Glen R. Stott's Blog, page 2

The Truth about Income Equality

Looking through the history of human cultures from the early Mesopotamians, Egyptians, Babylonians, Israelites, Greeks, Romans, Muslims, Christians, Europe, Britain, to modern days including the United States, Cubans, Russians, Chinese, Arabs; we find one thing they all have in common; they all have extravagantly rich people and painfully poor people. Many great thinkers have sought to challenge and defeat this inequality. Plato in his book, The Republic, posits the “good city” governed by a philosopher king as a solution. Sir Thomas More, during the reign of Henry VIII, attacked the problem in his fictional/philosophical book, Utopia, where government provides and controls everything. Karl Marx made a stab at in the mid 1800’s with the Communist Manifesto. He expected Labor to rise up against the evil Capitalists who took the fruits of their labor leaving them to starve. Marx could never come to grips with the fact that the evil Capitalists paid the Laborers much more than Marx ever thought, leaving the them too satisfied to rebel. Today, Barack Obama comes marching out of the metaphorical trees of Sherwood Forest armed with his teleprompter bow and a quiver of empty rhetoric to bring about truth, justice, and income equality. But when you step away from his words to examine his actions and policies, you see neither truth, nor, justice, nor income equality.

Rich and poor appears to be such a uniform state of mankind that no system could possibly defeat it. However, the condition of rich and poor does have variances based upon the level of tyranny versus freedom forming the society where it exists. In the early days of mankind, the state of being rich was created by strength and passed on from generation to generation. The rich did not create wealth, but, using force, the rich took from the poor through taxes, fees, and outright robbery. Peasants and slaves did the work to create what the powerful took in order to accumulate wealth unto itself. Laws were passed that prevented a poor person from rising above his condition by any means. Born poor meant a lifetime of being poor.

In the early 1600’s, something new started. Ownership of wealth producing companies was opened up to others through the creation of the Stock Market in Holland. In Holland, free trade was encouraged, and people who created wealth were allowed to keep it. Through hard work, a poor person could move up the economic world to improve his lot – a middleclass was born. Getting rich in a free market was based upon creating a good or service that free people would choose to buy, not by birth, force, or armies. This is called Capitalism, and it changed the whole paradigm of rich and poor. When people could create their own products, services, ideas and keep their share of the wealth they created, the world changed drastically for the better. The industrial age came into being, with its inventions that took man from horseback to the moon, from dawn to dusk labor to leisure time, from the edge of starvation to abundance. It is true; there is a lot of suffering and starvation in the world. The progressives say that was caused by Capitalism, but it all existed in abundance before Capitalism. What didn’t exist before Capitalism was the middle class along with modern inventions that a free market created.

Today, the US and the Western World in general have a powerful rich class and a poor class, but beyond that, they have a strong middleclass with opportunities for hardworking people to increase their wealth. In addition, the Western World poor class is far better off than the rest of the poor in the world.

It is true that Free Market Capitalism does require some regulations to keep it open and fair, but it does not work under the heavy-handed control of a monster government bureaucracy. Frank-Dodd is supposed to control the too-big-to-fail companies and increase competition. After several years, the big banks are bigger, the small banks are in trouble, and the middleclass are the ones being hurt. And still the progressives claim they are working for the middleclass. Now Barack Obama brags that he will take over the government to make it possible for him to lift the middleclass, and we are all supposed to shout for joy over the return to monarchy or dictatorship, depending upon your point of view. Geraldo Rivera accused Bill O’Reilly of striping Barack Obama of “his majesty” during the Super Bowl interview. This is the progressive mentality. The last time America was ruled by a “majesty” was July 2, 1776 when the Declaration of Independence was unanimously approved by the Continental Congress, two days before it was adopted.

The progressive mantra of income equality can be seen for what it is by looking at the condition of the middleclass over the past five years of progressive leadership rather than at the flowery, utopian promises they make—promises they started breaking when they first started making them under Teddy Roosevelt, more than a hundred years ago, as they try to march us back to the dark ages of entitled rich and suppressed poor. The progressives plan to be in the rich class, which is their ultimate income equality.

Robyn - stream of consciousness

Within a few days of completing the draft of “Robyn,” I realized one of the scenes near the end did not pack the emotional power it needed. The character is so upset, so confused, and so emotionally turbulent that standard writing can’t convey it. I concluded I have to rewrite it as a stream of consciousness (SOC). In SOC the narrative flows as if it is the internal thoughts, impressions, and feelings of the character. This is difficult for the writer to do and even more difficult for the reader to understand. In this format normal writing structure, transitions, and punctuation are thrown out. In fact, James Joyce at the end of his novel, “Ulysses,” uses almost no punctuation, capitalization, or paragraphing. You can sometimes pick out sentences by the flow of the words, but very often it deals in clauses, phrases, or exclamations with no punctuation to help. It takes forever to read one page. In order to prepare myself to tackle this, I began reading articles about SOC on the internet and I ordered a home study course on James Joyce’s “Ulysses.” I am up to lecture 14 of the 24 lecture course. It’s not a course on SOC, but in explaining what Joyce was doing I get a feel for how his style works (which includes a lot of SOC).
I am not going to do the typical interior dialog of SOC. I am getting out of the limited confines of my character’s mind by turning it into an exterior dialog, where she walks around a hospital room, interacting with the things in the room and the other occupant of the room. Since the other occupant is in a comma, I avoid verbal and nonverbal interaction with character. This allows me to do some things that will make the scene easier to follow. I am experimenting with it now, but will wait until I finish the “Ulysses” course before I take it straight on.
Meanwhile, as that scene expands, I realize I am going to have to redo almost the entire final chapter.

Dead Angels SPR review

As the following review indicates, Dead Angels is not for everyone. The reviewer is close to the point. I was motivated to write Dead Angels for personal reasons. In the 1990’s I found myself in fairly close contact with victims of child sexual molestation. Then I discovered that my sisters were also victims. I was angry. Though the perpetrators did not physically kill the people I knew, they committed a form of soul murder, leaving their victims to deal with undeserved mental and physical pain along with unwarranted personal shame. I created “The Man” and his crimes to highlight, in an unforgettable way, the evilness of people who use children for their personal gratification. This creation did not come from a vacuum. I did an incredible amount of research into the subjects of child molestation and serial killers. I have published four other novels dealing with completely unrelated subjects. These books are written for all ages, and can be reviewed on my website www.glenrstott.com.

I had to cut out some parts of the review because they reveal who the killer is. Many readers will guess who it is, but I prefer they go through the exercise of figuring it out. There is a little negativity in the review, and I left that in.

Review

Oily, paranoid, grim. "Dead Angels" by Glen R. Stott is an uncomfortable book, one that before any further reading should carry the warning that it touches on very sensitive material, and while it does not do so in any way gratuitously, or without proper understanding of the horror of the topic, it does not hold back or shy away from exploring it. This is a book about murder, abuse and rape, from the perspective of a convicted child sex offender …

The author seems to have an unsettling amount of understanding of both the way the offenders think and feel and how their victims, survivors and captors respond. The anger and fear that grows from passive to very active in the minds and actions of Shari and Tom are so believable I wonder if they were built from a biography or diary, complete with realistic exchanges in therapy, work and with friends. More disturbing are the poems, thoughts, dreams and actions of the mentally-unwell … (killer) whose motives are clear in the most unnerving ways. Scenes occasionally feel a little flat and purely dialogue based in some parts, but whenever … (the killer) begins a chapter, the putrid, visceral and unrelenting nature of his mind is shown without mercy, from the twisting of the knife in a victim's gut to the recalling of a stench and feel of vomit.

The style is sensational in a literal way and seems to suit a screenplay very well. His view of his potential and actual victims is twisted and perverse in a way that a man beyond a point of remorse could feasibly view the world, with focused and paranoid beliefs and goals, doubt twisting into conviction and loathing directed into plans. You genuinely fear this man, … A comparison to Hannibal Lecter could be drawn, but the book definitely has its own flavor and not one to confuse with Silence of the Lambs or Red Dragon.

This is a terrifying and nail-biting read that while incredibly well researched and in many ways enjoyable, should not be taken lightly. This could be a disturbing book to many, many readers, especially to someone who may have children of their own, or have been a victim of abuse themselves as the book refuses to censor itself as much as it remains as focused and does not utilize any subject without a solid reason. Depictions of sexual acts and violence against children are kept as low as possible, but the horror and viscerally nerve-wracking tension of the read still permeates. I needed breaks to wind down after a chapter personally, and was honestly glad to end the read to reach a conclusion.

If this experience only makes the book seem more appealing I cannot recommend it enough, as it is an intelligent and interesting book overall, complete with action, emotion and this review won't spoil anything further, but twists are no doubt expected."

By Self Publishing Review

Spirit Fire - POV revisions

The heavy lifting for the rewrite of Spirit Fire is done. One of the problems: I had too many characters with Point of View (POV) scenes. Eleven scenes had to be rewritten or deleted to get from ten POV characters to four. The evaluator doesn’t give me a clue of how or even specifics of why I should do this. I have to figure it all out, so in the end, the solutions are all my own creation. Here is an example. I had a very dramatic scene involving Conchelik and her infant son. In the middle of the night, she is warned that her husband’s half-brother is in the village murdering everyone in the family. She and her son are high on the list to be killed because her son is in line to be chief. She makes a harrowing escape into the black of night with the help of another woman. The gory murders are described by the woman. We see Conchelik’s fear, determination, and desire for revenge. This experience and Conchelik’s response will be very important later in the story. What is wrong with this?
This is the only scene where Conchelik is the POV character. She appears briefly one other time in a scene where someone else is the POV character. So I have caused the reader to become invested in Conchelik, but then she disappears from the story. Instead of moving the plot along, I have led my reader into a cul-de-sac.
Solution: Rewrite the original escape scene from a major character’s POV in which the murders are seen firsthand and become the main focus of the scene (Conchelik’s escape is barely mentioned); rewrite the scene in which Conchelik is not the POV character and blend in her fear, determination, and desire for revenge; rewrite a later scene where Conchelik is mentioned and add details of her escape. Result—more drama and smoother transitions.

Spirit Fire - Review is back

I got the review for Spirit Fire back. There are major changes suggested. The reviewer thinks there are too many Point of View (POV) characters and too many short scenes. The book is too long at 119,000 words, so I should just drop the short scenes. I should edit out scenes with POV characters who have less than three POV scenes. First, 119,000 words is not too long (Search for the Heart of the Bison is 121,000), so I’m not going to worry about the length. Second, I am reading a novel right now that has more POV characters and a plethora of short scenes. It is one of the best books I’ve read, so the temptation is to ignore the reviewer’s comments and save myself a cartload of work – but … … .
The question is not what works with someone else’s book, but what works for my book. For example, Conchelik is a character that has only one POV scene. According to the reviewer, it should be edited out. However, it is an extremely dramatic and important scene because it sets up the basis for Tincolad’s search for revenge, which drives a major part of the book. I can’t just edit that out without diminishing the plot. So I have puzzled over it for hours, while lying in bed awake last night and while sweeping and watering this morning. I thought of another way to get the information back in, an even better way. So that whole scene goes and another one will replace it with an acceptable POV character.
Yes – I’m going to have to make major changes in my presentation to massage the plot, but the challenge is intriguing, and the book will be even better. For some people, being a writer is not easy.

Robyn - a plate of spaghetti

"Robyn" is about psychotic child abuse. When I say that, I am using a narrow definition referring to actions adults take with children that fulfill a need the adult has at the expense of the child. The vilest child abuse happens when an adult uses a child for his sexual needs. The perpetrator is usually a trusted family member or friend. It could be an uncle, father, priest, coach, etc. These abusers have many victims who might have relationships with each other and which could extend for more than one generation. The perpetrator is often a person whose public persona is widely respected. When one tries to depict this in a novel, it defies a straight line story. It is as convoluted and tangled as a plate of spaghetti. You can never adequately describe a plate of spaghetti with words because much of the tangled mess is unseen. If you pull each strand out and lay it beside the plate, you could tell its diameter, length, color, etc., but in the end, you would have gotten far afield from the goal of describing the plate of spaghetti.

I first wrote Robyn in the 1990s as a straight-line story where the character, Robyn, begins a search of her family’s secrets. The search had the effect of dragging each strand of spaghetti out for examination. It didn’t work. I set the book aside while I wrote and published five other books. I have picked it up now to rewrite it. Hopefully, with more experience under my belt I will be able to the justice to the subject. For the past nine months, I have tried to find a different approach. After several fits and starts, one that went through three chapters before smashing into a barrier, I have given up.

I have a new idea. Instead describing the problem, I shall attempt to probe the plate to get an essence and feel of it. The story will look at bits and pieces through many eyes, but I will let the character, Robyn, hold it together. I have completed the first draft. It feels like a framework that can tell the story.

Robyn - Teaser

Robyn’s family history is shrouded in mystery. When she was twelve years old, she discovered from genealogy sheets that her grandfather’s wife, Mary, was his second wife. Robyn’s real grandmother is named Dianne, and Robyn has two aunts she did not know about. Her mother refuses to discuss those members of the family.

Years later, when Robyn and her husband come home early from a date, they catch her grandfather, Josh, with his pants down. Their four-year-old daughter, Debbie, was on the couch with him. As Josh stands and begins to give an explanation, he slips and falls, knocking himself unconscious. He receives a severe concussion, and when he wakes, he cannot remember what happened. Having witnessed Josh’s fall, the pool of blood on the floor as he lay unconscious, and the excitement of her parents, Debbie is so upset that she is unable to give any information about what was happening before Robyn got home.

Now Robyn is on a search to find the missing family members and discover what broke the family apart. Her mother and grandfather tell her the missing family members had conspired to destroy Josh in order to force him to give Dianne more money after the divorce. Accusations fly as Robyn searches for truth about the family, and what actually happened to Debbie.

General - How I Write

There are probably about as many ways of writing a novel as there are authors. This is how I do it. I start with a what-if question. What if it were possible to download one person’s emotions and upload them to another person? Could someone experience or develop empathy from that? (A novel on my list). With the idea, I begin research. For a book like Heart of the Bison, that included reading 27 books along with unnumbered articles. By some process that I can’t explain, the research suggests story points. When all that is swimming in my head, I figure out where I want the story to go.

I start writing in long hand. As I move along, I make up problems and figure solutions, and the other way around. After completing the manuscript, I get a red pen and mark the heck out of it. Then I type or dictate it into a word document for each chapter. As I’m entering , I make more changes. I print this version on yellow paper.

On the yellow draft, I fine tune the plot. Some scenes have to be chucked, others have to be added, and the sequence has to be revised until the story flows. This could probably be avoided if I outlined, but, for me, outlining an unwritten story doesn’t work.

After entering the major changes from the yellow draft, I print it out on blue paper. On this draft, I concentrate on building characters and settings. Of course I continue to refine the plot.

The next print out is on white paper. Here is where I concentrate on style, grammar, descriptions, spelling etc. It’s not that I didn’t work on them from the beginning, but now I concentrate on them. And, of course, I am looking at plot and characters at the same time. This is where Conchita gives me input.

Then, I send the manuscript to a professional reviewer. It comes back with suggestions to improve the book for marketability of that genre. I fix that, and I have a book! So simple – hah!

Why I Wrote about Neandertals

In junior high school, in the late 1950s, I developed a desire to write a novel about what it would be like if Neandertals had survived to live in today’s world. I have read several novels that address the question. “Neanderthal” by John Darnton and “Ember from the Sun” by Mark Canter are interesting examples, but neither does what I wanted to do. The first step for my story involves providing a logical explanation of how some Neandertals were able to survive the extinction of their kind. “Heart of the Bison,” the first book in the Neandertal trilogy, answers that question.

“Heart of the Bison” provides a culture and religion for Neandertals that is based upon archeological data. Because the seminal cause of the extinction of Neandertals is the arrival of Cro-Magnons in Europe and the Middle East, a culture and religion are also provided for the Cro-Magnons. There is no evidence of a conflict between these major branches of the human race, but two things seem clear. First, the technology and thinking process of Cro-Magnons gave them the deciding advantage in making use of the limited resources of the environment. Second, there is convincing evidence that Neandertals and Cro-Magnons occasionally interbred.

“Heart of the Bison” addresses themes that are relevant in the world today, including the justification for war, caring for the environment, and showing that determination is often the key to success when the goal seems impossible. The reader will gain a greater appreciation for the Neandertal’s humanness as preparation of the next two books of the trilogy.

Robyn - Surprises

I like books that have good surprises at the end. However, I know the surprise is there, already written and ready for me when I read it. As I’m writing my own books, however, when a surprise comes, it’s a surprise! As I began to wind down the draft of my next book, Robyn, I got a shocking surprise. Robyn has eleven chapters, but I did not write it from beginning to end. In fact, as I was completing chapter 10 most of chapter 11 was done.

So, at the end of chapter 10, four of my female characters are walking out of the Louvre in Paris. The plot points I wanted to make in the Louvre were done, so I was thinking about how to get them out of the Louvre and back to their rooms in order to end the chapter. My problem was to do that in an interesting way that somehow moved the plot along.

Suddenly, one of the characters unexpectedly broke loose from my plot and did something I had never thought about. It was not something I wanted her to do or even imagined before she did it. It was a complete surprise that she would even think of it. But it was incredibly clever, (she said only three words) and had such an impact that the scene and the chapter had to end right there. Not only that, it led to a major conflict in chapter 11, which heightened the impact of the final resolution significantly. So, I had to rewrite a good part of chapter eleven. I love it when my carefully thought-out books throw me a surprise.

The draft of Robyn is complete. Now it’s time for me to review and edit. Writing the draft is about 80% inspiration (creating) and 20% perspiration (writing); editing is 90% perspiration and 10% inspiration. It’s difficult to stay focused, except for the fact that some of the neatest “surprises” happen in this part. I anticipate six months for this. However, for the past few weeks I have been immersed up to my ears – I need a break at this point to let the creative juices redistill.