Less Than Random Thoughts From a Science Fiction Author and Generally Good Guy [ Fawkes ]

Saturday, July 30, 2011

I Think I May Hurl, Dude


Song in my head as I woke-up may cause throw-up! I guess to prove I have no control over the content, or quality, of the songs my brain has on the internal radio, today I woke with......

Cause she's so high, high above me, she's so lovely. She's so high, like Cleopatra, Joan of Arc or Aphrodite Do, do, do, do do She's so high, high above me.


Insipid treacle! As a jazz lover, this type of vacant song (sorry to all you girls who just 'love-it') which stabs a dull rusty ice-pick in the heart of music. Don't get me wrong. Everybody needs to make a living, so the fellows at Fastball - more power to ya. But in my head! I need a shot of tequila and a lawyer. Yuck, yuck, gross........
Oh well, the day can only get better ; )

Friday, July 29, 2011

Oh Ya, The Song in My Head


Okay, this morning it was Phil Collins In the Air. Not a bad song - not great - but okay. At least it is not an annoying jingle or Monster Mash. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nuKfuSpJcMM

What's All This I Hear About TGIF?



Okay, now this is getting out-of-hand. I keep hearing people say "TGIF", or "the weekend is here - woohoo." These are not the sentiments I want to be hearing, people! Remember and do not forget, we are two long days from Monday, the blessed day we can return to service. Work is good. Work is important. Work should be revered. Why do you think the end of the stupid summer, with it's vacations and no-school, is Labor Day? Yeah, it's not Boohoo Day or Man-life-sucks-cause-I-gotta-go-to-work Day. All that lolly-gagging and laziness makes me sick! Work is good - wait, I already said that. Work makes our lives orderly, gives us purpose, and direction. So, like-it or love-it, work! Hey, who's that snickering back there? Come on, appreciate work and endure the weekend. Yes, that's better. Now, I'd like to go on, quote from President Bush (no the good one - W) and Jim Baker, in praise of hard work, but, I need to pack the car. I'm heading for the beach to power-down fine wine and gawk at girls who are way out of my league. And fried foods, yeah, I'm going to eat fried food till I'm sweating canola oil - with lots of trans-fats... and cholesterol. In fact I'm going to eat cholesterol balls deep-fried in lard at the beach and make inappropriate remarks to anyone in a two-piece swim suit! Crap, why am I blogging you? I need to hit the sand and rest - I only have two days... yeah, baby, it's Friday!!! Daddy needs a hang-over and a second degree sunburn..... out of my way ; )

Thursday, July 28, 2011

Oh, FYI



Okay, so today, FYI, no song in particular in my head. I know my readers thirst for knowledge and I did not want to let them down. Hence the factoid in the above poster. Mention it at least seven times today, and people will think you are smart - honestly. Trust me, I'm a doctor ; )

Update on Time Diving


I know, I know! I keep saying it, but... I'm plowing-through the major edit/rewrite (almost as we speak). I am at the part where all h-e-double-toothpicks is breaking loose. Matt and Shannon (husband and wife) are having the type of confrontation you really don't ever want to be involved in.

Matt and his best friend are just back from a mysterious trip to NY which Matt will tell Shannon nothing about. He spent all their savings there.

"Or maybe someone's girlfriend went to New York for an abortion - I hear it's legal there. Oh, wait, Nick doesn't have a girlfriend - he's too drunk to fuck. Let me see, who does that leave? Well, bless my soul, Matt" she pointed at him with unbounded fury, "that would only leave you owning the pregnant slut, wouldn't it?"

Yeah, when your wife screams that to you over breakfast, you're in for a bad day! It is not easy to write florid anger, but it sure is fun ; ) Stay tuned - your going to love it!

Tuesday, July 26, 2011

Saludos Amigos


So, today is my last day working in the department I've labored in for 18 years! Wow, me, ADD poster-child, anywhere for 18 years. It is weird. I need to move on, I am happy to move on, but, I feel guilty to those I love and care for whom I'm leaving behind. It's complicated, this thing called life. Yes, I am rejecting some elements of my past life, but not all - baby and the bathwater and all that. But, you cannot keep part and dispense with the rest. It's all or nothing, it turns out. So, walk away, stiff upper lip, and greet the new dawn. Wow, change is hard! I know we'll all get over it, which is too bad.....

Monday, July 25, 2011

And You Thought I Was Kidding



Okay then, today's selection of odd-songs-I-woke-up-with-playing-in-my-head is.....
Tim Buckley Get on Top. Yes, odd, obscure, otherwise meaningless - and there it was. Poor Tim. He lead a troubled life, died of a heroin OD in at age 28, and then - most unkindest of all - ends up singing in my head a quarter century later. RIP, dude....

Saturday, July 23, 2011

This is SOOO Cool


Wanna see something so cool, that if you touch it, your finger will freeze? This is my new (actual) cover for Anon Time (AT)! When I wrote AT, it was my first book. I had no idea how one proceeded, how to get a pro cover, and I did not know if I was going to even be noticed. Finally, I got Laura Givens to do me one good! Check her out at http://www.lauragivens-artist.com/ - she is great! AT is straight-forward scifi, with a very spiritual twist. As my first effort, it is rougher than what I'm doing now, but it is a dear book, so I am proud to give it a proper cover. So cool!

A Special Deal for My Blog Friends



As a gift to you, I am releasing a coupon for Smashwords.com. You can purchase the eBook versions of The Innerglow Effect for only $0.99!!! The coupon is: PJ82Q
So go to https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/8387
today an start reading this intense medical/spiritual novel.

Get It Out of My Head!



I think I will start a new blog. I know, perfectly what the world needs now - another stupid blog! But wait. My stupid blog is needed - nay - necessary! I am going to blog about the often ludicrous song which is playing in my head everyday when I wake up. It is usually old, often an advertising jingle, and it is positively always annoying. The song rarely repeats days, which is kinda weird. Well, today it did. It was the ads jingle for the above pictured cereal. Not, mind you, the 1980's "Honeycomb's big, yeah yeah yeah" but the 1970's version based on the song Honeycomb. Yeah, the real jingle, not the Madison Ave work-over-sell-your-soul version. "Honeycombs for your home" Ah, when words used to mean something. So, any-who, check one of the absurdly simple and templated commercial for yourself: http://library.duke.edu/digitalcollections/adviews_honeycomb/ Thanks, Duke University, you are doing God's work archiving all those old ads.
I have not done any research into the topic of dumb music in your head when you wake-up. I do not, in spite of being a medical scientist, know if it is common or rare. It is grating - this I can tell you. I never wake-up with Tocata and fuge in D minor raging, or a Beatles song. No, it's the Blue Seal Bread one ("Bring home the good Blue Seal Bread, Fred"). Argh! Oh well, I could wake-up dead, right, so what have I to complain about?
Well, off to fill an order of Saturday-awesomeness!

Sunday, July 17, 2011

Why So Complicated?


Okay, someone out there explain it to me nice and simple - why does life have to be sooooooooo complicated? Hum? I'm waiting - please stop tapping your foot and staring at the ceiling. Oh! You don't understand either. Okay then, now I feel better. Just about every single person (my sainted wife excluded - TG) who is not me seems to want to complicate something which can be rather simple. Life can be simple - peace, love, and understanding. Those are not hard, are they? Apparently so. It's always peace - after I win, love - after you prove you love me, and understanding - as long as you understand I'm right and if you're not you need to change end-of-story-period-do-it-now-or-bam-right-between-the-eyes-goes-my-fist. So here's the deal: I double-promise to try very hard not to complicate anyone else's life. There, now that I've established that, you can be motivated to not complicate mine. Win-win!
Without naming names (I've found that really doesn't help), I just had to bail on listening to a friend's podcast novel. This person (male-female, I'm not sayin'), let's call them "X", seemed intent on disturbing, challenging, provoking the listeners. I, I must state up-top, am very liberal (really, more so than most can accept) and inclusive (remember, I will not complicate other's lives?), so don't get me wrong. I am very concerned with moral issues - feeding the hungry, social justice - that sort of thing. I am less concerned with morality, and am unconcerned utterly with popular morality. I am also passionate about writing - authorship skills and prowess - that stuff. I get all gooey inside when I hear Dickens turn a phrase or Steinbeck nail an metaphor. Good stuff! Likewise, I don't do mediocre writing. Well, for technical material, okay, but for creative writing, make it good or make it go away! So, when X tosses in an element, any element, I ask myself why. If all elements mesh seamlessly and the story is well crafted - well folks, we have a winner. When X makes an abrupt turn, departs from the seamless thingy and lobs-in a challenge, I have to ask why. Is it for the integrity of the story or is there an agenda which is non-literary? I recently stopped listening to Spirit Blade when it dawned on me that the author was using the vehicle of the podcast to espouse an exclusionary religious position. Unacceptable! If you want to spread vile mental-poison, do it by yourself, alone and unheard. Now X did not act so inappropriately. But, if I am forced to stop the program, suspend my-suspension of-disbelief (needed for speculative fiction), and go "Hum?" , what does that serve? Is it simply an error in craftsmanship? Is it perfectly appropriate, and I am out-on-a-limb nutz here? Or, and this is the worst-case scenario, is there a message/position/soap-box/my-way-or-the-highway/if-you-were-thinking-like-me-you'd-be-a-better-person-and-you-are-clearly-not/(or worst of all)you-will-eat-what-I-serve-you-because-I-can-and-you-will-like-it-or-you're-bigoted. Whew - that was a lot said! I do not claim to know what motivated X. What X does is X's business. X does not answer to me or have to justify X to me. My point? Do I possibly have one? Yes! What X does always need to do is entertain and wow me with their craft, if they want two rewards. The first reward X must want is to have made me a better person, uplifted by their skill. The second reward X must want is to have - and this is critically important so read well - is to have written a worthy book. A vulgar analogy. If a Nazi wishes to advance the cause, they could craft a wonderful oil painting - spellbinding landscapes, riveting human forms, like Renoir - but place a swastika in the corner. The painter would hope to draw you in with their skill but sway you to their unacceptable affiliation in the process. The painting, I state, would not be a good painting, not a work of art and should be ignored. Now, please, no one think I'm saying any X is as bad as a Nazi! I'm just explaining my reasoning. This post is long enough without me dancing around the point to not offend. I do not write to offend. If I do, I do badly. I hope to write, both here and in my books, to CHALLENGE, but never to denigrate.
Did you ever write a blog entry, and when you were done, you wondered why? Well I have........

Tuesday, July 12, 2011

Moving on Down the Road


Life changes, the rules change, and so, inevitably, we must also change. If we are not flexible and cannot or will not bend with the winds of change, we are the ones who suffer. So it is that I am changing. Nothing too big, but nothing too small either. I am transferring from one department with the large medical group I work for, Kaiser for the locals who know it, to a different department. Sounds like a minor enough change, but, as in any good chemical reaction, change requires energy, effort. I have worked in the challenging department which deals with work related injuries for 18 years. I fancied I retire out of it, but, yes, that old devil change could not be denied - so on I move. I am heading back to Internal medicine, where I started. Bitter-sweet is what it is. Leaving old friends and comfortable patterns for what will be a better place. A two-edged sword. I will discuss more specifics in the future, probably the far future, so feelings are less hurt and my ass is less exposed to those who might like to swing a kick at it. The experience has sharpened my interest in my next, or next-next novel however, so that is good. I am parsing-out the concept of how corporate mind-set is consuming the good which was.
Least I seem over drama-mama, I am up for the challenge, and I am going to have a wonderful time doing an outstanding job. Seriously, dude, I get paid to help people. Yeah, sweet!

Thursday, July 7, 2011

I'm Finally Getting to the Good Part


I am maybe 2/3rd through the hard edit of TD. Now I'm in the good part, where things really happen, wild and wacky things - well you just cannot imagine (that's the point, eh what?). So it's easier to move forward. As I've said before, the set-up parts are, which I think very important, are boring to go over and over. They set the character's motivations, etc, but are inherently less wow-dude. So, onward and upward - still months away, but at least I'm months away, now I the starting blocks.