Robyn Heirtzler's Blog, page 6

Imaginative, Fast Paced Dystopian

"This is one of the better dystopians I've read. Ryan Hunter has dreamed up an amazing future where technology is heavily used to control and manipulate their public ... 

Ryan Hunter does a great job of inventing technologies that take this beyond what George Orwell could imagine when he wrote 1984. There is tension throughout the book, beginning from the first page and only allowing small chances to catch your breath until you reach a satisfying ending. If you are looking for the next great dystopian then look no further, you've found it in inDIVISIBLE." -James D.

Read the entire review here!

Thank you, James. :)

Squash is a Fruit and other Facts that Turned my Life Upside Down

Yesterday, we enjoyed a supper of spaghetti squash topped with marinara sauce. What a delicious meal, and made entirely of vegetables ... or uh fruits. Desert, pumpkin bread, was another vegetable ... fruit.

Yeah, the debate among the kids was whether or not squash and pumpkin were actually vegetables. So, an internet search later and they confirmed their fears. We'd had no vegetables with supper, just fruit.

What's more, technically beans are fruits too, but strawberries are neither. And they're not berries. They're pseudo-fruits. So, they're fake, I guess. Whatever, they still taste good.

And, though tomatoes are a fruit, the supreme court ruled them to be a vegetable for tariff purposes. Gotta love the government ... which reminds me, did you know that in many states it's illegal to collect rain water?

Apparently rain belongs to the government.
Really. I didn't believe it when I first heard it, but then I saw this news clip that explains it, and I wanted to go set a bucket beneath my downspout to collect rainwater just to see if I'd get a ticket. 
It's ridiculous if you think about it. The water falling on your own roof, in your gravel, is not yours. It belongs to the government. In order to use this water in ANY way, other than to let it drain away, is to hold a water permit to collect it. 
Before they knew of this law, a car car dealer in the Salt Lake, Utah area, Mark Miller, decided to help with water conservation by collecting the rainwater falling on their own roof to wash cars. They can't without a valid water right. 
So, apparently, without a valid water right you cannot divert rain water. Can't divert? 
Whatever. 
They claim it's because of the water rights in desert areas. When you take water from upstream, there's no water left for the people downstream. But ... rain falls on everyone. Using the water from your own roof to water your own plants makes sense ... but it's illegal. 
I guess the government thinks it's more efficient for that water to run down the side of my house and weaken my foundation rather than to have me place a bucket beneath it to put it somewhere beneficial. 
I'd be using less water from the tap too ... but alas, I'm stealing if I conserve water that way.
If the government owns the rain ... what else are they going to claim?

"The constitution ... is an instrument for the people to restrain the government - lest it come to dominate our lives and interests."              -Patrick Henry
inDIVISIBLE by Ryan Hunter
Photo courtesy of Savit Keawtavee & freedigitalphotos.net 

Government Control over Public Schools ...

As the mother of five children, it's difficult to send them to school and wonder what, exactly is being taught, what is being implemented without my knowledge, and what that government-run institution is doing to my children for eight hours a day?

Then I read stories like this, "Parents Upset over Lunchtime Palm Scanner" and I worry about the simple right of privacy.

It may seem a little thing, to scan a child's palm in order for them to eat lunch, but to me, it steals a vital piece of privacy from that child. It tracks them. It records their palm imprints, eating habits and who knows what else.

Anything used to track a child is a threat, especially when that child is being tracked by someone other than their own parents.

Imagine if it was a private corporation tracking the children, the guy down the street, the pedophile in the next neighborhood ... tracking is tracking.

What upsets me most about this story is that the scanner was installed and implemented in the test-schools without parental knowledge or consent. 

And parents are outraged ... but it hasn't stopped the school district. They're actually planning on making the scanner standard in every school, elementary through high school throughout the entire district.

The school district says it's cutting down on the time it takes to pay for food, giving children more time to eat. If it's really just about the time, why not have cards to swipe or a ticket to hand over? The tickets we used in school did not take any longer than a hand scanner. If anything it was faster. 

It taught us responsibility. If we forgot our ticket, we didn't eat. We learned quickly that it was worth being organized because it prevented an empty belly. 

It also taught us to plan ahead so when our tickets ran low, we could purchase more before we went without a meal. 

And it was anonymous. Nobody tracked our meals, nobody scanned our palms. We were not cataloged in a government computer every time we entered the lunchroom. 

The loss of freedoms in public schools and in the U.S. in general is startling and frightening. It's up to us to stand up for those rights and demand them for ourselves and our children. If the schools don't listen, it's up to us to take harsher measures. 

Personally, I've taken my children out of certain schools and enrolled them elsewhere because of concern over the amount of government control they were exercising. It was my right. They are my kids and I will see to it that they are safe and allowed to express their full potential in their learning environments, without being scanned, tracked or stunted.

The schools claim this cuts down on time, makes lunchtime run smoother, instilling more "peace" into the day.

Benjamin Franklin once said, "Even peace may be purchased at too high a price."

What is your price?

Read the Hand-Scanning Article Here
What will Life be Like when We've lost all our Feedoms? Read inDIVISIBLE.

I Love Reading on the Beach

There's something about the sun warming your skin and soul while it illuminates the pages of a great novel.


It's a great escape, getting lost in the pages of a book while the waves splash against the shoreline and the seagulls call overhead.


There's a reason behind all the hype about great beach reads ... seriously, have you ever just laid in the sunshine, mind absorbed by vivid characters, worlds away from the office, school or housework? There's something rejuvenating about it, something fulfilling, something that makes life easier to handle when it's time to go back and face it all.

But when you're there, in the sun, far from home, it's easy to become absorbed and let your entire mind engross in a tale - engrossed in a way not possible when the phone is ringing, people are knocking or the dishes are piling in the sink ...

Sometimes that escape is needed to refuel the mind and energize the spirit.

What is your all-time favorite beach read?

Creating Sympathetic Villains

Villains are the bad guys ... or are they? 

Have you ever met a truly bad person, someone who had no redeeming qualities whatsoever? 

Probably not ... because people care for their children, their pets, their vegetable garden or neighbors. They help the disabled woman in the next apartment or they pay for a meal for a homeless man ... 

Growing up, my friend's mother was assisted with loading groceries in her car by Ted Bundy. She said he was kind and thoughtful, charismatic ...

So imagine her surprise when she saw him on the news, the added emotion of that experience.

Villains can be flat, hard, mean and angry, but that doesn't conflict the reader. It doesn't make their heart pull and their emotions spiral as they debate whether or not their redeeming qualities outweigh their bad.

So, why would you write about a truly terrible villain with no good qualities and leave the reader void of that emotional experience?

When creating a villain, think about someone who is driven to commit crimes because of a sick child, ailing wife, or someone who just has an overwhelming weakness for assisting the frail. Think of just one characteristic you can emphasize that makes them seem human, almost likable and make sure it plays out in the novel so the reader questions the villain's motives and wonders if there's actually hope for them.

If you can get the reader emotionally involved with all your characters, they will care more for your story as a whole.

Thanks to chrisroll & freedigitalphotos.net for the awesome pic!

Starting a Movement in Under Three Minutes

I love TED! Okay, TED talks ... 
This one made me laugh, like really laugh because of how quickly people join in and create something big out of what could be a "lone nut."
So in three minutes, we learn what it means to start a movement and that we all are capable of it. We just have to be brave enough to become that "lone nut" just long enough for someone to step in and spur on a movement. 
Love this! Enjoy!!

Looks like Fall ...

When summer fades to fall, nights grow cold, the wind picks up and leaves turn startling shades of red and orange. Eventually dew turns to frost on the car windows and inevitably, the gravel trucks show up to start the chip-sealing process on the roads ... at least in our town.

Roads are swept, tar is spread and gravel is dropped onto the tar in heaps that flip up from car tires to chip paint and ding windows.

Once the city is sure they've gotten most of the cars in town, they sweep up the extra gravel, or just push it onto the side of the road to turn the first snowfall greasy-gray and deadly when you slide from the pavement. Next the oil trucks come in.

The oil trucks spray a fine mist of black oil over the entire concoction of gravel and tar to lure cars onto the roads with the promise of new asphalt ... don't be fooled. The oil flips from tires onto paint jobs to create black streaks, just in case you emerged unscathed from the actual flipping of the gravel.

The oil doesn't come off.

In the past, there have been no signs or warnings of the fresh oil, so when I saw the signs this year (regular copy paper duct-taped to the road), I was impressed. Let's be honest here - I laughed so hard I could hardly see ...

Two paper signs duct taped to the road to warn of fresh oil? Have you ever tried to read an 8x11 sheet of paper passing by your window at 25 mph?

Nice try.

What Makes Success?

Success is different things to different people. To me, it's seeing a goal come to life, a dream fulfilled. But how do we get there? In writing, there are many pieces of advice and I think they all have merit. The one that sticks out most to me is something a successful author told me directly. He said, "Never stop writing." 
He explained that too many writers get frustrated and just stop. They stop before their novel is finished or before it starts to sell well or before they write the sequel ... whenever or for whatever reasons, writers fail to meet success because they quit writing. 
It seemed pretty straight forward to me. So I continued to write and to become frustrated and to wonder if the advice was really something I should pay attention to, but when I made a decision to stop writing, I felt as though I'd lost a piece of my soul. Writing was my passion and I couldn't ignore it as it made me who I am. So I started again. I published a couple of novels. I took some time off, felt that gaping hole again and began writing  once more, this time publishing a couple more under my pen name. 
And have I found success? Yes. The book is in print. I'm getting great reviews and my ideas are on paper available for the world to read.  
So when I cam across this Ted talk, it made me smile and nod in agreement. To be successful it takes these eight qualities  ... watch and enjoy and please, leave a comment below with the best writing advice you've ever received. I'd love to hear from you!

One United Toilet Paper?

This is not the actual stamp used to make the cover for my novel, it is however an exact replica of the print from the book cover - and the stamp used to print on my youngest daughter's forehead ... and on the bananas ... and on the homework ... and the permission slip ... and bills ...

I believe everything we own has been tagged, claimed by the One United in my novel. It makes me laugh, really. It made the neighbors laugh too when my daughter showed up at their house looking like the cover of my novel.

One child wants to stamp it inside her library books - uh, no.

Another wants to claim the furniture for One United ... please not the couches.

I've only barely escaped the imprint on my own forehead and only because I'm a runner and fled to safety before they could hold me down and tag me.

I wonder what's next but stop when one child decides to print it across her apple before taking a bite. Really?

In other news, check out the new One United webpage ... not quite as informative as this blog, but still useful. propertyofoneunited.com

What is Freedom?

Several months ago I had a dream that left this lingering feeling deep inside - an unrest and yet a fulfilling feeling that built throughout the day. 

As I thought about it, an entire story unfolded, a story of a girl who woke up one morning to discover the fairy-tale life she lived was all an illusion. 

She had been fed lies in school. She'd been tagged so the government could track her. She'd been brainwashed so she'd comply with everything her government wanted her to do ... until her father's murder. 

Great fiction, I told my husband, and he explained that the book was political. I argued that it was not - I hate politics - and he again told me that it had a very definite political angle. I told him that I'd just write what I dreamed about, political or not, because the story was warring with my head. It wanted out.

As I wrote, I thought about freedom and accepted that yes, the book could be deemed political. But I didn't pursue that angle still. I simply wrote the story that filled my soul. 

inDIVISIBLE arose and the reviews are nearly unanimous - the book makes you think ... so, I thought about it too and created this video about freedom, because of everything about inDIVISIBLE, it helped me see how valuable freedom can be.