Category: Research

Another Snow Day?

2/12/2014

I'd like to open this blog to give a shout out on two special events: Happy birthday to Mom yesterday, and Happy 20th anniversary to Stephen and Nicole, my brother and sister-in-law, today! And what a way to spend these special days - holed up due to winter slush! Oh well, I hope you all have great days despite Snowmeiser's attack on the south!

So here we sit in the south, with our second winter weather day in two weeks. As you can probably tell from the news, we really aren't used to this. Down here, we're used to deep frying in the summer, not deep freezing in the winter. Our winters are usually mild, and we only get weather like this once every few years.

Oh well. Seems it's been a brutal winter everywhere. I think we can all agree on two things: we'll be thankful for spring, and the first person to complain about the heat this summer should be hit with Thor's hammer!

That being said, I suppose I'll take care of a few things around the house today, and maybe read. I'm taking a brief writing break - perhaps 2 weeks. I published Incursion last week and returned to Rearview Mirror and Nonstop to Nowhere to discover that I'm stuck on both of them! I have general ideas, but nothing specific is flowing. I didn't realize that I had been hitting the writing pretty hard since New Year's Day, and I probably do need a break. Having nightmares of demons and djinn chasing me around the church last night pretty much confirmed it. Yes, it's time for a time out. And so I shall. Right now, both stories need some brainstorming and some more research. In fact, the title to Nonstop to Nowhere may be changed. But I need to replenish the inspiration well before diving into these things, so I'm taking a brief break.

Don't worry; I'll keep the blog updated and post on social media. I may even crank out a flash fiction or short story piece. I just need to step back from these projects for a little while to regain my perspective and get going on them again. It's not unusual for this to happen in the middle of projects, and I'm not worried. I know I'll be back, maybe even sooner than I expect, and will get them done.

Everybody take care out there, and I hope you have a great week.

Bye!

Bye!

Fun Things I've Learned From Writing

7/28/2013

Last night, I took a rare break to watch TV and watched American Haunting with Rick. The episode was about a guy that bought a haunted car. Problem was, the spirit attached to him. The wife insisted on destroying the car, which they did (amongst much drama) but the haunting continued. Nobody could figure out what the problem was. Turns out, he saved some parts from the car and hid them in the garage. I thought, you total and complete idiot. Getting rid of that spirit is like the clearance sale at K-Mart: everything must go. You've gotta crunch the spare parts too. And when a "cleanser" gave him a Circle of Solomon to wear to ward off more spirits (because he became a target through his "spare parts") I thought yea, forget that thing one day and you're back at square one. Crunch the spare parts and get some rock salt, since you seem to be a "Welcome" sign for demons.

How do I know so much about spirits and hauntings? From writing Anywhere But Here and Resonance. Both of those stories included enchanted objects, so I had to research how it happened, and how to get rid of it. Or, in the case of Resonance, how to make it somebody elses' problem.

It's amazing what you learn from writing. You pick up all kinds of fun facts that are only good for your writing. Well, in the case of writing mystery with urban fantasy and sci-fi, you hope it's only good for your writing. I hope I don't have to lay any demon traps anytime soon, although I'll admit that I've had to deal with some people that make me wonder if I need to run for the spray paint or amulets. I've thought it. Haven't done it, but thought it, definitely.

And one more thing: if you think, well they just need to find Jesus - you're right; and you're wrong. People of faith have the biggest targets on their head. If you're faith isn't true or iron clad, you're no better off than anybody else. And if you just use faith as "fire insurance" (as my Sunday School teacher likes to put it), you're the bullseye. Good goobly goo, people stay away from you for a reason. We don't want to be in the line of fire of that. Which reminds me, I had a devil's trap that some friends gave me from Salem, Massachusetts and I need to find that thing. I lost it during our last move.

But demons aren't all that I've researched. Did you know that genies are actually based on an Islamic spirit called the djinn? There are many theories of where they came from. Some sourses said they're the "fallen third" that went down with the devil during pre-creation times. Others say they were created before humans and were banished to what I can best call a "parallel universe" because God thought humans and djinn couldn't play well together. Turns out, not all of the djinn likes humanity. Some did and wanted to help and others didn't and wanted to cause problems. Now they slip through the cracks of the worlds, granting wishes at the price of your soul. Oh no, genies aren't the cutsie things you saw on Aladdin. The djinn episode of Supernatural is more on target. They grant your wish at a horrible price. Think the story The Monkey's Paw, by W.W. Jacobs. Move mixes the good with the bad, and adds the ignorance of the protagonist and the deception of the antagonist in the mix, but I'll leave it to the reader as to whether I went more or less sinister than Jacobs with this work. I'll say this much - it ended differently than I expected. But the ending, in a sick and sad sort of way, worked.

All of my research isn't about the supernatural, though. I thought I was fairly up on technology, until I wrote Blurry. Boy, did I learn a lot. For example, there's no way to keep up with it. I believe memory capacity is actually required to increase to a certain degree every year or two. I also knew that cell phones weren't secure long before the NSA leak scandal broke. Anybody can track you anywhere through cell phones. And as for my knowledge of firearms, this is where it started: I had to research guns for a scene in this novel. Did you know that most "amateurs" with guns usually go for handguns, but shotguns actually have better accuracy? 9 mm is pretty common, and it's generally easier for everybody to handle. Don't believe that the smaller millimeter is easier to handle, either, because a .32 or a .380 can blow your hand off. And a revolver of any caliber has a heck of a recoil. Semi-automatics are generally easier on the hands because they absorb some of the recoil from the shots.

Sci-fi can teach you a thing or two as well. For example, many of you know that I wrote my upcoming sci-fi novel, Splinter, a few years ago when I was going through a spell where I was disgusted with pretty much all of life. I was so angry that I wanted to destroy the world, so I did it through writing Splinter during National Novel Writing Month in November 2010. Well, it turns out that destroying the world isn't quite so easy. I'm glad I started planning that novel well ahead of time, because it took me 6 months and a doomsday plot to pull it off. I had to move Heaven and Earth to, well, destroy Earth. For all of you that think the planet is fragile, that's total crap. This is a tough old rock. For all of our problems, I think we're more likely to destroy humanity than we are to destroy the planet. We could all be gone and this world would keep on going. Honestly, we're studying the Book of Revelation in Sunday School right now, and I think that's exactly what it's going to take to take the world down. It's going to require supernatural intervention in systemically breaking us from the top down. The only natural thing that could scorch the planet is the sun going nova. That's how much it's going to take. Yes, we need to take care of the planet, but destroying it? I'm skeptical. We can break it, but we can't annihilate it. Not by our hand. Splinter is coming through Whiskey Creek Press in November.

Yes, it's amazing what you can learn from writing. Sometimes the truth really is stranger than fiction - and sometimes it isn't.

That's all today. I hope you have a great week.

Bye!

And So It Begins

3/28/2012

The pieces that have been floating around for a while and they finally came together. I have the basis for my next book. It's just an idea right now; very rough and full of gaps, but there's enough pieces in place to know that the gaps will fill in and lead to my next book.

The early stages are exciting, but also confusing. There are so many possibilities. My first step is to research. All writers must face the "suspension of disbelief" factor, and the way to do that is to have a base of truth to the story. Believe it or not, this is true of any genre. Even science fiction and fantasy must have constants in place that can be applied to give readers a basis to hang that suspension on - after all, if there's truth that we can realte to in the world we know, then we can suspend our disbelief when we take it on a path that diverts from that truth. My story is going to be mystery (big surprise) with an element of urban fantasy. I have a lot of research to do for this one, but it will be worth it. And often, the research helps the story to fill out by giving the writer more pieces to work with and more importantly, to manipulate.

I've started, though, and I'm excited. I have some good, solid brainstorming notes, which provide a great place to start developing the plot and directing my research. And so, my next book project starts.

Welcome to the journey. I hope you enjoy it.

That's all today. Take care, and I hope the rest of your week goes well.

Bye!

Writer's Block?

4/21/2011

I recently had the realization that it's been a long time since I wrote a short story. In fact, I can only recall writing 2 short stories and maybe 2 or 3 flash fiction pieces in the past year. I know I've been working on novels for the past 18 months, but I think this is the longest I've gone without writing something short, be it a short story, flash fiction, or a devotional. And since I completed the final draft of Splinter, I haven't written anything new. I've been working on updating this website and setting up promotional things for the eventual release of Anywhere But Here.

In one way this is normal. I am a novelist, and hitting a dry spell after completing a novel is completely normal for me. My muse is usually running on fumes when a novel is completed and badly in need of a break. Writer's block happens to every writer, and fighting it is usually an exercise in futility. You can't force yourself to write. You just have to wait it out, keep on living, and hope that somewhere in having a life you find something that inspires you and sparks the muse again. It's just frustrating to have the desire to write, but not the ability because you lack - what? Ideas? Inspiration? What's missing?

I do want to write short stories again. I've been eyeing contests and calls for submissions more and more lately, and I'd love to have something to submit. Don't get me wrong. I love writing novels. But short stories are also fun in a different way. There's something just as captivating in weaving a slice of life together as there is in creating an entire world.

*Sigh* This too shall pass. I know. I've been writing for 10 years and I usually hit a dry spell at least once a year. I just hope it isn't a long one. In the meantime, I guess I'll keep researching how to promote my work and become a better writer.

Have a happy weekend and a great Resurrection Celebration!

Another Snow Day?

Fun Things I've Learned From Writing

And So It Begins

Writer's Block?

Escape Reality

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