Roland Yeomans's Blog, page 129

YOU ARE SONGS UNFINISHED

Call me the Turquoise Woman
My names have been so many over the eons. 
 Even I have forgotten some of them by which fearful two-leggeds spoke of me.
Poor two-leggeds 
You think you know so much, but so much of what you know is sadly not true at all.
And Reality has no mercy on those who walk unwise paths.
You can only know what you have experienced. And what you have experienced  is so little and so little of that is seen  for that which it truly is.
You often see only that which you expect to see and are blind to that which is outside your framework of thought.

I look out from my consciousness surrounding this planet that is my body,
and my horizon spans the swimming bodies of my sisters who wheel in their sweeping dance of gravity about Father Sun.
And You?

Your minds are much like unfinished songs.
And nothing makes you so aware of the fragility of life as songs unfinished.

 HERE IS A SECRET
We are all songs unfinished.
We start with names ... 
but what illusions are names.  
You look about you and think you see me, but you do not even see yourselves.

You perceive yourselves as myths you breathe into being 
within your minds to mask the truth you are loathe to stare upon too closely.
The Lakota called me the Turquoise Woman.  
The Greeks called me Gaia.  
The Ancient Egyptians called me Hathor.

I call all of you temporary.  Some I call cherished.  
Many of you are merely a rash that itches all across my surface.
Bemused, I watch you scurry over my skin, bemoaning you are bringing an end to me.  
I would laugh were it not so tragic.
You are merely bringing an end of life to yourselves.
DO YOU KNOW WHAT LIFE IS?
A firefly's flicker in the night,

the breath of a buffalo in winter,

a cloud shadow that races across the green grass to lose itself in the blood-red of the sunset. 
Do not try to understand me.
I look, not only down upon you,

but out across the vast glittering sea of eternal night.

The colors of my thoughts are the Northern Lights

and the reach of them is from horizon to horizon and unto the vastness of the stars.

The electro-magnetic field of my body gave birth to my consciousness

long before there were human hands to chisel stone into mute, blind idols

or to brush your world in blood on cave walls.
  Your only true contribution to me was your language.

Before you crafted words into being, my consciousness was unfocused.

I listened with wonder as you spoke to one another,

slowly piecing the concept of language together in my thoughts.

Through the prism of your languages, my awareness crystalized.

I became aware.

Now, I know a haunted melancholy. 
Like a windmill's blades, my thoughts dip into my memories.

In misty after-images, 
I see your fleeting lives walking prayer-soft across my green fields only to fade into the inflamed oblivion of the sunset. 


No, rather try understanding yourselves and the boiling storms within you.
If you come close to self-awareness, you will better understand those about you ...
who are stumbling in the darkness of their own refusal to see life in all its facets.

1.) UNDERSTAND THE NARRATIVE OF YOUR LIFE
Your narrative identity is the story of your life; but it is more than just a story. 
How you understand your narrative frames both your current actions and your future.

2.)  STEP ASIDE EACH DAY TO REFLECT ON THE DAY BEFORE
This enables you to focus on the important things in your life, not just the immediate.

3.)  LOOK INTO THE MIRRORS OF TRUSTED FRIENDS
All two-leggeds have traits that others see, but you are unable to see in yourselves. 
I call these "blind spots."
 Do you see yourself as others see you? 
If not, you can address these blind spots by receiving honest feedback from people you trust.

4.) DO NOT MERELY LEARN FROM YOUR MISTAKES BUT FORGIVE YOURSELF FOR THEM.
It will help you to forgive others. 

I END WITH SEVEN WORDS:
Live well; soon I will miss you.
If you want to see more of the TURQUOISE WOMAN,
listen to THE LAST SHAMAN: http://www.amazon.com/The-Last-Shaman/dp/B00DO91AIU/ Only $6.08!

DO YOU BELIEVE IN YOU?

The stacks of books against which we compete seem to stretch into the heavens, don't they?

Will we ever reach the first shelf of bought books, much less the summit we wonder.

Every novelist hits the point, sooner or later, where they think they just might not actually have any talent.

What do you do in that case? Should you just throw in the towel? Or muddle forward?

How do you know if you’re any good?


“People who are unable to motivate themselves must be content with mediocrity, no matter how great their other talents.”
― Andrew Carnegie


“Ten years from now, no one is going to care how quickly the books came out.

The only thing that will matter, the only thing anyone will remember, is how good they were.

That's my main concern, and always will be.”
― George R.R. Martin


If you’re a discouraged writer, how can you tell whether you’re mediocre or destined for glory?

The bottom line is that you probably can’t.

You’re too close to your own career, and you can’t see what’s obvious to other people.

Other people can only tell you how THEY would write your novel. 

You must trust your dream, your own skill at whatever level it may be.



“Start writing, no matter what. The water does not flow until the faucet is turned on.” 

“There will come a time when you believe everything is finished; that will be the beginning. ”
― Louis L'Amour


The bottom line?  
Write just to write.

Stephen King knows about fear. After he was infamously struck by a van in the summer of 1999,

he spent months in recovery with a fractured hip, a chipped spine, and cracked ribs.

Just sitting upright left him in excruciating pain. Meanwhile, his memoir and writer’s guide “On Writing” sat unfinished in a desk drawer.

“How was I supposed to write about dialogue, character, and getting an agent when the most pressing thing in my world was how long until the next dose of Percocet?”


 King wrote of the challenge he faced.


“Yet at the same time I felt I’d reached one of those crossroads moments when you’re all out of choices.

 And I had been in terrible situations before which the writing had helped me get over—

had helped me forget myself for at least a little while. Perhaps it would help me again.”


If he hadn’t made himself sit down to start writing again, Stephen King’s prolific career might have ended that July day.

But he did, and it didn’t.


“The pain in my hip was just short of apocalyptic,” King wrote.

“And the first five hundred words were uniquely terrifying—it was as if I’d never written anything before them in my life.

All my old tricks seemed to have deserted me.

I stepped from one word to the next like a very old man finding his way across a stream on a zigzag line of wet stones.

There was no inspiration that first afternoon, only a kind of stubborn determination and the hope that things would get better if I kept at it.”


King finished the book, and has published over 30 more since.

A not so famous author, Randy Ingermanson, wrote for 10 years before he sold one short story for $150 --

that's $15 a year or 3 cents an hour!

But the very next year, he sold both a non-fiction book and a novel.

You never know.  And that's the allure:

You never know.

The scariest moment is always just before you start.
After that, things can only get better.—Stephen King

DID YOU ENTER THE INSECURE ANTHOLOGY THIS YEAR?

Oh, don't forget to visit my last post in the DON'T BUY MY BOOK! Blog Touron Chrys Fey's wonderful blog.
  http://writewithfey.blogspot.com/



I did, though I always lose these things.

But suffering builds character I tell the ghost of Mark Twain, who then smacks me in the head with his white bowler hat.

There are reasons to enter these things even if you are sure you are going to lose.


One: 

You might be wrong!


Two: 

 Is anyone reading your work?
   
Blending your work with the work of others is one good way to get seen.


Three: 

Are those that read your work, enjoying it?
   
If you get your story into a collection of great tales, 

the after-glow of enjoyment from the previous story will splash over onto yours.

And being in the company of good writers will make your story seem to read better -- it is just human nature there.


Four:

Being in an anthology looks good on your resume and is a wind in your sails personally.

It is like a promotion or a raise.  It is an acknowledgement that you are good at what you do.


Five:

It gets your name out there which is always a good thing.



The worlds you find in books and in short stories are wondrous things.  I hope mine wins a place.  

Even if it does not, that world still lives within me ...

And it is a mystic, evocative realm that still resonates within my spirit.  Not a bad thing, right?

(Wish me Luck and I will wish you luck as well!)



Here is the music video that embodies the essence of my submitted story:

END OF THE TRAIL

"No memory is ever alone.  It's at the end of a trail of memories, a dozen trails that each have their own meandering paths." 
 - Samuel McCord





I have come to the end of my own trail ...
It was bound to happen sooner or later ... and so it has.

My last stop along my   DON'T BUY MY BOOK! Blog Tour



Come with me to the blog of Chrys Fey http://writewithfey.blogspot.com/
Chrys asks me some fairly unusual questions, and I reply in kind.  :-)   
Or at least I try to be entertaining!
Have I saved the best post for the last?  That is up to you to decide.
The ghost of Mark Twain even lends a hand in the proceedings.  Do not miss it.  
Or he might haunt you ... even bringing the ghost of H.P. Lovecraft with him!


VETERANS DAY
Is it also now the END OF THE TRAIL for Patriotism?
Many do not even know the difference between MEMORIAL DAY and VETERANS DAY.
Memorial Day, on the last Monday in May, 
is when we remember and honor men and women who died while serving in the military.  
Veterans Day, on November 11, 
is the day to thank all the men and women who have served in the military during wars and peaceful times.
Kaepernick and other NFL players now sit during the anthem of the country 
for which their fathers and grandfathers died ...
all because our country is not perfect.
Yet, our country was even more flawed when the black 54th Massachusetts Infantry won praise 
for its heroism during the Civil War which resulted in terrible loss of lives.
After the Civil War, 
the Buffalo Soldiers carried on the brave tradition though America was terribly prejudiced against them.
By the beginning of WWII, 
blacks put increasing pressure on the government
for equal treatment for their race in the military and thus was born the Tuskegee Airmen.  
Their fantastic bravery and accomplishments paved the way for integration into the Air Force. 
Now after a century and a half of hard-won battles for better treatment for blacks, 
Kaepernick and others, 
who earn millions of dollars due to the valor and bravery of those thousands that went into the hail of gunfire to win them this opportunity ...
like pouty child-men refuse to honor that sacrifice and sit on their ... aspirations during the anthem.
The graves of their forebears is hallowed ground, 
and they sully it by pouting and sitting like sulky children during the National Anthem.
And they are praised.
Patriotism is dead or at least in the I.C.U. of American culture.
What do you think?
And don't forget to visit me at the blog of Chrys Fey today!

REALLY?

"Over the Ages, Man has passed on increased knowledge.  

Yet, in politics, statecraft, and social relationships, we continue to repeat old mistakes."  
- Samuel McCord



I stay away from FB mostly.  

I do not engage in political debates on FB.  

Neither person supporting an opposing side is ever persuaded that they are misinformed.

Never.

Life is too short to spin my wheels.

Yet, when I am notified in my email that a friend on FB has a birthday, 

I go there to wish her or him a happy birthday.

I did so Wednesday morning to see a post 

where a person was ashamed to be an American now that Trump had won.

Really?

Did we awaken to find our country had been the victim of a military coup, and no one told me?

No.

There was an election, and the candidate that many opposed won.

That happens in a democracy.  

Sometimes the person you don't want to win does just that.

You sigh.  You take a deep breath.  

You determine to work harder for your candidate in the next election.

And you go about your life, 

restraining yourself from fanning the fires of discord as much as your disappointment will let you. 

You would have wanted Trump's supporters to get behind Clinton as much as their conscience would let them.

Maybe we might want to do that with Trump?

Neither candidate struck me as fit to run the country.  

It is often overlooked that when you vote for the lesser of two evils, 

you are still voting for evil.

But as was said to those outraged when Obama won:

 Give the man a chance.

No politician is truly the persona they show the voters.  

He may well surprise us.  Let us pray for him and America ...

trying to be good losers and better Americans.

THE WORST PRESIDENT EVER

THERE ARE A LOT OF CONTENDERS BUT THE "WINNER" IS:

James Buchanan was at Wheatland, his Lancaster, Pa., estate, when he was notified he’d been elected president in 1856.

It’s a gorgeous home, with one very special amenity, which Wheatland’s director, Patrick Clarke, 

is proud to point out: an outhouse for five.

You might call that structure a symbol for his presidency.

 He served in both houses of the Pennsylvania State Legislature, served in both houses of the U.S. Congress;

he was ambassador to Russia, ambassador to Great Britain, he was also Secretary of State.

 Only two days after his inauguration, the Supreme Court handed down the infamous Dred Scott decision, allowing that escaped slaves be forcibly returned to their owners. 

Buchanan backed this decision. Slavery would be the country’s -- and his -- undoing.

 He feared that if you handled the issue of slavery too robustly, that it would create what he believed would be the end of the union, secession. 

And that’s exactly what happened.

 After Lincoln’s election but before his inauguration, seven states seceded while a politically-paralyzed Buchanan presided. 



THE MOST CORRUPT PRESIDENT EVER IS HARDER TO DECIDE 

The gold standard of presidential corruption, RICHARD NIXON 

is the only POTUS in history to have to resign as he was FACING CERTAIN IMPEACHMENT after the Watergate fiasco.


WARREN G. HARDING
Harding is a close second runner up:

 Harding served only two years before his death in 1923, 

but his administration was consumed by both personal and political scandal.

Harding was a notorious philanderer, 

and in the waning days of his time in the senate, 

he was blackmailed by a former mistress who threatened to expose their affair 

if Harding didn't vote against war with Germany. 

Harding's cabinet had the dubious distinction of being the first to have a member convicted of a crime, 

after Secretary of the Interior Albert Fell was sent to prison 

as part of the Teapot Dome scandal, in which Fell accepted bribes 

to lease the Navy's oil reserves at Teapot Dome, Wyoming, to private companies.

The Teapot Dome scandal also claimed Harding's secretary of the Navy.

Harding's attorney general resigned in 1924 over a bootlegging kickback scheme.

Two other Harding department heads were convicted of bribery and fraud:

 Charles Forbes, for massively defrauding the government while building VA hospitals, 

and Office of Alien Property head Thomas Miller, for illegally selling German patents seized after World War I.

But Harding did love his dog, Laddie Boy.



ULYSSES S. GRANT
Grant himself was known for his honesty, but his administration was likely the most corrupt in the 19th century.

 A near-ceaseless flow of money from speculation and western expansion 

 led to an epidemic of corruption, and Grant responded by stubbornly protecting those accused of graft.

 A massive conspiracy to pilfer tax revenue from whiskey sales, called the Whiskey Ring, 

snared more than 100 federal, state, and local officials.

The secretaries of the Navy, of war and of the treasury all faced allegations of bribery and taking kickbacks.

The Salary Grab Act was passed by Congress at the end of Grant's first term 

to enact gigantic retroactive pay raises for itself and to increase the salary of the president. 

Grant's administration was gutted by the Credit Mobilier scandal, 

 in which a construction company massively overcharged the Union Pacific Railroad. 

The company pulled off the scam thanks to millions in bribes paid to 

the vice president, the secretary of the treasury, four senators, and the speaker of the House.


 ANDREW JACKSON
At Andrew Jackson's funeral, 

his pet parrot had to be removed from the church because it wouldn't stop swearing.

Another symbol for the presidency of a man.

Jackson started the inherently corrupt "spoils system," 

under which government officials were hired based on what they'd done for the incoming administration rather than on merit, 

dominated politics in the 19th century.

 The result was a cavalcade of theft and corruption in distant offices and military posts, 

including $1.2 million embezzled from the New York City Customs House, the most lucrative point of entry in the U.S.

It took decades to dismantle the spoils system that started under Jackson — 

 and it can be argued that it's never gone away completely.

 Andrew Jackson was a wealthy slave owner and infamous Indian killer, 

gaining the nickname ‘Sharp Knife’ from the Cherokee. 

 In his brutal military campaigns against Indians, 

Andrew Jackson recommended that troops systematically kill Indian women and children after massacres in order to complete the extermination.

The Creeks lost 23 million acres of land in southern Georgia and central Alabama, paving the way for cotton plantation slavery.


Is it any wonder I made Jackson one of the villains in Victor Standish's TIME-TRAVELING adventure, THE RIVAL?

 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B007JOUJ60 ONLY $1.99


COMING SOON TO AUDIO BOOK FORMAT

PRESIDENTIAL POLITICS STARTED DIRTY

AND HAS STAYED THAT WAY ...





BY PROCEDURE established in the new Constitution, 

the first President was to be chosen by “electors” named by the state legislatures. 

Each elector was to cast one ballot with the names of two choices for President. 

The person with the most votes in the final tally was to become President, the runner-up, Vice President. 

In the event of a tie, the decision would go to the House of Representatives, a prospect so disturbing to Alexander Hamilton 

that he “deemed [it] an essential point of caution” to see that John Adams 

did not wind up with such a strong showing in the electoral count as to embarrass Washington. 

He was not against Adams, Hamilton explained privately. 

“Mr. A, to a sound understanding, has always appeared to me to add an ardent love for the public good.” 

But Hamilton was taking no chances. 

Working quietly through the winter, he did what he could to convince leading politicians 

in several states to withhold votes from Adams. 

The scheme succeeded. 

When the electors met in February 1789, Washington was chosen President unanimously with 69 votes, 

while Adams, though well ahead of ten others, had 34 votes, or less than half. 

Adams was humiliated by the news, his pride deeply hurt, but of Hamilton’s part, he knew nothing.




On October 19, 1796, a mysterious editorial from a writer named Phocion appeared in the Gazette of the United States, 

 a popular Federalist newspaper in Philadelphia.

At the time, Vice President John Adams was pitted against another Founding Father, Thomas Jefferson, 

in a race to succeed George Washington as president.

 Phocion’s letter was what we would today call an “attack ad.”

 The letter in the Gazette written by Phocion said, in terms understood by most readers, 

that presidential candidate Jefferson was having an affair with one of his female slaves.

The identity of Phocion?  Alexander Hamilton.

Jefferson lost.



While Adams knew nothing of Hamilton's machinations, 

(Who was hoping to become America's Napoleon)

Jefferson vowed he would be the third president ...

even if it meant treason.

Jefferson in his four years as Vice President 

had so effectively separated himself from Adams and the administration 

that he could not be held accountable for anything that had disappointed, displeased, or infuriated anyone,

While America was at war with France, 

Jefferson sent secret federal documents to the French Foreign Minister, Charles Gravier, Count of Vergennes

to  undermine Adams' attempts at peace in order to promote himself as the Champion of Peace with France 

and so win the Presidency ... which he did.



And Presidential Campaigns have only gotten dirtier.


I am afraid that no matter which candidate wins this year, America will lose.

WE ARE DEFINED BY WHAT ENTERTAINS US.

Daryl being slowly broken in Negan's cagein THE WALKING DEAD
The full hour of Negan torturing Rick and then brutally killing the decent Glenn  The casual rape and murder of sentient machines in HBO'sattempt to continue the ratings draw of GAME OF THRONES
GOT is torture porn at its best with the ratings to prove it.
And then, of course, there is the current Presidential Race:


Does it strike you that America seems to have lost touch with its soul?

BEFORE KATNIS EVERDEEN, THERE WAS ...

ECHO SACKETT
https://www.amazon.com/Ride-River-Sacketts-Book-5/dp/B00005455H/
Last Post, I asked how well could a man write through the eyes of a woman anyway?

Louis L'Amour did a fine job.

In fact, you can buy the audible book for just $4.99!  How cool is that?   

The wit and wisdom of Echo:
"Judging by the size of his stomach, he was a very important man."
 –Echo Sackett in Ride the River, Ch 4
***

“How many are there? Of the Sacketts, I mean?" the bully asked.

“Nobody rightly knows, but even one Sackett is quite a few,” I said, pulling back the hammer of the pistol in my purse.
–Echo Sackett in Ride the River, Ch 19
***

"Who the devil are you?"

"Not the devil, Mr. Sardust, but like him, I can open the gates to hell.  I'm Echo Sackett. You ready to go?"
***

It is 1840
Sixteen-year-old Echo Sackett had never been far from her Tennessee home —

until she made the long trek to Philadelphia to collect an inheritance.

Echo could take care of herself as well as any Sackett man, but James White, a sharp city lawyer,

figured that cheating the money from the young country girl would be like taking candy from a baby.

If he couldn't hoodwink Echo out of the cash, he'd just steal it from her outright. And if she put up a fight?

There were plenty of accidents that could happen to a country girl on her first trip to the big city 

or on the journey back to her home miles away in the wilderness.

But never bet against Echo Sackett.

WHEN A MAN WRITES A WOMAN

BUT FIRST ...

Audio Book Available for Only $4!!https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01MPZL0FB/
Do few men write female characters who are complex and have stories of their own?
Of course, there is  Anna Karenina.
But how many male writers can do as well as Leo Tolstoy?  
How many men have you found that write full women in their novels, 
much less narrate the novel from a heroine's point of view?
 There is my THE LAST FAE.  Have any of you heard its audiobook?Only $1.99https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00DQ9YBNY/
Why not take a chance on it, and tell me what you think?


Then, I gave myself the double challenge in  END OF DAYS  totell a tale through the eyes not only of a young girlbut one who was a Victorian Ghoul!
Only $1.99 instead of $22when you buy the Kindle version for $1.99! https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00E5IBML4/

For male writers, trying to navigate the evolving battles of the sexes is more challenging 
since women have been reading novels written from the male perspective all their lives.
What do you think?
How about gambling $2 on one of those two above and tell me how well you think I did.
Or take a gamble on Mark Twain amusing you in 1851 San Francisco 
with my latest audio book, DRAGONS OF THE BARBARY COAST!