I used to watch the soap opera All My Children, but pretty much stopped watching due to dull story lines. But when I heard the soap was canceled, I did tune in for the final episode.
It seems that David, the show's mad doctor who keeps using experimental drugs on people but never loses his hospital privileges for long, has discovered a cure for death. And as a result a number of killed-off characters were brought back for one last turn in the old show before the end.
One of the killed-off characters was Stuart Chandler, kindly twin brother of the evil Adam Chandler, who died in one of the big murder mystery stories.
Another highlight of the series ender: Jackson Montgomery finally told Erica Kane "Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn."
And the last moment featured a gunshot--- fired by J. R., Adam's son, at an unknown target.
I'm going to miss All My Children, but not as much as I'll miss the other canceled soap, One Life to Live, which I watched since the first episode. And now I'm worried about my sole surviving soap, General Hospital, which I watched since childhood. Some people claim it's reality TV that killed the soaps, but I'm thinking it may be in part the fact that they've been pushing Gay marriage story lines at a time of day when a significant part of their audience is Christian homeschooling moms and retirees. Kind of think they needed to go for the broader audience if they wanted ratings success.
Wednesday, September 28, 2011
The universal disability/food stamps answer: 'Die, you lazy dirty bum!'
As a conservative, I don't agree with the whole Nanny State philosophy of the government being nursemaids to us all. But sadly, I've reached the point in my life where because of my autism and my life history of being unemployed/unemployable, I've had to apply for disability (which my Christian pastor therapist says I am more than qualified for), and for other programs such as food stamps.
Even though I'm quite an intelligent person I find some of these programs difficult to understand, so I google the various questions that occur to me. Like today, I wondered if I could use my Michigan Bridge card (Food Stamps card) in the Walmart in Marinette, Wisconsin, since the prices are cheaper there than at the big grocery in Menominee, Michigan.
Usually, the questions I pose have already been asked on something like 'Yahoo Answers'. And there is a universal answer, always approved by the majority, something along the line of 'why don't you get off your lazy, dirty, allegedly disabled ass and get a job?'
It's one thing when a welfare malingerer reads something like that. But for me, it's like I had lost my legs and people were nagging me to get off my lazy butt and walk. It's not just the 'I would if I could' factor, it's being poked in a very painful wound.
It's hard when you grew up thinking you were normal and could have a normal life and a job, to face the realization that you have autism and that a normal life is not in the cards for you. It's hard to even want to stay alive when your only choices are either to apply for SSI disability and Medicaid, or let your life-threatening health problems go untreated.
And going through all that, it's double tough to feel that you have to explain yourself, your work history (or lack thereof) and your disability to hostile strangers just in order to get answers to your questions about whether you can use your Food Stamps in a neighboring state (you can, by the way).
I think conservatives are taking a major wrong turn when they let their very logical concerns about government over-spending on social programs turn into hostility against the poor and disabled. Without Christian charity (or its Jewish or Muslim equivalent), conservatism turns into something nasty like the old eugenics movement that proposed a 'lethal chamber' because there were too many 'defectives' and the time of normal people was wasted in taking care of them.
Some people think that private charity should replace things like SSI, Medicaid and Food Stamps. But right now there are no charities that send a disabled person a monthly check for their living expenses or provide health care coverage for them. It would be a difficult and chaotic transition and I can't help but feel that a lot of people would end up homeless as the new charities got started. I think the most likely to be affected would be people like schizophrenics and the profoundly mentally impaired, who don't know what's going on around them.
Folks must realize that there are no easy quick answers to problems like that posed by social welfare spending. And no Christian should ever forget to show Christian charity to the real life people who are affected by poverty and disability. Not just because it ticks God off. It's also that if we conservatives are foolish enough to lose the poor and disabled voters to the Dumbocrat party because we just have to call poor/disabled person a lazy bum who's just working the system, we'll have four more years of Obama and then we'll ALL be on Food Stamps....
Even though I'm quite an intelligent person I find some of these programs difficult to understand, so I google the various questions that occur to me. Like today, I wondered if I could use my Michigan Bridge card (Food Stamps card) in the Walmart in Marinette, Wisconsin, since the prices are cheaper there than at the big grocery in Menominee, Michigan.
Usually, the questions I pose have already been asked on something like 'Yahoo Answers'. And there is a universal answer, always approved by the majority, something along the line of 'why don't you get off your lazy, dirty, allegedly disabled ass and get a job?'
It's one thing when a welfare malingerer reads something like that. But for me, it's like I had lost my legs and people were nagging me to get off my lazy butt and walk. It's not just the 'I would if I could' factor, it's being poked in a very painful wound.
It's hard when you grew up thinking you were normal and could have a normal life and a job, to face the realization that you have autism and that a normal life is not in the cards for you. It's hard to even want to stay alive when your only choices are either to apply for SSI disability and Medicaid, or let your life-threatening health problems go untreated.
And going through all that, it's double tough to feel that you have to explain yourself, your work history (or lack thereof) and your disability to hostile strangers just in order to get answers to your questions about whether you can use your Food Stamps in a neighboring state (you can, by the way).
I think conservatives are taking a major wrong turn when they let their very logical concerns about government over-spending on social programs turn into hostility against the poor and disabled. Without Christian charity (or its Jewish or Muslim equivalent), conservatism turns into something nasty like the old eugenics movement that proposed a 'lethal chamber' because there were too many 'defectives' and the time of normal people was wasted in taking care of them.
Some people think that private charity should replace things like SSI, Medicaid and Food Stamps. But right now there are no charities that send a disabled person a monthly check for their living expenses or provide health care coverage for them. It would be a difficult and chaotic transition and I can't help but feel that a lot of people would end up homeless as the new charities got started. I think the most likely to be affected would be people like schizophrenics and the profoundly mentally impaired, who don't know what's going on around them.
Folks must realize that there are no easy quick answers to problems like that posed by social welfare spending. And no Christian should ever forget to show Christian charity to the real life people who are affected by poverty and disability. Not just because it ticks God off. It's also that if we conservatives are foolish enough to lose the poor and disabled voters to the Dumbocrat party because we just have to call poor/disabled person a lazy bum who's just working the system, we'll have four more years of Obama and then we'll ALL be on Food Stamps....
Saturday, September 3, 2011
How to write a fantasy/sci-fi series: types of series
Most sci-fi and fantasy writers don't write just stand-alone books, but series. Readers, writers and publishers all tend to prefer them. Publishers like them because each book in the series after the first already has a built-in audience. Writers may like the fact that they can re-use the world-building work from the first book in the others in the series. And readers enjoy reading about familiar worlds and/or characters.
Some series aren't planned as series. Marion Zimmer Bradley at first thought it was a sign of laziness when she set a second novel in Darkover rather than inventing a new world. In other cases the author has planned all the books in the series before the first one is even written.
If you have read a lot of series, you may have noticed they come in different types. In order to plan your own series, you will need to know which type yours might be.
- One Big Book series--- like Lord of the Rings, this series comes out in several volumes merely because it is too long to fit easily in one volume.Except for the length is is the same as an ordinary one-volume novel.
- Overarching Story plus smaller stories --- similar to the Harry Potter series. There is an overarching story about the conflict between Harry and You-Know-Who, plus each book has a story which comes to a conclusion by the end of the book. When the overarching story ends, the series is over. But the smaller plots to each book give the reader the feeling that they've read a story which has a conclusion.
- Cliffhanger series--- Each volume has a story which is concluded in the book, but the individual book ends with a cliffhanger--- a dilemma which won't be resolved til the next book. This can be unpopular with readers, however. This type of series is open-ended and can continue as long as writer and readers are interested.
- Episodic series, same main characters--- Think of the Sherlock Holmes stories. The mystery in each story is different and unconnected, but the main characters are always present in each novel. Another open-ended type. In some series of this type, the main character undergoes little change throughout the series. In others, the main character will age, change jobs, move to different cities, marry, have children and grandchildren, and other realistic touches.
- Episodic series, main character group--- This is a variation in which there is a group of main characters. Each novel will have main characters from this group, but different novels will have different main characters, but always drawn from the set. Piers Anthony's Xanth series, at least in the novels I've read, worked that way. The main character in one book was the son of the main character in the first book, for example. In this series form, the main character from one book will turn up as a minor character in another.
- Episodic series, same world/setting--- Marion Zimmer Bradley's Darkover works like this, as does Mercedes Lackey's Velgarth/Valdemar series. The same fantasy and science fictional world is always featured in books in the series, but some books may be set in different time periods with an all-new set of characters. In this type, there may be mini-series within the series--- three books featuring the same characters, for example.
Each of the different series types has its own appeal. As a writer, some may seem better than others to you. For an unpublished writer who is aiming at working with a mainstream royalty publisher only, the first two types may not be a good bet as you will be asking the publisher to stick with you through a whole series--- something he will not want to do if the first book sells poorly. Better to start out with something more open-ended for your first effort. (If you are going the self-publishing route, you can please yourself--- but be sure you are really willing to stick with a story in several volumes even with little reader interest before you commit to types 1 or 2.)
When I started my own series Taliesin, I was actually inspired by a mystery series rather than a fantasy, Anne Perry's William Monk series. That series featured William Monk, an amnesiac police detective, and a woman he meets in the first volume who assists him in his later cases. This gave me the idea of a supernatural fantasy series featuring a vampire and a girl with Dissociative Identity Disorder who together get involved with a series of unfortunate supernatural events in a series of novels.
Friday, September 2, 2011
Free software for organizing your novel
My project for today was to get together a method to organize my current web novel, Taliesin: Vampire Dreams. I was googling around for something on the Snowflake method and instead I found an article which gave links to free software for organizing your novel. There are 3 different free software options given.
Storybook: Open Source Novel Writing Software for Novelists, Authors and Creative Writers --- tried this. They are really big on trying to sell you the paid version, which is the only version that lets you export and print out the outline you create with it. I'm not sure the free version is all that useful if you can't print out your work.
yWriter: Free novel writing software to help you write a book. Very good software and it really is free, not just a demo.
PageFour: Novel writing software - software for creative writers --- includes a tabbed word processor and outliner This is actually just a demo of the paid version and has restrictions.
After looking all three over I've decided to download Storybook and use it to organize Taliesin and perhaps my other writing. I'm not sure if it will help--- or if anything will help. Being disorganized is my worst failing as a writer. I'd love to hear from other writers who've tried one of these free resources--- has it helped your writing?
NOTE: there is software for the Snowflake Method, but it costs $100, which is $100 more than I can spare this month or any month of the foreseeable future. Besides which I thought the free software, being of more general interest, was worth a mention. But if you have the money and like the snowflake method, you might consider getting that software.
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