THE 3 KINDS OF WRITERS

Coming Soon To Paperback ... 

in COLOR!

According to Stephen King ...
   there are two kinds of writers --

"Those who are bound for the more literary or “serious” side of the job 

and examine every possible subject in the light of this question: 

What would writing this sort of story mean to me? 

Those whose destiny (or ka, if you like) 

is to include the writing of popular novels are apt to ask a very different one: 

What would writing this sort of story mean to others? 

The “serious” novelist is looking for answers and keys to the self; 

the “popular” novelist is looking for an audience. 

Both kinds of writer are equally selfish."

But to me there is a 
third kind of writer --

The Writer Who Has Burned Out On A Series

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01H17UAF4/

 Charlaine Harris became this type towards the end of her TRUE BLOOD series, 

losing steam, enthusiasm, and track of what went on before in her earlier tales.

I fear Patricia Briggs has succumbed to this writer fatigue as well.

For 9 books, I have looked forward eagerly to the adventures

of a frail coyote-shifter in a Brothers Grimm world of Fae, Werewolves, and Vampires ...

Poor Mercy even found herself pitted against a Volcano God in the 9th book.

But always the plot was coherent, the characters authentic to their natures.

Now, with SILENCE FALLEN ... the fire and creativity have gone;

FLAW ONE -

As an author, you know you need to re-work your novel when you warn the reader 

the alternating chapters are not linear, chronological,  nor easily understood --

Which is what Patricia Briggs did at the start of this novel.

I know what Patricia Briggs is capable of as an author. That's what makes Silence Fallen so disappointing.

FLAW TWO -

Dual POV works only when it flows seamlessly in the tumbling events of the story.

Ms, Briggs did a fine job of this in my personal favorite, FROST BURNED.

But going back in time 2 days while leaving Mercy trapped, then going back for more victimization, 

and then going back to her husband a day prior just pulls the reader out of the story.

FLAW THREE -

Having Mercy dangling, hiding, or caged for 70% of the novel irritated me.  

I do not want to see a strong heroine victimized for two-thirds of the novel. 

I am not a 50 Shades of Grey sort of guy. 

In the prior books, Mercy often found herself seemingly helpless 

but used her wits, compassion, and courage to escape death traps.

FLAW FOUR -

It is a cheat when you have a minor character actually being a powerful core cast member of Mercy's World 

where those who know him by sight fail to recognize him.

No explanation is given for this so the plot twist just fizzles.

FLAW FIVE -

Shifting motivations of the villain ... 

whose terrible crimes go unpunished by characters known for their moral compass and need to avenge.

Oh, and the villain proves NOT to be the master puppeteer ...

but tricked into his very stupid (for a centuries old manipulator) actions 

by a previously unmentioned core character for reasons that make no sense in regards to his personality.

No explanation is given.  Lazy Writing.

FLAW SIX -

A powerful ally on the cusp of becoming a terrible threat to Mercy and those she loves

 is left alone in a castle of the most powerful vampire in Europe

who could tempt her into becoming an entity who could slay thousands.

It is an act of stupidity from Mercy and those who are smarter than that.  

It is a lazy sowing of another plot twist that will disappoint.

SAD -

 I am sure die-hard fans will drink the kool-aid but I see a great series winding down.

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF 

STEPHEN KING'S

TWO KINDS OF WRITERS?

HAVE YOU EVER WATCHED 

AS A TV SERIES OR BOOK SERIES 

JUST WITHERED BEFORE YOUR EYES?

SOMEONE OUT THERE NEEDS THIS

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00ASETBP8/

In this world
It's hard to tell the shadow from the light
What is real
Can find a way to hide behind the lies
 
Don't be fooled
Or ruled
By voices all around you
'Cause your road, will always be revealed

If you lead
Lead with your heart
It's the one thing you can trust
To always come from love
And it will shine
Right through the dark
 
Like a northern star
To show you what is true
You'll never lose
If only you
Will lead with your heart 

You have been
The truest friend that anyone could have
And the love
You always give, I want you to get back
 
Been knocked down, and found
Not everyone is what they show you
What is true, will always be revealed

If you lead
Lead with your heart
It's the one thing you can trust
 
To always come from love
And it will shine
Right through the dark
Like a northern star
To show you what is true
 
You'll never lose
If only you
Will lead with your heart

It takes the beautiful unknown
And somehow makes you feel
You're home again
Finally home again
 
And there's no longer any doubt
What the mystery's about for you
Or what you should do

THE SOCIOPATH BESIDE YOU

"His heart exists inside the dry leaves of a soul." 

- F. Scott Fitgerald ( of Hemingway)

“I could forgive you even your cruelty if it were not for your calm.” 

- G. K. Chesterton 

Psychiatrists have believed that 

psychopaths are defined by qualities of callousness, lack of emotion, and coldness.

 They lack empathy, in other words.

 They start out with barely a moral compass, or don't have one at all, 

while sociopaths tend to develop their skewed moral compass throughout childhood and adulthood.


 These predators, both male and female, haunt our everyday lives at work, at home, and in relationships. 

 This is a class of individuals who have been around forever and who are found in every culture, society and walk of life. 

Everybody has met these people, been deceived and manipulated by them, 

and forced to live with or repair the damage they have wrought. 

These often charming—but always deadly—individuals have a clinical name: psychopaths. 

Their hallmark is a stunning lack of conscience; 

their game is self-gratification at the other person's expense. 

Many spend time in prison, but many more do not. 

All take far more than they give.


QUESTIONS TO ASK ABOUT THOSE AROUND YOU

1. Do you often feel used by the person?

2. Have you often felt that he (or she, because women can be sociopaths too) doesn't care about you?

3. Does he lie and deceive you?

4. Does he tend to make contradictory statements?

5. Does he tend to take from you and not give back much?

6. Does he often appeal to pity? Does he seem to try to make you feel sorry for him?

7. Does he try to make you feel guilty?

8. Do you sometimes feel he is taking advantage of your good nature?

9. Does he seem easily bored and need constant stimulation?

10. Does he use a lot of flattery? Does he interact with you in a way that makes you feel flattered even if he says nothing overtly complimentary?

11. Does he make you feel worried? Does he do it obviously or more cleverly and sneakily?

12. Does he give you the impression you owe him?

13. Does he chronically fail to take responsibility for harming others? Does he blame everyone and everything but himself?

SURVIVAL GUIDE

1.) MIND YOUR MIND

If in describing a new friend to others, you use 

"charming" and "persuasive" and "he/she says the most outrageous things but you just can't get mad at him/her"  --

You have trouble on your hands.  Disengage quickly.


2.) UNDER THE ICING IS ONLY MORE ICING

 It is easy to get get swept up by the winning smile, the captivating body language, and the fast talk of the typical psychopath.

Step back when you feel pulled in too quickly by someone.  

Ask why that stunning person was unattached before you met them.

Perhaps there is a wake of ruined lives behind that person.


3.)  KEEP YOUR GUARD UP IN HIGH RISK SITUATIONS

The summer season is coming with lots of parties, 

meeting new people when your mind is blunted by the relaxed sunshine days on the beach, laughter and alcohol.  

Lions lurk by the water hole for a reason.

Some situations are tailor-made for psychopaths:

 singles bars, ship cruises, foreign airports, etc.

 In each case, the potential victim is lonely, looking for a good time, excitement, or companionship, 

and there will usually be someone willing to oblige, for a terrible future price. 


4.) KNOW THYSELF

  Psychopaths are skilled at detecting and ruthlessly exploiting your weak spots. 

Your best defense is 

to understand what these spots are, and to be extremely wary of anyone who zeroes in on them.


5.) ONLY ONE REMEDY

There's only one solution for dealing with a sociopath: 

Get him or her completely out of your life for good. 

Enjoy your life

but mind your surroundings 

and those around you.
 “Some werewolves are hairy on the inside.”
―Stephen King, Danse Macabre  

WHAT WOULD THE PEOPLE OF THE WORLD BE WITHOUT WOMEN?

What would the people of the world be without women?  

They would be scarce, folks, almighty scarce. 

- Mark Twain

Ghost of Mark Twain here.

On this International Day of Women, I am moved to speak ...

Human intelligence cannot estimate what we owe to Woman. 

She sews our buttons, mends our clothes, ropes us in at the church fairs --

 She confides in us; she tells us whatever she can find out about the little private affairs of the neighbors -- 

she gives us good advice, and plenty of it -- she gives us a piece of her mind, and sometimes all of it.

She soothes our aching brows -- she bears our children . 

 In all the relations of life, folks, it is but just, and a graceful tribute to woman to say of her that she is a jewel. 

I know that since the ladies started out on their crusades, they have scored in every project they undertook against unjust laws. 

I would like to see them help make the laws and become those who are enforce them. 

I would like to see the whiplash in women's hands. 

Lord knows that the men have certainly mucked up things for quite long enough.

Now, some of these gals nowadays do give me pause.  

Why I never thought I would see places sunburned on them in public

that I only dreamed about when alive!

Riverboat pilot, Western correspondent, silver prospector, and world traveler, 

I must seem the quintessential man's man. 

But to that I say NO!  (Contrary soul that I am).

I was a writer who intentionally surrounded myself with women, 

a writer whose capacity to produce fiction had almost as much to do 

with the environment shaped by my female family and associates as with my own talent and genius.

What?  You expected humility from me!? 

TO THOSE OF US WHOSE DREAMS WILL NEVER BE VALUED

"Publication - is the auction of the Mind of Man.
~Emily Dickinson.
 
Meaning always comes after the fact ... 

Only now when Death has taken me 

does the meaning of my life and dreams

 whisper to me.

 I am the ghost of Emily Dickinson.

That fabulous scamp of a gentlemen, Samuel Clemens, 

asked me to write in this "computer newspaper," as he calls it.

The dear somehow knew this date was important to me.

“Success is counted sweetest” was published anonymously in an anthology titled 

A Masque of Poets on this day in 1878,

the last of the handful of my poems published in my lifetime.

Though I remained firm in my decision that “My Barefoot-Rank is better,” 

this poem does reflect my continued mixed feelings about publishing:

Success is counted sweetest By those who ne'er succeed. 

To comprehend a nectar Requires sorest need.

Not one of all the purple host Who took the flag to-day 

Can tell the definition, So clear, of victory!

As he, defeated, dying,

On whose forbidden ear

The distant strains of triumph

Burst agonized and clear!
**
I wonder, struggling souls, what would it mean to you if you were never published, 

your novels never valued?

To see the Summer Sky
Is Poetry, though never in a Book it lie -
True Poems flee.

***
How long would you continue to write should publication elude you? 

Are the words burning within you to find life on the page?

For me, I never stopped writing:

HOPE is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul,
And sings the tune without the words,
And never stops at all,

And sweetest in the gale is heard;
And sore must be the storm
That could abash the little bird
That kept so many warm.

I've heard it in the chilliest land
And on the strangest sea;
Yet, never, in extremity,
It asked a crumb of me.

Will you stop writing if the years pass, leaving you unpublished? 

Why? 

And if you would continue, why? 

This tender spirit would like to know.

Just walk out into the sable night, look up into the listening stars, and whisper your answer to the wayfaring winds. 

I am a ghost. I shall hear.

 

WHEN YOU FIND YOURSELF BESEIGED BY LIFE!

"Maybe the wolf is in love with the moon.

And each month, he howls for the love

he will never be able to touch."

-Samuel McCord

In the past two days, I have worked 24 hours ...

And as you might expect, there has been precious LITTLE time for me to write on my latest dream.

HAS LIFE EVER GOTTEN IN THE WAY OF YOUR DREAMS?

“That's what happens to dreams, life gets in the way.”    ― Jodi Picoult, Handle With Care

Strength does not come from winning. Your struggles develop your strengths. When you go through hardships and decide not to surrender, that is strength.

Arnold Schwarzenegger

As a young man, Arnold decided to get up 30 minutes earlier than he wanted and to study for an entire year a subject he wanted to know better.

I decided to do that as well.  It works for me even in this harsh, time-draining job of mine.  I get up 15 minutes early and stay up 15 minutes later to get in a little writing.

Sometimes life insists on her way, and I let her ... for a day or two.  But then, I fall back into the pattern again.



A young man was told by his physician that because of his neuro-muscular disease, he would only be 70% all his days.  


He grew depressed.  He sat channel surfing and came upon Arnold in PREDATOR.

He thought to himself:

"70% of Arnold?  Why not?"

  
And so began his long, grueling days of physical training. 


 He now looks like a lean tiger and moves more graceful than before the diagnosis.

There is a path if we but look for it.

We bloggers are better writers for we know we are not alone.



 All of this is too general?

How can we write when there is so much pressing in on us?

1. Pinpoint Underlying Issues.

 

If you've always wanted to write and aren't doing it, invest some thought in figuring out the source of your writer's block. 

Is it a fear of failure, a longstanding tendency to procrastinate, or something as simple as a lack of writing space?

Find the flaw -- then, map out a plan to deal with it.

 

2. Just Say "No."

 

Time is limited, and for most people, the demands on their time are unlimited. 

Once you've determined what you want to say yes to, the ability to say no becomes an important muscle to build.

While your writing time should not be the most important thing in your life, 

it should give way only for the more important things in your life.

3. Schedule Time to Write.

 

It's not glamorous or exciting to adhere to a schedule, but it really does help. 

If you work full-time, it may actually be easier to establish a regular time each day in which to write.

Get up early and write before you leave the house, 


take a notepad with you to lunch, or stop off at a coffee shop on your way home.

 4. Resist the Impulse to Overdo It.

If you're the kind of person who tends to throw yourself into a new project only to burn out after a week or two,

consider giving yourself stop times for writing.

 

5. Know That It Won't Always Be Easy.

You may be more tired at the end of the day.

Some social obligations might get pushed aside.

Your family might have to pitch in.

Decide what you're willing to sacrifice for a few hours a week dedicated to writing.

Most of us have obligations we can't avoid, but if you're determined, you can manage both.

At the same time, 

be content with whatever you can realistically give to your writing. 

Even an hour a day adds up over time.

What do you do when life presses in on you?

How do you cope with

Time's

strangle-hold on your

writing?

WHAT'S LOVE GOT TO DO WITH IT?

"Each of us is broken, looking for where our jagged pieces might fit into the broken places of another."
- Cora Pearl

"We fall in love with the projection of our needs onto a person who neither sees themselves or us truly."
 - Lucy Wentworth

50 Shades Darker --

I wonder why those books and the movies  and others in the same mode

do so well.

Have we given up on love?

Has lust seared the perceptions of our culture so much that

love is no longer valued, desired or believed in?

To me, no matter the genre, if love is nowhere to be seen in a novel ...

it does not interest me.

Humor, love, adventure are necessary for me to enjoy any book.

How about you?