Judas Christ: A Novel

"I am Living Proof!"

2010-03-22T19:02:00.000-07:00

A true tale of Chaos...

When I was about to enter 8th grade, I did a lot of swimming in our lake. I call it our lake because we lived there, but also because my grandfather and his father owned land there when few others did. It should have been our lake. The days were hot, and the water cold and deep. I and many friends and acquaintances who never made it to friends, played water tag on a floating platform in the 20' deep water. I would usually dive very deep to avoid them. That probably caused the swimmer's ear which in turn caused me to miss many of the first days of 8th grade. I had been in Mr. Schultz's class, but when I returned, I had been transferred to Mrs. Bradway's class. I sat toward the back, by the poster of prominent authors. Authors I still have yet to have read.

Fast forward 38 years, as I approach my fiftieth birthday.

By that age, there had been a time when my life had been dictated by chaos. It led me here, pointed me there. Introduced me to people who both absorbed and radiated chaos. If you are reading this, you are most likely one of them. It seemed like my life was really a character in someone else's book. Things worked too well (or too poorly). Like Forrest Gump running through the jungle, bullets which would have killed me, merely splattered mud on me. Ok, one bit me in the ass.

One of those moments occurred when my landlord decided that 'now' would be a good time to sell the house in which I paid copious rent. He asked a paying tenant to leave. I did. I immediately secured a sublet in Ann Arbor. Then, he realized that perhaps this was NOT the ideal time to try to sell a house. In fact, it was the worst time in history: May 2007. It was the worst, not because it was the worst. The worst was yet a few months away. No, it was the worst because if he had acted a little sooner, he might have succeeded.

And so it goes.

Anyway, because of the blunder of my landlord, or his chaos, or the whim of HIS author, I found myself in a place in Ann Arbor, recently abandoned by students. This meant they left (figurative) mierda in the apartment. Amid the figurative guano of a U of Michigan student was a library copy of "Breakfast of Champions" by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. This author had been one of those listed on the poster in Mrs. Bradway's class. The book also. It had sat on my shelf since I was 46. As I approached my fiftieth birthday, I went on my vacation, a period of glorious chaos following the 3 years of order, I grabbed it on the way out. In case I got to read while roaming the beaches of Florida. Of course not. But I DID read it on the ride home. When suddenly, on page 209, I found this...

There were times that I felt as if I were a character in someone else's book. To this day, I do not know for fact that I am not, but if I am, it is CERTAINLY a Vonnegut novel.

Epilogue:
Reading Vonnegut reinforces in me The One Rule to Ring Them All in writing a novel:

There are no rules.

Speaking of coincidences...

2009-12-20T19:43:00.001-08:00

I have to chuckle at a few interesting coincidences from the movie "2012" and my life.

John Cusack plays a "failed writer." I'm not a failed writer yet. Who is?
He lives in Manhattan Beach, CA.
I was just in Yellowstone last year.
Catastrophic Erosion... nuf said.
One of the first cracks appears at the end of El Porto on 45th Street, blocks from where I lived for a while. I have pictures taken a year ago of me standing where the crack is.
I'll have to wait for the DVD, but I'm pretty sure that the first frame of the sinking of vast amounts of beachfront shows the Manhattan Beach Pier going under first. (Yeah, I did that, too.)
Cusack's character and I have a propensity for running into people we know in odd parts of the country... to our benefit.
We have a knack for writing fiction which ends up coming true. I have called it "Michael Gavon's Disease" where an idea I tell someone ends up being on the cover of a relevant magazine the next day. It recently happened when I remarked that they should remake When Worlds Collide..

But Judas Christ isn't like that. I'm not making predictions. I'm reverse engineering Revelation to portray it in a plausible way. Emmerich almost succeeded.

Life goes on... literally, 2013 and beyond.

2009-12-20T19:12:00.000-08:00

Ok, so...

I finally saw "2012". My intentions were interrupted by the loss of my mother in law. Being touched by a single loss completely soured me on seeing the movie. Knowing the vast loss of life that would be portrayed in the movie, I couldn't muster the courage to sit and watch.

But, this weekend, we made it to the big screen before 2012 gets reliquated to the DVD blockbuster bin. I'm not going to review it. That's not my purpose here. I will make a quick comment about the plausibility of the whole scenario. The whole thing about "mutated neutrinos" putting the earth's core into the microwave served both the audience and the director well. It relieved us of the responsibility to be able to do something. A luxury that Sunshine, Solar Crisis, The Core, Crack in the World, 10.5 Apocalypse didn't have. Although the premise is a stretch, and greatly accelerated for the time allotted the moviegoer, the sheer scope of destruction and thinking the unthinkable made this author proud. The effects were truly amazing, as realistic as they could be, and given some of the 'effects' I am writing, it warms my cockles to think that it can all be done now. (Ok, so I'm thinking about a movie, not a book. Stop it!)

Enough about what Emmerich put on the screen. I'm here to talk about what he did NOT put on the screen. Nemesis. Nibiru, Zyra (an allusion to When Worlds Collide, which I just discovered is being REMADE in 2010 by Stephen Sommer of GI Joe, Scorpion King and Mummy fame.)

I learned that the similarities to my plans for Earth under the stress of Nemesis are minimal. The causes are not even close. Nothing is falling from the sky. Only a symbolic crack between God and Adam in the Sistine Chapel, and an incorrect reference to the Rapture (made by the Art Bell knock-off played by Woody Harrelson) point anything at religion or a genuine Apocalypse.

Ok, so, the entire map is redrawn. Whole continents have shifted, twisted, lifted. I'll be doing a bit of that as well. But to that similiarity I say, 'great minds twist alike.'

Now all I have to do is utterly disavow myself of the 2012 internet mythology... which is too bad, since it IS the Year of the Dragon. I kinda liked that coincidence.

So for now, I'm safe.

The Coming of 2012 (the movie, not the year)

2009-11-17T18:35:00.000-08:00

I hope to see the movie "2012" this weekend. I intended to wave it off and let a shameless exploitation of this Mayan 2012 crap float by... until I saw the trailer. (I usually avoid trailers, including plugging my ears and make BLBLBLBLBLBLB sounds to drown them out. I got SO suckered by the trailer to Star Trek VI that I utterly eschew them.)

But the trailer to 2012 left me breathless, not only for the extent of destruction, and not only for the scope of Roland Emmerich's destructive vision. Mostly because I saw scenes which too closely matched my visions, including tectonic shift and really big waves! Whereas he drops an aircraft carrier onto the White House, I turn the beaches of Los Angeles into a tiny island.

Ok, so, I'm saying this because I want to point back at something I wrote many years ago. Call me sheepish, call me paranoid, call me "stolen thunder", but I do NOT want someone to say "oh, nice, you stole that from Emmerich." I didn't. If I stole it, he stole it from the same playbook.

This is an excerpt from a synopsis of Book III of Judas Christ. I wrote this down in the document from which I am copying and pasting on September 13, 2006. I will clip out irrelevant text, but will not alter what you read. Thus:

"...begins an event called "the Week the Whole Earth Shook" where the Earth suffers a constant 4.0-5.0 Richter scale earthquakes, all without epicenters, as if the core of the Earth were shivering like a frightened man. The standing waves from a vibrating Earth create monster series of "triangle waves" of a thousand feet in the mid-ocean and hundreds of feet in the Mediterranean, Black and Red Seas. Shorelines and islands begin to change shape. Antarctica is spitting out icebergs like a sno-cone machine. Nearly every volcano that can begins to erupt, and there is a fear that supervolcanoes such as Krakatoa, Mammoth Mountain and Yellowstone may be shaken into cataclysmic supereruption. The new ocean rift in Eritrea grows at a fantastic rate. At full moon, even mountains and craters on the Moon are seen to be shaken down flat. Dust, ash, soot, sulfur in the sky lends a pall of doom, and the spirits of many fall. Christians who point to “the signs that Jesus is coming” are persecuted, arrested, beaten and in some cases, lynched. But then, so are the skeptics who point to “reasonable explanations”. In truth, most of Christianity feels that if Jesus were going to come, he's too freakin' late.

...Then the greatest earthquake in the history of man changes everything. The Straits of Gibraltar and the Horn of Africa close, land-locking Israel and trapping the U.S. 6th Fleet. The Arabian Plate tilts and the Persian Gulf enlarges, making the perfect invasion beach. The Earth's orbit is altered drastically, dipping in close to the Sun, but then heading far out in a new three year orbit. The Moon is pulled down toward the Earth to where it tidally locks and raises Jerusalem miles above the rest of the world. ...the Sun is peppered and Moon surface is pulverized by ...rocks. One diamond shard pierces the crust and unleashes magma from the mantle. The seventh Trumpet waits..."

"Behold, I have told you this before..."

That being said, I wonder what I'm going to do if this too closely matches what I had planned to write, or have written. For now, I'm only wondering aloud. After all, there is nothing new under the sun. Is there?

"keep in touch"

2009-11-02T19:10:00.000-08:00

Two things happened today which got me thinking about "keeping in touch"

A co-worker left our firm, saying "Keep in touch." I added her to my Facebook friends, discovering a bevy of mutual friends already in her list (I'm the latecomer). Once that is triggered, I'll see her posts, her friends' posts. But I also ran across (saw friends of friends) people with whom I wished I were still in touch, and wondered how, if, should I keep in touch. I'm not offering the answer, but if you didn't want to be in touch, it's hard to not.
Lorelei Armstrong posted something about writing on her blog, and I felt inclined to answer. As I fired up the comment box, it occurred to me... "Of all of the ways that I'm 'in touch' with her, which is the best way to answer?" Meaning, do I reply directly to the blog? Do I post a comment on her FBWall? Do I send her a direct message? Tweet a snarky remark? Or good ole email?

I found myself thinking about how the rest of the readers would receive my remarks. "How do I reply such that this reply is received by the people whom I..." Ok, stop right there. When we start to target our replies based on friends of whom the recipient is 'mutual', then perhaps 'touch' is that in which we no longer are.

The two questions I would leave here are:

Are we a few clicks closer to the Singularity, the Overmind, the Collective where we can all sense each other? I would have said 'no' a while back, but now, I'm not so sure.
With all of these ways to stay in touch... are we?

Advice for budding writers (as if)

2009-10-23T21:07:00.000-07:00

As if I have any advice for a budding writer, still being one, I offer this lesson from SCWCLA*09.

If you are going to a conference, a workshop or anywhere that you would want your manuscript, do this first:

Go to the Apple Store (bear with me, this isn't an ad)
Buy something. Anything. Buy a headphone adapter. Y0u need one.
Take the BAG they give you for small stuff and use it to carry your manuscript. It's an 11" x 13" tough plastic drawstring bag, and will hold at least 600 pages of 8-1/2" x 11" paper.
This wrapped baby will now easily fit into a small briefcase or backpack, without worrying about the corners of a box. It sheaths your work, bends, repels water... but the manuscript won't escape, won't shuffle, and won't NOT be there if you need it. You can leave it loose leaf, you can filter through for a passage or few pages without messing with binders, boxes... or computers.

Simple, inexpensive, effective.

Back at the Real World

2009-10-21T19:06:00.000-07:00

The SCWCLA*09 conference is done and gone, I'm back at it!

After a great meeting with Trish and Gabriel of BlueJayTech, who did Andrew Peterson's _First to Kill_ website, for our 'real world' project, I flew back home. _America Libre_ by Raul Ramos y Sanchez made the flight quick.

When I got home, I successfully shepherded the BoP 2009 conference, including getting a copy of Jacqueline Novogratz's _The Blue Sweater_ signed for Sue (and me) and spent the Sunday decompressing. I then spent some time following Raul Ramos y Sanchez's advice on setting up Facebook and Twitter. I'm still not on board with this social networking thing, but at least I'm on the pier. (I've been a MySpace member since 2004, and its ROI is zippo!) But, you reap what, later and more than you sow, so sow I will. I've begun adding p33ps from the SCWC, including MSG and Lorelei Armstrong.

I got a chance to read Alwyn's Pinnow's "whole piece", and loved it as much as I did the sample that Laura Taylor read. I think that I was the first to respond after the reading saying "...the best thing I've heard all conference." I was one of several who pressed Laura to nominate this award winning vignette.

Lacey and I have exchanged emails, and I will be reading what she sent me WHEN ITS NOT DARK OUT!

I read Jeff Michaels and Jill Q. Weiss's screenplay. Two thing are certain... 1) This would have made a great installment on Serling's Night Gallery. 2) I have no idea how to write a screenplay. Maybe I don't have to ;-)

Anyway, I've been busy pushing life around since my last post. Time to start pushing words around, again. Including on this plank of my platform.

Committed! (Or should be...)

2009-06-30T19:48:00.000-07:00

It's official! I've registered for SCWCLA7 this September 25-27, in Irvine! I slunked in under the wire for the Early Bard discount, and saved $75. Well, not being one to let good money lie fallow, I applied the savings to not one, but TWO Advanced submission readings. I submitted my 20-pager to Laura Taylor at SCWCSD23. This time (since its the same 20 pages) I sent it to someone else: Marla Miller and Jean Jenkins.

Marla got to hear my pirate session reading with Matt Pallamary (the one that I called "Utter Disaster"), but not the first 20 pages. Hopefully, she'll get a better sampling of my writing skills without my blathering mouth in the way.

So, between now and then, I'm moving, getting married, setting up a conference designed to save the world (seriously). Somewhere in there, I need to get some work done. Throwing money at the conference will help me stay committed. And if not, these nice men with the butterfly nets will help.

PS: Of course 'slunk' is a word. Slink, slank, slunk.
OMG! It IS! http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/slunk
Who knew?

SCWC SD09 Topic Contest: Rain

2009-02-27T20:27:00.000-08:00

Because of storm approaching {gasp!} San Diego, MSG quickly settled on "rain" as the topic of the 250-word Topic Contest. Any homonym of 'rain' qualified. I don't general spend (or waste) my effort, time or creative juice on these contests. But this one leaked into my bilge and wouldn't let itself go unwritten. Here it is:

SCWC SD09 Topic Contest
Topic: Rain (or reign, rein, homonyms)

"Over Me"
by Christopher P. Simmons

He should’ve been ready. He’d seen it coming. Over his left shoulder, a dry-land hurricane bore down on him. He twisted the throttle harder. While in a gas station, walking past repellant wipes, the vertical tsunami hit. Too late, he dove out.

He donned his rubber duck gear, but the cold monsoon had already funneled down the drain of his turtleneck. The torrent drowned the sound of his iron steed, but not his will to get home, nor the memory that precipitated this power dive.

Over the thunder of bikes on the dry and dusty road, he heard her voice on a telephone say "separation." A decade of drizzle, shower and storms had eroded her now-leaking dam.

The Amazonian forest humidity fogged his visor. Riding blind, the sky wept with him. Highway became canal in the inundation. His wake at typhoon speed made him hydroplane.

"All those moments, lost in time, like tears…" he quoted.

Resigned, the leather knight let go, letting his steed run, unbridled. He dared the storm to kill him. Begged it. But it only let him wallow in sorrow; His queen had abdicated.

He slogged on, layers of leather and cotton became sponge, boots squished when he shifted, handlebar grips became cannelloni.

Defiant, he crashed through the leading crest of the front, and fled, daring not to stop. Cold and exhausted, a toll booth forced his brake lights. The attendant sweltered in the Ante-Diluvian humidity.

"What’s the temperature out there?"

"74."

He stripped to the waist. As if born into a new skin, he swaddled himself in one last dry t-shirt. Thirsting for anything but water, he drank in the dry air as he rode off.

Pop Quiz:

How many times did I NOT say 'rain'?
What song do you have stuck in your head now?
Why did I almost allude to the band "Our Lady, Peace"?
Do you want to read The Winner?

Sharpening my chisel

2009-02-27T18:09:00.000-08:00

The SCWC San Diego 09 rang out as a resounding success! Only one disaster worth reporting. Although agents were everywhere, I didn't pitch to any. I had another, higher priority.

"To Suck Less" -- MSG
I had spent the days since SCWC LA08 re-writing the T7S sequel. I had to see if I had improved the writing or not. Taking to heart, head and pen the critiques of Trai, Laura, Matt/Lorelei & the group, I had tried to "improve my craft." In that, I had to remove the need for a prequel, and I had to capture the reader with Judas' plight. Could I make the most hated man in history the object of the reader's sympathy in only a few paragraphs? Could I instill the priest with enough guilt to replicate his shooting a pregnat woman? I had to find out.

I submitted my 20-page sample to "Advanced Submission." Chaos smiled on me, and Laura Taylor had an opening. Her (positive) reaction at LA08 and referral to an honest agent taught me quickly that (to appropriate Michale Steven Gregory) "my writing needed to suck less."

"Overall, this book will be compelling! Bravo!"
At SD09, Laura's response rated my rewrite VERY positive. She recognized the effort I had put into it, and lauded the result, with a nod to known flaws. I later took it to her "Read & Critique" session. I wish that I had a video of her reading my sample to the group. Where I read quickly, compressing for time, Laura read slowly. Not even legato, but largo! Where I wrote frantic action, she transformed the prose into an indictment, trial, sentencing and execution of Judas. I heard guilt and agony that I never had before. Her pace so tormenting to poor Judas, that calling it "fingernails on chalkboard" proved too kind. I described it as "awakening next to a woman whose arm impedes your escape, so you saw it off slowly to avoid waking her." When I asked if they felt sympathy for Judas, the majority nodded. I ratcheted up the "Success-o-meter" a click or two.

"Bloody Pirates!"
Next, I took a new chapter, starring Calucci and Annie, to Matt Pallamary's Pirate session. His Princess of Darkness, Lorelei didn't attend, but "Me, Usually" Mary dropped herself into second seat. For this session, I had pre-printed a 5 page sample. I used all of my document processing skill to condense out 7 pages to 5. As I started the sample on Chapter 3, I simply removed references to Chapter 1 & 2, which would have borne explaining, had they not read them. My time came, and I read...

UTTER DISASTER!
Titanic? Pompeii? Atlantis? HA! Glitches compared to my debacle!
90% of the issues raised would have been answered had they read the previous chapters. Some worthwhile critique of what remained distilled out, but on the whole, the session leached out a toxic swill. Marla Miller sat in, and she observed (paraphrasing) "You cheated yourself. You didn't get critique of your actual writing... but I think you got me. I like it." I made two notations on the inside of my skull.

Don't distill your writing for readings. Read your five pages, and shut up. If they are left hanging... good! heh heh
This book is not paced for readings. I had tried to give them a good place to start, and a good place to end. But the chapters are too long to squish into 5 pages. Let it go! Like Indy reaching for Grail, wise counsel will save me next time.

"One shot, One Kill?"
Fortunately, this debacle was merely a pirate session. It wasn't a pitch. Wasn't a contest. Wasn't "my chance to blow*" so I took JCX to another slaughterhouse: Andrew Peterson's Read & Critique. Because his book, First to Kill stars a sniper, I chose to read my "flying bullet" chapter. Again, my reading pace careened a bit too quickly. But I restrained myself and stopped reading without resolving the scene. The feedback was good, useful.

The funny thing is that as I read it, I could see things I would change, based solely on what I'd learned from SD09. Adverbs, tenses, POVs. What seemed good before, now needed sanding. Andrew referred to "improving your craft", and I suddenly saw writing as analogous to woodworking (at which I suck, btw) Carving, inlaying, finishing are skills which improve with practice. I saw writing (and re-writing) as carving the same pattern over and over again on a new piece, perhaps a set of chairs. The latter pieces will probably have better carvings, more delicate inlays, smoother finish than the earlier ones.

The Learning

I learned more of what I had yet to learn.
I learned that 3 people will have 4 opinions.
I learned that writing books is really a team effort, involving the editors, the critique groups, maybe even the agent and publisher. Stephen King may not need the team. We do.

Applying the next coat
I have 7 months until SCWC-LA09. I realize much of what I need to learn. And apply... like a coat shellac on freshly carved, filled, sanded wood. The next one will be better. And the next one...

*Eminem - Lose Yourself

Off to the Conference!!! San Diego, here I come...

2009-02-11T22:01:00.000-08:00

Just a quick note to anyone reading to say this:

I'm going to Southern Cal Writer's Conference 23, San Diego in, well, 12 hours.
I got A LOT done on the re-write. I ripped through to the end of Book I (yes, it's gotta be a trilogy, at least), and next, I have to iterate back. But, I did what I set out to do. I removed Abby and Lucci, and replaced them each with someone else, a wee bit familiar.
I'm getting my first 20 pages critiqued at the conference. I know by whom, but shant say. I expect that he/she will notice improvement. Near flawless proofreading, except for my penchant to misuse, abuse, subjugate, and obfuscate commas.
I have excerpted out my 5 pages for the Pirate/Rogue sessions. They are dynamite!
I hope to see a bunch of SCWCLA08 there: Trish, Jeff, Lorelei, Josh, Brandon, Stacey & Gloria, Sharmyn, Jan (And the WHALE! We want the whale).
I got all my docs in a row. I'm ready!

If yer going, find me! If yer not see ya when I get back.

"If yer goin' to San Dee-aygo..."

2009-01-02T09:15:00.000-08:00

Just a quick post to tell all who care, "IT'S OFFICIAL!!! I'm going to San Diego!"

The SCWC*SD09 is February 13-16th, and I have just registered, have my flights and am ready to rock! My re-write is proceeding nicely (or NOT nicely as the case may be >:).

I am 90% done with my 20-pager, and will be sending that off to San Diego first thing Monday morning. I hope to have all of Book I re-written, but with the 20-pager done, I'm good to go. After the conference, I am going to Manhattan Beach. If anyone wants to rendezvous with me, I'll be at The Kettle, drinking a Pomosa!

Happy New Year!

PS: Anyone know whom I have to bribe how much to get SCWC-LA09 to be in Manhattan Beach?

The Day The Earth Stood Still

2008-12-14T19:26:00.000-08:00

I saw The Day the Earth Stood Still this evening. This is not about that movie, and there are no spoilers. But there was a little tiny thing that I want to mention, so that those who see it, will catch it as it goes by.

I know this woman
Jennifer Connelly plays Patricia Neal's role of Helen Benson. But as you get to the middle of the movie, and she tries to change Klaatu's mind, a woman that I know and love emerged... Abby Quinn. The movie is really just a CGI-laden remake of The Seventh Sign.

She befriends a traveling stranger who is really here to destroy the Earth... ok, the PEOPLE on the Earth (In the original, Klaatu is even a boarder.)
She tries to convince the Harbinger of Destruction that people can change.
Ultimately, (no spoiler) the love of her child saves the world (for now)

What made the Seventh Sign great (IMHO) had nothing to do with effects. But if they DID remake it, this would have been a good start. Aside from the Abby parallel, the stream of TV coverage of riots, panic and mayhem were reminiscent of T7S. Words like "tribulation" and "Armageddon" are heard. There was a mood about this piece that harked back to T7S. And like the world populace in T7S, no one else knew what was going on. NO one knew who had saved the world. No one knew what changes had to be made to "use the chance she has given them."

In the end, Helen Benson, like Abby, convinces Klaatu to give the world another chance. That's all I'm going to say about it, except that, as in T7S, we don't know how long the reprieve lasts. And like T7S, more questions were left than answers given. UNLIKE T7S, I'm not inclined to write a sequel ;-) But if I DID, Michael Gavon would be one of the spearheads to try to effect the changes that need to be made. And in doing so, he would certainly meet Hamad Qiryat.

THAT would be the Day the Earth Stood Still!

Hatchet and scalpel

2008-11-19T17:14:00.000-08:00

It's not in the writing, it's in de-writing
I have begun the process of "de-writing" portions of Judas Christ. Two chapters have fallen under hatchet and scalpel. Aside from the fact that it's not in the writing, but in the re-writing, I have several reasons to re-write:

The first chapters were written over 18 years ago.
My writing style has changed tremendously. Mostly for the better, though my first chapter did have a travelogue lyric quality, not unlike an Antarctic version of "Of Mice and Men." I used florid if not overgrown descriptions to imbue if not innundate my readers with a wistful fondness of my newly found Christianity. Not that I had any readers. It was hand written and looked like Arabic in a mirror. I'm now more Steve Austin than Jane Austen, so my writing needed to get out the hedgetrimmers and mow, mow mow...
The writer's conference gave me a realistic view of my own writing style
I'm not going to enumerate this, as I still have a lot to learn. But picture a guy finding a set of golf clubs and balls, trying to learn to use them. Then, one day, he watches golf on TV. He's already better before he gets out of the chair.
Removing Abby and T7S
This is going to be harder than I thought. I think (and feel) that I can write a tight yet poignant replacement for what the Seventh Sign brought. As I have said, much of what I was going to use was added bymy own delusion anyway. It wasn't in the movie. The readers who never read what I wrote as the sequel will never miss it. But I will.

The first two chapters have gone quickly, because that is just paring and repairing. I described it as "cutting the fat off a pork chop. It's easy to find, and you don't need it anyway." They went from 6,879 words in two chapters, to 4,931 in one, leaner, stronger, tighter, more vocal, less cerebral Chapter 1. That which was Chapter 2 (which was my first ever written chapter) went from 2,203 words to a 731-word addendum to Chapter 1. And it doesn't take a rocket scientist to understand it.

The Butterfly Effect, except the butterfly has a sword!
The next chapter will need to take the severed or frayed neurons of my version of T7S and re-wire them such that they still let the chapters downstream work. A tiny change early means a big change later. It's the Butterfly Effect.

One example is that in my version, Avi wrote "The Book of Abby" which told the whole tale of the movie. It was in part Avi's response to David tell him to "Remember it all, write it down, tell it." So he wrote a book. But I was also writing a sequel for a book that never existed. The Book of Abby was a long chapter designed to spin up the reader who never saw the movie.

But in the 2nd book of JCX, one character refers to The Book of Abby as he talks to Father Lucci, and recognizes him as Cartaphilus. Ok, so... if I can't WRITE the book of Abby, how does he know who Lucci is? That's one of my problems, but I have time. So off I go. Mellow-D asked me "How does it feel to re-write my old writing?" I'll tell you...

An analogy featuring a motorcycle (duh)
In August, 2002, I was returning from Sturgis Bike Rally on my bike, on which the starter motor had failed. I couldn't shut off the bike. I ended up riding INTO the backside of a dry land hurricane. I had on my helmet, my raingear, leather jacket, a turtleneck, an orange t-shirt, and a white sport-wick shirt. I rode into this... Despite all of my protection, I got soaked to the bone. My orange shirt ran dye onto the white shirt. I rode through Waukesha about the time that it was raining 2" per hour. I spent 2 hours in that. But I kept riding, and finally emerged in front of the storm. Without taking a single second more than I needed to fuel, I bolted to Chicago.

When I reached the first toll booth at 4:30 am, I was soaked and shivering, but worse, the raingear held IN the water, and my raingear and leather weighed 16 tons. I paid the toll to the woman, and I realized that she was wearing a tank top and was sweating. "What is the temperature out there?" "Probably 74 degrees."

I pulled out and the the side, leapt off my running bike and began peeling my waterlogged gear. When I stripped off my shirt, I felt the warmth and humidity that was like a desert wind compared to where I had just been. I rolled off in just my dry t-shirt, letting my prune-like skin desiccate. I felt lighter and nimbler than 15 minutes before. My exhaustion lifted for a while, and I screamed home.

Set Free, Moving On
When I got my brain blit of Judas Christ, I was a different person. The year before had me going through a divorce, bankruptcy, my mother dying. I was torn in my relationship, jobless, helpless, hopeless, homeless and had THE WORST car in the history of man. My church kicked me out for either dating after divorce, or because of a non-fiction book I was writing, depending on the telling. I had my Savior to protect me, but I still got soaked in the storm. I carried that sopping garment for nearly 15 years. A butterfly with a sword cut me out of it, and I'm set free!

What I wrote then was written by a man slogging around wearing the burden of the storm's aftermath. What I am writing now is from a man, running on the beach.

American Mahdi

2008-11-11T18:36:00.000-08:00

With the 2008 Election over and done, I am left with a question:

"How does this change what I write in Judas Christ?"

"Change, nothing stays the same... Unchained, and ya hit the ground running" - Van Halen
The most obvious answer is "it shouldn't 'change' ;-) anything." I hope that this work will continue to be read far enough into the future that making it "timely" is self-defeating. If my 18 year writing journey thus far has taught me anything, it's that technology makes a poor character. Anything you commit to paper will be overrun or obsoleted before the manuscript hits the shelves. So don't do it. I know better. I learned from The Professor. "Knows changes are permanent, but change is." -- Rush

Sic Semper Politics
The same is true of politics. But in ways I have no idea how, this election will alter how the US interacts with the Middle East, and that is pivotal in my novel. So I have to consider it. As I wrote in the early aughts, considering how the Bush Administration would have handled a rising Islamic Federation put shivers in my spine. I honestly have no idea what to expect from Obama. He could be more moderate, or based on his rhetoric regarding Iran, could react in ways contrary to why people voted for him.

The enemy of my enemy is my friend
One thing I can expect is a different view of America by Islam. I work with people who lived and work on the ground in Iraq, Jordan, Saudi Arabia. Dubya was NOT viewed as the Great Liberator. Perhaps Syria's Bashar al-Assad, and Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will be able to look past the Bush eras and forget their grudges. Or maybe not:

So, too was Mr. Ahmadinejad's appearance in September at the United Nations General Assembly, when he said a prayer calling for the Mahdi's return: "O mighty Lord, I pray to hasten the emergence of ... the promised one .... the one who will fill this world with justice and peace."

Belief in the Mahdi energizes many of the 8 million to 10 million pilgrims who come annually to Qom, the seminary city that is considered among Iran's most holy places. The Jamkaran Mosque is just outside Qom, which is two hours south of Tehran.

"A prayer in the Jamkaran Mosque is almost like going to Mecca," Adel Safr, a cleric with the Qom mosque's international department, said. Visiting the shrine, he said, was "a reaffirmation to say to him that we are still with you -- we came because we believe the Mahdi is caring and that he is going to cleanse the world of injustice and corruption."

To Mr. Safr, a 34-year-old who has been studying in Qom for four years, the troubles that have racked the Persian Gulf region in recent years could be portents of the Mahdi's return.

Just as some Christians see warfare in the Middle East as reflections of Biblical prophecy, some in Iran see a religious pattern in recent events.

The destruction of an important Shiite shrine in Samarra, Iraq, the Mahdi's birthplace and where he went into hiding, and the sectarian violence in that country are seen as fulfillments of prophecies.

"This is why Mr. Bush has put divisions in Saudi Arabia and Iraq -- to kill the Mahdi and make Jesus the messiah," Mr. Safr said. "I am serious. There have been speeches in the Pentagon about it."
--http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06113/684106-82.stm

If the Islamic nations, as well as the Islamic people can shrug off the last 8 years, and the Gulf Wars I & II as failed policies of a part of a fallen dynasty, then perhaps they will be able to deal with America in "normalized" relationships. There is plenty of historical precedent. America forgot Breshnev and Andropov when Gorbachev rose to power. Today, 11/11/08, on the 90th Anniversary of Armistice Day, British, French and German leaders stood side by side, saluting their respective fallen. Perhaps, Islam will embrace Obama has their American Mahdi who delivered them from Bush/Cheney/McCain/Palin. Perhaps Ahmadinejad will overthrow Khomeini's perception of America as the Great Satan, even as Obama overturns Bush policies? Of course, in my novel, this will be a mask for their real plans. But that's just fiction.

Whatever happens in real life, I will have to look a little into the future to write fiction. I can't utterly ignore this "change", but I can overtly sidestep it. The very least, I'm inclined to have an American President who is inclined to "under react" rather than overreact. And trust me, there is something to which a president will have to react. And as they say, "he who hesitates..."

Birthing my dead twin sister

2008-10-27T18:23:00.000-07:00

Since this blog is mostly about my process of writing, editing, publishing, meeting my public, ducking the hurled stones, and prepping for my interviews on the Colbert Report and the Sarah Palin Show, you realize that this title is figurative.

We've all skipped over reading those stories about some guy who had a twin that didn't survive, and became part of his body. Eventually, that remnant becomes a threat to the survivor. And though it's been a part of him since before birth, there comes a time to extricate her from his body. Often times, reconstructing the gaps is more difficult than removing sis.

Goodbye, Abby. I'll miss you... :(
In 1988, the movie The Seventh Sign was released. I guess I went to see it because I was curious. The fact that my pastor told us not to didn't help. I wanted to see what the threat was. It stunned me. Partly because of the feeling it gave me in the end of the Reagan era, when I was still expecting a less Biblical, and more nuclear Armageddon written in Cyrillic. But mostly I was stunned that someone had the stones to make a movie with a thinly veiled Jesus and somewhat realistic elements of the Book of Revelation right there on the screen. This wasn't the Omen's stylized 666-a-thon. This was dialogue between Abby, a desperate believer, and the One in whom she believed. And frankly, I believed in THIS Jesus more than the taskmaster that they preached on.

When the movie ended, and I stopped blubbering, I was left with questions. Not so much how it matched the "Biblical" account. That was Baptispeak for "believe what I say or get out." It wasn't perfectly Biblical, but I was just freeminded enough to let that slide.

That was no dream... you were THERE!
No, there were questions about the plot, but mostly the characters. How did Abby get from the First Century to now? Why did Lucci kill the priest? Jimmy wasn't really martyred, just murdered. And the clincher... HOW could the signs be stopped? I searched for the novelization to read what the movie couldn't say. I couldn't find it. When I finally realized that it never existed... I wrote it myself. Yes, I sat down with an old tape player with a crudely lifted audio of the movie... and wrote what I deemed a "private novelization." I answered many of my own questions. For example, if Lucci couldn't die until Messiah returns, how could even 30 rounds of 9-mm kill him? And where is he? I vaguely tried to get what I wrote published, but not really. It wasn't time... It was too late.

Brain Blit... It's a technical term
One night, desperately poor, I was stuffing grocery store ads (Meijer's Flyers) into my local newspaper, with metal rock music blasting into my nice Christian brain. The task was mindless, and so, my mind went elsewhere. I was thinking about Abby getting tossed into the future, and in what I call a "Brain Blit", I got a rush of information, plot, character and bible verses that answered many of the questions and drew a frightening parallel. "Well, if Abby went from then till now, what did THEY think happened to her? Did she die? Or did she just vanish? And if that, where did they THINK she went? Did they mourn her or place a memorial? Then, I realized that it sounded like I was talking about the death of Judas Iscariot. I never understood why there were two stories about how he died, hanged and bowels gushing out. I've heard simple preachers try to biblify an answer, but something inside me could see through their fabrication. I realized there was a way for them both to be true. Ask Vlad the Impaler!

Oh My Whatever!
What if JUDAS ISCARIOT also vanished!? What would happen if he were to land in the 20th Century? (It was 1989, so we had long way to go till Y2K.) And so "The Seventh Trumpet" was born. Or at least conceived. It was going to be a sequel to The Seventh Sign, and answer questions that no one remembered ever existed. I took the characters, Lucci, Abby, Russell and even the David Banner persona of Jesus... and added Judas, Nemesis and Chaos.

"Don't Dilute It"
Starting in 1990, I tried VERY hard to contact Clifford and Ellen Greene to get them on board/ By very hard, I did whatever I could without the Internet, IMDBPro, money and lawyers, to find them and pitch the sequel. No avail. I even went to the effort to find the house they filmed the movie in. That is nearly a book in and of itself. Maybe I can write it as a sequel to The Shack. :-D Kidding. But when I went to SCWCLA08, I was in the pirate sessions with Matt Pallamary, Lorelei Armstrong and, among others, Jeff Michaels. When I did my read and critique, he got it. Even when others got the heebie jeebies, and they raised questions with a tinge of fear in their voices. I was shaking their beliefs. They hated Judas and couldn't bear to think that he might still be alive. But Jeff was grinning as he nodded when I was still to hold silence. In the 4am session, I confessed to him that it was a sequel to The Seventh Sign. I was standing, and he was sitting... but he peered up at me as if he had seen the future. With the serious countenance of an avenging angel, he said merely, "Don't dilute it."

Scalpel... bolt cutters..
So now, I have the momentous task of surgically removing Abby and the Seventh Sign from Judas Christ. Now, I will say this... I have been preparing for this moment for about 16 of the 18 years. I wrote "The Seventh Trumpet" in modular chapters, where all of my original writing and characters were segregated from Abby, David and to a lesser extent Lucci. Picture a cable car with many cars hung off the cables. But some of the cars are all mine, and some are sequelizations. If I cut that cable, only those cars will fall. I will have gaps to fill, but I was careful to leave only gaps that I can fill with original material. Lucci is an immortal Roman soldier. Wickett & Kaplan didn't invent him. He's a genuine legend named Longinus. I can borrow from the same legend they (and others) did. Abby is DEAD so really ANY dead woman will do. The baby was a little blob of spittle, so I'm free to build a character from infancy.

"For such a time as this..."
When I wrote my silly little novelization, I spent the wee hours and a lot of candle wax exploring how the plot elements presented in the movie could happen, and at the same time, be "biblical". And then, to make my life interesting, I tried to make them realistic. I added elements, events and actions that would have followed, if they had been in the movie. Not the least of which is Jesus asking Lucci if he will do something for him. And the tsunami that wipes out the South Bay of Los Angeles. It turns out, there is a lot of backstory that I can draw upon. Maybe some thought that writing was a waste of time, but perhaps, it was written for such a time as this. I will be drawing those elements that no one ever read or saw in the movie, and fill in the gaps in my own writing.

I have some hurdles, because the Seventh Sign brought so much to the table. Lucci guilt for killing Abby, Jimmy, Father Byrne. Abby was someone special, and I had something special for her at the very, very end. I may not be able to recover... but I'll try. Wickett and Kaplan brought a lot to the table... but they left it there to spoil. It was too good to waste.

Another Brain Blit
After I left SCWCLA08, I spent the next day walking around Manhattan Beach. I was thinking about everything and nothing at all. Not REALLY trying to cogitate on my task. Car shopping, mostly. But I did end up thinking how I was going to get Abby's Replacement (let's call her Annie for now) into the story, and how could I replicate the horrific sadness of a new father having lost his wife to an insane priest. As I finished my lap and returned to my hotel (I could show you the exact spot), I had another brain blit. And I choked up as I walked. I knew what I was going to do. It was all right there in front of me. ;-)

To-do list... Elect a president...
After I got back from SCWCLA08, I had some business to take care of. And take care of it I did. Now, there is one last piece of business and them I'm off. I have to elect a President. Whomever wins, I will not be writing him (or her ;-) into Judas Christ. But having an idea of where the country is headed will help me keep this tale as germane as possible. Let's just say that the Arab/Islamic world will be staring down the Great Satan. Whose eyes through which Satan is staring back in real life will dictate how I write those chapters. So stay tuned...

Maybe that effort in 1989 to sequelize a movie was a waste of time. But maybe, it was stocking a storehouse for such a time as this. Maybe it had to age, like a fine old Scotch. And like that very old Scotch, I won't dilute it.

Sláinte... wooohhh... that's smoooooottthhh!

"It is SO-O-O time!"

2008-10-13T18:15:00.000-07:00

Did you see Close Encounters of the Third Kind? Sure ya did. I'm not here to talk about UFO's, alien abductions, or how I kinda ended up marrying Teri Garr. (Geez, where did THAT come from...) I'm here to talk about Devil's Tower.

"Mr. Spielberg, I'm ready for my closeup now..."
Remember the scene where Roy Neary was building the model of his vision in the living room... And there, behind him on TV was a news article about nerve gas in Wyoming. He turns to see the sidebar piece about Devils Tower... and it all clicks. He knows what he has to do.

So, too...
Today, I was listening to public radio for news on the financial turmoil of October 2008, so far. Suddenly, in a Speilbergian moment, I am listening to a broadcast that made me wonder if I am being filmed for a movie. I feel as if I am Roy Neary, rapt by the broadcast. Just as Roy is "supposed to" see Devils Tower on the tube, so too does it seem like I am "supposed to" hear this broadcast.

"Is there a divine hand in the Dow?"
We've yet to spot a guy walking around with a sign that says "the end is nigh," but the chatter on Armageddon and Rapture Web sites is heating up. Sean Cole decided it was time to check in with a few "end time economists."

I'm not making this up. This is NOT a quote from my book. This is direct from the Marketplace radio program, broadcast just hours ago. See for yourself.

Excerpts:

"Armageddon is where Jesus and the Antichrist battle it out at the end of world. It's an actual place, in fact. And as it turns out, scripture says financial Armageddon and Armageddon Armageddon might be related."
When the financial crisis really started to take hold, I got to thinking what I often think in times of crisis: that people who already believe the world is coming to an end must be feeling pretty vindicated right now
The Rapture, if you're not familiar, is when all of Christ's followers ascend to heaven. This is supposed to happen before, or after depending on who you ask, a seven-year period of great tribulation. The Antichrist enslaves humanity.
Paradoxically though, the tribulation is also supposed to involve a unified global economy, with a common currency. You might think all of this is crazy, but it's not something these folks made up. It's biblical interpretation. Revelations 13 for instance says no one would be able to buy or sell unless they had the mark of the beast, meaning the Antichrist. Some folks take that to mean we'll all have tiny, scannable credit cards implanted in our skin. And some folks, thus, think that kind of technology is evil. But Wilfred Hahn says it's only the Antichrist that's evil.
"That individual and groups of individuals working with him will just use the systems that are available to them at that point in time for evil purpose"

"I see. So it's not one world economy per se that's bad, but a bad dude."

Dude! I know that dude's name!
I must say... it takes a real set of... ummm... biblical references to write a book about topics of Antichrist, the Rapture, Armageddon. And there are days when even ***I*** think I'm crazy to be writing on these topics. And there are no end of days when others think I'm crazy.

But when you are listening to public radio and they do ALL of your reader education and background legwork for you... well, I felt like Roy Neary, covered with mud and clay in his living room. What is stranger than the fact that this broadcast was made, is that I was right there, a la Spielberg, to hear it.

And so, I say again... It is time!
It's not the financial armageddon that public radio spoke of that makes it time. It's not election season, or even that next September is 9.9.9 ;-) It's that all of these things are seeping into the public's consciousness. Granted, public radio was mocking the Rapture Ready. But the message is getting out. The mood is being built. When Judas Christ hits the book stands, the public will find something very familiar about this Judas. And like Roy's vision, which is just out of reach, the TV and Google news will pop it into focus.

"...and today on Marketplace, we interview... The Antichrist"
In Judas Christ, I portray news programs announcing inexplicable events. It's an easy, if not effective, way to explain to the readers in a way that can be precise without being pedantic. As Matt Pallamary often said at SCWC "Show me, don't tell me." Meaning, take the explanation out of the narrator's head and put it into the mouth of the characters. Marketplace just DID that for me. Which raises an interesting question...

If Marketplace commentators are going to raise the specter of Antichrist, and link him with the "one world economy", they have set themselves up. Someday, if these things come to pass, they will be interviewing "The Bad Dude." Will they recognize who he is or not?

I have tried to stay ahead of the curve. I always try to write the events of Judas Christ so that they are 20 minutes into the future. But it's getting harder. The events are coming faster than I can write. The flip side of the "3 choice question" of my previous post is this... If my pace is 'just right', then it infers that the events i'm writing about will come to pass right about the time I get published, or finish the series. And so, I say, more than ever, "It is time."

And if so...
...then it won't be long before my writings and events resemble each other. This one did. Reading it afterward, it bore the same smarmy thumbprint as my fictitious news broadcasts. Will news interviews sound remarkably like some chapters in my book? If they do... one of us will have to worry about copyright infringement!

"What do you mean, 'it is not time?'"

2008-10-13T16:56:00.000-07:00

In 2004, I had been working on Judas Christ for 14 years. I wrote in pulses, sometimes several months at a time. Usually, when I finished a pulse, I knew what the next piece was going to be, but not how it was going to play out. I would then take months to "stew on it." During that time, I became a sponge. I would absorb all different kinds of information, hear all different kinds of programs, speeches, sermons, and best of all... news programs.

I had this strange delusion that I was writing at precisely the right pace, because as I stewed, some new finding would make itself known. A simple explanation of that is how I learned about "The Allais Effect" where gravity goes silly under a total solar eclipse. (Or not.) But I heard about it, and it became part of my story. Well, if you are astute, that infers that either:

someone/thing is controlling my circumstances, including the world as a whole
someone/thing is controlling my pace
I'm just the luckiest dog in the dog pound.

I won't debate either of these choices here. But I will say this...

"The World has changed..."
In September 2001, something happened which brought the writing to a halt. 9/11 cast a glaring shadow on all things Islamic, and sadly, all things Arabic. In Judas Christ, many of the main POV characters are Islamic Arabs. They go on a hajj to Mecca, where the glory of Islam is shown to Judas. I painted Arabic Islam in a very positive light... that light was counter to the negative shadow. And that shadow cast itself on both my writing, and my writings. I had two choices... change the story, or wait for the shadow to abate. That was an easy choice... and so I waited. But not all that is forgotten is lost.

For when "Mongoose" read some of my writing and asked, "Why don't you try to get this published", I answered in a deadpan voice, "It's not time." I stated it as simply as if I said "My bike tire is flat." It was self evident to me. The world was not ready for Islamic heroes.

Life progressed, chaos spun and the winter grew bleak and lonely. I found warmth only from writing, especially, one delightful character. And so I wrote... A chance intersection of two characters became a most-unlikely of romances and changed the handling of the ending. I told you that stewing is good. But it still wasn't time. I had answered a call of duty, as a black knight to his beloved liege, and I didn't have time or energy to write. Besides, the world wasn't ready.

The usual silence
Then one night, I had a dream... (relax, it's not THAT kind of dream.) In my dream, those who hated me prospered, and I suffered. I literally lay in bed after awakening, and lamented my state. I was out of a job (again), I had 12 stitches in my forehead, which resembled a centipede crawling on my face. Not the best ambiance for job hunting. I had no car, no prospect, little hope. And to make matters worse, it was my Sweetest Friend's birthday, and I couldn't afford a postage stamp to mail her a card, let alone a Benz or some ice. :-( I asked the universe, God, or whomever was listening, 'why?' With the usual silence, I reached up for my mouse to awaken my sleeping computer, and whimpered cynically... "Well, let's see what the world has to offer me today." I crawled up into my chair from my mattress on the floor and opened ABCNEWS.com.

"Gospel of Judas Found"
HOLY SHHHHHIIITE REBELLION!!! I read the article, Googled for more. I was not as interested in what the articles, or even the so-called gospel said. The very fact that Judas' name was front page news was all I needed. It was as if my mother had turned on the light and yelled "YER LATE!" And as Louis Tully in Ghostbusters declared the signs of the coming Gozer the Destroyer, so too did I have my own declaration...

"It is time!"
A "big twinkie" of energy had burst its spiritual harbingers everywhere among the indolent populace. I became rabid. I became The Keymaster, and the chains of public opinion and political climate were unlocked, and Judas Christ arose.

I immediately hit the web, searching for an agent. I had the leverage of Headline Judas, and I was going to finally move forward. Within 3 days, I had an agent. I recruited the help of "Darth Velner" to edit my work and get the manuscript into ship shape and Bristol fashion. When I received the requirements for the submission, I whipped up the manuscript, the sample, the bio, the synopses. In less than 45 days, I had the package in hand. And September 24th, 2006, I submitted my work.

Well, not all the glisters is gold, and what appeared to be an agent, was not. Who knew? Lots of people. I was so gloryblinded, that I didn't do the simplest things I would normally do... like GOOGLE my agent's name and firm. So, at the very best, nothing happened. At worst, I was scammed. I fired them the instant the "contract" allowed.

Yes, but...
But I got a manuscript in shape for it. I tasted the words on my own tongue... "I have an agent." Like tequila and cinnamon schnapps mixed, once you taste that, you won't UN-taste it. And you won't stop craving it. It was that manuscript that I took to Southern California Writer's Conference. There I focused high on soaring ambitions, grasped my fire, and tasted the single desire to drive this thing home. Because, depending on whichever of the 3 above you astutely chose, once it's time... it's time.

If I needed more confirmation of that, I got it tonight. Wait till you find out what I heard on the radio... American Public Media's Marketplace radio program, of all places...

"I AM the business"

2008-10-05T11:56:00.000-07:00

Prologue
Since 1989, I have carried within me a book titled, Judas Christ. I began writing it in 1990, by hand, with pen and notebook paper, and work continued until I finished the figurative 2nd book of the trilogy in 2006.

It's not time.
A few years ago, I was asked by a close friend, "Why haven't you tried to get this published?"
"It's not time." I replied.
"WHAT DO YOU MEAN 'It's not time!?'"
"It's not time."

The world had changed. Whether it was 1/20/2001 or 9/11/2001, it didn't matter. If it ever had been, the world was no longer ready to read what I had burning inside of me. Then one morning in 2006, a very special day on my calendar, something changed. Something I saw on my computer screen told me as clearly as if the Ghostbusters Containment Field (that's a pretty big twinkie) had collapsed, releasing its pent up spirits. Mine was free, as well.

It is time.
I began sending perfunctory email queries to agents from agentquery.com. I sent a full-blown package to the agent who represented the DaVinci Code. They have very lovely rejection slips. Half-a-dozen rejections does not a career break, but... I tried to examine why I was being rejected, through their eyes, and it became perfectly obvious... There was no way to tell. My packaging and presentation was smooth, nearly impeccable. The query letter was tight, concise, and provided the information the agent needed to decide. So why was I rejected?. There was no feedback to help me understand. I read my own query with the eyes of an outsider. Maybe, just maybe, it was "unpitchable." I had to find out... from a human. I wanted to see the look in their eyes when they read it. "Who is a greater voyeur than a writer, watching his work being read?" How do I get a human in the publishing industry to read my work right in front of me?

To conference or not to conference...
After reading the blog of an intended agent, who was not accepting queries :-(, I resolved to get conferencing. SCWCLA08 right around the corner, and it's a no-brainer for me to return to SoCal. I went to the Southern California Writers Conference in Irvine, CA. I took the manuscript (and ancillary materials) of Judas Christ, a fictional novel I have been working for literally 18 years. Why did I go to the conference?

"I'm not part of the business..."
If you are like myself and a zillion other writers with manuscripts, you envision yourself in a garret crafting a work which will slide from your pen to the hardcover on the bookshelf. WRONG! I learned a lot at this conference, but perhaps the single most important aspect was that "I AM the business". The book industry is really just "the entertainment industry". Amazon, Borders, Barnes & Noble, et al, are NOT the outlet of a machine into which you toss your manuscript. (I'm picturing a Script-O-matic, where you insert or upload your writing, and the conveyor rolls into Borders. Hardly!)

Get thee to a conference!
No... the writer is part of the machine as well. YOU need to get involved. YOU need to interact. YOU need to be heard. YOU need to offer feedback on others. YOU need to network. You need to meet people, and YOU need to be met!

YOU need to get to a conference. But how? I will be discussing that in later posts. What do you need to take, how do you present your work, advice, and an occasionaly caveat. Stay tuned... and maybe, I'll see you in San Diego!