

I have a background in film, it's in my blood since childhood. Before through my mother. It's literally in my DNA.

I've just never been able to find a way to have a creative career in writing or film. I was a Senior Technical Writer for years but that is in IT work on computers in information and internet technologies.

Until I got tired of writing where there was simply no character development, no story structure, no tension. All information had to be put up front.

Yet, it was an excellent way to learn to be a writer, but not lots of fun. Rewarding though. You learned attention to detail, to produce on demand, to take the stress (and trust me at the high level I was at, lots of stress!), how to think out of the box, on your feet, and quickly, how to take complicated information from people smarter than you and turn it into something usable they would love. Even if you didn't understand a word of what you were writing about.

So my creative side was put on hold for years, decades to raise a family. I'd tried before that but never could get anything to click. Many times, almost, but then it never just locked into place. Sad, and frustrating, but you do what you have to do.

Finally in August 2016 in retiring from a decades long career in IT, in computers all things complex and annoying, fascinating and frustrating, I got my chance to get back to my original intent. IT had paid well, it had helped to pay for raising my kids and it had situated me now and finally for writing and producing... films, or whatever I liked.

What a feeling, what a breathe of fresh air! But now I also had to do something.

So here we are today, right now. After 2010 I wrote and produced a couple of books, multiple short story ebooks, several audiobooks, published stories in magazines and I am in several other author\s anthologies. I've written screenplays, worked with producers from both American coasts so that here I am, ready to just do... stuff. Interesting stuff.

I've currently been finishing up a new story for publication. "The Unwritten." I wrote the first draft on Wattpad as an experiment. I will finish and put that in as a novella in my sequel to one of my books, Anthology of Evil. When I retired in August I bought thousands of dollars of film equipment and software all of which I now have to learn and utilize.

Now finally is the time. And I'm going for it.

So I'm writing to shoot a story I'm calling for now simply, "Mea Culpa". As I had said, it is built upon the original story I wrote during my university years titled, The Mea Culpa Document of London. It is a tale far more twisted than most people realize when they read it, unless you know some history.

This story is further explored in an extension story in my second book, Death of heaven, and is titled, Vaughan's Theorem. And no, the lower case "h" in "heaven" is not a mistake. You'd have to read the book to understand why.

What I am doing in this new version of the Mea Culpa story is to update it, to localize it, to translate it into a short video. But how does one do that? Take a narrative piece like that, and put it into film. The obvious way is to shoot it as told, to "show not tell". But I wanted as always, to do it differently, to creatively break the rules I've spent so much time learning.

The story originates in 1100CE in England. It continues in more recent times in England. It is now continuing in America, in a city called Bremerton, in Washington state. Where I now live as of August 2016. Located about thirty miles from where I was born, in Tacoma, it is a Navy town. A town I thought I'd never live in. Because it was the first and only place I was ever incarcerated in jail. At seventeen. For something I had nothing to do with. But that is a story for another time.

When in high school in twelfth grade, I was dating a girl in college in Bremerton. It was funny. The old, "I have a hot girlfriend but you can't meet her, she lives in Canada" routine. No one except close friends believed me. But she was real and named, Char (Charlene). The new assistant manager of the drive in theater who replaced my step dad when he moved to a brand new 112th Street Drive In Theater, introduced me to his old girlfriend. She was only a few years older than me, as he was only a few years older than her. But I'm getting off the point here....

The current filmic version of my Mea Culpa story is a story about a descendant of one of the main characters and his peculiar discovery of the Mea Culpa document in his garage workshop, the bizarre way it got there, and why it is there.

Weirdness runs rampant in this short extension of my now nearly ancient Mea Culpa story.

Originally it was a story that was done for no real reason. I was sitting in my Professor Perry Mill's office in the our university theater department in our PAC theater building. Where my girlfriend and I first saw Road Warrior and learned of Mel Gibson for the first time, the crowed loved it. Nothing like viewing a great action film with a university audience. Perry and I were just talking and I got an idea for a short story while listening to him talk about medieval stuff.

So I went home and wrote it, then showed it to him the next day. Being a student of medieval literature he loved it and offered me some ideas, clarification and some history which he could go on about forever in the most enlightening and entertaining ways. He liked the story so much he wanted me to turn it into a one man stage play for him to play. It would have been brilliant to see him in it. Brilliant. But my skills at the time in play writing simply weren't up to the task and it never came to be.

However, I did walk away with a story I eventually published. I later expanded it into a much larger story in Death of heaven and now, here we are decades later and I am turning yet another version of it into a short movie. I love expanding the universe of my characters as I love when other authors do that with their characters and literary universes.

I've also done that with my Lord Ritchie character who is in my Poor Lord Ritchie's Answer story, and in an anthology with other authors detailing his adventures as a younger man and pirate in the Caribbean ("Breaking on Cave Island" in the "Giant Tales series "World of Pirates" anthology, edited by Heather Marie (H.M.) Schultz.

I also have another story I did a similar thing with in the Giant Tales series book, "Final Ships", with my "Gravity Up" story, based upon my Death of heaven book. A great little story I had wanted to title, "In the Shade" but acquiesced to the editor's suggestion. While you learn what is going on in Death of heaven, I thought it would be interesting to experience the bizarre things happening in that larger book of mine as a character who simply experiences some of all those terrifying things in having absolutely no clue why it is happening.

Anyway, for my film I was shooting for a ten minute length but as happens, it grew beyond that.
Ten minutes is very good for film festival submissions and the director in the directing class I was in yesterday highly recommended getting it back down to ten. And so I will.

So that's it for now. I'm currently working on finishing up Anthology of Evil II, but have to finish, The Unwritten, story first. It's currently in the hands of beta readers and my editor. I'm learning a lot about my new camera equipment, trying to remember and relearn cinematography, and overall relearning filmmaking after decades of absence, and also finishing up the writing of, Mea Culpa.

More to come...stay tuned.

#JZMurdock #MeaCulpaFilm #LGNProductions