What It Takes…

This blog post is about what it takes to be a writer, but you can also apply this advice to pretty much anything in life.

You need four things to be a successful writer.

1. Lots of courage
2. An above average work ethic or discipline
3. A little bit of talent.
4. A touch of luck or blessing

Courage is the key to writing. Regardless of what you write about if you are afraid of failing, being ridiculed or humiliated, or being negatively critiqued then you won’t make it as a writer. Likewise you will probably have a rough go in life outside of the arts as well if you fear these possibilities. And if you do worry about these things and you are trying to write, then stop. But by having courage you have decided that you will put yourself out there at the risk of looking bad to potentially millions of people including some whose opinion you value at least to a certain degree. If you are scared or insecure, but still want to put your art into the world, then maybe the way you find the courage to do it is to focus on what your intentions are in creating things that evoke thought and emotion in other people. If your intentions are good, benevolent, then you will probably summon the courage to push through any obstacle to get part of who you are into the world.

The second key to making it as a writer or in life is a good work ethic. And a good work ethic helps with the final two smaller aspects of making it as a writer or in the mainstream world.  A good work ethic keeps you coming back to the lab and creating your alchemy. A good work ethic also can help when you are feeling a bit insecure, when your courage is not at its peak. But being disciplined will make your lack of talent if there is a lack disappear over time. You will get better at writing or whatever it is that you do in life if you stay focused, keep working at your craft. There will be others in life and in the arts who are more talented than you. But as the saying goes, “work ethic can outdo talent in the long run if one sticks to the process, one keeps growing and learning as they go.” And remember most of us are not born knowing much of anything, but we can learn pretty much anything over time. Some are born with God given talents that make it easier for them in certain fields, but there are piles of bodies of talented people who never reach their potential because their work ethic was lacking. Finally, a good work ethic plus courage will help with the luck or blessing one needs in order to make it the world today. There is a maxim in the sports world that speaks to this. There are good teams in the athletics who seem to get all of the breaks. Many will say these teams are just lucky and that they are not as good as advertised. Sometimes this is true, more often than not it is a false statement. You see, my friends, what these biased people don’t realize is that these teams create their own luck, they get the “lucky breaks or bounces” because they work hard, they do the little things well long enough so that when there is a chance that a call or a bounce that could go either their way or to their opponent(s) that it usually goes in their favor because they done the right things long enough to create luck or blessing. This is true in life as well. Lastly, one can create a better life if one practices being grateful for having the courage, work ethic, talent, and the blessings that it takes to make it in this life.

I love you all.

Government Shutdown

My blog post on Immigration spoke about the migrant “crisis” at our southern border. In it I discussed walls.

But now, DT has shut down the government because he wants his stupid wall built instead of simply reducing the size of government and ceasing to give away freebies to everyone.

It is interesting to think that the longer the shutdown continues that DT might have inadvertently signaled to the public that the government isn’t necessary and most of the time causes many more problems than it fixes. This is self-evident to many already. (Of course people will say this is Trump’s playing of 4-D chess, but I tend to think he is mumbling along like so many other modern politicians)

There is an online article entitled, “With the Government Shutdown, People Will Have to Start Interfering in Their Own Lives.”

How apropos.

 

Vilified and Vindicated

Those of us who walk outside of the mainstream and try to change the system by fighting the good fight are vilified in our day, but history will vindicate us.

 

I’m Publishing In 2019

Hello faithful followers of mine.

Happy Holidays and here’s to a prosperous 2019 for us all.

I’ve signed a contract with a company to publish my book, “Fight the Good Fight,” in 2019.

The quick pitch goes like this: A group of 12 soldiers and an army Chaplain form a rogue fighting group called the Valhalla Unit to fight those who create wars: war profiteers, bankers, and politicians.

SilverWood Books of London, England did an editorial assessment and here are some of their comments:

“‘Fight the Good Fight’ is a modern war thriller for a general audience. Following battles and principals of a rogue U.S. fighting unit in Afghanistan, the Valhalla Unit is a force for peace. They stand in contrast to the antagonists: a banker, a war profiteer, and politician. Eli Silver, a banker, finds himself caught up in military financing with Terry Smith, a Representative with an agenda. Lillith Rice, CEO of STC, Inc., uses the war to try and further her career and make money. The narrative’s protagonist, Thad “Cotton” Kristofferson, muses on his involvement with the Valhalla Unit 15 years on from the opening of the book in 2002.”

They added further:

“This is a fast-pace and exciting read. The richly descriptive writing style is immersive and shows through research on the subject matter. The manuscript has a good balance between Thad’s reflections 15 years on, action on the ground in the Valhalla Unit, and snapshots of the lives of those profiteering from the war. The writing moves smoothly between dialogue and descriptive, with highly immersive and descriptive passages standing out, creating a well-formed world. Characters are well-developed.”

 

I hope you will join me and the Valhalla Unit as we traverse uncharted and dangerous territory.

Have a great New Years!

 

Immigration

A brief word on immigration.

1. DT’s deportations are no different than Obama’s.

2. You can’t have open borders and have the government “giving things away for free” to everyone. Either you build the wall and give away “free” things or  have open borders and a small, limited government that doesn’t give away tax payer goodies (as the founders intended).

3. You have to wonder why the migrants from Central and South America were allowed to walk through the checkpoints at the southern border of Mexico and all the way through it unimpeded to the southern border of the United States. Why were they allowed to do that? In other words who benefits from that type thing? If you have to ask why strange things happen in the world it usually is because it profits someone or a group of people monetarily.

Think.

 

Artists

Rest and Writing

While writing a novel I have all of my characters swirling around inside of me–their motivations, their fears, their joys, their good days and bad. Right now I am working on a war novel that is about a group of 12 soldiers and an army Chaplain who fight those who create wars: bankers, politicians, and war profiteers. And I carry all of these characters with me inside of my subconscious throughout my waking hours and for the entirety of the time I write my novel until completion.

If you want to know what I write about, imagine war stories, serial killers, people who are insane, people who have been hurt, tormented in life. And I know all of my characters as much as I know myself. At times it becomes painful knowing all of these things, carrying their pain and suffering with me along with my own.

And though I enjoy what I do immensely, it is very trying at times, as I’m sure you can imagine, to have these characters, some who are not the nicest people in the world, hurting some of the other characters who are nice and kind people around inside of me. They are living beings, doing their things, sometimes harmful things to themselves and others, and I have to remember that they are simply characters in a work of fiction.

But that is also why I have to have a drink, exercise daily, and get plenty of rest otherwise I am overwhelmed with my characters’ battle fatigue.  When it is time to rest it is time to rest. Usually I slog along until the novel is done and then I take my vacation from those very painful situations and strained individuals. A welcomed respite indeed.

Connection in Modern America

Most people in America don’t care about friendship or deep intimate relationships anymore. When dealing with others the citizens of this country would rather to be feared or to dominate others rather than be liked or even loved by them.

We wonder why we don’t know our neighbors all that well, why we don’t really try to connect with them, but we see that because we are ruled by psychopaths that everyone sees the game being played that way. We feel that either we have to manipulate, scare, or intimidate people into allowing us to rule over them, not to befriend them with kindness, generosity, and courtesy. So we either become prey or predator and most people would just rather sit it out, so we don’t correspond with those we live near.

There is also such a thing as what is known as the “hook-up culture” whereby men and women jump into bed before getting to know one another all that well. They did a study on why people were doing this with some interesting, though not really surprising reasons. More than half of the respondents said they hooked up because they were hoping for a long term commitment. It seems in this day and age of how we can’t form proper relationships with people that we would use animal behavior in order to find a love. It also points to something more interesting I think and that is that most people in the hook-up culture must feel that their personalities are so bad that by sleeping with someone right off of the bat that you might coerce them into staying with them for an extended period of time. Seemingly, we have lost the ability to connect with others on a deeper level, maybe a more spiritual level whereby we don’t view the other in terms of being us being prey or they being ours.

I also wonder what ever happened to our well wishes for others. When was the last time someone asked if you’d eaten or were hungry? When was the last time someone cooked you a meal? When was the last time someone checked on you without giving you the business? When was the last time we felt close to someone, even people you might see everyday?

We have lost our human touch for others because we decided the upper crust, with there psychopathic tendencies to maim, dominate, or kill is the proper way for us to behave toward one another.

Voting

When you go to the polls you are acknowledging that you approve of the voting system in this country and that you are willing to give credence to candidates on the ballot at the time.

What if both candidates are piles of crap or you choose to vote for “the lesser of two evils”?

Evil is still evil and why would you vote for evil or a pile of crap?

 

In life we can choose who we give our time and energy to. This includes how and where we spend our money.

In essence when you buy consumer goods you are voting with your money. Research who you are buying from first.

 

A way to resolve the issues that seem to be plaguing the political system and the consumer culture in American society is to turn your back on them both.

There is a movie franchise called Nightmare on Elm Street. The first of the series was released in the mid-1980’s and, to those who don’t know, the creepy man pictured was killing innocent kids in their sleep as revenge against their parents who burned him alive because he was a monster.

In this movie Johnny Depp (his first acting role) plays a kid named Glen and at one point tells the protagonist, Nancy, played by Heather Langenkamp, that there is an old Native myth that says the way to destroy evil is to turn your back on it and that act takes its power away.

In the end, Nancy does just this and Freddy dies. (Spoiler alert: only for a while).

I advise doing the same with the political hacks in Washington, D.C. and their corporate crony masters.

And a friendly reminder, folks: If voting mattered they wouldn’t let us do it.

Options, not Priorities

In a world of abundant consumer goods, it is no surprise that we have become accustomed to simply discarding things if they are broken or old.

In much the same way, on a planet of 8 billion humans we do much the same thing. People who are broken, old, or don’t tow the party line get relieved of graces quickly. We all have become interested only in ourselves and not what others are doing, how they are feeling, but how they can help us get ahead.

It is rote to understand that in a disposable society that people will become lost and mentally unstable. When you make people options and not priorities they will fall…and with it, civilization is be disposed of.