Thomas Wilson Story Teller

Remembering Nathan Birnbaum

2012-03-09T13:54:00.000-08:00

Nathan was born in 1896, one of twelve children. As a child, he sang for pennies on street corners and in saloons. He dropped out of school to entertain people and make money entertaining anyway he could. He later changed his name to George Burns.

In 1922 George teamed up with Gracie Allen and performed what was known at the time as a Dumb Dora Show, where George played the straight man to Gracie getting the laughs with her illogical logic. They both started in Vaudeville, and ended up performing in various radio shows from 1932 to 1950. They also played themselves in a number of movies before the radio show moved to television.

Gracie Allen died in 1964, at the age of fifty-eight.

Later in 1975, at the age of seventy-nine, George Burn’s career took off again as he won an Oscar for his role in “The Sunshine Boys.” He went on play God in three movies and won an life time achievement award in 1988. He wrote two bestselling autobiographical books, “Gracie: A Love Story” and “All My Best Friends.”

On this day in 1996, weeks after celebrating his 100^th Birthday, George Burns died.

To live 100 years, and spending so much of that time entertaining people and making them laugh is so unique and special. To have lived such a grand life and marry your partner in the truest sense, a real true honest love. Here’s to your memory Nathan Birnbaum, George Burns, and your charming, lovely wife of so many years, Gracie Allen.

Read It Again, Daddy.

2012-03-07T14:20:00.000-08:00

When I started computer programming in 1980 and home computers were in their infancy, if you wanted graphics you had to use codes to define the pixels that would make up the space of a cursor on the screen. For Music you had to input all the variables such as frequency, loudness, and how long you wanted each sound to play in decimal equivalents to fractions of a second. It dawned on me then that essentially music is mathematics. The sound spectrum runs up and down beyond our range of hearing. Anywhere along the spectrum it can be expressed as a frequency of the vibration.

Atoms vibrate and have frequencies they resonate at, which means that matter has frequencies it resonates at. The energy of the atom can go up or down depending up the energy or frequency of that atom. When the electrons jump from one level to the next they can emit a photon which is light energy. Light itself is particle and wave energy at the same time and is also made up of frequencies and amplitudes. So essentially sound, light and matter can all change, move and change frequencies as they interact with other aspects of the same.

Mathematics is the language of science, machines, and measurements and is used to describe and predict the laws that govern the universe and how all the pieces interact with each other in the linear time model we exist in and call life. I have read lots of books on science both real non-fiction and some that were very fictional. I understand that the goal of physics is to eventually come up with the grand unification theory that fits together all the known laws and theorems to accurately describe and predict the interaction of all parts of the universe, from the smallest imaginable pieces to the movement and interaction of galaxies and their complimentary parts of the universe as a whole.

I somehow get this feeling that this grand unification theory of everything will be expressed in mathematics, be able to played like music, and displayed with variations of temperature, color, light, matter and antimatter, and multitudes of different forms of energy. I can’t describe it because I can’t even imagine its shape, images and forms and yet from time to time it feels like the thought or perfect word that your brain has and understands but it is stuck between your brain and your tongue. Your mouth opens in preparation to utter the word that can’t be spoken. Your mind dances around the image it knows that all mankind has known since our creation and the spark of life entered our soul and fused with the physical world as we gasped for the first breathe of air in physical lungs.

I imagine it is like the Bible describes the image of God and why Moses couldn’t face it directly and see it all at once because it is just too much, too primal, too all encompassing, it would burst our little underdeveloped minds. We get glimpse, shadows, and can recognize the resonances of its perfect frequencies, colors, and forms.

The moments we are one with our mates, the perfect love of a child, the sprout that breaks the soil searching for the sun are but glimmers of this greatness. The crescendo of the perfectly played orchestra, the sound of rain on water, the smell of the sea, the first ray of sunlight to fly across the horizon and touch your eyes are but a shade of its form. The sheer number of the grains of sand in a desert, leaves that fall, snowflakes that drift down, stars in the universe and the thoughts of people who have lived before us are but aspects of its magnitude.

Sometimes I see these phantoms of God as they flit through my mind and for a brief fraction of a second I see and understand and then it gets lost again so it can save me from seeing, understanding, and knowing. This grand theory is actually at work controlling everything already as we strive to accurately observe, record it, describe it and understand the very world we inhabit, our bodies, our minds, and our universe. We still haven’t even identified all the pieces of the puzzle we are attempting to solve, yet we know enough to live our lives within its realms. Deep inside us all lays the knowledge of all that was, that is and that which will be only we can’t comprehend the vastness, facets and scope within our limited perspective.

I imagine it is like when I finish reading my two year old son a book which he particularly loves and he wants me to read it again. I can try with all my might to describe the multitude of other books which are on his book shelf, the other books on other shelves in the world, of the books that have been written through all time. I can explain that I could make up a story and relate it to him as I make it up. He can’t understand what I am trying to explain to him.

“Read it again, Daddy!”

Frankly that makes me want to pray for a multitude of reasons.

May God Bless and keep on writing!

Interview of J.R. Barker

2012-03-04T15:38:00.003-08:00

Thank you for joining us today on my blog and allowing me to interview you.

Tell us about "The adventures of the frog prince."

The adventures of the frog prince is about a young prince who has found himself transformed into a small slimy creature and left to fend for himself in the wilds of a moat. As he struggles to get to grips with his new form he has to find his way back into the castle and track down the culprit. The only problem is that he’s annoyed so many people as a human that he struggles to narrow down the list of suspects. Along the way he makes some unlikely friends and discovers a new side to himself and the people around him.

It’s available as an ebook and is suitable for ages 5+,
you're never to old to read a children’s book.

Where can we get your book?

You can get it from Amazon at http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B005NWRJ4A

What part of the United Kingdom are you from?

South West England. Home of sea, sun and rain (usually on the same day.)

Your website says you have other writing projects planned. Please share some insights into what we might expect in the coming years from you?

I have a few works in the pipeline at the moment. One is another children’s book, the other is a fantasy novel. I won’t say too much just yet as I haven’t got all the fine details hammered out in my head and I don’t want to lie to you.

I have many other ideas that skip across genres, (I’m genre greedy) so you can expect an eclectic array of books.

What kinds of videos do you and your partner make?

We make documentaries, corporate videos and YouTube videos. We film, edit and script it all in house. My talented other half also does some of the music for us (although the humming at the end of your natural history museum experience is all my musical genius)

YouTube is a recent thing for us, we started doing it to hone our camera skills by experimenting. It also helps to get a taste of what it’s like in front of the camera so we can learn what can be reasonably expected from what is termed as “the talent”.

By some happy coincidence this also allows me to write.

There seems to be a huge untapped market for those who know the in's and out's of making videos for creating videos trailers for the multitude of Indie Authors who are entering the market of published books. Have you considered making video trailers for author's books?

That is an excellent question. No we hadn’t thought about it is the simple answer. We were talking about doing a video promo for my book at some stage, but strangely have never thought of branching out to other authors. We’d be delighted to hear from anyone that wanted a promo of their book.

Where do you find inspiration for your stories?

There is no simple answer for this. The only plausible explanation is the craziness my own head.
inside

I have been known to borrow from my own dreams hey have given me some wonderful material in the past so I sleep with a pencil and paper by my bed. Of course a lamp helps in these situations too, ion an understanding partner.
not to ment

I’m also particularly drawn to local legends they can easily light literary furnace in my head.

Sometimes it’s merely a turn of phrase that a whole story can be wrapped around.

There have been moments when I have no idea what I’m about to write, yet my fingers seem to know all the words.

I guess, like many authors, I get inspiration from the world around me, and the things that interest me most.

What is your favorite genre to read?

It used to be sci-fi/fantasy. I still love to read books about crazy inventors and steampunk, although I haven’t come across very many.

I don’t think I’m genre specific. I love a good tale no matter what category it’s stuck in. However, I’m not a romance reader and I have never read a book about vampires or werewolves etc. That’s not to say that I wouldn’t be interested in it if someone were to insist that a particular tome was worth a go. It’s just I’ve never found one that appealed to me… yet. (other than Bram Stoker.)

What are your favorite subjects to write about?

I love to make stuff up. That to me is the definition of being an author. But I wasn’t sure that I had a favourite subject until fairly recently. It turns out that I’m rather partial to writing strong, level headed female characters can handle themselves. I don’t know what that says about me, but there you go.
that

How much of you will we find in your writing?

There is always something of an author in their writing. However I think the person least likely to see it is the author. That’s one of the scariest things I found about being an author.

“What would people make of my work and what does it say about me?”

I’m a very private person by nature, so what am I doing splashing my personal thoughts everywhere? I’m still not entirely sure that about.

I think the thing is not to worry about it too much and enjoy what you write not what it says about you. The closer the subject matter is to you the better your work is likely to be, so just let it be and try not to let it worry you about how nuts people might think you are.

What fictional character would be the most like the real you? (What are you really like?)

If I were a fictional character, I would like to be either a Victorian lady and secret steam punk inventor. Or some mad warrior lady who was handy with a bow and arrow.

I seem to be a bit at odds with myself on that one.

But a character that’s like me… I’m not quite sure if I’ve come across one of those yet, quiet author types don’t tend to get written about very often.

Which fictional character wouldlike to be like if you could? (Who would you like to be like?)

Granny Weatherwax, one of Terry Pratchett’s creations. She is a no-nonsense witch, with a strong grounding in headology and surprisingly good feet.

Tell us about you, the person behind the author, video maker, and website?

Well I’m a 22 year old female who has the brain of a 30 year old. I love to read, write, walk and relax. Clubbing is something that other people do. I prefer the countryside to the city and I have eclectic tastes in most things. I also dabble in drawing, the front cover of my book was designed by yours truly, although I’m generally better at copying things than I am at making them up.

Other than the above I double as a water baby I love to swim and have recently taken up rowing. I have since discovered that rowing is the most unnatural thing you can do on water.
hobbies,

Who has inspired you, teachers, family, friends, other authors, or books that you have read?

There have been particular authors who have inspired me over the years, Terry Pratchett for his humour, Roald Dahl for his imagination and Azimov for his Azimovness.

My other half has helped me a great deal, in fact he’s the reason I published in the first place. He told me that I was good enough to be published. Since then he’s been my proof reader, my sounding board and a great help with some of the more technical things, such as dealing with converting files into epubs, converting the art work into the right format, making sure that the book is compatible for all the reading devices available to mankind. *rain aches here*.

The best part is that he’s not afraid to tell me if something’s not quite right or isn’t working and this is invaluable information for any writer.

Is there anything you would like to share with the world wide web that maybe I didn't touch upon but that you feel passionate about or would just like to share?

Just remember to not be afraid to show someone your work. If it’s criticised be glad that someone has taken the time to point out things you need to change. Don’t take it to heart. They won’t. Yes it’s very nice to hear that someone likes your work but don’t completely ignore the bad press. Treat it as what it’s intended to be, an aid to improvement. Your critiques are an extra editor in a way. There’s always something to improve upon for the next time.

Then there’s the biggie. Know when to release your work, don’t overwork it or you’ll never let it go.

If we wanted to follow you and your work as you have become a person of interest in our lives, maybe even one of our new favorite authors, how might we keep up with your work and antics?

My website is www.jrbarker.info/ ere you can view my book(s) and link to them on amazon, read interviews with other authors or read my blog. I also have a page where you can read diary excerpts from the pages of some of the characters in my book.

I also have a goodreads and a facebook page.

You can see mine and my partners videos on YouTube at the Ian and Jo show. If you would like a video for you, you can contact us through jo@theianandjoshow.com or at our website
us to make
http://www.theianandjoshow.com/

Where do we follow you at?

You can follow me on twitter: @JRBarker101

Balanced Development through ART

2012-03-03T19:35:00.000-08:00

When we draw as children we do so for fun and it is part of our natural development. As you get older and you realize your drawings don’t look like what you are trying to draw most people stop drawing as their internal critic surfaces. In most cases the reason the drawings don’t resemble what your trying to draw is because of a imbalance in your brains development. As the left side of the brain, which uses symbols, over takes the right side of the brain and substitutes symbols for what it believes aspects of an object looks like we begin draw the symbols instead of actually looking at the object we are drawing and drawing what we see.

As our critic emerges we generally put down our pencils and stop drawing. Years later when we reclaim our pencils and attempt drawing again our brain picks right up where we left off as children. It is a developmental skill set we have to work through as we did with mathematics, writing and reading. Unfortunately our western society prizes and encourages the skill sets of the left side brain activities and doesn’t promote the advancement of right brain development as it doesn’t see the value in the aspects of right brain skills in relation to activities needed in buisness or science.

I firmly believe we should encourage aspects of right brain development in its many forms in order to keep the brain balanced in its development and encourage the cooperation of both sides of the brain working together. Drawing is an excellent means to this end as it can be done with a regular pencil or pen and a piece of paper. Drawing can be done in many forms and techniques and with simple regular practice can develop your skills and development of the right side of your brain. The biggest part of this process is shutting down the speaking, logical, left side of your brain. Not letting it take control and resort to using symbols. Your left brain has had the majority of control since you stopped drawing and coloring and will not relinquish that control without a a fight. That fight is the apprehension, tension, and frustration you experience in attemping to draw, silencing the critic, refusing to submit to drawing what you think and instead drawing what you actually see.

You need to gain control of your hand and fingers to control the pencil to make the exact marks you wish to make. To use your eyes to actually see what you are looking at beyond the names, predetermined shapes your mind knows and see lines, angles, shades, shapes, and then recreating with your pencil or pen in an accurate representation of what you see. Start with simple objects for your composition until you can accurately portray them in two deminsions. Maybe read some art books or basic drawing books to get some hints and pointers. As you develop the right side of your brain and begin developing it on a regular basis the left side of your brain will submit or share control as they learn to work together.

Being able to bring the cognitive qualities of both sides of your brain together to solve problems, work out solutions, not only in a logical means but in a asthetic and balanced approach to a solution, entire new avenues and insights will open up for you. New connections will be made between images, ideas, thoughts and memories. Besides giving your mind new material to chew over and consider on a regular basis and exercising and forcing both halves of your mind to work together on problems brings about new vistas of ‘ah ha’ moments and insightful inspiration into all areas of your life.

So when was the last time you sketched something, doodled, or attempted to draw a picture? Does your art work look like examples from your grade school art class? Those who chalk it up to some people have talent and some don’t are just being stubborn and hard headed about learning. Isn’t it about time your brought the other side of your mind up to the level of the half you regularly use? Your inner critic will fight and scream and your left side of the brain will try and remain dominate. It will quitely try and retain control and have you drawing symbols representations, stick figures for people and other infintile stuff. Force your left brain to be quite, don’t speak, and force your self to draw what you see. Let your right brain take control for a little bit. It will be alright it is still your brain, it is the part you stuffed away and left behind as a child. Release it’s power, exercise it, let it build strength and power to where it shares control with the left side of your brain and see how it transforms your thinking, your outlook, and your life.

May God Bless You. Writers get back to writing after you have drawn a picture. Make drawing a part of your daily exercises and warm up for writing. It will free your mind and spirit. More importantly it forces both sides of your brain to work together.

Robotic Lawn Mower/Snow Blower/and Vacuum

2012-03-02T09:44:00.002-08:00

As I have stated in my Bio I should have been an Engineer, and the day before yesterday I alluded to one of my many ideas I have come up with over the years, the robotic lawn mower.

The only reason we push a lawn mower, snow blower or vacuum around is because they don't know where to go by themselves. Many years ago when I was young and the head of MIT's robotic department was building robots in his garage, and Bill Gates and Steve Jobs were envisioning the future of computers for the world, I designed a robotic lawn mower.

I never developed the idea. I did take a day off work and travel to Central Missouri State University and sat down with the head of the engineering department and asked if the school would be interested in helping me develop a prototype. They were very excited about the idea, and we spent over an hour going over the drawings in my notebooks, schematics, and what not.

They said if I could put up a million dollars up front and into the development that the school would cover the rest of the development to take it to a Beta Testable model. That was a hell of a deal because product development is extremely expensive and time consuming. The chance of me coming up with a million dollars was about as achievable as me filling in the Grand Canyon with a house hold shovel.

The funny part was they asked excitedly if I had anything else I had maybe been working on that was smaller in scope. My only other really good original idea at that time was my vacuum ship idea. The size I envisioned for the first prototype of one of those was about 500 feet wide by 950 feet long and standing nearly 400 feet in height sitting on the ground. Roughly just bigger than a World War II Battleship! I went back to my day job. I wondered how Einstein felt as a patent clerk thinking about relativity in his spare time.

I could possibly find my old notebooks somewhere on my bookshelves or crammed into a corner of my garage and scan in the pictures and schematics but I thought as I am a writer now, that I would just do my very best to describe the machines, challenges and functions of each of them.

This description of the lawnmower blade setup will be very easy for the older members of my audience as we will remember the old rotary push mowers that were around in the late forties and into the nineteen fifties. It had no engine, two large wheels on the outside and a handle coming back to a T shape to push it. Four twisted rotary blades that moved via gears connected to one of the wheels is what cut the grass. It basically cut the grass and threw the clippings everywhere. My design starts with a smaller lighter version of one of those blades. It was explained to me that the spark from the spark plug of a modern Briggs and Stratton lawn mower engine would wreck havoc with the computer circuits designed to run the machine. So it would be run by a small electric motor and a belt to turn the blade – no spark. The motor housing and belt drive would be in the bottom of the base unit while the blades would be detatchable so they could be hosed off for cleaning, no electrical parts in this piece, all mechanical.

I designed a plastic hood to cover and direct the clippings into a grass catcher that would pop on and off the top of the machine.

In the body of the machine would be the 8088 or at that time the new and amazing 286 processor for computers which would be the brains of the machine. In the middle of the base would be the drive motors for tracks which will actually move the mower around the yard.

The Tracks - These would be like tank tracks which I surprisingly have some intimate working knowledge of from a few years of driving and working on the tracks of tanks. The difference would be that these tracks would be encased in plastic, designed to snap off the side of the mower and contain only metal or plastic pieces that would be made up of suspension parts like what are used on radio controlled monster trucks. These would have to have no electrical parts, completely mechanical and designed for removal so they could be prayed off with a hose to clean and set aside to dry for later re attachment to the recharged mower for more action.

Back to the base.

A further component of the drive system which will provide turning power to a shaft which will turn a drive wheel in the attachable tracks would be a shaft encoder. Basically this is a wheel with slots in it attached to the drive shaft. On one side of the wheel is a LED light and the other side is a photocell. This will create a electrical blip which can be counted and feed to the computer and so many blips equals one revolution of the shaft. By knowing how many revolutions creates one circuit of the track you can calculate how far that side of the vehicle has moved. One of these for each side of the base.

A series of four microphones for receiving signals from sound beacons placed strategically at three or four spots in the yard. The system will work very accurately with three sound beacons, but four would be optimum. The beacons could be solar powered and left out year around or moved to the driveway for winter application of the snow blower attachment that would use the lawnmower powerbase and tracks. The beacons would transmit a sound outside of human hearing range that the microphones would receive. The computer would have a subroutine to triangulate the position of the base in the yard and make corrections to the steering program which would be using the input from the shaft encoders to figure where the base is on its programmed path around the yard. Between the shaft encoders and the sound beacons it could have a accuracy of within a quarter of inch over the size of the yard.

The base would need a mercury switch setup installed so if the base is lifted to too extreme of a degree it shuts itself off. I would also build in a mechanical switch into the tracks so if the weight of the base is removed from the tracks, i.e. something has lifted or raised a track off the ground it shuts down. Temperature sensors located across the front of the machine looking for anything over 90 degrees in temperature would shut the mower down. You don't want it running over children, or animals in the yard.

The base would hold the rechargeable batteries and the computer. A floppy disk drive was to be used in my design but today you could give it cell phone capabilities and your PC or phone could call in the changes in programming to the base from in your house, while you're at work or wherever. Originally the drawings I had used a 5 1/4 floppy drive – state of the art- for reprogramming or changing parameters to your programming for the base.

A retractable power cord was in the back of the base along with the recharging apparatus for the batteries. The top would be the grass catcher which would have to be manually emptied. With today's technology you could design a yard grass can to allow the mower to automatically dock to and empty the catcher – recharge the batteries and send it off on another run where it left off from the last time. Always working and cutting the grass unless it is raining. The 'grasscan' could also double as a weather shelter for the machine while it isn't running or during storms. A humidity sensor and today's computers would let it figure out when to run for cover by itself. Today's computers could even tell it to pay attention to the lawn sprinkler system and to wait for a certain amount of time after the yard has been watered before starting up its work again.

The front mower section was to be able to fastened and unfastened so after you sold people the robotic lawnmower the following fall you could sell them the snow blower attachment to hook into the front of it. No catcher for the snow just an adjustable shoot with an added blower to help throw the snow. I thought the snow blower could use gears instead of a belt and a much bigger and faster motor to power to it, with slight adjustments to the bade designs where it isn't empty space between the blades for more of a scooping and throwing action. It would drain the batteries faster but most driveways are not as big as people's lawns.

Once these fine products were up and running and selling to the world. I would come to my manufacturing team and explain how we want to redesign the lawnmower but make it about the size of a small to medium sized bunny rabbit. We want to make it look like a rabbit! Only this would be a robotic vacuum cleaner and we would call it the Dust Bunny. It would spend its life plugged in recharging or whenever you leave the house turn it on and let it clean your floors. I had not come up with any nice way to make this work with people who have pets except to sell insurance policies for the vacuum cleaner or make them cheap enough for those with dogs and aggressive cats to just buy new ones every so often if the pets destroyed it.

Losers to this would be current lawnmower, snow blower and vacuum machine manufacturers, and small engine manufacturers.

Future enhancements would be large Industrial versions for schools, businesses, complexes, and golf courses. Automated Street cleaners to rove around keeping the city clean while we sleep.

I do have to say it is much more fun spending weeks and months planning out a story and working at writing and editing a story I can actually sell than doing months of research, planning, math and computer work for a product idea which would never see the light of day. I pray somebody finds my notebooks someday and goes through them and says, "My God! This idiot was brilliant and ahead of his time. Why did he waste his life writing Science Fiction books?" The answer to that question is it is infinitely more fun and less tedious than designing crap that nobody will ever see or use. At least I can sell my books when I finish them!

March Author Interview

2012-03-01T07:25:00.000-08:00

March First, the first day of the new month!

All sales are back to zero, still have writing works in process, the day job, family and everyday chores and responsibilities.

So to Start the New month off right, a brilliant children's author, Jo Barker, has done an author Interview of me and it is posted on her website, and at Goodreads dot com. I really enjoyed the questions she asked and thought it was an excellent interview for aspiring authors to read for guidance and motivation! So please if you get a chance, please check it out.

http://www.jrbarker.info/interview-with-an-author/

http://www.goodreads.com/author_blog_posts/2153740-interview-with-an-author-thomas-d-wilson/

The Music of Your Life

2012-02-29T12:16:00.000-08:00

Growing up my Dad always said he enjoyed mowing the grass. I could never understand this because to me it was stupid senseless work. The only reason I was pushing a lawn mower was because the lawn mower doesn't know where to mow! I even designed a robotic lawn mower to mow my grass for me (Robotic – entirely independent, not radio controlled), unfortunately I am a better designer than I am a builder. If anybody read my post about the light chasing robot you will quickly understand why I am still mowing my own grass.

As I have gotten older I realized I long for mowing the grass. Not because I enjoying mowing the grass, but because I actually like getting out and working outside a bit, it is a break from my job and family, and it makes my tiny square of the world look more pleasing to me. I can do it while listening to an MP3 player, a device my father never had, or took the time to learn to use when the knowledge and product became available. This is what really makes it nice for me and embarrasses the ever loving shit out of my wife. Inevitably I will come across one of my favorite songs and forget people can hear me attempt to sing along over the roar of the mower. My horrid attempts at singing and doing so in public where we live are what embarrass my wife.

Last year I somehow sweat into the case of the MP3 player and fried it guts outs. It was ancient anyways and for just over twenty dollars I got a new one that is one quarter the size and holds all of my music with tons of room left over. So I totally wasted an evening syncing my music to my MP3 player, copying music from my CD's to my computer to add to my portable collection of music. OMG! I had the time of my life listening to music creating a new and improved play list with twice the songs that I had previously had and then syncing it to this new player.

It dawned on me that with the music speaker thing I have in the house that allows my Kindle to read to me, I can also listen to my personal collection of music around the house, while driving, and while riding my motorcycle with this new player. It had dawned on me before how I can listen to my music collection all the time with really embracing this technology. How much happier could the world be if we all could spend part of everyday listening to the music that makes us happy. Music that lifts our soul's energy levels to higher states.

Warning: You shouldn't drive with the ear buds in! You shouldn't drive EVER while listening to the William Tell Overture, The Peter Gunn Theme by Henry Mancini, or the Hawaii Five 'O Theme by the Ventures. It just isn't safe for you or the general public!

If you don't know those titles – check them out. And for the older crowd that knows those titles, check out "Teenagers" by My Chemical Romance. You can probably find a video of it on line. I thought the cheerleaders in the gas masks were inspired. If you judge people by their music collection I'm screwed and headed for a padded room in the future.

Stuff that Sucks – The Rebuttal

2012-02-28T14:58:00.002-08:00

I had several different ideas of stuff I wanted to write a Blog post on instead of posting an apology to Mr. Nicholas Sparks for possibly hurting his feelings in any of my past posts about how I hate what he writes. Then I got a blog update that I felt I needed to respond to publically!

I have stated before in previous posts that I have a problem with swearing from time to time. If reading swear words really offends you do not click on the link below and read the Cranky Old Man Blog Post and DO NOT READ my rebuttal of said post which follows. Just tune in tomorrow where I hopefully will behave in a much more civilized manner after having washed my mouth out with soap. Don't worry your probably not missing much, but at least I am not apologizing to Mr. Sparks today!

http://joeh-crankyoldman.blogspot.com/

My Rebuttal

Broadway plays, especially musicals – I am a real man and I can handle sitting through one of these to please my wife just as I expect her to sit through watching cars smash each other in a demolition derby. Sometimes if you're lucky, you get to see them make mistakes and flop which you never get to see in the movies. Plus with Television and movies you don't really see people dance and try to sing as you do during live performances.

Opera – Never actually been to one so I can't be too critical as that might be hypocritical. Having never been to one lends credit to how much of a real man I actually am.

Ballet – Falls in with Opera, never been!

Competitive swimming – Not the same but I remember the diver who dived into the diving board below him – That was brutal! It was like NASCAR the way they kept replaying it. But if you want to pick on a sport WTF is that crap where they slide the fucking rock across the ice with the stick thingy and broom! I agree with the - if nobody can get hurt it probably isn't a sport. The rock thingy could get swapped with a land mine and use a whole team dressed in bomb suits sweeping it and blowing themselves up!

Frankly I am privately promoting the rise and introduction of Segway Jousting!

Shakespeare – Yeah, I just don't get it, never will, as it is the same with poetry. Those that do probably haven't ever driven a fucking TANK for a living either!

Quiche – I get promoted in the Man Club for not even knowing what this was. I had to look it up! Seriously! Doesn't have to be steak but meat and potatoes for sure and if you add Gravy to it, it makes it a meal!

Figure Skating – This will turn some heads but I grew up in the Great North, Idaho! Everybody had their own ice skating rinks as Winter is one of the two seasons they have there. I got my first pair of used Hockey Skates at age six. Everybody skates unless they are handicapped. When I got my first figure skates I couldn't figure out why hockey players weren't using those because they are barbed in the front! I didn't know what figure skating was.

As I am older and know about the sport, if I could go back in time being heterosexual and a skater and getting to enter a sport where you get to hold and play with women in that kind of manner and skate, I can't figure out why so many guys are playing hockey instead of being figure skaters. I sure as hell can't figure out why so many male figure skaters are not straight!

I traded my ice skates for in-line roller blades and still skate even today I just do it in the street. FIY roller blade wheels melt in about four minutes at forty to fifty miles per hour. When they melt and the wheels ooze up the through the trucks – YOU STOP QUICKLY! You think I would have learned that fact the first time I melted a set of wheels. 3X means I am just freaking stupid! But man what a RUSH!

T.V. Award shows – I like it when once and while a genuine person gets an award they are actually blown away by the fact they have won. I love the fact of how things change with these shows like the First, One and only and last award for Disco went to Gloria Gaynor for "I will survive." I also like the fact I can't listen to that song without thinking of the movie "The Replacements".

Dancing – I can't dance but like to believe there is enough alcohol and that’s why God invented Scotch was for the further invention of playing the Bag Pipes and men trying to dance with their women. I make the Bag Pipe comment because if you ever heard anybody learning to play the Pipes it sounds like your strangling an animal. The first person to come up with it had to be two Scottish men having some fun with their buddy while all three were having a wee bit to drink. Leave it to the Scottish to turn the joke around on the jokester and turn it into a traditional beautiful sounding instrument.

I like Cats because of their fuck you attitude in spite of the fact they need us to take care of them. If they could take care of themselves or didn't think they owned us for pets they would take over the world. I am not really a dog person because they are too social and needy!

Finally Mauve falls into the Quiche category and just moves me up a notch for not knowing what it was! A color really?

Sorry, I couldn't find anything to post about, Mr. Sparks, your apology will have to wait until another day. The first day my faculties fail me and I can't find a thing to post about I will get right on that apology for possibly hurting your feelings.

SPB Roundup

2012-02-28T07:32:00.000-08:00

SPB ROUNDUP

~ A Gallery of Self-Published Books

http://www.spbroundup.com/fiction-2/science-fiction/

Both my books are listed on the first page of Science Fiction!

Censorship Versus Freedom of Speech

2012-02-27T13:49:00.000-08:00

Recently, PayPal has come down on Smashwords dot com about some aspects of Erotica. They claim the pressure is coming from the banking Industry that they deal with. Smashwords in turn has had to take steps against certain aspects of the erotica published through its site to survive to fight another day in the name of free speech or the expression of the right through the freedom to publish. I have noticed the extreme amount of material that is available on the site in the form of Erotica, but I am comfortable with it for several reasons.

1. It allows it to be published above board, legally, not underground illegally and part of some criminal element. If as a society we legalized and taxed prostitution, and drugs it would take away the criminal element of it. Allow it to be regulated and controlled by aspects of the government instead of flying under the radar tax free and supporting illegal behavior.

2. The site has a prude filter you can set to on which hides all this type of content if you desire not to see it but still enjoy the many other elements of Independent Authors work.

3. By allowing it to exist on websites like Smashwords you do not hinder anyone's right to expression or others rights to purchase such works therefore not threatening or holding back anybody's right to freedom of speech.

Censorship is most prevalent in the United States where Freedom is supposed to reign more than anywhere else on Earth, provided it censored! Come on! It's time Americans stand up and put our freedom to the test! If it offends your narrow minded views or virgin ears shut it off, don't look, don't listen and for God sake quit talking about it and fighting for censorship! Freedom is allowing it all, even the offense crap!

Here is a test for every red blooded flag waving AMERICAN who reads English, believes in the Constitution and ALL that it stands for!

1. Vote for NO CENSORSHIP! On the Web, On Television, On Radio, and especially for books!

2. Vote for LEGAL Prostitution and Drugs, taxation and regulation of such to help pay the national debt.

We will never get it, because organized crime (which doesn't exist) would shoot any politician pushing to take away their livelihood, or threaten to tax and regulate it. They get paid for regulating; controlling and distribution of said services and get to do it tax free already.

My question is who in the Banking Industry or at PayPal is reading these books to determine said offensive material is in said books? It appears they have a problem with erotica books that deal with bestiality, rape, and incest! I am not saying I am for or against these topics or for or against erotica. Somebody is going to write this stuff, somebody is going to pay for it, and somebody is going to read it. They successfully block it and it goes underground and joins the realm illegal activity, off the grid. How do we know it isn't illegal interests trying to block the stuff to maintain control of their interests?

Somebody has to be buying said books and reading said books to even know there is something offensive there to begin with! If I am supposed to believe some religious person or group of business individuals has purchased one of all these books to read them and then wants to start a crusade to save our souls by threatening our freedom of speech and to publish materials but will still allow the Holy Bible and other religious works to openly be published and sold. The Bible has elements of the worst strewn throughout it! The worst sins imaginable are committed and discussed in its pages. I am just stating when we cave in on one count of Censorship – where is it going to stop? Who decides which books to burn and which books we are allowed to read?

Our own Declaration of Independence, the writing of it, standing up for it, and definitely the signing of it would have been cause for being hung had our founding fathers lost the war! Yet we are going to purposefully say this can't be said, that can't be shown or said on TV, and this can't be written about or sold, because it offends someone. Are we letting narrow minded people determine the limits of our freedoms that have been bought and paid for by the blood of our countries men and women? Or are we letting criminal elements keep control of their wrongful deeds rather than letting them be exposed to the light of day, taxation and other respectable enterprises. I have noticed since I was a child that countries with much less freedom than we claim to have seem to have more freedom to express themselves in the way they see fit, with much less censorship!

Grown men and women should have the right to censor themselves, shield themselves, just as we should have the right to express ourselves freely on the different forms of media! It is our right, for good and bad! It disgusts me that I have to stand to see a fellow citizen exercise their rights by burning our flag, yet you get fined for saying something like "Beaver" on Television! That's moronic and the true state of affairs in our country. Censorship doesn't work it will only force it underground and breed more crime! In the Immortal words of Dr. Johnny Fever, "Booger!"

Hell, that's going to show my age and taste in television from years gone bye.

Nice Surprise

2012-02-24T19:52:00.000-08:00

Today I was surprised when my best friend, Phillip Woody, showed up with a copy of my book his mother had bought for me to sign for her!

Signing your book, leaving a personalized message for the person, just really makes you feel like an author!!

It was a great way to start the day off!

This is me sitting at my desk at Community Wholesale Tire.
Thank You Phillip for so many wonderful moments and for coming up with the perfect title for the book I was signing. "No Rules Of Engagement"

I had him read the rough draft of the book and forgot the first line read "Not Titled Yet", Phillip read the book and came in and said "How about No Rules Of Engagement as a title for your book?" It was just one of those moments. The sequel is titled "Not Titled Yet", I am waiting until Phillip finishes reading the sequel as I finish the book, he gets first crack at coming up with the title! He is my number one Beta reader for my books. My greatest fan, and a damn good friend!

Being Prepared – Blessings from being OCD

2012-02-24T14:21:00.000-08:00

Being prepared cannot stop life's challenges and tragedies from knocking on your door, but it can lessen the impact they have on your life when they do. The biggest part of being prepared falls back to planning. Planning relies on looking ahead, paying attention, and learning from your past experiences.

I am a planner by nature. The joke around my house is that I can't go to the restroom without a plan. By my very nature and by virtue of my OCD tendencies I attend my life by a strict schedule. I am flexible and can change my plans, be spontaneous, and change my plans on a moment's notice, which allows me to have OCD tendencies but not be crippled because of it. Technically my wife says I have a mild form of aspergers with OCD tendencies, not that it matters.

When you plan ahead for even the littlest things in your life and prepare for them as much as you can it will make those things run smoother. As larger things appear on your horizon, try and anticipate the things you can do before hand to prepare ahead of time and again things should run smoother.

I see too many times those who do not plan ahead for anything getting into situations that could have been predicted and planned for. Worse yet are those individuals who enjoy and delight in skipping over, around and under problems like some fairy tale creature singing, "You can't catch me." Sooner or later we all will get stuck or tripped up by something.

When I run into problems I try to attack them and deal with them head on. Unpleasant or not, they get handled as best I can. Then they are done, I learn from the experience and continue on my merry way. The skippers get caught and all the other problems they have been successfully avoiding come crashing down upon them. Oh poor me. Life is so unfair! I have all this stuff to deal with NOW.

How much of the situation is actually stuff that could have been handled in your not so distant past, or dealt with before you got tripped up. How much easier would it be to only deal with parts of a problem than multitudes of problems all at once. How many of these people don't learn from their past and when they get past a crisis go right back to avoidance again, instead of dealing with stuff or God forbid some preventative maintenance in the form of planning ahead.

Start small, little lessons. When you go to the restroom, see if there is toilet paper before you do anything else! Lay out your clothes the night before. Maybe make a menu for the coming week before going to the store. Get gas in your car before the light comes on. Get a vitamin organizer like the old people use and load it up ahead of time. Put an empty folded up trash bag in the bottom of the trash can the next time you change the bag. Plan out the chores you do weekly, monthly and seasonally, and then schedule them into your week so you make sure they get done and you won't be rushed trying to do them. Put a little money back for an emergency.

I don't suggest people get nuts about it but a little advanced planning, preparedness can make life so much smoother, happier and less stressful. Frankly, life is challenging enough without our help in making it more difficult. It's your life, you only get one, live it with purpose, enjoy even the mundane and seemingly unimportant parts as if they were the most important. Handle things as they come up or before the small problems become big problems and you will be amazed at how much smoother and happier things will be in your life.

May God Bless You. My writers – surfing time is over get back to work on your masterpiece!

Goal Oriented

2012-02-23T10:21:00.001-08:00

What is it that makes some people goal oriented and others, not so much?

What is it that makes people want to work or do a job and not want to rely on others?

What is it that makes some people willing to put themselves in harm's way for ideals?

Is it the environment? Is it genetics? Is it something parents teach their children? Is it the belief in being self reliant and believing in ideals that makes them willing to work or be a soldier?

I come from a military family that has had someone in the military in the United States or Great Britain for longer than anyone in the family can remember. Is it because we were raised that way? Is it hard wired into our DNA to believe in ideals and stand up for those who can't stand up for themselves? Is it something in our environment that makes us willing to work at less than desirable positions for years on end just so we can take care of ourselves? I justify my position in that I got to choose what job I took. I'm not a slave and being forced to work at something or somewhere against my will. I may be poor but I am free. I'm as free as I can be in this world.

Why are some people so lazy? How can you live with no goals or aim in life? Expecting others to provide and take care of you?

I just don't understand it! I cannot comprehend how some people can exist the way they do?

In trying to answer this and make some sense of it, I realized that when I was a soldier and even as an middle aged man who voraciously studies history, especially military history, that if there was I fight I wanted to be the kind of soldier that everybody else wants on their side or team.

As a worker I always asked myself, "If I was the boss, what would I want me doing right now?" I would do the very best job I could do and if I ran out of work I would imagine that if ran the place what should I be doing. I pretty much run a large portion of the place these days and have for many years as Operations Manager.

Do we do it for pride? Do we do it because of what we want others to think about us?

I used to think so, but as I have created my own second job at night as a writer, I do it because I enjoy doing what I am doing? I think back to when I was a soldier and feel that I would have been just as good of a soldier even if the general public didn't agree with what we were ordered to defend, attack, or train for. Many times society comes down hard on men and women in the military judging their actions by peaceful civilized society's standards totaling forgetting that what they have volunteered for is more than just being in the service.

It is for many being an active Christian and justifying the killing of other human beings. Going into areas to fight, that is anything but civilized with no standards that would be recognized in a peaceful society. Dealing with other human beings which are completely delusional and ill rational in their thought processes. Believing that because of our faith and ideals that we are the barbarians and we must die and the people of their area must convert to their beliefs and submit or they must die. I don't believe it's Pride that makes soldiers pick up a weapon, defend a wall, our provide freedom for a country that doesn't entirely support their actions in providing that very blanket of freedom in which they exist.

War is hell at best, some leeway should be given to those brave enough to wear the uniform, pick up a weapon and fight so the rest of may live in peace. For those families who have sacrificed their children, their mothers and fathers, their spouses - only those who have wore the uniform truly understand the gratitude, the sacrifice, and the true cost of freedom. It's this understanding which can bring tears to a man's eyes at the sight of our flag or hearing the National Anthem.

I don't believe its pride that makes a person work every day and have plans and goals for their life and family. I can't imagine living day to day without plans and goals for my future. I can't comprehend having no direction, no job, and no purpose in life.

I do believe in company pride, (whether military or commercial enterprise) that makes people work harder, to do the best job they can do, to outperform other companies, groups, or platoons. That's team building and leadership 101, instilling pride in people for the job that they do!

There is no grand lesson, point to be made, or summation to bring this all together and make sense of it in some fine literary fashion. It is just me expressing my befuddlement, confusion, and wondering where the differences lay between me and some other groups of people. I happened to be watching would I would term as vagrants when I started asking myself these questions. Most people don't notice or purposefully ignore them. I try and understand, what's the difference between us? I am at a loss for an explanation.

Hodgepodge

2012-02-22T14:09:00.000-08:00

Today's post is a hodgepodge of random stuff, thoughts, and what I am reading!

In the truest form of a muddle and mess, we will start with what I am reading.

Disrupt: Think the Unthinkable to Spark Transformation in Your Business by Luke Williams.

This book is fascinating as it breaks down disruptive market ideas in to a process from observation, realization, and development. Again it is another book about looking at things from different perspectives but it actually gives excellent quality examples of how to zoom in and observe things most people wouldn't even think about in regards to looking at something from a different perspective and in the end coming up with a completely new product that disrupts the age old model of that market. i.e. like mopping a floor.

Tongues of Serpents by Naomi Novik.

It seems like just yesterday I started this adventure with Will Laurence and Temeraire. I didn't know what to think at first. It was like reading a history book of British, French, Chinese, and American interests during the Napoleonic period from a military persons perspective but in an alternate reality where dragons exist, talk and act with their Captains and flight crews like an Air Force would in that time period. Well, Naomi Novik captured my interest with the first one and I keep coming back for more. I am almost done with this book.

My reading has slowed considerably with undertaking writing, and now splitting what time I have with writing and an aggressive study of the English language it has slowed even more. It really became apparent when I noticed that Naomi's seventh book in the series comes out in the beginning of March and I already have Bernard Cornwell's newest sequel in the Saxon Series on my kindle that I haven't started it yet.

Staying at home with the children.

My wife stayed at home when we had Hayden because what she made at the place she used to work wouldn't even cover the expense of child care at the cheapest place in town. Now we have Hayden and Garth, with no more on the way, for sure. So my wife decided she was going to get in shape and start working out and get back to her pre mommy shape if not better. I have to commend her for her Herculean efforts in this regard.

1. She gathered up all the friends she could muster who wanted to join a gym and then with a head count found a centrally located gym that wasn't connected to some corporate conglomeration where she proceeded to cut an extremely cut rate deal for a year's membership for her entire group! Being Scottish and what normal people might call cheap, and I refer to as only being frugal, I thought this was fantastic.

2. She has been actively going with a friend* of hers and is losing weight and getting into shape.

3. Because she brings the boys with her and the gym has a child care area for children while the mothers work out, the guy running the gym asked her if she would consider bringing the boys and watching children in the gym from 9-12 a couple of days a week. This would earn her minimum wage and pay for her membership in the gym! Bless her heart she has managed to figure out how to not only get shape, provide her gym membership for free, but include a part time job to help out the family cause while watching the boys the entire time.

Mommy is Wonder Woman.

No wonder I call her Wonder Woman! Ok, we started that because with her dark hair and her old hair cut and very full figure she looked like the Wonder Woman character on the poster of the Super Heroes on Hayden's bedroom wall. Hayden and Garth bought it hook line and sinker and so now mommy is Wonder Woman!

Breakfast - the most important meal of the day.

Homemade Breakfast Biscuits – I mentioned that my wife has got me interested in some of Doctor Oz's television shows and because one of his shows convinced me I should eat breakfast every day. Again I have to brag on my wonderful wife!

She took a package of biscuits and she puts half a biscuit in a cupcake pan, broken up cooked sausage, and scrambled eggs and pours it into the biscuit cup. She bakes them and then each day I can heat up two of them, takes twenty-five seconds in the microwave and I have a delicious hot breakfast of biscuit, eggs and sausage to eat on the way to work. Cheap, easy, delicious, and I am eating breakfast every day, which is supposed to jump start my metabolism and make my body burn calories more efficiently and give my body the jump start it needs when it needs it the most – right after waking up in the morning.

Freinds and Great Friends.

In the part above I placed an asterisk by the word friend; you may or may not have noticed it. We all have different friends! Different people, different types of friends.

You have Acquaintances which I define (you may redefine any of these as you wish) as people you know but don't know. You run into them in public, or church, where you work, or maybe they are somebody you met on-line and have gotten to know, share things with, helped each other, but you may have never actually met them. You really don't know these people yet we do consider them as friends.

You have friends who maybe you socialize with but on a limited scale because of one reason or another you just don't mesh well enough to hang out in a closer relationship with. This is generally because something they do you find offensive or is a turnoff to you.

Some examples of this are or maybe . . .

The Hypochondriac – there is always something wrong with them.

The Leach – This comes in multiple forms.

a. They suck and take from you but give nothing back in any useful form.

b. They always want something for nothing and go to extremes to get it.

The Eeyore – Sad and depressed people that would make you unhappy to be in heaven with!

There are unfortunately many more types that could easily be added to our list and the multitude of variations of the types.

A great friendship is like a great marriage. It requires work, some give and take, communication, and a deep genuine concern for the other persons well being, success and happiness. From time to time you come across one of these kinds of friends. My wives friend, who she is working out with almost every day, is a great friend. I even commented to my wife about this.

A great friend is not only everything you expect a great friend to be but they make you want to be a better person than you are in a positive constructive manner. They can help you get in shape, stop destructive behavior, give you a swift kick in the ass when you need it, and are there to lean on whenever you need them to be. They don't judge you, your spouse or your children and realize that family is family and off limits. Being around a great friend enriches every aspect of your life and helps you reach for the stars and believe you can accomplish your dreams no matter how big they are.

Tribute to Wonder Woman.

I married my greatest friend in the entire world and it has made all the difference in the world in my life. I feel extremely lucky to have some other great friends in my life. If your life isn't going in the direction you want you may need to look at your friends and who you are spending time with. Inversely nobody can love or like you until you can learn to love or like yourself. So start by looking in the mirror, then your friends, and change your life if you're not happy with the direction it is going. Tomorrow we will discuss the dangers of co-dependency! Just kidding!

Post It Note Screen Saver APP

2012-02-21T11:37:00.000-08:00

I have in my Bio that I should have been an Engineer. I state this for numerous reasons:

1. It probably most accurately describes me as the type of person I am. I get ideas that just amaze, amuse and befuddle me at the most random times and places. I generally always carry something to write on and a pen with me whereever I go. Still have to work out a plan for taking notes in the shower – I've had more ideas born and lost with the hot water and suds because I couldn't remember them by the time I got out, dressed and ready to go. Maybe a grease pencil would write on the tiles, but then I would be stuck cleaning the shower all the time.

2. I'm great at spatial relations whether it is re-organizing the furniture in a room in my mind before I start physically moving the furniture, to solving puzzles involving shapes or conceptualizing 3D shapes of objects I might dream up to be designed.

3. I once took a career pre-placement test in college and it came up with twenty-two types of engineering fields for career options.

4. I can figure out how pieces of equipment fit and work together by looking at them. I generally notice the subtle nuisances of a products design that were included for the purpose of a machine to utilize during the manufacture or post manufacture process of the product development.

These natural tendencies of mine cause me to appear as if I am staring at some uninteresting object as if I expect it to move or do something unexpected. Generally it is just me turning it around in my mind and solving some question of curiosity as to why an element of it was made in that particular shape, or why a notch or groove was incorporated into the design. I marvel at tons of little things every day that go virtually unnoticed by the rest of the world.

I in turn come up with tons of ideas every week for myriads of products or services that could be provided if only someone would develop this or that or change an element on an existing product. Some ideas are silly and garbage, some are just downright funny. Sometimes they are monstrous in their scope of design, implementation and final use and life cycle of the product, i.e. my vacuum airship ideas.

Today's inspiration comes from the fact that even with all the little note taking things for cell phones, pads, and computers, I still see Post It notes stuck to the side of computer monitors!

If a computer programmer or APP Designer made a program that you could quickly and easily make a note within and then your phone, pad or computer could display it as an icon or sorts on the side of the display so it is as if you had a Post It note on your device. You would want to make the icon or note moveable so if it wasn't in a convenient spot the user could move it to an out of the way place on the screen.

I would even add an option to put not so important information but stuff you would like to see as reminders so that they pop up on your device as type of screen saver so when you get back to your device you see the notes. I would use something like this for positive affirmations and for goals to remember to exercise, writing goals for the day, week, this month, and the year. This could be used for shopping lists so you could add stuff to a revolving list as you think about them and then recall the list later when needed. You could add to the screen saver list to stop by the store on the way home.

It was just a thought I had on the way to work while I was driving and listening to my kindle read a book to me. I keep wondering if there is such a thing as sensory input overload. I have only run into that when both my boys are asking repeatedly for different things while I am trying to listen to my wife explain something while one or both of us are cooking and trying to set the table for dinner.

Study of English II

2012-02-20T21:36:00.000-08:00

I have expressed my failure to grasp rudimentary elements of the English language in previous posts. I have also expressed how I have made it a new mission in my life to not only learn the terms and associations of words in regards to English so that I may not only become a better writer but to the degree I can argue aspects of English with professors and those who cannot read a piece of work with mistakes without developing a brain hemorrhage.

One of the books I am studying states that:

You must learn to express yourself in a plain, easy manner, in well chosen, significant and decent terms, and to give harmonious and pleasing turn to your periods; study to explain your thoughts . . .

Its formal cause therefore is such choice and disposition of words as will achieve this end most economically.

I agree and disagree with this statement!

Every author has heard repeatedly to show, not tell. To achieve our end economically! This same book wasted (in my opinion) the first chapter explaining who gets excluded from using proper English!

Sometimes an author has to be everything but economical. I’m not talking about being extra wordy as much as I am talking about taking a less direct route to get to a point. I don’t believe in making my books lappy. Lappy is an old Vaudeville term they would use if you broke the routine down enough to basically lay it in the audiences lap. I enjoy intelligent books that are not lappy. I write the books I would love to read that haven’t been written yet. I try to use characters and situations in my books that tell part of the story from one or more of the characters perspective.

The trick, or technique that I prefer to use is to get the reader to ask questions themselves. I may or may not necessarily answer those questions at that point in the book. I do try and make sure that I tie up almost all of the questions by the end of the book except for the major questions which may take two or three books of the series to adequately resolve all of the issues.

This of course is taking the risk that those who are skimming or speed reading may not get all the tidbits of information or have adequate time to form the questions that somebody reading the book normally would before being further along in the book. Without the reader mentally connecting with the story and asking the obvious questions they may miss some of the major points of the book and be left with the feeling the story came up short, or left them wanting. I am not writing young adult or children’s books, and I am not going to state the questions or make a big fan fare that this is the answer you have have been waiting for. I am willing to take the risk that not everybody who reads my books is going to “Get It” or necessarily understand or grasp all that there is to be had.

I also don’t totally explain every aspect of everything presented. I don't do this to be pompous, but rather that I anticipate that my readers are intelligent and educated to some degree. It's alright if you don't understand everything you read in a story. Take a break and check it out, whether it is a word, a fact, or a new concept; that's how we learn new things. I do try and introduce some information that you normally wouldn’t run across. Whether the information is true or a figment of my imagination I leave for the reader to decide. In this age of information where you can look stuff up as easy as checking your e-mail, if the reader is curious they can check it out for themselves. For the inquisitive reader they may be surprised by what’s real and what’s not. I try and write intelligent books. I’ve had more than one reviewer of “Whisper” say they didn’t understand the terminology but it made them feel like they were there and at sea with the crew.

When the author is shooting for mystery, intrigue, or suspense they may not use the most economic choice of words to convey their ideas, thoughts or images they are trying to impress upon the reader. A good book should engage your senses, emotions and intelligence. If somebody wants the story spilled out neatly in their lap they can watch television or a movie. That’s why I don’t understand how these people who can read a 120,000 word novel in two days and enjoy it and honestly think they got everything out of the book it had to offer. That would be reading 2,500 words every hour for 48 hours or 41.66 words every minute for two days. These people should be watching movies and not reviewing books!

I feel as readers mature in the material they choose to read they gravitate for stories that connect to them on multiple levels in a subtle manner. I truly hope that as I grow in skill and hone my craft and style that the stories I write will bother people with thoughts and questions as they read it and for a while after they have finished reading it. I hope to get to where I can challenge peoples core preconceived notions of the world and reality, to challenge readers to validate or check out what I have written for themselves. Economical, Bah Humbug!

One final word is directly out of the same book I am studying which I believe is the crux if the entire problem of studying English as opposed to science or mathematics.

“English is not static-neither in vocabulary nor in grammar, nor yet in that elusive quality called style. The fashion in prose alternates between the ornate and the plain, the periodic and the colloquial. Grammar and punctuation defy all the efforts of grammarians to force them into the mould of a permanent code of rules. Old words drop out or change their meanings; new words are admitted. What was stigmatised by purists of one generation as a corruption of the language may a few generations later be accepted as an enrichment, and what was then common currency may have become a pompous archaism or acquired a new significance.”

(If you have any problem with the spelling or punctuation of the following quote as it came out of a respected English text book, I double checked it three times with the book. Especially the words Micro-softs Word underlined in red as if I miss spelled them!)

AMEN!

2 + 2 still equals 4 as it did for my great great grandfather and as much as it does today unless you are a creative accountant or former Enron Executive.

God Bless and keep writing!

SEO Search Engine Optimization

2012-02-18T07:37:00.000-08:00

The company I work for, Community Wholesale Tire, my day job, is having the people who created and put together the companies new and improved website come in and teach a class to our many fine Tire Dealers on Website Design and SEO (Search Engine Optimization.)

As I have been with the company for a long time I am going to get to attend the event for free as a representative of our company. I have attended many classes in the past that have dealt with many aspects of tires, repair materials, and advertising but this will be the first class that will also directly be applicable to e-books and Independent Authors.

I have this blog and in most cases where you are signing up for some sort of representation, author interviews and author pages I always list my blog as my website. If this class teaches me enough to build, create, or have my own website created that would be extremely useful. The Search Engine Optimization is what first caught my eye because it would be immediately put to use when placing the Labels at the bottom of my blog posts, which is used to connect up with search words people might be using when surfing the web to pull up your site as a possible match.

The good news today is that what I learn in the class I plan on passing on through my blog posts to the Indie Authors who follow my blog to learn more about our new enterprise, which is being Independent Authors. As I have stated before in previous posts, that being an Independent Author requires you to wear many different hats. We have to learn how to do all the things required to write a great book, format it, develop the cover art, write the synopsis, download it the elements of the book in numerous areas to be sold, and finally market and sell our books ourselves. The more you can do yourself, obviously the more Independent you actually are.

Editing and proofing can be purchased, art work can be purchased, and so can websites. I am excited to find out if I will be able to create my own website or inexpensively pay to get one built for myself and promoting my books. I also can't wait to learn as much as I can about SEO from some people that actually make their living from building websites.

The class is scheduled for the evening of March 22^nd. So after that date I will be doing some blog posts sharing what I have learned from the class with my friends and followers who are also aspiring authors or newly published Indie Authors. Hopefully you follow along with the posts you find interesting but if not mark your calendars to return to this blog after March 22^nd if you're interested in learning about website design and SEO. I have seen classes and seminars on-line where you can purchase this kind of information. Frankly I haven't had the extra money or time to worry about trying to pay to get a website. Since an opportunity has arisen to get this education for FREE I can't see why I shouldn't take advantage of it.

Some might argue that once I learn this stuff I could in turn charge others for this information but I don't care to be in the teaching business. I want to be in the book writing business! I don't mind sharing information as I find it is helpful and in turn makes my blog posts more interesting. I don’t consider other Authors as my competition! I consider us in the same field of interest and where we can help each other I feel we should help fellow authors wherever possible. I don't consider other Authors competition because each author is unique in their style of writing, in what they write, and how they tell a story.

People are going to try my books or they aren't! Following that, these same people are going to like my books or they aren't. If they don't like what or how I write they won't buy any more of my books. If they do like them then they will wait in the wings until they I have published something new and then rush to get it. I know this because that's how I am, and I read a lot!

Once or twice I year, I get forced to buy and read a book from a fabulous and awesome writer who I just hate reading, not because he isn't a great writer, but because of the crap he does to his characters and I don't like feeling sad and miserable ON PURPOSE! That reminds me I need to do a blog post apologizing to this author for saying I hate him. My wife and her best friend jumped all over me when I was upset about a particularly harsh review of my newest book and they both took this authors side in saying, "Think how he feels when he reads what you write about him! Toughen up and take your dues. You can dish it out but you can't take it."

This obviously didn't do anything to help my mood that evening. It didn't seem to matter that I flatter this writer with praise about what a wonderful and more accomplished writer this author is than I am. I would actually be honored and humbled to meet this author in person. I will never enjoy reading his books unless he changes genre or the way he writes. I don't expect him to change for me. It is actually fine that I don't like his stories. Everybody isn't going to like what you write. Whether it's your blog or your book, somebody is going to hate it, no matter how talented you become! So deal with it. I will do a blog post apologizing to Mr. Nicholas Sparks one of these days when I honestly can think of anything to write about. That day hasn't arrived yet!

God Bless and keep writing! Mark your calendars to check back with us after March 22^nd.

History Tidbit

2012-02-17T06:36:00.003-08:00

Today in history, February 17, 1801, One of America's most favorite Presidents took office. Thomas Jefferson was elected the third President of United States. His election was the first transfer of power from one political party to another in our nation's history.

During his first term Jefferson Strengthened the American Navy, reduced the national debt by one third, acquired the Louisiana Territory, and sponsored the Lewis and Clark expedition. His first term ended in relative stability and prosperity, allowing him to overwhelmingly be re-elected to a second term.

I could go on and on about Thomas Jefferson, especially in the areas of how he helped establish our great country, and served as President all the while believing that men should be allowed to govern themselves and that government intervention was inherently wrong and would always become corrupt. He believed we as a country should revolt and keep our government in check on a regular basis, to keep it honest, small and effective. The man was a genius on many levels!

Steampunk Where I Live

2012-02-16T20:57:00.000-08:00

It dawned on me as to why Steampunk resonates with me as I have been looking at elements of art, gadgets, and gizmo's which are considered Steampunk. What about it that attracts me to Steampunk is where I live. I don't mean the geographical location, or my home in Independence, Missouri. I mean where I spend most of my waking hours of every week, at work. The building that I have worked in for many years is the old Montgomery Ward's Distribution Center for all points out west of Kansas City, Missouri. Ward's shut down its operations there in 1979 and for many years the building sat vacant. Located in Northeast Kansas City, a part of town that is considered in the 'Hood' these days. The building was built in the very early 1900's before the future of electricity was figured out. It was designed to be state of the art as far as technology for that time period, and was built to have electricity and pneumatic tube messaging throughout the building. I think the only places I know of that is still using pneumatic tubes are banks in their drive through stalls.

The building was built over the top of two of the world's largest and still operational electric generators; only they generate DC power, not AC. For those who are not familiar with the history of electrical power in the United States at the turn of the century (1800's to 1900's), there was a vicious battle raging as to which type of current would end up powering the United States.

There are two types of electrical power you can generate, DC or AC. DC stands for Direct Current and is the type of power that batteries usually supply. AC stands for Alternating Current and is the type of power produced from your local utility company and brought to your house or business by wires. If your electrical device uses DC power and you plug it in there is usually a transformer somewhere in the plug assembly which converts the AC to DC. Almost everything that needs plugged in to be recharged and has some sort of a battery associated with it uses DC power. Household appliances, lighting, vacuum cleaners, and your welder runs off AC power.

This building was designed and set up to run off DC power it generated on site! All the internal wiring in the building is for the DC power circuits. All the AC power lines, outlets, and light fixtures were added later when the building had to undergo a conversion to AC power because that's what won out when the war was over.

The short story is Tesla came to America with literally pennies in his pocket and his invention, inspired by a children's toy spinning top, an AC generator, tucked under his arm. Arriving in New York where everybody came into the country from Europe in those days, he looked around and found Thomas Edison, Inventor extraordinaire, and was hired immediately. Edison wasn't interested in Tesla's AC generator because Edison was pushing his DC powered inventions and believed that AC power was reckless and harmful. The war for which would win out between DC and AC was already being waged and Edison was a General!

After a short period Edison had quipped to Tesla that if he could build a device that did such and such that he would pay him a million dollars. What Edison didn't know was that the future supreme general of the other camp was in his employ or that Tesla was a man who was way ahead of his time. Tesla built what Edison had asked for in short order and fully expected to be paid a million dollars for it. Edison was floored, amazed and flabbergasted but couldn't pay Tesla a million dollars. Tesla got pissed and left New York. The other major player at the time was a man by the name of George Westinghouse, Edison's arch rival. Westinghouse was working on an AC generator but was having problems with it.

When Tesla joined Westinghouse he came with a working AC generator only it used different frequencies, the same ones we use today. Equipment is newer but the base technology we have for generating electrical AC power is the same system Tesla designed and built all those years ago. Later Edison would create General Electric and compete directly with Westinghouse. For those that are interested you can read about Thomas Edison, Nikola Tesla, George Westinghouse and their battle known as the Current Wars.

Back to my original point, this building I spend most of my waking hours walking around inside a large part of is like living and working in a Steampunk environment. I am privileged because of my position and having been here for nearly twenty years to have seen other parts of the building rarely seen by others, like the room with the giant DC generators in it. There are huge metal wheels that almost touch the extra high ceiling with the axle attached just above the floor and wheels going down threw slotted holes in the concrete floor.

There are parts of this building where it is just like stepping back in time. All the equipment is still here, the power equipment, electrical components in glass vacuum tubes, wooden handled switches with brass contacts bigger than your fingers, giant hinged metal switches with wooden handles. Any of this stuff could be the back drop for part of Frankenstein's laboratory. This stuff wasn't built to be pretty it was built to work and last.

My world is conjoined to the past by my surroundings on a daily basis. This is why the Steampunk stuff resonates so strongly with me, it reminds me of home.

As far as the fashion parts of it, what heterosexual male doesn't appreciate seeing a woman in a corset? I would welcome that aspect of fashion and woman dressing like ladies of older times any day!

One final note on the brilliance of Nikola Tesla, he once brought out one of his electrical generators in a city that had just installed electric lights but had not connected them with the power lines yet. Tesla was able to light 22 miles of electrical lights with no wires!

ConvertingYour Library to Digital

2012-02-15T21:52:00.000-08:00

I love books!

I love all kinds of books. Paperbacks, hard covers, the thin card stock cover children’s books. I love the old serial books of Doc Savage, The Shadow, and at one point I owned every one of Don Pendleton’s The Executioner Series from one through seventy something. I love old musty, dusty books that have long been forgotten by other book lovers from ages ago. I enjoy reading books of all types and the most precious moments with my two young boys are when they bring me a book as say, “Read this?” Especially in a day in age in which most kids would rather play with toys, watch mindless television, or play video games, my boys will both sit on my lap while I very animatedly read various books, passing on the magic and wonderment that is reading and enjoying a good story to my children.

I knew when I first a Kindle’s for the first time that someday I would own one. I have one of the original first models and I treat it like it were a fragile relic. I have grown to love my kindle as much as I do books. I honestly didn’t think I would get that attached to it. I split my time between it reading to me while I work on other things, folding clothes, and driving to and from work. It dawned on me that I really don’t need my six book cases which have moved twice with me over the years and are in dire need of repair. Like many book lovers my book cases are over flowing with many shelves containing two rows of books with one row in front of another. My wife of nine years went to move one of them this year and freaked out when she realized many of the shelves were double stacked.

From time to time I run across a book I cannot get on my Kindle so I am forced to buy a traditional bound copy of it. It was then then I realized I had forgotten that books are heavier than my kindle, much bulkier, I have to mark my place when I stop, I have to hold it open, and I have to continually turn the page. The Kindles text-to-speech feature can be used with the sound turned down and it reads and turns the page automatically, the trick is finding the font size which controls the speed at which it reads that most closely matches the speed at which you read. How lazy is that, that if I actually have to read the book it turns the pages for me. Most books I just listen to, it is much faster and I can work on something else while enjoying a good book. When I have to read real books I realize how much more convenient my Kindle actually is.

Then it dawned on me that this new literary travel companion of mine could (a newer model) hold my entire library except for the books you can’t get on Kindle and the few rare books that are very near and dear to my heart. I took my lap top downstairs one evening and sat in front of my book shelf and added books that I have read to my collection on Goodreads dot com. It was then that I realized the special books would barely take up part of one book shelf. The rest I could get rid of. I am not the only person doing this either. I ran across a discussion board on Goodreads where they were discussing what everyone is doing with their old books to get rid of them.

Thankfully book lovers are not the kind of people to throw away or burn books. People are taking them to second hand book stores and selling them to use the money to repurchase the digital copies to put on their e-readers. Some people are just giving the books to friends. They have an entire area devoted to book swapping on Goodreads. Doesn’t help create space but gets rid of your old books in place of new books to read. Some people are donating them to library’s, schools, and even prisons. I know one person who gave her books to a battered woman’s home.

The amazing thing is that you can have your entire library backed up on your computer, and available to read on your computer, phone or e-reader. The Kindle app keeps track of where you were when you left off reading one device and picked up again on another device. As far as research for projects or in my case writing, it is so handy to be able to pull up a book and consult a piece of reference material and never get up from my computer. I can have my notes up, my story I am working on, spread sheets and several reference books all at the same time. I recently was given a monitor that a friend of mine didn’t need any more and bought a USB cable to plug the monitor into my lap top so I can have multiple screens up at once.

Writers!! This is so handy when editing, because you can have the corrected work from your editor on one screen while the work your correcting is on the other screen and just look back and forth. Before I had to shrink everything down and split my regular screen in order to keep from toggling back and forth.

The e-book market is out of it’s infancy stage and tottling around in it’s rug rat stage. It is about to enter the grade school phase and grow and change in ways we can’t even imagine right now. I see many and exciting new trends and variations of books and reading related opportunities coming soon to your e-reader, pads, phones and computers. In the immortal words of Jolson and Mae West, “You ain’t seen nothin yet!”

For those that are curious I see in my crystal ball children’s books that have animated art work or pictures instead of just illustrated. Interactive children’s books for teaching that’s fun. Story books with multiple endings where the decisions you make while reading changes the story. (They have these now, I just see them being much more involved, multiple authors and artists working in collaborative groups to turn out whole series of books with multiple plot lines and endings with art work or small video clips embedded through out the books.)

I see informational books encyclopedias, dictionaries, and references books being interactive with video, sound, intermixed with the reference material. A book on Kennedy or Martin Luther King would have picture and film bytes with sound embedded in the books.

I see video games and books being intermixed to get kids to play the games but they will have to read bits in between to help get through or to the higher levels slowly and without their knowledge getting them to read. I see adult novels with moving pictures, interactive elements mixed through the books, possibly video clips to show certain elements described in the novel.

Don’t get me started on the advertising ideas for the future.

Experience Built From Mistakes

2012-02-14T21:17:00.000-08:00

When I started writing almost everyday in 2010 and realized I wanted to actually attempt to write a book from start to finish I made several mistakes.

I am a big fan of James Rollins because he is one of the first authors I discovered early in their careers and had read each of their books. I remember his first books vividly because they were outside of the box, they took me somewhere new, taught me something, and were good books. Through following his new releases I saw his writing change and mature as he grew as an author. I wanted to write books like his but with my stories and ideas.

I remember thinking that my first book would always be my worst book! I looked over the files, the bits and pieces of stories I had started over the last ten years while kicking the tires of writing. I weighed my options and decided on “Whisper” for two main reasons. One was the first five chapters had actually been written over sporadic periods from 2002 to 2010. The second reason was because it was the weakest story in my arsenal. I realized Whisper was to be the last of Wiley Randolph’s missions and how that might be confusing but only if I actually finished it, published it, and ended up writing subsequent novels and publishing them also. That seemed so far fetched in March of 2010 that I didn’t give it a second thought and picked up where I had left off with this story and started plodding away at finishing a book.

Now looking back it was a mistake in several ways. If I had to start all over I would have written Wiley’s first mission first. When I got around to writing ‘Whisper’ I would have rewritten the first five chapters, it’s slow to start and hard to get into. Readers are giving me a lot of latitude by reading past chapter five to get into the story not to mention looking past the grammatical errors and English deficiencies. That’s why they say hindsight is 20/20.

That being said I also have to state I have no regrets. If I had never written ‘Whisper’ I would have never written a love story. What was to be Wiley’s last mission is now the start of something I would never have tried so early in my writing career. A recent bashing of the English and Grammar of second novel has forced me to undertake the equivalency of going back to school – to study English. This has hampered my writing schedule and caused some second thoughts about my writing. We are all human and have insecurities from time to time. Part of being persistent and self-motivating is finding the little things to pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and keep going.

“Nielsen says the average book published in the United States sells fewer than 250 copies a year and fewer than 3,000 overall. Of the 1.2 million titles Nielsen tracked in 2004 (publishing’s heyday), 950,000 sold fewer than 99 copies; only 25,000 sold more than 5,000.”

This sentence was removed from a back and forth session on Writer’s Digest were experts went back and forth on the top ten rules about writing that we have all heard about.

‘Whisper’ was the weakest story in my arsenal of stories I plan to write. The weakest of over thirty developed full length novels I could write over the next fifteen or more years.

950,000 books sold fewer than 99 copies, that’s 79 percent of the books tracked that year!

The average book sells fewer than 250 copies a year and fewer than 3,000 overall. It’s too early to figure the overall part.

I published “Whisper” at the end of January 2011, so it has been out for just over one year. To date I have sold 619 copies of my worst book ever with crappy artwork drawn with a mouse in Microsoft Paint Brush, and full of errors, bad English and all. I’ve beat the averages or at least I’ve beat over 79 percent of them based off numbers from 2004.

I am not bragging I am just dusting myself off and feeling a little better about reading English textbooks instead of writing which is a big part of what makes me happy.

Can Traditional Publishing be Saved?

2012-02-14T14:39:00.000-08:00

One of the blogs I follow is by Rachelle Gardner, and her latest blog I wanted to comment upon.

To make it easier I copied some pieces from her post of February 12^th.

Do you know what business you are in?

What the Publishing Industry Can Learn From Kodak

1. We need to correctly identify the business we’re in.

Publishers, agents and authors need to start from this very important truth: We are not in the “book” business. We are in the business of storytelling. This encompasses entertainment, information, ideas, creativity, inspiration, and intellectual exploration. It also comprises a social element—the relationship between reader and writer. We are in the business of fostering this relationship.

2. We can’t be afraid of cannibalizing our own businesses in the short run to make progress in the long run.

Publishers are steeped in the “printed book business” and may be reluctant to step out and aggressively market digital products that will detract from their print business. But they must, if they are to innovate and stay ahead of the curve (or at least on it) rather than fall so far behind that they can’t recover.

3. We should find new ways to generate revenue while serving consumers’ wants and needs.

We’re in a tug-of-war as consumers become less willing to plunk down fifteen bucks for a reading experience when so much is available free or very cheap.

We need to be asking ourselves, “What’s valuable to a reader? What are they willing to pay for? What are they NOT willing to pay for? What do they want that they’re not getting, and how can we figure out a way to provide it (for a price)?”

Please go and read her wonderful Blog Post for yourself. http://www.rachellegardner.com/

So the following are my thoughts and comments after reading her brilliant post!

First off, she is dead on target with her analysis of the situation and her comparison with the Kodak company is inspired. We are in the business of fostering the relationship between the reader and the writer.

But from the perspective of the writer . . .

I have written two books, did the art work, self-published them, and I am haphazardly self-promoting them. I have a day job! I am making a living! My success as a writer is basically for my own vanity at this point. If my books sell, that's awesome. If I get to the point where I make enough money from selling books to stay home and write full time, all the better. If I have to keep my day job until I naturally retire and am writing books the entire time – it doesn't matter. Publishing companies don't have this same luxury!

You see this question asked all the time in forums and discussions about writing. Is Self-Publishing the best way to go? The reason there is so much discussion on this is because there are so many facets to the correct answer that it's a hard question to answer. Every case is different.

1. Do you have talent? Translated into business terms – Is anybody going to buy your work?

2. Do you have an audience, a following of readers who enjoy your work and are biting at the bit for the next sequel in your series?

3. Can you do your own art work?

4. Can you do your own editing? Proofing?

5. Do you have an advertising budget? Can you promote the work? Can you promote it enough until you get discovered by enough people to make a difference?

If your answer to these questions is, Yes, then self publishing may be your best bet.

Even if your answers are No, you can still self-publish!

Art work can be bought, so can editing, and proofing. There are many home based businesses popping up to fill these niches for the aspiring authors at very competitive prices. So your books can become better and more professional as you have more money to invest in the areas you cannot do all by yourself.

My books are not great! The English needs help! The artwork can definitely be better and more attractive! In time I will be able to use the profits from the books I am selling to pay for more professional help. I also am undertaking becoming as knowledgeable about the English language as I can make myself. I have purchased a bamboo drawing tablet and learning to transfer my drawing and painting skills to the digital age. If my books do not sell enough to purchase more professional help I am taking the steps now to make my future books better.

All the while I will hopefully be fostering the relationships with my readers and fellow authors.

One Truth that must be expressed is that Writers and Readers will always exist! The same cannot be accurately stated for the literary agent and the publisher. I pray to God that real bound paper books remain a part of the human experience for thousands of years, but that may not be the case. Because of the decline of this aspect of our culture and the changes being made in schools where cursive handwriting will not be taught to future generations. I wonder what will happen when the some catastrophic event interrupts society and the lights go out. If we lose the means of charging our phones, pads, no power for the computers, then what? No books, and nobody knows how to write without a keyboard! How long until we are back in the dark ages?

As to her second point about publishers cannibalizing their own business. What if they took it a step further than just promoting and producing e-books in competition with the printed books? They have the professional skills in house to help the aspiring authors move from the mediocre to being great!

If I was a mid- to upper level manager at a large publishing house I would be hiring artists, proofers, editors, and people who know how to expertly format the different variations of e-books! I would be taking on as many new clients as I could sign up and redesign the publishing industry from the inside out.

I would hire home based book reviewers who are currently reviewing books on their own blogs to send me the contact info on anything they feel is promising, new, and great! When a reviewer finds a book they feel is great I would arrange to send it to three or four more reviewers of the same genre and see what the overall feeling is after it has been checked out by the reviewers I had learned to trust and value. The extra exposure wouldn't hurt the authors.

Then reap the harvest! I would contact every writer I could through agents and see where they need help, figure the lowest cost means of providing what they need and get their books polished and re-released as e-books with some cheap but effective marketing, new distribution channels on-line (even if I had to invent the new distribution channels). The author would not get an upfront royalty payment as in traditional publishing as this would not be traditional publishing. They would get a more professional looking book, associated with the name of a publisher, get an agent, and pay for the services rendered out of a percentage of the book sales.

If the book doesn't sell a lot, it would be no different than if the writer had done it on their own except the publisher and agent are still in the game. If the book has medium sales the publisher will hopefully get to work with the writer on upcoming books and they would grow together. If the book has enough sales to break a preset margin then the publisher would have the agent offer a more traditional book deal for a re-release as a paperback or hard cover book. WIN – WIN. It would help the writers, the integrity of the English language and publishing industry as a whole.

As to Rachelle's third point, the different revenue streams could be the new direct on-line book stores which publishing companies erect or partnerships with traditional bookstores for the distribution of the e-books and traditional books. If somebody doesn't cut Amazon off at the knees they will be the only bookstore available in ten to twenty years. To do that you would have to have control of the distribution of the e-books. Writers need to sign with a publisher to be exclusive in return for the cut rate services provided to make their books more professional. Control the distribution and the readers will follow the authors! A move has to be taken in the e-book community to eliminate free e-books and raise the prices to a respectable level that can sustain publishers, agents and authors. I can't think of any market system where giving the product away helps sustain the market.

When readers can get more stuff than they can possibly read in a year in moments for free why would they buy books? Until this mess gets straightened out the level of professional books will go down, the prices will fall and the readers win all the way around. Never before in history has reading material been so easy to get, as readily and cheaply as we can today. I would like to think that reading as a whole would be on the rise as a result this explosion of literary material but I seriously doubt that reading is on the rise.

There was a boom in knowledge and technology not long after printing presses were invented and books became somewhat affordable and readily available. I would like to believe that in the next thirty years we should see astounding new developments from shared knowledge, understanding, and technology from the result of the increase of information available to inquiring minds who want to learn.

Money Making, Blogging and Steampunk

2012-02-13T21:04:00.000-08:00

I received an e-mail about taking advantage of money making opportunities with my blog. Who couldn’t use an extra buck every now and again, and yet when considering it I was struck with the reason of why I write this blog. I do it for myself. Why do I write my books? I write the books I want to read that nobody else has written. My blog posts are for me. I enjoy the fact the others have decided to follow along and that the number of those who read my blog posts is rising. Something I write about is important enough that people periodically want to read it.

So for now I will not be putting ad's or banners on my blog. It's not that I am not a capitalist! I am! It is just that I don't want to get to where I am writing for particular readers or leaning towards selling something on my blog. I would rather use it as the warm-up for my brain and fingers before jumping back into the world of my imagination and make believe. I want to focus on writing books. Notice I said writing books, not selling books.

I know to sell more books:

1. I need to be discovered.

2. Build a following of readers.

3. Write more books.

4. Most importantly I need to write better books.

I know my first two novels which are available for sale at all your finer e-book purchasing outlets were rushed and contain numerous English and Grammatical errors and display a need of better editing on my part. I am wholly responsible for any and all mistakes contained therein. I also didn't know if I had any inkling of talent for writing at this time last year. I have become convinced that I do. Thanks to those adventurous readers who don't have a stroke when reading less than perfect writing, who actually read the stuff they are reviewing, and who approach books, as I do, with an open mind and a willingness to be taken into the authors world of imagination. The number of four to five star reviews outnumbers the one and two star reviews. The repeated statement that 'I have never read anything like this before' in numerous reviews has me convinced that I am on the right track.

Now someday when I am sitting at home, semi-retired, meaning I am not working for someone else anymore and sustaining myself on the wits of my declining brain and my writing, then I might commercialize my blog and start trying to make money off of it. I pray that by the time that day gets here I am making enough money off of my books that I won't need to sell stuff on my blog. God forbid I go that route and end up with some banner for a political candidate running on my blog. I might be forced to stop blogging and kill myself over the dishonor of it.

With all that being said and being slightly held up in the writing phase because of my intensive study of this flawed, fickle and another adjective that begins with F that isn't socially acceptable, in our common language, I have discovered a movement that appears to be growing. I don't know how long it has been around or when the term was coined that describes it. I recognize it when I see it, and I love the aesthetic qualities of it that I have seen in gadgets, movies and fashion.

It is known as STEAMPUNK! I tried briefly, playing around surfing, to define it through researching aspects of it. Now like other such movements I am not one that is going to come up with an alternative name and persona and dress up and go to the local Steampunk ball, club, or event, but as a writer I am intrigued with the subject.

I have expressed earlier in blog posts about my vacuum airship ideas and one of my motivations for writing is to create and bring to life elements of my imagination that I could never actually build in real life. I have been toying around with ideas where I could use my vacuum ships as a central element within a story to describe it, explain the differences between it and traditional airships and the advantages versus traditional airships. Some of the main elements of Steampunk are goggles, corsets, gadgets, things with gears, and giant AIRSHIPS!

I have downloaded a couple of Steampunk stories to read in order to try and get an idea of what is out there and what the genre is like. I have discovered that the genre includes detective stories, adventure, erotica, time travel, and vampire/werewolves themes. I was searching to see if there was any cardinal rules to which if I ventured into this genre, that if I violated, would get me expelled from entering the movement from a literary standpoint.

Examples of Steampunk movies are "The League of Extraordinary Gentleman", "Sherlock Holmes", "HUGO", and literary works of Jules Verne and the like. They seem to herald Jules Verne and the Victorian Era as the founding Genesis of their movement. It is stuff we know and can recognize, I had just never put the term and the art forms associated with it together. I truly feel this movement of art, culture, and design is going to be the vehicle for my vacuum airships. As more of the pieces come together and gell into an idea for a novel I will share them here with you. If you haven’t seen the elements of this movement try surfing for Steampunk. I had heard the name and didn’t give it any notice until the name was attached to some really cool artwork! I love it in spite of the name.

Star Wars 3D and My Son

2012-02-11T09:04:00.000-08:00

My three year old son, Hayden, is so big most people think he is five. He is a normal three, almost four year old boy with an over active imagination in which his father (me) works daily to encourage. He is usually Captain Jack Sparrow, Obi-Wan Kanobi, or some other character wielding a sword and beating up his younger brother Garth.

Garth is getting his first all day outing with Big Sister, so Daddy and Hayden are going to see Star Wars 3D.
It will be his first experience with a 3D movie. On a side note my daughter is 21 and two weeks ago I went with her to the new Underworld Movie in 3D, it was her first 3D movie. Seventeen years difference in age and both experiencing the new 3D movies with their dad.

So no major post today, except to say I am playing with my family.

Who Are You?

2012-02-10T12:08:00.000-08:00

With the multitude of social media outlets available for people to participate in to connect with other people of similar interests and likes and people connecting with thousands of other people they normally wouldn't have any contact with, it begs the question, Who ARE You?

From wanting to get to know the people you have connected with through the constraints placed on each different social media site, to letting them get to know you. I want to get to know some of these people more deeply than a tweet or reading status updates. Everybody has something special they can share, contribute, comment about, or even just brag 'Look what I can do'. I want to know who the artists are, writers are, motorcycle enthusiasts, and parents are. Just like with reading books, we all are not going to like the same things. We all are not going to like the same people.

I follow two blogs that I personally find rather tasteless trash. Why? One because it is mind boggling to realize there is a huge following for one of them, and I am curious to what is attracting everybody. The other one I follow because the writer has the freedom to not censor themselves in any way, take or leave it, and some of the stuff is so wrong but dreadfully true, down to earth, just it's the stuff you would never verbalize! I catch myself laughing out loud reading the posts. I'm like, "Damn, they really went there! Wrote it down and posted it! OMG!"

I argue with myself daily about self-censorship. My reality isn't the same as everybody else's. Your reality isn't the same as everybody else's. We are all different. Our perception of us, our views of the world, of history, of work ethics, how fair life is, how good or bad the world is, it's all different! Each person's perceptions are based off of where they live, what they have learned, how old they are, what they have experienced, and so many differing factors. I censor myself to a degree, because I don't want to alienate any particular group. I cuss! I try not to daily. My wife gets on me about it all the time.

Personally I don't think you can accurately say "That is a bad word." Word's can't be bad, they are words. There are words that are not socially acceptable in particular places but there are places and situations where those same words are extremely effective when used in the right place and correct context.

I really do want to know who all these people are. Who does what? Where do they live? What's it like where they live? What people feel passionate about? Are they dog, cat or bird people?

I was asked in an interview if there was any one character from one of my books that was like me. In my first book "Whisper" Captain Wiley Randolph is the type of person I would like to be. The character Russell Reynolds from the same book would be the closest facsimile to the type of person I really am. Probably the closest you get to seeing something I would do is when Russell accidently fires off a missile off the deck of the Whisper. Instead of being scared that he could have just blown himself up, his reaction is excitement he didn't blow himself up and he is ready to try again because he knows what he did wrong the first time.

This day in age is also great because never before in history have we been able to get as close to our favorite authors and artists of different sorts than we can today. By following a blog, going to their web site, connecting with them on various social outlets you can really get an idea or feel for what kind of person you think they might be. You may still not like them face to face, or be able to be buddies with them on a regular basis. Then again you might!

I am socially awkward at best. I have trouble filtering what I say, verbally. Anti-social to most of the world face to face except for a small handful of people I let in to my world that I might speak with or eat with. Day to day, I do almost the same thing every day at the same time. My life has very little excitement, variation or change and I like it that way. I am happy and having fun living my life and feel that's the most we can hope for in life, Being Happy and having Fun. I think my books are so out there, because I am learning to live vicariously through my writing in contrast to my normal very boring life. (I don't feel it's boring, people tell me they couldn't be this way because it's boring.)

I've only been active on social sites and posting to this blog since I published my first book. I feel a certain freedom in socializing on-line even though it's limited to well you can get know somebody. I don't feel I come across as awkward on-line as I do in real life. I can generally express myself much better and censored through the written word than I do in person. Of course with this medium you don't get to see the hand movements and gestures, or when I get excited about something – the passion of my feelings about an idea, topic, or story and how it just envelopes me. I can be a very excitable person. The lack of censorship or filtering comes through from the over flowing of emotions about – Hell it could be anything depending on the person I am talking with or the subject of the moment.

If you happen to read this post to this point – Please take a moment and leave a comment and share something! Who Are You? What do you do? Let me know why you are special!

You are! We all are special in some way! Where do you live! Brag about something you have done!

If I am not connected with you in some way leave a link to a social site or E-mail me at StorytellerTDW@yahoo.com and Say, "Howdy! This is so and so . . . and tell me who you are!"

You may feel free to follow this blog, it isn't an obligation to read every bit of dribble I may write, but it should alert you to new posts in one way or another and when something catches your attention then you can share. If you don't have time to comment, then come back or e-mail me when you get a chance and share. Because I really want to know, Who YOU Are!

May God Bless You, with happiness and some fun everyday!

The Light Chasing Robot

2012-02-09T11:18:00.000-08:00

One of my first attempts at building a robot was a project I had found in a book. Basically the idea was to scratch build an electric motor powered car, a simple electronic circuit with the key components being two photocells at the front of the car. I pretty much just built exactly what the book showed in the diagrams. I made a wooden triangle base, I rounded up two electric motors of matched type and size which I had from a radio controlled cars that had long since been busted up. (2) two and a half inch model air plane wheels, one small caster, one small electronics experimenters board, batteries and battery holders, wire, and a handful of small electrical components which would be needed to be assembled on the experimenters board.

I attached the wheels with small axles at the rear of the triangle piece of wood and mounted the motors on top of the wood so that the two gears would mesh up for the motors to supply power to the gear on the axles. I mounted the small caster at the front point of the triangle base. In the middle of the triangle I mounted the experimenter's board and the batteries. Assembly went well with no problems popping up I wasn't able to figure out how to work around.

When I was finished I turned the car on and nothing. The car just sat there. The theory behind the project was light was supposed to be picked up by the photocells and then based upon the amount of light being received by each photocell that controlled the amount of power to go to the opposite wheel at the back of the car. So if it was receiving more light from the photocell on the right side of the car, the left motor would get more power which would in turn move the car to the right. If more light was getting picked up from the left side photocell it would provide power to the right side of the car. It should in theory chase down the light source.

The book mentioned shutting off the lights and having the car chase a flash light which you would hold. So I shut the garage, turned the car on, shut the lights out and walked to the other side of the garage. I turned around and faced my project and turned on the flashlight. I heard the motors start up and a slight yelp from the tires burning rubber on the concrete floor. I saw in the light provided by the flash light this car screaming across the floor towards where I was standing. As I instinctively jumped out of the way of this triangle (pointed front) car the beam of the flash light hit the wall on the right as I jumped to the left. The car jerked left coming off the floor and smashing into the wall of the garage as if it had been a model airplane and flown into the wall.

The project was toast! It took me quite a while to figure out exactly what had happened. It had worked! It did move and chase the light! What I couldn't understand was why it had moved so fast and blasted itself into the wall. It hit the wall because that’s where the light was shining the photocells were picking up. So then I had to discover why it had traveled so terminally fast.

The book had not specified the type or size of motors to use for the project. Neither had it specified the size or type of wheels to use at the rear of the car. I had used radio controlled car motors, but I hadn't taken into account is most radio controlled cars have a gear set up which reducers the revolutions provided by the motors and provides a bit more power in the driving of the car. The gear set up I used was the small gear on the wheel axle because of the small space from the bottom of the car to the floor. I had used a big gear to make up the distance from the motor drive shaft to the axle gear because there was plenty of room on top of the car. I hadn't considered that this was actually gearing the speed up, increasing the revolutions. So say the motor turned at 2,500 rpm and my gear set up increased this by about 3X that would be 7,500 rpm.

The wheels used were model aircraft landing gear with a diameter of 2 1/2 inches. The circumference of the wheel was 7.85 inches. Which means the car would move 7.85 inches per revolution of the wheel. 7.85 X 7,500 translates to 58,875 inches per minute. Divide this number by 60 and the car would travel 981.25 inches per second. A fifty foot garage is 600 inches in length. This creation of mine was going to attempt mathematically to cross that distance plus another 31.7 feet in the first second. As I said it didn't get the best traction in the world and the squealing from the tires was evidence of some slippage and loss of traction.

I should have geared the thing down, and maybe used much smaller wheels in the back. That's why my creation attacked me. It did work very well for a fraction of a second! It left a gouge in the wall of the garage and I learned more about gears and the importance of looking at all aspects of a design than I did about the electronics and photocells. My crazy scientific learning and discovery didn't stop there and hasn't gotten much safer over the years. My family has presented me with a fire extinguisher and a full blown first aid kit for my garage! It is well known to not let me near super glue either because of the tantrums and cussing involved when I glue my fingers together. I also was given a box of latex gloves to use in case I sneak any super glue into the garage as the gluing the fingers together has happened on multiple occasions!

Last night's study was Verbs, Action Verbs, and Linking Verbs. I found out how to pronounce Gerund, and had to look up the definitions for transitive, intransitive and participle. I thought editing sucked!

My Study of English

2012-02-08T19:25:00.000-08:00

Those who follow my blog know that I am handicapped by a deficiency in English knowledge. I have tried in the past to rectify this situation by personal study and failed. I have stated several times that the two subjects I haven't been able to learn on my own through reading books is English and Calculus. I wasn't an author before. Some who have read my books may argue that I am not an author yet because the English and Grammar are so bad.

I feel like an author! I do have two self-published E-books which are selling. Both books still have more good to great reviews than bad ones. It appears the primary point of critizism is the English and Grammar, which is fixable. I would rather have this problem than boring, unimaginative, crap that is perfectly written.

I have resigned myself to learn English and Grammar. I will have to overcome my mental blocks that arise from trying to make some logical sense of this screwed up language that has rules that can and are broken and is filled with inconsistencies. I already understand that even if I get to where I can argue the finer points of the language with college professors and would be editors who like to critique other peoples works, I will never have that reverence and appreciation of the language the way that some of these people describe it.

I would also like to add that at one time English might have been a pristine language of some fine excellence. From studying English vocabulary for the past two years I have discovered that English has morphed into a great melting pot just as the people of the United States. Words that comprise the English language come from Latin, Greek, Old English, German, French and Spanish with bits and pieces thrown in from other cultures. It has also become the custom that if a word is created which is not a word, but used in speech and writing, then over time it will get added to the language. Growing up it was drilled into our heads that Ain’t isn’t a proper word. Well as an adult it is now in the Dictionary and a word in the English language.

This new side bar of study, which will happen during the time available, that I normally devote to writing will inevitably hold up finishing my next two novels. At least by the time I am finished my future novels should be more grammatically correct and have less errors. I have ordered several English books and have begun studying the ones I already own. I may possibly lose followers of this blog because of my sharing the learning experiences in future posts on this blog.

As of last night I now know what a Noun and a Proper noun are.

I learned a new word Gerund! A verb as a noun. I still don't know how you pronounce it as I haven't looked it up in the dictionary yet to see.

I read about Collective Nouns, and Singular and Plural Nouns.

One the second page of the book I am studying it also mentioned, Object of a Preposition – See Chapter such and such. Possessive case of the Pronoun – See Chapter such and such.

WTF - Through the first Chapter it had me jumping all over the book, reading and trying to take notes and understand these new terms and concepts. I had to jump forward and backward because I didn’t know what a pronoun was or a possessive case of the pronoun. This was upsetting and distracting for my first night of studying and taking notes.

I am determined to learn this stuff. If the closed and narrow minded individuals who took it as their personal mission in life to review my work can understand this stuff, then I can! There will be many hours of cussing and walking across the room to retrieve the book I just threw against the wall, but I will get it. So far I do understand the parts about nouns that I have read, but I don't know how to get the CRAP ingrained to where I can read an example other than what was included in the book and go, "Oh, that should be done like this!"

I dearly hope that by learning the terminology and seeing examples of how things should be written that in time some of this SHIT will sink in. I am hoping that as I grasp the different elements and pieces of proper English Grammar that it will begin to show up in my writing. I can't imagine having to take every sentence of my novel and break it down to its elements and then look up every word and concept to see if it is properly being used in that sentence.

I taught myself solid state electronics, and managed to build circuit boards and small robots in my garage in a single summer. This will be a much safer subject to learn but I fear it may be a longer and more challenging process. If I remember, tomorrow I will share with you the experience of my first light chasing electric car robot and how it attacked me in the dark.

Tire Rant

2012-02-07T14:56:00.000-08:00

My day job is in the tire wholesale industry in the middle of the United States. Today's post is a rant about Tires. Specifically, two areas, the Tariff's imposed by President Obama on Chinese Import tires, and the worker's lock out at the Cooper Tire Plant in Findley, Ohio.

It just so happens that both of these have a direct link to the United Steel Workers Union!

The first year in office it was brought before President Obama to impose a 30% Tariff on Chinese import tires. It was argued that this would stop the influx of cheap tires from coming into America which was supposedly hurting the American Economy and therefore hurting the Unions. This same proposal was brought before the previous President and President Bush refused to enact this particular tariff.

I believe and stand behind the belief that we do need some tariffs against Chinese goods coming into this country but not in regards to tires or auto parts! The automobile industry, which includes tires, has become and is a Global industry. The parts needed to build an automobile come from all over the world. Major Tire Manufacturers are Global Companies, with plants located all over the world. What most people don't know is that many of the tires that are made in China inexpensively are made in tire plants using OLD U.S. tire molds! We sold this old outdated equipment to the Chinese to build the tires that are used to replace tires on old 1970's and early 80's model cars. Because of these same Unions who are kicking a fuss about cheap Chinese tires it was cost prohibitive to make old tire sizes with a declining market for them in the United States.

Major tire manufacturers are building the newer more improved tires in current tire sizes to fit the more recent models of cars which is predominately what is being driven in the United States and European countries. People might have noticed that tires sizes have been changing! They have been getting bigger since the mid 90's. When is the last time you drove a car that had 75 series tires on it? That is if you even know what a 75 series tire is. The United Steel Workers are hurting the tire industry as a whole and costing Americans more money to get older sized tires. American companies don't have the molds and would be retarded to retool current factories to manufacturer out dated sizes. We buy them from the Chinese because they are cheap and they own the molds and have the equipment to build these particular sizes for a decreasing market.

This tariff was originally set at 30% to decrease over three years and drop off 2/3 of the way through 2012. The damage has been done. Tire prices went through the roof all the way through 2011 because of Super Speculators screwing with the supply and demand of natural rubber and the rising cost of petroleum products. The tariff imposed three years ago by President Obama raised the price of what would have been cheap late model tire designs. These sizes couldn't be produced and supplied by the USW or American based tire manufacturers. If anything it only benefited the Mexican, South American and other Asian countries that were able to introduce their tire brands into American markets. In many cases American companies just had to suck it up, buy the Chinese tires and raise the prices yet again because that's all that was available. You couldn't get those sizes of tires anywhere else!

The President has the option in the original tariff agreement to extend the tariff year by year from here on out or let it drop off. In order to further pacify the USW and keep their support it is fully expected that he will re-up the tariff for one more year! If you have an older late model car when you go get new tires on it you can thank our President and the USW for the much higher price you have to pay for that tire. Guaranteed it won't be made in America! To stay competitive Major tire manufacturers have moved on to stay up with current technology and automobile tire sizes! Plus almost every major tire manufacturer and many smaller ones are GLOBAL COMPANIES! Plants all over the world, including the United States!

THE WORKERS AT COOPER TIRE IN FINDLEY, OHIO, ARE ON STRIKE!

Secondly, for those who didn't know Cooper Tire, the last solely American Made Tire Company, in Findley, Ohio, has been forced to start building tires elsewhere and they have locked out the Union Workers from their Findley, Ohio plant since around last November! American Companies cannot afford to keep kowtowing to Unions and passing the increased prices on to customers through their products and stay competitive in the world economy! If this continues our economy will collapse, our manufacturing base will collapse, and so will our bankrupt broken government!

The country will continue if the government collapses! It just means others will have to step in and try and manage where the previous elected leaders have failed. If our companies fail, and our economy collapses there won't be anything for a government to govern! It will just be people promising to take care of you with no means of fulfilling the promises.

Several years ago Titan Wheel Company wanted to change wheel sizes and aspect ratios of the tire and wheel combinations for farm and industrial equipment. Unless tire companies followed suit it wouldn't work. So Titan Wheel bought Armstrong Tire in order to make tires for the new wheels they wanted to make. At that time Armstrong Tires was as famous as John Deere or Caterpillar; it was the name in Farm and Industrial Tires and had been for years. As soon as Titan Tire bought the plant the Unions raised their ugly heads and asked for more stuff or they would strike.

The owner of Titan Wheels and New Owner of Armstrong, which they changed to Titan Tire, drove up, shut down and locked the tire plant up! Titan Tire lost millions in sales and production for the US! They didn't build a tire for a year and half! What a way to start your new venture. They broke the Union! Titan Tire today is a world leader in farm and industrial tires. They just signed a three year 100M dollar agreement to supply the Caterpillar Company with tires for their equipment. This stunt by the unions in the name of helping the worker caused a tire shortage in Industrial tires that the world is just now starting to recover from. Not to mention that during the time Titan Tire wasn't producing tires it opened a flood gate for foreign tire manufacturers to bring their tires into the country to supply the need for American equipment.

I hope and pray for everybody who has ever loved the phrase "Made in America," that Cooper Tire either breaks the Union or cuts a deal with the USW that will allow them to be competitive and keep building tires IN AMERICA! Unfortunately if the Union wins it will be another kick in balls for American manufacturing and another step towards the demise of American Industry!

In a stroke of utter futility the USW took their misguided pleas and wants and protested 150 retail tire dealerships on January 14^th of this year. Let me see if I have this right! Their plan was to interrupt the business and protest tire dealerships because of their disagreement with Cooper Tire Manufacturing, and then ask and expect these same dealers to support them! Are they insane? Yes, we want to picket your business and protest and then ask for your support to go against the very companies that make the products you sell for a living! The USW better wake the hell up and sniff what it's shoveling? If Cooper Tire is forced to make an agreement that makes them more uncompetitive in the world market it will be further forced to ship jobs out of the country. Tires will have to be made somewhere else where they can be manufactured at a competitive price. Where will the USW be when there are no more American manufacturers?

Times are tough all over the world. Americans need to tighten their belts and get tough to stay in the game. For over twenty years American manufacturing has been on a decline and the rise of manufacturing in other parts of the world have increased as a direct result. If we can't maintain our manufacturing base in this country we can't maintain this country! The Unions had their place in our countries history. Unfortunately they have grown fat and incompetent along with aspects of our Federal Government. The fight for the future of jobs in America is with the Unions and the Federal Government over stepping their bounds and inflicting themselves into American Companies and American Business.

Amen! May God Bless You and Cooper Tire! Hang in there guys, America is counting on you!

Kristine Wilson Named to Graceland University's Honor List!

2012-02-07T11:28:00.000-08:00

Kristine Wilson of Independence, MO Named to Graceland University's Honors List

February 07, 2012

The honor roll lists for Graceland University's fall 2011 term have been announced. Graceland University commends students who have devoted their efforts and talents to academics. Students iwth a perfect 4.0 grade point average are named to the President's list. Students with a GPA between 3.65 and 3.99 are named to the Honors list. Students with a GPA between 3.25 and 3.64 are named to the Dean's list.

Kristine Wilson of Independence, MO was named to Graceland University's Honors List.

Graceland University was established in 1895 as a non-sectarian liberal arts institution of higher learning. It operates campuses in Lamoni, Iowa and Independence, Missouri, and offers degree completion programs at three other sites – the Kirkwood Community College campus in Cedar Rapids, Iowa; the Indian Hills Community College campus in Centerville, Iowa; and the North Central Missouri College campus in Trenton, Missouri.

Students from more than 40 states and 40 nations choose from over 50 academic programs at Graceland. For information about attending GU, please view our website: http://www.graceland.edu/, and follow the links to Admissions and Financial Aid, call 866-GRACELAND (866.472.2352), or write to Graceland University, Admissions Office, 1 University Place, Lamoni, IA 50140.

THIS IS MY DAUGHTER!! POSTED BY THE VERY PROUD FATHER!
By the way she is already a much better writer than I am. If she ever turns her sights towards writing books she will be wildly successful! Of course with grades like this she will end up successful at whatever she decides to do.

Plethora of Useless Information

2012-02-06T12:56:00.000-08:00

Does reading make you geek?

There are those who read for pleasure and those who don't, very rarely does a person pick up a book and descend down the path of becoming an avid reader by per chance. I have seen the non-reader get coerced into reading the occasional book and then start reading the other books in a series, or following books by that author. Most generally we develop a love affair with books doing our school years and it just gets worse as we mature and our minds expand to question or seek other areas to explore.

Reading has taught me more things than all my years of schooling combined. I would dare say I have learned as much from reading as life has taught me through hard knocks. Only life teaches us useful common sense stuff we need to survive, to keep our jobs, and hopefully how to hang on to our relationships with others of our species. Books teach you vital stuff along with a plethora of useless information you may never use again in life. My wife accuses me of having such a storehouse of information and counts on it to help us win different social games in which seemingly random questions and statistics about people and events moves you forward in the game.

For those that follow along with my blog posts you already know I have a deficiency in music knowledge spanning over twenty years, during which time encompassed the British Invasion, Classic Rock bands, everything from the early seventies, Disco, and into the early eighties. That coupled with absolutely no interest in sport statistics of any kind from any era. Leaves a pretty big hole for most questions asked of these types of games. So consequently in spite of this store house of useless facts and trivia from the dawn of time to date we still lose these games more so than most couples.

I learned at a young age to love books and appreciate them as store houses of information, awesome escapes from reality, and tales of history since before the time people recorded stuff in books. I primarily read for enjoyment but love to read inspirational, motivational books, love history and non-fiction informational stuff to learn how or about subjects to satisfy my endless curiosity. As I think back on all the stuff I have learned from reading books it dawns on me that I have done more reading and research for things I want to write. Probably most of my useless knowledge was gained in researching ideas for stories or blog posts I was preparing to write.

Many times my story ideas start with ideas and have more to do with the subject matter, piece of equipment, or the things the characters will be dealing with than it does with the characters themselves. As I am still new at writing novels I know I want to work at defining more dimensional and multi-faceted characters as I work on developing my skills as a writer. The initial ideas for stories come from the news, life experience, or thoughts about aspects of stuff I have read. The ideas cause questions and finding the answers to the questions lends to hypothetical situations in which somebody would have to know this or that, or use this knowledge in this way in order to accomplish something else. If the trail of thought is crazy enough, intricate enough, or starts spiraling out of control into many different facets then I might have a decent story idea. I find the research insightful and fun as it feeds my brain new stuff to make connections with the pile of useless stuff I have already collected. I sometimes find the research as much fun as crafting the elements of the story.

As you research things you would like to think that it answers all your questions and makes things clearer, but more often than not it muddies up the water and leaves you with more questions. The more you seem to learn the more you realize you don't know. Not knowing something is being ignorant of it. Ignorance is different than stupidity. You can learn about what you don't know, whereas you can't really fix stupid!

I will end this post with a piece of worthless information you won't find on any game card!

In the old days of ships with sails if they used cannons for protection or other not so nice means, it was important to keep the implements needed to fire the cannon close to the gun or guns. This would include the implements used to load the gun, to swab the barrel and make sure there are no burning embers in the gun before you rammed a package of gun powder down the barrel. You would obviously need gun powder and cannon balls. In books you see pictures of the cannon balls stacked on the deck with three or four on the bottom and one sitting on top of the three or four.

What kept the bottom cannon balls from rolling around the deck?

A Brass Monkey! A brass monkey was the brass ring that would be tacked to the wooden deck of the ship to corral the bottom cannon balls and keep them in place while the ship rolled through the sea. As metal gets cold it shrinks. If it gets cold enough these brass rings would shrink enough to allow the cannon balls to come out over the top of ring. Hence sailors had an expression, "Cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey."

I wouldn't use that in church or anywhere you don't have time to explain it! I also don't technically know at what temperature is cold enough to freeze the balls off of a Brass Monkey.

In the immortal words of Elwood Blues of the Blues Brothers, "Whatta want for nuttin!"

Keep reading, Keep writing, and may God bless you!

It Builds Character

2012-02-05T18:17:00.000-08:00

As a boy growing up with a strict father who was a Air Force Drill Instructor, a Cop in California during the late sixties to early seventies, and a Senior Construction Superintendent. I was told many times to, "Stop crying! This will build character."

Reviews of Authors work is a fickle Beast at best.

I recently signed up for a promotional thing being put on by the website Goodreads dot com, where they would give away copies of my book to people who wanted to read it and write a review with in two weeks. I agreed to give away 20 E-copies of my book. I didn't expect for twenty people to sign up to read my book so I agreed they could give away as many copies as people signed for! My day at bat came up and I ended up giving away 21 copies. I was elated! Twenty-one people were going to read my book and write a review of it.

I belong to a book club made up of myself and seven ladies from my church. We all don't like or agree about every book we read. So I knew going into this that not everybody was going to enjoy the book. Not everybody was going to GET IT! There would be some less than favorable reviews!

I also suspected there would be some comments about the level of editing and the English/Grammar of the book. I rushed to get it published. The excitement of publishing my second book after so many months of rewriting and editing, I was ready to be done and move on. Plus I didn't want to have published only one book, a fluke, a splash and then nothing. If I did it once I could do it again and impatience and inexperience won out! Premature Publication!

The results have left me feeling like my character has been worked over! Of twenty-one copies given away thirteen actually wrote reviews or rated the book. This is a break down of all my reviews to date from Goodreads.

One Star Rating 1

Two Star Rating 4

Three Star Rating 6

Four Star Rating 2

Five Star Rating 5

Yes, the editing and English got ripped a new one. Which that falls squarely on my shoulders because I rushed it and I published it! But English and Grammar can be fixed! In time each of my first two books can be re-edited and re-downloaded to the appropriate sites and that problem will be fixed.

Five bad reviews out of eighteen is twenty-seven percent. Five, five star ratings out of eighteen is also twenty-seven percent. The five and four star ratings together equals thirty-eight percent. Which is still above the the thirty-three percent which rated it as average with three stars. But then two of the four admit in the reviews they had different expectations of the book and it was not their usual genre! If you read a book on auto mechanics expecting a book on cooking then it is to be expected that you might be disappointed. But they are both about fixing things?

My point is that if it is not your usual genre or type of book you enjoy why would you sign up to review it? For a free book? To see how many books you can blow through in a year! The speed reading, guessing at what they think they read, and then reviewing the book is doing everybody a disservice.

A) If you're going to read a book so fast you can't enjoy it, thoroughly read it and understand what you're reading, then why read it?

B) If you're speed reading, trying to speed read, skimming, don't review the book!

C) If you're not enjoying a book, why in the hell would you finish it? Life is too short! Move on to something better, and you sure as hell should not waste the time to write a review of something you didn't like, didn't understand, and couldn't get in too! What's the point!

I feel like some people must be so freaking un-happy in life that they lash out at anything they don't feel is just so and doesn't fit into their little box of what the world should be. They use things like product, book and customer surveys to lash out at the world. Maybe they wouldn't be so angry if they could find a way to let it go, and just move on to something they do like, focus on things they enjoy and let the other stuff go. Stop spreading negativity and lashing out just because you can.

I say all this because most of the reviews were average. Many more from other sources, people who have paid for the books have provided wonderful reviews.

Two statements have been repeated over and over again through reviews of my poorly written works:

1. I couldn't put it down, it's a real page turner, or hang on to your seat!

2. I have never read anything like this!

The second one is the most inspiring praise I have gotten to date and it was repeated three times out of the twelve reviews and once by another reviewer!

I get that the English and Grammar are important, but so is doing something rather than nothing.

I am not sitting around with my thumb up my ass dreaming of writing a book, or of getting my book published, or wondering what people think of my work! Some people love it! It makes me happy writing. I have written two books and they are both published. I have a new and improved stronger character and the wisdom gained from the stuff I have done. I am 45 years old and not getting any younger. I will keep writing, getting better and polishing my craft until it has a blinding sheen. At least my books aren't banned yet! An author can only hope!

I remember hearing Billy Joel comment about his song, "Only the Good DieYoung", which churches had banned because it was considered Evil. It became one of his all time best selling songs. He said he wished the church would Ban the rest of his music!

Keep Writing, God Bless, and don’t fret as others try to trample on your dreams.

Self Promotion and Getting Discovered

2012-02-04T07:41:00.000-08:00

Self-Publishing translates into DO IT YOURSELF!

This is the market for the undiscovered, self-motivated, die-hard writers who are going to write their books on one arm with a quill using the blood out of their other arm for ink!

You have to not only have the tenacity to write and finish a book, but proof it, correct it, re-write, do the art work, come up with a synopses, format the book, download it, keep track of the sales, money spent on this enterprise, and SELF-PROMOTE the book, and yourself. The biggest obstacle according to a blog post by Mark Coker, the founder of Smashwords dot com is to be discovered in the virtual ocean of computer and phone stuff which is competing for every body's attention every second of everyday.

The computer, tablet, pad and phone market is revolutionizing the way the world interacts and communicates which is faster than companies can react or change. Computer games, Movies, and even Television are competing for our moments of free time and money. Books have changed to compete in this new virtual environment to the dismay and possible future demise of traditional publishing. This is allowing an unstable and unfair platform for writers the likes of which has never existed before in the history of mankind. Anybody can publish just about anything they want to. It still takes months to years to write and prepare a book for publication.

Once you have thrown your hat into the ring you need to promote your book and yourself in order to be noticed, read, and hopefully build a following of readers. Let me use a different analogy though, it is more like dropping your hat out of an airplane over an ocean along with millions upon millions of other people who are also dropping theirs. Throughout the year millions of new titles of games, BOOKS, movies, TV shows, APPS and God knows what else are vying for every body's attention alongside your newest book.

If you're independently wealthy and can throw money at half a dozen major social networking sites with highly sophisticated ad's and brilliant art work to capture people's attention this becomes much easier. For the Indie Author with no budget, limited time for self-promotion, and doing everything by themselves, this could seem like a daunting task. FEAR NOT!

If you have written a book and done everything else needed to throw it out into the ocean of goods competing for every one's attention you've already done the hardest part and more than most as far as aspiring authors! There are some inexpensive if not downright free ways to self promote yourself and your book.

1. Start a Blog online. For a creative writer this isn't much of a stretch. I actually use my blog to share things I've learned since skipping down this merry lane, opinions, tidbits of history, and an occasional Interview or Guest Blog Post. Blogspot dot com is a FREE Blogging site! I like to write blog posts as a warm-up before getting back to writing my novels.

2. Author Interviews – This by far is the most rewarding, fun, FREE, and best way to get you and your books in front of other people. People who write blogs Interview other people on their Blog, post a picture, some links to follow you and find your book. Many times authors are Interviewing other Authors and helping each other promoting their respective books. It drives traffic from one blog to another blog, increases the following of each blog concerned. IT'S FUN! On both sides, being interviewed and interviewing others.

3. Author Interviews / Book Reviews – Also good, more oriented towards the book and specific questions which may draw potential readers into trying your book. The only downside is if the reviewer didn't like your book! This isn't pretty or fun when it happens and ugly when it does! It does happen, so Writer BEWARE. If done correctly in the spirit of trying to help the author out and coming from an enthusiastic supporter of the writer and the book, this can be fantastic.

4. Book Reviews – This is Dicey at best. Let's be honest nobody writes something that the whole world is going to love! Not Even GOD ALMIGHTY! Most of the most successful authors have been torn apart by critics, the public, their books banned, some burnt! The bad review ranks up there with the query letter rejection, in that everyone you get is hopefully one step closer to getting a good response from somebody else. Book Ratings are like tread wear expectancies in the tire business. It is what you might expect out of the book or tire if you purchase it, but then again it all depends on what you like to read, what your back ground is, can you read a sentence that isn't perfect without developing a hemorrhage. As with tires it depends on the maintenance of the car, how far is it driven, on what kind of surfaces it is being driven on, who is driving, do they spin their tires or power brake on a regular basis. It all figures into how long the tires will last.

Two biggies about tire wear since I am in that business. Tire inflation and rotation. Check your tire inflation when you fill your car with gas, or if the temperature swings more than twenty degrees. Rotate your tires when you get the oil changed in the car. These two things will get you more miles for the buck out of every tire. That's important as tires are expensive and keep rising with the price of natural rubber and gasoline.

5. Goodreads dot com is a web site devoted to everything about books. E-books and traditional bound books. Professional authors and Indie authors. Readers from around the world. They offer a click able ad that you can sign up for that seems very attractive. I haven't actually tried it yet, but it would put your ad in front of avid readers 24/7 around the world and you only pay when somebody clicks on your ad! When my books get more successful and I start generating some revenue beyond paying for professional editing I plan on trying this it out first as an advertising option.

Hopefully these ideas have been insightful and helpful for the aspiring authors out there who are writing and getting closer to publishing their books. Hopefully it has been fun for us slightly more experienced authors who are competing and helping each other to get discovered!

Get back to writing your books!! Quit wasting time surfing the net and wasting that coffee buzz!

FREE KINDLE BOOKS

2012-02-03T14:50:00.000-08:00

Goto this web site and sign up for their news letter and every day you will get an e-mail of many FREE books for your Kindle - if that happens to be your e-reader preference.

If you own another type of e-reader, download the Kindle AP for your PC, MAC or Phone and still get FREE books everyday!

http://ereadernewstoday.com/

I dont' know why I didn't share this with my readers earlier?

Yes, I do. They rejected offering my first book! It's a start. I am starting today shooting for my future books being banned in all major English speaking countries!

See my post about James Joyce if this seems strange.

Also check out the Interview of me! http://wwwthouhtfulreflections.blogspot.com/2012/02/thomas-wilson-shares-insight-into-his.html

FREE BOOKS FREE BOOKS FREE BOOKS

Interview with Thomas Wilson

2012-02-03T06:27:00.000-08:00

Author Interview by fellow author Sylvia L. Ramsey on her Blog.

Get to know more about Thomas Wilson and his newest novel "No Rules Of Engagement"

Author Interview at Thoughtful Reflections Blog

http://wwwthouhtfulreflections.blogspot.com/2012/02/thomas-wilson-shares-insight-into-his.html

Happy Birthday James Joyce

2012-02-02T11:12:00.000-08:00

James Augustine Aloyious Joyce was born on this Date February 2, 1882, in Dublin, Ireland, the eldest of ten children. Joyce traveled around Europe most of his life but all his novels are set in Dublin, Ireland. Eventually he settled in Zurich, Switzerland with his wife and two children.

The Dubliners (1914)

A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (1916) This he attempted to publish January 7, 1904 as a short story for a magazine but it was rejected.

Exiles (1918)

Best known for his work "Ulysses" (1922) in which episodes of Homer's Odyssey are paralleled in an array of contrasting literary styles set with precision in the streets and alleyways of Dublin.

It was first serialized in parts of the American Journal, The Little Review from March 1918 to December 1920. In 1919 the U.S. Post Office stopped the distribution of "Ulysses," claiming it was obscene. Sylvia Beach, owner of the bookstore Shakespeare and Co. in Paris, published the novel herself in 1922, but it was banned in the United Kingdom and in the United States until 1933.

The Primary date of the action in the novel Ulysses is June 16, 1904, was also the day of the first date James Joyce had with his future wife, Nora Barnacle. Joyce fans still celebrate June 16 as Bloomsday!

Joyce's last novel, "Finnegan's Wake", was published in 1939, and Joyce died two years later.

Beyond paying homage to the late and great James Joyce, I want to point out to fellow authors that you may get a bad review from time to time, maybe several in a row, but when was the last time your book was banned from a World Power country? Then again, that might be a goal to shoot for considering history in light of Joyce's success.

In 1998, the Modern Library ranked Ulysses first on its lists of the 100 best English-language novels of the 20^th Century.

Being Evil and other Writing Blocks

2012-02-01T10:53:00.000-08:00

It's crazy that writing bad stuff happening to characters in a fictional book is mentally hanging me up. Granted I am not the most stable, sociable, well adjusted guy in the neighborhood, and could benefit from some therapy, but I am a real old school men don't cry kind of guy who ain't gonna be see some shrink. Not Happen!

I have been planning crimes for years, imagining all these way out stories I want to write, and watching action movies my whole life. I even watched a couple of the SAW movies with my daughter because she asked me to. They are uncomfortable to watch even knowing that they are fake and it is just a movie. Lately I have been getting that same uncomfortable feeling with trying to write the battle scenes in my second Alexander Hawk Novel. I am glad I have recognized what is making me drag my feet and feel blocked.

I know this is it, because if I think about characters from movies who were evil, or old war movies where the submarine commander had to ask somebody to do something that would more than likely result in their death, then things open right up and I'm off and running. Part of the problem is the time I write also. My only time to sit and write is in the evenings after I put my little boys to bed, and I think the conflict is going from reading 'Run Away Ralph, Winnie-the-Pooh, and Doctor Seuss' to Interstellar Combat between Dragons and Gators, and Earthling children and the Macktonics! It just takes a mental shift to get the wheels turning.

What Writers Blocks do you have or have you encountered?

Have you identified the cause?

Did you recognize the dragging your feet or feeling conflicted in sitting and writing as a Writers Block?

I work from a very detailed outline and know where my story is going for this book and the next and final novel in the Series. I still haven't decided if I will leave the final book open that I may easily bring Alexander Hawk back to life at some future date or end it for good. Personally I am a firm believer in burning bridges if you're sure you don't want to return. I'm not sure yet!

Because I know where I'm going with the story the slowing down and dragging my feet wasn't a story problem, I knew it had to be a personal hang-up or issue. Things clicked and the fingers began dancing across the keys again after shifting my internal focus to somebody who would stomp on the family cat's head, start an arson fire for the hell of it, or start a shooting spree because I was bored. It was a personal issue; I'm a nice guy at heart.

I wrote this post because as writers we need to be hyper-sensitive to what makes us work smarter instead of harder. What mood we are in when our writing is going great? What's our best and most productive time to write?

We need to know when to do something else productive if it ain't happen, like editing, working on art work, maybe another story. We need to recognize the little things that are hanging us up. I don't want to let hang-ups make my writing dull, plain and boring because I was afraid to step out on a ledge, pull a trigger, or blow something up!

In the case of my current Novel the main characters are children, orphan children that nobody wants. They have no families back home to send letters to if they end up dying in combat in outer space. Its game on time, the big battle and it would be unrealistic for them all to survive and everybody to come out hunky dory!

It's time to stomp the cat and kill some kids.

Creativity and Research

2012-01-31T11:02:00.000-08:00

Every writer is different and goes about getting to the elements of their story in a different fashion. Being a fan of the late and great Patrick O'Brian, who was by trade a Naval Historian and consequently wrote a great series of books that I know as the Master and Commander Series. Captain Jack Aubrey and Doctor Maturin were made up and fictional characters but the ships they sailed on, the exploits of what happened between this ship and that ship came right out of the history books. More specifically they came out of Naval Journals, Captains Logs, and British Naval History. There is a paragraph or so at the beginning of each of his books where he explains he couldn't come up with stuff that would overshadow the actual feats of true history. He also explains elements of Naval technology from the sixteen and seventeen hundreds in bits and pieces littered through his work. It is amazing the things you can learn while reading for pleasure, but an author had to put the stuff in there to begin with before you could benefit from the experience.

I enjoy the elements of making up wild stuff in order to take my readers some where they have never been before. I also try not to pass up a chance to blend realism in with the fiction. Let me explain.

In my second novel I needed to come up with an alien race of beings that would be scary, ferocious, and that would breed prolifically. I tried to think of some animal on Earth that if it had become the dominate species and developed into a humanoid type form from its current Earthling cousin that might fit the characteristics I was looking for. I decided upon Alligators! Then I learned everything I could that I thought might be useful in the story to further develop aspects of my new alien race, the Gators.

At the beginning of the book the Gators are over running another alien race which is entirely peaceful. The peaceful group's first option upon discovering this predator was to try and communicate with them. All attempts at communication fail, because the Gators do communicate but at a level below the normal hearing range. This is what I got from researching Gators. Gators communicate with each other using Ultra Low Frequency vibrations. Humans can't hear that range (neither can my peaceful aliens). I was amazed at what I did read about Ultra Low Frequency and the affects it produces in about twenty-two percent of the human population. The effects are most widely seen and experienced today with the proliferation of wind turbine farms going up all over the place. These wind turbines produce Ultra Low Frequency vibrations also.

For those who are affected by these vibrations they get an un-natural, scary feeling, goose bumps, a haunted or evil feeling. Some people have reported seeing hallucinations, seeing something in your peripheral vision that when you turn your head nothing is there. These people are not making this stuff up. Their bodies are picking up or feeling these vibrations, a sound just below our normal hearing range. The hallucinations are caused by the vibrations causing distortions in the people's eyes and their brain interprets the vibrations as images or seeing something. As you turn your head to see more clearly or change the position of your eyes to the vibrations the images just disappear. Alligators can affect people in the same manner. This may lend to why people view Alligators as being as scary as they do. The fact that they will lay in wait for you motionless until they snap, bite and drag you under the water to eat you doesn't hurt their scary factor either.

My point with all this is to say, don't be afraid to do some good old fashioned research about aspects and elements of your stories and incorporate some truth into the fiction. You not only learn something but get a chance to teach your readers something along the way. I love reading because you never know what you might learn along the way. Even in Fictional books!

One of my favorite Authors, James Rollins, in his Sigma Force Series, at the end of his books includes what is real and what is made up. I always enjoy this part immediately after finishing the book. One of his books totally blew me away because everything in the book was based on true stuff!

Mr. Rollins also adds the books he read as research for each particular book. On two occasions I actually read each the books he used for research for that particular novel. It was enlightening in the fact that he could take this piece from here and that piece from there and turn and twist it into the plot line and story that he did to come up with for the novel. It was amazing seeing the raw material and the mental leaps and bounds he had to make to come up with the story that he did. I haven't told my readers what is true and what isn't true in my books but I challenge them to take aspects of the story and look some stuff up on their own and see what's factual and what's fictional. This is just something I enjoy doing behind the scenes and under the radar of the reader. Hopefully it does make the reading more believable, or at least plausible.

Even my first novel "Whisper" the frigate that attacks them was a real ship and disappeared presumably in a storm in the same area and time as the ship disappears in the book. Plausibility, it took me weeks of researching ships and their fates until I came up with just the right ship. Thanks to Wikipedia they even included an artist's picture of the ship.

Would Be Assassination!

2012-01-30T19:58:00.000-08:00

On January 30, in 1835, President Andrew Jackson narrowly escaped being the first President to be assassinated. President Jackson was leaving a funeral at the Capital Building when Richard Lawrence attempted to murder him. He pulled a pistol and fired, but the weapon misfired. Jackson attacked his would be assassin with his walking stick. Lawrence, who had brought a second pistol, pulled it and fired again, it also misfired! The odds of two guns misfiring consecutively were figured at around one in 125,000.

The incident left Jackson a touch paranoid. Lawrence was found to have no ties to Jackson’s political rivals, but Jackson was convinced that Lawrence had been hired by his Whig Party opponents to assassinate him. His Vice President, Martin Van Buren, was worried also and from there on out carried two loaded pistols with him when he visited the Senate.

In the heat of a vicious political campaign with no stellar candidates in sight on either side of the fence I wonder what happened to men who would charge a would be attacker with his walking stick. Can you just imagine Jackson’s surprise when the second pistol came out? I’ll bet my ass Jackson hit him again with the walking stick profusely when the second gun misfired! I’m not saying Jackson was a stellar candidate, but he had guts.

It is nice to know politics haven’t gotten any better through the years!

The Art of Designing Book Covers

2012-01-25T20:20:00.000-08:00

As promised L.K. Hunsaker, Author and Cover Artist has written today's post for us.
Thank you L.K., for the guest post and sharing your insights with us.

Books are indeed judged by their covers. Fair or not, it’s fact,whether we mean it as a metaphor for people or as actual books. You can’t get around this simple truth and no matter how often you scream that it’s unfair, it won’t change as long as we have eyes and unique personalities.

I’d like to thank Thomas for having me today to talk about cover design. A little about my background: I started my college career headed toward a commercial design major. It felt a little too stifling (no computers for it in those days – it was done by hand on paper sketching one symbol for a three hour class doing nothing but getting the lines exactly straight or exactly round), so I switched to an art major. Well and then I took a psychology class and fell in love, so I switched my major to psychology and my minor to art and English with plans to head into art therapy. So here I am: a novelist.

Funny things happen along life’s road. Still, I’ve loved art since I was a child and have continued with it, degree or no. I’ve done blog headers and signatures for other writers, graphics for friends and family just for fun, business cards with logo design for a big music industry name, and there are two CDs by a big name musician turned indie that I designed and did some interior writing for that ended up limited editions. I’ve also done cover designs.

I’ve done all of my own novel covers, both print version, including the full wraparound design, and ebook. I’ve also been commissioned for a couple of others and I’d love to show them off but I don’t believe they’re out yet. In my quest to create unique, standout, or simple but effective covers, there are a few rules I follow.

First, I never, never use clip art. Yes, it can be done well. But it can also be done by more than one author. There’s always the chance someone else will use the same photo. And often it’s not done well. Have you seen those covers that scream, “I cut out and pasted a few elements together to fit my story”? I’ve seen many. I have to say I’m pretty darn unlikely to buy a book that looks like the author stuck stuff together and called it a cover. It shows lack of quality, which is a shame because the actual book may be high quality. But, we do, indeed, judge a book by its cover. I might download one free. I won’t buy it. I was shocked to see one of the big six publishers putting out a title by a big author, last month I believe, that looked like clip art stuck on top of a photo. It’s horrendous. If I was that author, I’d be rather upset.

I use my own photos. With the quality of even inexpensive digital cameras, any author can take a nice scenic photo that will work as a background. Mixing elements from different photos can be tricky (so it won’t look like clip art), so I’m very careful with the way I combine them. There is artistic sense that goes into this part of it. If you have a chance to take a basic art and design class, you might consider doing so.

I also use my own artwork. Sometimes I start with photos of people in the correct poses and then turn them into art: computer drawn as with my first two Rehearsal books, sketched in conte crayon as with Finishing Touches, or done in watercolor as with Moondrops & Thistles.

Less is more. Don’t overcrowd your message. Sometimes something as symbolic as an ocean at sunset is enough to create the mood. (Please don’t use that heart drawn on the beach image that I’ve already seen on at least four book covers as well as on a plethora of websites. Careful not to overuse an image. Be aware of what’s out there already.) And be sure the mood created on the cover matches your story. Colors have meaning. Use them wisely. And use white space (white space doesn’t have to be white, it means empty space used as an artistic element).

Make sure your title font is easily legible. That doesn’t mean use only Arial. In fact, avoid the overdone Arial. Fancy fonts that match your story are nice if people can read them. They won’t try very hard. Unless you have a very strong simple cover that grabs them and a small title in contrast that leads them to NEED to know what the book is called. Careful with this, though. Most often, they won’t try that hard.

Other than that, be aware of your overall message. Is your book a hard-core thriller? Don’t make it look like a comic book or a poolside escape read. Be honest with your reader from the start, and that includes your cover art.

Take time to peruse covers of all genres, preferably in a bookstore but online will work. When one draws you in, study it to see why it did. If it makes you skim past, stop and go back and figure out why. For me, pastels, beautiful scenery, vacation vistas, water, and poetic art covers make me stop and look. While I may be halted by the photo of a bare-chested hunk, I won’t buy it, since it’s the story that matters to me, not the skin. Other readers won’t buy a book without that hunk. So know your intended audience and design to them.

Or find a designer who will do that for you. Local independent artists are a nice place to start and generally won’t charge a lot. If nothing else, ask your local high school art teacher for a recommendation.

Do be aware that if you contract an artist to do your cover design, unless the contract (or agreement) states otherwise, the amount you pay only covers the right to use it on your book, not on posters and T-shirts and bookmarks, and you can’t pull out an element of it to use on your book trailer without permission. Most hired artists want extra for that. Make sure your terms are clear.

Designing book covers is an art. Like any art, practice and study (or a well-chosen designer) will help make your book stand out on the storefront.

I’ve included a few of my own cover designs. Feel free to ask questions about them or about anything else I’ve mentioned here.

How to visit, see her book covers, and follow her blog.

Website: http://www.lkhunsaker.com/

Designs: http://www.lkhunsaker.com/designs.htm

Blog: http://lkhunsaker.blogspot.com/

Thank you again L.K., we wish you more success than you can imagine.

Indie Authors who need cover art help, here is a good place to start!!

What do you know? Ignorance or Naivety

2012-01-25T09:11:00.000-08:00

I have a history calendar on my desk which tells about some event in history that happened on this specific date.

Today for January 25^th it tells about how Paul McCartney was released from a Tokyo jail and deported from Japan.

My first impression after reading this was Paul McCartney in Jail? Really? For What?

Reading the bit, apparently he was stopped coming into Japan with nearly half a pound of marijuana. He had arrived on January 16, 1980, his first visit to Japan since the Beatles Tour of 1966. The plan was for a concert tour of eleven cities by his band Wings.

Seriously, Sir Paul McCartney, in jail on drug charges? This was the first I had ever heard of this. Where the hell was I at in 1980?

My First impression of this shows my ignorance or naivety of the world. That became the inspiration for this post.

Ignorance or Naivety?

Depending on where you are in the world, where you were brought up or raised, the environment you lived in largely determines the level of ignorance or naivety you are at or may have been at.

In 1979 my family came from Athol, Idaho, technically quite a few miles outside of Athol in the woods, and visited my mom's mom, my grandmother in Independence, Missouri. After returning home the family packed up and we moved that summer of 79 to Missouri. It was a culture shock to say the least. At that time where I had come from their was only three television stations on TV, no cinemas, no escalators, elevators, automatic opening doors, and the local ice cream store had three flavors of ice cream, vanilla, chocolate, and strawberry. The music, they played both types on the radio, country and western. I had in effect missed everything that had happened in music up to 1979! My music knowledge from my environment growing up was old country western music and a collection of 45's from the late 1950's up until the very early 1960's. Apparently my mom quit buying 45's during high school before the British invasion.

Where we ended up in Independence, the Skagg's Drug store had an automatic opening door. The Mall had and escalator and an elevator. Baskin Robbins was a freaking miracle of ice cream with 31 flavors. Radio!! Oh My God! I heard music and groups I had never heard before in my life. I was learning all kinds of things everyday about the everyday world that I never knew existed. The kids in eighth grade at William Bridger Jr. High thought I was from another country because I was such a backwards idiot and I talked funny in their opinion.

I was in the eighth grade on December 9^th, 1980, when kids were wearing black arm bands because somebody had killed some guy known as John Lennon. I had never heard of the Beatles! I didn't know who John Lennon was but obviously somebody had shot him the night before in New York. So obviously I had no idea who Paul McCartney was so in the following December as a freshman at Truman High School I would not have known or paid much attention to the news about him being locked up for a few days in Japan.

Thinking back to the calendar if the Beatles toured Japan in 1966, that was the year I was born. I wasn't in the hole of Idaho at the time that would have been Castle Air Force Base, California which isn't even there anymore.

It makes me think of people and where they live, have lived, and what they missed or didn't miss because of their experiences and environment. We all grow up in different places, went to different schools, and have different experiences. Our lives and perceptions of the world we live in are shaped by the experiences we have had, what we have learned along the way, and the environment in which we were brought up in. The people and places that influenced our lives as we lived helped shape our world and perceptions.

I think it is amazing that we don't all have the same back grounds, education and knowledge so consequently we all inhabit the same plane of existence with vastly different concepts, views, and perceptions of the world we live in. When you understand this concept you can see why some people may seem narrow minded, or cling so defensively to wrong, misguided, or skewed perceptions of the world. Because to them it is their world, what they believe to be true, what they know, and it is hard sometimes to back up and say "I might be mistaken." "Maybe I'm wrong!" "Maybe what I believe and was taught is not what really happened?"

Maybe my fascination with history is the result of years of finding out that other things existed that I was unaware of. Maybe I got tired of being surprised and decided to ask questions and read books to determine my own truth and beliefs about this world we live in. I also through the years have become a big proponent of knowing why do you believe what you believe?

Because somebody told you? You saw it? You where there? You read about it in a book? You saw a movie about it sometime somewhere? That's how you were raised?

What do you believe? Why do you believe it?

What do you truly know is real and concrete? Beyond reproach?

What have you researched and discovered on your own?

I know the more I learn the more I find that I don't know. The more questions I get.

The old adage goes: "Ignorance Is Bliss."

When I was first leaning things I thought this meant that those that don't know and don't question things and don't get disappointed by the truths they discover are more blissful because they don't know and don't care.

I have learned a shit load of stuff since I came out of the woods in 1979. I learned things growing up in the woods that city people don't have a clue about. When I go camping or get to hike through the woods it brings back a plethora of memories from my childhood and hiking and riding horses through the woods as a boy.

As I have gotten older and wiser I realize the more I learn the more I don't know. The more I don't know the more ignorant I am becoming. The more I learn and become ignorant the more blissful it becomes.

Change the things you can and be wise enough to know the difference! Amen.

Blogging for one year!

2012-01-24T08:26:00.000-08:00

I can't believe I missed my own blogging anniversary!

Exactly one year ago, last week, January 17^th I did my first blog post of this blog.

Finished My First Novel

Wow, how the time flies. I had just e-published my first novel on Smashwords.

"Whisper A Wiley Randolph Novel"

I think back at how much I didn't know a year ago. I barely knew what I was doing and I honestly thought by publishing on Smashwords that my book was going to be distributed on Amazon also. I remember back to when it dawned on me that I could publish on both, and began the process of reformatting Whisper for Amazon.

I didn't have a clue about having an Inter-net Presence; I had never been on any social sites like My Space, Face Book or Twitter. I was flying blindly with the blogging, and socializing, and trying to build a following of readers for my first book. At the time I didn't even know if it was any good. I did have a second book in the rough draft form, I had corrections back from my first Editor for that book, so I was feverishly trying to make corrections and get it finished so I wouldn't be a One Book Wonder. I was excited that I had been editing, re-writing, or writing something new every day I could. I was afraid I would lose my new found passion, get distracted, side tracked and not continue. I knew I desperately wanted to get another book finished and published.

When I met Jo Murphey, who graciously, out of the kindness of her heart agreed to help me edit my second book further I was happy but reluctant! I already had corrections for that book and was about a third of the way through making the corrections to the rough draft. I started by sending Jo the first two chapters of NROE ("No Rules Of Engagement"). She sent back suggestions, corrections, and questions. It became obvious very quickly that this entire book was going to need to be re-written. I remember throwing a quiet but passionate temper tantrum about the situation. The very last thing I wanted to do was take six months and re-write and edit this book. I wanted it done, I wanted it published. I wanted to write something else, something new!

Jo, bless her heart helped, coxed, instructed, and provided moral support through that tough time. Eventually I settled into the inevitable and began rewriting and editing. Two chapters at a time we went through the entire book, every chapter twice, until seven months later it was done. In Jo's defense as my editor the book needed more polishing, and more editing, and more care and attention. My inexperience, and mostly my impatience won out and I self-published NROE in late August 2011.

"No Rules Of Engagement"

I am still impatient! My list of Goals for 2012 is to finish and publish two more books, the sequels to Whisper and NROE! I think that is grandiose and naive on my part to shoot so high, so fast! Most importantly the so fast!

I am writing the sequels with full knowledge that the books will be re-written and edited before an editor ever sees them. Then they will be edited, and parts re-written or tweaked again further. With only putting four to five hours, five to six nights a week into this effort, there just aren't enough hours in the day. That coupled with the fact that my efforts that are directed at this endeavor at the last part of my day when I am at my worst, already spent mentally at least from a full day of work and playing with two small boys and getting them to bed.

I realize begrudgingly that I may only get one more book finished and published. That alone may take me until the end of the year! If an author has a full time job, a family and other everyday responsibilities because they are alive and part of the community they live in, and they are writing and publishing one full sized novel a year they are working their butts off!

I end this post with the fact that I end one year of blogging, with two books published last year, that I do have some modicum of talent in this endeavor, and that the books are getting good reviews and selling. My following of readers is growing with each person who dares to try my work. I am getting better as a writer, at editing, proofing, and all other areas of my life. My passion for writing is growing alongside my talent and skills as a writer.

I end the one year anniversary as a published author, where as I started the year as an aspiring writer. I would lastly like to thank my twenty-five follows of this blog. I never dreamed I would have twenty-five faithful followers of my blog in one year. I shudder to think of what this number will be next year in 2013. Oh, yeah I forgot! This is the last year of the world! There won't be any blogging or books next year. My Bad!

May God Bless, Keep Writing, and Keep Reading.

Shut Up And Read

2012-01-23T19:56:00.001-08:00

Check this out . . . http://shutupandreadgroup.blogspot.com/2012/01/read-it-reap-january-20.html

First of the Twenty-One

2012-01-23T14:46:00.000-08:00

No Rules Of Engagement
by Thomas Wilson (Goodreads Author)

Carolina's review

Jan 23, 12

bookshelves: currently-reading

I own a copy

This is an amazing book.
It has a fantastic plot line and I have to admit that I've never read anything like it.
Usually I am not one for heavy duty science fiction novels.
The plot peaked my interest and once I started to read, I could not manage to put it down.
Wilson is a wonderful author and I hope to read more of his work in the future.

It doesn't show up when viewing the book, but I am tickled beyond belief.

I am really excited on two counts in particular, one that she liked it so much while reading it so fast! Secondly, that it is not her normal genre of reading and she still enjoyed it.

In the past those that have read it in what I would say is extremely fast or that it was not their genre, usually results in a middle of the road review! Thank You Carolina!

Chinese New Year and Frisbees!

2012-01-23T11:09:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year CHINA!!

Still wish I knew how to find a Chinese Book Forum and put an add or blurb about my books in Chinese! It couldn't do any worse than Amazon DE, IT, FR, or ES. I have yet to sell a single book anywhere besides the US and UK on Amazon.

Frisbees

Growing up in the back woods of Idaho, on a dirt farm against the edge of thousands of acres of National Forest, in the evenings when the work was done my Dad and Great Uncle Garth would throw the Frisbee after dinner until it was too dark. As I got older the Frisbee bug bit me also. Partly because of the nostalgia of my childhood watching my dad and uncle, and partly because when you play with another good player you can pretty much stand there and throw one for hours and never move more than a foot or two from your starting point. It's a lazy man's sport for sure when you and your partner are both good enough throwers. Catching one is the easy part unless you get hit on the tip of the finger which with a screaming 160 gram Wham-O Frisbee could do some real damage impacting your finger in that manner.

I caught the bug so bad my first year of college I majored in Frisbee. I played Frisbee on the lawn of the college instead of studying and doing homework. That's a bad joke that still upsets my parents. Because I flunked out of my first year of college and I was pretty much cut off – financially – from going to school, I in my infinite wisdom of 20 years of age decided I would join the U.S. Army. After my stint in the Army playing on tanks, when I got back to school I had perfect grades, primarily because this time I was paying for it, and because I had grown up and actually gotten much wiser during that time in the service.

Years and years later in what almost seems like a different lifetime I occasionally get to play Frisbee with my children after dinner. At this point they have no idea how much that means to me. The wisdom now of knowing that part of Freedom translates into being able to go into the backyard and throw a Frisbee if that's what you want to do. How I remember watching my Dad and Great Uncle Garth throwing the Frisbee for hours in the twilight time of the evenings as a child. The skill I have after years and years of throwing a Frisbee and chasing after the attempts of my children to throw it back to me, thinking this is how they will learn. Thinking about how I won't tell them the story of myself flunking out of college until after they all have received their college diplomas.

In 1871, William Frisbie opened the Frisbie Pie Company in Bridgeport, Connecticut. Students from nearby universities would throw the empty pie tins to each other, yelling "Frisbie!" as they let go.

In 1948 Walter Frederick Morrison and his partner, Warren Franscioni, invented a plastic version of the disc called the "Flying Saucer" that flew farther and more accurately than the tin pie dishes. After splitting with Franscioni, Morrison made an improved model in 1955 and sold it to a new toy company called Wham-O.

On this date January 23^rd, 1957, Wham-O produced the first Frisbees. They didn't officially call it that until a year after its release when they changed the name to Frisbee, misspelling the name of the historic pie company. Wham-O was also the company behind such mega toy wonders as the Hula Hoop and the Super Ball. By their 50^th Anniversary in 2007, the company had sold more than two hundred million Frisbees!

Life as a Publisher - Guest Blog Post

2012-01-21T19:25:00.000-08:00

One Mountain At A Time - Guest Post by Thomas Wilson
on the website Life as a Publisher !

http://karensyed.wordpress.com/

Inspirational Advice for the aspiring author! Check it out!

Indie Authors and Cover Art

2012-01-21T19:11:00.000-08:00

As Independent Authors we must wear all the hats and do all the work to make our books as professional as we possibly can before we publish them. This includes writing, re-writing, editing, creating a cover for the book and promotional efforts. If we have extra money we can pay for outside help. But unless you have built up a following and have several books out there generating income you can not afford to pay for outside help.

Well I have run across a lady who does good quality covers very inexpensively! So if you're writing a book and still have no clue as to what you're going to do for a cover this may be a possible option. Loraine Hunsaker has a web site http://www.lkhunsaker.com/designs.htm where you can check her out and see some samples of her work.

Loraine has agreed to do a guest post on this Blog on January 26, 2012, where she will share so Do's and Don'ts for Cover Art and provide some samples of her work. Please mark your calendars so you can drop by and read the post! Book mark her site if you may need cover art help in the future.

As Indie Authors we need to build lists of Editors and means of editing and proofing our work, Cover Artists, Trailer makers, book reviewers and those who do Author Interviews for our first work and future releases as means of getting affordable help. If you're still in the writing phase and haven't self-published yet, this is the perfect time to start promoting your work, getting some on-line exposure before your books release. Mark Your calendars to revisit this blog January 26th. I am very excited about this because I have heard over and over again how this is one of the biggest challenges for writers who are not artistically blessed.

Thank You Loraine for offering to share your knowledge and experience with us, and for providing such inexpensive and high quality art work. Looking forward to your guest post with us with much enthusiasm.

Book Reviewers For "No Rules Of Engagement"

2012-01-20T21:57:00.000-08:00

As I posted last night Goodreads dot com has been knocking themselves out with challenges, promotions, games, discussions, and so much more for readers and authors alike.

A group affectionately called Shut Up and Read, has been running this promotion Read It & Reap, where authors sign up to have their books reviewed. Readers sign up to to review them and in turn get the books for FREE.
It's a WIN-WIN situation for all, absolutely Brilliant.

So today was my day, "No Rules Of Engagement" went up today with twenty books offered to give away to those who wanted to read it and review it. I didn't think I would get twenty volunteers to read my book at the same time even with Goodreads having over six million members. I told Tt the lady organizing and doing all the work to pull this promotion off that I would give away as many books as needed.

When I left work today at 5:00PM Central time nineteen had signed up, by the time I got home and settled hours later when I could sit down at my computer 21 had requested to get it and Bless Tt's heart she provided the FREE books to all 21. One more than what I thought I wouldn't get to!

I am ecstatic, excited, and over joyed. Twenty-one brave souls have agreed to read my novel at the same time. Several have commented that they are excited to read the book. I am excited for them because I know the journey intimately that they are about to undertake. "No Rules Of Engagement" is only my second book, but it is far and away better in many respects to my first book. The majority of the reviews I have gotten so far have been five out of five stars, very humbling for my second attempt as an author.

I am in a book club, followers of the blog have read about the Ladies of my Book Club numerous times. Routinely when we read a book one or two of the eight of us will be ho hum about a book, one or two will love it. Very seldom do we run across a book where everybody loves the same book. That's with eight people. Twenty-one readers, some of them will not like it, some will love it, some will be ho hum its an alright book. If more than half to three quarters like to love it I will be overjoyed and humbled beyond belief.

The big trick for Indie Authors after everything involved with writing, re-writing, editing, cover art, and then self-publishing it is to get discovered. With twenty-one people reading it and twenty-one reviews in two weeks, and if those that love it tell others about this great book they read, that will help get the word out.

Currently for those following along and interested I have been writing the sequels to both of my first two books. I have done more work on the sequel to "No Rules Of Engagement" than I have on the sequel to "Whisper". I am about half way through the rough draft of the sequel to NROE and according to Phillip Woody my biggest fan, Beta Reader, and the guy who came up with the name "No Rules Of Engagement" the sequel at halfway surpasses the first book.

I want to say thank you to the brave souls, the twenty-one who are venturing into the depths of my imagination and day dreams over the next two weeks. Hang on you're in for one hell of a ride.

Shut Up And Read - Goodreads Dot Com

2012-01-20T09:56:00.000-08:00

It's started!

On Goodreads dot com, Shut Up And Read - Read It & Reap
Is featuring "No Rules Of Engagement" Today
The first twenty to sign up will recieve a FREE Copy of the book to read over the next two weeks and Review on Goodreads.

http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/776544-read-it-reap8-no-rules-of-engagement-by-thomas-wilson

Read It and Reap on Goodreads

2012-01-19T22:39:00.001-08:00

Read It and Reap is a Book Reviewing Promotion that Goodreads dot com started this January! The way it works is authors sign up on one thread and list their name, the title of their book, and their E-mail Address if they want to enter their book to be reviewed. The Group Administrators contact you and find out how many copies of your book you would like to give away to be reviewed. Then every Monday and Friday they offer a new book and the first to sign up get a free E-copy of the book to read for reviewing on Goodreads dot com. So if an author says he is giving away five copies the first five who respond get the book! Ten copies the first ten get them and so on. Those who receive the copies have two weeks to read the book and post a review of the book on Goodreads to be eligible to continue participating and get more FREE books!

This is brilliant! Readers Win because they potentially can have a NEW FREE book every two weeks for as long as this lasts! Writers Win because they get reviews posted about their books which will hopefully entice other readers to purchase their book. Goodreads Wins because more readers and authors are participating and working together for the mutual benefit of all parties concerned and their data base of books and reviews of said books grows every day.

Tomorrow, On Goodreads dot com my second novel, "No Rules Of Engagement", is the book being offered for FREE if somebody wishes to read and write a review of it.

If you are not a member of Goodreads dot com and you like to read books, are a aspiring author, or a new Indie Author immediately drop whatever you're doing and go sign up and become a member of Goodreads! Seriously, Do it Now! If you are a member and have looked at my books (there is only two of them), or even considered for a moment about purchasing my newest novel, here is your chance to get it for FREE! For the multitude who have purchased 'Whisper' but were hesitant to drop a whole five dollars on a newbies second book, this is your chance to get it for free. Look up the Group – Read It and Reap and tomorrow when they post my book is available for signing up to get a FREE copy to read for review, then seize the day and the BOOK!

Now don't just use this to get a FREE copy of the book! Read it over the next two weeks and post a review of how awesome the book was and you will be eligible to sign up for another book Friday February 3^rd or the following Monday February 6^th. Just wait until the next book comes along that flips your triggers and you can get it for FREE!

How flipp'in Cool is that?

Also I was invited sometime ago to do a guest post on the Blog of Karen L. Syed of Echelon Press. It was a fun and eye opening experience, my second ever guest post on someone else's Blog, and I would love it if you would happen by and read the Post!

http://klsyed.com

Being Bad

2012-01-19T09:32:00.000-08:00

I did a blog post sometime ago about how when I get bored I plan out crimes. It's something to do for a compulsive planner who gets extremely bored with the mundane aspects of everyday life in a civilized world. Well, civilized world is stretching it a bit, but for the majority of people in the United States life can get pretty predictable and boring from time to time. I have to admit I haven't planned out any crimes in the last two years since I have started writing every day, that seems to have cured my boredom.

As in my previous blog post, one of the reasons I started writing was to provide an outlet for my over active imagination and a means of doing the crimes I have planned in the past if only in a fictional sense through the characters in my books. The problem with me becoming a super criminal is I am a terminally nice guy!

Among the mental hang-ups we all develop about different aspects of doing things, like the tendency to slow your reading down as you approach the end of a book because sub-consciously you don't want it to end because you have been enjoying it so much. I know I can't be the only person who does that! Well, something similar is happening with me when I approach a point in writing a particularly bad thing in one of my books. I slow down, don't write as much, I him haw around because I don't want to have this character shoot that character, or in a upcoming battle scene where I know I need to work out the details of the battle and at some point soon actually decide which ships make it and which ships don't. I have to decide who lives and dies and it is bothering me on a mental level!

Realistically it's a fictional book. These people only exist in the context of my books and in my mind. Yet, because I am inherently such a nice guy it bothers me and causes my work to slow down and I find I have to literally force myself to continue. This is silly I know but I can't imagine I am the only person this has ever happened to. I know I imagine my favorite authors bombing the coliseum, assassinating heads of state, or bad guys jumping out of bushes bashing kid's heads in with baseball bats as easy as ever. Does this kind of fictional work cause them any stress or hinder their ability to get down to work. I feel bad even typing the last bit about bashing kid's heads in but James Paterson did that in one of his books. He has by far the scariest bad guys I think I have ever read. I wonder if it bothers him on some level writing the gory details of these horrible crimes.

I just thought I would share as I try and pass on tidbits of what I learn about writing as I realize them. Since our writing is an extension of ourselves even if it is fiction, the learning about ourselves and what makes us be more productive and a better writer in many cases is learning about ourselves, our reservations, and our hang-ups. So tonight I need to stuff the nice guy in a box, get out my red pen and play the part of the Incarnation of Death and figure who isn't going to make it through this book. I have to grow and get through this because one of my future series deals with a whole new criminal element never before seen in history. "Stolen Gangs" will be the first book of that series and it will be brutal, and the means of bringing out folders of past crimes I have planned and bringing them to life through the series.

Maybe I should try writing wearing my sons Darth Vader helmet!

May God Bless You and Have a Great Day.

Book Review Of "The Best of Me" By Nicholas Sparks

2012-01-18T18:44:00.000-08:00

Let me start with the fact that Nicholas Sparks is an extremely talented writer. I have stated before in my blog and publically that I hate Nicholas Sparks, not persoanlly, just his stories!

It is like being invited to watch a car wreck with your family members and not being able to do anything about it except witness and experience the carnage! Getting severely upset and emotional in a sad way is not what I consider entertainment. I think this guy owns stock in the Klennex company! Obvouisly some people like this type of tear gerking books because he keeps writing them and people keep buying them. I have to read at least one of his books a year for my book club and I read it under protest. You always know it it start out sweet and hopeful and the stuff fairy tales are made from and then he starts killing people. I believe he would kill his mother to sell a book. I wouldn't be suprised by the title of Mother Day where he does excactly that!!

He only achieves this because of the fact that he is an extremely talented writer and knows how to turn an epic tale. I truly loved one of his books where the guy and girl get together then I rushed out and got the sequel and the *&%^&*() killed her!! I have not been a fan since. As an author I would love to someday meet Mr. Sparks, and because of the ladies in book club I will keep reading his books if only to participate, but forever under protest.

Thomas

Happy Birthday A.A. Milne

2012-01-18T11:17:00.000-08:00

Many are probably going I know that name from somewhere. Along with Dr. Suess, A.A. Milne was one of the best known childrens authors of all time, and with a thank you going out to the Disney companies, who hasn't ever heard of Winnie-the-Pooh!

A.A. Milne was born on January 18th, 1882. In 1925 he bought Cotchford Farm in Sussex where a nearby forest inspired the Hundred Acre Wood. His only child, a son, named Christopher Robin received a stuffed bear as a present when he was around one year old. Milne began writing stories about his son and his stuffed animals and their adventures in the Hundred Acre Wood.

Winnie-the-Pooh was published in 1925.

The House at Pooh Corner in 1928.

A gentleman named Ernest Shepard illustrated the books, using Chistopher Robin and his animals as models.
Milne wrote numerous other books and plays but everybody remembers him primarily for Pooh Bear!
Milne died in 1956.

Author Interview NROE No Rules Of Engagement

2012-01-16T07:14:00.000-08:00

Kitty D. Bullard / Great Minds Think Aloud Literary Community - Public Relations Manager & Reviewer

Kitty Bullard

Great Minds Think Aloud

2206 Wingate Road

Fayetteville, NC 28304

(910)551-2021

Writers Block, Dead End, or Chance to Dazzle!

2012-01-13T12:33:00.001-08:00

From time to time everybody who writes either gets stuck staring at the white page and considers slamming their head into the desk repeatedly or has been writing up a storm until you run into a wall. You inadvertently wrote yourself into something that you didn't mean to. The idea or line of thought was flowing and just dissipated like the morning's fog after the sun comes up. Either way you're stuck. Now part of me gets frustrated by my impatience because my time to write is so limited and to waste it by staring at a blank page or getting stalled midway through the next chapter of my book seems like a terrible waste of my time.

Sometimes the problem is you! Maybe you have an emotional hang up with what you're writing. For an example I was attacked from behind by a dog as a child. I probably will not be writing lovey dovey dog scenes in any of my books. If I attempted to write about dogs attacking people or being extra friendly with a dog, I might get conflicted and have trouble or feel stuck. Search your feelings about what your piece is dealing with to see if you are just getting too close to home and that is what is hanging you up. Some writers use their work and writing to write about true events that deeply affect them as a means of coping with the situation.

Whatever we write it is a part us, coming from our conscious and un-conscious minds, coming out of us based off our education and life experiences and background. Hell if that doesn't trip you up once and while you may be too emotionally healthy to be writing. That being said when you read disturbing pieces by some well known authors like Stephen King or James Patterson you have to wonder if these people shouldn't be allowed out in public!

I personally love Dead Ends because it gives me a chance to get crazy. I remind myself that this is fiction and I can do whatever I want! I can write this section of this piece twenty different ways from Sunday and choose the best one later. I start asking questions about the situation. I start examining the situation from different angles. If it's a hard problem I think about it and verbalize the problem right before I go to sleep and in many cases I either wake up with the answer in the morning or it wakes me up in the middle of the night with the answer! It's amazing what your subconscious can do with problems.

So the next time you get stuck try thinking your way out of the box. If it is an emotional hang up, get over it, write about it, or just re-write the piece.

One final note is to do things you normally don't do. Go places you haven't been to before. We all need breaks and from time to time instead of getting down to business and working try hopping blogs, surfing the net, check out Pinterest, StumbleUpon, find something to feed your brain new information, raw material to use in future writing, brain storming, or just to flip your triggers. All work will make us all dull boys and girls. We want sharp as a tack, eyes wide open, hearts ready to be broke, live like it's your last day to live in our writing and everyday lives.

May God Bless You! Keep Writing. Have a Great Day on Friday the 13^th!! OHHHH!

Color and Creativity

2012-01-12T09:12:00.000-08:00

When I read this blog post this morning it got me thinking about Creativity and Color.

http://www.rachellegardner.com/

Needs, Wants, and Pretty Blue Pens

Posted: 11 Jan 2012 08:01 PM PST

Guest Blogger: Billy Coffey

It was my wife—God bless her—who said I was insane. And not only was I insane, but probably all the people in the world who called themselves writers were too. Certifiable. In need of round the clock psychological care and Thorazine milkshakes.

It was the pens, you see. She was going to the store, and I asked her to pick me up some pens. In my wife’s defense, I didn’t specify what sort of pens. And in my defense, I didn’t think I had to. We’ve been married for fifteen years. She’s seen me write before.

But she brought home black pens. I thought it was a joke at first. I even laughed. My wife didn’t call me insane then, but I bet the thought had crossed her mind.

Blue pens, I told her. I needed blue pens. Because blue ink produced the best words and black ink undermined creativity and the flow of artistic expression. How could anyone not know that? That’s when the insane comment was voiced. Jokingly, of course. Maybe half-jokingly. Which was followed by this:

“The problem isn’t black pens, it’s that you can’t tell the difference between what you want and what you need.”

Of course I disagreed. It’s a pride thing. But as the day wore on and I kept staring at my pack of black pens, I began to see she was right. As a writer, I don’t really have needs and wants. I just have needs.

As I said this got me thinking about the color of ink, colored pens, and possibly using colored fonts when I write.

I discovered in college years ago that if I take notes using different colors that when it came time for the test I could actually see my notes in my head. I could view the details as if the notes were sitting there in front of me. This made a huge difference in future test scores and made me always have a collection of colored gel pens beside me to use at my discretion depending on how important it was to remember the details of what I am working on. You don't want to or need to remember every detail of everything you do all day every day. I imagine there is a limit to the amount of stuff you cram into your head and I don't want to experiment with process to find out what happens when your mind hits terminal overload! Heavens knows I have enough trouble with every day challenges.

Because of my OCD I also have a collection of Zebra F-402 fine point black pens which I guard and prize highly. I like writing with them. They will write horizontally in case your writing on a wall, and don't ask me how I know this, but you can punch one through a hollow core wood door and they still write very nicely. I like having one on my person almost always because it can be used as a weapon. I am not above stabbing someone repeatedly with a ball point pen.

I wonder if color, writing in colored fonts would help writers be more creative? Would it help us retain the myriad of facts that we need to retain and use through our work? How does color effect our work? How many writers use colored pens to write with? Does the predominate use of black on white inhibit our creativity? Does it hinder peoples mental abilities in all areas?

I understand as an artist the complete change in feelings, warmth, and attitude the difference between color pictures and black and white pictures has on people and their relation to the pictures. Does this go deeper and cover more areas than photography and art? Would the use of colors in our everyday life change our attitudes, feelings and enhance our natural abilities?

This is something I will have to re-visit after experimenting and getting some feedback from other authors. What do you think about color and creativity? Leave a comment . . .

Author Interview / Part of Chapter One

2012-01-11T07:09:00.000-08:00

Awesome Author Interview of ME!!

Also an excerpt from my newest novel! I sincerely hope Science Fiction fans give this book a try, the reviews have been great!

Thank You Jo Murphey, once again you knocked one out of the ball park!! Thank You from the bottom of my heart.

Hope over and check it out. http://jomurphey.blogspot.com/

Author Interview : Thomas Wilson

2012-01-10T22:25:00.000-08:00

Author of “No Rules Of Engagement”

On December 26, My blog posted an Interview of a very dear friend and fellow writer, Jo Murphey. Jo is extremely more talented than I am and wears many more hats throughout the normal course of a week than I do. With all that she has on her plate she has graciously interviewed me for a post on her blog, ‘The Murphey Saga.’

It is scheduled to be on her blog on January 11, 2012, tomorrow.

I implore my followers and all those who happen by this blog to pop over to Jo’s Blog sometime today, read her interview of me, and possibly an excerpt from my latest novel. While you’re there click to follow her blog, it is great reading, wonderful insights, from a wise woman with a surprising view of the world.

May God Bless and have a great day!

Doctor Oz and Breakfast

2012-01-10T14:56:00.000-08:00

Part of my newfound passion in life besides writing is to take better care of myself in order to try and live longer thus being able to write more books before I croak. I know it is just past the start of the new year and lots of people are joining gyms and trying to get into better shape. My plan is not that extensive, yet.

Right before the end of 2011, I tore something in my right knee. From all I have managed to gather from the symptoms it is probably a ligament are cartilage tear. I managed to borrow a knee brace, because what I read on line is that taking it easy and letting nature take its course in six weeks I should be good as new. So joining the gym, running on the treadmill, and especially deep knee bends are out of bounds for the time being.

No what I am talking about is more basic than just that. When I sit down to write in the evening I generally do it sitting in the living room with my laptop on my lap. Once and a while my wife comes in and joins me and watches television while write. Usually this has never been a problem because I can drone out what senseless crap concerning completely fake over dramatic rich bitch wan-ta-be's, or girls getting married with extreme attitudes. I generally refer to her selections of shows to watch that fall into this category as 'Bitch TV'.

Lately my wife has been watching this guy called Doctor OZ who has a show that deals with all sorts of common problems people have. Some of the stuff is fade treatments, cosmetic treatments, weight loss, none of which I have a problem with or really care about. The other stuff where he goes into what vitamins you should take, how much, what foods you should eat, and the big one that blew me away was when you should eat. I have skipped breakfast for years! He convinced me because I got drawn into one of the shows that I should eat something for breakfast every day. I dawned on me that every other Saturday and every Sunday I get up and fix breakfast for the boys. I generally feel better on those days partly because my body isn't waiting until two in the afternoon to eat.

So I am starting to eat breakfast, something every day. My wife has a list of vitamins to get for me to add to the small arsenal of vitamins I all ready take, because I know I don't and have never eaten the proper foods. The next move will be adding fruits and vegetables to my diet, and lastly forcing myself to eat salads until I don't mind eating them. This will be hard, but it will ultimately become necessary and if I get myself used to it now, I might be healthy longer. For some reason in spite of the terrible pain in the ass that I am, my wife wants to keep me around for as long as she can. That's one of the many reasons I love her so. That and that she helps me transition through these life changes and goes beyond the call of duty to make it easy for me.

"Ender's Game" might make it to the Big Screen

2012-01-09T14:58:00.001-08:00

I remember over the holiday season a couple of weeks ago hearing about the woes of the cinemas because less people are going to the movies. I remember thinking when I heard the radio broadcast that if anybody in Hollywood ever learned to pick up a book and started getting some original stories to turn into movies you would see a flood of people going to see them. Also during the month of December there has been a group thread on Goodreads discussing Ender's Game being made into a movie. I didn't get too excited at first because I have heard this rumor before twice for sure that I can remember where myself and fans I know of the book got all excited only to find out the project fizzled out because of one reason or another.

Well it has come to my attention that there is actually a release date set for March 2013. Actors are being announced to have been signed to play the parts from the book and it appears to be a top notch all star cast.

For those of you who have no idea what I am talking about. Orson Scott Card, an American author, wrote "Ender's Game" and it was first published in 1985. It grew out of a short story of the same name which was first published in Analog Science Fiction and Fact, in the August 1977 Issue. Card's book won the 1985 Nebula Award for Best Novel and the 1986 Hugo Award for Best Novel.

For years it has been one of my favorite books and I have purchased and given away more copies of "Ender's Game" than I have of my own books. I find they are good books for younger troubled children to give them an escape, and a main character that generally always has much bigger problems than most troubled kids. I have had more people tell me over the years that by me giving them that book were what started them reading books in general. My daughter and her young friends have all read it and it is a favorite of theirs also.

Personally "Ender's Game" was a big motivation for my second novel. Those who have read "Ender's Game" will definitely notice the similarities between the two in the opening part of my book. If you enjoyed "Ender's Game" you will definitely like reading "No Rules Of Engagement" my second novel. It is the first of three novels planned for this short series.

Those who have enjoyed one or both of these books will be standing in line for the opening night of "Ender's Game" if Hollywood manages to pull it off. As with all book to movie adaptations, we all pray they stick close to the original books story and script and don't screw it up. "Ender's Game" is a science fiction classic without any help from Hollywood. I believe I read that Mr. Card himself has either done the screen play or worked with the producers to develop a screen play. This lends one to believe it ought to be fantastic!

Cage Fighting

2012-01-07T21:44:00.000-08:00

Sometime ago I went to my first cage fight event. One of the salesman where I work, Mr. Scott Cutbirth, is a manager of a number of guys who are into this extreme sport. I consider any event you compete in where it is a standard practice to have an ambulance standing by and a qualified Doctor readily standing by just incase as an extreme sport. The first event I went to was seeing Scott fight because it was something he said he always wanted to do. As a manger of fighters he wanted to have the experience and reference of actually climbing into a cage with another person who would be intent on causing severe bodily damage as quickly as possible.

Last night I attended my second cage fighting event. One of the guys who works for me was entered in an event at area bar where they hold unsanctioned barely legal fights with little or no concerns for the rules of engagement for fights of this sort. It was brought to my attention that many of those who would be interested in competing in events such as this start off in this kind of venue. Depending on how it turns out and if they still have such inclinations to continue with such a hazardous career choice or hobby they may move up into more tightly controlled and regulated fighting venues.

First off, it totally amazed me how many young men were willing to get into a caged fighting apparatus with an opponent and a referee with the sole intent of trying to kill each other. I just don’t get the appeal. Who willing wants to get beat up? Two guys going in and only one will be declared the winner.

Secondly, I have trouble wrapping my mind around what these guys are thinking before they get into the ring. The writer part of me is insanely curious about all aspects of human behavior, especially the more outlandish and extreme behavior such as what motivates you to want to do something like Cage Fighting.

So besides the guy who I watched fight last night, I also employ another young man who is fighting in a much higher venue of the sport and has a title fight coming up at the end of this month. If he wins this bout he will move into the Professional Arena as far as Cage Fighting goes.

So I asked this gentleman today, “What are you thinking before you step into the ring?”

“That I am going to knock this guy out as quickly as I can. Generally if it goes more than one round we both will survive and it will go to a decision decided fight. I used to get really nervous before my fights for the first three or four. Now days I just care. If I get knocked out I’ll find out when I wake up. I stay calm, cool and relaxed just like I usually am.”

I remembered when I first met Dustin, when I interviewed him. He seemed so calm, cool and collected. Not your usual not so bright hulk who thinks he is a Barney bad ass. I asked him about fighting, if he had anger issues. He laughed and said no. He said he only fights in the cage. I asked what his future goals were and he replied that he wanted to make it to the professional level and make enough money to buy his own place to train fighters. He has studied multiple fighting disciplines and trains hard. He likes working at Community Tire because basically I pay him to work out all day long.

Dustin trained the other warehouse worker of mine, Mony, who I watched fight last night. Mony was really worried about what if he got hit here or there during the fight. Dustin calmed Mony down by explaining that the guy he was prepared to fight was not going to hurt him anywhere as much as Dustin had hitting him over the last few weeks in training. Mony beat his opponent, 19 seconds into the first round.

Training tip: Train with somebody a lot better than yourself and get used to being hit by somebody who is much more dangerous than you are. If you live you should be prepared for the fight.

I still don't understand the reasoning behind this phenomenon. As a writer I am intrigued by the draw of the sport, the reasoning and thinking or lack of thinking involved with getting people to volunteer for activities such as this.