Roland Yeomans's Blog, page 104

THE WINGED BUFFALO

My latest project: a Young at Heart fantasy

The Age Undreamed
Before History was born,
Myth went unseen, for it was busy being lived.
Though now none still live who remember.

Wondrous creatures roamed that new born world.
But none so unique as Hoopah, the winged buffalo. 
 One dewy morning, the Great Mystery reached out into the filaments of miracle
shaped out of them one sparkling Handful, blew upon it, and flung it out into the skies,
casting a tiny winged buffalo to soar the four corners of the winds in happy bewilderment.
The Lakota who first saw him gasped, 
"Tatanka-kinya!"
Which is to say "flying buffalo" and that is as much a real name as if they called you "two legged."

 The Turquoise Woman -
She, whose thoughts are the colors of the Northern Lights, thought that silly.
Instead she named him, Hoopah, or Wings. 

And watched him bemused 
as Hoopah flew to Asgard to Olympus to Avalon to the dragon lairs of far-off Chin,
and other fabled realms,
leaving legends and laughter in his wake.

I am currently writing the chapter:
No Zeus Is Good Zeus.
I doubt whether anyone will be tempted to buy this small volume,
but I am having fun writing it.
Have you ever written a book just because it tickled you to do so?    

MARDI GRAS BLUES

I've come to dread Mardi Gras.
Blasphemous words here in  South West Louisiana for sure!

Billed as the biggest free party on Earth, Mardi Gras is known worldwide.
   Colorful costumes. Spectacular parades. Elegant pageants. Masked balls. 
 People dancing in the streets to rhythmic, intoxicating music. 
All with an air of carefree abandon. As the music reverberates, alcohol flows. 
Wildly elaborate floats glide down the street, with frenzied masqueraders onboard. 
Crowds of onlookers shout encouragement. 
 This may come as a surprise, but Mardi Gras long predates Christianity. 
 The earliest record comes from ancient times, 
when tribes celebrated a fertility festival that welcomed the arrival of spring, a time of renewal of life. 
The Romans called this pagan festival Lupercalia in honor of “Lupercus,” the Roman god of fertility. 
Lupercalia was a drunken orgy of merrymaking 
held each February in Rome, after which participants fasted for 40 days. 
Am I a party-pooper?
No, I am a rare blood courier, 

and I see the bloody toll the partying and alcohol-fueled driving and anger takes on my community.

Countless times today I was delayed and detoured on stat runs 

to make way for the parades and for drunken people staggering to line up hours in advance of the parades.

When a patient is bleeding to death, 

and a drunken woman staggers off the sidewalk directly in my van's path, I sigh.

The parades all seem to be routed directly in front of the hospitals.

Waiting for a traffic light to change, 

I watched the crowds on the sidewalk as a grandmother bumped and ground like  ...

an  exotic dancer.  

I was impressed with her limberness, 

saddened by her two young, perplexed grandsons watching her, a bottle held tightly in her fist.


Laissez le bon temps roulez! 
Roughly translated, it means: “let the good times rule.” 

The French saying comes alive during Mardi Gras.

Surely,  Mardi Gras must be good for the economy, right?

Tell that to the short-staffed nurses 

(since many of their co-workers call in sick with the Mardi Gras Flu) 

as they struggle in the E.R.'s and the I.C.U's dealing with the aftermath of those good times.

The jobs that support Mardi Gras in particular 

and tourism in general tend to be service industry positions that oftentimes do not pay high wages.

In fact, frequently the wages are so low 

that employees have to work multiple jobs to keep the lights on and the cupboards from going bare.

My supervisor long since stopped taking his young daughters to the parades 

since one was knocked down to the sidewalk by an adult lunging to catch cheap beads --

and his other daughter had her ankle mangled by a stomping foot of a drunken reveler. 

Mardi Gras has become a sad term to me.

YOU ARE THE PROBLEM_IWSG post

http://www.alexjcavanaugh.com/p/the-insecure-writers-support-group.html
"It's going to be all right,  isn't it?
How many times have you heard this question asked in a movie?
The usual answer is a comforting lie.
The questioner knows it is a lie and hears that things are NOT going to be the same.
There is going to be a new NORMAL.




But whether that new NORMAL is good or bad depends on how well we craft it.
CRAFT


As writers we craft our stories, our novels.  
Things slapped together usually look ... and read ... like they were.

Over the past 2 years print book sales have been going up while Indie ebook sales have declined 12%!
How are your sales doing?
Probably not as well as they were.

John Locke and Amanda Hocking shot to the best selling eBook lists by being innovative.

Others have tried to do the same by copying their methods.

But their methods worked because they were innovative pioneers.

They looked at the existing conditions and saw new possibilities to grow.

But you can no longer tweet or Facebook your way to fame



Amazon is no longer your helpful partner.
At first, they needed content.  Now, they have a glut of it.

Independent and self-published authors put out more books monthly than the trade houses do.

So eBooks clog the search engine results.

Worse, eBooks are immortal.

Every month there are more and more eBooks.  A tidal wave of books with fewer eyes split across more books.

That is why eBook sales are declining.


What to do?
The skies had not changed when the Wright Brothers found a way to soar in them.

It was the same sky that Leonardo longed to soar in.  

They looked at what they had and made use of it.


We must do the same.

Take Instagram
With it, you can connect with a fan base following ... create word of mouth.

1.) BUSINESS YOUR ACCOUNT 

2.) LINK YOUR INSTAGRAM ACCOUNT TO YOUR AUTHOR FACEBOOK PAGE

3.) MILESTONE YOUR JOURNEY

4.) TALK MORE ABOUT YOUR FANS, THEIR INTERESTS  THAN YOUR BOOKS.

5.) REVIEW BOOKS YOU THINK YOUR FANS MAY ENJOY.

6.) MAKE A VIRTUAL RECOMMENDED  SHELF OF YOUR ACCOUNT

7.) MAKE YOUR INSTAGRAM POSTS FUN


DO NOT JUST THINK OUTSIDE THE BOX ...
THINK ABOVE THE HORIZON
The Internet is a global world of endless possibilities.
You are creative or you would not be a writer.  
There are ways to draw attention to your book that no one else has thought of.  
Someone will think of it.
BE THAT SOMEONE
The wheel was obvious  AFTER  it was discovered.

A LIFE WORTH LIVING

WHAT MAKES A LIFE  WORTH LIVING?

SCHOOL TEACHES US EVERYTHING  BUT WHAT WE NEED TO LIVE FULLY

1.) PARENTS AND SCHOOLS TEACH US  TO MEASURE OUR WORTH  BY HOW WELL WE ARE LIKED  BY IMPORTANT OTHERS.
Giving up the need to be liked by everyone frees us.
We stop wasting enormous energy in chasing a cruel Will O Wisp.
We can focus on just becoming.   
And those drawn to the Us that We become that way will be worth sharing the fascinating journey that is life.

2.) BEING AUTHENTIC IS NOT BEING A FREAK

You think an eagle feels a freak when it takes to the skies and soars alone.
In STRANGER THINGS 2, 
Jonathan tells his brother that the freaks are the ones who do great things.

Be true to who you are inside and fly like an eagle.
Perhaps if we taught students that in school, 
the persecuted ones would find their way without violence to themselves or others.

3.) WE TEACH OTHERS HOW TO TREAT US

Often we think to get along, we must go along.
But in giving in to bullies, we only teach them to treat us worse.
Standing up to a bully will cost.  Not doing so will cost more:
your self respect, inner peace, and joy.
Bruises heals.  Wounded souls often do not.
Strong boundaries reinforce our self-worth.

4.) WE ARE ENOUGH

Our culture seems intent on persuading us that our lives are lacking:
that we are not enough; 
that we do not have enough, 
that there is that elusive something out there that will make things wonderful --
Something external.
REMEMBER:

BEEN SICK

To say I have been sick recently  is a HUGE understatement.

I have been beat up and felt better.  Even my hair hurts.  

Don't get me started on the racking cough.

I literally had to slide out of bed and crawl to my clothes 

to get ready to see the doctor I was so weak yesterday.



He scolded me for waiting so long,  saying he had seen CPR dummies with more color.
(Red Cross Workers prepare for flu patients in St. Louis. 1918)
Now, unlike the deadly Spanish Flu Outbreak in 1918 which killed up to 50 million people, 
this Flu Season is only "Moderately Severe!"
This Flu Season is dominated by the H3N2 strain, the most deadly of the four flu strains.  
Lucky us, right?
In Southern California and Central Texas, 
some hospitals have become so overwhelmed that they have had to turn patients away.

Even in mild flu seasons, the flu kills 12, 000 Americans.  
In bad years like this one, it can kill up to 56,000.
This year, this flu has killed a 10 year old boy in Connecticut, 
a 21 year old body builder, 
and a four year old boy in Dayton, Ohio.
Different people have differently composed immune systems, 
and sometimes those immune systems are part of the reason so many "healthy" people die from the flu.
Don't be like me.
Seek a doctor's help without delay if you feel you may have the flu.

GOOD NEWS!

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B077X83JL2
The cover for LIKE A WOMANhas placed 2nd in the Preditors and Editors Awards! 
A HUGE thank you to everyone that voted.
Even MORE Good News:

LIKE A WOMAN  has placed 10th in a huge, tough field of competitors:
Preditors and Editors Awards.
Congratulations to all my fellow anthologists!
Top Ten placing is a great result.
You did a fantastic job.
I'm proud to be counted inyour ranks.

FOR THOUSANDS OF YEARS ...

For thousands of years,  cats  have roamed the streets of the city  now known as Istanbul.
They have watched empires rise and fall.
They have endured as the city cycled through famine and feast.
And through it all,  they have had no single master.
Instead in a strange love affair,
the city's inhabitants care for them in admiration of theirgrace and independence.

The Turkish documentary, Kedi, is sweet and loving, filled with beautiful visuals of cats and the surprisingly moving and fanciful thoughtsof those who know them.

Midnight and I drift off to sleepwatching the fluid tracking shots filmed at cat eye level. 

If you are a cat loveror interested in foreign cultures,try Kedi.
You won't be sorry.

IS THE STRUGGLE LONELY RIGHT NOW?

*
FEELING UNAPPRECIATED AS A WRITER?

Join the club.

While my short stories are being accepted in anthologies ...



My novels seem to be losing momentum.

As I finished typing the above,

 the ghost of Li Yaotang (pen name: Ba Jin) 

rapped on top of my head as if it were a door.

"I was born on this day in 1904, Roland."

His eyes were deep with wisdom hard bought by pain. 

"Only by not forgetting the past can we be the master of the future. 

 Now my education, life and consciousness are talked about by those who cannot understand what I wrote, what I thought, what was my life."

He sighed, 

"They make me up from their subjective imagination. Do not be like them. Learn from the me that I was. Learn from the Bamboo Tree."
 
And with that, he was gone.

When he died in 2005, Ba Jin was praised as one of China’s most important novelists, and as the embodiment of a tumultuous century.

He began agitating for change as a teenager, joining the Chinese anarchist group “Company of Equals."

When the Cultural Revolution arrived, Ba Jin became a symbol of anti-social thinking and a primary target,

his public humiliation at the People’s Stadium of Shanghai televised in 1968.

The nation watched the sixty-three-year-old author, kneeling on broken glass, endure the jeers and threats with a bowed head; then they heard him speak:

"You have your thoughts and I have mine. This is the fact and you can't change it even if you kill me."
 
Years of rehabilitation followed, his new work monitored, his old books and articles revised to suit the authorities.

When once again allowed to speak his mind in a public forum — the following is excerpted from a 1980 speech in Kyoto — Jin had emerged from the crucible true to himself :

"I do not write to earn a living or to build a reputation.

I write to battle enemies. Who are they?

Every outdated traditional notion, every irrational system that stands in the way of social progress and human development,

and every instance of cruelty in the face of love.

My pen is a light and my body a flame. Until both burn down to ash, my love and my hate will remain here in the world."

Feel unappreciated now? Live your own light. Fight the darkness as long as breath and light remain to you.

* Uploaded 17 October 2005 by Jiang Photo of Ba Jin taken in 1938.

This image is now in the public domain because its term of copyright has expired in China.

According to copyright laws of the People's Republic of China (currently with jurisdiction in Taiwan, the Pescadores, Quemoy, Matsu, etc.),

all photographs and cinematographic works, and all works whose copyright holder is a juristic person, enter the public domain 50 years after they were first published,

or if unpublished 50 years from creation, and all other applicable works enter the public domain 50 years after the death of the creator.

{Want to know what Ba Jin meant by "Learn from the Bamboo Tree?" Watch this video}

***

WHEN DID AMERICA GO INSANE?

Pepe Le Pew fired from Warner Bros Amid Alleged Sexual Harassment Allegations
Silly, right?
But the Me Too Movement says classic movies and cartoons need to be re-examined 

for "toxic messages" within them that need to be edited.

They even singled out poor love-struck Pepe!


What's next?

ROAD RUNNER CARTOONS  PULLED FROM  WARNER BROTHERS  FOR ANIMAL CRUELTY?
Jail time for Wilie E. Coyote?

Cartoons and movies are a product of their times.
The Crows in Disney's DUMBO would not "fly" with today's sensibilities 
nor would the Indians as portrayed in Disney's PETER PAN.
But I believe they were not meant to be insulting ...
though I do not recommend Disney to re-release SONG OF THE SOUTH -- 
that is hard for me to view today.
Mel Brooks has said that he could not film BLAZING SADDLES in today's thin-skinned culture 
even though he was satirizing racism, corrupt politics, and brutishness.  
Sigh.
WHAT DO YOU THINK?

NOT ALL HEROES ARE CREATED EQUAL

Comics are the last morality plays
In the real world there seems to be precious few "heroes" left anymore.
If you think about comics or even our popular novels, heroes come in many layers.

When we are children, we believe heroes fight injustice because it is the right thing to do.

As we mature, we realize that what prompts someone to fight the good fight 

can differ greatly from one person to the next.

Some fight AGAINST something or someone, say like Batman.

Others fight FOR something or someones, like Captain America.

Then, there is the complex reasoning behind Wonder Woman 

who steps outside the box of our heroic expectations:


Why does your protagonist  fight the "good fight"  and what makes it good  in your eyes?