S.J. Reisner's Blog, page 110

Travels

Those who know me know I love to travel when I can. My husband and I have gone on some great trips. Three years ago it was Bahamas and then the New England states (we spend a lot of our vacations in New England since he has family there). We've also been to Southern England, and to the Western Slope of Colorado. Not nearly as much traveling as I'd like, but we do what we can. Before I got married I took a trip to Ireland by myself. Well, we're talking of possibly going to Ireland together next year. I'd be so excited to go back. I had a great time last time I was there.

I'd really like to hit the rest of Western Europe, Northern England and Scotland at some point, too.

Egypt would be lovely, but they're Muslim there and quite frankly, I'm a Western world kinda girl. I don't take kindly to men telling what to do or telling me what I have to wear.  So any Muslim country is pretty much "out" for me.  I've always been the defiant, outspoken female. I can't change who I am.

This year we're heading to New England again. Not for sight seeing or anything this time. Just rest. Well needed rest I might add. I'm looking forward to spending some long, luxurious days writing and relaxing.

A Few Things That Fascinate Me

So I've been watching with some trepidation the show, Sister Wives. I find it very chauvinistic. It's like watching a train wreck. You can't look away. I mean, plural marriage, one guy, 3+ women? So why can't the women take more husbands? Not to mention the guy on the show is a bit of a control-freak alpha-male doofus. You can tell it's a macho thing for him to control all these women. I'm pretty sure this is a televised version of the ultimate Dom/sub relationship(s). How all these women submit to his authority is fascinating to watch.  Bizarre.

Another object of my fascination lately are hoarders (there are several hoarding shows on now). I don't really understand the hoarding thing. I think what fascinates me most are how these people attach value to totally worthless shit. Or - how they'll allow their houses to fall down around them and end up having to defecate in bags or cans or buckets because their bathroom has either been buried or stopped working long ago. I mean, yeah, I feel bad for these guys, but sheesh. Really? No bathroom?

I don't know - I'd throw crap out long before I buried myself in it. Things are just things and you can only use so many things before you discover you have too many things you aren't using. My general rule of thumb is that if I haven't done anything with it in a year it needs to be stored (depending what it is), given to good will, sold, or thrown out.

So that's my Monday pondering. Enjoy!

I Love You Except...

I do love my readers. You keep me going. I wouldn't be producing stories or informational books if it weren't for all of you.

However - I do find it frustrating when readers of my non-fiction tell me they've read my books then ask me very generalized questions that were pretty clearly explained in "The Complete..." book.  Be sure to read carefully and ask very specific or pointed questions to ensure I respond to your questions. Otherwise my standard response will be a page number for your review. Remember that I wrote "The Complete..." book so I didn't have to keep answering the same basic questions over and over again. For the most part it usually works. But not always. I don't have time to keep typing the same answers over and over again.

Thanks for reading, but could you please read a little more carefully?  :)

Ponderings

My grandmother died this morning. Her passing has me thinking a great deal about reactions and how people behave. How much of our behavior is about being socially acceptable or behaving in the way others expect us to behave for the simple reason that we don't want to appear cold or uncaring.

I only say this because I'm not the blubbering type. Sure, I have broken down and cried a few times since I learned of her passing, but I'm not a complete wreck and I'm not going to be a somber sod for weeks on end, and for some reason I feel a social pressure that suggests I should be. Instead, I prefer to remember my grandmother as she was 7+ years ago when she was still vibrant and independent. Hell, she drove until she was 92 (she was 99 when she passed). We should all hope we're as vibrant if we're going to live that long. I don't think I'll go to the wake just because I went to my father-in-law's and my last memory of him is in that casket. I don't want that memory of my grandmother.

So today my mood is pensive, but not completely void of joy or happiness. I am happy she is no longer suffering. At the end she was immobile, going deaf and blind, and in constant pain. I have a lot of wonderful memories of her even if sometimes dealing with her was a test of my patience.  I'm not really the sentimental type and at the same time Grandma will be missed and I'll always carry her in my heart even if I'm not a blubbering, depressed wreck.

After all, death is the natural conclusion to life and if anything - she lived a very long and full life and my grief is not so much for her, but for the fact that she will be missed and the fact that I'll have a hard time watching other family members who maybe didn't have as much closure as I did deal with the pain of that loss.

Things on My Mind

The Tea Party: Yikes. These people are scary and stupid and if they get elected into government this country will turn into Idiocracy. If you haven't seen the movie - please do. (It's got electrolytes! It's what plants crave!)Decorating the front stoop for Halloween. I'm a little late this year. Mr. Bones and Sparky the Jack-O-Lantern are patiently down in the laundry room waiting to be brought up (along with all my other snazzy Halloween decorations). The Dentist. I'm having problems with a molar. So my husband is making me an appointment (he doesn't think I'll take care of it before next month's vacation). Vacation - I'm actually taking off the second half of November. I have mixed feelings about this. I need the vacation and it will be fun to get the hell out of dodge and visit his family, but this also means traveling across the country with the laptop (concerned about theft and damage) and spending half my Nano time writing in stolen moments on the go. It also means leaving the cats for two weeks and while my SiL and nephew will be watching them, I just know they're going to shit on the carpet. Ugh. Edits on NGD - the entire ending needs to be re-written. My editor said it's too rushed and I'm not so sure I feel it's as realistic as it could be. Hmm. But the story needs to get done and I'm on a tight deadline. It needs to be done by this weekend! Religion - Some zealot left their religious literature taped on our front security door. I really wish they wouldn't waste the paper or my time. Not to mention I'm constantly having to clean scotch tape off the front door. I really need a sign that says: "No Solicitation - Religious or Other. If you're here to sell me something it better be your soul."The Office - Not the show, the place I work (the whole day job thing). We spend the last day and half re-decorating with new desks and moving stuff around. That's a huge chore. Now I'm behind on data entry and so on. I will be playing catch-up today and possibly taking work home this weekend to get back on track.

Never Split Up - Never Go Check it Out

Have you ever noticed the people in horror films all suffer from a serious lack of judgement and common sense?

The first rule of horror movie survival is never split up. It's a well known fact that ghosts, demons, serial killers, and monsters of all ilk enjoy splitting up the herd and picking their victims off one or two at a time.

The second rule of horror movie survival is keep your thing in your pants. If you're ever in a spooky situation - like partying at the abandoned mortuary with the creepy goth girl from your Geometry class - don't go off into another room to get nasty with the person you're dating. You're just asking to die.

The final rule of horror movie survival is NEVER, EVER go check out the noise, voice that called your name, dark shadow, etc... Why? Because you're going to die.

What you should do if you ever find yourself in any horror movie type situation is run like hell and don't look back. We have a flight response for a reason. Use it.

Oh - and have you ever noticed that no one can ever get their car started in a horror film either? Never enter a horror film situation with a piece-of-shit car. 

That's all I have to say at the moment. Enjoy pondering.

October Horror Movie Picks - Part 1?

Okay, so my posts lately have been a bit too serious. Time to lighten things up.

How about a movie review? I'm a huge fan of B horror films. I watched a freebie on FearNet last night called The Slaughter. I highly recommend it. It's like a horror-comedy (replete with brain eating zombies and semi-chaos feminine Cthulu type mythos), though the comedy doesn't really come in until later in the movie. Of course the dialogue is bad enough to make you laugh throughout. And the special effects are deliciously cheesy.  Worth the 90 minutes it runs for. Or just put it on for background noise.

Another B Horror Classic must is Satan's Cheerleaders. If you haven't seen Satan's Cheerleaders then you haven't seen a beautiful 70's occult B horror flick.

If you want some real creepy stuff that's kinda out of the ordinary, check out Suspiria. Also worth checking out Spellbinder [VHS] (I don't even know if this one is on DVD except for in Australia).  Now of course there are always the old classics, like The Omen, The Exorcist, and Amittyville Horror (none of that remake shit).  I really do wish they'd make more occult horror films. They're my favorite (if you couldn't tell). I even liked Satan's School for Girls. Give me young adults, Hollywood style Satanic cults and I'm a happy camper. I'm also a huge fan of haunted house movies. There aren't enough good haunted house movies.

Oh - and The Wicker Man (not the new one - the classic one!) is always a good choice, too. And surprise, surprise - most of these are not overly gory IMHO. If you want splatter-gore just get a slasher movie. I prefer psychological horror to splatter-gore any day. There might be a part 2 to this post. We'll see. If the mood strikes...

So what are your favorite horror films? If you have any to suggest I'm all ears.  Especially haunted houses or Demons or Satanic Cults and Hell Mouths. Bring it!

Survival of the Fittest

Edits on the novella NGD, have me seriously considering how people can survive as writers with the ebb and flow of book buying being what it is. As I've said before, sales numbers fluctuate so much you'll never know one month to the next what your income will be.

Survival is an interesting thing. It causes humans to do some interesting things. It brings out our instinctive competitive nature and gives us a glimpse of the beast within. You can see the instinct of survival in everything the average human does. In the workplace it takes on the form of office politics. In social circles it rears its ugly head under the guise of "cliques".

Sure, we're not talking about survival in its most basic sense, like some guy going out and killing dinner for his family. But rather fighting to keep his job and throwing other people under the bus so they're laid off before him, or getting a promotion by sabotaging a co-worker also up for the same position. After all, job = money = food/clothing/roof. 

Socially the clique serves the purpose matching males to females for breeding. Once you're paired off and your social clique becomes other couples you'll often notice the competition and drama tends to drop drastically. That isn't to say there isn't drama in any group situation (there's always the power struggle for who's top dog or who gets to hang out with the top dog), it's just that older people who've already found a mate no longer need to give a shit about what Mary said about the clothes they were wearing unless Mary has been making goo-goo eyes at their mate and there's a direct threat to one's security.

In writing there's survival of the fittest, too. The people who want to survive, to make a writing income to help their family survive, will oftentimes sacrifice writing what they *want* to write in favor of writing what will sell or make the most money.  The writers who don't compromise on their "art" are most likely destined to be destitute, poor, and without a reading audience whereas the authors willing to compromise and willing to feed the machine will do well and make money. I always wondered why so many people were willing to change their entire book just to get a publishing contract and now I know. Survival.

There's something to be said about working on the project that you know will guarantee you $100 before the month is out vs. the book that you have no idea how it's going to do when it's finally done. There's more motivation there. Just a thought anyway.

My Fan Club in PA

Like many writers, I have a *fan club*. No, not that kind of fan club. That kind of fan club. That's right - a selective groups of stalker(s) in the great state of Pennsylvania. To be honest, I'm not even sure it's more than one stalker, or if it's just one person with a multitude of personalities. I've been vaguely introduced to three so far (people or personalities, not sure which).

Now the interesting bit about stalkers is they first start out by courting a relationship with you. Basically, in the first person's case, by attempting to impose communication and a "relationship" with me. Not a romantic relationship mind you. No - just friendship. When I didn't completely open myself up and let this person into my life, he became verbally abusive by insisting I'd cursed him. That was an outright paranoid, delusional fantasy. Not to mention offensive as hell. At that point I insisted we cut off all communication.

Then I received an e-mail from said person's "brother" who apologized for the first person's behavior and asked if I'd reconsider contact with the first person. I thanked the "brother" for the apology, but again stated no interest in further contact. And finally, I was contacted by a "woman" in PA who didn't get an order from Lulu. So I went ahead and took care of Lulu's screw up and sent the woman a couple books free of charge (which she had sent to Maryland). Next thing I know she's complimenting my work (in a way that sounds strangely like the first guy and his initial complimentary e-mails) and in the next breath she's suddenly making pot shots at me much like the first guy.

I guess having obsessive fans is all part of being a writer, but that's messed up. So far I've started a file on this craziness and if it escalates or continues, I'll turn it over to the proper authorities and at least make a report. And if it gets worse and conventional means don't work I will take additional measures as necessary. Of course that's never my first resort. I do have methods of distraction and deflection at my disposal that I can try first.  ;)

Indie Author: The Writing Life When You've Gone Rogue

Indie Author: The Writing Life When You've Gone Rogue (a 20K word eBook) is available as a free pdf download on the free stuff page at sjreisner.com, and will be available for Kindle and Nook probably by tomorrow or Tuesday.

Here is a description: A collection of short essays written by a bestselling non-fiction indie author who also writes fantasy and mystery novels. Topics include going indie, the reading audience, taking criticism, giving good critiques, the importance of editing, learning to take rejection, improving your writing, and other personal observations about the writing life. 

The Kindle and Nook versions will cost $1.99 each. (Hey, a girl's gotta eat.)

Enjoy!