Lord Mammon and the Muse: An Artist's Manifesto

Hesiod and the Muse

I struggle a lot with my Muse.  Whether she is a disembodied genius, a demon in the back of my mind, or function of my own imagination matters little.  I hear her sing.  She gives me more stories than I have time to write.  She shows me many worlds, many lives, and many dreams.

I have tried to discipline her.  Over the years, I have introduced rules and structures to funnel her inspiration where I feel it should go.  She just laughs at me.

I am not sure I would care as much if I had not allowed myself to be distracted by the idea of money.  Lord Mammon snarls.  He is the tormentor of all artists.  He tells us all the simple truth, "You have to make money to support yourself."  How sweet is a lie wrapped in the truth?

Yes, every writer needs to make money if they are going to continue working.  We read countless books and blogs on how to monetize our work.  Could there ever be a bigger waste of time?

A writer needs to focus on their craft.  We lie to ourselves and say that we are all publishers now.  Why can't we see that the publishing industry was a discrete phenomenon?  It arose for its time, served its purpose, and now it is time to let it die.  It was the business of Lord Mammon, not the Muse.

Let us rediscover some foundational truths:

There is no such thing as a writer, there is only the storyteller.

There is no such thing as the musician, there is only the performer.

There is no such thing as the painter, there is only the artist.

There is no such thing as the storyteller, there is only the artist.

There is no such thing as the performer, there is only the artist.

The artist is the servant and the master of the imagination.

I am an artist who tell stories.  No more, no less.  I work to perfect my craft in hopes that the stories I tell are not just my stories.  I hope they are your stories too.  I have to trust that our stories are good enough, compelling enough for you to want more.

We have to stop wanting the instant gratification of the quick buck, and try to build something that will last.  A good story will always outlive its teller.  The moment a good story enters another person's mind and finds its way into their heart, it has done what it was meant to do.

I need to trust my Muse.  I need to trust my readers.  I need to trust you all to do the same.

Revealing Unseen Wonder

I've gone through many stages as a blogger. It's difficult to admit to myself how many years I've been doing this. And it's not the easiest thing to keep doing.

In many ways, it's the same as my other job as a novelist. I'm constantly looking for ideas, things to share and talk about that I hope you all enjoy as much as I do. For a while there, I even tried being a news commentator. While I moved all that over to my other blog it Project: Shadow.com, and decided to use dashPunk as a more personal blog, I found it hard to open up.

I gave this site the tagline, "revealing unseen wonder," because I really felt that was my duty. After all this and that the duty of every writer?

As a writer, I see the world differently. I see characters, through lines, and symbolism in even the most mundane events. I have a habit of finding symbolism in things that most people don't. But most of the time, I just sit in my house and write.

On the first of the year, we make resolutions. If we were honest with ourselves, we would admit that most of them are unrealistic. But I want to make a resolution to be more open, sharing what few and precious glimpses of wisdom and wonder that I find in my life with you guys. Over the years, you all have shared so many with me. It is time that I paid back the favor.

So let us all resolve that in this year 2013, we will not be afraid to share our gifts and talents with the world. I will be sharing more stories this year than I ever have before. I have a plan.

What we share?

Love isn't money

It's not something you buy
Let me fill myself with tears you cry

You know I am in a fun mood when I open a post with a quote from Black Sabbath. I've had Wishing Well stuck in my head all week.

As a writer, I want to entertain people, but I also want to share something intensely person. Something that con only be shared through stories.

I love it when I hear from you all. You make all the soul searching worth it. But, I feel a strong urge to be original. To tell stories that are different from the ones I read, watch, and listen to.

The problem with originality is getting other people into it. I read the reviews and so often they make me smile.

As I work on this story, I wanted to return to the things I love. You can really see that in Wand and Weaver: The Chain.

The other problem with my struggle for originality is that it fills my head with more stories than I know what to do with.

So, I think I have seen a way forward. Wand and Weaver is a bigger story than I can easily tell, but I think I have found a way to do it.

I have changed my focus for the serial. I am going to tell a story that parallels the main story so I can give you all a fuller image of what is going in in the world.

I'm still not sure what I am going to do with the story if Amazon Serials doesn't take it. I am looking for options if you know about any.

What other stories in the Dragons of Night world do you want to read? Let me know.

To Steampunk or not to steampunk

While working in this new serial, I find myself adding a lot of steampunk elements, but I am not sure if I should call the story steampunk or not.

There are a lot of Steampunk purists who would instantly tell me that what I am working on is not Steampunk.  The story takes place in a secondary world.  It is not a Victorian era setting in most ways.  The plot is a mix of supernatural horror, epic fantasy, and steampunk.  So what is it?

I hate genre titles.  I've posted about that on numerous occasion.  The problem is one of constraint.  Oddly, that is also what I love about genre.  It gives you conventions to play with and constraints on the types of stories you can tell.

In fact, I am almost more concerned about calling the serial an epic fantasy than a steampunk story.  To be honest, it is somewhere between an epic fantasy and a sword and sorcery story.

I suppose, what I am most concerned about is more how readers react to the terms.  I will probably use all the above as keywords for the serial.  I just hope people know I am doing it in good faith.

What do you think?  How flexible is the term steampunk?  Let me know.

The Prewriting Trap

I've been working for a couple months on a new story, and I fell into the same whole I always do: too much prewriting.

I don't just outline, I dig into every character and setting element, and while some of that is necessary, it can easily get out of hand.

When I say every, I really mean every. I get really involved with the setting and start looking at more and more of the ephemera of the setting. I once wrote 90,000 words of backstory for a 54,000 word story.

I talk to my friends about the iceberg effect of my writing style. For my previous series, I wrote 10 words of backstory for every 1 word of story.

Now that I am starting to do it again, I am at least happy I can see it this time. I am not sure what I want to do about it.

Part of me thinks I should post it all on the site, but, as I learned with Dragons of Night, it takes a lot of time to edit the material and make it reader-worthy.

I might continue to do that, but as for this project, I am going to pull back and focus on the story.

I am curious what you all think. I am open to suggestions.

Rediscovering the Heart of Fandom

From Entertainment Design

---

The last couple years have not been easy for a fan like me.  Okay, truth be told, it has been a rough decade.

I know what you're thinking.  This is not a valid problem.  Fandom is not something any person is entitled to.  I would have to disagree.  Fandom is not about the media we watch or buy, and it is not about the merchandise aassociated with it.  Fandom is about the connection we have with the the stories, worlds, and characters we love, and our connection with the other fans.

I'm an old man now.

I realized that I crossed the line into being an old man when my friends and I sat around talking about how new series had lost the heart and mind of the series I grew up with.  I was reminded of people talking about the Beatles and the Rolling Stones compared to Nirvana and Pearl Jam when I was younger.

Since I like to over think everything, I asked myself, is that true?  Have I just become old and cynical or has media actually dumbed down?

Every generation feels that they were at the apex of civilization, and the world has gone off a cliff since.

Is everything really the worse?

Yes and no.  How is that for a safe answer?

Yes, things have gotten worse.  When I was a kid, there wasn't the crazy pressure of a shrinking market to contend with.  Babylon 5 was able to take the independent route and get its full story out, yet Firefly and Legend of the Seeker weren't.

The market isn't what it used to be.  Star Trek was canceled for low ratings despite 8.3 million viewers, whereas Fringe averages 2-4 million viewers and went on for 5 seasons, while Dollhouse was canceled for 2-5 million viewers, as was Legend of the Seeker for 2-5 million viewers.

The market has changed.   What used to be called low rating, is now dream ratings, and the shows that stay on TV are more up to them whims of industry than ever before.

What keeps a show around now?  Ruby dust?  Magic?  Who the hell knows.

The industry seems to move more based on narrative and rumor than on any viable metric.  Why?  Advertising.  If the story going around is that the show has bad ratings, it doesn't matter was the actual number are.  Oh, that show is by J. J. Abrams, he makes blockbusters, I'll advertise there.

What is the effect of this?  Mediocre content that has big names associated with it.

But it is not all bad.  Once Upon A Time is transforming the folktales we all grew up with in a fun and imaginative way that brings these stories to a new generation.

Hush Puppies!  How to silence Cynicism

So, how do we get beyond our own cynicism?  Remember what you love, and fight off the voice of the hater within.

Remember the shows you used to love, and don't be a perfectionist.  No, the Tom Baker Doctor Who's don't have slick computer generated special effects, but the stories and characters are worth watching. 

Don't be a hipster!  Nitpicking is a social disease that need to be killed off like polio.  Nothing is perfect, and mocking sarcasm is a way to prevent you from having fun and enjoying life.  Hipsters aren't cool.  They are sad people who have forgotten how to enjoy their life.

You have a choice

Every moment, you have the choice to enjoy your life or not.  As someone who suffers from depression, I know how easy it is to slip into the gray, desaturated world of ennui and despair.  For me, a part of the solution was choosing to enjoy my life.

Have the fun.  I say that a lot.  Some people think it is a cute (or annoying) affectation I have adopted.  It is my philosophy of life.

Life is short, and I want to enjoy it.  No matter what I am going, I ask myself how to make it more enjoyable.  If I have to do something that isn't fun that I cannot make fun, I set up a reward to look forward to so I have the thrill of anticipation to get me through.

I know some people think it is fun to tear things down, but I would rather build them up.  Join me at the heart of Fandom, and learn to enjoy your life all over again.

---

Return to Entertainment Design

Revolution Gets A Full Season, Why

Imagine my shock and sadness when I saw this post in my feeds today:

‘Revolution’ Picked Up For Full Season By NBC (Scifi Pulse)

Why? What could have prompted this?

I would never claim that my or anyone else's fiction is perfect, I am continually shocked when really bad shows get produced.

I presume this reflects faith in the production team rather than the actors or the writers. I live in the target market for this show, and will watch a few more episodes in hopes it will find a way to keep me from rolling my eyes through the episodes.

I can only hope that NBC knows something that I don't. This show is on my probation list, heading toward dead to me.

Amanda Tapping to play a new kind of angel on Supernatural

With Sanctuary gone, I've been wondering where I was going to find the Queen of Scifi, Amanda Tapping on my TV machine. Now, I know: Supernatural in November. 

While I am not the biggest fan of Supernatural, I have enjoyed the series, and look forward to the new season.  The addition of Amanda bumps up my excitement. 

I've been a fan of hers since Stargate SG-1. She has become a staple for me. I expect to see her in something new every year. Hopefully, this is a stepping stone in between series for her. I want her to headline a new series soon. 

This will tide me over in the meantime. 

(via Gate World.net)

Chick-fil-A changes their tune

I am happy to hear that Chick-fil-A has changed their company policy to not discriminate against LGBT people and not to give money to groups that advocate discrimination.

This is a win.  We need to keep our eyes on them, and make sure they keep their promise.

So it it safe again to Chow Down at Chick-fil-a

Sharon Needles Will Play Frank-N-Furter In ‘Rocky Horror Picture Show’

Get you newspaper, water guns, hot dogs, and rice ready, The Queen of Dark Drag, Sharon Needles will be playing Fran-N-Furter in an Austin production of The Rock Horror Picture Show. 

If there was ever something that could get me into Texas in October, this is it. Sharon is a natural for the part. I wish I had the time and money to go to the show. 

This got me thinking about a Drag Race All-Star Rocky Horror cast.  I wish I could see this happen:

Sharon Needles as Frank-N-Furter

Jujubee as Brad

Pandora Box as Janet

Morgan McMichaels as Riff Raff

Manila Luzon as Magenta

Ongina as Columbia

Latrice Royale as Dr Scott

Mystique Summers as Eddie

Rupaul as the Judge

I'm open to suggestions for Rocky....Not sure who should play him.

Someone set that up for a Halloween special. I would buy that in a heartbeat. 

(via New Now Next)

Writing from the Heart

When Ray Bradbury died, I decided to spend a year with his book Zen and the art of writing. A part of that, for me, meant that I would write one short story a week like he suggests. I knew these stories would be personal. I would have to dig deep to find something to write about every week. This week was all too easy.

My beloved Smokey JoeMy dog died on Monday. I've never been much of a dog person. He originally belonged to my mother. When he was diagnosed with epilepsy, I adopted him so that I could make sure that he got his medicine on schedule.

I have a lot of pets in my life. I've had numerous dogs, cats, fish, hermit crabs, and hamsters… But he was different. He was special. I think because he had spells every now and then, and that I would hold him while his poor little body shook, and listen to him cry, as I work to get the medicine in him the doctor recommended, I became more protective of him than any other pet I ever had.

His last couple days were really hard. He started having seizures on Thursday night, and at first, nothing was different. But this time they just didn't stop. The vet told us to keep giving him the medicine, until he got back to normal. Eventually Thursday night, the seizures stopped, and he fell asleep. I won't go into detail about everything that happened those last few days. I will say that I have rarely ever felt that helpless in my life.

So this week when it was time to write a story, I use that as the inspiration. I wrote a story in my new setting about the character losing a beloved pet. Since it's me, it of course became a little bit more complicated. Now, I sincerely don't know what to do with it.

I don't know how long it'll be before I can even edit the story. It is so personal, that I feel like I would be publishing pages from a secret diary if I put it out somewhere. Maybe that's a good thing. Maybe that means I wrote something so honest that if I shared it with the world, the world would see a piece, a part of my soul.

I know that sounds flighty, even airy fairy, but one of the things I've been wanting to do more and more, is find a way to make my fiction more honest.

Fiction is the arts of the well-crafted lie. The more honest that lie, the more likely a reader will be able to believe it long enough to enjoy the story. I don't find a lot of honesty in fantasy books. I don't find a lots of honesty in science fiction. And why should we? These are the genre of the imagination. But if that imagination isn't rooted in something so true you can feel it in your bones, then why should anyone bother to read, to love it, or let it infiltrate their dreams?

I suppose, that is the quest I am currently on. I am trying to find the meeting place between my imagination and my truth. There has to be a bridge somewhere that will allow me to bring these two things together in a pure and honest way. I feel like I did that with The Chain, and I know I did that with my new short. Once, I grow the courage to not only tell these stories, but to share them and live them, I will at least have done something meaningful with my life.

I wish you all luck on finding something that gives you as much meaning and purpose as my writing gives me. I would love to know what that is for you. Why don't you leave your purpose or what you find meaning in within the comments below. Thank you ahead of time for your continued inspiration.

I want to start podcasting again

I really miss podcasting. I miss talking to you guys every day, and getting to hear back from you. I miss the conversation, and everything that we shared back when I was doing the podcast daily. But things haven't worked out exactly the way I wanted them to.

What went wrong?

When I was podcasting a lot, I didn't have time to write nearly as much as I wanted to. I had so many book ideas, but no time really to work on any of them. So it became an issue. I was serving two masters: podcasting and writing. And you know what they say about serving two masters.

So in the end, I had to give one up. It became an easy choice, because Brian didn't have as much time as he used to join me around the table to do fandom today. So, we cutback. We only did shows when he had the time to come to the studio and record. And well, as you can see, that's not a lot of time. So, we gave up podcast.

That's a lot of so's. And that's the way it went down. I did get a new novel written, The Chain, which will be coming out in August. And I'm very proud of it. But I still miss recording the show. I miss talking to you guys. And I need to find a way to get back to podcast.

Where do you go?

The problem that I have now is not having a cohost. Granted, I would love for Brian to join me on the shows, but now the problem is with hosting. The service I was using to post the podcast, now has a file size restriction that keeps me from doing it. Where should I go?

I looked at sound cloud, but that just would be way too expensive. I like the features. But the cost is way too high.

I am considering Libsyn, since I know a lot of people use it, and I haven't really heard that many complaints. It is not too expensive. It does pose a problem. They offer apps. They offer a full-fledged android app. Which I guess I should be happy about, but I don't own an android device. I don't know anyone who has an android device. Their iOS support is weak and broken.

I know I really don't need to have an app. I think I know that. The problem is, I really want to have one. I have designed one. Drawn out all the screens. Thought an awful lot about it. But I can't write Objective-C. I tried to learn it, but my brain doesn't seem to work that way.

What do you want?

So what do you guys want? There's little point in me recording something just to hear my own voice. I want it to be something that you guys enjoy too. I would love to bring back Fandom Today. And I might do that. I'm curious to know what you guys would like to see and hear from me. I have thought about doing some YouTube videos. But they wouldn't be overly produced. It would just be me with either a WebCam or my iPhone or iPad just talking a little bit about whatever's on my mind. You know, like the old-school video blogs. Let me know what you think. I need to get back on the horse.

Prometheus is Pointless

We went to see Prometheus, and I am glad I will not remember this film at all in a week.  It was dull, boring, and poorly written.

So many people have tore this movie apart, I don't want to follow them.  I want to take a different tact.

The Pointlessness of Life

This movie is little more than a nihilist propaganda film that works way to hard to teach you several things:

1. Religion is futile.
2. Science is futile.
3. Belief in anything is futile.
4. The Sontarans created man before they shrank.
5. Drugs lead to death.
6. Sex proves you are not a robot, unless you are a Cylon.
7. Androids don't die.
8. Goo makes snakes.
9. Women can walk, run, jump, fight, lift heavy objects, and repel down great heights immediately after a cicerian.
10. Aliens are brutish and dumb, but not the ones you are thinkin of.
11. Prequels are rarely ever good.

Monday Wordlist: Beyond the Wall of Sleep

One of the most interesting creative exercises in Ray Bradbury's Zen and the Art of Writing is to make a list of nouns, start writing a prose poem inspired by the word or words that catch your eye, and see where it goes.

Bradbury used lists of nouns.  I thought it would be more interesting to get these lists from another work that I I love.  So I chose Beyond the Wall of Sleep by H P Lovecraft.  It is a story that inspired a lot of my writing.

I tossed the story into WordSift, and here is the list that popped out:

body brain certain come cosmic day decadent dr dream ethereal eye face family form head high hour indeed institution joe know language life light like lip little man manner mental message mind mountain night own perhaps said saw seemed slater sleep space thing thought time two upon waking way year

These are the most common words in the story.  The ones in bold are the ones that caught my eye.

cosmic decadent dream ethereal eye

The words for me clumped a bit and made the image clearer and more interesting.

cosmic decadent, dream, ethereal eye

That is a good seed for a story.  I know what I am going to write this week.  What are you working on?

A Year with Ray Bradbury

I spent most of yesterday and today rereading Ray Bradbury trying to figure out some way to pay homage to the man who had such an effect on me, my world view, and my writing.

Stepping on a Landmine

Growing up, I felt like I was crazy.  I scribbled stories, drew rudimentary comics, and spent hours playing with my imaginary friends.  I was unlike any kid I knew.

Thank God for my sister, who gave me a AD&D book when I was 7 or 8.  I found my first funnel for my imagination.  It saved me from a lot of mental anguish.  I read, Poe, Twain, and then I found Anne McCaffrey and Ray Bradbury.

These were the first books I ever read on my own, without someone telling me I had to.  I still felt alone, though.

Even after I join me high school's writing club, I didn't find any kindred spirits.  I felt like I had an illness or a disease.  I had to write (still do).  If I don't, my life quickly becomes unbearable.

Imagine my delight when I read Ray Bradbury's Zen and the Art of Writing for the first time, and saw him saying the same thing.  I wasn't alone.  Here was another person who felt the burden to write, not just the drive or interest.

"I have learned, on my journeys, that if I let a day go by without writing, I grow uneasy.  Two days and I am in tremor.  Three and I suspect lunacy.  Four and I might as well be a hog, suffering the flux in a wallow.  An hour's writing is tonic.  I'm on my feet, running in circles, and yelling for a clean pair of spats (Zen and the Art of Writing)."

Wow, I am not alone.  He goes on to compare himself to a landmine that he jumps out of bed and steps on it, then spend the day putting the pieces back together after the explosion.  He invites us to jump, and I am going to.

It is time to step on a landmine.

Practicing Zen and the Art of Writing

I have decided to spend a year with Ray Bradbury, writing every day with the goal of finishing a short story a week.  I am going to use the principles and exercises in the book to perfect my craft, and hopefully pay homage to Ray Bradbury in the process.

I will chronicle my process here with the tag Zen and the Art of Writing, and I will post the stories that come out of the process.

I invite you to join me in the journey.  I will start Monday, June 11th to make my first short.  I will spend the weekend rereading Zen and the Art of Writing, maybe get a couple lists ready.

Are you in?  Writing for no less than 1 hour a day with the goal of finishing 1 short story a week.

The Author and the Founders of Discursivity

I don't want to spend any time on Foucalt or Barthes' theories that the author is merely a function of the text who melts into the many other functions of the text.  I am more curious about the idea of the Author as a Founder of discursivity.

Genre and Fields of Discourse

While in mainstream literature, we don't often name a style of text after the founder or primary evangelist of that type of writing, the same is not true within Genre fiction.

In Genre fiction, we talk about the Agatha Christie and the Doyle types of mystery.  We refer to Tolkienesque, Lovecraftian, and Roddenberry-like stories and settings.  Genre writers often have a pedigree, for example, Lovecraft is said to be a Dunsanian because of the similarity of his early works to those of Lord Dunsany.

Why is this true in genre fiction, while it is not true in mainstream literature?

Genre and Symbolic Schemes

One of the things that differentiates Genre from Mainstream fiction is the conventions of story necessary to fit within in its parameters, and the lens the genre overlays on reality.

Science Fiction, for example, is defined as a story in which the plot would not be possible without the science at its core.  Speculative Fiction requires the story be built around the question: "What if realty functioned in a certain way?" or "What if X happened?"  The Speculation take the stories out of our mundane world and into a different reality.

More over, Tolkienesque fiction requires a large amount of world building, large powers struggling against each other with a high contrast between good and evil.

Lovecraftian fiction exhibits the problem with genre more than any other.  Most fiction in this style has monsters, a strangeness or alienation in the world, and the defeat of the protagonist.  What they miss is the cosmosism and general misanthropy of the original, and thus look like poor knock offs.

The point is, these styles of fiction carry with them a world view that colors the nature of story that can be told, the manner in with we expect to discover the world and story, and certain conventions that highlight aspect of the real world through a mythologized lens.

Authors and Creativity

A big part of me feel like the difference between an author and a writer is a combination of whether or not they try to subvert conventions or expand their genre and the amount of success they have in doing it.

I am not sure the appellation can be adopted by the writer.  It is more of a title they earn, often posthumously.

Why care?

I have spent most of my life working on my craft as a writer, and I feel like it is important to understand what all the elements of the craft are, so I know what I should be working of.

It is pretentious to think I could ever start a genre or subgenre, but I love to mashup genres to see what will happen.

While thinking about what elements I as a writer bring to the fiction contrasts with what a reader brings to the story, hopefully, I will be able to craft a better story.

I think every writer should dissect their contribution to the work, and really focus on the elements they can improve.  We also need to understand that once the story enters the world, we loose control over how the story will be perceived and experienced.

Social Media and the Idea of the Author

I can't wait to see how social media and the internet will change the nature, effect, and perception of the author.

I have read many books because I met the writer on Twitter or Facebook.  I know more about many of the writers I read because of these sites.  I am sure it has affected the way I perceive their work, but I cannot quantify how much or in what way yet.

In the past, it was easy to forget the writer when reading a book.  Some people will choose to do that, but it will not continue to be that easy to do.

It way seem strange to think that Twitter and Facebook will have an effect of Literary Theory, but it inevitably will.