Thomas W. Devine's Blog, page 5
August 10, 2018
On Being Offensive
“Sticks and stones may break my bones but names will never harm me.”
According to Wikipedia, "Sticks and Stones" is an English language children's rhyme from the 1800s. The rhyme persuades the child victim of name-calling to ignore the taunt, to refrain from physical retaliation, and to remain calm and good-living.
Children and adults were tough in those days, and also for so long as this rhyme remained popular.
Today we seem to have lost our resilience. We’ve started to call any insensitive thing a case of bullying.
For God’s sake, let’s harden up.
According to Wikipedia, "Sticks and Stones" is an English language children's rhyme from the 1800s. The rhyme persuades the child victim of name-calling to ignore the taunt, to refrain from physical retaliation, and to remain calm and good-living.
Children and adults were tough in those days, and also for so long as this rhyme remained popular.
Today we seem to have lost our resilience. We’ve started to call any insensitive thing a case of bullying.
For God’s sake, let’s harden up.
August 5, 2018
The Dangers of Aging
Euthanasia or assisted dying for the elderly is a sanitised variation of putting your aging mother out on an ice floe to end her life quickly from exposure.
Didn't we use to react in horror against that as a barbaric practice?
Nothing's changed.
Didn't we use to react in horror against that as a barbaric practice?
Nothing's changed.
July 23, 2018
Health & Writing
Bizarre! I now have a part of my arm attached to my nose as a skin graft following removal of basal cell carcinomas – a very painful minor surgery. I look a mess.
I’m on my 7th self-edit of my latest novel. When I finish this edit I’ll send it off to my manuscript assessor.
Busy, busy, busy!
I’m on my 7th self-edit of my latest novel. When I finish this edit I’ll send it off to my manuscript assessor.
Busy, busy, busy!
July 8, 2018
On the Development of Religious Faith
In this post I want to quote New Zealand author, Joy Cowley, writing about the gift of faith in “Welcome” July 2018.
In talking about how faith develops in our youth she writes:
“Some of us connected the beliefs [in a system] to the stirring of a heart and a hunger for something just beyond our reach. Some of us rebelled against the rules or were overcome by fear of rebellion. Some of us became just plain bored and looked for other things to do on a Sunday morning.”
As a Catholic, and an altar boy for a number of years, I certainly went through all these phases.
About faith in old-age, Cowley writes:
“The physical discomforts of ageing are balanced by the strength of inner peace and an awareness that there is nothing outside of God. External belief has become inner knowledge.”
I’m in that stage now, but I don’t think I would have got there without having gone through a three-year process of gaining my Diploma in Religious Studies & Catechetics.
In talking about how faith develops in our youth she writes:
“Some of us connected the beliefs [in a system] to the stirring of a heart and a hunger for something just beyond our reach. Some of us rebelled against the rules or were overcome by fear of rebellion. Some of us became just plain bored and looked for other things to do on a Sunday morning.”
As a Catholic, and an altar boy for a number of years, I certainly went through all these phases.
About faith in old-age, Cowley writes:
“The physical discomforts of ageing are balanced by the strength of inner peace and an awareness that there is nothing outside of God. External belief has become inner knowledge.”
I’m in that stage now, but I don’t think I would have got there without having gone through a three-year process of gaining my Diploma in Religious Studies & Catechetics.
July 1, 2018
The Latest
Thanks to a loyal reader, I’ve chosen a title for my twelfth novel – “Death on the Quay”. He suggested “Murder on the Quay” but that is already the title of two other novels if you do a Yahoo Search.
I’ve arranged a manuscript assessor and an editor – both talented and reliable contractors I’ve used for some of my previous books.
I’m on my third run-through for self-improvement of the manuscript. The first two took ten sittings – that’s about 40 hours work. I’ll keep self-editing for most of June.
Publication? Around September or October probably.
I’ve arranged a manuscript assessor and an editor – both talented and reliable contractors I’ve used for some of my previous books.
I’m on my third run-through for self-improvement of the manuscript. The first two took ten sittings – that’s about 40 hours work. I’ll keep self-editing for most of June.
Publication? Around September or October probably.
June 24, 2018
Yippee!
I’ve just finished the first draft of my 12th novel (or my first novella). Now comes the easier part (except for author blind spots) of self-editing and polishing before it goes to a manuscript assessor.
It’s my first mystery novel. I’d class it as a “cosy” form of mystery – the most popular but least realistic, according to the 1992 The Writer’s Digest Handbook of Novel Writing.
The sub-genre form involves an amateur detective (in this case a freelance journalist).
I may have broken the rules in having the lead protagonist end up with a confession by one of the guilty parties before he comes up with the murderer. Also, some of the violence is not minimal and not offstage but reasonably sanitised nonetheless.
Maybe I reached the climax too soon – the reason why I’m currently 5,000 words short for novel-length. However, I drained my imagination on clues and red herrings and reached a natural end in the story telling, but without having a final scene that explains how the solution was found – another breaking of the rules for the “cosy” form of mystery.
Any advice from you mystery writers would be welcome.
It’s my first mystery novel. I’d class it as a “cosy” form of mystery – the most popular but least realistic, according to the 1992 The Writer’s Digest Handbook of Novel Writing.
The sub-genre form involves an amateur detective (in this case a freelance journalist).
I may have broken the rules in having the lead protagonist end up with a confession by one of the guilty parties before he comes up with the murderer. Also, some of the violence is not minimal and not offstage but reasonably sanitised nonetheless.
Maybe I reached the climax too soon – the reason why I’m currently 5,000 words short for novel-length. However, I drained my imagination on clues and red herrings and reached a natural end in the story telling, but without having a final scene that explains how the solution was found – another breaking of the rules for the “cosy” form of mystery.
Any advice from you mystery writers would be welcome.
June 17, 2018
On Religion
I can’t relate well to a lot of Christian religious writing with its frequent Bible quotes and esoteric messages. I do, however, often find meaning in the feature column by Ronald Rotheiser in the New Zealand Catholic newspaper. Though it is a few weeks since he last stirred me to quote him in my blog.
In the June 3-16, 2018 edition he wrote under the heading “Moral Outrage”:
“Genuine morality and genuine religious practice are always marked by empathy, understanding, patience, tolerance, forgiveness, respect, charity, and graciousness – all of which are glaringly absent in virtually every expression of moral outrage we see today.”
That is an important message for morals campaigners and for those who oppose them.
In my blog posts I try to be even-handed but I don’t think I’d tick all of Rotheiser’s requirements every time.
I’ll have to do better.
In the June 3-16, 2018 edition he wrote under the heading “Moral Outrage”:
“Genuine morality and genuine religious practice are always marked by empathy, understanding, patience, tolerance, forgiveness, respect, charity, and graciousness – all of which are glaringly absent in virtually every expression of moral outrage we see today.”
That is an important message for morals campaigners and for those who oppose them.
In my blog posts I try to be even-handed but I don’t think I’d tick all of Rotheiser’s requirements every time.
I’ll have to do better.
June 10, 2018
Of White Men
I have three pre-occupations at the moment – writing a new novel, solving a computer glitch to lodge my tax return, and figuring out how to activate my Netflix account.
It still doesn’t stop me from reading newspapers and in particular reacting to a satirical column by 68-year-old Karl Du Fresne (The Dominion Post, May 31, 2018) titled “Male, pale but not stale”. It resulted in derogatory letters to the editor from a number of women who accused him of being all three, and old.
Du Fresne says it “has become fashionable [and permissible] to display undisguised and often venomous bigotry” against his cohort.
He goes on, “Ageing white males are considered fair game because we are seen as having enjoyed privilege for too long…”
To paraphrase his view of what the Millennials seem to believe, we are unscathed by [or perhaps immune to] discrimination and insult.
Du Fresne warns the Millennials that, by the time they similarly age, “they might have learned a few things about life, politics and the human condition” and morphed “into tomorrow’s crusty reactionaries”.
If you’re male, pale and stale, rise up and be counted.
It still doesn’t stop me from reading newspapers and in particular reacting to a satirical column by 68-year-old Karl Du Fresne (The Dominion Post, May 31, 2018) titled “Male, pale but not stale”. It resulted in derogatory letters to the editor from a number of women who accused him of being all three, and old.
Du Fresne says it “has become fashionable [and permissible] to display undisguised and often venomous bigotry” against his cohort.
He goes on, “Ageing white males are considered fair game because we are seen as having enjoyed privilege for too long…”
To paraphrase his view of what the Millennials seem to believe, we are unscathed by [or perhaps immune to] discrimination and insult.
Du Fresne warns the Millennials that, by the time they similarly age, “they might have learned a few things about life, politics and the human condition” and morphed “into tomorrow’s crusty reactionaries”.
If you’re male, pale and stale, rise up and be counted.
June 3, 2018
The Issue with Tourism
From an “Insight” feature in The Dominion Post, June 2, 2018:
“The rapturous promotional description of our tourist hotspots conspicuously omits the growing reality – unbridled tourism growth is causing overcrowding, risking damage to the precious places tourists come to experience, and to New Zealand’s reputation as a tourist destination.”
The article accuses NZ’s Department of Conservation (the “de facto tourist department”) of sending conflicting messages.
I was the first and only ever Assistant Director (Recreation & Tourism) in DOC, a government agency established in 1987. I came to the job with cautionary views about tourism growth and a conviction about the need to preserve recreational opportunities, some of which could not stand high visitor numbers.
In my short, two-year term in that job I tried to get my views established as policy in DOC. At one stage I had a seconded ranger from the Australian National Parks & Wildlife Service working on a project to identify research resources that would help DOC establish recreational carrying capacities.
All to no avail it seems.
“The rapturous promotional description of our tourist hotspots conspicuously omits the growing reality – unbridled tourism growth is causing overcrowding, risking damage to the precious places tourists come to experience, and to New Zealand’s reputation as a tourist destination.”
The article accuses NZ’s Department of Conservation (the “de facto tourist department”) of sending conflicting messages.
I was the first and only ever Assistant Director (Recreation & Tourism) in DOC, a government agency established in 1987. I came to the job with cautionary views about tourism growth and a conviction about the need to preserve recreational opportunities, some of which could not stand high visitor numbers.
In my short, two-year term in that job I tried to get my views established as policy in DOC. At one stage I had a seconded ranger from the Australian National Parks & Wildlife Service working on a project to identify research resources that would help DOC establish recreational carrying capacities.
All to no avail it seems.
May 28, 2018
Reflections 2
Someone else says it for me (Ian Smith in The Dominion Post, May 26, 2018) on the rampant PC culture:
“…if a man can’t verbally compliment a woman for looking nice – or vice versa – then our world has become a deeply sad place.”
Smith invites us all: “Let’s remove the stench of politically correct dung from our lives before it totally overpowers our senses.”
Good for him!
“…if a man can’t verbally compliment a woman for looking nice – or vice versa – then our world has become a deeply sad place.”
Smith invites us all: “Let’s remove the stench of politically correct dung from our lives before it totally overpowers our senses.”
Good for him!
