Joseph Rinaldo's Blog, page 8
June 10, 2011
Is Larry Flynt a hero or a villain?
My ebook, A Spy At Home, makes the U S government look bad, and deals with killing and money laundering. Do I owe the freedom to write about these topics under the First Amendment to Larry Flynt, the publisher of Hustler? What do you think? 
June 9, 2011
Excerpt From A SPY AT HOME, available on Amazon
Note To Reader:
Since you're reading this, I'm dead. A great many years of my life I worked for the CIA, Central Intelligence Agency, for the federal government of the United States of America. I didn't say proudly worked, because I wasn't proudly serving the entire time. Don't yawn; you haven't read this one before. The book won't self-destruct; this isn't the same reworded spy novel you've read a dozen times where the hero does the right thing in the final scene, and everyone good lives happily ever after, and the bad guys go to jail. To be honest with you, I don't know how much spy stuff will be in this book. The important thing for you to know is that the royalties from this book support Noah, my son. He was a surprise, but not the kind of surprise you're thinking. You'll meet him later, and I assure you that you'll like him. Everyone does. We're complete opposites. He's innocent, and I'm not.
As for me, you'll get to know me. I'd really like to hear what you think about me, but I was too chickenshit to release this while I lived. You'll have to judge me posthumously. Most people tell stories using themselves as the conquering hero. I tried not to do that; in fact, I'm certain you won't conclude I'm any kind of hero. On the other hand, I hope you don't end up hating me. My excuse for not presenting this during my lifetime was National Security. You know the term that forgives all government workers for being dishonest and secretive.
In case I forget to say it later, thanks for the money. You paid me a lot of dough over the years for my salary, and one big lump sum, which you'll hear about in detail. Being a CIA operative means everything I do is covered under the veil of National Security. Don't worry; nothing you're going to read will put any American agents in danger. I've been out of the game for a long time, and most of the governments I helped create or defeat have no one left alive who can figure out my real identity.
My job enters into this book some, well, a lot, but it's not really the point. I hope you think I ended up being a good person. My guess would be that most folks will see what I did in my job as acts of evil piled onto one another to build a temple to undermining decency. At the time, I acted for God and country, actually, just country because I don't believe in God. I was raised Catholic – before you ask, no, I wasn't molested by a priest. After touring the worst parts of the world, and seeing the worst side of humanity, I decided not to worship anything that had the power to rectify those cruelties and chose not to. Life is less complicated for me when I believe God simply doesn't exist.
Some of you might recognize part of this story from newspaper accounts in Nashville, Tennessee. I'm the guy who shot his wife; again, not for the reason(s) you think. We'll cover that in detail, too. You'll hate me for shooting someone who gave so much to the world and always thought of others. I hate myself for it.
I wrote some of the book and then came back to this note. You should be warned that this tale doesn't follow some chronology of events. It's not some impossible to read stream-of-consciousness, but it is out of order.
My death happens at a shootout with a terrorist group from a small Middle Eastern country where I help thwart the terrorist group's coup against the country's President, who secretly sympathizes with America's precarious oil dependency. Just kidding – how in the hell could I possibly know that while I'm writing this? I probably die alone of some common disease in a nursing home with so many beds that all the patients become anonymous. Who cares? (Other than Noah if he survives me)
Since you're reading this, I'm dead. A great many years of my life I worked for the CIA, Central Intelligence Agency, for the federal government of the United States of America. I didn't say proudly worked, because I wasn't proudly serving the entire time. Don't yawn; you haven't read this one before. The book won't self-destruct; this isn't the same reworded spy novel you've read a dozen times where the hero does the right thing in the final scene, and everyone good lives happily ever after, and the bad guys go to jail. To be honest with you, I don't know how much spy stuff will be in this book. The important thing for you to know is that the royalties from this book support Noah, my son. He was a surprise, but not the kind of surprise you're thinking. You'll meet him later, and I assure you that you'll like him. Everyone does. We're complete opposites. He's innocent, and I'm not.
As for me, you'll get to know me. I'd really like to hear what you think about me, but I was too chickenshit to release this while I lived. You'll have to judge me posthumously. Most people tell stories using themselves as the conquering hero. I tried not to do that; in fact, I'm certain you won't conclude I'm any kind of hero. On the other hand, I hope you don't end up hating me. My excuse for not presenting this during my lifetime was National Security. You know the term that forgives all government workers for being dishonest and secretive.
In case I forget to say it later, thanks for the money. You paid me a lot of dough over the years for my salary, and one big lump sum, which you'll hear about in detail. Being a CIA operative means everything I do is covered under the veil of National Security. Don't worry; nothing you're going to read will put any American agents in danger. I've been out of the game for a long time, and most of the governments I helped create or defeat have no one left alive who can figure out my real identity.
My job enters into this book some, well, a lot, but it's not really the point. I hope you think I ended up being a good person. My guess would be that most folks will see what I did in my job as acts of evil piled onto one another to build a temple to undermining decency. At the time, I acted for God and country, actually, just country because I don't believe in God. I was raised Catholic – before you ask, no, I wasn't molested by a priest. After touring the worst parts of the world, and seeing the worst side of humanity, I decided not to worship anything that had the power to rectify those cruelties and chose not to. Life is less complicated for me when I believe God simply doesn't exist.
Some of you might recognize part of this story from newspaper accounts in Nashville, Tennessee. I'm the guy who shot his wife; again, not for the reason(s) you think. We'll cover that in detail, too. You'll hate me for shooting someone who gave so much to the world and always thought of others. I hate myself for it.
I wrote some of the book and then came back to this note. You should be warned that this tale doesn't follow some chronology of events. It's not some impossible to read stream-of-consciousness, but it is out of order.
My death happens at a shootout with a terrorist group from a small Middle Eastern country where I help thwart the terrorist group's coup against the country's President, who secretly sympathizes with America's precarious oil dependency. Just kidding – how in the hell could I possibly know that while I'm writing this? I probably die alone of some common disease in a nursing home with so many beds that all the patients become anonymous. Who cares? (Other than Noah if he survives me)
June 8, 2011
Writing books is hard!
Don't ever let anyone tell you that writing a book is easy. It's NOT! My first effort came about because I was between jobs. I had always been a voracious reader, and I thought, "Gee, how hard could it be to write a book?" The answer is: not hard to write one, just hard to write a good one.
I began with my first mistake: too much research on the subject of the book, too little creative thinking before I plunged into the "story". The story itself was thin, the protagonist not particularly admirable, and the ending abrupt and incomplete. In other words, my first novel sucked! In my naive perception of how books are published, I began mailing entire manuscripts to agents and publishers. I can't even remember how much postage I wasted doing that before I realized that most of them only want query letters. So then I began writing query letters. The problem is I was writing them as if they were business letters; because I work in finance, these letters were dry and uninteresting, and they didn't have any life of their own. The rejections poured in.
You'd think that this would have deterred me from writing another book, but I had many more stories in me, so I plunged into the next novel headfirst. Again, too much research, but a much better story.
Now I have written nine novels, have one published and available on Amazon as an ebook, and have another one in the editing stages. The ebook, A SPY AT HOME, is selling fairly well, and I am working the social media frantically, trying to get the word out.
So, novice writers, take heed. Even if you believe that your novel is the best work out there, remember there are tens of thousands (if not hundreds of thousands) just like you who believe the same thing. Work hard, promote your book every way you can, and don't lose heart. But remember, you are up against some very stiff competition, and you must persevere!
I began with my first mistake: too much research on the subject of the book, too little creative thinking before I plunged into the "story". The story itself was thin, the protagonist not particularly admirable, and the ending abrupt and incomplete. In other words, my first novel sucked! In my naive perception of how books are published, I began mailing entire manuscripts to agents and publishers. I can't even remember how much postage I wasted doing that before I realized that most of them only want query letters. So then I began writing query letters. The problem is I was writing them as if they were business letters; because I work in finance, these letters were dry and uninteresting, and they didn't have any life of their own. The rejections poured in.
You'd think that this would have deterred me from writing another book, but I had many more stories in me, so I plunged into the next novel headfirst. Again, too much research, but a much better story.
Now I have written nine novels, have one published and available on Amazon as an ebook, and have another one in the editing stages. The ebook, A SPY AT HOME, is selling fairly well, and I am working the social media frantically, trying to get the word out.
So, novice writers, take heed. Even if you believe that your novel is the best work out there, remember there are tens of thousands (if not hundreds of thousands) just like you who believe the same thing. Work hard, promote your book every way you can, and don't lose heart. But remember, you are up against some very stiff competition, and you must persevere!
June 2, 2011
Let's Talk About Polygamy
Okay. Let's talk about polygamy. Webster defines polygamy as "the practice of having more than one wife (or husband) at one time".
Polygamy is illegal in every state in the U.S. So how can someone be a polygamist and be arrested and prosecuted for that? If it's illegal, you can't have more than one wife at a time, so any other women you "marry" are not your legal wives to begin with. If they aren't your legal wives, how can you be prosecuted for being married to more than one wife? Is it just me, or is this one of those stupid things that makes no sense?
I admit I have become quite addicted to the show Sister Wives, although in truth, because plural marriage is illegal, shouldn't the show be called Sister Wife Plus Three? After all, only the first woman Cody married is his legal wife. So now they are all leaving Utah because they are supposedly in trouble with the law for their "plural marriage". I say that there are no grounds for prosecution because Cody isn't really "married" to any of the three last "wives". Doesn't that make more sense? And to carry on about this, even if they move to Nevada, won't they still be in trouble if the "plural marriage" is what's getting them in trouble in Utah? I don't get it.
So here are the facts: Cody is married to one wife, and he is living in a committed relationship with and has children with three additional wives (well, actually only two, because he has no children yet with Robin). He is legally married to one, living with three others, and a whole bunch of children also live in the household. What law(s) has he broken? He is really only legally married to one wife, so how is he guilty of polygamy?
In my opinion, polygamy does not exist because in every one of the 50 states, you can really only legally be married to one person at a time. So why are they all packing up (in fear) and leaving one state to go to another because they are in "danger" of being prosecuted for plural marriage? I am baffled by this. Anyone care to comment?
Polygamy is illegal in every state in the U.S. So how can someone be a polygamist and be arrested and prosecuted for that? If it's illegal, you can't have more than one wife at a time, so any other women you "marry" are not your legal wives to begin with. If they aren't your legal wives, how can you be prosecuted for being married to more than one wife? Is it just me, or is this one of those stupid things that makes no sense?
I admit I have become quite addicted to the show Sister Wives, although in truth, because plural marriage is illegal, shouldn't the show be called Sister Wife Plus Three? After all, only the first woman Cody married is his legal wife. So now they are all leaving Utah because they are supposedly in trouble with the law for their "plural marriage". I say that there are no grounds for prosecution because Cody isn't really "married" to any of the three last "wives". Doesn't that make more sense? And to carry on about this, even if they move to Nevada, won't they still be in trouble if the "plural marriage" is what's getting them in trouble in Utah? I don't get it.
So here are the facts: Cody is married to one wife, and he is living in a committed relationship with and has children with three additional wives (well, actually only two, because he has no children yet with Robin). He is legally married to one, living with three others, and a whole bunch of children also live in the household. What law(s) has he broken? He is really only legally married to one wife, so how is he guilty of polygamy?
In my opinion, polygamy does not exist because in every one of the 50 states, you can really only legally be married to one person at a time. So why are they all packing up (in fear) and leaving one state to go to another because they are in "danger" of being prosecuted for plural marriage? I am baffled by this. Anyone care to comment?
May 27, 2011
May 19, 2011
Special Olympics - Dare To Win!
My daughter is 37 now and has participated in Special Olympics since she was 8. She has competed in bocce, basketball, bowling, track & field, and powerlifting. Special Olympics has given her the opportunity to not only participate in sports that typical peers participate in, but to compete and to win! It has given her confidence, joy, and pride in her efforts. She will be competing in the Tennessee Special Olympics state competition this weekend in powerlifting. This 5-foot-tall girl can bench press 55 pounds and deadlift over 100 pounds. It is amazing to watch her and to see the total concentration and effort she puts into every event.
Being the parent of a child with special needs is an honor and a privilege. She has taught me many things: among them, patience, persistence, and what true competition means. I am so proud of her, and win or lose, she is always proud of herself.
I hope that each of my blog readers has the opportunity to either watch, volunteer for, or coach athletes in these terrific Games. It will reward you richly. Special Olympics always needs volunteers; contact your local office to offer your energies to an organization that gives these opportunities to people with special needs. You will not regret it.
Being the parent of a child with special needs is an honor and a privilege. She has taught me many things: among them, patience, persistence, and what true competition means. I am so proud of her, and win or lose, she is always proud of herself.
I hope that each of my blog readers has the opportunity to either watch, volunteer for, or coach athletes in these terrific Games. It will reward you richly. Special Olympics always needs volunteers; contact your local office to offer your energies to an organization that gives these opportunities to people with special needs. You will not regret it.
April 15, 2011
Kindle! What a wonderful toy! You can do so many things w...
Kindle! What a wonderful toy! You can do so many things with it, and it is so much easier to read than a physical book. Predictions are that physical books are going the way of the dinosaurs, and I hope that is true, particularly because I write ebooks and sell them on Amazon.
Amazon has a veritable cornucopia of products to sell, but I think the Kindle is terrific. There are so many other things you can do with it besides read books, but I'll let you investigate that on your own. Happy Kindle-ing!
Amazon has a veritable cornucopia of products to sell, but I think the Kindle is terrific. There are so many other things you can do with it besides read books, but I'll let you investigate that on your own. Happy Kindle-ing!
NFL Lockout?
Are we going to have an NFL season this year? It looks grim. Because I live in Nashville, I follow the Tennessee Titans (who have had a rough time recently), and because they have hired a new coach, and because they are likely to draft some young, fresh players, I hope their season will be better than it was last year. BUT, if the players and the owners cannot come to some kind of an agreement, it doesn't look good. Time is ticking away, ticking away, and it won't be long before the team will have to get serious about preparing for the 2011-12 season.
Let's go, Titans! Get your act together, and start practicing, working out, and getting ready to kick some NFL butt!
Let's go, Titans! Get your act together, and start practicing, working out, and getting ready to kick some NFL butt!
March 25, 2011
Connections everywhere!
It's an amazing time in technology. Not only can you connect to other people on such social media as FaceBook, Twitter, and MySpace, but you can link most any social media connection to any other. It's like being part of a huge extended family. Suddenly, you can let everyone know about changes in your life, successes in your business, and dreams for the future. You can ask for advice, offer opinions, and comment on current events. You can post, tweet, blog, like, share, and link. You can find people you went to elementary school with and comment on the actions of today's "stars". You can re-connect with long-lost friends, locate an old chum, and research a company with whom you are considering doing business. It truly is a whole-earth approach to socializing.
Now, the bad side: you are accessible to virtually everyone in the virtual world. You cannot hide. Every post is out there for the world to see, every comment, every "like", every connection is exposed. Caution should be the watchword of the day. You can post what seems to you an innocent comment on FaceBook and potentially lose a job. You can link to someone who is only interested in stealing your identity and sucking all the funds out of your bank account. And the worst part is that anything you put out there is out there for all time. There are very few opportunities for "do-overs".
Remember, my friends. Be careful "out there". People are watching.
Now, the bad side: you are accessible to virtually everyone in the virtual world. You cannot hide. Every post is out there for the world to see, every comment, every "like", every connection is exposed. Caution should be the watchword of the day. You can post what seems to you an innocent comment on FaceBook and potentially lose a job. You can link to someone who is only interested in stealing your identity and sucking all the funds out of your bank account. And the worst part is that anything you put out there is out there for all time. There are very few opportunities for "do-overs".
Remember, my friends. Be careful "out there". People are watching.
February 16, 2011
Long Time, No Write!
Been gone too long from these blog pages. Glad to be back, and very proud to announce the release of my second ebook, Pirates and Politics! Here's a brief synopsis:
Becky, a strong woman, feels her husband has drifted away. Wanting more out of life than the emptiness at home, she follows her dream and runs for a seat in the Tennessee House of Representatives.
While she's campaigning, pirates raid boats on Kentucky Lake, a major tourist and commerce lifeline in Becky's district.
The political campaign gets rough, but Becky fights back. Big contributors infuse her campaign with the money needed to counter-attack the incumbent. Now she worries about the favors they'll call in if she wins.
Back home Becky and her husband must decide how or if their relationship will continue after he finds out about her affair.
The new book is available on my web site at http://www.josephmrinaldo.com/ and also on Amazon.com. It can be purchased for $5.99 and downloaded to virtually any electronic device that will read a pdf or digital file.
Hope you enjoy this read as much as I enjoyed the writing!
Joe
Becky, a strong woman, feels her husband has drifted away. Wanting more out of life than the emptiness at home, she follows her dream and runs for a seat in the Tennessee House of Representatives.
While she's campaigning, pirates raid boats on Kentucky Lake, a major tourist and commerce lifeline in Becky's district.
The political campaign gets rough, but Becky fights back. Big contributors infuse her campaign with the money needed to counter-attack the incumbent. Now she worries about the favors they'll call in if she wins.
Back home Becky and her husband must decide how or if their relationship will continue after he finds out about her affair.
The new book is available on my web site at http://www.josephmrinaldo.com/ and also on Amazon.com. It can be purchased for $5.99 and downloaded to virtually any electronic device that will read a pdf or digital file.
Hope you enjoy this read as much as I enjoyed the writing!
Joe
