Works That Inspire Writing Day 2: Fahrenheit 451

Of all of Ray Bradbury’s novels this one has to be my favorite. It is his most critically acclaimed novel and his most controversial. I honestly think that many of the ideas expressed in the novel are timeless and nothing could be further from the truth in our current political climate in the United States.

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see that Americans are not reading anything empirical like reading science that is peer reviewed or news that is fact-based. When our politicians are fact-checked by the media (which is their constitutional job by the way) the politicians scream “fake news” or “you are a fake” and the constituency continues to lap up the kool-aide with glee. There are Americans who believe the earth is flat, that the media is run by some kind of nefarious black hat organization (but don’t say anything about their “news” outlets), that 5G is causing coronavirus, and that vaccinations cause autism. This is only scratching the surface of tin-foil-hat hysteria that seems to flood the arm-chair-philosophers of social media and is a screaming testimony to the sad state of the war on intellectualism.

The fact that a novel written in 1953 can still speak to human nature and warn us about a future without thought is a testament to Bradbury’s writing ability. The man was a prophet. I wonder if he knew this as he sat in the library each night after his nine-to-five, typing away on a pay-by-the-dime rental typewriter on the short story on which it was based? The fact is that what makes this novel timeless is that Bradbury wrote from his gut about something that worried him: the damage that television might do to the culture.

Sure, television didn’t damage culture as much as social media, I’m sure. However, what our take-away might be from reading Fahrenheit 451 is that we as writers need to think about some social issue that bugs us and try to develop stories that address that social issue. This, in turn, makes for more substantial and long-lasting prose. Sure, I could turn out a great adventure story like the rest of them, but in the long run why waste the six months or so writing a novel or a screenplay if you aren’t going to have anything to show for it but a nice bit of entertainment.

Entertainment has its place, and Bradbury wrote a few of those, but we should strive to write a piece that speaks to something more lasting and powerful. This is why I’ve chosen to discuss Bradbury’s masterpiece. It is a shining example of what we writers can accomplish when our back is to the wall. Bradbury was poor as dirt when he wrote Fahrenheit 451, trying to bring home the bacon to a wife and two children. He was worried about what the the invention of television would do to his kid’s desire to read good books. With this little personal fear in his pocket, he wrote “The Fireman”, the short story from which the novel eventually sprang.

So find that “gut punch” thing that keeps you up at night. Wrestle with it. Find out what you really believe about it. Take it to its worst possible conclusion. Therein you will find an idea for your next novel. It’s what I’m doing. How about you?

Works That Inspire Writing Day 1: Hulu’s “Devs”

Nick Offerman and Sonoya Mizuno in Alex Garland’s “Devs” on Hulu

I decided to write a 30 day blog challenge in which I write about works that inspire me as a writer. I wanted to showcase these things mainly because I needed something to write about that would kick-start my writing day and because I just wanted to share work, hard work, that exemplifies what I see as great writing.

Writers need inspiration, but in no way am I encouraging you to binge a show or a film or waste valuable time you have to write during this crisis for entertainment. When I suggest one of these works, I suggest you go watch or read them, perhaps an excerpt or one episode, so that you can see what makes them great writing. This, in turn, should inspire you to reach the level these writers have attained and then possibly stretch you beyond what you are currently creating.

The first work in this 30 day blog challenge is the series “Devs” found on Hulu through FX Network. It stars Nick Offerman as a tech CEO and founder of a tech development company who has built a quantum computer for selfish purposes, as this computer can do something of which most humans can only dream. It is entertaining, thought provoking and thematically explores the idea of determinism versus free will.

Three things stand out about this series and these things are what cause writers like me to sit with notepad in hand:

1. The Characters Are Multi-Layered – Just when you think you’ve figured a character out (i.e., “Oh he’s definitely a villain”) you have to rethink that upon learning new information about that character. All of the characters in this series have this well-sought-after quality. Their motivations are realistic and unique, and are filled with drivers that send them along unpredictable paths. They are unpredictable because even though you think you know a character they surprise you with many of their decisions. Even if you think you know a character and what their background and morals would dictate, they take a turn that might seem odd at first but in afterthought make perfect sense for who they have been painted.
2. The Science Is Researched – Often I have found myself having to google many of the technical terms and theories presented in this series. Sometimes when characters are discussing quantum physics, for example, I feel like I’m getting lost in the theory and science. For some this might be a bad thing, but for me it only makes me curious about the science being presented. It also gives a sense of realism to the story that feeds into the well-woven plot. If you are going to include hard-science fiction in your writing, make sure you’ve done your research. Many of the ideas and theories expressed in “Devs” are experimental and on the cusp of current quantum theory, but much of it takes leaps with the theories that is not yet plausible. This is what makes great science fiction: fiction based on the possible leap from current science theory.
3. Nothing Is Sacred – One thing that this series does is that it places its characters in such peril that we don’t think there is an out and then doesn’t give them that out. Several of the characters go through awful conflict that is in some ways unresolved and we watch as their ability to cope with the onslaught of horrific events is shattered. The trope of the hero somehow finding their way out of the maze and being congratulated is not something Alex Garland cares about apparently, and this is in many ways refreshing. Garland is willing to take his characters to the limits of what they can handle and then pushes them over the edge of the precipice. In our own writing we should try to do the same with our characters. It makes for more gritty realism and speaks to the real-life peril most of us face day-to-day. Sure, there is hope at the end, but it is paired with the sacrifices made to get there.

The Plight of a Red State Teacher

I’ve been teaching in Oklahoma for over 20 years. Oklahoma is what folks call a “red state” because it leans so far right-wing Republican that our government is run on trickle-down economics, separation of church and state is a pipe dream, and privatization of everything is completely fine and dandy.

Before you go calling me a commie, I love living in the U.S. and I am not a Democrat, but a dyed-in-the-wool Bull Moose Party guy (God bless you, Teddy). I also got into teaching for the joy of teaching students. I love being in the classroom, for I feel I am making a difference in my student’s lives on a daily basis.

However, I have watched the direction in which our GOP dominated legislature and governor are leading the state regarding education and I am feeling rather hopeless. It’s not just in my state, but public education is in trouble in every red state in the union. We teachers always hear from the GOP that “teachers don’t do it for the money” that “teaching is a calling”, and that “our teachers are underpaid and leaving the state in droves” so we need to fix it.

These are all lies spoken by a party that is currently dismantling public education in the name of “school choice” as they fund private corporations with public money meant for schools. Their corporate cronies get a cut, and that in turn causes me to believe that the motivation behind the GOP’s turn against public ed. is motivated by profit. Who allowed, for example, EPIC Charter School to exist? Republican dominated legislatures and a GOP governor, that’s who (The article here states that it was a “bi-partisan” effort, but at the time the Oklahoma Legislature had a GOP supermajority.)

It’s no wonder teachers leave the state. It is not because teachers outside the state can’t get certified here. That and making it easier for teachers to carry guns is not the answer. (They might not want to arm us and then forbid us to assemble in protest of their policies, though.) The teacher shortage is caused because of several reasons:

1. Oklahoma Teacher Pay – Oklahoma still ranks lower than its neighboring states in teacher pay. Even with the raise we received after the walkout and the pitiful $1200 raise Governor (Anti-Vaxxer) Stitt pushed through, we are still lower than all the rest. The GOP will say that we are comparable to neighboring states because they factor in benefits into their totals of how much we are being paid. Insurance still goes up every year, and the state will only pay a percentage of our premiums.
2. Retirement – Right now many retired teachers are struggling to make ends meet. I never will forget the story of teacher Brian Davis who moonlights as an Uber driver. He picked up an 86 year old retired teacher one day who was crying in his back seat saying she had to come up with $700 that month to pay her insurance because her retirement wasn’t cutting it. This beloved educator, a woman who had instilled the best in her students over a long career, was going to have to become a Wal-Mart greeter just to afford to eat and keep the lights on.
3. Per Student Spending – Oklahoma still falls dead last in per students spending. This means larger class sizes, less resources (Language Arts hasn’t seen a book adoption since 2008) and aging facilities to mention only a few items. My books in my classroom are so old that they actually contain out-dated articles on climate change and medicine.
4. An All Out Attack on Public Schools – As laid out in their plans for state government and thereby federal government, the GOP is currently led by a political action committee/organization called ALEC. As laid out in this report, their goals for public education is to completely privatize it, remove teacher’s unions, and profit off of the taxpayer.

With these facts in mind, would anyone in their right mind want to attempt to be a teacher in a red state? Teachers are leaving Oklahoma in droves, and it doesn’t seem to be getting better anytime soon. We currently have a record 2,109 emergency certified teachers in the state and studies show it’s hurting our kids. Believe me, I’ve been attempting to find another solution to lower pay, a crappy retirement and being treated like a second-class citizen by my legislature for years. The problem is that if you have taught in the classroom as long as I have and you don’t have a masters degree, you are pretty much stuck.

Not to mention the fact that with 20 years teaching experience, all of my job connections are in education, I’m not “marketable” in other fields, and so I am pretty much stuck where I am unless I get a masters degree and become an administrator (which I don’t really want to do).

It seems that our legislature holds to the chauvinist idea that teachers are only women who are waiting around to get married and don’t need to make much money. This couldn’t be further from the truth. Most of the teachers I’ve worked with over the years have kids and a family. The men I work with are heads of households, many of them a father to several children. I am a father of four and my wife works as well. Together we try to make it, but it is very difficult financially. We don’t have a savings account, have a lot of debt, and do our best to stay ahead of things.

So what do I do? I suppose I could move to Texas or perhaps a blue state like Washington. The problem is that I have kids. I have a son who’s 20, and three daughters who are 18, 16 and 14. I can’t just up and move my family. I suppose I have to deal with it, write this article, and maybe pray. Hopefully the tide will turn in government in this state and balance things out better for us, but I’ll pour myself into my students, help them become thinking citizens, and hopefully they will change our red state to at least a happy shade of purple.

6 Ways Schools Are Failing Your Kids

Often this is the face I see in some classes. It is a face of boredom and stifled creativity.

I’ve been teaching now for over 20 years. I teach with love and rigor, have had a lot of success with helping students achieve greatness, but am often frustrated with the things that schools think are so important about education.

In my experience, these are the things for which most schools are serious:

1. Testing – We have to measure everything to make sure the teachers are doing their job, that the kids are learning things, and that our scores look good.
2. Paying Attention – No matter how boring the presentation, students need to just be quiet and listen to the instructor because (after all) teachers know everything and are facilitators of the knowledge.
3. Stay In Your Designated Area – When you are at lunch you have to eat lunch and you can’t go to the library to get a book.
4. Dress Code – We need to make sure the children are not wearing things that are comfortable or let them be individuals in the name of safety and modesty. We haven’t quite figured out how to keep them completely safe or modest so we are going to do our best understanding that it will always be a battle.
5. Evaluations – Teachers are the only ones being evaluated. Administrators don’t get to be evaluated by the teaching staff because that would be doing things like any other job.
6. Lesson Planning – It is important to make sure we write everything down that we are going to do for the entire lesson even if we get interrupted to administer district testing and go on field trips and go to sporting events. We need to plan very well so that we can make sure that the administrators know we have a plan. This plan, of course, should probably incorporate the fact that hour to hour and day to day the student needs might change. It should be possible to write lesson plans which will be adhered to 100% all the time.

I could go on.

Why is it that when our students reach the last day of the spring semester they are in a rapture of excitement because it is finally going to be over? What ever happened to allowing students to be curious? Astrophysicist Neil Degrasse Tyson was interviewed about the subject. I will let him speak here:

We spend so much time testing students in this country. Tests are not a bad thing, but they are all standardized and homogenized. We stifle creativity any chance we get. We find it, stamp it out, and continue forcing students into a small box that we can measure and analyze. This is producing a society of people who will only “work in their job description” and will only stick to the status quo.

Here are some suggestions:

1. Testing – Tests should be on the fly. Teachers should give “tests” that are sometimes oral and sometimes in group settings where students are working together toward a common goal to demonstrate that they understand a skill or concept. After all, life doesn’t standardize its tests. Tests should never be used as a “gotcha” against teachers or school districts but as a road map to see where students are moving intellectually. Good tests are tests where students don’t know they are being tested.
2. Paying Attention – Students should be allowed to be noisy, curious, and allowed to talk at their tables and socialize. If it were a working environment, the best work is done when there are momentary bursts of hard work toward the goal coupled with momentary bursts of levity and “goofing off”. It is how tension is released when put under stress to reach a goal or solve a problem. Also, if the lesson is fun and doesn’t feel like a “lesson” then it will be more fun for them. They have to have the freedom to explore.
3. Stay In Your Designated Area – If a student is at lunch and wants to go to the library, then let them. Never stifle the need for curiosity with procedures. Keep them safe, but don’t use that to keep them from being curious. Always be on the lookout not for “trouble brewin'”, but for genuine desire to learn something new.
4. Dress Code – Not everyone can afford to buy nice clothes for their kids. Sometimes a hoodie is all they can afford to keep their kid warm in winter. Sure, kids hide their earbuds inside their hoodie (and the concern is drugs being hidden there, too) but most just want to listen to their tunes or (amazingly) a podcast or two. I’m not suggesting kids be allowed to wear gang colors, but most kids just want to dress comfortably. Try to find a happy balance between allowing them to be individuals and keeping them safe. If your school is a place of love and acceptance, known in the community as a safe environment, then it will have less of those problems.
5. Evaluations – Here’s an idea: Why can’t teachers evaluate administration and students evaluate teachers? If we are going to evaluate each other to make sure we are doing a great job, then why not let everyone be evaluated by everyone? Evaluations shouldn’t be unrealistic and micro-managing. From Marzano to Tulsa to whatever method a school uses for evaluations it seems that they are totally one-sided and unfair. If a teacher has taught with success for a long time, trust that teacher to do their job. They are experts. The bad teachers will weed themselves out if students are able to evaluate them.
6. Lesson Planning – Lesson plans should be done after the fact most of the time. Have a general plan for what concept is to be taught, plan a lot of activities that allow students to be curious about the concept or skill, and then write up how it went afterward and what can be learned from the experience. It should be like a science experiment, allowing the teacher to be curious about what can happen if they do a certain activity or try a new way of approaching the learning. Students should be the discoverers of the concept. Education is not a machine with cogs and parts that can be replaced. It is rather a garden where several varieties of plants are being grown and nurtured. They should be allowed to spread out their roots and unfold their leaves to drink in the warmth.

I don’t have all the answers, but I do know that something has to change in education in this country if we are going to progress and stop the devolution of our societal woes. If we want innovation, cures for diseases, and better policies in our government, then we are going to have to end standardized testing, fund education completely and pay our educators a decent wage. Educators are some of the most hard-working people in any field but we are poorly paid, disrespected and often work in horribly toxic work environments because of our state government’s policies. Parents should rise up and demand better. They always talk a good game about how teachers are the best but then when it comes to paying for what is needed they hang their head.

As Americans, we should want better.

Proof That Writing Rubrics in Oklahoma Are Designed to Fail Your Kids

I’ve been an English teacher for over 20 years. I know how to teach students to write essays. It is in my blood.

I can usually take any student from a mediocre writer or a poor writer to a functional writer. I have worked in districts with zero vertical team and a micromanaging vertical team.

But the State of Oklahoma (at least), a state whose government is notoriously anti-public school, is always working to make public schools seem like they are underperforming.

The proof might be in the recent state of the state where Governor Stitt stated that he would raise the cap on private school vouchers from 5 million to 30 million when public schools are drastically underfunded. The requirements in surrounding states like Kansas for receiving vouchers to send your kids to private schools is qualifying for free lunches at public school. Oklahoma has no such caps. Don’t get me started on the egregious A-F grading system as a way to keep minority schools in failure and the mindlessness of standardized testing that our country still thinks is a good measure of what students “know”.

Yesterday, however, upon examining a rubric for the 8th grade writing test I began to realize that the rubric was not only unfair but probably not written by an ELA specialist.

Take a look at two of the criteria on the rubric:

First, I have to say that I have spent years designing rubrics. As an Advanced Placement instructor I have been trained to create rubrics for any prompt. One begins with the basic skills a student must demonstrate in order to show proficiency. This is a baseline score that then is built upon. Higher scores than the baseline are added skills that show advancement and then lower scores show the skills the student is lacking.

The rubric shown above shows its “effective” score as the highest score a student can achieve. Understand that the test is given under duress, that students are writing the essay in a controlled environment, and that they usually do not have time to revise.

The passing score here (at least as I have been informed) is a 3. A student who can demonstrate a 2 on this rubric, in my humble opinion after 20 years of teaching, should be passing. A “well-developed” essay with minor errors in mechanics with “precise” word choice should be beyond what an average student can demonstrate.

The point here is that if a student does their darnedest on the essay portion they are still doomed to failure or being scored as mediocre. Here is the top portion of the rubric:

Notice the criteria for a 2. The students’ argument “productively” engaged multiple perspectives. Thesis reflects “precision” in thought and purpose. I’m lucky, from an average student, for them to demonstrate a 1 on this part of the rubric. Look at the 1 “adequate” for development and support. For this, a student must use clear reasoning and provide examples that “extend” ideas and analysis.

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist (or a layman) to see that this rubric is skewed to cause students to do poorly on the writing exam. I teach at a STEM school, a public application school where students are the best our district has to offer. I can tell you that demonstrating a score of 3 on all of these criteria will be a herculean labor.

It is proof positive that our state education system is setting our students up for failure. If this rubric is followed as written (which, in my opinion) in many ways is vague and unfair, our students are not being given a fair shake.

An 8 Step Collaborative Essay Lesson Plan Tailored to Your Student’s Needs

Your kids can become independent researchers and editors!

Let’s face it. Many of the prompts your state provides for your students are boring. The students will diligently write to the prompt, but the prompts are usually out of touch with current issues or topics that interest your students.

So what is the answer?

*Note: Before you launch this lesson plan, be sure to teach them about how to search the internet for legitimate research. Your students will also need access to Google Docs to do this assignment.

What I’m about to detail is a proven lesson plan that targets student need while sparking student interest.

1. Begin by randomly assigning partners. If you let them choose their own partners they will pair up with like-minded students which might (on rare occasions) derail what you are trying to do. If you are a good teacher, you know your kids. If you can, pair them up with students with whom they don’t usually associate.
2. Instruct students to make a list of at least 10 topics that irritate them. The prompt should be something like: “What are ten things about our world either politically or economically that make you upset? What are ten things that keep you up at night? What are ten things that people have strong opinions about?”
3. After they choose their ten items, instruct them to choose two or three of the items off of their list for which the partners can’t agree. What are two or three of the topics that divide the partners against one another personally.
4. After they have their two or three items, instruct them to choose the most heated item. Which item causes the two partners to become bitter enemies if they cannot agree. They have just chosen their topic.
5. Tell students that their partner has just become their enemy. They are to debate these topics with one another across the table or find a place in the room where they can talk it out. The next step is that they need to go to the internet and find articles from news services, opinion pages or other legitimate sources (I assume you have already taught them about finding legitimate research). They need to keep the mindset that they cannot let their partner win.
6. Instruct your students to open a Google Doc and then share it with their partner. One student will begin by writing an introduction which illustrates their personal tie to the topic before stating their claim statement at the end of the paragraph. The second student will begin the next paragraph with something like “However, another view of this topic is…” and then will write their own introduction and claim statement.
7. The back-and-forth will then begin with each student being able to see what their partner is writing so that they can counter them with their own empirical evidence.
8. Now is when you throw them the curve ball. Tell students that their final paragraphs (one paragraph per student) needs to be how they can agree with at least one point their partner made about the topic.

Results: My students worked harder on this lesson than any other essay assignment I taught all year long. They became passionate about their topic, competed with each other to write the best argument possible using evidence, policed each other regarding faulty or weak evidence, and generally worked harder to make their messages grammatically clear in order to “defeat” their partner. They also learned how to compromise and work with someone they didn’t know to achieve a goal.

Try this out with your students. They might find out that they have an appetite for argument.

A Sentence Diagramming Lesson Your Students Will Love

One skill lost on many modern students is the ability to break down sentences. Of course, diagramming sentences the old-fashioned way is frowned upon as “outmoded” or “blasé”.

Nothing could be further from the truth especially when teaching students with limited sentence construction skills.

I developed an idea one day about an activity which requires students to creat sentences using a word bank. They work in small groups to construct first a simple sentence like the one shown below and then label the parts of speech using a set of provided tabs.

A simple sentence using the word bank.

They then will be tasked with creating a compound sentence, a complex sentence and then a compound-complex sentence using the word bank. Make it interesting by having them compete for candy or other privileges.

Pictured is a compound-complex sentence

After they do this activity and different teams have bragging rights, shift it up by instructing each team to create original sentences in the four forms. Then instruct them to label the parts of speech and subject, object together.

My kids loved this activity, and beyond doing some back-end work to make word banks and a study set of parts of speech on Quizlet, the lesson almost taught itself.

Give it a try. Your kids might just love it, and their test scores prove it works.

Make Some Money By Posting Old Blog Posts to Medium

I stumbled upon a little trick to help myself earn a tiny bit more income on the side: Medium.  Medium.com is a blog publishing site where anyone who has an account (which is free) can write content and get paid.

The way you get paid is to write good content and then readers will “clap” for you to bump up your ranking.  Each time someone “claps” for your post, you get paid a little bit of money (like a few pennies).

According to my taxes this year, I was paid about $500 last year for my articles and I wasn’t even posting anything at all.  That was from the articles I had uploaded in 2018!

So I had a thought: what about all those blog posts I wrote on that old WordPress site (this one) all those years ago?  I wondered if Medium would import those old blog posts and keep the actual date they were written in place.

Well… it does.

I experimented with my original blog post “Tolkien’s 10 Tips for Writers”, a blog post that has been ripped off on many other websites including EssayMama who published it in 2014 (even though it was written by YOURS TRULY in 2012).  They credit this blog, but it is ripped completely from my original post without permission.  What do you expect from a website that writes original essays for paying clients who don’t want to do their own work?

Rant over.

First, I logged on to Medium and set up an account to be monetized.  Just go on over to Medium.com and click “Get Started”.  Once you do, sign in with Twitter or Facebook, whichever social media has the most followers.  Medium will import all of your followers to your posts on Medium.  Next, when setting up your account, you have an option to join the “partner program”.  This is where you give them your account information so you can get paid.

Next, go to your blog and find the URL for those blog posts that somehow gained a huge following, perhaps you had one blog post (like my Tolkien post) that bounced around the internet a while.

Click on your picture (profile) and then click “stories”.  You may have to write a story on Medium first before you get a “stories” option.  I don’t know.  I’m doing this after I have already written a few for them.

Then click “Import a Story” and paste in the URL for your original blog post.

After this, you will see the original post date at the bottom of your newly published article.  Usually all the images and the text look the same as they do on your original blog post, but you can move them around before you publish your post.  Notice that my original post for “Tolkien’s 10 Tips for Writers” was published in 2012, when the EssayMama post was 2014!  Take THAT cheaters!

Copywriting… Really?

I’ve been teaching English for over 20 years.  I love the kids.  I love teaching.  The one thing I don’t love is the bureaucracy, the red tape, and sometimes the people with whom I work.

Work drama is the pits.  My hope is that people will just learn to work together for the benefit of the kids, but often what happens is that teachers end up getting dumped on by the administration and then there is resentment, misunderstanding, and just plain idiocy that ends up turning a student into a math problem.  I believe data matters, but I know that kids are really tired of standardized testing and it’s not going away, at least in this country, anytime soon.

I’ve also written six novels, countless short stories, hundreds of blog posts and other things, not to mention lesson plans created out of thin air (i.e. my addled brain).

Call it midlife crisis, call it burnout, I feel like I need a side hustle to keep things interesting.  Recently I landed on a Facebook ad for one of those people saying that they make a six-figure income doing copywriting.  I’m sure these people are very few, and if you are a successful copywriter please be honest with me about it, but I’m thinking of starting a “side-hustle” in copywriting to maybe make extra money.

If it becomes a career, then so be it.

In the coming weeks I’m going to be exploring copywriting, using that pricey English degree of mine to do deep research on the subject, and will post here as I find out new and honest information about it.  This blog has always been about writing, so I’m only going to post about that in the future.

The blog has always been an honest take on the writing game, and I will endeavor to do that as I go.  Sorry.  I have to work on my conversational tone if I’m going to be a copywriter, so…

When I figure stuff out I’ll give you the 4-1-1 on what I stumble on.

Happy writing!

Book Launch: The Shibboleth Code Is Finally Available!

Cover design by Jack Johnson, just the greatest cover designer this side of Andromeda.

After a long wait and a lot of struggle, the final book in the Five Rims Series is finally available!

Description:

Guillermo and Mitsuki, the last humans in existence, have survived their escape through the dangerous purple ionic cloud. Their broken gunship floating helpless in space, they are picked up by a gargantuan dreadnaught, healed of their wounds, and given a place to rest. Little do they know that these new saviors are plotting an unspeakable evil, a plan to invade their former home, eradicate the bug Queen and dominate the rest of the Five Rims system.The third and final book in The Five Rims series, ¿The Shibboleth Code¿ is a wild journey through a previously unseen sector that will take readers from the expansive decks of the dreadnaught Victorum to the harsh post-apocalyptic wasteland of the planet Exile where discarded Terrans live in chaos. It is a journey of adventure and discovery, a journey that will lead our heroes on a quest for meaning, for an understanding of destiny, and a hope for a far off Eden.

Right now the book is only available on Kindle and in print.  You may find these links below:

Paperback ($12.00)

Kindle ($2.99)

To find the other books in the series (The Terminarch Plot and The Terminarch War), just click the link to my author page here.

The Elephant In the Room: My Next Novel and It’s Hopeful Impact

Wow.  It’s been a long time since I’ve posted to this blog.

Honestly it’s been an insane two months.

On December 5th, my 76 year old mother entered the hospital because of complications following a routine colonoscopy, and I only brought her home a week ago Thursday.  She developed a bleed that wouldn’t stop, so they eventually had to do laparoscopic surgery to repair it. After this, she developed a twist in her intestine that created a blockage that they had to go back in to repair.  She spent two weeks without food or exercise, so she lost nearly 12 pounds.  She left the hospital on the 2nd of January and went to a rehabilitation facility for another three weeks.  She is finally up and about without a walker, but still very weak.

We almost lost her.  Why tell you this?  Well, I’m getting there…

You see, I almost lost mom.  I’ve been telling her I’d write this book for her for years.  I’ve written several other novels and they are published, but they are all science-fiction (something I love) and this novel has been on the back-burner for about 15 years.  Her hospitalization has been the kick-in-the-pants I needed to get cracking on this book.  The current political climate in the U.S. (and what I believe is the Holy Spirit) is driving me inevitably toward writing it as well.

I read an article last week entitled “White Evangelicals, this is Why People Are Through With You”, posted by my awesome student teacher Trey Cabler.  In the article, John Pavlovitz states that support of Trump and the GOP goes contrary to the teachings of Jesus in Matthew 5.  You can read the article, as I’ve linked it above, but it contains the sentiment I have been experiencing currently.  As a Christian, I spiritually grieve for the American Christian and what support of misogyny, hatred, bigotry, islamophobia, xenophobia and the general lust and greed of this current administration has done to the Christian witness.  Namely, it does not jibe with the teachings of Jesus at all, and the world around us knows it.

Let it be known that I’m not a Republican or a Democrat.  I’m more in line with the Progressive Bull Moose Party if I were to choose.  Check them out here.  But as I’m about to reveal, none of that matters to me…

On to the idea for the novel and why I feel it could have social impact on American Christians:

I think Naveen Andrews should play Jesus if my book ever became a film.  He’s more close to what Jesus probably looked like…plus he’s a great actor.  (I can dream, right?)

I’ve been planning to write a fictional novel about the life of a Roman soldier stationed in Judea for some time (15 years to be exact), but never had the thematic thread I needed until I read that article.  It put things into words for me, and made me grieve for my fellow Christians.  In fact, I have been grieving and praying for the sin of my Christian brothers and sisters for some time now, as I do not hate them, for that would be sin.  I want them to see that when Jesus said “give unto Caesar what is Caesars”, he was stating the fact that this grand empire seemed like much to the world at the time, but the most important thing is to “give unto God what is God’s”.  The United States Government thinks it is very important right now, and maybe it is, but in the grand scheme of things it is as the apostle James noted “like smoke that appears for a little while, then vanishes”.  The most important thing is to do the work of the Kingdom right where we are (care for the poor, the sick, the needy, the prisoner, the thirsty, etc).  As a bible-believing Christian, I believe I live in a Kingdom.  I happen to reside in a Republic, but that Republic could overnight become a dictatorship or a communist country.  The Kingdom is more important to me.  It transcends all political parties and governments.

I hope to have this latest book (untitled at the moment even after 15 years) in the hands of a publisher by the end of this year.  I’ll continue to work on other books more to my science fiction bent later on, but this will be a labor of love and a call to all of my brothers and sisters in Christ to realize that they are damaging the name of Jesus by supporting such evil.

If I have offended you by stating my heart with you, know that I am as sorry as Jesus was when he drove out the money changers.  It is with conviction I write this, as it was with Him.  Did Jesus love the money-changers any less?  Of course not, and I would be a bad follower of Christ to not love my erring brother the same.  God bless you, and may you throw away your idols and seek His face if you are a believer in Christ.

If you are not a believer, I love you, too.  My King Jesus loves you and wants you to be part of His Kingdom.  Message me to find out how or just read John 3:16.

Blessings!

What Novels Inspire Your Writing?

As stated many times on this blog, good writers must in turn be good readers.  I don’t mean you can read lots of words or big words (sorry Trump) but I simply mean that good writers seek out good writing to emulate when working toward that new idea for a fiction piece.

Lately I’ve read some really good books, all of them read during the difficult task of finishing the last book in my space-opera trilogy.  These books inspired me to new ideas for other projects which in turn caused me to work harder to finish the WIP.  I really needed some motivation as I had to go back and find the spark that ignited the flame I had for the series in the first place.

There were several books that gave me hope during my ordeal, and these are some of the best:

Ex-Heroes by Peter Clines

The plot: So you like the Avengers?  The X-Men?  Great!  Now throw these heroes into a world where a zombie plague has run its course and the few remaining humans are cowering behind the protective arms of a host of earth’s mightiest superheroes.

Why it inspires: The premise is crazy, but what it teaches me is that even a crazy premise can make for fun and interesting reading.  Clines is one of my favorite current authors and he doesn’t disappoint as far as storytelling and description.  His characters are lively and interesting and the premise creates a situation that is fun to discover as the onion layers of the apocalypse are pulled back one by one.  It challenges me to think outside the box for plot ideas and is a darn fine read.

Way Station by Clifford Stimak

The plot: A Civil War veteran is somehow living in a shack in the Appalachian mountains.  He’s still physically in his thirties, and the shack keeps him young as long as he stays in it.  He has been selected to be a way station keeper for an intergalactic transport service.

Why it inspires: Stimak is one of my favorite science fiction writers, but that aside this is an exploration of how far one can take a science fiction story until the science begins to blend into fantasy.  Arthur C. Clarke said that alien tech would be so far above us that it would look like magic.  It teaches me to not worry so much about the science of how something is happening but to tell a good story.  The story is so compelling in this novel that it stands as one of the great sci-fi reads of all time by most readers.

The Wasteland Saga by Nick Cole

The plot: This saga is made up of three intersecting novels: “The Old Man and the Wasteland”, “The Savage Boy” and “The Road is a River”.  It follows two main characters as they traverse a Mad Max/Book of Eli style wasteland after a horrific nuclear event.

Why it inspires: This series is so amazing that I just don’t have words for it.  Just read it.  What it teaches me is that even though a writer could spend a lot of time on the world his/her characters inhabit, the most important thing is story and character interaction.  This series has that in spades.  It could have been a story set in a modern world or in the old west.  The characters would be the same.  It is ultimately a great story.

Sleeping Giants by Silvain Neuvel

The plot: a scientist, as a child, fell through a hole in the ground and found a giant mechanical hand which then sparks a life-long hunt for the parts of a giant robot hidden throughout the earth.  These parts were scattered here aeons ago by an alien race and we have just now become technologically advanced enough to find them.

Why it inspires: The format of this novel is very cool.  Mostly it consists of de-classified interviews, status reports and other documents that don’t read like fiction.  In doing so, it creates a sense of mystery and reality that is immersive and interesting.  It teaches me to think outside the box with formatting my next novel.  I might be incorporating some interviews and other non-traditional storytelling techniques in my next book.

The Book of Strange New Things by Michel Faber

The plot: a Christian pastor leaves his wife on earth to go to another planet to become the pastor of an indigenous race on the first planet humans have attempted to colonize.

Why it inspires:  As a Christian who tries to live his life for Christ, this novel is amazing.  The author does not profess to be Christian, yet he has managed to capture the truth of what it is to have faith in Christ and to try to spread the Gospel to others.  I am taught that if this non-Christian can write in this vein, telling a compelling science fiction story with a heart of faith at the core, I can do the same.  I’m so glad to see another author doing this and being successful.  It gives me hope to reach a wider audience.

What books inspire you as a writer?  Do you read the classics at all?  What modern texts are your go-to novels?  Post in the comments below.

A Poem: “Wrong Mailbox”

Wrong Mail Box

Fiancées wedding shower.
I am the solitary man at this gathering,
Unaware that men are not
Invited to these things,
But anticipating
The outing I have devised for later
For my future bride:
Italian Bistro and “Will Rogers Follies”

For now I wander the dimly lit cavernous halls of the church,
For it is Saturday, and we are saving power, says the diminutive pastor.
I ponder the life I am about to begin
With my true love
My soul mate
Two lost souls swimming in a fish bowl
Becoming one found soul

As I repose upon a soft couch in the foyer
The sonic double cheeseburger I consumed earlier
Like concrete congealing in the rain
So I hasten to the nearest lavatory.
Discovering it empty,
I enter the nearest stall
To begin the inevitable

With smart phones a distant future
I sit in silence
And then I ascertain voices

Distinct female voices

Before long
Someone enters the stall to my left
And my eyes track down
To the underside of the faintly rusted partition
And I spy a nylon clad foot nestled in a somewhat scuffed gray pump

I start, my business concluded, and begin to survey my mistake

The chatty voices continue:
“And did you see that blender? Who gives a blender?”
“And my goodness he is…what does he do again?”
“He’s so handsome. At least more handsome than the other ones.”
“Did he say something about being a writer?”
“Hope that pays the bills.”
“I wonder when they’ll have some little ones running around?”

Precipitately I am beset with fear,
The trap I have arranged for myself springing shut.
How to escape?
The woman next to me finishes with a clamber
And I hear the softest sound of elegant flatulence
A flush
And the voices continue, but they are thankfully, mercifully quieting, moving away.

So I decide to escape.

I ready myself,
Fastening things together.
Tucking in shirt tail
Taking in a deep breath and holding it
Holding it
Holding it

My hand, quivering, reaches for the latch.
I slide it aside
Grip it until the metal creaks
Open quickly
The motion wafting a humid breeze

And two minuscule girls stand before me in their Sunday best,
Between the stall and the sink
Staring wide eyed
Mouths open in horror

And I dash out the door.

Think Carefully About Your New WIP

I am in the uphill struggle to finish the final book in the Five Rims series, and as the kids say, the struggle is real.  I have been bombarded with so many new ideas for novels that it has become that much more difficult to finish the current novel because I want to move on with other projects.

I suppose this is a good problem (as several writers struggle to come up with new ideas) but if my heart and soul isn’t in the current project then my readers won’t care about it.  I have to care about it, so I’m really trying to care.

As I have stated before, I won’t be doing another series, and I’ve pushed the other ideas over to reams of notebook paper in order to finish the current book.

But as any good writer, I’m reading a lot of other books.

I read the first book in the “EX” series by Peter Clines.  Great book.  The premise is a world where there are superheroes sort of like DC or Marvel’s universe, but the world is over-run with a zombie apocalypse. Many of the heroes are unharmed (and cannot be harmed) by the zombie virus, and are leading humanity in a quest of survival.

I also am currently reading “The Book of Strange New Things” by Michel Faber, a Dutch author who not only is a best-selling author but an multi award-winning author as well.  His novels are genre bending, and they tend to reach to the heart of good storytelling with realistic characters and high-minded plot-lines.

“The Book of Strange New Things” is a novel about an evangelical Christian pastor who is charged with taking a mission journey away from his wife to an alien planet where a human colony is being created.  He finds a congregation of alien creatures, and prospers by spreading the gospel of Christ to them, but his wife is stuck back home on an earth being ravaged by the inevitable result of global warming.  It is a book about faith and relationships, the backdrop being an interesting science-fiction story.

Both of these novels have given me inspiration for new stories, but I am now thinking carefully about the next novel, mainly what type of story I am going to tell.  My current series is a swashbuckling adventure story in space without much deep symbolism or thematic message.  Sure, the world needs great adventure stories, but I’ve always wanted to write something meaningful, something that would resonate on a more social or political landscape.

This is why I’m thinking very carefully about my next project.  Originally I wanted to tell a story of a young man who develops super powers, is whisked away by another superhuman, only to find out that the earth is protected by a secret society of super heroes.  It could turn political, or it could be a commentary on American Christianity in a veiled allegorical way.

It might be “Ex-Heroes”-worthy, but not “The Book of Strange New Things”-worthy.  I want it to be closer to the latter.  I may have to scrap the idea entirely, but my point is that if you are considering a new project, rather than write yet another vampire story, why don’t you consider being original and saying something within your text that speaks to some heavy social issue?

I’m thinking very carefully about the next book, and hopefully I can give back to my fellow man, take a stand about something that really sets my head on fire, hopefully make people think.

In the end, that will be a better offering from this writer than just another adventure story.

 

5 Ways to Re-energize Your Muse

If you write as much as I do then you probably hit a snag now and again.  This gnarled, moss-covered branch that catches on the canoe of your creativity can be broken but one needs to have the right tools to cut it loose.

1. Focus on the Task at Hand – Currently I’m slogging through the final book in a series even though I have about three other stand-alone books I want to write.  The battle to keep going with a series and keep interested in it is a real one.  Some days I sit down to write and just run into a brick wall.  I have set several deadlines and then failed to meet any of them, and it is beginning to get troublesome.  However, I’ve decided to spend each day finishing one chapter (as I have 10 chapters left on the outline) and will endeavor to finish those chapters in as many days.  Once it’s done, I can edit, polish it, and make it better than my bored mind will let me right now.
2. Remove Distractions – Make a list of the things that are distracting you from finishing your book and get rid of them.  It will be tough to sacrifice that show you want to watch or that mindless task that is keeping you from writing, but in the end your book will get done.  Isn’t that why you are writing in the first place?  If you are not writing, you are not a writer.
3. Treat Yo-self – If you save all those shows on a DVR or wait until Friday to pop down to the pub, you will find those activities that much more rewarding if you only get to do those if you’ve written a substantial amount of words.  However, you need to reward yourself for hard work.  I will often punish myself by not doing those things at the end of the week if I haven’t written, and spend the entire weekend writing.  The point is to reward hard work with much needed time for unwinding.
4. Set Manageable Goals – I have used several different time-management tools to keep me on task, but don’t get stuck into one form of time-management.  If the time-management tool you are using doesn’t work for you then find another one that works.  I used to let Scrivener set my word count goals for the day based on getting a 50K word document finished by a certain date, but days of not working on the document made the word goal for each day rise beyond manageable numbers.  I currently try to get one complete chapter done per writing session, however long the word count will be.  Be flexible with goals in order to meet those goals without failing to reach them.
5. Don’t Beat Yourself Up – I am the worst at feeling awful that I didn’t write daily.  I live a pretty busy life.  I am a high school teacher, a father of four teens, and also manage an alternative education program.  Finding time to write is sometimes difficult.  However, I have to make time, not do that activity that would be a time-waster or a leisurely activity, and generally manage my time so that I can get things done.  I have quit feeling bad that I don’t write one or two days a week, and that has been much better for my psyche when I sit down to tackle those word counts.

5 Things to Consider Before Writing a NaNoWriMo Outline

The annual National Novel Writing Month (November) is only a few weeks away.  If you haven’t started on your outline for the event, then you’re in luck!  I’ve narrowed down the five most important things you should think about before you start work on it.

1. Overkill – I’m sure you have a germ of a story floating around in your mind, and that is what you should use before you get started.  Spend a little time making a list of things that naturally progress from the germ so that you flesh out the idea fully. Then go a step further.  Let the ideas unfold even if they don’t go together, kind of like word association, until you fill pages and pages.  It should look like your brain just exploded onto the page, but you can organize the mess into a working outline.
2. Character Bios – Make sure you spend a majority of your time fleshing out the characters, writing their back story, and generally plotting out their motivation going all the way back to birth.  Give them large, medium and small goals.  Give them hair and eye color, all the physical features in detail.  This way you can refer back to these notes as you write your novel.
3. Villains and Foils – Create character bios for the villains in the novel, and if you want tips on how to do that, check out my article I wrote on that forever ago “Hubris: How to Write Great Villains Into Your Novel“.  You should also write in a few foils for your main characters.  These are characters that have traits that mirror the main characters and thereby shine a light on the traits of your main characters.  I also wrote a handy article about this here.
4. Major Story Arc – Create a believable story arc that we will call the main arc.  Plot out the novel using your brainstorming session from number one and make sure to blend in all the character goals for your main characters.  Don’t worry if some of them never reach their goals.  It’s ok if the minor ones don’t, but not ok if the major ones don’t make it to their goal.  People like to see the main character make it, even if their goal was a secret one that they didn’t originally plan to reach.
5. Minor Story Arcs – Make sure there are several minor story arcs.  You can use the goals of the minor characters for this or take your major characters on a tangential journey for a bit as long as it doesn’t detract from the main action of the story.  These minor story arcs are great if they are a trial of some type that grows the main character in some way.

For more tips, you can check out what I believe J.R.R. Tolkien had to say about writing novels and also several other articles about writing.  Just search for them in the handy search bar to the right!

3 Reasons to Not Write a Series (AND 3 Reasons Why You Should)

I’m trying my darnedest to finish the third book in the Five Rims series, and writing this blog entry isn’t really helping me achieve that goal…or is it?

I think that I will never attempt another series.  It’s not that my series isn’t exciting as it really is.  I love the idea of creating a massive universe and then writing a ton of books in that world.  The problem is that I have so many other books I want to write, and all of them are stand-alone novels.

I’m working on this final book, but I thought I would go over a few reasons why writing a series is a real challenge.

Why you shouldn’t:

1. A SERIES IS REALLY BIG – It takes a lot to create a world of characters, and in my case a universe of characters.  I spent 6 months just designing the worlds I could explore, and I haven’t really reached all of the places I designed much less all the creatures and species I wanted my main character to possibly encounter.  Will I come back to the series some day and re-visit some of these places?  Sure.  It may not be a novel but a short-story anthology that does it, though.
2. A SERIES IS TIME CONSUMING – You really have to put all of your writing eggs in one basket to do a series.  You have to put all of the other stuff on the back burner in order to get it done and produce books in a timely manner.  If you leave your readers at a cliff-hanger with one book, you should probably get the new one out pretty soon as to not leave too much time between sequels.  I have made that mistake with the Five Rims series, and now the new book may not come out until November of this year, nearly a year and a half after the last book.
3. A SERIES REQUIRES PATIENCE – It takes time to do a series and if you are suffering from adult ADD like myself, it takes a lot of effort to just stay on task.  I have a pretty busy life anyway with 4 teenage children, a full time teaching job, and several other demands.  Writing every day is difficult, and I’m finding that most days I just end up not writing which makes me have to go back and re-read what I wrote a few days ago.

Why you should:

1. RICHER CHARACTERS – I have found that hanging out with these characters for three books has been rewarding in that I have been able to see where they would go throughout the saga that is the Five Rims.  I’m sure Guillermo would have been fine as a curmudgeonly hero who only changes slightly by the end of the first book, but now I’m beginning to see that he is much more noble than I thought he was.  I am in love with my female lead, mainly because I patterned her after my wife (grin) but because I have watched her grow from a strange ingenue who lived alone in the jungle to a sidekick to a love interest for the hero.  Sacrifices are still to be made, and I’ve introduced a few new characters for the third installment, but the connections between these characters have taught me much about characterization which will be used in the next book I write.
2. ACCOMPLISHMENT – Let’s face it, writing a series and sticking to it is really an endeavor.  If you can complete one, then you’ve done something spectacular.  Most people don’t finish that one book they’ve been working on for years.  With the completion of The Shibboleth Code I will have written 6 novels.  I think that’s a huge milestone for this little indie writer.  Finishing the series will be tough (as I have to say goodbye to these characters) but when it is done I will feel like I’ve made my own personal trip to the moon and back.
3. GROWTH – As a writer we tend to stay in our cave and crank out words, but I have grown more during my tenure as a series writer than I have ever grown in the course of writing stand-alone books.  It has taken everything I can muster at times to finish this series, and I know that this will help me in the long run when I start that new stand-alone about that immortal guy who has given up on humanity or that dystopia where political dissidents are mind-wiped to think they are androids and the public just goes along with it.  (You see…I have a lot more to write).

What are your personal pros and cons of writing a series?  Post them below and I promise I’ll respond!

A Writer’s Review: Blade Runner 2049

As anyone who reads this blog would know, I’m a massive Philip K. Dick fan.  Recently there has been a huge flood of films and television programs adapting some of the greatest of Dick’s short stories and novels.  Of course, this is nothing new.  Hollywood has been mining his work for years.

Blade Runner is indeed one of the greatest science fiction films of all time, so when I heard that they were making a sequel I was a little worried.  Was this sequel necessary?  I loved the ambiguity of the original, the question as to whether or not Detective Deckard was a replicant or not.  Those kinds of plot details still haunt me.

The newest installment, directed by Denis Villeneuve, is comparative in scope and vision as Ridley Scott’s original offering, but it is in some ways not as thought-provoking.  Sure, visually it looks like the original, but it is simply a continuation of the story, a following of a thread of “what ifs”.

One of the strengths of the film is definitely the writing.  The monologues of the blind and aloof Niander Wallace (Jared Leto) are meandering and strange.  He explores the human condition with a dreamlike performance much like the monologues of Roy Batty (Rutger Hauer) in the original.  Many of the roles have been reversed in this film.  Our hero (Ryan Gosling) is a replicant tasked with being a Blade Runner, a hunter of rogue replicants.  He has a holographic girlfriend Joi (Ana de Armas) who spends the film trying to show her love for him even if it is only a programmed lie.  She is very much like  Rachel (Sean Young) in the original, a woman who needs to be comforted and rescued.

The script elevates even further once Deckard (Harrison Ford) enters the story.  His entrance is not trite or unimaginative.  He is living out his days in a sad and broken place which reflects the desperate nature of his circumstance.  In the end the plot twist is a bit contrived in my opinion, but it works nonetheless.  It is a surprise for some, but I unfortunately saw it coming like a hover-car with blinking lights.  The red herring isn’t strong enough for me, and when they reveal the character who is the at the center of the plot twist early on I understood where the film was going.

All in all it is a visually stunning film, and the story is strong enough to be worth sitting in a theater for 2 hours and 45 minutes.  It has many parallels to the original without being campy or heavy-handed, and it is still exploring the thematic message of what makes us human.  Do we have a soul?  If we are a construct, then are we as human as someone born of flesh?

My recommendation is to see it.  It is a good example of analogy, thematic structure and terrific storytelling.

Speaking Engagement: A Poem

I was invited once again to Ryan McKinley’s “Ricochet” event, a speaking engagement where he invites speakers of various backgrounds to tell true stories about themselves for a welcome audience.  The show was broadcast live on Facebook and is on his podcast or will be soon.

The premise is that the speakers have to tell a story according to a theme (in this case “So you think you’re so smart?”).  The story has to be true and it can be funny or serious.  I chose to tell my embarrassing story via the mode of a poem.  What follows is that poem:

Wrong Mail Box

Fiancées wedding shower.
I am the solitary man at this gathering,
Unaware that men are not
Invited to these things,
But anticipating
The outing I have devised for later
For my future bride:
Italian Bistro and “Will Rogers Follies”

For now I wander the dimly lit cavernous halls of the church,
For it is Saturday, and we are saving power, says the diminutive pastor.
I ponder the life I am about to begin
With my true love
My soul mate
Two lost souls swimming in a fish bowl
Becoming one found soul

As I repose upon a soft couch in the foyer
The sonic double cheeseburger I consumed earlier
Like concrete congealing in the rain
So I hasten to the nearest lavatory.
Discovering it empty,
I enter the nearest stall
To begin the inevitable

With smart phones a distant future
I sit in silence
And then I ascertain voices

Distinct female voices

Before long
Someone enters the stall to my left
And my eyes track down
To the underside of the faintly rusted partition
And I spy a nylon clad foot nestled in a somewhat scuffed gray pump

I start, my business concluded, and begin to survey my mistake

The chatty voices continue:
“And did you see that blender? Who gives a blender?”
“And my goodness he is…what does he do again?”
“He’s so handsome. At least more handsome than the other ones.”
“Did he say something about being a writer?”
“Hope that pays the bills.”
“I wonder when they’ll have some little ones running around?”

Precipitately I am beset with fear,
The trap I have arranged for myself springing shut.
How to escape?
The woman next to me finishes with a clamber
And I hear the softest sound of elegant flatulence
A flush
And the voices continue, but they are thankfully, mercifully quieting, moving away.

So I decide to escape.

I ready myself,
Fastening things together.
Tucking in shirt tail
Taking in a deep breath and holding it
Holding it
Holding it

My hand, quivering, reaches for the latch.
I slide it aside
Grip it until the metal creaks
Open quickly
The motion wafting a humid breeze

And two minuscule girls stand before me in their Sunday best,
Between the stall and the sink
Staring wide eyed
Mouths open in horror

And I dash out the door.

5 Myths About Writing Science Fiction

So you want to write a science fiction novel.  However, you feel like you don’t know what you’re doing.  Perhaps you read science fiction like this humble author and you’d like to try your hand at writing something in the science fiction genre.

Well, there are a few myths about science fiction novelists, and I’m here to debunk those right now like Neil DeGrasse Tyson at a Bigfoot convention.

1. You have to have read a lot of science fiction – This one is one of the most obvious, and it’s something I hear all the time.  Sure, it can help if you’ve read a lot of science fiction novels (I’d start with Philip K. Dick or Robert Heinlein) but you don’t have to be an expert on science fiction.  If you love the genre (maybe you’ve watched a lot of sci-fi) then you’re on your way.  Science fiction doesn’t have to be hard science-fiction.  Ultimately it’s about telling a story, and if you can do that, then you’re on the right track.
2. Good sci-fi writers are good world builders – Not necessarily.  I talked to Timothy Zahn recently (one of the most prolific science fiction writers of our day) about this and he said that he only designs what is going to appear in the novel, not the entire world.  Last I checked, Timothy Zahn has sold a few novels…more than two (heh).  I used to think this was necessary, but now that I’ve written a few books myself I realize that much of that is time consuming nonsense that keeps you from doing the hard work of telling a good story.
3. Everything has been written – This one is an oldie but a goodie.  Sure.  You could think this and never write another word.  Why try if everything has been written?  How else are we going to know what we can imagine if we don’t do some spring boarding off of good stuff that we know works.  There are tons of dystopian novels out there right now (and critics are saying they are passe) …but who cares?  Write what you love.  If you write what you don’t love you’ll soon stop writing and find other things to do.
4. My alien races have to make sense – I find this one humorous.  Sure, you have to make your alien races (if you use them) make sense within the world you create, but is there really a reason Spock’s ears are pointed?  What does it matter?  It’s an aesthetic that made him “look” alien and those ears were cheap to mass-produce for the show.  (We won’t mention the eyebrows). As long as the alien races you create are believable to most of the people you know, go for it.  Try making aliens that don’t look human or are not humanoid at all instead of just another human with a weird prosthetic appliance on their forehead to differentiate them from human.  Above all, does the race’s abilities get in the way of the story.  If it does, then cut it.
5. I have to know a lot about science –  I’m an English teacher by trade.  Does this disqualify me to be a science fiction writer?  Does Dr. Who play canasta with the Daleks?  Of course not.  What I have up my sleeve are tons of consultants.  I dream up some crazy idea for a book or a plot point or a new gadget and then I run it by the experts.  I happen to live a short drive away from a major university.  This university is crawling with well-versed scientists from every field imaginable, and one thing these folks love to do is teach you about science.  All it takes to start the conversation is an e-mail.  They love the idea of talking real science with noobs like me, and I learn something new every time I talk to them.  They are the reason that the wormholes in my latest series look like reflective spheres.

If you have any more myths you’d like debunked about science fiction writing, then comment in the space below.  I’d love to take a crack at them.  Until then, I’m back to doing what I should be doing instead of writing this blog post…writing the third book in the Five Rims series.

Toodles!

5 Steps to Shaking Writing Doldrums

I promise, writing muse, I shall never write another book series.  I just don’t have it in me.  In the beginning, I started out writing this Five Rims series with vim and vigor.  I spent 6 months on the backstory and on the various planets and races encountered within the pages, but now that the final novel is nearing an end I’m hearing the voices of new characters and seeing the stories of new adventures for entirely different books.

Not only that…school begins in less than a week.

I’m an English teacher, but I also direct an alternative education program, an online schooling supplement and sponsor the junior class.  Something has to give, most times, and unfortunately writing is one of those things I do now when I have time.  But I also have 4 teenage kids.

I will find time.

However, I am finding that this current series is dragging its feet even though I have the outline done and know where it’s going.  The problem is that I also have three other books I’d like to write waiting in the wings.

(They aren’t waiting.  Actually I’m working on them most of the time when I should be writing the final chapter of Five Rims.)

But, I figured out how to finish the project even though I’m in the doldrums about it.  I don’t want the quality to suffer because I want to move on to other projects.  So how do I do that?

1. Re-ignite the Excitement – I pour over the original notes every time I get stuck on a scene or just grow tired of writing in that world.  I try to figure out what made the original idea so exciting for me and try to dwell there.  I try to talk to someone about the ideas I have, mainly to get myself rolling on the task of finishing the book.
2. Write No Matter What – I set aside a time each day to write at least a certain quota of word count even though my heart isn’t in it.  I push through and get it done and then reward myself by working on the other projects I have planned for the future.
3. Set a Finish Goal – I have a deadline in October to finish the rough draft.  I will get it done if I keep with #2, and then I can go through and edit and revise so that it will make more sense and will be more pleasing to a reader’s eye.
4. Get the Cover Designer Cracking – I have a cover designer, and I’ve already sent scenes and an outline to him for perusal.  I’m sure he’ll give me some proofs in a few months, and then I’ll be on my way to finishing the thing.
5. The Long Weekend – I’m off on Fridays as we only have a 4 day school week.  This allows me to grade papers on Friday, but it also gives me a solid afternoon to work on the book, and I will devote that to the book entirely.  I’ll go to the library, find a quiet place, and get done.  Marathon the thing.

Do you have some tried and true ways to get yourself moving toward a finish line with your current project?  Please comment or post them below.  I’d love to share ideas with you.

Philip K. Dick and a Writer’s Subconscious

This is a great resource for the Philip K. Dick fan, and I will be posting what I’ve learned from it for some time.  (Photo credit Wikipedia)

Currently I’m working on the third and final book in the Five Rims trilogy: “The Shibboleth Code”. It is an arduous task, and even though I love the characters and the setting and I feel like I’m really bringing the story to a close, I am so ready to get on with another book.

I have ideas for several other novels that compete with my current project, but I must soldier on.

In between writing and being a full time dad and teacher, I’m reading several books.  I am currently working my way through a massive tome entitled The Exegesis of Philip K. Dick.  Published in 2011 and edited by Pamela Jackson and Jonathan Lethem it contains the annotated mad writings of one of my favorite writers of all time.  Currently Dick’s most famous book The Man in the High Castle is in its second season, a third to debut in the spring of 2018 and Ridley Scott has made a sequel to Blade Runner based on a novella by Dick entitled Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?.

I have always been fascinated by the madness of Dick.  He was indeed a great writer, someone I would aspire to emulate in the work that I do as a science-fiction novelist.  He is indeed one of my heroes even though I don’t ascribe to dropping acid or taking the soluble vitamin concoctions meant for a schizophrenic as he did on numerous occasions.

Currently I have been making notes in the margins of the book and underlining passages that give me insight into the process that Dick followed, hoping to help me become a better writer.  I believe I have found a particular gem about inspiration in the pages of the text and I wanted to relate it to you here:

It appears that Dick believed that novels will write themselves and that he was writing reality into being.  In a letter to Peter Fitting dated June 28th, 1974, Dick described (in the post script) a “directing presence” that guided the writing of his novels, specifically the novel Ubik (10).  Later on he wrote that he was “inspired by a creative entity outside [his] conscious personality to write what [he wrote].  He states: “I had imagined it to be my subconscious, but this only begs the question, What is the subconscious?  There is no doubt that quite frankly I do not in any real sense write my novels; they do come from some non-I part of me.  Often they contain dreams I’ve had (this was true of Lovecraft, I’ve heard).  If tachyon bombardment was inspired by my novels, then it would stand to reason that the world —  it is really all the same world which my books depict, as has been pointed out in critical essays many times — it would stand to reason that, as the years pass, my books would, so to speak, come true” (13).

In a letter to Claudia Bush, dated July 5, 1974, Dick wrote about a dream he kept having about a book that according to his dream would give him the knowledge of the universe. He kept dreaming about it, the dream being recurring, and each time he would try to find out more information about the book (i.e. the color of the cover, the title).  He did eventually find the book in the real world, but it was a biography of Warren G. Harding, and in his words “the dullest book in the world; I tried to read it, but when the Book Find Book Club sent it to me but couldn’t” (15).

So I guess his theory doesn’t always ring true.

It is interesting to note that he spends several pages of one letter discussing the idea that he was possessed by a dead friend Jim Pike because he was doing all the things Pike would do (i.e. drink beer instead of wine, mis-spelling words, having odd political views) which is to note Dick’s particular form of madness.

However, this madness can be sifted down to a pretty profound idea that his muse was his subconscious, that he felt that his subconscious was what drove his writing.  In the exegesis, he states that “(1) I, consciously, don’t write my novels.  (2) Therefore a part of my unconscious does” (p. 29).  The question remains: Does our conscious or unconscious mind write our novels?

I don’t know how many times I’ve written passages and gone back months later and wondered how I came up with the phrasing, the plot, the character interaction that appears on the page.  Dick actually believed that the part of the brain unused during consciousness “active and more highly potentiated than before, and unusually endowed with verbal skills, in particular written verbal skills, rattles away at [us, the writer] visibly as soon as [we] shut [our] eyes; it is so to speak, writing a book while [we are] asleep” (29).

I have experienced this without copious amounts of soluble vitamins.  I awake often with ideas running through my mind from a dream I’ve had, feverishly writing it down before I forget it, and these have often been the best ideas I have produced in writing.

What do you think?  Was Philip K. Dick a madman or was he on to something?  How could we utilize this phenomena if it exists?  I’m not advocating LSD use by any means, but what can we learn from the man who wrote 7 novels in a year, 7 novels that are still lodged deeply into our science-fiction pop culture.

Dick, Philip K., Jonathan Lethem, and Pamela Jackson. The Exegesis of Philip K. Dick. London: Gollancz, 2012. Print.

SoonerCon: A Media Guest’s Retrospective

BZZZZZZZ!!!!

Yesterday ended my weekend at SoonerCon 26, a local science-fiction/fantasy/writer’s convention in Midwest City, Oklahoma within a short driving distance of my house.  This was my second year being invited as a media guest, which means I’ve written a few books and have done some podcasting, so they allow me to come be part of some panels.

Panels (for those of you who don’t know) are when a group of people in the industry gather at the front of a room of people and sit at a table where they discuss topics provided by the convention.  SoonerCon provides a survey to media guests where they are allowed to create topics for panel discussion.  I submitted several, and a couple of my panel suggestions made the cut.

Of course, the convention is a great opportunity for this indie writer because it gives me a chance to get my face in front of potential readers and also to show those readers that I’m a pretty decent writer.

Richard Kutz (my podcast co-host), Timothy Zahn, and myself.  Mr. Zahn was generous with his sagely advice, and will never be forgotten.  Meeting him was the highlight of the convention.

I met Timothy Zahn, the amazing novelist who created the Star Wars character Grand
Admiral Thrawn.  His latest book “Thrawn”, is a New York Times #1 bestseller.  He is kind of a hero of mine, since I have been reading his novels for years.  He had some great advice for me about world-building, about working in the business, and about being a writer.  I will never forget his wisdom.

Friday I was part of a panel entitled “An Embarrassment of Riches” which was in a rather large room (and there were microphones!). The room wasn’t very full, as it was Friday, but we had a lively conversation about the current state of super-hero and science-fiction television programs.  The question was: “Is this glut of sci-fi media too much and are we oversaturated?”  We had a great discussion, but what I did at the beginning of each panel was to ask a trivia question and then the person who answered correctly received a copy of my new short story compilation “The Headless White Horse”.

My friend Tyler Lippe who is his own best friend.

I did two more panels the following Saturday and Sunday.  Saturday’s panel was amazing and I spoke to a packed room.  We discussed “Designing Your Character from the Inside Out”, and I was able to talk candidly about the processes I go through to create characters, pitch my books to a large audience, and get some great laughs from the crowd.  I gave away another book, and afterward had many requests for cards from the audience wanting to buy books.  Sunday was a panel on Edgar Allan Poe, and since it was the last panel at the convention it was kind of small, but I had a great time nonetheless.

I totally rocked that Poe panel, though.

One of the best things about doing this con, one of the most beneficial things for the long run, was meeting several other local podcasters.  Richard Kutz and I do a little pop culture podcast called “Three Cylinder Stardrive”, but it is also a vehicle to get my books in front of buyers.  Since we have joined the local podcast community, we will be featured as guests on their podcasts and vice-versa, reaching an even wider audience to plug my books and it won’t cost me a dime.  I’d say that’s pretty good p.r.

If I’m invited back next year, I’ll definitely go.  It was a good experience and I feel like I

The mighty Jabba.  JediOKC built him over the course of a month, and he was the greatest prop showpiece at the convention.

did better “pressing the flesh” this year than the last time.  I met some good people who could help me move forward, and I will be sending e-mails to many local conventions like that in the future to get on as a media guest.

If you have a small local convention in your area, I would consider e-mailing their program director.  If you have a couple of books circulating Amazon, it could be worth your while to get involved.  I loved the experience, and I’m sure you would, too.

New Podcast Up: Some Monkeying Around With Kiefer

We talk “12 Monkeys” the series and how it stacks up against the Terry Gilliam film. We also discuss the film “Forsaken” where father and son Sutherland show us that the old west is still pretty cool. And Roger makes a case for Kiefer running for president.

You can find the episode here.

How to Set Up an Amazon Giveaway to Drive People to Your Amazon Author Page

I can’t take credit for finding out about this cheap little marketing gimmick.  That credit goes to my awesome podcast partner Richard Kutz.  We host a weekly podcast together called “Three Cylinder Stardrive”, a geek-out fun-fest where we break down current pop culture often from a writer’s perspective and also note a “Dollar Rental of the Week” which champions the local brick-and-mortar video rental store.

Ok.  On to the good stuff.

Amazon Giveaway is a service Amazon offers that allows you to buy something on Amazon and then give it away to a lucky winner after a 7 day sweepstakes.  The only catch that people have to buy into is to either follow your author page on Amazon, your Twitter account, your YouTube video, or any other thing you want within their guidelines.  Not everything is followable, but most things are, and it is a cheap way for

My best-selling book is of the post-apocalyptic genre, so I felt this film was the best choice for the giveaway.

you to get people to notice your page.  I paid less than $40 and am driving people to my author page who are interested in the kinds of things I write about because of the gift I chose to offer as a prize.

First, browse Amazon for a while and find an item that fits your writing genre.  Also choose something to give away that is in limited supply unless you choose to buy more than one thing to give away.  I only chose one thing, and that was the “Mad Max: Fury Road Black & Chrome Edition” blu-ray.  It’s rare, and features a black and white version of the film.  The point is that it is something that a true connoisseur of the genre would love to own.

Next, scroll down past the reviews of the item you have chosen to fit your particular genre and find the button that says “Set up an Amazon Giveaway”.

Once you have selected this button you will be taken to a page that begins the process.  It is important to note that the cheapest way to do the giveaway is to just offer the item as a sweepstakes where the winner is chosen at the end of the giveaway.  You have the option to buy several copies of the item to give away, but this begins to raise the price of the promotion and could get really expensive.  Amazon charges a fee for possible taxes in the area, and this offer is only open to Prime items.

A “random instant win” will choose the winner mid-way through the sweepstakes.  The other two options are more geared for multiple items in the giveaway.

You are then given the task of writing some cool messages to people who click on your giveaway.  I gave it a cool Mad-Max-speak spin, using terms from George Miller’s apocalyptic world to jazz up the prose.  Have fun with it, and remember that there is a 250 character limit, not much more than a Twitter message.  Be sure to tease the contestant with a very short blurb about one of your top selling books.

After you have paid Amazon using whatever payment method you choose, you will get the following screen that will announce the steps that will come after that.

Richard Kutz, my podcast partner, saw an increase in 250 followers to our Twitter page @ThreeCSD after only a few days of the promotion. It grows by the day, and this is with a small Twitter presence.  I will post again after my promotion was over to share the results of my promotion.

You can check out my promotion here!

Chris Cornell’s Last Solo Album: A Cry for Help?

Like many of my fellow gen-x’ers, finding out that Chris Cornell died from a suicide punched me in the gut.  It was like Kurt Cobain had died all over again.  It’s now a few weeks after his untimely death, and I can’t stop thinking about it.

Chris Cornell was indeed one of the great musical voices of the ’90’s grunge movement, an era of tonal and lyrical angst that was probably one of the last great periods of musical history.  As the front-man for Soundgarden and later Audioslave, a band he formed with the musicians from a fractured Rage Against the Machine, he left behind a giant footprint in the sands of rock history.

I found out on the last day of school, and later my son approached me with tears in his eyes to tell me that Chris Cornell had passed on.  My son, a musician and lover of good music, was heartbroken.

He recorded a solo album this year, “A Higher Truth”, a soulful, mostly acoustic album that really resonated with me.  I loved its painful and joyful messages, and Cornell’s signature voice made the album seem personal and gave it a haunting beauty.

And then Chris died.

On a trip home from Kansas City where my son and I attended a Red Hot Chili Peppers concert, we spent some of the long drive listening to “A Higher Truth”.  As I listened closely to the lyrics I began to realize that many of the songs contained messages from a man who was thinking about suicide even then.

Millions of people suffer from depression worldwide.  Call it a mental imbalance, a genetic disposition, or a spiritual trial, if we know someone who suffers from it we should surround them with love and support.  We shouldn’t judge them, we should love them unconditionally.

Cornell’s wife Vicky was a stalwart rock for Chris, and he had a son and a daughter who adored him.  As a father of four kids myself, I can’t imagine what they are going through right now.  I am heartbroken for them, and that goes beyond my being a simple fan of his music.  I can only pray for their loss, and that the love of Chris’s fans will resonate with Chris’s family and give them comfort in this difficult time.

I am a fan, but they are his family.

The album is probably one of my favorites and is filled with beautiful poetry.  “Only These Words” is a wonderful song about the love a father has for his daughter. “Josephine” is a beautiful love song, probably one of the most heartfelt love songs I’ve ever heard.  Sprinkled throughout the album, however, are lyrics that express a profound sense of pain that could have been warning signs that something was happening to him.

What follows are some examples from several songs that support this observation:

“Dead Wishes” – Track 2

Standing on the corner now I’m past surprise
Yelling out a warning to some passerby
I stand just as God made me and I lie down in disguise

In this lyric, Chris is following the thread of a man standing on a corner of a busy street like some madman or homeless person shouting at cars full of people who won’t listen.  This particular lyric is interesting in that he is “yelling out a warning” to “some passerby”, as if it is a random person who might listen.  He “stand[s] as God made [him]” yet feels as if he is living a lie.  Many sufferers of depression feel as if no one will listen to them or believe that they are suffering with this disease.  Perhaps this is Chris’s message to whomever will listen.

“Worried Moon” – Track 3

Yeah if it all goes wrong
And I’m a heart without a home
Maybe you can talk me out
Of doing myself in

This track probably has the strongest evidence that Cornell was considering suicide.  The narrator is one who is searching for answers, someone who is looking to the sky to find help.  It is a song of despair, someone who looks for love in relationships.  There is a sense in the song of finding happiness elsewhere, perhaps in an afterlife, but there is a refrain of “I don’t know” when this is mentioned.  The line “maybe you can talk me out/ Of doing myself in” is striking.  A careful lyricist like Cornell would agonize over lines.  I can’t help but think that this line was intentional.

“Through the Window” – Track 5

I saw you suffering
Through a foggy window in the rain
When you thought no one was watching, yeah
Going through your memories like so many prisons to escape
Become someone else
With another face
And another name
No more suffering

This song could be interpreted as Cornell speaking to himself, a song to a rock legend who is trapped in the prison of fame.  It is difficult for some, as it was for Cobain, to live the life of touring, making that new album, all the while thinking about how simple things were before all the accolades and record deals.  The lyrics to this song are a desire to have “another face” and “another name” so that the subject might have “no more suffering”.  People suffering from depression who think of suicide sometimes feel that if they had a “do-over” they would have a better life, and the despair of not being able to make this happen drive them to a point where they feel the only out is harming themselves.

These few songs are small glimpses into the struggles that Cornell was facing.  He was a great lyricist, an incredible poet, and an incredible voice.  I wish that he had not been alone that night.  I wish that he’d been able to fight the lies that told him it wasn’t worth it.  He was an amazing and bright star who fell on some very black days.

If you have a friend of family member who suffers from depression, please keep a careful watch on their life.  The “Suicide Prevention Lifeline” is a national organization to help people who are considering suicide.  Also, there are several ways for victims of depression can get help.  Seek out your local church as well.

If you loved Chris Cornell as much as I did, please purchase the album “Higher Truth”.  It is a beautiful body of work that I feel is a magnum opus from a wonderful artist.

You will be missed, sir.

 

The Lost Soul and Characterization

I spent a wonderful afternoon yesterday hashing out the details of the latest Five Rims installment with my good friend and collaborator Jack Johnson.  If you don’t have a writing group from which you can bounce ideas around, you need to at least get a good friend who is also a writer or at least an avid reader.

In our conversation I would volley ideas about where I think the next novel should go (tentatively titled The Shibboleth Code) and Jack would springboard off of those ideas and help me shape the plot into something that will keep me from getting bogged down in story elements.  He’s also really good at finding plot holes.  In turn I’d help him with any projects he’s thinking about or mulling around.

Much came of the conversation, but one thing is certain, I’m pretty sure my main character Guillermo March is a lost soul.  A lost soul is a character that exhibits several traits:

• Lost souls feel disconnected from others.
• Lost souls fall back into bad habits repeatedly.
• Lost souls feel like they have no place left to turn.

Guillermo has had these three main traits throughout the course of the first two novels (The Terminarch Plot, The Terminarch War) and as he has progressed, most of his character growth has been from trying to overcome these three traits.

I think there is much in store for Guillermo in the end.  One of the things Jack and I talked about was how in Breaking Bad, Walter White goes from being Mr. Chips to becoming Scar Face.  In my novel series, my character is kind of going the other way around in that regard.  He starts out as an un-loveable jerk and by the end he will do something that will set him apart as a true hero.

The fact that he is a lost soul has gifted his character with enough angst to try to better himself and those around him, even if the original intention for doing good came from a very selfish motivation.

Creating a lost soul as the protagonist for my novel series has been a fun ride, mostly because I had to figure out a way to make him redeemable for a reading audience.  How do you fall in love with a rogue who doesn’t seem to care about anyone but himself?

Have you ever had any experience writing a character who was a lost soul?  Share about it in the comments below!

New Podcast Up: Everybody Was Kung Fu Farming

Richard Kutz and I absolutely love AMC’s Into the Badlands.  If you aren’t watching it right now, you should.  The writing is excellent, the world building is amazing and who doesn’t love farmers who know kung fu?  We also discuss a little known film that is close to our heart entitled Hunter/Prey.  The writing in this film is worth noting in that it is a case study on how to keep a reader guessing with plot twists that are not too cliche.  It also has some of the best home-made props in indie film history!

Give us a listen right here.

If you want to drop us a line, find us on Twitter @ThreeCSD or on gmail at threecylinderstardrive@gmail.com!

How to Submit Indie Books to Public Libraries

In the early days of writing independently, indie authors had real trouble gaining enough clout to get their books on the shelves of public libraries.  Usually it involved a huge amount of red tape.  In most cases (as I discovered early on) the library wouldn’t stock your book if it wasn’t produced by a brick and mortar publishing company.

Thankfully times have changed.

Library Journal’s Self-E system allows you to submit a digital version of your book to your local library or to any library in the U.S.  All you have to do is fill out their online form and you can submit your book for their perusal.  Of course, you need to make sure your book is not full of grammatical errors and type-os.  Hiring a professional editor can remedy this.  (I provide this service at a highly competitive rate).

You can also enter your book in two contests at the end, one of which could garner you $1000 if you win.

Happy submitting!

New Podcast Up: Checking Out Demon Sharks

In this episode, Richard and I discuss the amazing writing of Bates Motel, and how we think the departures from Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho were smart and well-written.  We also discuss Freddie Highmore, Vera Farmiga and Nestor Carbonell, three actors who pulled off Emmy winning performances in this series.  We are sad to finally check out of the motel.  We also discuss a film you should find just to buy a copy to burn in the parking lot: “Shark Exorcist”.

Yes.  It exists.  Find it and burn it.

Find the episode here.

Is Your Plot a Prison for Your Characters?

I’m currently in the middle of finishing off a three book series.  I can say that I’m chugging along nicely, and the plot sketch I roughed out in the beginning stages is starting to take shape.

However, I have had to take a deep look recently at whether or not the plot I have devised has become a prison for my characters.  After some bitter soul searching, I have determined that a few of the characters need to take a road out of the main plot in order for them to be more interesting.

Do you have this problem?

The fact is that if the characters in your novel are not believable, then the plot won’t matter.  Alfred Hitchcock once discussed “the macguffin”, a plot device that the audience doesn’t care about but which drives the story along.

The point is that character interaction, character development should take a back seat to plot.  The plot should be driven by where the characters go as people (or as aliens in my case) not the other way around.

If we can let our characters live their lives on the page, we can create more engaging stories because readers identify with characters and not plot.

A few instances in fiction that illustrate this point:

• George’s decision to shoot Lennie at the end of Of Mice and Men.
• Willy Loman’s infidelity that turns every plot point in Death of a Salesman.
• Walter White’s downward spiral into crime that drives all plot points in Breaking Bad.
• Jimmy McGill’s desire to stretch from under his brother’s shadow in Better Call Saul.

And I could list several more, but I think you get the point.  Character driven stories are what most people desire because they reach out past the printed words on the page and touch our soul.  Nobody’s soul was ever touched by a cool plot twist.  It is always better to drive a story with character development.

The New Podcast: 3 Cylinder Stardrive

I haven’t posted in a while.

Like…a while.

The fact is that life has been keeping me quite busy lately, and I haven’t had the time to do much other than be a full time teacher and a full time dad to four teenage kids.  I am still writing (off and on) and plan on putting out another book by the end of the summer, but I’m also needing that podcasting outlet I had with Ryan McKinley when I used to do “Fanboys on Fiction”.

Ryan and I are still good friends, but our lives have led us in different directions as both of us are full time dads and live a good distance apart.  He’s also a full time writer over at The Laughing Place, and you should go check out his articles right now!

But back to the reason I started the new podcast…

One day, as I was joking around with my friend and fellow science-fiction fanboy Richard Kutz, we thought we should just do a podcast about the stuff we love and the stuff that makes us laugh.

I’ve always said that podcasting is a really good way to get yourself out in front of an audience of readers, and here lately I’ve needed to boost my platform considerably.  The last post I wrote here was about using the local fan convention as a vehicle for notoriety, and that will be something that should work in my favor later in the summer.

The podcast is called “Three Cylinder Stardrive”, and is available on iTunes, GooglePlay, and soon something called TuneIn which lets you listen to us on your lovely Amazon Dot or Echo while you vacuum your house and try not to spray your drink out your nose.  On the podcast Richard and I discuss whatever nerdy topic suits our fancy, mainly what we are watching or reading right now, my struggles with writing another novel and wishing I hadn’t gotten myself involved in another trilogy, and each week we detail a “Dollar Rental of the Week”.

Richard and I love the brick-and-mortar video store.  Sure you can go browse Netflix for hours.  But where else can you find the truly bad movies worthy of making jokes about as you view them?  Where else can you actually look at the back of the DVD case and decide how you will waste a buck and spend all week with a poorly made, dirty gem of a film?  We review these horrible films for you, many of them completely obscure and not available for streaming, for your listening pleasure.

You’re welcome.

The latest podcast episode, “Game Crashing 80’s Ninjas”, is now available on the host site but will be available on the other outlets tomorrow.

Soon I’ll post an article about why I’ve been gone so long from this blog, and how I might be ending it or moving it to another site.  Things are changing for me recently, and those details will be coming soon.

Until then, enjoy the podcast!

I’m Getting Into Audiobook Narration

Here recently, I realized that I have a perfectly good microphone from my podcast days lying around, a free GarageBand program on my MacBook Pro, and some evening free time. So, why not take all of the novels I’ve written over the years and narrate them into audio books?

Well, first of all, one has to have a voice for that kind of thing. Apparently I do, as I do voice over work for my job currently when creating instructional videos for the systems we use. So I suppose I have all three tools needed for the job.

I’ve decided to start with The Terminarch Plot, since it’s a series and I can put up one at a time on Audible for free and then as people buy the book it can be some more side income. I have a couple of tips for you if you plan on getting into it.

Rob Dircks, another novelist who records his own stuff, uses GarageBand and a humble microphone to record all of his books into audiobooks. He even has a few short stories available on his website. He also produced a handy video on Youtube where you can learn all about doing your own voice overs. He also provides a handy GarageBand file already set up with all the settings you need to pass Audible’s tests. 

You can also use Audacity if you are using a Windows system, and Rob has you covered there, too. 

Wish me luck! I soon will be recording my first chapter and hopefully I’ll have my first audiobook out in the void for people to buy in a few months!

All We Have To Decide…

Do you have a quote you live your life by or think of often?

J. R. R. Tolkien wrote in The Fellowship, “All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.”

I think of this quote more and more as I get older, and since this week marks one year since my mother passed on, I have been thinking about it on another level as well. I think that Gandalf was right here, the words spoken to Frodo, probably lost on him, but for me I take time each day to take stock of what I am given.

I have a great job, work with wonderful people, I have a perfect wife whom I don’t deserve, four great kids who are all now adults, a lovely pub to share a pint with friends now and again, and a church family who are supportive and giving. I have much to be thankful for, and this is not lost on me.

I think of a story I once heard about a man who figured up all the Saturdays he would have until he turned 75, bought that many marbles and put them in a jar. Every Saturday he takes one out and throws it away. It’s a visual representation of the time he has left, time to spend wisely.

Gandalf’s words are not lost on me. I don’t have a jar of marbles, but I’ve deleted all social media, spend quality time with my wife, kids, and good friends. I write. I play Dungeons & Dragons. I play with my many dogs. Life is so good.

So take time to focus on the little things, then you will truly be making good choices with the time that is given you. Don’t waste it scrolling a screen. Take a look around you. Take it all in.

My Mother One Year From Her Death

Daily writing prompt

Describe a positive thing a family member has done for you.

View all responses

Today’s prompt is a good one. I suppose I could write about a lot of family members, but the one who made the most positive impact on me was my mother, Rita Mae Colby.

My mom grew up in southern Oklahoma, Johnson County, near the small town of Milburn. When I say small, I’m not exaggerating. It is one of those towns that if while driving through, you blink and you miss it. She grew up on a 200 acre farm just to the north east of town, just beyond Blue River, in a remodeled shotgun house where they picked cotton in the Summer, picked up pecans in the Fall, planted in the Spring, and canned everything they could to get through the Winter.

This life born of hard living, of not buying anything at the store save flour, sugar, and some spices, of making dresses out of flour sacks, of finding the best in the simplest of things, informed who she was and informed her raising of us. We didn’t have much as kids, either, but we had a lot of love, and that was really all that mattered.

My mom worked so hard to put me through school, to teach me the lessons learned as a farm girl, mostly from the Bible, but she taught me about faith, and that is something onto which I hold fast because of her. My faith is something I cherish, and as my wife of 25 years pointed out, we’ve been through the ringer as a family.

From a son who was born severely premature, struggles as a public school teacher where no one gave me any respect as a professional, not even the administrators – especially the administrators – to the day when after 23 years of teaching, I called it quits, my faith in God has been my go-to.

Through all the difficulties of life, many of which I do not choose to share here because they are too painful and personal, I feel that the main thing my mother left with me was the ability to hold on to my faith. She did, as she lay in her bed at home surrounded by her friends and family only a year ago. We are fast approaching that day, May 1st, when she passed from this earth and to those ivory shores.

I remember well her words, the few that she was able to utter at this point in her journey, her battle with mitral valve prolapse, the disease that killed her and may one day take me. She said “Trust in Christ, son. Just trust him. Don’t think about it. Don’t overthink it. Just trust. He has the best path laid out for you. It might be a rocky one, and may have smooth days, but overall it will be the best road.” I’m paraphrasing, of course. She had a way of speaking to me that was almost like telepathy.

I miss you, mom. I will always miss you, but I know I’ll see you again someday. The greatest thing she ever did for me was just teaching me to hold on to the faith that passes all understanding. I’ve needed it. Perhaps you need it now. I would say hold on. Hold on to the love that God gives you. He gives it freely through his Son. All you have to do is reach for it.

Why I Ditched Social Media, and You Should, Too

It’s been a long time since I wrote anything on this blog, but it’s been a long time since I’ve written anything at all, really. I’ve written six novels since 2009, but haven’t written anything since 2018.

Not a blog post, not a short story, not anything.

I went through a horrific set of trials beginning about five years ago and just ending last year. I won’t go into all of the details about it, but suffice it to say, it left me changed. I could say that it left me changed for the worse, but actually it left me with a more retrospective understanding of myself, how my mind works, and the horrible habits I have that are not conducive to a writing life.

Today I went through a bout of anxiety, went down the normal road of worry, feeling horrible, feeling like the world was going to end, I took control of it and rather than worry about it, started to examine what anxiety does to my body. My heart races, my shoulders tense up, my breathing becomes more rapid, and I just generally feel horrible. It’s the same feeling I get when I scroll social media for hours on end, responding to tweets, posting silly memes, and everything else that huge waste of time entails.

A great podcast “The Art of Manliness”, specifically the episode entitled “Anxiety is a Habit – Here’s How to Break It“, interviews Dr. Judson Brewer who has spent his career studying anxiety, proves that feeling anxious is normal but worry is habit forming just like overeating or binge drinking. It’s your mind’s way of saying “I’m doing something about this anxiety”. Dr. Brewer says (and you should listen to the podcast because I’m over-simplifying it) that we should stop trying to get to the root of anxiety and certainly not worry about it but instead become curious about the anxiety and really examine it. How do you feel when you are anxious? How does it affect your heart rate? Your breathing?

In examining my anxiety, I also realized that a huge trigger was social media. I spend a lot of time just scrolling aimlessly, posting memes, and generally wasting a ton of time that could be spent writing. I decided that it wasn’t worth it. Really. But what about all those people who might read your books? Well, studies show that social media presence does very little to help sell books, so what is the other reason? I couldn’t think of one, so took a deep breath and I deleted it all.

I read a story once about a man who was my age (around 50) who counted up how many Saturdays he had left if he were to live to 75. He bought that many marbles, placed them in a jar, and every Saturday he takes one out and throws it away. This gives him a physical representation of how finite his life really is. Really, all of us have that finite of a life, so we better make the best of the time we have.

So it’s back to writing for me. I’ll work on some short stories to start before going back to that novel I’ve been playing around with for the past five years. The point is that I want to spend what I have left of my life doing meaningful things. My son is 23 and he hasn’t had social media for three years. If that millennial can do it, so can I.

And so should you.

Why Teaching Research Writing Is More Important Than Ever

I’ve taught high school English for over 20 years. I am tasked with teaching young people how to formulate an opinion, test that opinion through fact-based research and then modify that opinion into a statement of fact using vetted and peer-reviewed evidence.

However, every year when I begin discussing the plan for writing said paper, I hear a collective groan from my students. This collective groan is because students are going to have to write something substantial, to think for themselves, to “think about what they think about” as one of my mentor teachers used to say, but the collective groan is troubling and is an indicator of what we are seeing currently on social media regarding the deadly coronavirus.

But you say: “Oh it’s not so dangerous. They are inflating the numbers. Big Pharma just wants us all vaccinated so that they can make money off of us and control us.” Of course, “Godwin’s Law” states that “as an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches 1”. Currently in a video circulating the internet, Dr. Judy Mikovits, a researcher who was convicted of criminal activity in her lab (and who is a leading antivaxxer) accuses Dr. Anthony Fauci (who has these credits to his name) of being a deep state “Dr. Death” who is part of some Big Pharma conspiracy linked to Hillary Clinton and eugenics. In this time when we should probably listen to the experts in virology and infectious diseases we are somehow skeptical of their years of experience focusing on countering these deadly problems.

I believe we English teachers have done a good job of making people question their world but we have failed in helping students know how to accurately vet material they find on the internet for fact-based and peer reviewed truth. It seems to be human nature to be suspicious of the experts, but where does this fear and skepticism come from? The internet is a wonderful tool, but in the wrong hands it can become a blunt weapon that sews doubt, mistrust and outright tin-foil-hat-wearing nonsense. Both YouTube and Facebook have removed Dr. Mikovits’s video as well as the QAnon conspiracy theorists (because it is dangerous misinformation in a time of crisis), but those who shared the video now suspect (with zero evidence) that it was because Dr. Mikovits “dared” to share the “truth”. Not once do people dig in to her credentials or the fact that she believes (contrary to peer-reviewed science) that vaccines are not necessary and that they cause autism. (They don’t). The reason she was fired from her position as a medical researcher was because she stole from her lab.

“The Scientific American” produced an article about how to recognize a conspiracy theory in 2010 and it’s still the go-to for how to realize that your reasoning is probably off track. The point here, ultimately, is that all those groaning students who didn’t want to do the research paper, who did it because it was for a grade, and who may have just turned in a paper someone else wrote, are now posting of Facebook and Twitter about how Dr. Mikovits is right. If people who did their paper and really learned about good research are sharing this video, then they have forgotten what they learned.

In this most dangerous time, the worst thing that could happen is making huge, ill-informed, mistakes in managing a deadly virus. Just because an expert makes informed and researched comments that contradict a politician you happen to love doesn’t mean he’s part of some horrific conspiracy. It might mean that you are following a politician who, by his own omission, is “not a doctor” rather than listening to a doctor who has dealt with infectious diseases for decades and probably knows what he’s talking about. Of course, by writing this, there will be some out there who will call me partisan or whatever. I’m not. I’m just a humble teacher trying to get people to use facts when formulating their opinions. As the great Harlan Ellison said: “‘Well, I’m entitled to my opinion!’ No, schmuck, you are not entitled to your opinion. You are entitled to your informed opinion. Everything else is just hot air and farts in the wind.”

Research, fact-based and peer-reviewed, is more important than ever when navigating this horrid plague. The rise in armed anti-quarantine protests, the hapless sharing of conspiracy videos as “the real truth” and the consideration of disbanding the federal task force fighting this disease (which was recanted yesterday, thank God) is proof that we desperately need to teach students how to research carefully.

I have my job cut out for me.

How a Writer Beats the Coronavirus Blues

If we turn on the news today or just ride around in a car listening to the radio, it’s not long before we hear another report of deaths or another statistic that takes the wind out of our sails.

It is important more than ever to social distance, wash our hands, and generally take care of our loved ones who are immunocompromised. However, one of the worst problems for this writer is being down in the dumps about this virus and what it’s done to my life. The truth is, I haven’t written anything in a while.

I tried doing a daily post about works that inspire writing, but that fell flat pretty quick as I was working to take care of my mother who is elderly and suffers from congestive heart failure. She’s fine otherwise, just staying home with her little dog Chester, watching Netflix shows and eating snacks, but I’m finding it harder and harder to keep her there. She went to church last Sunday and wore a mask and took wet wipes. I’m praying she didn’t contract the virus and that has really bummed me out, too. She says not to worry, to put our faith in God (and I am) but I also am not going to go run off a cliff and hope He’ll catch me.

God gave us a brain, after all.

In this daily horror show, a scenario much like that of Stephen King’s “The Stand”, we see both extremes of human behavior. I mean, people are showing up at state capitols toting automatic weapons, for crying out loud. The flip side of this is that people like John Krasinski is trying to keep us positive by airing Some Good News from his home every Monday.

As a creative, someone who is hyper-sensitive to emotional cues, I am bombarded with this so much that I am overwhelmed. Sitting down to write about it is at once therapeutic and also necessary. I’ve decided to do a few things to get me through it, and also to help me actually get back to writing:

1. Stop Watching Skewed News – There is a tendency to watch the news every day, just like it was during 9/11, and this can be damaging. You can spend a lot of time just perusing news services and many of them are biased to the left or right. Ad Fontes Media has put together a very accurate interactive media bias chart to see where a news service falls on the scale of bias. According to their research, the Associate Press is probably the most reliable, so I’ve downloaded their app and just look at current news stories once in the morning and then I QUIT. One can spend all day watching talking heads during this crisis. It doesn’t help, and none of them really say anything new. Mostly it’s just pundits theorizing about possible future events. It wastes valuable writing time.
2. Stop Streaming Stuff – There is a temptation during this crisis to just veg out in front of your television streaming all kinds of shows. Sure, you could catch up on Tiger King, but really what does it add to your life? It adds nothing to your own writing goals except staring at a screen and letting them create for you. The same goes for playing video games as I have explored Tamriel now for probably a week straight. I have YouTube TV, Disney+, Netflix, Hulu and Amazon Prime. There’s always something to stream. I have to limit my viewing of anything until after I’ve written SOMETHING for the day. If I don’t, I could find myself going down the digital rabbit hole for hours.
3. Exercise – In December I moved into a house in a southern suburb of Norman, Oklahoma. The benefit of living here is that I have a nice mountain bike and tons of bike routes to ride. Yesterday I took a 12 mile trip through town, snaking around secret biking trails that run through neighborhoods. During that time I was able to clear my head and really think about my WIP and hash out some of the plot problems I’ve been experiencing. Not only that, sitting in front of a TV or a computer for long periods of time is not healthy. From blue screen damage to the eyes to the bad habits of eating junk food the dangers are massive. Exercise will clear your head, get the endorphins flowing, and help you take care of that wonderful brain from which all the creativity flows.
4. Schedule Writing Time and Goals – I have to schedule about two hours in the morning for writing. This blog is where I’m using up some of that time, and I plan to work on my WIP after I finish typing this thing up. The point is that we have to schedule writing time during a period when we’re not working on other things. The only reason I’m doing this in the morning is because I’m a teacher who is currently doing distance learning with students, my kids are teens who don’t get up until later in the morning, and mornings are the quietest time of the day. I can drink a cup of coffee, turn on a bit of movie soundtrack, and get to work. I usually set a goal of 1000 words a day, but today I’m going to set a goal of just plotting out my WIP and going back through David Trottier’s “The Screenwriter’s Bible” to familiarize myself again with his method and align my WIP to that method. You pick whatever it is you need to accomplish day by day, taking baby steps, and soon you will have a daily routine to completing your own WIP.
5. Stay Positive – As someone who suffers from depression, it is very easy for me to wane negative. I have a lovely wife who tries to keep me grounded, but often when I’m alone I have horrible thoughts and worries. It is a faith struggle with me as well. I have my own regimen (scripture, prayer, journaling) that help me cope with the negativity that wants to ruin my day. You might be one of those bubbly positive sparks in the world, but I am a wet blanket by nature. I’ve had to fight this my whole life. I stay positive by writing, as it is a natural medium to vent my heart to the world. Writing allows me to get out all the negativity and angst I’m feeling in a therapeutic way. It doesn’t mean I write depressing stuff. Most of my stuff is full of snide humor and is adventure-driven. The point here is to make sure you keep a good attitude through this pandemic.

I hope these tips were helpful. I’m off to try to meet my daily goals right now. If you have any other ways you beat the coronavirus doldrums then write a comment below.

Happy writing!

Works That Inspire Writing Day 3: Heinlein’s “Starship Troopers”

I know I haven’t been doing these day-to-day, but I’ve been trying to keep my students engaged online during this pandemic. However, today’s piece is one of my favorite Robert Heinlein novels: “Starship Troopers”.

Unfortunately, Paul Verhoven is forever linked to this amazing novel, having made a horrible adaptation of the book. The novel indeed lends itself to film adaptation, but the version Verhoven made completely misses the core of the novel’s message.

The novel is an exploration of many of Heinlein’s ideas about citizenship, duty and responsibility. What makes it a great novel to read for inspiration is how Heinlein world-builds. He sets up a world where the government of the past was the victim of a military coup, and then the veterans set up a military democracy where in order to become a citizen, each person must serve that military. Heinlein’s military is multi-inclusive, with both male and female soldiers. In fact, females are prized for their ability to pilot spacecraft because they are physically able to endure higher g-forces than men.

The core of the message of the novel, however, comes in chapter 8. Lt. Col. Dubois, a disabled veteran who teaches a course required by all cadets but not for credit, asks several questions of his captive students. He leads them through a discussion about the idea that “juvenile delinquent” is a contradiction in terms, and then asks what the former United States prized above all. A student answers: “Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness. Here is his answer:

Ah yes. Life? What ‘right’ to life has a man who is drowning in the Pacific? The ocean will not hearken to his cries. What ‘right’ to life has a man who must die to save his children? If he chooses to save his own life, does he do so as a matter of ‘right’? If two men are starving and cannibalism is the only alternative to death, which man’s right is ‘unalienable’? And is it ‘right’? As to liberty the heroes who signed the great document pledged themselves to buy liberty with their lives. Liberty is never unalienable; it must be redeemed regularly with the blood of patriots or it always vanishes. Of all the so-called natural human rights that have ever been invented, liberty is least likely to be cheap and is never free of cost. The third ‘right’?—the ‘pursuit of happiness’? It is indeed unalienable but it is not a right; it is simply a universal condition which tyrants cannot take away nor patriots restore. Cast me into a dungeon, burn me at the stake, crown me king of kings, I can ‘pursue happiness’ as long as my brain lives—but neither gods nor saints, wise men nor subtle drugs, can ensure that I will catch it.”

In so doing, Heinlein states a basic idea that runs throughout most of his work. He uses a medium of science fiction to debate ideas about liberty and the pursuit of happiness. In our work, we need to push the boundaries of sheer entertainment to discuss ideas that go deeper. As discussed in my first post on this subject, “Devs” does this very thing, using a story about a quantum computer to discuss the idea of determinism.

The point is that we should try to aim higher than just a simple adventure story or a romance. We should contribute to the conversation about life and higher philosophical ideas. In so doing we elevate our work to a higher purpose.