Mark R. Hunter's Blog, page 42
May 25, 2019
On writing: The Big Courtroom Scene, and How To Get It Wrong On Purpose
You know those dramatic courtroom scenes that appear in so many movies and TV shows? People shouting and pointing and objecting, and stuff? They're wildly inaccurate--that kind of crazy stuff rarely happens in real courts.
So I wrote one into Coming Attractions.
It's the climactic moment in the book, and honestly it's one of the favorite chapters I've ever written, anywhere. The scene concerns a property dispute at the heart of the whole story--whether a beloved drive-in movie theater will continue to operate. It ends in a moment that's fun and funny, emotional, dramatic … and utterly unrealistic. Originally I wanted to write a scene that was as realistic to what would really happen as possible, but in the end I threw courtroom procedure out the door and just went for it.
May the attorney and judges of the world forgive me.
I don't advocate this, by the way. Yeah, fiction is fictional--it's right there in the definition. But in my sometimes humble opinion, writers should strive for a certain amount of accuracy when it comes to real life occupations. Nothing throws me out of a story faster than, say, firefighters who enter a burning building without establishing a water supply, when they clearly could. (I threw that book across the room.) Maybe some attorneys and judges will appreciate my attempt to just have a little fun; maybe some of them hope to see me in their court someday. For Coming Attractions I threw caution to the wind for the sake of entertainment, but that kind of thing can boomerang.
Why did I take the chance? In the end, it was just so much fun. And that's the same excuse that in other cases starts with "Hey, watch this", and ends with "Don't worry, you'll be out of that full body cast in no time".
So I wrote one into Coming Attractions.
It's the climactic moment in the book, and honestly it's one of the favorite chapters I've ever written, anywhere. The scene concerns a property dispute at the heart of the whole story--whether a beloved drive-in movie theater will continue to operate. It ends in a moment that's fun and funny, emotional, dramatic … and utterly unrealistic. Originally I wanted to write a scene that was as realistic to what would really happen as possible, but in the end I threw courtroom procedure out the door and just went for it.
May the attorney and judges of the world forgive me.
I don't advocate this, by the way. Yeah, fiction is fictional--it's right there in the definition. But in my sometimes humble opinion, writers should strive for a certain amount of accuracy when it comes to real life occupations. Nothing throws me out of a story faster than, say, firefighters who enter a burning building without establishing a water supply, when they clearly could. (I threw that book across the room.) Maybe some attorneys and judges will appreciate my attempt to just have a little fun; maybe some of them hope to see me in their court someday. For Coming Attractions I threw caution to the wind for the sake of entertainment, but that kind of thing can boomerang.
Why did I take the chance? In the end, it was just so much fun. And that's the same excuse that in other cases starts with "Hey, watch this", and ends with "Don't worry, you'll be out of that full body cast in no time".
May 19, 2019
We're coming to the Avilla Freedom Festival again this year--with family
A couple of years ago Emily and I set up a book signing booth at the Avilla Freedom Festival. We didn't get around to doing any author appearances last year, so when my sister-in-law suggested sharing a booth at this year's Festival, I jumped at it.
As book signings go, it might be close to a record--after all, a typical book signing is only for part of one day, not to mention being indoors. It'll be shorter for me this year, because although Cathy Hunter plans to be there the whole time (and my brother much of it, too), I'll be working during that period, so I'll only be able to be there part-time--and I don't know about Emily's schedule yet, either. But I want to be there at least a few hours Thursday and Friday, and all afternoon Saturday. We'll leave signed books behind for any buyers when we aren't there.
So look for us on June 20,21, and 22 at the Avilla Freedom Festival, and you'd better believe that will be in Avilla, Indiana. Cathy sells jewelry such as necklaces, and bracelets, good quality homemade stuff. Artists run in the family! There will be plenty of other vendors of many different things there. More about the whole thing later, when we're back from vacation.
Oh, and the overall times for the vending books are 4-10 p.m Thursday and Friday, and 10 a.m.-- 6 p.m. Saturday.
We've put out two new books since our last author appearance, so we hope to see you there!
As book signings go, it might be close to a record--after all, a typical book signing is only for part of one day, not to mention being indoors. It'll be shorter for me this year, because although Cathy Hunter plans to be there the whole time (and my brother much of it, too), I'll be working during that period, so I'll only be able to be there part-time--and I don't know about Emily's schedule yet, either. But I want to be there at least a few hours Thursday and Friday, and all afternoon Saturday. We'll leave signed books behind for any buyers when we aren't there.
So look for us on June 20,21, and 22 at the Avilla Freedom Festival, and you'd better believe that will be in Avilla, Indiana. Cathy sells jewelry such as necklaces, and bracelets, good quality homemade stuff. Artists run in the family! There will be plenty of other vendors of many different things there. More about the whole thing later, when we're back from vacation.
Oh, and the overall times for the vending books are 4-10 p.m Thursday and Friday, and 10 a.m.-- 6 p.m. Saturday.
We've put out two new books since our last author appearance, so we hope to see you there!
May 12, 2019
Writing Bad, But Keeping It Happy
My wife told me the other day that I was writing too much "downer" stuff, which puzzled me. Mostly, I write two things: humor, and "buy my books!" Usually I try to combine the two, so people don't know I'm trying to sell them something.
Maybe I shouldn't have said that.
In any case, I try to be funny when possible, so I wasn't sure what she was referring to. Then she pointed out that yes, they were humor pieces, but lately they'd been humor pieces about everything going wrong. Winter--which is wrong by nature--for instance. Sinus infections. My epic fails in the area of holidays and anniversaries. That kind of thing.
And she doesn't even know about my two written but unpublished blogs, involving my misadventures with medical testing.
It's a good point, but I think it's often in the nature of humorists to write about bad things. In general, when good things happen it's just not as funny.
"Hey, we had my birthday party the other day, and everyone was happy and I loved my gifts and the food was great! How cool is that?"
"I cleaned my garage the other day and nothing fell and broke and I didn't get hurt!"
See what I mean? (By the way, buy my books!)
Last month I rammed my foot into a piece of furniture that's been in the exact same spot for twenty years, and thought I broke it. (The foot, not the furniture.) That's a story. It's not much of a story, until I embellish it the way I embellished the Infamous Exploding Lawn Mower Incident, but it's still a story.
If I'd gone by the furniture without injuring myself I'd have been a lot happier, but there would have been no story at all.
So I went back through my blog, and almost all my humor pieces were either about something bad happening to me, or me complaining about something. That's not the way I am at all in real life. If every thing I did led to something or someone getting smashed, I'd have been in a grave in my twenties. If I complained about every little thing that presented itself to me, people would run away every time I walk in the door.
Which some of them do, but I thought it was just my deodorant.
It's the same with my fiction. My first published novel opens with a tornado, followed by a cop getting into trouble for false arrest. My second started with another cop getting into a confrontation with a politician. My third started with campers being upset because of a drought, and at the opening of my fourth my main character hits a deer. These are not good things. And yet all those works have comic elements, or at least that was the plan.
Think of your favorite TV show, book, or movie. Chances are, not long after the opening something changes for one of the characters, and it's usually something that really shakes up their lives. Ever watch Doctor Who? He runs into most adventures happy, anxious to make discoveries and meet new challenges. By the first commercial he (well, she, now) is desperately trying to keep any more people from getting killed.
So, yeah, I'll probably keep writing about things that are downers. And I'll probably also keep trying to get you to buy my books, but at least I'll be funny about it. I hope.
(And remember: Every time you don't buy one of my books, the groundhog sees his shadow. Stupid groundhog.)
http://markrhunter.com/
Maybe I shouldn't have said that.
In any case, I try to be funny when possible, so I wasn't sure what she was referring to. Then she pointed out that yes, they were humor pieces, but lately they'd been humor pieces about everything going wrong. Winter--which is wrong by nature--for instance. Sinus infections. My epic fails in the area of holidays and anniversaries. That kind of thing.
And she doesn't even know about my two written but unpublished blogs, involving my misadventures with medical testing.
It's a good point, but I think it's often in the nature of humorists to write about bad things. In general, when good things happen it's just not as funny.
"Hey, we had my birthday party the other day, and everyone was happy and I loved my gifts and the food was great! How cool is that?"
"I cleaned my garage the other day and nothing fell and broke and I didn't get hurt!"
See what I mean? (By the way, buy my books!)
Last month I rammed my foot into a piece of furniture that's been in the exact same spot for twenty years, and thought I broke it. (The foot, not the furniture.) That's a story. It's not much of a story, until I embellish it the way I embellished the Infamous Exploding Lawn Mower Incident, but it's still a story.
If I'd gone by the furniture without injuring myself I'd have been a lot happier, but there would have been no story at all.
So I went back through my blog, and almost all my humor pieces were either about something bad happening to me, or me complaining about something. That's not the way I am at all in real life. If every thing I did led to something or someone getting smashed, I'd have been in a grave in my twenties. If I complained about every little thing that presented itself to me, people would run away every time I walk in the door.
Which some of them do, but I thought it was just my deodorant.
It's the same with my fiction. My first published novel opens with a tornado, followed by a cop getting into trouble for false arrest. My second started with another cop getting into a confrontation with a politician. My third started with campers being upset because of a drought, and at the opening of my fourth my main character hits a deer. These are not good things. And yet all those works have comic elements, or at least that was the plan.
Think of your favorite TV show, book, or movie. Chances are, not long after the opening something changes for one of the characters, and it's usually something that really shakes up their lives. Ever watch Doctor Who? He runs into most adventures happy, anxious to make discoveries and meet new challenges. By the first commercial he (well, she, now) is desperately trying to keep any more people from getting killed.
So, yeah, I'll probably keep writing about things that are downers. And I'll probably also keep trying to get you to buy my books, but at least I'll be funny about it. I hope.
(And remember: Every time you don't buy one of my books, the groundhog sees his shadow. Stupid groundhog.)
http://markrhunter.com/
May 8, 2019
Still Slightly Off the Mark, the Sequel Progresses ... and a review
I've finished the second draft of Still Slightly Off the Mark: The Prequel!
Subtitle: Why I hate Cats, and Other Lies. I figured if I put in the word "lies", it would attract political junkies, even though there's no politics in it.
No, I'm still not sure what the title will ultimately be, but I have finished picking and placing photos. I chose about two dozen to go into the book, but Emily might cut a few of those, after reviewing them and slapping me around a little. Thank goodness for editors.
I've also chosen a theme to hold the book together. It's: "making fun of me". Granted, that's what I was already doing, anyway. But I've found my writing has changed much in the almost twenty years since these columns were first written. Even after making major changes in them, they still often reflect a very different time, so I'm going to poke a little fun at that along the way.
If you can't make fun of yourself, how are you making it through life?
Here's a review of the original Slightly Off the Mark:
https://josbookreviews.wordpress.com/...
And where to find it for sale:
https://www.amazon.com/Slightly-off-M...
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2...
Subtitle: Why I hate Cats, and Other Lies. I figured if I put in the word "lies", it would attract political junkies, even though there's no politics in it.
No, I'm still not sure what the title will ultimately be, but I have finished picking and placing photos. I chose about two dozen to go into the book, but Emily might cut a few of those, after reviewing them and slapping me around a little. Thank goodness for editors.
I've also chosen a theme to hold the book together. It's: "making fun of me". Granted, that's what I was already doing, anyway. But I've found my writing has changed much in the almost twenty years since these columns were first written. Even after making major changes in them, they still often reflect a very different time, so I'm going to poke a little fun at that along the way.
If you can't make fun of yourself, how are you making it through life?
Here's a review of the original Slightly Off the Mark:
https://josbookreviews.wordpress.com/...
And where to find it for sale:
https://www.amazon.com/Slightly-off-M...
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2...
May 2, 2019
Move review -- Avengers: Endgame
Now all new and spoiler free!
Okay, let's get this out of the way right now: They should stop making superhero movies. Just give it up.
Because Avengers: Endgame is the perfect superhero movie.
Or at least, as close to it as a work of entertainment can get. In fact, it's a damn good movie period.
I'm trying to make this spoiler free, so chances are good I'm not going to say a specific thing about the plot past the first, oh, hour. But that's okay, because once I got started I'd have to divide this up into three or four parts, and besides: I already made my view known in the last few paragraphs.
At the end of the last Avengers movie Thanos--who until then I'd always called Darkseid-Lite--collected all the fabled Infinity Stones into a gauntlet, snapped his fingers (curse you, Starlord!), and turned half of every living being in the universe to dust.
The very first scene is one of the most heartbreaking of the whole movie. We see Jeremy Renner's Hawkeye, who has no idea any of this has been happening, sharing a fun cookout with his wife and three kids. He's happily giving archery tips to his daughter, and debating and correct condiment to put on hot dogs ...
And that's when my heart froze, as I realized this was happening before the snap.
Fast forward five years. Hawkeye has disappeared, although there are disturbing stories about his activities. The rest of the survivors are dealing with the fact that they're survivors.
Tony Stark has retired as Iron Man, Captain America is trying to guide others through a new, darker world, and Black Widow is searching for Thanos and trying to keep the other heroes together. These three, in my mind, are the heart of Avengers: Endgame. But it's another hero, who's managed to avoid the entire disaster altogether, who comes forward with a way to save all those who've been lost.
I don't think that last part is a spoiler at all. Of course some plan will be hatched to bring the dead back to life. They're not going to let that whole group, especially Black Panther, Doctor Strange, or Spider-Man, just vanish without more movies. And there are a surprising number of light moments along the way.
So the survivors gather for a mission that will give them one chance to reverse the snap, even if it means sacrificing themselves, because that's what heroes do.
Yeah, I've left a lot out. The movie's three friggin' hours long, after all, although it didn't feel that long to me. To say lots of stuff happens is putting it mildly, and yes, some of the heroes get shorted (how could they not?) Brie Larson's Captain Marvel, especially, has less screen time than I suspected, although what she does get is spectacular.
There is, naturally, an epic battle at the end, but for me the most joy was the mission in the middle, which I just can't talk about and boy, is that killing me. The heroes are divided up, and we get to see some who aren't ordinarily paired working together. We also get lots of popular secondary characters, and they also sometimes get put together in ways that bring joy to my geeky heart.
I said this about the last movie, but how they managed to juggle all these characters and keep things straight is beyond me ... but they do. That must have been one heck of a diagram.
In the end, as with any great movie, the characters don't exist for the epic battle scenes. Avengers: Endgame is about people. With a combination of great actors and great writing, an amazingly unlikely number of characters get their chance to shine.
And yes ... bring tissues.
My rating:
Entertainment value: 5 out of 4 m&m's. My rating system, my ratings.
Oscar Potential: 3 out of 4 m&m's. This movie is Oscar worthy. Not only for the usual things like effects, but for several of the actors and even Best Picture consideration. Change my mind. No, don't bother trying.
Okay, let's get this out of the way right now: They should stop making superhero movies. Just give it up.
Because Avengers: Endgame is the perfect superhero movie.
Or at least, as close to it as a work of entertainment can get. In fact, it's a damn good movie period.
I'm trying to make this spoiler free, so chances are good I'm not going to say a specific thing about the plot past the first, oh, hour. But that's okay, because once I got started I'd have to divide this up into three or four parts, and besides: I already made my view known in the last few paragraphs.
At the end of the last Avengers movie Thanos--who until then I'd always called Darkseid-Lite--collected all the fabled Infinity Stones into a gauntlet, snapped his fingers (curse you, Starlord!), and turned half of every living being in the universe to dust.
The very first scene is one of the most heartbreaking of the whole movie. We see Jeremy Renner's Hawkeye, who has no idea any of this has been happening, sharing a fun cookout with his wife and three kids. He's happily giving archery tips to his daughter, and debating and correct condiment to put on hot dogs ...
And that's when my heart froze, as I realized this was happening before the snap.
Fast forward five years. Hawkeye has disappeared, although there are disturbing stories about his activities. The rest of the survivors are dealing with the fact that they're survivors.
Tony Stark has retired as Iron Man, Captain America is trying to guide others through a new, darker world, and Black Widow is searching for Thanos and trying to keep the other heroes together. These three, in my mind, are the heart of Avengers: Endgame. But it's another hero, who's managed to avoid the entire disaster altogether, who comes forward with a way to save all those who've been lost.
I don't think that last part is a spoiler at all. Of course some plan will be hatched to bring the dead back to life. They're not going to let that whole group, especially Black Panther, Doctor Strange, or Spider-Man, just vanish without more movies. And there are a surprising number of light moments along the way.
So the survivors gather for a mission that will give them one chance to reverse the snap, even if it means sacrificing themselves, because that's what heroes do.
Yeah, I've left a lot out. The movie's three friggin' hours long, after all, although it didn't feel that long to me. To say lots of stuff happens is putting it mildly, and yes, some of the heroes get shorted (how could they not?) Brie Larson's Captain Marvel, especially, has less screen time than I suspected, although what she does get is spectacular.
There is, naturally, an epic battle at the end, but for me the most joy was the mission in the middle, which I just can't talk about and boy, is that killing me. The heroes are divided up, and we get to see some who aren't ordinarily paired working together. We also get lots of popular secondary characters, and they also sometimes get put together in ways that bring joy to my geeky heart.
I said this about the last movie, but how they managed to juggle all these characters and keep things straight is beyond me ... but they do. That must have been one heck of a diagram.
In the end, as with any great movie, the characters don't exist for the epic battle scenes. Avengers: Endgame is about people. With a combination of great actors and great writing, an amazingly unlikely number of characters get their chance to shine.
And yes ... bring tissues.
My rating:
Entertainment value: 5 out of 4 m&m's. My rating system, my ratings.
Oscar Potential: 3 out of 4 m&m's. This movie is Oscar worthy. Not only for the usual things like effects, but for several of the actors and even Best Picture consideration. Change my mind. No, don't bother trying.
April 28, 2019
Chapter length, and why it matters. Or doesn't.
So, while Emily was scanning photos for the new Albion Fire Department book, I finished up the first draft of Still Slightly Off the Mark: The Prequel.
(Keep in mind that, with first drafts, the title is just a suggestion.)
Of course, there will be changes. For one thing, I'm putting a few pictures into the book. Don't tell Emily, she's up to her arms in pictures for another book, and just might strangle me. That would increase sales, I suppose.
As I was looking over the draft, I also counted chapter lengths. I'm not OCD by any means, much, usually, but I like my chapters to be approximately the same length. There's no particular reason for that; in fact, chapters should be the length they are, along the lines of "start at the beginning, go on to the end, then stop".
But in this rough draft, my longest chapter is nineteen pages ... and my shortest is three.
Yeah, that's not gonna happen.
This is a humor book, and I think a humor book chapter should be no longer than, say, the average bathroom break. So I'm thinking of chopping up the longer chapters into short ones, which will probably leave me with around two dozen or so. What do you think? Do you prefer long or short chapters? And does it bother you if they vary greatly in one book?
http://markrhunter.com/
https://www.amazon.com/Mark-R-Hunter/...
(Keep in mind that, with first drafts, the title is just a suggestion.)
Of course, there will be changes. For one thing, I'm putting a few pictures into the book. Don't tell Emily, she's up to her arms in pictures for another book, and just might strangle me. That would increase sales, I suppose.
As I was looking over the draft, I also counted chapter lengths. I'm not OCD by any means, much, usually, but I like my chapters to be approximately the same length. There's no particular reason for that; in fact, chapters should be the length they are, along the lines of "start at the beginning, go on to the end, then stop".
But in this rough draft, my longest chapter is nineteen pages ... and my shortest is three.
Yeah, that's not gonna happen.
This is a humor book, and I think a humor book chapter should be no longer than, say, the average bathroom break. So I'm thinking of chopping up the longer chapters into short ones, which will probably leave me with around two dozen or so. What do you think? Do you prefer long or short chapters? And does it bother you if they vary greatly in one book?
http://markrhunter.com/
https://www.amazon.com/Mark-R-Hunter/...
April 25, 2019
Car work; or we could fight pollution with a horse and buggy
Our car just hit 100,000 miles--and its fifth birthday, at the same time. I've become a big believer in preventative maintenance, so I brought it in for all that hundred thousand mile stuff, including a change out of the cabin air filter that I didn't realize cars had until I researched it. Hey, we all have allergies--even the dog.
Spark plugs, radiator flush, tire rotation, oil change, fluid checks--We have a lot of driving to do this summer, and I want to take care of the car that's taking care of us. Especially since we can't afford a second one. Some of you might remember that a few years ago our Ford Focus fell victim to a young gentlemen who thought the answer to being sun-blinded in heavy traffic was to cross his finger and hit the gas.
So we bought a Ford Focus, which we love even more. But five years and six digits is middle aged by car standards, so we had to give it a colonoscopy, check its cholesterol level, and start it on some acid reflux medicine.
Turns out we also need new brakes. This is no surprise--so far as I can tell, the brakes have never been replaced on the Escape, which we bought when it was about two years old. Anyone who's ever done a lot of driving on the interstate knows that, no matter how defensively you drive, you're going to have to work those brakes! It's almost as bad as driving local roads at dusk and dawn, when the deer are out.
Also, I recently had to brake for a turkey.
This is not a complaint, because let's be honest: I've been going through my own 100,000 mile problems in recent years. I've had to get my fluids checked, some of my spinal column needs replaced, and my paint job has been fading. Sometimes the car and I sit around, sipping Metamucil, and complaining about kids these days and their oversized pickup truck tires.
Besides, it's an incentive to push my writing career harder. According to my estimation, to pay for this work I need to sell at least three hundred books, or four thousand short stories, or take a part time job washing cars at the dealership.
Or I could do all the car maintenance work myself ... but I'm not sure our medical insurance would cover that.
Spark plugs, radiator flush, tire rotation, oil change, fluid checks--We have a lot of driving to do this summer, and I want to take care of the car that's taking care of us. Especially since we can't afford a second one. Some of you might remember that a few years ago our Ford Focus fell victim to a young gentlemen who thought the answer to being sun-blinded in heavy traffic was to cross his finger and hit the gas.
So we bought a Ford Focus, which we love even more. But five years and six digits is middle aged by car standards, so we had to give it a colonoscopy, check its cholesterol level, and start it on some acid reflux medicine.
Turns out we also need new brakes. This is no surprise--so far as I can tell, the brakes have never been replaced on the Escape, which we bought when it was about two years old. Anyone who's ever done a lot of driving on the interstate knows that, no matter how defensively you drive, you're going to have to work those brakes! It's almost as bad as driving local roads at dusk and dawn, when the deer are out.
Also, I recently had to brake for a turkey.
This is not a complaint, because let's be honest: I've been going through my own 100,000 mile problems in recent years. I've had to get my fluids checked, some of my spinal column needs replaced, and my paint job has been fading. Sometimes the car and I sit around, sipping Metamucil, and complaining about kids these days and their oversized pickup truck tires.
Besides, it's an incentive to push my writing career harder. According to my estimation, to pay for this work I need to sell at least three hundred books, or four thousand short stories, or take a part time job washing cars at the dealership.
Or I could do all the car maintenance work myself ... but I'm not sure our medical insurance would cover that.
April 22, 2019
The Writing Process: The Influence of John Adams
Coming Attractions is a romantic comedy set in modern Indiana, so naturally there's an appearance by John Adams, second President of the United States.
I don't recall exactly how that happened, but I can guess. I've been fascinated by John Adams ever since I went on a class trip to see the movie musical 1776, in 1972.
Why they didn't release it in 1976, I don't know.
I'm also not sure which came first: Adams, who's closely connected to Boston, Massachussetts … spell that three times fast … or having my book's heroine, Maddie, be a Bostonian herself. Knowing my interest in Adams and his times, I suspect I put Boston in Maddie's background just to have an excuse to drop in quotes by and mentions of Adams.
It worked out pretty well. John Adams is a hero to Maddie, because of his dedication and his willingness to do the unpopular thing, if it's the right thing. Adams was also our first one-term President, and famously described himself as obnoxious and unpopular. He seldom cared if he hurt the feelings of others, and spoke the truth as he saw it regardless of how it made others feel. By the time we first meet Maddie, an attorney as Adams was, she's starting to question whether she's also becoming obnoxious and unpopular, and whether it might be for less worthy reasons. She feels she's being pushed to do the wrong thing by her boss--who happens to be a descendant of the Adams family. (Not the Addams Family--different story.)
As the story goes on it becomes something of an in-joke that she likes to quote Adams, to the bemusement of our Hoosier hero Logan Chandler. But she's using those quotes to voice her own conscience, and steer her in what she hopes is the right direction. To her John Adams is the voice of not just reason, but determination--and one reason why she begins to question her own direction.
Just to be clear, there's no singing, and no appearance by Thomas Jefferson or Benjamin Franklin. I don't think a musical would translate well into a novel.
Oh, did I mention you can find Coming Attractions, and all our books, here?
http://markrhunter.com/books.html
I'll bet I did.
I don't recall exactly how that happened, but I can guess. I've been fascinated by John Adams ever since I went on a class trip to see the movie musical 1776, in 1972.
Why they didn't release it in 1976, I don't know.
I'm also not sure which came first: Adams, who's closely connected to Boston, Massachussetts … spell that three times fast … or having my book's heroine, Maddie, be a Bostonian herself. Knowing my interest in Adams and his times, I suspect I put Boston in Maddie's background just to have an excuse to drop in quotes by and mentions of Adams.
It worked out pretty well. John Adams is a hero to Maddie, because of his dedication and his willingness to do the unpopular thing, if it's the right thing. Adams was also our first one-term President, and famously described himself as obnoxious and unpopular. He seldom cared if he hurt the feelings of others, and spoke the truth as he saw it regardless of how it made others feel. By the time we first meet Maddie, an attorney as Adams was, she's starting to question whether she's also becoming obnoxious and unpopular, and whether it might be for less worthy reasons. She feels she's being pushed to do the wrong thing by her boss--who happens to be a descendant of the Adams family. (Not the Addams Family--different story.)
As the story goes on it becomes something of an in-joke that she likes to quote Adams, to the bemusement of our Hoosier hero Logan Chandler. But she's using those quotes to voice her own conscience, and steer her in what she hopes is the right direction. To her John Adams is the voice of not just reason, but determination--and one reason why she begins to question her own direction.
Just to be clear, there's no singing, and no appearance by Thomas Jefferson or Benjamin Franklin. I don't think a musical would translate well into a novel.
Oh, did I mention you can find Coming Attractions, and all our books, here?
http://markrhunter.com/books.html
I'll bet I did.
April 19, 2019
Say happy National Public Safety Telecommunicators Week three times fast
I've been taking 911 calls for so long that they were originally 91 calls.
Well, it seems that way, anyway. It turns out National Public Safety Telecommunicators Week predates my full-time employment in the emergency services by ten years, and can we possibly shorten that name down a bit? By the time I finish saying National Public Safety Telecommunicators Week, the week is over. I'm going to call it ... NPSTW. I know somebody who got their Bachelor Degree at NPSTW, although they've since married. Go Bulldogs!
Anyway, I started with the Noble County EMS as a seventeen year old trainee in late 1979, and joined our volunteer fire department in 1980. But it wasn't until December, 1991, that I took an actual paying job in the area of emergency services, as a jail officer with the Noble County Sheriff Department.
Within a few years I got tired of getting sick all the time. Seriously: Those inmates breathed so many germs on me while getting booked in, I thought I was in a sequel to The Andromeda Strain. So I went into dispatch, trading physical ailments for mental ones.
Unknown to me, way back in 1981 Patricia Anderson, of the Contra Costa County Sheriff's Office in California, came up with this idea to give tribute to, um, NPST, or as I'm going to call them, dispatchers. Yes, I know "dispatchers" doesn't tell the whole story, but my typing fingers are tired.
Oh, who am I kidding? All of me is tired.
Isn't it something? I've been here for almost twenty-eight years, and dispatching for about twenty-five of those. I've been here so long that when I started we had only one computer, to get information such as license plate and driver's license returns, using DOS.
Get your grandparents to explain DOS to you.
My wife points out that taking information was difficult back then, because we had to received 911 calls by smoke signal, while carving words onto stone tablets. I'm fairly sure she was kidding.
I've been here so long I could take full retirement at the end of this year. Full retirement pay! Sadly, I haven't figured out how to make up the difference in income, but I'm hoping my book sales will pick up. The good news is we don't make all that much to begin with, so the loss of income wouldn't be so much of a shock ... but it would be tough learning to sleep through the night.
While I joke about it--mostly to keep from crying--things really were easier back then, when it comes to learning the job. Our computer systems do make it easier to help people these days, but astronauts don't train as much as our rookies do. Spaceship vehicle pursuits are faster, though. The point is, I'm not sure I could make it through training, if I started today.
We had one the one small computer screen when I started. Now I'm looking at seven flat screen monitors, not including the security and weather screens. Our report was written (in pen) on a single piece of paper about half the size of a standard sheet. Today we have a Computer Aided Dispatch (CAD), radio screen, phone screen, mapping screen, recorder screen, 911 texting screen, and a screen to keep track of everyone's duty status. We also have a screen to keep track of screens. Those are just the ones we use regularly.
Me, I'm pretty burned out at this point, and some of our calls can get rough. I have all the symptoms of PTSD; some of them include:
Experiencing a life-threatening event, like when the dispatch pop machine ran out of Mountain Dew;
Flashbacks and nightmares, such as reliving the night we ran out of Mountain Dew;
Avoidance, such as staying away from places that don't have ... well, you know.
Depression or irritability, which I just now realized might be related to consuming too much caffeine;
Chronic pain ... wow, that one hit me like a pulled back muscle.
You know, looking down that list you have to wonder, as I check off each and every box: avoidance, numbing, flashbacks, being on edge, overeating ... HEY! Who the HECK took my meatball sub out of the break room fridge! I'm HUNGRY!
Where was I? Oh, yeah. You have to wonder:
Why the heck am I still here?
Here's the thing. I've worked in retail; in factories; as a security guard and jail officer; as a radio DJ; I once made two bucks an hour growing worms for fishing lure. And for all the emotional turmoil, all the mental stress, all the physical ailments, all the days when I wanted to scream, and so desperately wanted to NOT go back into work the next shift ...
Dispatching is still the best full time job I've ever had.
Of course, I'm not a full time writer, yet. And for that I'd only have to deal with one computer screen.
Well, it seems that way, anyway. It turns out National Public Safety Telecommunicators Week predates my full-time employment in the emergency services by ten years, and can we possibly shorten that name down a bit? By the time I finish saying National Public Safety Telecommunicators Week, the week is over. I'm going to call it ... NPSTW. I know somebody who got their Bachelor Degree at NPSTW, although they've since married. Go Bulldogs!
Anyway, I started with the Noble County EMS as a seventeen year old trainee in late 1979, and joined our volunteer fire department in 1980. But it wasn't until December, 1991, that I took an actual paying job in the area of emergency services, as a jail officer with the Noble County Sheriff Department.
Within a few years I got tired of getting sick all the time. Seriously: Those inmates breathed so many germs on me while getting booked in, I thought I was in a sequel to The Andromeda Strain. So I went into dispatch, trading physical ailments for mental ones.
Unknown to me, way back in 1981 Patricia Anderson, of the Contra Costa County Sheriff's Office in California, came up with this idea to give tribute to, um, NPST, or as I'm going to call them, dispatchers. Yes, I know "dispatchers" doesn't tell the whole story, but my typing fingers are tired.
Oh, who am I kidding? All of me is tired.
Isn't it something? I've been here for almost twenty-eight years, and dispatching for about twenty-five of those. I've been here so long that when I started we had only one computer, to get information such as license plate and driver's license returns, using DOS.
Get your grandparents to explain DOS to you.
My wife points out that taking information was difficult back then, because we had to received 911 calls by smoke signal, while carving words onto stone tablets. I'm fairly sure she was kidding.
I've been here so long I could take full retirement at the end of this year. Full retirement pay! Sadly, I haven't figured out how to make up the difference in income, but I'm hoping my book sales will pick up. The good news is we don't make all that much to begin with, so the loss of income wouldn't be so much of a shock ... but it would be tough learning to sleep through the night.
While I joke about it--mostly to keep from crying--things really were easier back then, when it comes to learning the job. Our computer systems do make it easier to help people these days, but astronauts don't train as much as our rookies do. Spaceship vehicle pursuits are faster, though. The point is, I'm not sure I could make it through training, if I started today.
We had one the one small computer screen when I started. Now I'm looking at seven flat screen monitors, not including the security and weather screens. Our report was written (in pen) on a single piece of paper about half the size of a standard sheet. Today we have a Computer Aided Dispatch (CAD), radio screen, phone screen, mapping screen, recorder screen, 911 texting screen, and a screen to keep track of everyone's duty status. We also have a screen to keep track of screens. Those are just the ones we use regularly.
Me, I'm pretty burned out at this point, and some of our calls can get rough. I have all the symptoms of PTSD; some of them include:
Experiencing a life-threatening event, like when the dispatch pop machine ran out of Mountain Dew;
Flashbacks and nightmares, such as reliving the night we ran out of Mountain Dew;
Avoidance, such as staying away from places that don't have ... well, you know.
Depression or irritability, which I just now realized might be related to consuming too much caffeine;
Chronic pain ... wow, that one hit me like a pulled back muscle.
You know, looking down that list you have to wonder, as I check off each and every box: avoidance, numbing, flashbacks, being on edge, overeating ... HEY! Who the HECK took my meatball sub out of the break room fridge! I'm HUNGRY!
Where was I? Oh, yeah. You have to wonder:
Why the heck am I still here?
Here's the thing. I've worked in retail; in factories; as a security guard and jail officer; as a radio DJ; I once made two bucks an hour growing worms for fishing lure. And for all the emotional turmoil, all the mental stress, all the physical ailments, all the days when I wanted to scream, and so desperately wanted to NOT go back into work the next shift ...
Dispatching is still the best full time job I've ever had.
Of course, I'm not a full time writer, yet. And for that I'd only have to deal with one computer screen.
April 16, 2019
Type Your Fingers to the Bone and What Do You Get? 911 Fingers.
This is Public Safety Telecommunicator Week, and it turns out I'm a PST! And here you thought PST was one of those diseases they advertise pills for on late night TV.
My full time job is as a 911 dispatcher, which is, shall we say, stressful. Mentally, emotionally, and even physically stressful, but at least we don't have to work outside. Personally, by the time I'm finished with my four day rotation I'm bent like a pretzel and popping pain pills the way I'd like to be popping M&Ms.
We work a four day on, two day off rotation in my emergency communications center, which means every six weeks we get a weekend off. That's nice, but I also work nights, so whenever my days off are--I usually just want to sleep through them.
Still, days off are nice. There was one month late last year when I didn't get any.
Okay, that's a slight exaggeration. We introduced a new computer aided dispatch system, otherwise known as a CAD, a system that--well, you know--aids us in dispatching. And every dispatcher had to take a three day course in learning the system, a class sandwiched between the online course we had to take before and the practice we had to do after. But you can't just shut down an emergency communications department--well, you can, but it's not a swell idea. So instead, the class was divided up, with the dispatchers who weren't taking it at the time covering for the dispatchers who were.
When you combine that with the fact that two new dispatchers were still training, you get overtime.
So last September I worked 21 out of 22 days in a row. Which is just three weeks, so I did get days off that month. Not to mention I volunteered for a lot of that time, because our bosses don't generally force us to work on our days off. (Nights off, for me.) We do have to work over or come in early from time to time, as with this week--somebody has to do it. Others worked for me during my class, after all.
Twelve hour shifts get ... tiring. I'm not a fan. But I'm not making minimum wage for mucking hog barns, so what the heck.
But here's the thing. I got around 56 hours of overtime in two weeks, give or take--I'm not really clear on how it added up that day when I got off work at 5 and went back in at 11. I mentioned all this to an online group of dispatchers, and got their side of it.
44 hours of overtime, in one pay period.
73.5 total hours--in one week.
53 hours of OT in a pay period. 60. 88. 49. 71. 63. In one pay period. A pay period is usually two weeks. One dispatcher worked 134.75 hours during Hurricane Florence.
911 dispatch centers are chronically understaffed. The hours are crazy, the training is hard, and the stress can be incredible; this leads to people leaving, which leaves those left behind working long hours and training new people, which leads to them burning out and leaving ... and on and on. I'm of the opinion that anyone who lasts long enough to retire, like my boss and (in a year) me, are certifiable.
But where I work we have good, dedicated people, and the OT isn't nearly as bad as many other communications centers. This brings me to something I've always said, something we should all keep in mind. We all have problems, and they're legitimate problems. We all have complaints. I had a lower back injury three months ago that just does not want to heal up--apparently it has to do with this concept of not being as young as I used to be. You think I don't complain about that?
Just the same, I think there's one concept worth considering, something that might make us feel a bit better when we're tempted to complain:
It could be worse.
After all, I could be the one having to call 911.
My full time job is as a 911 dispatcher, which is, shall we say, stressful. Mentally, emotionally, and even physically stressful, but at least we don't have to work outside. Personally, by the time I'm finished with my four day rotation I'm bent like a pretzel and popping pain pills the way I'd like to be popping M&Ms.
We work a four day on, two day off rotation in my emergency communications center, which means every six weeks we get a weekend off. That's nice, but I also work nights, so whenever my days off are--I usually just want to sleep through them.
Still, days off are nice. There was one month late last year when I didn't get any.
Okay, that's a slight exaggeration. We introduced a new computer aided dispatch system, otherwise known as a CAD, a system that--well, you know--aids us in dispatching. And every dispatcher had to take a three day course in learning the system, a class sandwiched between the online course we had to take before and the practice we had to do after. But you can't just shut down an emergency communications department--well, you can, but it's not a swell idea. So instead, the class was divided up, with the dispatchers who weren't taking it at the time covering for the dispatchers who were.
When you combine that with the fact that two new dispatchers were still training, you get overtime.
So last September I worked 21 out of 22 days in a row. Which is just three weeks, so I did get days off that month. Not to mention I volunteered for a lot of that time, because our bosses don't generally force us to work on our days off. (Nights off, for me.) We do have to work over or come in early from time to time, as with this week--somebody has to do it. Others worked for me during my class, after all.
Twelve hour shifts get ... tiring. I'm not a fan. But I'm not making minimum wage for mucking hog barns, so what the heck.
But here's the thing. I got around 56 hours of overtime in two weeks, give or take--I'm not really clear on how it added up that day when I got off work at 5 and went back in at 11. I mentioned all this to an online group of dispatchers, and got their side of it.
44 hours of overtime, in one pay period.
73.5 total hours--in one week.
53 hours of OT in a pay period. 60. 88. 49. 71. 63. In one pay period. A pay period is usually two weeks. One dispatcher worked 134.75 hours during Hurricane Florence.
911 dispatch centers are chronically understaffed. The hours are crazy, the training is hard, and the stress can be incredible; this leads to people leaving, which leaves those left behind working long hours and training new people, which leads to them burning out and leaving ... and on and on. I'm of the opinion that anyone who lasts long enough to retire, like my boss and (in a year) me, are certifiable.
But where I work we have good, dedicated people, and the OT isn't nearly as bad as many other communications centers. This brings me to something I've always said, something we should all keep in mind. We all have problems, and they're legitimate problems. We all have complaints. I had a lower back injury three months ago that just does not want to heal up--apparently it has to do with this concept of not being as young as I used to be. You think I don't complain about that?
Just the same, I think there's one concept worth considering, something that might make us feel a bit better when we're tempted to complain:
It could be worse.
After all, I could be the one having to call 911.
