John C.A. Manley's Blog, page 10

"I'm not sure how many people on the planet could do what I'm asking you to do, but..."

Blazing Reader,

Before going to see Trap yesterday, I'd just submitted the quasi-final draft of my second novel, All the Humans are Sleeping, to Amazon for a print run of initial proofs (after two decades of work!). Seeing an M. Night Shyamalan movie (one of my favourite filmmakers and storytellers) seemed like a great way to celebrate.

I was also particularly interested because the film stars Shyamalan's 28-year-old daughter, Saleka. In real life, she's an emerging R&B singer/songwriter. In Trap, she's a mega-famous R&B celebrity named Lady Raven. In an interview with USA Today she confessed that acting on the big screen was “definitely out of my comfort zone.”

"In a studio producing a song," she said, "recording by myself, writing by myself — that's my happy place."

I can relate. But when your dad is an Academy Awards nominee who drafts a script calling for you to write, mix, produce and choreograph 14 songs for a feature film, what are you going to say?

"It was insane," Shyamalan admitted. "I was saying to her, ‘I'm not sure how many people on the planet could do what I'm asking you to do, but I'm asking you to do it anyway.'"

As with all Shyamalan's works, I came away from Trap feeling renewed inspiration to create my own stories — albeit in novel form (although, if Shyamalan wants to turn All the Humans are Sleeping into a movie, I won't turn him down).

Stay sane & a little insane, too,
John C.A. Manley

PS If you missed my short review of M. Night Shyamalan's latest film, you can read it here: https://blazingpinecone.com/news/2024/08/13/

PPS Confession: While I admire Saleka Shyamalan's work as a fellow artist, I'm no fan of R&B music — as you can read in this post from May when I was trapped in a concert hall with a Nat King Cole impersonator: https://blazingpinecone.com/news/2024/05/08/

Just the type of guy you'd want as your neighbour if he didn't have this unacceptable habit...

Blazing Reader,

Cooper comes across as a great father who loves his daughter, tells corny jokes and is just the type of guy you'd want as your neighbour if he didn't have the unacceptable habit of dismembering people.

Yesterday evening, I took my son to see the latest M. Night Shyamalan film, Trap. It opens with a serial killer taking his unsuspecting daughter to a concert only to discover that the event is a large-scale trap set by the FBI to capture him.

While not as memorable as Shyamalan's The Sixth Sense or as inspiring as Unbreakable (my favourite), I was thoroughly pleased with Trap.

The plot line has plenty of Shyamalan's trademark suspenseful twists and turns. I only wish it had dived deeper into the serial killer's psychology. The film could have easily been longer, with more exploration into how this otherwise nice family man could be living a dual life as a homicidal monster. I almost want to rewatch the film to understand him better. Hopefully, there'll be a sequel.

The trailer for Trap had me hooked and wouldn't let go until I bought a ticket to support one of my favourite filmmakers. Ignore the hard-to-fathom one-star reviews critics are giving it and see for yourself if it captures your interest at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hJiPAJKjUVg

Stay sane & watch great films,
John C.A. Manley

Yes, nothing conspiratorial ever comes out of Canada...

Blazing Reader,

Today, I've sent the all-but-final draft of my forthcoming novel, All the Humans are Sleeping, off to the printers. The proofs will be distributed to proofreaders for final read-throughs before the September 11 publication date.

As I wrote to my editor, Pete "Typolino" Toccalino, yesterday:

" With this book I'll be pursuing plenty of MAINSTREAM media publicity: CTV, TVO, FOX News, (I'll even do CBC), Oprah (but I'll settle for Dr. Phil), etc. Along with radio, magazines and newspapers. With All the Humans are Sleeping being released on 9/11 — along with the themes of AI, World War III and the metaverse — I think it'll have wide and timely appeal. I'm hoping my press-release writing skills will get some real publicity this time around, since — unlike Much Ado About Corona — the subject matter isn't highly censored."

To which Pete responded:

"Yes, I think there's a real chance here for a wider audience/readership, especially with how strange everything is getting in relation to national and geo politics, ongoing and impending wars, AI, the UN agenda etc., and the general acknowledgement, even in the mainstream, of how strange it's getting ... and it is authentic, bonafide Canadian content, after all."

Yes, nothing conspiratorial ever comes out of Canada... This is just a warm, fuzzy story about a farmer, a robot and the end of the world.

Stay sane & read great books,
John C.A. Manley

P.S. It's hard to believe, but it's been over a year since I decided to "quickly" finish up this short novella (which is now a full-length novel). Check out this post from last October, when I first announced All the Humans are Sleeping: https://blazingpinecone.com/blog/2023-10-12/

Why oligarchies create their own "real stories" and eliminate the dissenting storytellers

Blazing Reader,

Another great quote from Setting God Free (written by renegade Catholic priest, Father Seán Ólaoire):

“Great ideas and great stories inspire great transformation, but they don’t have to be ‘real’ to effect these changes. That is why oligarchies create their own ‘real stories’ (fake news) and eliminate the dissenting storytellers (the prophets).”

In fact, sometimes the most credible way to spread great ideas is through made-up stories. As Mark Twain said, "It's no wonder that truth is stranger than fiction. Fiction has to make sense."

For more wisdom from Father Seán Ólaoire, check out his daring book, Setting God Free: Moving Beyond the Caricature We've Created in Our Own Image at: https://blazingpinecone.com/shop/setting-god-free/

Stay sane & read great books,
John C.A. Manley

Peter Hotez says anti-vaxxers are a lethal force that must be dealt with by the military

Blazing Reader,

Peter Hotez says anti-vaxxers are a lethal force that must be dealt with by the military. In a recent interview, he calls on Homeland Security, the United Nations and NATO to combat "anti-vaccine aggression." Here's what he says:

"This is a security problem because it's no longer a theoretical construct or some arcane academic exercise. 200,000 Americans died because of anti-vaccine aggression, anti-science aggression. And so this is now a lethal force."

He's also muddying the meaning of words. Lethal means to cause death. In his own model, a virus is what causes death and vaccines stop it. Hence, even if vaccines did prevent death, someone discouraging their use would not be causing death, but simply not preventing it.

You can hear more of Hotez's illogical and unscientific double-speak in this brief interview:

https://www.infowars.com/posts/its-official-un-set-to-declare-monkeypox-and-bird-flu-as-global-emergency-deploy-troops-worldwide/

Stay sane & read great books,
John C.A. Manley

Amazon tried to ban this history book (so it must be good)

Blazing Reader,

Veteran independent journalist Ken McCarthy (over at Brasscheck TV) just published a revealing book about the messy history of Israel's ongoing and bloody conflict with the Palestinians. It would have been published sooner but Amazon tried to block it.

"We uploaded our new book... a week ago and Amazon made a false claim it contains unauthorized copyrighted material and they’re 'reviewing' it," explained McCarthy. "Their claim is total BS as they could sort out in five minutes. All the material in the book is clearly accounted for. The cover photo is public domain as are the formerly classified documents we included."

Attempted censorship is often a sign that something is worth reading.

The book is called JFK and RFK's Secret Battle Against Zionist Extremism: The Documentary Evidence. Find out why they don't want you to read it here: https://blazingpinecone.com/shop/jfk-and-rfks-secret-battle/

Stay sane & read great books,
John C.A. Manley

Why a 1959 Rocky and Bullwinkle cartoon was banned from TV

Blazing Reader,

A segment from the second episode of the Rocky and Bullwinkle show was banned after it first aired in 1959.

It featured the incompetent Constable Dudley Do-Right (and his highly competent horse) of the RCMP. But it wasn't the RCMP that banned the skit. It was the U.S. Forest Service who requested the segment be removed because it showed "Stokey the Bear" being hypnotized by the evil Snidely Whiplash to start a forest fire.

What were they afraid of? That Smokey the Bear would go rogue and start saying: "Only I can initiate forest fires."

Seems like a silly reason to ban a silly show. I'm curious to know if forest fires increased with the release of the segment on home video by Sony Wonder and Classic Media in 2005.

On the subject of mounties and censorship, did you catch my blog post on Tuesday about how Constable Dudley Do-LEFT has been sending out postcards calling for the burning of my novel, Much Ado About Corona? You can read (and share it) here: https://blazingpinecone.com/blog/dudley-do-left/

John C.A. Manley

Constable Dudley Do-Left calls for book burning of Much Ado About Corona

Blazing Reader,

Big-name influencers in the truth and freedom movement are receiving a postcard in the mail demanding the recipients burn their copies of my novel, Much Ado About Corona. The sender signs his name as "Constable Dudley Do-Left" of the RCMP.

Check out a photo of one of his book-burning postcards here:

https://blazingpinecone.com/blog/dudley-do-left/

John C. A. Manley

"Nothing is really 'beyond' you if you go beyond yourself"

Blazing Reader,

I've been dreading it for months: Formatting my forthcoming novel, All the Humans are Sleeping.

With Much Ado About Corona, I hired someone to handle the layout — thinking it would save time. However, after sending the file back a dozen or more times, I realized it would have been faster to have done it myself. So, for All the Humans are Sleeping that's what I decided to do.

Yet formatting a book for mass production was something I'd never done. Sure, I've coded websites from scratch, designed full-page ads for magazines and handled the layout of many print newsletters. Still, for whatever reason, formatting a paperback novel felt "beyond me."

By coincidence, I just happened to read this quote in Dan Kennedy's No B.S. Guide to Succeeding in Business:

"A lot of people stop themselves by disqualifying themselves, deciding that they just aren't smart enough to do a certain thing. 'That,' they say, 'is beyond me.' That may or may not be true based on your current intelligence, learned skills, knowledge base, and organized support from others. But we are not concrete blocks. We are humans, with incredible capacity to rise to occasions... Nothing is really 'beyond' you if you go beyond yourself as is necessary for your goals."

That's the nice thing about goals, they force you to break through comfort zones and discover what you're truly capable of.

And it seems I'm quite a capable typesetter and book designer. After more hours and technical problems than I care to mention, the book is formatted and the cover is 90% designed (I still need to figure out how to do the spine). I persevered, and now have a novel that looks as good — if not better — than anything coming out of the big publishing houses. Proofs will be printed next week and my platoon of punctuation police will hunt down any surviving typographical errors.

Today is August 3rd. All the Humans are Sleeping will be released on September 11th — one day shy of forty days and forty nights. Mark your calendar!

Go beyond yourself & read great books,
John C. A. Manley

P.S. For more wisdom from Dan Kennedy, I highly recommend you check out his "Most Incredible Free Gift Ever" at: https://blazingpinecone.com/dan-kennedy

Love of the work

My latest blog post — about how Herman Melville spent four to six hours a day writing novels only to die a relatively unknown writer — reminded me of this quote from Steven Pressfield's must-read handbook, Do The Work: Overcome Resistance and Get Out of Your Own Way:

“The opposite of fear is love — love of the challenge, love of the work, the pure joyous passion to take a shot at our dream and see if we can pull it off.”

I can speak from personal experience: Writing, publishing and marketing novels is one of the scariest adventures I've ever been on. Running for president of the United States would be less intimidating. Of course, being a fiction writer is probably safer. You don't hear of many assassination attempts on novelists (Salman Rushdie excepting).

Oddly enough, what scares me most when it comes to writing novels, is what attracts me most: I love the sheer complexity and greatness of the task.

In other words, I love the work more than the achievement.

Herman Melville advised, "To produce a mighty book, you must choose a mighty theme." But he also said, "I try all things, I achieve what I can."

If you missed my post about the daily routine that allowed Herman Melville to produce the "mighty book" Moby-Dick click here to read it now: https://blazingpinecone.com/blog/most-strange/

_______

John C. A. Manley is the author of Much Ado About Corona: A Dystopian Love Story, the forthcoming All The Humans Are Sleeping and other works of speculative fiction. Get free samples of his stories by becoming a Blazing Pine Cone email subscriber at: https://blazingpinecone.com/subscribe/