[TANSTAAFL: Do you read this blog?  I’m not asking if you like the posts, just whether you read them!  If so, don’t be passive.  React.  Write a comment—chew me out if you like (no foul language, please).  You can even receive a free ebook—see the bottom of the “Free Stuff and Contests” webpage; or write an honest review of one of my ebooks in exchange for the ebook.  In general, buy, read, and review some of my books.  Your participation motivates me and helps defray the costs of this website and my ebook releases.  Be active.  Help indie authors provide you with inexpensive entertainment.  It’s a two-way street, folks!]

One of the great battles of World War II, this offensive was really a series of battles that took place in and around what’s known today as St. Vith, Belgium.  How do I know this?  For one thing, it’s one setting I use in my new entry into the “Detectives Chen and Castilblanco Series” titled Aristocrats and Asssassins.  Detective Castilblanco jokes about his waistline being also “the Battle of the Bulge,” and that’s really the topic of this post.  I too have used this metaphor when referring to my over-indulging—many do, perhaps without realizing the origin.

Most people in the U.S. belong to one of two extreme groups: overeaters and undereaters.  The group they’re in varies from day to day and meal to meal, of course.  The second is especially concerning when it’s caused by poverty—too many children are hungry in this country relative to those in other industrialized nations, for example.  It’s also concerning when it’s brought on by eating disorders related to psychological problems, especially when those problems can be traced to a lack of concern for mental health in our healthcare plans.  But many of us are overeaters, especially around Thanksgiving, Christmas, and the days surrounding those holidays.  I’m in that category.

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[TANSTAAFL: Do you read this blog?  I’m not asking if you like the posts, just whether you read them!  If so, don’t be passive.  React.  Write a comment—chew me out if you like (no foul language, please).  You can even receive a free ebook—see the bottom of the “Free Stuff and Contests” webpage; or write an honest review of one of my ebooks in exchange for the ebook.  In general, buy, read, and review some of my books.  Your participation motivates me and helps defray the costs of this website and my ebook releases.  Be active.  Help indie authors provide you with inexpensive entertainment.  It’s a two-way street, folks!]

The evil one who shall not be named decided Uncle Jang (Jang Song-thaek), his mentor, was a threat to solidifying his power in this oppressive, dark, and paranoid country.  Exit Uncle Jang.  Hanging…poison…ten thousand lashes…does it matter?  While some people in Washington might think this is just a distraction from their negotiations with the Persian nutniks in Iran, I call on them to remember that, in contrast to Allah’s warriors, he who shall not be named already has nukes and missiles to carry them—if not to the U.S., at least to South Korea, Japan, Vladivostok, and Beijing.  Any of his neighbors that pisses him off and sends him into a spoiled brat’s tantrum better be prepared for a nuclear attack.  And, as the case of Uncle Jang shows, it doesn’t take much to piss him off.  Talk about dysfunctional families.

Like Grandpa and Daddy, the North Korean leader doesn’t give a rat’s ass that his people are starving, that North Korean children are turning into low IQ zombies from malnutrition, that his prisons are just thinly disguised torture camps, and that his economy is the laughing stock of the Asian world.  He’s a sociopathic psychopath so much into establishing his own cult of personality—he wants to become God—that psychiatrists wouldn’t know what to do with him, except put him in a strait jacket and lock him up in a padded cell.  He makes Kaddafi, Pinochet, Amin, and even Hitler look like angels.  Given the state of his economy, he probably smoke-cured Uncle Jang and is slicing ham from the carcass for his breakfast.

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[TANSTAAFL: Do you read this blog?  I’m not asking if you like the posts, just whether you read them!  If so, don’t be passive.  React.  Write a comment—chew me out if you like (no foul language, please).  You can even receive a free ebook—see the bottom of the “Free Stuff and Contests” webpage; or write an honest review of one of my ebooks in exchange for the ebook.  In general, buy, read, and review some of my books.  Your participation motivates me and helps defray the costs of this website and my ebook releases.  Be active.  Help indie authors provide you with inexpensive entertainment.  It’s a two-way street, folks!]

#336: The First Excellence.  Some of you might know Donna Carrick as the exceptional formatter of my ebooks.  Donna is also an excellent mystery writer.  While The First Excellence isn’t her first excellent work, it is in promotion.  I’m not sure how long this promo lasts (I think it only applies to the ebook), but here’s your chance to grab one of the best mystery stories I’ve read—it has a great plot, interesting characters, and fantastic insights into Chinese life.  You’ve probably seen it listed in the “Stealth Reads” section of my webpage “Steve’s Bookshelf.”  Even if you miss the promo, you should get the book—it’s a great read.

#337: Like sci-fi?  Perhaps you’ve heard of Orson Scott Card’s Ender’s Game?  (I missed the movie—I’ll have to download it when it’s released online.)  I reviewed a philosophy book about Ender and his xenocide on Wednesday.  You might want to take a look at my review and the book.  Yeah, I’m reading philosophy now—go figure.  What occurred to me reading the book is that Card didn’t really solve the problem of communication between ETs and Humans (the real cause of Ender’s xenocide).  I presented this problem in Sing a Samba Galactica, the second novel in “The Chaos Chronicles Trilogy.”  Card also borrowed the idea of the ansible from Ursula Le Guin as a solution for FTL communication.  Come Dance a Cumbia…with Stars in Your Hand!, the third novel in my trilogy, considers another solution that causes so much trouble that a collective intelligence known as the Swarm readjusts physical constants to rid the Galazy of it.  Have fun with these books—you might want to start with Survivors of the Chaos, the first book in the series, though.

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[TANSTAAFL: Do you read this blog?  I’m not asking if you like the posts, just whether you read them!  If so, don’t be passive.  React.  Write a comment—chew me out if you like (no foul language, please).  You can even receive a free ebook—see the bottom of the “Free Stuff and Contests” webpage; or write an honest review of one of my ebooks in exchange for the ebook.  In general, buy, read, and review some of my books.  Your participation motivates me and helps defray the costs of this website and my ebook releases.  Be active.  Help indie authors provide you with inexpensive entertainment.  It’s a two-way street, folks!]

My mind surprises me sometimes.  I’m not just talking about my writing.  I expect that most people think writers are weird, maybe even schizophrenic with all those characters bouncing around in our heads.  (Followers of my “Chaos Chronicles Trilogy” will remember how the main character in Sing a Samba Galactica had three ET mentalities bouncing around in his—that was easy for me to write!)  No, I think it’s my training as a physicist—I observe the world around me and make strange connections between things.

This happened watching bits of the dog show that occurred last week.  (Never remember the name, but it happens around Thanksgiving every year.)  I started thinking about GMOs.  That Great Dane and Chihuahua are GMOs (for those who haven’t yet mastered the acronyms of the 21^st century, GMO means “genetically modified organism.”)  Humans have been making GMOs at least for 50,000 years—nothing new there.  I’ve mentioned this to several people, including two dear nieces, and the people I speak to usually respond, “Yes, but….”

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[TANSTAAFL: Do you read this blog?  I’m not asking if you like the posts, just whether you read them!  If so, don’t be passive.  React.  Write a comment—chew me out if you like (no foul language, please).  You can even receive a free ebook—see the bottom of the “Free Stuff and Contests” webpage; or write an honest review of one of my ebooks in exchange for the ebook.  In general, buy, read, and review some of my books.  Your participation motivates me and helps defray the costs of this website and my ebook releases.  Be active.  Help indie authors provide you with inexpensive entertainment.  It’s a two-way street, folks!]

(D. E. Wittkower and L. Rush, eds., Ender’s Game and Philosophy, Open Court, 2013, ISBN 978-0-8126-9834-3)

Good sci-fi stories are often morality plays.  That’s what made the original version of Star Trek exciting and revolutionary—many of the stories, often lifted from sci-fi literature—focused a spotlight on moral issues by reducing them to their bare essence.  Ender’s Game, by Orson Scott Card, is an example of a novel-length morality play that contains many moral ambiguities, as analyzed in this collection of philosophical articles.

I found the articles very readable, entertaining, and informative but often wondered if the writers were over-thinking and/or second-guessing Mr. Card.  I was reminded of my English class long ago with N. Scott Momaday when I could ace his TA’s quizzes simply by mentioning something Freudian.  One can say, though, that at least no article here has become a launching platform for a PhD in philosophy…so far.

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[TANSTAAFL: Do you read this blog?  I’m not asking if you like the posts, just whether you read them!  If so, don’t be passive.  React.  Write a comment—chew me out if you like (no foul language, please).  You can even receive a free ebook—see the bottom of the “Free Stuff and Contests” webpage; or write an honest review of one of my ebooks in exchange for the ebook.  In general, buy, read, and review some of my books.  Your participation motivates me and helps defray the costs of this website and my ebook releases.  Be active.  Help indie authors provide you with inexpensive entertainment.  It’s a two-way street, folks!]

This real Man of the 20^th century was the inspiration for my character, the U.N. Secretary General, in the book Survivors of the Chaos.  I know that sounds self-serving and maybe diminishes Mandela’s greatness, but it’s a fact nonetheless.  He was a larger-than-life icon of South Africa’s struggle against Apartheid—he changed his country forever.  Moreover, he served and continues to serve as an inspiration for many who struggle against social and racial injustice everywhere, an inspiration that travels far beyond the small thoughts of an insignificant and unknown writer looking for a powerful character model.

There are forces for evil in this world like Franco and Hitler.  Mandela was a huge force for good.  But he just didn’t mouth the words—he lived them and suffered and gave dignity to his suffering.  He was not a perfect man—is anyone perfect?  I can’t speak for persons of antiquity.  I’m told that Buddha and Christ and Mohammed were perfect.  Didn’t know them.  Never saw their faces on TV.  Never listened to them vocalizing their words of wisdom.  But I, and countless others, listened to Mandela.  We experienced his goodness.  We heard his words of wisdom.  We saw him unite a country when he could have torn it apart.

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[TANSTAAFL: Do you read this blog?  I’m not asking if you like the posts, just whether you read them!  If so, don’t be passive.  React.  Write a comment—chew me out if you like (no foul language, please).  You can even receive a free ebook—see the bottom of the “Free Stuff and Contests” webpage; or write an honest review of one of my ebooks in exchange for the ebook.  In general, buy, read, and review some of my books.  Your participation motivates me and helps defray the costs of this website and my ebook releases.  Be active.  Help indie authors provide you with inexpensive entertainment.  It’s a two-way street, folks!]

If you’re an avid reader (I read more than I write, if you can believe it), you know there are certain things that slow you down.  One is what a prospective agent of mine long ago labeled in a critique of my MS (after sitting on it for many months) “too much narrative.”  I wrote and asked her to define that, but received no response—not surprising, because it required more than a form letter, so she couldn’t bother.  I was left to figure out what she meant, naively giving her the benefit of the doubt instead of thinking it was a lame excuse pulled from a list of similar lame excuses she maintained (you’ve already concluded what I think of the phrase now).  The novel, a long sci-fi tome, later became “The Chaos Chronicles Trilogy.”  Back then I figured she was complaining about the world-building—it tends to lengthen hard sci-fi, but needs to be done—and also that there wasn’t enough dialogue.

Lots of narrative—lengthy description or back story about characters and situations, or world-building in sci-fi—can slow a reader down.  I’ll admit that.  One of the worst examples is Melville’s classic Moby Dick.  You’re reading speed slows down from whatever a normal fiction rate is for you to one comparable to a snail crawling uphill in a molasses spill.  The book is partly a how-to book—How to Hunt Whales Unmercifully and Turn Their Blubber into Lamp Oil should be the subtitle (today it’s for Asians who feel sexually inadequate—they need to complement the ground rhinoceros horns and tiger gonads).  If that’s not boring enough, you have endless pages of description and very little dialogue.  I’m not sure Melville knew anything about dialogue—many 19^th century writers didn’t.  These literary wunderkind wouldn’t have a chance in today’s competitive publishing arena.  (And Einstein wouldn’t have ever left the patent office, let alone have a paper accepted by Physical Review—but that’s another story.)

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[TANSTAAFL: Do you read this blog?  I’m not asking if you like the posts, just whether you read them!  If so, don’t be passive.  React.  Write a comment—chew me out if you like (no foul language, please).  You can even receive a free ebook—see the bottom of the “Free Stuff and Contests” webpage; or write an honest review of one of my ebooks in exchange for the ebook.  In general, buy, read, and review some of my books.  Your participation motivates me and helps defray the costs of this website and my ebook releases.  Be active.  Help indie authors provide you with inexpensive entertainment.  It’s a two-way street, folks!]

[Note from Steve:  This post can be considered a continuation of my post on NaNoWriMo.  That program challenges newbie writers to write a novel in thirty days.  But you might not have regular periods that you can write.  In that case, NaNoWriMo is a moot point.  You have to steal your writing time from a busy schedule.  How and when do you do this?]

Not all of us can be writers, but more of us today are.  The eclectic circles of traditional publishing are now complemented by indie writers and publishers, a paradigm shift that drives the establishment crazy, tremendously benefits a dwindling number of readers, and probably hurts a larger number of writers.  You might be able to write well, but the competition is ferocious.  I know—I live it every day.  It often seems I have more chance of winning Power Ball or Mega Millions than having one of my books become successful.

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[TANSTAAFL: Do you read this blog?  I’m not asking if you agree with the posts, just whether you read it!  If so, don’t be passive.  React.  Write a comment—chew me out if you like (no foul language, please).  You can even receive a free ebook—see the bottom of the “Free Stuff and Contests” webpage; or write an honest review of one of my ebooks in exchange for the ebook.  In general, buy, read, and review some of my books.  Your participation motivates me and helps defray the costs of this website and my ebook releases.  Be active.  Help indie authors provide you with inexpensive entertainment.  It’s a two-way street, folks!]

#5: Dallas Buyers Club.  I’m ambivalent about this one.  It stars Matthew McConaughey, Jared Lareto, and Jennifer Garner.  Knowing the first actor’s usual physique, this anorexic role couldn’t have been good for his health.  In general, you have an awful glimpse of the early stages of the AIDS epidemic in this country.  Slow, little action, but good acting characterize this movie, which is definitely not a comedy and not for the squeamish.  My ambivalence is due to all that and not the topics.

The movie is based on a true story.  For many people that have trouble remembering why the AIDS epidemic, Vietnam, or Kennedy’s assassination were paradigm shifting events in American society, this movie might be a yawner and/or subject to apathy.  There are two stories.  Ron, one homophobic SOB, played by McConaughey, develops AIDS and is told he has thirty days to live.  He sets out to defeat that prognosis and ends up fighting the ponderous and stultifying bureaucracy of the FDA, which continues today in its refusal to give desperate, dying people the chance to try anything that might save them, thus committing bureaucratic murder many times over.  The other story is the evolution of Ron, the man.  He develops a compassion and friendship for Rayon, a transvestite played by Lareto, and wins the compassion and friendship of Dr. Eve Saks, played by Garner, who also ends up fighting the medical bureaucracy.

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[TANSTAAFL: Do you read this blog?  I’m not asking if you like the posts, just whether you read them!  If so, don’t be passive.  React.  Write a comment—chew me out if you like (no foul language, please).  You can even receive a free ebook—see the bottom of the “Free Stuff and Contests” webpage; or write an honest review of one of my ebooks in exchange for the ebook.  In general, buy, read, and review some of my books.  Your participation motivates me and helps defray the costs of this website and my ebook releases.  Be active.  Help indie authors provide you with inexpensive entertainment.  It’s a two-way street, folks!]

OK, I get it.  Participating in NaNoWriMo is supposed to help a writer “get in the zone” and produce a novel—in a month!  Maybe all 302-thousand-plus of you signed up this year will do this.  As Clancy said, “Tell the damned story.”  This is an interesting quote because Clancy wrote books filled with whiz-bang gadgetry—some would call them “military sci-fi” or “militaristic thrillers,” at least the good ones—but it’s inconceivable he ever wrote anything in a month.  That’s the problem with NaNoWriMo.  Maybe it works for vampire romances, fantasies, or other pulp fiction (apologies to authors in those genres, but that’s my opinion), but most fiction works, especially sci-fi thrillers (my subgenre), whether for entertaining readers or literary erudites (they’re almost mutually exclusive groups), require more than a month.  Hell, I spend more than a month copy editing my MS, and that’s not counting the research.

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