In Memory of Etta James

R.I.P Etta James. You were one of the first voices I can remember hearing on my grandparents' radio and it's followed me throughout my life. You will be missed. Read more!

SOPA Blackout Causes Mass Hipsteria

In an unprecedented show of unity Wednesday, Americans across the political spectrum came together to protest Congressional legislation that would allow the government to edit the DNS in order to blacklist any website they felt could be used to promote piracy. Of course, the wording is sufficiently broad that it would allow shut downs of just about any site with a forum or personally-created items.

Thankfully, the American people, for a change, saw through this clever ruse, realizing that the only “people” helped would be corporations (the law says they’re people now, right?). The bills did nothing to help citizens and, in many cases, would do many actual harm, in the form of restricting sites that allow for the sale of goods and services and even going so far as to cut off information-sharing sites where like-minded individuals get together to do what the internet was created to do: share ideas and porn.

So, in response, large portions of the internet went black, restricting access to their sites and putting up banners explaining the bills, as well as how to contact representatives to express concern over their passing. While the effort is admirable, the restriction of instant access to information left one group of Americans in a state of panicked distress.

The subculture commonly referred to as “hipsters” woke up around noon on Wednesday to a nightmare. As they attempted to get their morning news, they found that site after site was talking about some government thing that everyone seemed to agree with and that they, by nature, could therefore not get behind. Even worse, without the internet’s forums and articles, they had no idea what opinions to have that day and, therefore, found themselves bereft of what to wear, to listen to, to complain about or, perhaps worst, to sneer at.

Many chose to spend the day locked indoors, huddling, shivering and naked for fear of wearing something that had fall out of style overnight, in the corner without the constant social validation of deriding the latest artistic sell-out or sheep-like trends with their coterie, all similarly dressed in the latest, most up-to-date distressed fashion. Others, driven out of the house by necessity, like a lack of PBR and cigarettes to get them through this trying, seemingly endless trial, found themselves in a world unfamiliar.

As they were forced to interact with people, they found every conversation to be a minefield, littered with questions that filled them with the existential dread. When asked if they wanted paper or plastic, they didn’t know whether environmentalism had become passé again. If queried about the weather, they weren’t sure if they were supposed to be snarky or cold. And, worst of all, if they were asked terrible, soul-shattering questions like what they thought about a particular book, song or television show, many chose instead to retreat into a catatonic state until the querent moved on rather than face the impossible choice of formulating an opinion that may or may not be supported by their elite peers.

So, when faced with the decision over whether or not to contact your congressional representatives regarding the upcoming vote on SOPA and PIPA, please remember the suffering of all these poor, directionless souls and why the internet must remain free and uncensored. Read more!

Book Review: Terry Pratchett's Snuff

As I sit to write this, it occurs to me on some objective level that there may, in fact, be some of you out there who are unfamiliar with Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series.  I’ve met a few of you and must assume that you simply, though some sort of error in judgment, simply haven’t gotten around to reading them yet and plan to rectify the situation as soon as possible.  I must think this so that we may remain friends, as I like most of you and wish you to remain in my life.  These books are, in fact, so good that I encourage you to leave this article, right now, and go to read them instead.  I can almost guarantee it will be a better use of your time.

For those unfamiliar, Terry Pratchett is often hailed as the most brilliant contemporary satirist currently publishing.  Though I normally bristle at such statements, I can’t argue with this one.  Over the course of the series, and a number of decades, he has dealt with issues as varied as death, tradition, love, warfare, justice and consumerism, all with a deft pen that never resorts to the kind of heavy-handed prose so common these days.  He has created a world that is both familiar and fantastic and populated it with some of the richest, most well-developed characters in contemporary literature. 

In his latest work, Snuff, we rejoin some familiar characters, the Ankh-Morpork City Watch, as they find themselves in some unfamiliar, and disturbingly pastoral, settings.  When Commander Sam Vimes is forced to take a vacation in the countryside, he finds that things there are not nearly as peaceful and pleasant as they at first seem and ends up investigating, with a little local help, a complex mystery involving murder, drug smuggling and a possible slave ring.

While Pratchett’s hallmark dry humor is in fine form, so too is his talent for weaving a compelling narrative which leaves the reader somehow both satisfied and vaguely unsettled.  Beneath the façade of a roaringly entertaining mystery lie explorations of deeper issues, such as institutional racism, courage and the old adage, so important these days, that all it takes for evil to triumph is for good to do nothing.  He even, if you’re paying close enough attention, slips in a deeply thought-provoking debate about stem cell research, addressing both sides of the decidedly difficult issue.

I would be the first to admit that his last outing, Unseen Academicals, was not a favorite of mine, though I realize that may have more to do with my lack of interest in the sports culture which it satirizes than any fault on the part of the author.  My only real complaint was that it seemed to lack the depth and brilliant characterization of his previous work.  Snuff was, to me, a fine return to form on both of those counts and I heartily recommend it to any fan of the series, which I imagine includes anyone who has read it.

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My Absence

In the last few weeks, since a week or so before Christmas, I've posted very little.  Part of it was the holidays, which were amazing, some of the best I've had in years and years.  But the other part was a sort of unmotivated general malaise that I'm even now trying to shake off.  The holidays did a great deal to mitigate it, but as I come into the new year, I spend a little time in the past and a lot of time looking to the near future.

I suppose it comes from not feeling as though I've accomplished much of what I sought to do, a quarter into my year.  I have everything I need, for the moment, including some incredibly supportive people in my life, but the ongoing unemployment (job interview Tuesday!) and general feeling of instability in my life has made focusing difficult.  I will prevail, though, and the first place I'm going to be picking up the slack is here, where I'll start posting regularly again.  Writing has always served as an anchor for me, a way of holding myself in place when the rest of my life is shifting or shaky.

For the new year, I've begun a restricted calorie diet, attempting to reshape the way I eat for the long term.  I've spent a week without exercising or weight training in order to find a healthy new balance and to allow my body some time to acclimate to the reduced energy intake.  I'll monitor it more closely as I step back up into my routines.  Weight loss is a means to an end, but the end goal is being healthy and starvation doesn't help much with that.

In the spirit of hope, I'm going to list some thing to look forward to this year.  I should finish my new novel, with which I've recently had an exciting breakthrough in the narrative.  I ought to be receiving my first penpal letter from an awesome friend of mine who we'll just call C.  Another friend, A, has agreed to work with me on voice lessons.  I've always sung, but never been trained and it's something I've always wanted to do.  I'm going to take my social studies cert exam in March and, though I don't think I'll ever feel completely ready for it, I'm going to do my absolute best.  I need to find some folks who'll let me take their picture and some new music to listen to.  And that's just a handful of the things I've got to look forward to.

On a final note, I didn't post the usual New Year's Day sentiment, but it was felt.  I miss you, little brother, as always, and hope that, somewhere, you're proud of what I'm doing.  I love you. Read more!

Quote - Maugham

"I have an idea that some men are born out of their due place. Accident has cast them amid strangers in their birthplace, and the leafy lanes they have known from childhood or the populous streets in which they have played, remain but a place of passage. They may spend their whole lives aliens among their kindred and remain aloof among the only scenes they have ever known. Perhaps it is this sense of strangeness that sends men far and wide in the search for something permanent, to which they may attach themselves. Perhaps some deep-rooted atavism urges the wanderer back to lands which his ancestors left in the dim beginnings of history. Sometimes a man hits upon a place to which he mysteriously feels that he belongs. Here is the home he sought, and he will settle amid scenes that he has never seen before, among men he has never known, as though they were familiar to him from his birth. Here at last he finds rest."

—from The Moon and Sixpence
       by W. Somerset Maugham, 1919 Read more!

New Year's Day 2012

If 2011 was a bad year or good, 2012 will be better.  Either way, start the new year with hope and possibility. Read more!

Come get your free book!

In the spirit of the holiday (and good ol' American self-promotion), I'm giving away free copies of my book for the next two weeks.  Sometime between today and January 6, if you head on over to the Smashwords page, you can enter the following code: JE53P and get a free digital copy in the format of your choice.  It's DRM free, so pass the word, enjoy and have a happy holiday.

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The Christmas Tree Story

The holidays have become a lot more complicated since I was a kid.  Maybe that’s the case for everyone, maybe it isn’t.  I know that it used to be about that perfect amalgam of excitement, anticipation and the warm safety of being home.  Even in the darkest parts of my childhood, when we weren’t sure if there was going to be a roof over our heads the next month or food on the table the next day, there was always that sense of magic and well-being. 

As I got older, things shifted.  I lost that sense of home, except in the part of it that I carried with me from those more innocent times.  Some of them were spent alone, some of them hungry, some of them in darker places than I, thankfully, had known back then.  Lately, it seems that we’ve forgotten that the holidays are meant to be a time to bring us closer together, to show us the best of humanity.  Instead, we seem to focus on the worst of it, the baser aspects of greed, envy and intolerance.

Even in these times, maybe more so now, I hold to the memories of better days to protect me from the cynicism that seems to have overtaken us.  I remember the goodness in people, in what my grandma used to call the Christmas spirit, though I’ve seen it in celebrants of all faiths, and in those of none.  This is one of the most valuable of those and it’s the only gift this humble wordsmith can give to you.

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A Thought: On Being Broken

Love isn't a matter of finding someone who isn't broken.  We're all broken, in one way or another.  It's just a matter of finding someone whose broken pieces fit ours. Read more!

A Thought: On Bookends

Bookends are for people who can't commit. Read more!

Old Words...

There's a story here, but since it isn't mine alone to tell, I'll leave it untold.

“You are my dream come true.”

Long ago words in long dead letters

Scrawled across the page, hastily,

On a Christmas Eve,

The last of a decade,

A century, a millennium,

A life.

Obscured a year in years

A voice across time

Mine speaking for his

One last time,

Like so many before,

Drawing tears from eyes

That cannot cease glancing back

Asking why.

I can’t answer,

Not this time.

I tell as much truth

As I gauge she can take

Leaving her shuddering but sated

With our shared ghost.

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Snow Patrol - Live from Rolling Stone

I've liked Snow Patrol since their first album, way back when, and their sound and depth has grown over time with me.  They did an acoustic set from their new album, Fallen Empires, yesterday down at the Rolling Stone studios.  From what I've heard, it'll probably be my new favorite album.  The themes of This Isn't Everything You Are and New York especially resonated with me.  Check it out here: Snow Patrol - Live at Rolling Stone

Afterwards, run on over and pre-order the new CD: Read more!

A Glaring Blind Spot

For Christmas, my parents both wanted MP3 players filled with music.  For my mom, that's not tough.  She's like me and, even if she isn't familiar with something, will listen to it anyway.  My stepfather, though, has pointed out that in my expansive, eclectic knowledge of music, I have a glaring blind spot with which I was okay until now.  He wants...disco. Help. Read more!

Anna Dressed in Blood by Kendare Blake

It’s a post-Twilight market.  Genre fiction these days, especially the books aimed at teens, is saturated with what amounts to little more than trashy romance in a fantastical setting, populated by one-dimensional characters who are often horrifying stereotypes playing out “plots” that serve no purpose except to put them in one sexually tense situation after another.  It’s always refreshing to find a new voice that is both willing and able to defy the market’s expectations of what sells in favor of fresh, compelling storytelling and well-developed characters.  What’s more, to find an author who speaks to teens without talking down to them.  Kendare Blake does just that in Anna Dressed in Blood.

The story follows the adventures of the uniquely named Theseus Cassio, or just Cas, for short.  Having inherited his deceased father’s athame and talent for being able to slay the non-living, he and his mother move from town to town where he seeks out and destroys those restless spirits which seek to do others harm.  Those who do not, which are the majority, are left alone.  When a source sends the pair to Thunder Bay, Ontario, he faces his greatest and most intriguing challenge yet in the form of a six-decade old ghost named Anna who is stronger, faster and vastly more powerful than anything he’s faced in the past.

While Blake’s novel pays loving, sometimes tongue-in-cheek, homage to shows like Buffy and Supernatural, it by no means rehashes old territory without adding to the mix a bit of its own flavor.  From the beginning, it’s apparent that she’s come up with a rich mythology and cosmology for her world, the kind of groundwork necessary to give any fantasy a breath of reality.  As well, she doesn’t pander to her audience.  Life isn’t easy, but it isn’t chockfull of needless angst.  Cas is exactly the kind of kid you’d expect him to be, having lived the life he has, for better and worse.  The side characters, even the ghost, Anna, are all given the same loving treatment.

The story itself is paced perfectly.  While it does contain the kind of romance you’d expect in any novel dealing with a teenage protagonist, it does so in a realistic manner and never for a moment sacrifices plot for pander.  Blake pulls no punches, either, when it comes to violence.  It has real consequences.  People get hurt.  When they get knocked around, they don’t just spring back up and keep going.  The reality of it enhances the experience.

All in all, it’s a fantastic read.  And while it does have a fair bit of the kind of violence and gore you’d expect from the genre, it’s handled in a mature fashion and would still be a good choice for older teens and adults alike.  

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New Skill #2 - Origami

Turns out that paper folding isn't the easiest thing in the world.  There's an entire nomenclature to be learned (which I'm picking up) and it takes a delicacy of touch that I'm slowly developing.  It's incredibly meditative and it has the advantage of constantly reinforcing learning, as you're left with a neat thing at the end and you can see the growth of skill in fairly quick increments. These are my works, starting with my first attempt at a swan (yeah, yeah), then a penguin, a bunny, a whale, a frog (who actually hops!) and ending with my most recent, a duck.
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