Give and Tolerate

            I've been thinking lately that there are only two things causing all the problems in the world: greed and a lack of tolerance for people who are different. It seemed strange to me that, with so many issues in the world, there isn't one that couldn't be solved by eliminating these two things from our lives, but I've yet to find a problem that they aren't at the heart of.

            I think lack of tolerance speaks for itself. Whether it be out of fear of the different or some belief, there are far too many people in the world who want everyone to do what they do and believe what they believe. It causes wars, bullying, terrorism, political debates (as well as providing politicians with an ideal weapon for manipulation) and, more than anything, it breeds hate.

            What good does it do? I suppose, if the people who want everyone to be the same got what they wanted, it would provide security. It will never happen, of course, because the world is so diverse that the only solution would be to save the people with your ideals in a bomb shelter while you nuke the planet. Even if that happened, it wouldn't last – diversity is part of human nature; eventually those unwanted “different” qualities would bounce back.

            On the other hand, if everyone were to simply allow everyone else to believe what they want to believe and do what they want to do, where is the room for problems? Where does hate fit in? I admit that this sounds a bit like the opposite extreme – asking everyone to be the same by accepting those who are different – but all I'm asking is that everyone tolerate people different from themselves. I doesn't matter what you look like, do or believe, just so long as you allow everyone else look like, do or believe as they choose.

            Greed, on the other hand, is an even greater problem. People who crave vast amounts of power or money start wars and cause problems for everyone who just want to live their lives. Can you imagine a world without greed?

            For one thing, we’d be able to feed the world. We already can – we produce enough food, most of it just gets thrown away because those of us living in first world countries want our conveniences such as fast food and having just about anything we can imagine available for us in grocery stores.

            We’d also have less power struggles in the corporate world. Products would be made with quality as the goal rather than making as many as possible as cheaply as possible so they can be sold for as much as possible as many times as possible (because they break easily and need to be replaced). That, right there, just ended the majority of the world’s financial problems. Oh, you could argue that there would be less jobs available because not as many products would need producing, but my reply would be that the products being produced would be worth producing and as a result would take longer to make, giving more people jobs. The price of the individual item would go up, but you’d only have to buy it once. This is assuming, of course, money still exists in a greed-free world.

            Let’s not forget politics. Take the greed out of politics and what do you have? People who actually want the best for their country running the show. Think about all the possibilities! No more of these campaigns to slander the opponents, no more taxes paying for things that no one wants (such as government officials’ new summer retreats) – just people who want to do some good being in a position where they can do so.

            Obviously it is a dream to entirely eliminate greed and lack of tolerance from our world, but it would be nice if people would at least try. Let people who are different than you make you smile because you know they've found something they enjoy. Rather than focusing on making yourself happy, try to make others happy instead. I know it sounds counter-productive but here’s my math on this: if you try to make yourself happy, you have one person making you happy. If everyone tries to make everyone around them happy, then there are a lot more people trying to make you happy.

            Doesn't that sound like a happier world to live in? All you have to do is give and tolerate and teach those around you to give and tolerate. Who knows? Maybe someday all the world’s problems will go away.

Click here to find the charity anthology containing a couple of my short stories.

If there's any subject you'd like to see me ramble on about, feel free to leave a comment asking me to do so.

Spider Assassins Want Me Dead

            The first spider that tried to kill me did so when I was around eight years old. I was about to leave the bathroom when I saw this large spider sitting on the doorframe. I quickly opened the door and found myself leaping back and screaming like a little girl (I can honestly say that it was the only time in my life when I’ve really screamed. I also dislike the term “scream like a little girl”, but it is really the only apt description). The diabolical spider had stung a thread across the door so that it would go flying straight at my unsuspecting face when the door was opened!

            Well, it didn’t get me and I recovered from the trauma. I was okay for about a week until I pulled a Kleenex out of a box and a different spider came out with it, lunging at me! It was at that point that I knew that the spiders had it in for me. The more I watched, the more I became convinced that my parents’ house had a division of specially trained, licensed to kill, secret agent spiders.

            I even considered writing a book about them. From the perspective of the spider agents, of course – a series of short stories about each spider’s attempt to kill a targeted human, all ending abruptly as the human’s protector (my mom) put an end to their attempts.

            I must say, though, that I have to admire the spiders for their skills. Why, this one spider was running along the top of a doorframe when, out of the blue, it fastened a web, dropped down into the doorway and let its weight and momentum carry it back up to the doorframe where it continued running as if nothing had happened.

            Incidentally, that ninja spider would have landed right on my head had I not noticed it and stopped walking through the door.

            What’s that? You’re a bit skeptical about all these spiders trying to kill me? Well, let me tell you... When I wasn’t living at my parents’ house, there were no spider problems. My wife and I even had a gigantic spider (we named it Peter) living outside our window and it never troubled us. Now that we’re back at my parents’ house, there have been a number of weak attempts – that is, weak compared to this really good one.

            This spider was very clever (past tense because my wife recently managed to dispatch it). It made its home between our mattress and the box-spring – the two piece box-spring. If we lifted the mattress to get it, it could just scurry down the crack and be lost before we could get at it.

            For months it lived there, coming out only at night to feed on me – or, perhaps to inject me with venom that would kill me once it reached a great enough concentration. I’m glad it was slain when it was, otherwise who knows what could have happened. I might have dropped dead at any moment and nev

Click here to find the charity anthology containing a couple of my short stories.

If there's any subject you'd like to see me ramble on about, feel free to leave a comment asking me to do so.

Reviewing Worlds Apart - Leah

            Worlds Apart - Leah is a difficult book for me to review, not because of the book’s quality, but because of my own aversion to books written in first person perspective. I couldn't tell you why it is – after all, when I was younger I both read and wrote in first person – but something about that perspective is difficult for me to focus on and read.

            Having said that, the fact that I finished it should tell you that this book is quite good. After all, had it not been, there was no way I would have made it to the end.

            Worlds Apart – Leah is a tale of Leah, a nineteen-year-old girl who has just relocated to a new city before going to school. Bad dreams have plagued her since her mother’s death five years earlier, but she and her father are managing to live their lives. Then Ben shows up. From then on, Leah’s world changes. She begins to question if the people she knows are really who she thinks they are and, eventually, she even ends up wondering if her past happened the way she remembered. Who is she to trust while her nightmares slowly become her reality?

            I can’t say that I liked this book from the beginning – in fact, I was a hairsbreadth from disliking it – but by the end of the book I loved it. My feeling towards the book probably stemmed from my difficulty with first person combined with the fact that the fantasy elements aren't entirely present in the beginning – it reads like a book about someone living in the real world and having bad dreams. Which if fine for some people, but not my cup of tea.

            Regardless of my initial impression, there was something about the story that caught my curiosity and dragged me forwards. The whole time I was reading, I knew there was much more happening than was apparent. I even managed to piece most of it together, but as the end of the book approached and all the pieces fell into place I was delighted to see just how much was hidden throughout the narrative.

            While there were sections that I wanted to know a bit more about – and other parts I wanted to know a bit less about – overall I consider this to be a fantastic book. All the little hidden details revealed in the end paint a very well built world that left me wanting to know just a little bit more.

            You can find Worlds Apart - Leah here and you can find out more about the author, Andrea Baker, here.

Click here to find the charity anthology containing a couple of my short stories.

If there's any subject you'd like to see me ramble on about, feel free to leave a comment asking me to do so.

Don't Do Unto Others

            Anyone who has spent a large amount of time on the internet has, at one point or another, run into the trolls. Some are harmless jokers, some are pranksters who sometimes go a little too far and some are just bullies looking for someone to pick on.

            In most cases (the exception being some – not all – of the bullies), these people don’t actually intend malice – in fact, in my experience a lot of them don’t even know they are doing any harm! These are just people finding ways to entertain themselves and, unfortunately, people are hurt as a by-product.

            On occasion, these trolls are confronted about what they are doing. Their response is generally the same: they are exercising their right to free speech. They feel that being asked to stop imposes upon their own freedom.

            In a blog post earlier this year, I touched on the fact that true freedom can’t exist because, as part of a society of free people, having freedom comes with responsibilities. The biggest of which is to respect other people’s freedom.

            I recently came up with an excellent way of illustrating this point. As a general rule, people are legally permitted to defend themselves if they are attacked. In other words, if a person walks up to you and throws a punch, they are essentially giving you permission to hit them back.

            Technically that person is allowed to throw that punch – after all, having freedom means they’re free to do what they like. But it is also your freedom, as well as theirs, to not be punched. By violating your freedom through choosing to punch you, they are at the same time violating their own freedom by inviting you to punch them back.

            Therefore, the way I see it, by exercising their freedom, they are infringing upon their own.

            The same goes for words, spoken or on the internet, or any form of communication for that matter. Any time someone says something hurtful or offensive, they are infringing upon the very freedom they are trying to express.

            There’s a very old phrase used to explain this idea: “Do unto others as you would have done to you.” Very often it is interpreted as, “Do unto others what they done did to you”, better known as, “An eye for an eye.” The problem is that this just leads to a never-ending cycle. Think of kids having a poking war in a car, each one poking the other because they were poked first. Strange to think that adults behave that way – and countries, for that matter.

            So, next time you run across one of those cyber-bullies (perhaps the ones in real life, too), just laugh to yourself in the knowledge that with each nasty thing they say, all they are doing is undermining their own freedom, giving them a paradoxical existence. Then feel free to ignore them and move on because, as a paradox, they can’t possibly exist and are therefore not worth listening to.

            I'm thinking we could also change that “Do unto others” phrase into one more readily understandable. I'm in favour of “Don’t do to someone what you don’t want them to do to you because if everyone respects everyone else you never have to worry about getting hurt.” Okay, so it’s a bit of a mouthful, but it gets right to the point and doesn't leave much room for misinterpretation. Plus, in a few generations we’ll be able to say “Don’t do to someone” and the person doing the doing will instantly stop just so they won’t have to hear the rest of the saying.

Click here to find the charity anthology containing a couple of my short stories.

If there's any subject you'd like to see me ramble on about, feel free to leave a comment asking me to do so.

Write On Con

            There is nothing quite like a gathering of aspiring authors, at least from my experience. The online conference I attended last week, Write On Con, was set up perfectly to cater to the crowd it drew.

            Unfortunately, I wasn't able to participate as much as I would have liked, but I did try to keep up with what was going on. I’ll try to give you an idea of what the event was like.

            The conference mostly took place on the forums, which actually opened for business long before the actual event. This was wonderful because it allowed attendees to come early, meet each other and share advice on their books and query letters.

            There were sections of the forum designed specifically for that – authors could post their query letter, the first 250 words of their book and the first five pages of their book. Because authors are such a friendly bunch, they were more than willing to step up and share their knowledge. As far as I could tell, everyone who posted something got at least one response.

            Then, when the conference officially started, the Ninja Agents came out. This was a group of agents who volunteered their time to cruise through the queries on the forums, giving advice and possibly even requesting work. Again, they were exceptionally helpful and that alone was worth attending the event for.

            The forum also had a section for authors to find critique partners. A critique partner is nearly essential for an author because, no matter how impartial you try to be, you can never be the best judge of your own work. You can also never catch all your own mistakes. Luckily I have Colleen for that, as well as my parents (someday I’ll tell you about my extensive editing process), but not all writers are as lucky as I am. For them, who better to look over their work than another author?

            There were also live events where authors could directly ask agents questions. I can’t tell you about those as I didn't manage to get to any, but from what I heard they went very well and were quite informative.

            Of course, there was also the off-topic section, where just about everything was being talked about. The one topic, however, became a highlight of the event – Larua Tisdel (author and artist) made the extremely generous offer to sketch other authors’ characters. She’s still working on the list now, after the conference is over. She’s very close to mine, so drop by later this week to see what she’s done.

[Insert Picture Here]

            That about covers it for the conference. Even with my limited attendance it was exceptionally fun and informative. I fully intend to return next year, although hopefully I’ll be attending as a helpful published author by then.

Click here to find the charity anthology containing a couple of my short stories.

If there's any subject you'd like to see me ramble on about, feel free to leave a comment asking me to do so.

Of Music and Maille

            Oooh, this is new! I'm actually writing my blog while still at an event. Hopefully I won’t get interrupted too often, but if I wander off I hope you don’t mind.

            Festival of Friends is a music festival, rather than the usual medieval fairs or geek conventions we go to. We were uncertain of how well we’d do here, but we've done quite well for ourselves. People love our stuff! And because this isn't the sort of event people usually find chainmaille at we drew a lot of attention.

            We've even continued the pattern of selling a tie at every show we've been to. Just before I sat down to write this, one of the vendors across the aisle from us could no longer resist the ties he’d been admiring all weekend.

            Oh! We also have someone who wants to stock our products in her shop! That’s exciting news.

            I haven’t wandered around the festival that much – I'm a little afraid of being disappointed. Festival of Friends was an annual event for my family to attend, but a lot has changed. Instead of being out in a park, it’s moved to a fairground and that has changed the entire feel. It feels... well, like a fair. Not that it’s a bad thing; it’s just different.

            The music has changed a lot, too, but that’s a good thing. There’s a very good variety, ranging from folk to rock (the later it gets, the younger the music gets). And the crowds attracted? All ages. It’s not often I see such a diverse crowd. We've even encountered a number of fellow geeks! (One of the security guards was at ConBravo! Where we had a table two weeks ago.)

            Backtracking to when Festival of Friends was at the park, I simply must share a story from when I was a kid. This is the story of the time I got lost. Well, actually it’s the story of the time my family got lost. We were at the festival and my parents had been talking about leaving and I was adamant about staying. So, there I was, watching the band playing on stage, and my parents got up to go juggle. I looked around, couldn't find my parents and panicked. I thought they’d left without me!

            So, I did what any kid would do – I tried to catch up with them. I ran all the way to the car which, to my relief, was still there but, to my despair, was devoid of any family members. However, I had been taught very well – I knew that if I got lost, I was to stay in one place until I was found. Plus, if I stayed by the car, there was no way those dastardly abandoning parents of mine could leave without me.

             I waited. And I waited. Crouched down beside the car (probably crying), I waited. During this time, there were announcements I couldn't hear at every stage of the event telling people to look out for me and telling me to report to the missing children’s tent while my parents themselves (and any other relatives still at the event) frantically searched for me. They did eventually find me, but not until their second trip to the car because, with me crouched down, they couldn't see me.

            And that is the story of the time I caught my parents trying to abandon me and I cleverly outwitted them when I was somewhere between the ages of six and eleven.

            Well, I should sign off before the crowds of the last rush show up. Next week I may have something interesting stories as I plan to be attending a free online writer’s conference this week. Write On Con. If you’re an author, you should check it out.

P.S. Be glad that I edited this between the time when I originally wrote this post (surrounded be music, talking and distractions) and the time I posted it. Be very, very glad.

Click here to find the charity anthology containing a couple of my short stories.

If there's any subject you'd like to see me ramble on about, feel free to leave a comment asking me to do so.

The Hunt for an Agent is On

            Agents are the unsung heroes of the publishing world. I haven’t even met one yet and I'm astounded by the amount of work I've discovered they do.

            First and foremost, they are talent scouts. They wade through piles upon piles of submissions sent to them by authors hopeful of representation, seeking out the ones they want to represent. Note that I didn't say the best ones – every agent turns down plenty of books they enjoy depending on the current book market, what they are specifically looking for and, sometimes, because of how busy they are. The rejections they send out are frequently as hard for them as they are for the author whose book is being rejected.

            Next, a large number of them offer editorial services – they will work with an author to get their book into peak condition before moving on to sell the book to a publishing house. At this point, they turn into lawyers, negotiating contracts that ensure that their authors not only get paid what they deserve, but don’t have any nasty surprises such as discovering they no longer own the rights to their own book.

            After that, many agents stay on to help with marketing the books, which in this day and age is largely the author’s responsibility. This is ongoing work they do throughout the course of the book’s printed life.

            It should also be noted that most of this work is done before the agent gets paid. In fact, until that contract is negotiated, the agent isn't even certain they will get paid. What if no publisher wants the book? All that hard work goes down the drain, along with a crushed and defeated client.

            Needless to say, agents are a valuable resource to any author – not to mention, having an agent is often the only way to catch the attention of the major publishing houses. That’s why I'm currently trying to get one.

            It’s a challenging process, involving finding agents who are interested in my genre of book then writing a query letter to them. A query letter is much like the cover letter you write when trying to get a job, only instead of telling an employer how perfect you are for the job, you’re trying to get the agent interested in your book at the same time as telling them the entire plot, the length of the book, who you are and why you’re the right person to write this book, and why the agent is a good match for the book. All of this in a page or less. If the query isn't good enough, you get an impersonal form letter of rejection with no feedback on where you went wrong (you can hardly blame them; I just told you how much work they do).

            To add to the challenge, agents have tons of these queries to go through. One agent I follow on Twitter had over 400 submissions come in overnight last week! So this query letter has to stick out – it needs to be both personal and professional, at the same time as saying “Hey! Look at this great book!” as modestly as possible.

            Luckily I've had a bit of help in this department. I had the privilege of beta testing some of the courses offered at getabookdeal101.com which have helped me gain a great deal of insight into the entire process – not to mention a lot of positive encouragement.

            Now, armed with knowledge, I have begun my hunt for an agent. With any luck, I should have an agent within the next few months and those of you waiting eagerly to read my whole book will find that the wait is nearly over.

            Incidentally, I should mention that this blog was in no way written to flatter any agents who might happen along while investigating my queries. Really.

            But the thought did cross my mind...

Click here to find the charity anthology containing a couple of my short stories.

If there's any subject you'd like to see me ramble on about, feel free to leave a comment asking me to do so.