IT STARTED OUT NASTY

AND HAS STAYED THAT WAY ...

BY PROCEDURE established in the new Constitution, 

the first President was to be chosen by “electors” named by the state legislatures. 

Each elector was to cast one ballot with the names of two choices for President. 

The person with the most votes in the final tally was to become President, the runner-up, Vice President. 

In the event of a tie, the decision would go to the House of Representatives, a prospect so disturbing to Alexander Hamilton 

that he “deemed [it] an essential point of caution” to see that John Adams 

did not wind up with such a strong showing in the electoral count as to embarrass Washington. 

He was not against Adams, Hamilton explained privately. 

“Mr. A, to a sound understanding, has always appeared to me to add an ardent love for the public good.” 

But Hamilton was taking no chances. 

Working quietly through the winter, he did what he could to convince leading politicians 

in several states to withhold votes from Adams. 

The scheme succeeded. 

When the electors met in February 1789, Washington was chosen President unanimously with 69 votes, 

while Adams, though well ahead of ten others, had 34 votes, or less than half. 

Adams was humiliated by the news, his pride deeply hurt, but of Hamilton’s part, he knew nothing.

On October 19, 1796, a mysterious editorial from a writer named Phocion appeared in the Gazette of the United States, 

 a popular Federalist newspaper in Philadelphia.

At the time, Vice President John Adams was pitted against another Founding Father, Thomas Jefferson, 

in a race to succeed George Washington as president.

 Phocion’s letter was what we would today call an “attack ad.”

 The letter in the Gazette written by Phocion said, in terms understood by most readers, 

that presidential candidate Jefferson was having an affair with one of his female slaves.

The identity of Phocion?  Alexander Hamilton.

Jefferson lost.

While Adams knew nothing of Hamilton's machinations, 

(Who was hoping to become America's Napoleon)

Jefferson vowed he would be the third president ...

even if it meant treason.

Jefferson in his four years as Vice President 

had so effectively separated himself from Adams and the administration 

that he could not be held accountable for anything that had disappointed, displeased, or infuriated anyone,

While America was at war with France, 

Jefferson sent secret federal documents to the French Foreign Minister, Charles Gravier, Count of Vergennes

to  undermine Adams' attempts at peace in order to promote himself as the Champion of Peace with France 

and so win the Presidency ... which he did.

And Presidential Campaigns have only gotten dirtier.

I have little hope for
the upcoming election.

DARK SECRETS OF PAST PRESIDENTS

Ghost of Mark Twain here at Roland's with Midnight a'studying me from the fireplace mantle.

Crystal Collier (from yesterday's comments), 

Roland, and I share the same distrust of any politician.  Roland's studied history, and I have lived it!

Take the presidents ...


DID TEDDY ROOSEVELT ORDER A MASSACRE?

When old Teddy Roosevelt was sworn to office the Phillipine-American war had been raging for two years already, 

Roosevelt had been in office for not even a fortnight when he heard the terrible news 

that 50 US soldiers had been killed on the island of Samar. 

This being the biggest single military loss since the battle of the little Bighorn 25 years prior, 

Roosevelt sort of lost his calm and ordered General Jacob H. Smith to "sort this mess out once and for all"

 thus leading to the massacre of thousands at the "Balangiga massacre" namely most being civilians.
 
Smith was quoted saying to his troops, 

"I want no prisoners. I wish for you to kill and burn; the more you kill and burn the more it will please me." 

Smith was noted for being a brutal man having played his part in the Wounded Knee massacre, was this the reason Smith was chosen for the task? 


It is noted that when the General was court martialed and found guilty of this massacre 

Roosevelt reprimanded and retired Smith. 


DID ANDY JACKSON INDULGE IN THE FIRST ETHNIC CLEANSING?

He expelled 100,000 Natives from their homelands. 

As a soldier Jackson had already acted mercilessly towards the natives, killing and exiling large numbers of them, 

and as US president he signed the "Indian Removal Act,"

which was effectively a death sentence for thousands more. 

 This law permitted the relocation of Native American tribes 

such as the Cherokee,Seminole and Chickasaw peoples in order to create territories for white settlers. 

 The move was so rapid and so badly organized that an estimated 25% of those deported 

died of hunger, hypothermia or exhaustion. 

This terrible chapter in US history is known as the Trail of Tears. 


DID HONEST GEORGE START A WORLD WAR?

 The history of the USA begins with George Washington. 

At the age of 22, when he was still a British Officer in the American colonies, 

Washington was involved in an incident that is still debated by historians today. 

 In May 1754, the French sent a diplomat out to secure the territory, 

but Washington ambushed the Frenchman, the French negotiator and up to 13 of his soldiers were killed. 

 This incident caused theFrench and Indian wars in North America, which culminated two years later into the Seven Years War (1756-1763), 

A bloody conflict between the great European powers of the time.

 Many historians consider this the first world war as it was the first to be fought in America, Europe and Asia. 


WAS RONNIE REGAN A F.B.I. INFORMER?

 From Hollywood actor to the most powerful man in the world. 

  In the years following WW2 he spied on his fellow actors in Hollywood for the FBI, 

reportedly under the codename T-10.

 Film actors were part of the Screen Actors Guild union 

and in the mind of the former head of the FBI, J. Edgar Hoover, every union was a secret society of communists.

 In return, the FBI actively supported Reagan's political career right up until his presidency.


JOHNSON NAMED HIS JOHNSON "JUMBO"

Why the poor man envied Kennedy his affairs and commenced to have more.  

 Johnson would make passes at secretaries, 

and it was known that any who accepted would be promoted to private secretary,

 two words that in this context, children,  should probably have air quotes around them anytime they are uttered. 

By the time he was done, virtually all of his secretaries, plus his two mistresses, got the Johnson Treatment.

The man had issues and would whip out his "Johnson" (or Jumbo as he called it) in public.  

During a Cabinet meeting, when asked why the U.S. went into Vietnam, 

Johnson reportedly whipped it out and bellowed, “This is why!”


WAS OLD GROVER A DATE RAPIST?

Old  Grover Cleveland – A presidential secret that most people don’t know about him is that

He was accused of being a rapist. 

Maria Halpin, a store clerk, claimed he violently raped her after a night out.

 She then had a child, the paternity test was never known, but he did pay child support ...

after placing the child in an orphanage and putting the store clerk in an insane asylum!


OLD HARDING WAS AN INSPIRATION TO JOHNSON

Twenty-ninth president Warren Gamaliel Harding (1865-1923) repeatedly made love to a young girl, Nan Britton, in a White House closet. 

On one occasion, Secret Service agents had to stop his wife from beating down the closet door!


TO JEFFERSON ALL MEN WERE CREATED EQUAL ... UNLESS YOU WERE HIS SONS.

The Thomas Jefferson Foundation 

(why do I not have a foundation I ask you?!)

from DNA and historical evidence believe that, years after his wife’s death, 

Thomas Jefferson was the father of the six children of his slave, Sally Hemings, 

mentioned in Jefferson's records, including Beverly, Harriet, Madison, and Eston Hemings. 

Madison and Eston were released in Jefferson's 1826 will. Jefferson gave freedom to no other entire slave family.


PRESIDENT WOODY ALLEN, AH, I MEAN GROVER CLEVELAND

 A longtime close friend of Oscar Folsom, Grover Cleveland, at age 27, met his future wife shortly after she was born. 

He took a keen interest in the child, buying her a baby carriage and otherwise doting on her as she grew up. 

When her father, Oscar Folsom, died in a carriage accident on July 23, 1875, 

without having written a will, the court appointed Cleveland administrator of his estate. 

This brought Cleveland into still more contact with Frances, then age 11.

 Sometime while she was in college, Cleveland's feelings for her took a romantic turn. 

He proposed by letter in August 1885, soon after her graduation. 

 They did not announce their engagement, however, until just five days before the wedding.


Well, children, I'd tell you more but I've gone and depressed myself and bored Midnight! 

MARK TWAIN FOR PRESIDENT!

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01LY15Y0W

After reading President Trump's latest cyber-chirp as he calls them, 

the ghost of Mark Twain couldn't resist entering the fray!

"Politicians and diapers must be changed often, and for the same reason."

 "The political and commercial morals of the United States are not merely food for laughter, they are an entire banquet."

 "Yes, you are right -- 

I am a moralist in disguise; 

it gets me into heaps of trouble when I go thrashing around in political questions."

Letter to Helene Picard 

"When you are in politics, you are in a wasp's nest with a short shirt-tail." 

"Do not worry, children, I shall not often meddle with politics, 

because you have Roland who is already excellent 

and only needs to serve a term or two in the penitentiary to be perfect."

WRITE WHAT YOU DON'T WANT TO KNOW

Tonight, the exterior of Meilori's 

resembled the LaLaurie Manson, 

the site of the gruesome torture and murder of countless slaves by their owners, 

Delphine LaLaurie and her physician husband.

Perhaps that is why the shadows around me had sharper than usual teeth 

as I brain-stormed how to promote my new collection of short stories, 

Silhouettes in the Key of Scream.

Any of you want to help?  

I have a couple of new ideas on how to do it, 

but I need a little help from my friends.

{Courtesy Allan Warren}

Since Meilori's exterior was what it was tonight, 

I was surprised when the ghost of James Baldwin sat down opposite me at my rune-carved table.

Maybe I shouldn't have been since it was his birthday four days ago.

Besides, Mr. Baldwin never shied away from confronting racism 

as the New York waitress who refused him service as a teen found out 

when he threw a glass of water at her, shattering the mirror behind her.

He said, "Wilde speaks highly of you.  

He suggested I speak of writing to you and those who drop by this little platform you have."

{Courtesy Carl Van Vechten}

WRITING IS DISCOVERY

"When you’re writing, you’re trying to find out something which you don’t know. 

The whole language of writing for me 

 is finding out 

what you don’t want to know, 

 what you don’t want to find out. 

But something forces you to anyway."

SO MANY LIE TO YOU; 

DO NOT BE ONE OF THEM 

"Self-delusion, in the service of no matter what small or lofty cause, is a price no writer can afford.

 His subject is himself and the world and it requires every ounce of stamina 

he can summon to attempt to look on himself and the world as they are.

No one knows your name ... not even yourself if you are honest about it."

DO NOT BE SELF-BLINDED

 "One writes out of one thing only: one’s own experience. 

Everything depends on how relentlessly one forces from this experience the last drop, 

sweet or bitter, it can possibly give. 

This is the only real concern of the artist, to recreate out of the disorder of life that order which is art."

DO NOT LOSE YOUR COURAGE

 "I find writing gets harder as time goes on. 

I’m speaking of the working process, which demands a certain amount of energy and courage (though I dislike using the word), and a certain amount of recklessness.

 Every form of writing is difficult, no one is easier than another. 

They all kick your ass. None of it comes easy."

TOUCH A HEART; 

CHANGE THE WORLD

 "If there is no moral question, there is no reason to write. 

I’m an old‐fashioned writer and, despite the odds, I want to change the world. 

What do I hope to convey?

 Well, joy, love, the passion to feel how our choices affect the world . . . that’s all."

TRUTH IS YOUR COMPASS

 
"You want to write a sentence as clean as a bone. That is the goal.

 I certainly can’t imagine art for art’s sake . . .

 that’s a European approach, which never made any sense to me. 

 I think what you have to do, which is the difficult thing about a writer, 

is avoid slogans. 

You have to have the guts to protest the slogan, no matter how noble it may sound. 

It always hides something else; the writer should try to expose what it hides."

 REMEMBER HEMINGWAY

"Write. 

Find a way to keep alive 

and write. 

There is nothing else to say. 

If you are going to be a writer there is nothing I can say to stop you; 

if you’re not going to be a writer nothing I can say will help you. 

What you really need at the beginning is somebody to let you know that the effort is real.

 I consider that I have many responsibilities, but none greater than this: 

To last, 

as Hemingway says,  

and get my work done."

There are times when THE WOLVES ARE SILENT and

THE MOON HOWLS ... 

      

         especially when you are a werewolf!

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Amazon:

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You think your life is complicated?

The man Ayra loves left for Iceland.

Her father is forcing her into a loveless marriage for a  political alliance.

Her brother seems to have lost it in all the wrong ways.

AND 

her powers as a Reaper have awakened!

Who in their right mind wants to put down other werewolves for a living?

Oh, one other thing ...

Vidar, the man she loves is back from Iceland.

But only because she is becoming a Reaper.

Then, there's that pesky celibacy vow she took!

TWICE TURNED is available today for only $2.99.  

Heather McCorkle is a great writer.  

Find out just how great. Buy it today.

I did.

What will CARRY YOU THROUGH

“Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.” 
― Martin Luther King, Jr.

What will carry you through as a writer?

1. A Wild And Mad Daemon of a Muse:


If you want to survive, you’ve got to have an imagination that won’t lay down and die. 

Your cat has exploded?  Use it. 

Zombies are pounding on the door.  Ignore them.  Think of it as the pulse of your muse murmuring ideas to you.


2. Discipline:


No amount of imagination will help you unless you sit your tush in the chair, pound the keyboard, and put prose on the blank screen.

Need Motivation?

Come up with your own item of visual motivation. It might be inspirational words taped to your computer

(“You get what you dare, baby, and if you want big, you dare big”—author Leonard Bishop)


 The primary way writers keep discipline going is through the weekly quota. Most successful fiction writers make a word goal and stick to it.


Discipline is helped by a healthy body.


The imagination is housed in the brain. The brain is housed in the body. The body is the temple of the soul. Treat it as such.

Your productivity and creativity depend on it.  Take that brisk walk!  Both your body and muse need it. 


3. A Schizophrenic Frame of Mind:


You must be a triad:

Optimistic enough to believe your work will eventually be bought/

Realistic enough to know it will not be overnight/

Pessimistic enough to question the purity of human motives when you finally are handed a contract to sign.


4. Inner Strength:


You have to be able to pound nail after nail into board after board to build your Ark under a cloudless sky to the sound of derisive laughter behind you.

You must believe in yourself before anyone else will.

Face the Harsh Law:

What You Are Inside Only Matters Because of What It Makes You Do

You may believe your talent is one in a million, but it is what you do with it that counts.

Make it an inner contract to finish what you start,

to wring that final chapter out of your imagination, and to brave rejection and put it out there either by self-publication or submitting to agents/editors.


5. Curiosity:
 

"The important thing is not to stop questioning.

 Curiosity has its own reason for existing.

One cannot help but be in awe when he contemplates the mysteries of eternity, of life, of the marvelous structure of reality.

It is enough if one tries merely to comprehend a little of this mystery every day. Never lose a holy curiosity."
- Albert Einstein

Most writers are curious by nature. We look at the world around us and wonder at it.

Who are these people? What are we all doing here?

Where are we heading? Why do we do the things we do? How will we achieve our goals?

Remember how curious you were as a child?

Everything you encountered spawned a series of questions

because you were trying to learn and understand the world around you.

Bring that childlike curiosity back, and you’ll never need to look far for now, inspiring writing ideas.

By fostering curiosity, we can create a fountain of ideas.

It doesn’t matter what form your writing takes or what genre you’re writing in.

By coming up with intriguing questions, you’ll soon find yourself overwhelmed with inspiration.

Take the basic questions and put a riveting spin to them:

Who?
Who does my main character trust? What does that say about them? About the trusted person?

What?
What motivates people to take drastic actions?

Where?
Where do these people want to be?

When?
When does a child become an adult?

Why?
Why does this story matter?

How?
How do you describe something that doesn’t really exist? 

Hope this helps in some small way. 

ON BEING A RENAISSANCE MAN

“A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, 

conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet,

 balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, 

take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, 

analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, 

fight efficiently, die gallantly. 

Specialization is for insects.”

 - Robert A. Heinlein 

I am privileged to have the multi-talented Robert Rossmann 

producing and narrating my latest audio book, The Not-So-Innocents Abroad.

But Robert is not only an actor, 

but also a talented stage director!

And Robert, being Robert, is having a "Pay What You Can" Performance for his play on July 19th!

How extraordinary, right?!

Almost as extraordinary as Robert himself.

So if you are close to Nevada City,

give his play a look!

"Life well spent is long." 

- Leonardo da Vinci