Funny! Is it ironic I was once a 'rattler'?

Allow me to toot my own horn. It doesn't happen often. ;) okay, ever.

Wow. I've been going through some of my old posts to read what I wrote, and I am surprised at some of the things I think about and have done. I've kept a journal before, but I have to say that my thoughts run free in a whole new way with the ease of typing on a keyboard.

I am most surprised with all I have accomplished. I look like a jack of all trades with the lists I have compiled here. Some of my achievements even give the idea that I am distinguished and classy. Very nice.

I wonder if it is too late to add that I can play the piano and clarinet very well? That I know how to play the trombone poorly and have played the flute, trumpet, bass clarinet, saxophone, and tuba at least a few times in my life. Of course these last ones have been forgotten except how to make the instrument work. I can make noise! Just not very good noise....

Or that I have volunteered at over nine hundred charities in my lifetime and still send in money to several outside of the church I give ten percent to every week. Mobility is the only thing stopping me from running marathons and giving charity hockey events (and yes I have played hockey before; street hockey, but we didn't have much ice in Arizona).

Even now I look at this stuff and think I'm cooler than I really am. I live, love, and care like the rest of the world. I'm no different, sometimes less than cool I think. I know I always want to do more, or should do more. It makes me sad to admit that my life is busier and I don't have the time I did before I got married. How selfish am I?

Look at me, I start writing a blog about how cool I am and I end up still thinking I'm dirt.

I have my moments, as does everyone else. Maybe I could step them up a little. I'm no Mother Teresa, but I have great respect for those that give their lives as she did. But I know I will never be one of them. I have accepted this... okay well maybe not if I'm still grouchy!

Life has to be taken one day at a time. I think I've forgotten that.

At least I have my writing! Oy! How selfish do I sound doing something only for me now?!

This is a comment seeking blog. Post how you wish you did more. Or if you are awesome, let me know. I need ideas... maybe I'll take them and do them... maybe I'll keep writing this blog.

Hehe. The latter is very provocative! Guess 'll be here for a while!

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Do you ever have those words that are just on the tip of your tongue that they really should burn it? You can recite the definition for this word, and you could use it in a sentence, indeed the sentence is formed and a space is made, ready to insert it as soon as your stumbling brain stops for a second to grasp the tottering word before it gets lost?

Well I am feeling that right now. What is the question that no one wants answered called? You ask, but you aren't asking for an answer, you are simply putting it out there into the void that we call thought. Honestly, i have used this word for this thousands of times and now I am drawing a blank.

"Question," says person one.
"Answer," says person two.
Person one gives glare. "That was a .... question, you dork."

What? Not supposed to be answered, I know, but what is the word!?! Ugh! This is driving me crazy.

WAIT!!! Hypothetical?

Is that it? A hypothetical question? Honestly I have been spinning for so long I am too dizzy to really believe I finally have it.

Time will tell. I think I need a break now....

Yes. Definitely bedtime. Goodnight crazy book until I can think a little better.

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Books and books and more wonderful books!

I finished my second book in the Jewel saga!

I am so happy I am ready to burst! It took me a little less time to nail down than the first, and is much shorter as result, but I believe it will be just as fun now that Julia and Joshua's relationship is determined. Now all the fun adventure starts! And battles! And powers will swell! Hehe I digress. The book is finished!

Next I have the editing to look forward to. This is where I read the full book from start to finish and make sure each scene melts into the next one peacefully without leaving anyone scratching their heads. Of course there are cliff hangers, but that is entirely different! They add fun scratching!

Editing is fun because I get to plunge into the world I created and see it from an outsider's view. Indeed I will put the book away for a few weeks and dive into my young adult one with the frogs before I come back to it. That way when I open the file that contains the full book, I have fresh eyes and can really see it objectively. Scenes that I had in my head and were cut out are now gone(saved in another drive if I decide in editing that I really liked them after all), and I can see how the finished book really is without all the distractions that clouded my brain before. It is now new and exciting as it goes to places I don't expect after being away for so long.

And yes, a few weeks on another project really can wipe so much of that world out of my head. I switch from elves to frogs. Quite a jump between characters and ages and likes and dislikes. When Jewels is introduced again I will watch her go through her experiences with only a vague overall of what happens. I rewind to the beginning again with her and see what she sees almost for the first time. It is enthralling to relive it as it should be lived; from the reader's viewpoint!

I have said I love to read. I love to read I love to read I love to read!

Oh, but it is so much more than that! I love to experience, and see the world visually, and feel what the words in front of me want me to feel!

And here I have to say that I hated being made to feel some of the things in the Eragon books.

But most of what I read is wonderful! Fantasy and happiness by the end; it is no wonder I don't want the poor things to end! I was having too much fun celebrating with the characters once the crisis was finally out of the way!

And in all fairness, I think I need more celebrating in the end of book two. Perhaps a longer ending will be better. But I will not fix it, won't even touch it, for a few weeks! I want it to be perfect! I know that if I spend enough time away, my subconscious will fix everything for me and I will have another masterpiece on my hands! Ahhhh! Sweet success in a wonder-filled world of perfection and cohesively meshing chapters! Sigh and big tingly grin!

I love everything about being a writer! Well, with the big exception of the tedious queries I have to send out to complete strangers. Yeah not so much fun.

But if I could see their faces after they read my book and when they find it as exciting as I do, then it would all be worth it! I revel to think that more people can enjoy the worlds I create! How many would love to buy my book because it was what they were looking for! I wonder!

My dream halfway to reality I continue with every idea that pops into my head in hopes of making that dream the reality I see before me. It is tangible. It will be within my hands quite soon, I believe. I believe this with all my dreaming heart. I have never wanted anything for myself (besides the CK for me and my family for those of you who know me) more than I want this. Truly my religious beliefs come first, but if "Adam fell that men might be, and men are that they may have joy in this life and in the life to come", then I have to believe that my Heavenly Father wants me to be happy too.

And I know this goes without saying, but being a published author and sharing my worlds with everyone who loves the good written word would make me VERY happy!

'And the bank account' adds hubby over my shoulder. Heehee, Yes dear.

He is very patient with me when my fingers start clicking this fast. He knows my passion for writing runs very deep within me. He saw it when I had forgotten, and I deeply thank him for that.

I hope to get my books out there so you may all read what is close to my heart. I do think that many of you would fall in love with these characters too. Only time will tell! And a long series of fortunate events!

Until that time! Adeiu! I will be on here blogging in the meantime. Again, it is writing, how could I resist?!

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"Writing as a writer that writes." ~anonymous

...As opposed to what? A writer that does not write? I thought this was a weird quote posted on an agent's blog today. Just had to share it. What do you think?

Most of the posts I read today talked about stories and ideas being stolen with all the new technology out there on the internet. Authors have sent their manuscripts over plain emails and had them stolen, rewritten and sold under someone else's name with no knowledge until the agent trying to sell it to another publisher tells them it's been done. Shock and horror follow as they try to figure out just what happened.

Though that was the worst of the cases I read, a different type of stealing is fast coming popular. Before the book comes to the shelve, versions are downloaded into the internet published by strangers. It impacts sales that could have sent the book over the top, but because it had free access, stores lost good money from a promising novel.

This sucks. It is the main reason I do not send my book through email anymore. Full manuscripts have been snatched through the US mail system and read and either stolen and submitted under a different name, or deemed unworthy and sent on in new packaging that the author doesn't recognize when the agent (who funnily thought it was great) goes over the ms with them later. These are true stories that really happened. Illegal to be sure, but travesties that truly scare me as a beginner novelist.

I have four books that I am studiously working on. Several ideas for more, but these four really speak to me right now. Two books finished, and none of the six published or copywrited, I worry that someone will either come up with the idea genuinely and get there faster than me, or as I talk about them they will get passed, either in jest as people think the ideas I share with them are lame, or seriously as others truly think I have something, to people who write faster than me and come up with their own versions making mine not as unique as I was going for. This terrifies me.

Those of you who keep asking to read my book please understand where I am coming from. If you want to read it, find me a publisher or an agent who is willing to do you a favor and read it for me for serious contemplation to getting it hardbound. If you help me get my dream to happen for any of these books, I will give you for free one of the first ones off the press hand signed by the author. I promise.

But, and this saddens me, that is the only way I think you will be able to read it. I want to make money as well as get published. It is part of what makes the game worth it. I want to know that people are willing to but me in print. It makes me excited to think that I am going to be in print. I don't want that ruined by the slip that is more common than my niave little mind had previously thought it was.

And a small part of me refuses to believe that 8% of ms are stolen. That is huge when you think about it. 8% is more than a thousand incidents, people. Scary. Of course I don't want to believe. These took me a long time create to think they'll be carted and sold by a faker.

The worst is that it is hard to prove who the idea came from. Some of the authors like me were new and they had no public name to tie their idea to while they wrote it so when they went to claim their own work they had no proof it was really theirs. Very few had copies saved with a date and time that preceded all dates for the thieves. And as they pointed out in the posts, anyone could fudge a time record.

So what is an author to do?

Honestly I don't know.

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Soooo many new gadgets, so little time to learn all of them. Really this blog is my new toy. And it is the best as not many of my other ones let me do what I love best... write!

Today I have to gripe about telemarketers and those annoying people who call your home. I have a right to do this as I used to be one kind of these people. I accepted calls about what my company was selling and then tried to 'sell' the product that they were just calling in to learn about. I made a living doing this for five months before I couldn't do it any more. With the money I earned there I was able to buy a car, a whole new business wardrobe, and put close to nine thousand dollars into savings. The car was bought right after I started. I should have waited for a nicer one, but it served well for the few years I needed it.

But back to telemarketers. There should be a moral code they are expected to keep when they call these poor unsuspecting people up. If it is mentioned that the person has not the funds to participate in the 'wonderful' deal the other person is offering, then they should politely say goodbye and hang up.

Not give a new price for the same thing and offer it with a few new perks! They should not torment the nice person on the other line with a false hope that they will get to their price bracket and all they ever wanted will be theirs for mere pennies!

And they should never talk to someone who just woke up! Obviously the groggy person would do anything to get the chatter to stop, and they are not always in the right frame of mind to just hang up. They can barely string together the thoughts they were programmed with than to think of deviating from such polite programming!

My rant can go on, but I will leave you with that. Thank you for letting me say this about the profession that served me well physically. Mentally it was a moral drain to do it. I was lucky enough to quit with a lot of cash in my pocket after a short time. But I loathe the next person who calls me at five thirty in the morning. Polite programming may just have been overridden! Indeed, I will not soon forget to turn the nasty gadget off anytime soon!

Have a lovely weekend my wonderful friends and family. And chew out any advertiser you see for me, kay? Just for fun. They deserve a healthy dose every once in while. It puts them back on their own personal moral path for a few phone calls. Truly, we all need our moral path to be seen every once in a while.

Luvs and hugs.

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"...And thus I've risen from the ashes... reborn again."

Someone asked me the other day what it was that inspired me to be a writer. This made me think, and I've finally narrowed down my reason.

First, I used to write about anything and everything in junior high and the beginning of high school. It was fascinating to watch the things I wrote take on a shape and life of their own. I was always creating some new world to escape into. Writing was like breathing back then; a necessity. The books I'd read colored these new thoughts to existence and helped create others. It was not altogether an unhappy time, despite it being junior high.

In high school, I was turned away from the idea of becoming the writer I wanted to be when I was told I couldn't write, and that no amount of college was going to write a story for me. Misunderstanding, I thought that they meant that I merely had no talent and that I never would have any. I gave up and, after much crying, threw myself into my next creative outlet; the arts.

Drama, dance, choir, and band filled my day from dawn to right before dinner time with all the extra curricular activities they offered outside of regular school hours. Song and dance my favorite, I joined the after school show choir, and dance club. My life seemed full. At least, my hours were accounted for.

After high school I knew that I was a weak singer and that my knees wouldn't let me dance much longer, so when I went to college I began my career to become a teacher. After a very short time I decided I didn't like teaching. I like playing.

It didn't matter my course after that as I found the one I was meant to be with and started a family together. My passions forgotten except in my dreams or the church choir, I settled into my life. It wasn't until my twenty eighth birthday that I even thought about writing seriously again.

A few months before October, my mother bought a few books to help me when I was unable to move about properly. I was going to be ill until after my birthday, and she, remembering my youthful fondness for the written word, bought me a few of the new releases in young adult fiction. Having read them herself, she knew they were excellent and that I may enjoy them as well. And being the wonderful mother she was, she kindly bought the whole series of each tale for me. I had gold in my hands.

Those listed in her selections were:

The Harry Potter series
The Fablehaven series
The Eragon series
The Percy Jackson series
The Twilight series
and
The World of Foo series

With enough written fantasy to last me weeks, I was soon flying to the worlds these precious authors opened for me with great delight. I rarely surfaced and when I did, it was only to cart the children to school and make meals for them after. Family night and church were the only other times I really saw them. Even when they requested snuggles and sat on my lap I regret to say that I read around them as I kissed their hair and hugged them back and rubbed their back affectionately. They stayed for near an hour or so before they grew bored and went to play dress up with their sibling in the other room.

When I put the last book down, I erred again as I became moody. My worlds had been snatched away with the last ominous word and I was plunged back into my own. My children and their smiles were the only thing that made me not weep outright. They really helped me see that not living in a fantasy world was not all that bad.

Subdued now, my husband suggested the funniest thing. Not knowing my past with the awful English teacher, he asked why I didn't create my own world to disappear into every once in a while. Then he shocked me further by magically producing a pretty laptop.

Silver, it reminded me of the colors I saw in my head during those precious hours of reading. "It's your birthday, thanksgiving and Christmas present," he beamed in his presentation. And indeed all I got for Christmas was a filled stocking and a package of colorful socks that year, but I didn't mind. I had already half a world created by then.

Not liking vampires very much, I held off on the Twilight series until last. That being said, it was still fresh in my mind when I started writing. I wanted another romance to bloom before my eyes. My character would be stronger though. She would be the damsel saving heroine... eventually.

My own klutz stumbled forward across the blank (pages) of my creation like a child with new life breathed into it. I flew beside it, encouraging her to take shape and then flight and then soar high above as I finished it.

I didn't stop there. My creation had to be perfect. I found a few English majors to help me hammer out the finer points and chop off the worse ones. Indeed I have another lined up, so that when I have ironed out the first suggestion to my taste (not all of which I chose to use as some were just plot suggestions) I will be able to present them with the newer, better version to be hacked up again. I actually like this part of the process, too. It is fun for me to watch my world change into sharper focus.

The part I don't like is the querying. The poor agents that I try to sell this to are getting very bad proposals as I have no idea how to sell the idea. I believe in it, but convincing someone else is harder than it sounds.

I am yet unpublished, but I feel that I am a writer. It is who I am, who i was, though for a long time I forgot, and it is who I will be in the future. Indeed at this present moment, I have three books I am writing. Each very different. One a women's romance, and the other two in different ages of young adult.

Whether they are elves again, toad dwelling demons, or creatures from another dimension, my characters are leaping off the pages and dancing around me in inspiration. I am their creator. I see them as if they were standing here beside me. I say I am a writer. But I am also a dreamer.

And thus I dream....

What sings to you? What would your driving life-force outside of your family be? Let me know I want to hear what speaks to you.

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"...Sing Vienna, as only you can, the songs of the rising tide and the suns of the ocean's deep."

I have never really wanted to travel. I had done so much of it when I was a kid(granted we only visited Canada and Mexico outside the US) that my need to get 'out and see the world' was sufficiently quelled by the time I was seventeen. I am very lucky that my parents took the time every summer to educate us in all that was in our own backyard.

Much older now, and with my own kids to cart around to the various places yet untouched by my personal experience, I have the rest of the world to look at. There are a few places that intrigue me.

Like England and the lush country landscape and beautiful castles and homes to tour. Ireland would be great because I would want to see the forests that inspired faeries and leprechauns into being. China's country sounds gorgeous and I would like to see the pandas and secret villages that have no modern connection and hike the vast landscapes to find the temples scattered throughout.

Perched on the lagoon's tallest islands and sand dunes, Venice sounds like it would be the most fun for me. I would of course ride the gondolas, and see the museums. Maybe see Doge's Palace and the Basilica of San Marcos, even.

However, I would really love to book a tour with the underground excavating teams that dig up watery basements to see what kinds of things have been forgotten in the stories that get buried by the rising tides.

Now, understand that this is not a normal thing available to tourists. Indeed if you asked someone about this they would give you a quizzical look and leave you standing there feeling stupid.

No, this is a wonderful opportunity only available to those who seek the right licenses and permits. Then you have to get permission from the owners to dig up the watery grave that sits beneath them every night. Not going to happen for most. But I can dream.

Exploring the past in these soggy rooms seems to me, fantasy. It was interesting to watch the explorers on TV bring up treasures buried by time. I really would like to go there and get to see that for a few days. It would be the highlight of my traveling.

Sometimes I wonder if I should have been an archaeologist or artifact excavator when I grew up instead of a writer...

No this is so much more fun!

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(Sorry, but I don't have the slide show on here.)

I love how there is a feature on here that lets me post things a day from when I write the! What a nice thing! Obviously this means that I won't have to 'work'(honestly i like this too much to call it work) on Sunday. A day of rest from all my activities as my Heavenly Father has asked of me. Cool! This has truly been a wonderful thing for me to do as a creative outlet.

But on to today's blog....

I do not usually have favorite songs outside of the hymns or choir music I sang in church and high school, but this one really touched me.

"There's always going to be another mountain. I'm always going to want to make it move. Always gonna be an uphill battle. Sometimes I'm gonna have to lose.

"It's the cliiii-iiii-iiii-iiiimb!"

Wow. This really spoke to me. Miley Cirus has certainly found a song that is worth listening to. It really helps when the rejections come. Thanks Miley.

I'm going to keep climbing. Wish me luck!

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Okay. So who got the email from Uncle (nameless) describing the similarities by the history professor between Hitler and Obama? That was downright scary. In case you missed it, here's what he said:

The guy has the credentials to be credible.

Dr. David Kaiser is a respected historian whose published works have covered a broad range of topics, from European Warfare to American League Baseball. Born in 1947, the son of a diplomat, Kaiser spent his childhood in three capital cities: Washington D.C. , Albany , New York , and Dakar , Senegal . He attended Harvard University , graduating there in 1969 with a B.A. in history. He then spent several years more at Harvard, gaining a PhD in history, which he obtained in 1976. He served in the Army Reserve from 1970 to 1976.

He is a professor in the Strategy and Policy Department of the United States Naval War College. He has previously taught at Carnegie Mellon, Williams College and Harvard University . Kaiser's latest book, The Road to Dallas, about the Kennedy assassination, was just published by Harvard University Press.

History Unfolding

I am a student of history. Professionally, I have written 15 books on history that have been published in six languages, and I have studied history all my life. I have come to think there is something monumentally large afoot, and I do not believe it is simply a banking crisis, or a mortgage crisis, or a credit crisis. Yes, these exist, but they are merely single facets on a very large gemstone that is only now coming into a sharper focus.

Something of historic proportions is happening. I can sense it because I know how it feels, smells, what it looks like, and how people react to it. Yes, a perfect storm may be brewing, but there is something happening within our country that has been evolving for about ten to fifteen years. The pace has dramatically quickened in the past two.

We demand and then codify into law the require ment that our banks make massive loans to people we know they can never pay back? Why?

We learned just days ago that the Federal Reserve, which has little or no real oversight by anyone, has "loaned" two trillion dollars (that is $2,000,000,000,000) over the past few months, but will not tell us to whom or why or disclose the terms. That is our money. Yours and mine. And that is three times the $700 billion we all argued about so strenuously just this past September. Who has this money? Why do they have it? Why are the terms unavailable to us? Who asked for it? Who authorized it? I thought this was a government of "we the people," who loaned our powers to our elected leaders. Apparently not.

We have spent two or more decades intentionally de-industrializing our economy.. Why?

We have intentionally dumbed down our schools, ignored our history, and no longer teach our founding documents, why we are exceptional, and why we are worth preserving. Students by and large cannot write, think critically, read, or articulate. Parents are not revolting, teachers are not picketing, school boards continue to back mediocrity.. Why?

We have now established the precedent of protesting every close election (violently in California over a proposition that is so controversial that it simply wants marriage to remain defined as between one man and one woman. Did you ever think such a thing possible just a decade ago?) We have corrupted our sacred political process by allowing unelected judges to write laws that radically change our way of life, and then mainstream Marxist groups like ACORN and others to turn our voting system into a banana republic. To what purpose?

Now our mortgage industry is collapsing, housing prices are in free fall, major industries are failing, our banking system is on the verge of collapse, social security is nearly bankrupt, as is Medicare and our entire government. Our education system is worse than a joke (I teach college and I know precisely what I am talking about) - the list is staggering in its length, breadth, and depth. It is potentially 1929 x ten...and we are at war with an enemy we cannot even name for fear of offending people of the same religion, who, in turn, cannot wait to slit the throats of your children if they have the opportunity to do so.

And finally, we have elected a man that no one really knows anything about, who has never run so much as a Dairy Queen, let alone a town as big as Wasilla, Alaska. All of his associations and alliances are with real radicals in their chosen fields of employment, and everything we learn about him, drip by drip, is unsettling if not downright scary (Surely you have heard him speak about his idea to create and fund a mandatory civilian defense force stronger than our military for use inside our borders? No? Oh, of course. The media would never play that for you over and over and then demand he answer it. Sarah Palin's pregnant daughter and $150,000 wardrobe are more important.)

Mr. Obama's winning platform can be boiled down to one word: Change. Why?

I have never been so afraid for my country and for my children as I am now.

This man campaigned on bringing people together, something he has never, ever done in his professional life. In my assessment, Obama will divide us along philosophical lines, push us apart, and then try to realign the pieces into a new and different power structure. Change is indeed coming. And when it comes, you will never see the same nation again

And that is only the beginning..

As a serious student of history, I thought I would never come to experience what the ordinary, moral German must have felt in the mid-1930s.. In those times, the "savior" was a former smooth-talking rabble-rouser from the streets, about whom the average German knew next to nothing. What they should have known was that he was associated with groups that shouted, shoved, and pushed around people with whom they disagreed; he edged his way onto the political stage through great oratory. Conservative "losers" read it right now.

And there were the promises. Economic times were tough, people were losing jobs, and he was a great speaker. And he smiled and frowned and waved a lot. And people, even newspapers, were afraid to speak out for fear that his "brown shirts" would bully and beat them into submission. Which they did - regularly. And then, he was duly elected to office, while a full-throttled economic crisis bloomed at hand - the Great Depression. Slowly, but surely he seized the controls of government power, person by person, department by department, bureaucracy by bureaucracy. The children of German citizens were, at first, encouraged to join a Youth Movement in his name where they were taught exactly what to think. Later, they were required to do so. No Jews of course,

How did he get people on his side? He did it by promising jobs to the jobless, money to the money-less, and rewards for the military-industrial complex. He did it by indoctrinating the children, advocating gun control, health care for all, better wages, better jobs, and promising to re-instill pride once again in the country, across Europe , and across the world. He did it with a compliant media - did you know that? And he did this all in the name of justice and .... . .. change. And the people surely got what they voted for.

If you think I am exaggerating, look it up. It's all there in the history books.

So read your history books. Many people of conscience objected in 1933 and were shouted down, called names, laughed at, and ridiculed. When Winston Churchill pointed out the obvious in the late 1930s while seated in the House of Lords in England (he was not yet Prime Minister), he was booed into his seat and called a crazy troublemaker. He was right, though. And the world came to regret that he was not listened to.

Do not forget that Germany was the most educated, the most cultured country in Europe . It was full of music, art, museums, hospitals, laboratories, and universities. And yet, in less than six years (a shorter time span than just two terms of the U. S. presidency) it was rounding up its own citizens, killing others, abrogating its laws, turning children against parents, and neighbors against neighbors.. All with the best of intentions, of course. The road to Hell is paved with them.

As a practical thinker, one not overly prone to emotional decisions, I have a choice: I can either believe what t he objective pieces of evidence tell me (even if they make me cringe with disgust); I can believe what history is shouting to me from across the chasm of seven decades; or I can hope I am wrong by closing my eyes, having another latte, and ignoring what is transpiring around me.

I choose to believe the evidence. No doubt some people will scoff at me, others laugh, or think I am foolish, naive, or both. To some degree, perhaps I am. But I have never been afraid to look people in the eye and tell them exactly what I believe-and why I believe it.

I pray I am wrong. I do not think I am. Perhaps the only hope is our vote in the next elections.

David Kaiser

Jamestown, Rhode Island

United States

I pray that he is wrong too. But look at the evidence. And is he right about the army for discipline within our own borders? Hello Brown shirts... again? What did we do?

We voted for a monster... or didn't vote?

That'll teach us. I guess it serves us right. If we're too busy to get to the polls, what makes us think we have a voice after the fact? Like my family always says; "If you don't vote, you don't have the right to complain about the results".

I voted. I'm complaining. This is not what I wanted either.

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Well... that's not good.

Writer's police!!! You did something wrong, so you are being rejected before I even know what the story is about!

I just found out that flashbacks in the beginning of a story are 'redflags' in the agent/publishing industry. Taboo things that when found earn an immediate no from whomever you are querying. Well there goes that chapter! The beginning of the book no less!

So I have to assume(okay, prefer to presume) that anyone who got to read those first ten-fifty pages saw it and skipped on it because of that.

Oops!

Okay, so now I get to redirect the whole beginning and find a way to tell the back story by inserting tidbits through out the immediate action. I guess it wasn't needed, but it was fun to write about. I am sad to see it go, but I have hope that this will tighten the beginning and draw the reader in quicker.

Here I go. (This will take a while....)

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