Is Anybody Out There?

The worst thing a writer can say is, “Hey, what’s on TV tonight?”

The second worst thing a writer can say: is, “I’ll just be on the internet for a minute…”

And there it goes, the best intentions for starting a new story, editing one of those fifty trunk novels, or marketing the ones already on Amazon.  Before you know it, it’s four a.m., you have to leave for work at seven, and your wife doesn’t even know you snuck out of bed to go “work”.

Well, that’s how it is sometimes, but if you’re honest with yourself at all, it catches up with you after a while. You begin to feel guilty about it because, face it, you’re not getting any younger and you know that both what you’ve written and what you’ve got swirling around in your mind is worth writing, publishing, and offering to the world.

With this in mind I’ve started doing something new. I’ve started carrying a notepad and every chance I get, I write in it.  I know it’s old school and not a particularly efficient way to write, but it’s better than nothing. And I’ve actually begun what may be a new potential novel this way. I’m trying it out anyway. As long as I can score enough computer time to polish it up and expand it, it should work.

The new story is something different for me. It’s not straight horror, but more noirish, a story built a hard-boiled cynical detective at a physical and psychological tipping point on the edge of failure, a beautiful woman with terrible secrets, and a host of crooked cops, psychopathic crooks, and a dark presence of evil that orchestrates the misery of a dark bleak sleazy world that is the city.

Yeah, I can do that.

So for any of you that thought I’d just given up on the blogging, please accept my mea culpa. For those of you who haven’t done so yet, go to Amazon and check out my novels.  Better yet, buy a couple.  And for those of you who are writers, whether you use a laptop, a PC or a notepad, keep on writing.

A Vision Of Hell In North Korea

Escape From Camp 14 is the fascinating, if at times disturbing, tale of Shin Dong-hyuk, the only known escapee born in one of North Korea’s concentration camps.  Journalist Blaine Harden’s masterfully multi-dimensional and compelling tale weaves Shin’s experiences in the camp, his escape, and psychological adjustment to the world beyond the barbed wire.

My interest in Escape From Camp 14 started with a feature on NPR last March (Link), but the interview didn’t just spark my interest, it reignited my fascination with what is the perhaps the most tightly controlled, institutionally barbaric society ever to have existed.  It reminded me that North Korea is a place where psychopathy is not an aberration, but a cultural imperative.  North Korea is a society built on lies and deception and life is forfeit for the smallest infraction.  While this is true of the general society, it is even more so in the prison camps.  For instance, Shin relates the story of a young girl who, in a camp classroom, was beaten to death in front of her fellow students for the sin of having five kernels of corn in her pocket.  As the girl was beaten by the instructor, the other children watched, understanding that this consequence was completely normal for the camp.

As a former intelligence analyst whose specialty was North Korea, Shin’s story brought back memories of the experiences of hundreds of other defectors and escapees.  Since the 1950’s, North Korea has perfected a system of prison camps into which hundreds of thousands of North Koreans have disappeared.  Escape From Camp 14 provides a startling first-hand look into one of the very worst camps.

As a writer of speculative fiction I like to explore the psychopathic persona so much so that in an early review of Any Tomorrow: The Calling, the reviewer thought my character, Henry Turner, was excessively violent and sexually aggressive.  After reading Escape From Camp 14 and recalling the horrors other defectors have reported over the years, there is nothing I could have written that can compare to the institutionalized mechanism for the terror of the North Korean prison camps.  In comparison, they make the NAZI concentration camps seem tame and the Soviet Gulag welcoming.

For anyone who values freedom, who has an interest in humanity, or desires to know what hell is like, read Escape From Camp 14.  Then try to imagine surviving it.

Do you prefer Amazon or Smashwords?

I’ve offered free promotions for my books before and have always used Smashwords.com because it’s so easy to do.  The results, however, have been less than stellar and I’m wondering if Smashwords.com is one of the problems.

Do you have a preference about which site you download from?

It would also be helpful if you left a comment to let me know why you prefer one site over the other.

Thanks for the feedback!

 

“Any Tomorrow: The Calling” from Smashwords.com for FREE until January 15th

If you enjoy dark fantasy, here is the chance to download “Any Tomorrow: The Calling” from Smashwords.com for FREE until January 15th.

All you have to do is go to https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/56869 and enter the coupon code TM36T (not case-sensitive) when you check out. It’s all yours, FREE.

Updated 1/6/13: For anyone who may have tried to down load my dark fantasy novel, Any Tomorrow: The Calling, for free from https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/56869 and was unable to, try using code PH66F at checkout.  That should work through January 15th.

This is just my way of helping you welcome in the New Year!

A Review of “Fire Angels” by Joseph Richardson

A few weeks ago a friend passed me a copy of “Fire Angels”, a self-published novel by Joseph Richardson. Fire Angels is the story of David and Sara Cooper, and their son Noble, set in Walako, Florida during the period of 1915-1925. In this story Richardson attempts to weave a complex narrative into which he draws xenophobic anti-German sentiment, racial hatred, and class conflict. But he tries too hard. By doing this he fails to delve into the emotions and psychological depth that would have made this story come alive. For instance, following America’s entry into World War I, David and his best friend, Robert Love, are sent to France. Following their first big battle, Robert is killed by a sniper. Following the war, David comes home and attempts to find catharsis in plowing a field. In that act David is overcome by the memory of Robert’s death and all the horrors of war Richardson did not include in the short description of David’s experience in France. The problem is that there is too much story, so nothing gets the depth necessary to draw the reader into the historical and emotional context. I wanted to be drawn into this story. I wanted to feel what David felt and really understand what life was like in early Twentieth Century small-town Florida. Unfortunately, I was disappointed.

And there is something else by way of technical criticism. This novel, like many self-published efforts, could have benefited from a good, thorough professional editing. Numerous errors in the text detracted from the reading experience. For instance, I found inexplicably underlined or italicized words, dropped words, sentences all in caps, and other problems with formatting. These are not issues with style. These are basic errors I would expect to find in a draft novel, not a finished product.

Jesus and the Slave

So I was in church the other day. My wife and I help the church secretary get things ready for the service on Sunday. We fold the bulletins, make sure the pencils in the pews are sharp, and that each of the pews is stocked with offering envelopes. Just little things to make her job a little easier.

And while I was in the sanctuary working on the pews, something that I had been pondering for a while suddenly came to me with crystal clarity. And that’s how this particular post came to be.

Here’s a thought for your next writing exercise:

Your character is a slave. Freshly beaten and abused by his master, he falls at Jesus’ feet and declares, “I have run away from my master to follow you!” How would Jesus reply?

This isn’t an easy question and it’s a great opportunity to blend conflict, history, and religion. It’s also a great opportunity to project that same situation onto today’s society.

What do you think? Where would you take this? What would Jesus’ answer be?

What If Jesus Came Today?

Looking for an idea for your next epic novel?

How about this: What if Jesus came today?

But I’m not talking about him appearing in the last days and Armageddon, that’s all been done ad nauseam. What if he never came until today? What kind of a world would he enter into?

Think about it―no crusades, no holy wars, no popes, no puritans. How would that affect trade, technology, science, culture, philosophy, medicine, and economics? What about religion? Would monotheism have survived?

The basic premise of the Jesus story could still be maintained since the prophesies concerning his birth occurred long before he was born. He might still be born of a Jewish virgin in a stable in Bethlehem, but would there actually be an Israel for him to be born into?

No matter what your views are on Christianity, the impact that Jesus’s legacy has made on the world is undeniable. Whether that impact was for better or worse is your call, but the void created by the absence of Jesus would be remarkably pervasive. Virtually every aspect of modern life would potentially change. This might be the ultimate alternate history.

So what do you think? Is your imagination broad enough to vision a world without Jesus? Where would you take this story?