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!

Walkabout Thoughts #1 - Walk For Life

My thoughts, while walking off long Covid and listening to podcasts...a blog designed and meant to be freely associating, on the run, and not perfectly edited:

Today's Instagram post (this post was shot just below this previous post).

 I've been fighting Long CoViD for over six months now. I'm finally doing better. I'm writing a book about it, so far titled, "Suffering Long CoViD" (LC). I'm doing better, but it's been a nightmare. Getting over it this much in this amount of time is very pleasing. First time was eight months going on eighteen months from February 2020 into the next year.

Part of my treatment has been exercise. Which I couldn't do for a long time. After a few months I started walking. Ten minutes the first day. Today I did four miles. I've gotten up to five miles (in walking every other day for a day of healing from the walk), but the poor air quality from forest fires in Washington state this past week shut down being outside (with this condition). We had I'd heard, twelve forest fires going on. 

To make the walks more endurable, I started listening to music. Then I got to where I would listen to a whole album. Then a couple. Finally switched to podcasts and found that much more useful. The walks, and the podcasts even more so, invigorated my creativity and I started taking notes on my walks.

I would use those notes when I got home (after taking it easy, hydrating), to work on my book on LC. Or posting to Twitter, mostly political commentaries but also just some thoughts on life at times. 

It has gotten now, with these longer walks to generate longer thoughts and more of them. It got to be burdomsome to post them to Twitter. Today it occurred to me to maybe just post them into a blog and be done with it. I liked that idea. It frees my time up. I want to get this book finished and out there. I haven't written in it all week as I wasn't feeling well and my head hurt all week long.

So, here it is, just posting all my thoughts in a blog. Apologies. Or, enjoy! Your choice.

Walkabout Thoughts:

I was listening to this past week's Pod Save America ep. 671 "The GOP's One Man Ban".

First, a disclaimer about how I’m really not partisan, or never had been until the Republican Party forced it as necessary, more and more over the years, until they elected Donald Trump, making it impossible to be any other way.

We need Republicans to quit trying to be "good" Christians and start being good Americans again. Stop following theology and get back to your science and medicine. Which at least has something other than emotions to do with women’s rights and having their choice of what actually needs to be done, over what some "morally" believe should be done.

Republicans are trying to eliminate democracy to decrease our people's control. Which would decrease the control of our people over our government. How can one not draw the natural conclusion that what they’re shooting for is a new version of the Soviet Union, this time through capitalism not socialism? The stupidity in the direction they are taking this is mind boggling. It makes one wonder how an enemy nation isn’t pulling their strings on them. Which I don’t believe they are. So why are they acting as if that IS the case? Just as Trump did, making us all think he was a Russian agent. Which he still is acting as if he is.

Liberal's politics have a base of science & ideology, ideology that’s based on people, community and the future. Conservatives, especially MAGA follow their ideology as it leads them (as Donald Trump's Chief Ideologist Steve Bannon designed for him, as Trump had none before him, as filthy and disgusting at it is), but doesn’t give a shit about people, or anything except following dogma. This is a form that has started wars, genocides, has weaponized faith and now Republicans who lean deeply into it offering their assuming power and control, and money thru lies, leading they think, into a civil war. Which is already engaged. It's just evolved beyond the form of our first civil war.

Republicans have attacked conservatives who well may be smart, who try to be, to recognize threats, but are not wise. Wisdom recognizes threats but also sees the other side of that in any instance or situation, in evaluating a threat, and then tuck it away if that’s the best choice. Which so often it is. This excessive carefulness in thought, has created MAGA who attack unnecessarily and actually attacks the very things those people believe they are fighting for. It is again that pilot who is upside down and pulls "upward", directly into the ground in being utterly disoriented, but trying to do the right thing.

By the way, voting for anyone who appears "better than Trump", is not realistic. It’s defeatist. It’s accepting the lowest bar he did everything in his power to lower, minute by minute.

I’ve been saying this all through the Trump administration years, that the only thing more dangerous than an idiot like Trump as POTUS is someone who’s not an idiot but tries to imitate Trump. Which makes them far more dangerous. Yes, I’m talking about DeSantis, or people like him. Just another faux conservative bully. So for those voting for DeSantis who are breathing a sigh of relief, stop it! Hold your breath until he is off the political field.

The problem with researchers who studied biking vs walking, who say that mile for mile bicycling is equal to walking, seem to be ignoring the fact, or the caveat is not getting out, that when you’re coasting, you’re not walking. If half of your bike ride is coasting, that’s not walking.

To my friend and fellow director (and podcaster) Kelly Hughes: I would like to propose something to you. I use my postings in social media, which admittedly are generally political or entertainment based, to hone my skills in debate and being concise. Which leads me to research, honing those skills. I’ve been using Instagram in recent months to do just that, with my camera work. I would propose start using Instagram, try to see things in your environment that are worth sharing, then shoot it in a way, within 30 seconds or less, that sharpens your camera work and filmmaking skills, exhibiting that to the public. That seems to be why I have been getting up to 30,000 views on some of my videos. Also, for you, your best skill may be your voice, interviewing and commentary, especially off the cuff. So you could shoot videos where you have only a few seconds to say something clever, to sound clever and interesting. Decades ago I heard a famous author say that one of the best ways to prepare to write a novel is to write the shortest stories you can, down to a paragraph. Which I did practice doing. Some will argue that’s not how you learn to write a novel or book. Which is true, because that’s far more complicated. But every novel or book is a sentence or paragraph first. Some of the best fiction I've read are essentially short paragraphs which are little essays that lead to a larger cohesive whole.

This is not a country founded on Christianity, but initially a country of mostly Christians who founded a country for freedom, All in part because of abuse of religious beliefs in the countries those people's ancestors fled from. It makes no sense therefore, that a minority who are theists, attempt to apply their specific theology in their freedom of thought, and work to subvert our government, to apply all that against other people's freedoms of action.

The theory of the "attacking dying wild animal" fits so much today of what’s been going on. We’ve called the Republican party a "zombie" party for years. Conservatism, toxic as it is, is broken and dying. It's been trying to kill itself. Religion too has been broken, mostly by reality over hundreds if not thousands of years, is also dying. I see this in many places. I’ve been fighting long CoViD now for going on seven months, not for the first time in over two years. When I got my updated booster last Monday, I went through hell week, until I woke up Saturday morning and felt it was almost gone. Again as if the virus was an attacking dying wild animal. So don't assume what you're seeing around us is a growing movement, but a dying while animal, made "wild" by consent and with purpose of its leaders.

Maybe I should start blogging these walkabout thoughts, instead of tweeting them. Because it’s getting burdensome to Tweet them all. Then I could start a new series of blogs of my "Walkabout Thoughts", or something. "Walking Thoughts"?

And...here we are.

Cheers! Sláinte! Na zdravie!

About Angels

I'm reprising a popular blog of mine from back in 2011 on Angels.

Although I've made no secret of my Buddhist orientation at this point in my life, I was raised Catholic. I've always been fascinated by Angels. In my own way. I love the series films with Christopher Walken called, "The Prophesy". I've always found Angels as badasses. Great  not religious, but sci fi fodder.

Powerful, frightening, entertaining, but righteous in their dedication to what is right. Rr what they think their God wants. Or more interestingly, what they think may be right, even when they're wrong. It's a paradigm ripe for drama and intensity.

I have used them at least twice in my writings. Once in my book, "Death of heaven" where they are both a central force in the story and yet not there at all. I also used them in my novella, "The Unwritten" (as yet unpublished). In the latter story, I had no clue they were to be characters until nearly the end of the story and then, they became a powerful force and locus of the novella. It was fun to write. Pure weirdness. Both are, even if I say so myself, fascinating stories.

Christian mythology is fun. Vampires are afraid of a Crucifix, where Holy Water affects them and protects the poor Mortals. Push-button resolutions against terrifying odds.

I'm writing a novel where there is a character that has a relationship with an Angel. So I had to do some research. There is a thriving industry of commerce, in the world, on the internet. People claiming to speak for the Angels, selling online and in books and video, aspects of myth and information filling that void some people have in their lives for some connection to their Supreme Being, their God. Some even worship the Angels, but why you would want to worship anything other than the top dog, sorry, Top God, is beyond me.

Demons and Angels even come from the same beginning. The words for Demon and Angel have similar origins, and one can assume many of the demons mentioned were originally Angels Fallen Angels. And that is a consideration fascinating enough in itself and has been the focus of many interesting tales. What is an Angel's morality? Are they above it? Aside from it?

Here is what I found. There are many ways to interpret the literature, and so, this is my interpretation of what I found.

"ASSUMPTION of the VIRGIN" by Francesco Botticini showing the choirs of angels in the three Spheres.

There are three levels of Angels. The Top Choir, is the highest rank of Angels. They attend to God directly. They are his Holy Servants. Ezekial talks about Cherubin carrying God and his chariot. They were the defenders of God. Cherubin stand outside the Garden of Eden so Adam and Eve can't get back in. A Cherub is not a cute baby with wings, that thought came up in the Renaissance, they are not somebody to meet on a dark lane, as they could turn rather nasty. Don't screw with a Cherubin. This top tier includes the Seraphim, Cherubin, and Thrones.

Saraphim are always depicted in red, symbolizing Devine Love; Cherubin are always depicted in blue, representing Wisdom. According to Christy Kenneally, host of the Smithsonian Channel show, "Decoding Christianity": "Cherubs as cute babies are a Baroque and Renaissance fabrication. Angels didn't have wings in the beginning, because of possible confusion with the ancient Gods, like Mercury who also had wings. Artists had gotten things pretty close to correct up till then, when they kind of went off the deep end.

Once Humans started to become "enlightened" they lost their inner eye for that of science and began to lose their connection for that of speculation. There are no such thing as baby Angels. Cherubs were then reduced to the lowest level of the Angelic ladder. But they are one of the three most powerful and fearsome of all Angels."

The Second Choir are those in charge of the Universe. The Overseers of Nature and Fate and are: The Dominions, the Powers, and the Virtues.

The Third Choir are the Human intermediaries who deal with us mere mortals. They are our first and initial connection to God, going first through them, then through the rest of the hierarchy. These include: The Principalities, the Archangels, and the Angels.

By Gustave Doré - Alighieri, Dante; Cary, Henry Francis (ed) (1892) "Canto XXXI" in The Divine Comedy by Dante, Illustrated, Complete, London, Paris & Melbourne: Cassell & Company Retrieved on 13 July 2009., Public Domain

St. Thomas Aquinas wrote a book on Angels because there were so many questions during his lifetime about them. Do they eat, do they procreate, do they wear clothing? Do they have gender?

Rafael will blow the trumpet that heralds judgment day and of the end of the World to Muslims. To Jews and Christians, he is the Angel of Healing.

Gabriel is God's Messenger. To Jews he destroyed the city of Sodom. In Islam he brings the Koran to Mohammad.

Michael, is the most powerful Angel of all. To Jews he is the guardian Angel of Israel. In Islam he brought thunder and lightning to earth. In Christianity, he flung Satan and his army of rebel Angels into Hell.

Angels appear to a person as their greatest embodiment of their expectations, therefore, in the past they were always male angels, but now people are not so entrenched in a patriarchal society and angels can appear as male or female, but always as the greatest beauty in expectation of that individual's beliefs.

Michael's name means "he who is most like God". When Lucifer said, "I am like unto God." Michael merely responds with his own name, saying: "Michael (Who is like God?)." And at that moment, the war between the Angels begins. It is a spiritual warfare, a spiritual struggle.

Lucifer is then cast into Hell and named Satan. He is depicted as the Dragon, the beast. But Satan has a history that comes to us from preChristian origins. He gets his horns, his cloven hooves and some of his character from Pan. Pan the bisexual. For Christians, Satan represents the evil of paganism. In defeating a Pan-like Satan, Michael can also be seen as defeating the old Gods.

Michael, had a pagan ancestor too, the Roman God, Mercury. Monuments and churches dedicated to the Archangel Michael were almost always built on high places, and almost always on the ruins of the of temples dedicated to the God Mercury. Like Mercury, Michael always watched over commerce, communication and has healing powers.

In the 6th century, there was a plague. Pope Gregory prayed for help and there was a vision of Michael at what is now, Castle St. Angelo, on a site that was once a temple to Mercury. It was then that they began to call him "Saint Michael", or "Sant Angelo" ("Sainted Angel"). It seems to me an odd concept to Saint an Angel.

It was in the 5th Century, that St. Jerome expressed the concept of each and every person alive having their own "Guardian Angel" when he said: "how great the dignity of the soul, since each one has from his birth an angel commissioned to guard it." (Comm. in Matt., xviii, lib. II).

I personally see that as somewhat limiting in an Angel's scope and power, but hey, it makes people feel better. The concept of intermediaries between we poor mortals and the Supreme Being, kind of makes sense. But one has to consider whether these are separate entities or simply minor manifestations of that Supreme Being.

When you consider according to Christian doctrine that God split himself in two, or three, being that also of Jesus and the Holy Spirit, or Holy Ghost, why couldn't this "Supreme" Being split up in millions of ways? Even unto condensing elements into individual mortals such as we are?

It's an interesting consideration. Not only this, but all of the Angel concept. And it makes for great storytelling. Which I will soon be adding to, once I have completed this new novel. I can only hope that the fun in reading it will come through from the fun I'm having in writing it.

Believe in Us Not Profit at all Costs

This, is good news. Automation, means humanity has more leisure time to pursue things like the arts, bettering oneself, bettering families, bettering humanity, lending aid in volunteering, and so on. We should be headed to four day work weeks, six hour days, not ever longer hours and weeks.

We are being lied to and have been for so long we can no longer see the light at the end of the tunnel. And then we are told we are the fault. We have been actively and consciously maneuvered into this position. A position where we see no way out. Even our good leaders can no longer see this anymore. Many of them too have bought into the foolishness we've been led into.

I read about where we should be heading and where we should be now, as a child in science fiction  books. Books written by the masters of futurism, science and speculative fiction. We were warned. Warned by books like 1984 and Brave New World and others.

The issue isn't that of immigrants or robots or automation are taking our jobs.

The issue is our leaders did not seem to know this was happening, what was coming down upon us, and where our future was heading. Because too many of them simply do not study the past. They can therefore, do little about considering out future.

They only seem to care about the present, about capitalism, about profit, about power for themselves, their tribe, their oligarchs and corporate masters.

Why is everything so broken?

As I've said now for decades, our priorities are simply wrong. Pure and simple.

If we had been working toward these aforementioned things rather than being so focused with tunnel vision on profit for stockholders, corporations and the wealthy, none of this would be an issue now.

We would and should be hands down the moral and humane leaders of the world. Yet, we are not.

The profit takers, the Trumps of the country and of the planet have taken over and convinced us there is no recourse... other than theirs. Too many of us are too ignorant or too stupid to believe otherwise.

That puts Putin firmly in the lead as the world's greatest profit taker, fiscal and moral rapist of his own country. While Trump mimics his beloved efforts here and just as the rest of the world's leaders seem to be following suit.

That's why there are so many Russian connections with the Trump family and administration.

#realDonaldTrump, #Putin and his #POTUS, out country's #GOP, the broken zombified #Republican party of big business, they are all focused on wealth and for only the few.

We are all in the movie #GetOut and we... are the new guy.

We need to win. To expose. To decimate bad priorities. To take over. To take control of our lives. To remove those who have so damaged us. To change our priorities to those most suitable to not just us, not just our tribe, our only nation, only our profit structure.

But for OUR entire human race. We do that, or we are doomed. But that is not just a depressive and pathetic end to our existence.

Hope. Effort. A refusal to be beaten down any further. It is in our hands. And we are seeing it happen. So many women are starting to run for office. People who were very recently of the mind that there was no hope. We had no say. Are now saying, yes we do have hope! Yes, we can have a say.

We are seeing a paradigm shift unlike we have seen in decades.

And it's just in time.

Hollywood Girl Goes Author!

You may remember my Hollywood Girl blog on a web series created and starred in by the amazing Courtney Zito. Check that blog out for more about her and her show. Or you may remember my blog: Just why is Courtney Zito crashing the SuperBowl?  Both obviously about the same lady.

What this blog here and now is about is that she has just turned her talents to being an author and writing a book. What kind of book would this dynamic, attractive and talented actress, and comedic producer of a very funny show... write?

Well, a supernatural thriller of course! Titled Peripheral Vision, it's available now to pre order on Amazon. Check out her new video book trailer for it. It's pretty sweet! Drop by her Facebook page and let her know you hopefully pre-ordered the book. Coming out as an ebook first, it will later be released in print format. Teaming up with her in writing this book is writer Timothy Hammer.

See the Amazon description below at the end of this blog.

Courtney's an amazing talent (just watch an episode or a season (or three) of Hollywood Girl) who has been lost not only to the single crowd (she's married), she has also entered the role of parent. It seems like only yesterday she was a free and crazy Hollywood Girl and now she is branching out into a multitude of endeavors as only she can.

Far beyond the triple threat many fear as competition, just get out of her way and see where she goes!

Hollywood Girls has broken the bonds of videohood and entered the international realm of the novel.

Cheers, readers!

From the Amazon page:

Sometimes the deepest secrets hide in the the darkest corners.

As a little girl, Sarah suffered a horrific tragedy that would forever change her. She saw it coming before anyone else, but she could only describe it as the feeling. From then on, she always considered herself an “extra sensitive”. It was as if her mind knew something was going to happen, but she wasn’t able to fit all of the pieces together until after the fact. At night, while she dreamed, her visions played out both the past and the future, and sleep was often elusive. But with the help of doctors, and sleeping pills, she was able to silence the feeling for the better part of her life.

Now, as a thirty-something, “living the dream” in Los Angeles, she’s built a solid life for herself and put the tragedy behind her. But when she’s met with unexpected news, it causes a cataclysmic shift in everything she thought she knew about herself, and her family. Sarah’s estranged Aunt has died, and she has inherited her old farmhouse in the small Nebraska town of Homewood. Deep within the house, she discovers some very dark secrets. What she finds, opens up some frightening doors to the small town's past. Doors that were better left closed.

Oh yeah...this should be good!

Biopic Not Documentary: Benghazi, 13 Hours, Teenage Bodyguard

I've been looking for something to blog about that is relative to my writing and art. Many of us have of late been immersed in the insanity that is national politics and international issues. I found one that was born from politics and delves directly into those things, screenwriting and film production in general.

The web site CrooksAndLiars.com recently had an article about the film 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi (2016).

In that article they claim:

"The Benghazi movie 13 Hours was supposed to help bring Hillary Clinton down, but that mission's not accomplished."

Where did they get the idea that it had anything to do with politics and not just a vehicle for talent, and to make money for a studio? Salon had an article on just that topic. Yes, it is a project filled with considerations, politically speaking. Mostly from the right wing trying to make something out of nothing. When it has been shown time and again and with each new incarnation of what was supposed to have happened, that it was simply a bad situation turned worse?

"The 2012 Benghazi attack took place on the evening of September 11, 2012, when Islamic militants attacked the American diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya, killing U.S. Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens and U.S. Foreign Service Information Management Officer Sean Smith.Stevens was the first U.S. Ambassador killed in the line of duty since 1979. The attack has also been referred to as the Battle of Benghazi." - Wikipedia

I personally find it sickening that the right has pursued this tragedy for political purposes. Just as they have done so many others disgusting things going back to President Bill Clinton related to a personal marital issue. Something they only pursued in order to embarrass a sitting Democratic president, to push him basically into entrapment through yet another in a never ending series of fishing expeditions in order to find anything they could then pursue.

The right knows no decency in politics.

From what I have been able to gather it is typical that the right would claim Benghazi was the fault of the left, of Hillary and Obama, of the Obama administration in general. However, so much of the blame actually falls on the Republican party for previously cutting funds too much for these consulates worldwide that previous year. But we shouldn't talk about THAT now, should we?

It's repeatably been shown that all the disingenuous and disinformation from the right has no bearing in reality for what actually happened. But it served its purpose because even today it is a rallying cry among many conservatives about how the democrats are scum. Like thy bully in the schoolyard, starting a fight and then pointing at the victim and crying that they started it. It's a juvenile but effective tactic.

I'm unsure of the purpose (sort of) of that web site in decrying the film as a political statement rather than what it is, a film for entertainment to explore the types of things that happen in a situation such as this. It is not however some kind of legal document, documentary or even docudrama to explain what had happened. Those in the right who try to push it as such, are just being dull and base as usual.

Enough of politics here though. It's not why I'm writing this.

13 Hours is just a film. From what the accounts are of it so far, a pretty good film, regardless of how much money it has made. I watched it and found it a pretty good film. The truth behind it really isn't the point.

How does a screenplay get made for a film like this?

This is why I chose to blog about this film. I have myself written and am currently rewriting my own film biopic (biographical picture, first use according to Websters' is 1951 probably from Billboard industry magazine). MacMillan defines it as: "a movie based on the events of someone’s life."

I had always thought it was bi-opic ("opic" for ocular, visual, "bi" for biographical) but I think bio-pic makes more sense. Oxford defined it as: "1950s: blend of biographical (see biography) and pic." So either way.

Point being, a biopic is a film for entertainment based on real events and people. But not adhering 100% to reality and again, films are made to make money.

It is after all the, Film Industry. Not the Film Historical Society.

My friend and I back in 1974

The title of my biopic is Teenage Bodyguard. It is also known as, Slipping The Enterprise. In the photo above I'm standing in front of my parent's car. My friend home on leave from the Army, the rifle in the in front of me and the shoulder holster and .357 magnum aree all are in the screenplay.

It is about a week out of my young life at eighteen in 1974. A week with me against the Tacoma mob who called themselves, "The Enterprise", while I was with one of their strip club waitresses, a frightened "murder witness".

It seems they wanted to "talk" to her. She however wanted to get the hell out of town, For myself, she had convinced me that I just wanted to see her safe. It was an interesting week. This mob had law enforcement up to the Sheriff and Prosecuting Attorney in their pocket. It was later that decade when many of them were indicted, found guilty and sentenced to prison in a well publicized trial.

I have mentioned this story and screenplay before but I don't think I've gone into detail about how one takes history, what actually happened, and turns it into an entertainment film for audiences. Many events films have been made from would be pretty boring in a theater and would best be left for the History Channel. But even History Channel realizes the need for entertainment in their history shows if they want to survive as a network.

To make a biopic interesting there has got to be artistic licence involved.

You have to skew things a little or a lot to make a film entertaining, to entice and thrill. Otherwise it's just boring. True, some documentaries have been very entertaining. It's all about the desire and orientation of the project from the beginning. In a case like a film such as 13 Hours, or American Sniper for that matter, the purpose was to make a film for entertainment, a drama with action, essentially. As always in these projects, there is a desire to make money. Otherwise no one will touch it, produce it, I'm sure.

Military type stories are easier to make entertaining merely by their nature. But the reality of say, two men sitting in a calm during battle, who just sit there and talk with much of what they communicate coming through the shorthand of their professional orientation, where they could communicate much without a need to speak, would be quite a boring film. So you have to dramatize, make things up, use things you find from their letters, recorded voices, comments from family, friends and coworkers. Compress, hybrid things, information, situations and even people.

In essence, you make Art.

In my own screenplay for Teenage Bodyguard I was the principal character, Time was my enemy in my trying to remember things as they happened and writing it all down decades later. I had to research for months to find the associated issues that happened back then. As it turned out, through my research, reconstruction of events and reconsideration after all these years, I discovered a part of my past that I didn't even know existed.

Things happened to me during that week in 1974 that I had no clue about when they were happening.

I was lucky. Unlike those in 13 Hours, who died, I survived, obviously. Especially as I am writing the screenplay, the audience may very well know, as the film would begin in a theater, that I survived.

They do not know however, the background (as I didn't at the time either). Or if my client survived, the strip club waitress running from the mob. They believed she had witnessed an anonymous murder. She believed they had committed the murder (and probably did).

To this day the murder is labeled, "homicide by unknown suspect".

I know what I know from spending that week with her until she could escape to get on a plane, leave town and never be seen again. And I never saw or heard from her again. Did she live through the week I spent with her, armed with a .357 magnum in a shoulder holster, protecting her? Did she make it to that plane? If she didn't survive, am I still experiencing the guilt from failing at my task as bodyguard, even though I was at the time only eighteen?

If in reality and in the end I had gotten her on her flight (and I'm not saying that I did or didn't), did she survive through that next day, week, or month? Or did the mob finally catch up with her? They had to know where she came from and was probably going back to. How hard would it have been for a crime organization who had national connections, who could reach back to New York City as well as Las Vegas, to kill her any time they liked?

What I knew was pretty boring. I can't tell you here all that I knew or all that is in the screenplay but reality needs a plan to make it a film. It's all in how you tell it, what you tell, building tension, allowing limited release, injecting elements of surprise, humor, fear, and so on.

During the construction of the screenplay you have to use the screenplay format to flesh out what will work and if you have to change things for artistic license, or follow a plan that in some ways deviates from what actually happened, then that is what you have to do.

It is not a historical document after all. Speaking for myself, that is something that took me years of screenwriting to get over, and then actually get down to writing it. I first ran into the concept of staying true to the original, in doing an adaptation of a novel for another author. Then I did another for another author.

Writing an adaption is in many ways like writing a biopic.

You have a kind of blueprint to follow. Rather than historical events and people, it is a novel previously published and therefore, for some people, a kind of historical event. You have to remain true to the "event(s)", the story, perhaps for fans of the novel, and remain true to the spirit of the original.

But you have to make it entertaining for the novel reader too. You usually don't want merely to put the novel on the screen because frequently that just doesn't working. Transliteration from novel to screen (or real events to screen) can easily fail. It's easy to test out. Many times taking an original, and exactly duplicating it on screen simply fails. What works in one format for a variety of reasons just doesn't translate well to another format.

And therein lay the major disparity between what many expect and what a screenwriter and filmmaker produces in a biopic.

For instance, rather than showing a scene exactly how it happened the writer may not follow what happened for various reasons. It is the filmmaker's hope however that by the end of the scene the viewer will have experienced the same or similar feeling necessary to have understood what happened. That is, to understand the scene and in using it as set up for the next scene or for the film overall.

It may not however follow physical reality but rather emotional reality.

Therein lay the artistic license. This angers some people, annoys others, and yet has little or no bearing on many as long as they enjoy a good film and feel they have gotten their money's worth.

For others however, it becomes a political statement if not outrage.

Such is the filmmaker's dilemma and life in making a biopic. When it goes wrong, it goes horribly wrong. But when it goes right, it is Art.

In my own screenplay I had my memories to work with. What I had lived through. I had the advantage (and disadvantage) of being the primary character so I could as screenwriter query myself any time of the day or night when needed.

However there were things and information I did not have and so they required some artistic license to be able to flesh out the story. I did not know for instance, what the woman I was protecting was thinking, only things she said to me, and only as best as I could understand here at the time and eventually remember in what she said and did.

I did not know what the mob was thinking or doing, other than anything I may have seen them do, or historical references to them in documents at this point in time. And that turned out to be a lucky thing and a sticky situation.

This mob in Tacoma as it turned out was highly documented in the newspapers back then, in books and as well in court documents from trials. From all that and from what happened to me I was able to piece together quite a lot. I came to understand more and more of what exactly had happened to me. I found for instance that a "friend" of mine had basically been throwing me to the wolves in order to save himself and his housemate.

I discovered that this "mob" I was up against and who called themselves, "The Enterprise" (and thus my alternate title for the project in being, "Slipping The Enterprise" as we were trying to slip past them), were a motley and dangerous crew.

How do I explain what I was up against when even I didn't know it at the time?

How do I use exposition of the mob's activities and orientation? How to characterize them? The time the screenplay takes place is a good five or six years before their major arrests and court trials. This was a crew who had their hands into many things, as well as paying off law enforcement, judges and, arson and murdering people. Even to the point of threatening their enemy's families and children.

I really had no idea who it was up against. Though I have to say if I had known, it would only have led me to be more careful and circumspect in my actions at the time.

I had to show in the screenplay a crew's activities mostly after the fact of the time I had been dealing with them. In finding that method I found a unique and interesting kind of time shifting format. You get to see what I was going through, and who I was up against by interspersing their history with my story. All through their activities throughout the 1970s.

It was a remarkable concept once it hit me.

I researched for a long time and then wrote out specific times and events. Then I built that into and around my story as a frame beginning with my introduction and activities with the woman in question. A woman who was I see now in hindsight, kind of in shock throughout most of that week.

She would seem fine during the day but then in quiet times she would be very reflective and just...odd. A kind of Post Traumatic Shock type of condition, possibly.

After hearing from her some of her life in the strip club and around a dangerous crew of criminals, it became apparent that she was definitely afraid of them. Like a caged animal trying to get out of town, fearful in what she had seen the night she was at the club during the murder in the parking lot. Even though she claimed she had seen nothing, hadn't she?

She had entered the parking lot about 2AM when the murder went down, but said that she hadn't seen a thing. From my examination of the event and from reports, I find that hard to believe. She swore that it was done by the mob to one of their own guys, a bouncer who worked for the club. A nice guy she said who was nice to her and "the girls", meaning the waitresses and the strippers at the club. But how could she be so sure they committed thee murder unless she somehow had first hand knowledge of it?

The Enterprise had blamed it on someone else and I'm sure they wouldn't have appreciated her turning up to claim otherwise. They had killed before and they killed again. The police involved that night were potentially on the crew's payroll. Something which was later uncovered through the court trials.

Their main bad guy along with the rest of them, went to prison. Including the County Sheriff. Now most of them are dead. Except for that main bad guy. And he was a bad, guy. He is out free now, living in Tacoma, Washington. Something I hadn't expected when I started researching all this. Especially since in the screenplay I used him as the focus and fulcrum for the storyline and pivotal in the murder. Through him we experience much of who that crew was in the screenplay.

In the story I've written he does things he never actually did, but it enhances the story and brings it all together. Otherwise this would have to be a TV or miniseries. As it is it works well together.

The biggest problem I had was in the exposition of who I was at that point in time, and making in it believable. I was an unusual character myself in my past experiences by that time at eighteen. If anyone at eighteen was ready to handle a situation like that, it had to be me.

The waitress was really pretty lucky in finding me, or more precise, in our being thrown together by our mutual friends. Friends who once I had picked her up from their place, didn't want to know where she went after that and didn't want me to tell them. I should have seen that red flag. I should have seen it as not just odd, but a big flashing red light. It wasn't until forty years later that I finally realized much of what was going on back then.

As shown in the screenplay I didn't see that friend much after that week. Then we lost complete touch, until one day I accidentally ran into him and his new wife and baby at the Tacoma Mall. He acted very oddly that day and now I finally know why.

Was he surprised I was still alive that day? He acted like it. Or was he simply nervous (which I had believed at the time) in that I might let it slip that he had been a drug dealer at one time for many years? Was he afraid his family was in danger and that I might pull a gun and shoot him down for what he potentially had once done to me? Possibly in my finally having figured it all out, and then tracked him down for retribution?

Many years have passed since back in those days and I hold no animosity against anyone now about it all. I just find it all interesting academically, now. Whether or not had had expected me to get killed or whether he thought I was seeking retribution, is simply lost in the past. I only seek now to share an interesting story and hopefully produce an interesting work of filmmaking.

As for my friend and what happened to him, as for the woman I spent a week protecting from a mob of murderers and criminals? We know what happened to them, but whether she survived or not?

We may never know. Perhaps it will play out in the film once it's produced?

On Being a Writer and a Professional

Time to dump reality and politics for a week (at least) and talk about something more fun, entertainment.

The creative process, then sharing with and hopefully fascinating people in maybe perhaps hopefully making them happy, or in possibly making them sad, but doing it all in such a way that they forget their own reality and enter mine, is what it's all about. At very least to have them enter a story that I have weaved for them to experience so they can attempt to wrap their consciousness around it for at least the short time they lend me their attention.

If they might happen to later think of it again at a later date, say the next day or better still the next week, just adds icing to the creative cake.

It is my responsibility to keep their attention, at least until they want to let it go. If things go really, really well, then hopefully I will be done with their attention before they are done with lending it to me.

Hopefully, I will leave them in a state of mind where they will still want more from me. If not now, then at some future point in their entertainment universe.

Hook them, then make them want to come back for more. It's what it's all about. Attempting to be fascinating and addictive.

This all started for me in 10th grade I suppose, with my first short sci fi story after written after having just finished reading Dune, by Frank Herbert back in 1970. When I finished that book I couldn't believe I had only just gotten it from my sci fi book club when it had actually been released five years previous. I was to say the least, inspired.

Maybe in part because I had been into sci fi for years already and had started so young. Science Fiction back then wasn't really a part of American life as it is now. Maybe because I had read Asimov's Foundation Trilogy years before written in the early 1950s, though I didn't get to them till the mid to late 1960s. Still, I was properly prepped for a book such as Dune when I read it. Or maybe it was because Dune was just that good of a book.

That short story I wrote the day I finished reading Dune, was the last complete short story I produced until college. I knew I could never aspire to be such as a "Writer". Or even more difficult to achieve, an Author of a Book. My first university fiction writing class in my senior year showed me something different. In fact it was actually my professor in my earlier and first college composition class in my sophomore year who made it clear to me that I had a spark and a talent for writing.

He was a man of passion and energy and he begged me to consider being a writer. I was impressed. More so than I think he was impressed with me. He both scared me, and motivated me.

It's an odd feeling to live your entire life dreaming of an unachievable thing and then to have someone you respect, and who is paid to know what's up in that area, tell you that you have a talent for achieving that dream. Then later on to find others consistently backing up that contention to where finally it seems as if you will allow actually that possibility to seep in, to take you over. To allow for he possibility that you may indeed have something to work with.

As with most things however, there is more to it than just having the talent.

Just as there are brilliant chess masters out on the streets playing for a buck a game. Masters who no rated chess master anywhere could ever beat. And yet those virtuoso live and play and die on the streets where no one knows their names. Their fortunes are only in the awe of those who do know of them, or have been lucky enough to have gotten to play one of them. For a great story on this see Jerry Seinfeld's interview with Michael Richards.

To paraphrase as has been said, "Dying is easy, comedy is hard." I'm unsure who actually said that first. The point behind that statement however is that living is one thing, trying to entertain is another universe entirely. Where one might think they are the best, there may very well be another field or another section of a field where others are even better.

Art, is not something that should be easy to do. Otherwise everyone could do it and it would lose all meaning. Though there are a few special cases who may seem to be able to do it more easily than the rest of us, even they should strive to push their limits. Like loving ice cream and trying to eat five gallons at a sitting, the quality is not in the eating. It's in the creating and a well trained palate will always discern the difference between the tasty and the truly delicious.

All that being said, I've always been able to spin a good yarn. I used to love to practice telling a story, to see how long I could draw it out before I began to see the attention wan in someone's eyes. Then spin it up again to see if I could once again enrapture their attention.

How long could I tell a really boring story in yet a very entertaining way? It was amazing how long I could go at times, how long some people would let me go on. It was also good training that I didn't realize I was exhibiting in the long run, more for myself, than for others.

One day a guy listened to a story of mine for about twenty minutes. When I got done he realized that the substance of what I had just told him could have easily been told in a sentence or two and he commented on that.

"I can't believe you just took like twenty minutes to tell me all that. But don't get me wrong, it was very entertaining to listen to. Thanks."

High praise. It was around that time in starting college when I realized I could put pen to paper and do the same. That writing was simply an extension of my verbal storytelling. So I began to do the same too, on paper. How long could I spin a story out, say almost nothing but in such a way that is very entertaining to read?

I first noticed this with some of the old writers like Edgar Allen Poe. Years later with Clive Barker. I found I really didn't care where they were taking me, as long as they kept spinning those amazing words in the order they ordered them up in. Beautiful prose. Something that has gotten somewhat lost today as we want writings that we can read quite easily on a train, in a bus station, during a few free moments. Rather than devote an evening to reading a good book, we mostly now prefer to watch a show on TV. Or, the Internet.

I guess I've gotten somewhere along those lines as an author who reviewed my book, "Death of Heaven" (now in its second edition) had to say:

"[Death of Heaven] ... has a Books of Blood vibe [referring of course to Clive Barker's seminal horror books], 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 Author & Reviewer Michael Brookes.

You can also get just the first full chapter of my book by itself in ebook or audiobook format as, "The Conqueror Worm". I tell anyone semi-jokingly, I dare you to read that first full chapter and then honestly say that you have no desire to go on to the next chapter of the book.

That's not bravado, it's an accurate observation. I simply did a very good job on that story and of all my writings it's the one story, when every time I read it and get to the ending I get emotional. It's almost impossible not to. It is as I said, a well written piece of horror.

Or as one first chapter contest write up put it:

"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 almost completely by surprise, which only enhances the effect." from WILDSound Writing Festival's First Chapter Contest

Please feel free to drop by my website sometime. There's much more available there. Don't let that web site freak you out either. It's just oddness there, is all. Hang out on there for a little while, you'll see what I mean.

Anyway....

I just finished reading Tough Love Screenwriting by John Jarrell, I very much enjoyed that smack in a screenwriter's face by someone who should know all about it. I'm also re-reading Syd Field's seminal Screenplay, The Foundations of Screenwriting. As well as Storyline, Finding Gold in Your Life Story by the charming and talented Jen Grisanti.

They say, "write what you know" but people take that wrong. Most do, perhaps.

You need to know what you know and write from that perspective. Taking those diamonds of experience, you then need to be able to recognize them from you life and spread them around in your writing or storytelling for others to experience in such a way that it fits your purpose.

You can also then use them over and over if you just use them properly to your advantage. Twist them around until they are unrecognizable and remember, these are yours to use.

I'll give you an example. I used my son's CD of music from high school that he wrote, played and produced in my video book trailers. But you can only use so much of a limited amount. Eventually I started using pieces I had used before and by using some music editing software (Audacity) I twisted them, running them backward and playing with them until even my son didn't recognize his own music. In this music, only we have license to it (as he gave his permission) and I don't have to use music I need to pay for, or even make my own to use

Interesting story there. To keep it short, for years (since the 80s) I've kept a few cassette tapes labeled "practice tape #x" with music from when I was playing guitar alone, practice and simply enjoying myself.

Recently I pulled them out to possibly use on my videos, but none of that music survived for some reason. Ruined, lost or recorded over either on purpose or inadvertently, or perhaps an ex did it as I'd experienced that kind of passive \ aggressive thing before.

I was truly unhappy about the loss of those tapes because I remember really liking some melodies I came up with. I had planned to keep them in case I wanted to use them later or to finish out a song or two. But now sadly they are lost forever.

In that train of thought, that reminds me of another truism in writing: "kill your children" or "kill your darlings." Meaning that when you have some writing in a story that takes the reader out of the story and they see or realize they are reading the author, then you need to cut those pieces. Do not slow down the reader just to enjoy your brilliance. It should flow seamlessly. So either be brilliant always, or avoid hills and valleys whenever possible.

Yet also do not throw away your brilliance. Ever. Print them out or store them in a digital file, but don't delete them, that would just be showing your mind disrespect for the effort and intelligence it has shown and you should reward that whenever possible.

You can always use them in another story later. I've actually looked these tiny gems up and built entire stories around them. Freebies if you will. The work put into those gems came from my brain originally and eventually the processes leading up to the creation of that gem were stored in long term storage. So in using them later you access entire passages of your mind that you don't even know exist now. Time savers, really and truly.

Here are some of screenwriter John August's comments on writing. Among films he's written are, Big Fish, Frankenweenie, Dark Shadows, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Charlie's Angels, and Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle and more. It's just always nice to hear another writer's perspective on writing, on life, on the effort it takes, and the payoffs it can give you.

All I have said here has only one thing tying it all together. That is, why did I write all this today? To sell my wares? To make you think I'm "somebody" (I'm not)? Or that I'm wonderful (I am)? Or that I'm some kind of genius? I'm not, I assure you, otherwise my life would be way better than it is now.

No. The common thread in all the above is this:

Entertaining people is a wonderful thing to do. You too can do it. If you really want to.

That's it. That's all I had to say in this blog for this week. Though I did try to add something more in case you were interested in writing yourself, or like once I was, thought you could never write anything worthy of others reading, thinking it was quite beyond you.

The mechanics of writing was what stopped me for decades until that first professor I told you about said, "Hey, don't think about the mechanics. That's what editor are for, after all." Thus giving me license to relax and simply tell my stories.

That's true and everything about editors but honestly in the end, we want to be our own editors as much as possible. It only enhances your writing and saves time. Sure get one, but make their job as easy as possible and learn from their work on your writings. If for no other reason it's cheaper for you that way. Not to mention they will brag about you to others which is just free marketing and publicity.

So how does one write a fiction story?

Pen to paper, really. Fingers to keyboard. Mouth to microphone. Just get the story out because in the end, writing is really rewriting. More rewriting for some than others surely. But to write fiction you have to write.

Find your idea, think of a kernel of a thought. Stabilize it on audio recording, or analog with pencil or pen or, digitize it with a keyboard. Whatever it takes for you to get your brilliance down where others can examine or enjoy it.

Give it a middle, as you have to start somewhere. Or give it a beginning or an end. Then write forward from that or backward, out outward. Then, read it back in it's entirety. Missing a good beginning or end? Write backward to the start, or forward to the finish. Play with it. The biggest obstacle I've seen is options.

Beginning writers (and experienced ones too) simply see too many options in what to write, what direction to take. But that gets narrower with experience, so relax. The more you write the easier it gets.

For myself I don't worry too much about an ending. For me in the beginning, for many years, that was my killer. A fear of endings. My friends told me years ago that they loved my writings but they told me, with love, "Give it a damn ending!" But I was terrified of endings. An ending meant you had put your stamp on it and if others didn't think it was brilliant, you were an idiot. It wasn't until I had to turn in many non-fiction papers in college that I started to feel the confidence to generate decent endings.

Once you have the elements in place, a fun story (fun in funny, or fun in sadness, but entertaining, scary, intriguing, etc., whatever). Then read it and fix any issues that bug you, that stop you, that slow you down. You need to do what I used to say as a tech writer was "massaging" the text. Smoothing it out, perfecting it. Read it as if it's not yours. Wait a day or a week and read it. Then as you read it once through keep in mind the stuff that bugs you, slows you, speeds you up, gets your blood racing or kills your mood. Keep notes if need be.

Then read it again and fix it. 

Read it again then and if you find now (after two, or twenty rewrites or re-edits) that it flows smoothly to a conclusion, but there are some really good parts that stop you dead, even if they are brilliant, that's when you kill your children, slaughter your darlings. Cut them. Save them. Move on.

Once you are past a first draft, get someone to read it. Someone you trust not to damage you over it, who can give you some advice ("I don't like this character, or this part", or "I love this part but...."). I had to do this on my own because for many years no one would read me. Certainly not family, not girlfriends, not wives. They couldn't seem to be less interested and that seems to be a common thread.

"No one listens to the prophet in his own village." There is a reason for that, so don't feel bad if no one is all that interested in your writings. 

Mostly, I got here by myself. It just takes practice, perseverance.

It was only in the past few years that I found some good readers and an editor to whom I'm forever grateful. In doing it myself all these years, it was not unlike playing chess by myself. Reading my own writings as if I'd never seen them before (usually waiting a week allows for that),

I have gained a lot in having had to do it all by myself. But then in getting an editor I learned that little bit more I just couldn't have done alone. Also, watching massive amounts of videos and documentaries about writers, reading their (only the good ones) good books on writing, I continued to educate myself

And then.... read your writing again. In the beginning of becoming a writer there are many rewrites. But as you do this over and over you do get better and better. The rewrites become fewer and fewer. Read it again. Edit it until it flows as well as you want it to.

In my beginning years I would say that I did this process until I wanted to throw up and could no longer look at a story, then I knew it was done; because I couldn't look at it anymore. Some would ask me back then, "how do you know when to quit writing and editing?"

I would tell them I would know because I simply couldn't read it anymore. So it had to be done. That was when I needed an editor however. I sent those stories out to sell to magazines and I did that for a long time until one day, someone actually bought one.

I'd finally gotten there and on my own.

Anymore? I just know when I'm done writing a story now. I have tied up all the loose ends. The beginning is intriguing enough to draw a reader on, the ending is entertaining and satiating enough that a reader may want to try reading something else I've written.

After a while you get to where you just know. My editor has said that I quickly caught on from her edits, my writing has gotten better, and she has to edit less and less. Considering that my writing was already good enough to sell to the market, it was good to hear that I have gotten even better.

Sometimes, a second pair of eyes are just golden. 

In summation if you want to write, if you have a passion for it, write. If you don't have a passion for it, then don't bother. But if you do bother, then do it right. Learn, but don't waste. Don't spend money where it's useless but at some point, you may have to put your wallet where you desires are. Just don't do it too soon because so much can be achieved in spending so little money. So many writers simply throw their money at and away (those who have it anyway and some who sadly, don't) and yet they never really learn a thing from it, or never get anywhere for all that money and wasted effort. 

There are multitudes of people out there wanting to take your money for your writings. I learned long ago that if I were to sell my writings, people would have to pay me. I wasn't going to pay them. 

Now I'm not talking about contests. That's entirely another cup of tea. But just as dangerous. Learn to verify, validate, check and double check. Never spend money on your writing unless you are absolutely sure you are getting value for it.

Track down who says what contest is good and which are the ones to avoid. The information is out there. Use it. Look before you leap. Validate before you spend. And only send something when you think it really has a chance, otherwise, keep working on it and yes, it can seem to take forever.

In the end if you want to be a writer you will.

Nothing will stop you. No one will hold you back. It's something that just has to come out, and it will. But how soon, how wisely and how effectively will you be at the post creative process, the marketing, selling, spreading around the word of your brand, your name?

It seldom happens overnight. For some it does. Luck does have something to do with it, sometimes even nepotism. But the skill has to be there to begin with. You have to be in the right place, have the (right) material available if someone asks. Make sure it's golden and don't fear success. The fear of success is a big killer of so many talented people. Just as they are making it they sabotage themselves, fearful of failure or in not knowing how to handle success when it happens, usually unexpectedly.

A famous author once said he wallpapered his home office with rejection slips until a wall was full. Then he filled another and another and then started on another room. I took that to heart only I kept a scrapbook of them until finally one day I got accepted and realized I was sad that I didn't get a rejection slip in order to see what theirs would have looked like.

I had to convince myself this sale was good. This after all was what I had been shooting for, for years. After a few days I did start to feel good about it. 100% good. You have to steel yourself to the reality of the pain of the business, the let downs, the lack of returned calls or emails, the rejections. Everyone is hustling and they forget you quickly if you're not right in front of them.

Talk about an industry with ADHD! The entertainment industry is brutal. You're only as good as your last work. You only exist if someone already wants you. To get a job you have to have had the job before. So on and on. 

But when it works, when you make a sale, when someone says how good you are or you see or read or hear someone compliment your works, it's really pretty amazing. But you have to get that going in a steady and continuous stream in order to make it all worth it. Otherwise, what you have is just a hobby. 

Make up your mind. Is this going to be a hobby or a business? Because if it's a business then you have to be professional. You have to do the work. It's hard work, just like any job. Don't just love the romance of being a writer, because so many do that and then fail or give up. Learn to love the hard, lonely hours spent producing words on a page. Love the process. Love the journey. The destination then will come but if you only love the romance or the destination, you may find yourself sorely lost.

So many marriages fail because people don't get that it can work and should be work because anything you really and truly love and want, takes effort to achieve and hang onto. Otherwise it's gone on the next tide. And that tide is relentless. So you have to be too. 

Success comes to those who wait it out, who work harder than they need to, who always expand their horizons so they will be ready for whatever comes their way. Inevitably when opportunity knocks on your door, you won't be ready or in the mood or it will be wearing a disguise just begging you to say no, to turn away or to give up. 

Remember that one all important thing if you want success.

Well okay, I don't really know what that is and it can be different for everybody. You have to find what that is, for you.

Just know that when it shows up, you'd better be ready for it because it will come at you full bore and from an oblique angle. You won't see it, you won't be ready for it and you may not even notice it when it zips by.

But if you do notice it, grab hold, hang on and the final key is...don't let go. Because then is when things get really interesting.