G.A. Albrethsen's Blog: Age of Restoration, page 2

If you like another book better, buy it

I’m having a Lee Iacocca moment.

Look.

I don’t write fiction which pushes the limits on socially acceptable sexual practices, a la Fifty Shades of Gray.

If that’s what you want, buy it.

I don’t write romances, in any of their flavors. All you have to do is look at the Amazon top 100 paid books and you’ll see there’s already plenty of people doing that.

If you like those kinds of books, buy as many as you like. You don’t need me to tell you.

I don’t write contemporary fantasy/paranormal books, either. At least not in the way they’re commonly defined. According to some of the book reviews I’ve received I am, but in my stories, there aren’t any vampires, werewolves or any of the myriad of other lesser demonic creature derivatives authors have been able to come up with.

If you really love that kind of book, have at it.

What I do write, and will continue to write, are stories that I believe to be fun, entertaining, compelling, and thought-provoking. I’d add mysterious and intriguing, too.

I write books that virtually the entire family can enjoy. I purposely avoid sex, graphic violence, and obscenities in my stories for that reason. Strangely, I don’t think I’m giving up on quality or gravitas, in the process. The books can be, and have been, read and enjoyed by adults.

If you want something “edgier,” so be it. I know you can find it elsewhere. No problem.

I don’t back away from current events, be they social, economical, political or religious. Many of us deal with these kinds of issues regularly—in our families, neighborhoods, workplaces and voting booths. Aside from adding realism and a contrast to the more fantastical elements of my stories, I want to make people think. So, there are elements of those things in my books.

You can escape in my stories if you want to, but you can also ponder questions and deeper meanings.

Currently, I’m writing a series. In fact, with the first two books, I’ve been writing a trilogy. Not all is resolved in each book. In fact, some things from the first book aren’t even resolved in the second book. Whether or not they each provide a satisfying stopping place is debatable—I believe they do—but I disagree that each book should automatically be standalone. Even if that is convention. One, they’re not standalone. They’re part of an ongoing series. There are intentionally unanswered questions and plot lines. Two, I want people to read the next book, and then the next, and then the next.

I know, selfish, greedy me.

Read them, or don’t. It’s simple as that. It really doesn’t take two whole books to determine if you like what you’re reading or not. Get your money back on the first one if you have to and don’t buy the second one. Period.

Move on.

I know there will be someone else who will like my books. If nothing else, it’s the law of averages. There’s bound to be someone who enjoys the anticipation of more story after the last one ends. Like everyone who regularly watches The Walking Dead, or who watched Breaking Bad. You folks don’t even have the option of reading faster or longer. You all just have to wait for the next episode to come out.

I write about what interests me, not what I think millions of others will be interested in. I seek profit, of course, but I’m not trying to appeal to the masses in the process. The more readers, the merrier, but I’m not tailoring my books to the current social palate. I write what keeps me engaged. I write what I think will be popular one day. It may be soon, it may be later, and there’s always the chance I’m wrong and it will never be popular.

If that’s the way it is, that’s the way it is.

That’s not a reason to stop writing or self-publishing, though.

I know I can’t please everyone. No one can. That’s a given. But, quite frankly, the only earthly person I have to please is myself. I have to be right with me. I’m not going to give up on my hopes and dreams, or do what I don’t feel right doing, for the sake of money, power or conformity. Or political correctness.

I love my wife and sons, and I try to do right by them, but I can’t even please them all the time.

I believe in a Heavenly Father, so yes, I’m trying to please Him as much as I can, and sometimes, I do that at the cost of what I would really rather do. Funny thing, though. Sooner or later, I always feel good about pleasing Him.

So, there you go. My Lee Iacocca moment.

Carry on.

My first 1-star review

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Author’s note:

Please find below the first one-star review I’ve received (so far) for either of my novels. It was posted over the weekend on The Foolish and the Weak‘s page on Amazon. I’ve copied and pasted it directly from the site.

Glen Albrethsen, Author of the Age of Restoration series

Avoid, avoid, avoid., October 26, 2013

by Llyn “Incorrigible Biblioholic”

Avoid, avoid, avoid. Endless running about, without plot progression. More running about with plot progression that makes little sense. Strongly suspect “hidden agenda,” and “withheld proposal” re pending conclusion. Have read two volumes and consider time to be seriously wasted. Erasing both volumes published thus far from digital library.

A mummy in Paris

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I do quite a bit of reading, a lot of which is news. Every now and then, there are some curious happenings that I appreciate more than others, because it gets my imagination working.

Like a story I stumbled upon today.

This has to do with the body of a Cambodian man found in his apartment near Paris.

Except the apartment was no longer his. It had been sold at auction from the bank which repossessed it to someone else who bought it sight unseen. When the buyer went to go look at the apartment last week, locksmith in tow, the body was discovered hanging from the ceiling in a mummified state.

In other words, the body had not decomposed, and apparently, did not stink enough to arouse the concern of neighbors.

The man was last seen in 2005, after filing a complaint against his employer over being fired from his security guard job. Some residents of the apartment complex were quoted as saying they simply thought the man had returned to Cambodia or abandoned the apartment. No one had bothered to investigate.

I’ve read stories similar to this, where people have been dead a year or more before someone came by and found them. This is the longest I’ve heard of.

What’s most intriguing, obviously, is how his body remained so well preserved. The area, a suburb called Bussy-Saint-Georges, must not be known for its mummification qualities, since officials are supposedly baffled by what took place.

So, what caused it? Are Cambodian physiques somehow different than other physiques? Did the air in the apartment, which would probably become stale, dry and somewhat warm, help mummify him?

Or is there some other explanation?

If this were a fictional story, and I was writing it, there would be several ways to go, I think. The primary premise, though, would be foul play. Instead of a suicide, which the real man is thought to have committed, it would be a murder made to look like a suicide. And the man would have been injected with some kind of solution that could slow down the degeneration process, presumably, so the body wouldn’t be found right away.

The solution would be untraceable after a few days. Of course, the cause of death would be attributable to hanging, but the murderer wouldn’t want any questions being asked about the solution, anyway.

Okay, so then that would lead to why the man was being murdered. A possible reason is in the article. He was fired from his security job. Maybe he worked for a giant pharmaceutical company, and he guarded one of their research facilities. And maybe he’d overhead something or stumbled on to something. Something horrible. Something illegal, unethical, or immoral and he was threatening to go to the authorities. Or maybe, the evildoers thought he had already, and couldn’t take a chance.

It could be the injection itself the murderer was trying to keep a secret. And in a rather wry twist, maybe the murderer was using the security guard as a test subject, a human trial, as it it were, to see if the substance actually worked. It could be some kind of new preservative that worked too well, or an anti-aging agent of some kind. The fountain of youth.

Of course, this would be just the beginning, since there would need to be an investigation, and some kind of sinister motive behind it all. Someone trying to make a fortune perhaps? Money always seems to be a factor.

Okay, so I’ve just shared the techno thriller possibility. There’s always the paranormal angle. A vampire that desiccates rather than merely sucking blood. An ancient power the security guard helped to unleash giving him his just reward.

There’s a number of possibilities this story could take. Just got to let the imagination ruminate for a spell.

If you’re interested in reading the article, you can find it here.

I want a Camaro truck

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If you’ve been reading this blog long, you’ll know I’m a fan of the New Camaro.

Lately, though, I’ve been contemplating trading mine in for a truck.

Now, under better circumstances, I might try for both, but one gas guzzler is probably enough right now.

The problem is, every time I get into the Camaro, I’m reminded of why I bought it in the first place. It’s just fun to drive.

And I don’t really have a need for a truck right now, other than that male desire to haul things around.

Like a decent-sized travel trailer, where I drive around the country, with my wife at my side, attending book festivals, state fairs, and other events where books might be sold, or to speaking engagements, where I talk about my books.

You know, get a chance to travel around, see America as it was meant to be seen and meet readers in the process.

I’m not sure what excites me more: selling books, talking about my books, or writing books. It just seems like the dream life to me.

SIGH.

One of these days. When I convince my wife we can afford it, that is. Then, we’ll need the trailer and the Camaro Truck.

Maybe by then, Chevrolet will actually make one, instead of the few mods I’ve seen on YouTube.

Oh, and I want it to get better gas mileage, too. Maybe thirty mph on the highway. Not when it’s pulling of course. I’ll take twenty then.

I mean, seriously. Why do I have to give up fuel efficiency for hauling capacity?

I’ve heard how cheaply diesel train engines can move cargo. They’re not quite as cool to drive as a Camaro, though, but there’s got to be a way to do this.

I guy can dream, right?

Update: There’s half a novel at thefoolishandtheweak.com

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A little over a month ago, I advised you all of the happenings going on over at thefoolishandthweak.com. I thought I’d update you on its progress, and encourage anyone interested in finding that next novel to read, to check it out.

There are now seventeen full chapters posted there—Prologue through Chapter 16 of my debut novel, The Foolish and the Weak. In between the chapters there is some book commentary, mostly to summarize the chapter and tease into the next. Hopefully, it won’t get in the way of the reading. If you don’t find anything of value in it, by all means, skip to the next post.

It’s been divided up into smaller portions, rather than complete chapters, or throwing it all up there in one post. It was done to help those who might not have a whole lot of time to devote to reading in one session, so they could come and go as they please. If you find a lot of cliffhanging going on, well, that’s by design. The idea is to get the reader to move onto the next section, after all.

The order of the posts have also been revamped. Personally, I wasn’t happy with the idea of scrolling up to the next portion, then scrolling down to read through it, and then scrolling back up to the one that follows, and reading down again. It was inconvenient and not very intuitive.

It was a pain to do it, but now the posts are in chronological order, so all you have to do is scroll down.

It is my hope that those who wanted to have more than just the few chapters available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble and iTunes, can take the time to immerse themselves into the story. I’d hardly call the beginning of it slow, but there are quite a few pieces which need to be introduced, put into place, and allowed to play out, so hopefully having half the novel there will give everyone a great sense of what’s in store.

At some point, the same will be done with the sequel, The Wise and the Mighty. For the time being, however, if you’ve read the first book and what a taste of what’s in store in the second book, mosey on over to ageofrestoration.com. That site is kind of cool in that it is a mystery in and of itself.

When you first get there, all you will see is the cover to The Wise and the Mighty, and nothing else. However, exploring will unearth hidden bits of information, most of which lead to other hidden tidbits, so don’t be afraid to look around. You’re bound to bump into something.

Of course, you can keep coming back here for whatever might be floating around in my brain on a given day, and yes, I’d be thrilled if you were to follow me on Twitter @AgeORestoration.

The more the merrier.

I live in a barn—metaphorically speaking

See what I mean!

I live in a barn.

Now, that you’ve read that, what images come to mind? A literal barn, perhaps, with horses, chickens and goats? Or a messy house?

All of you who are at least thirty-five, maybe forty, hearken back to the days when you were living at home with your Mom, and then answer the question.

That’s right. I live in a barn has a different connotation. It is a metaphor for shutting a door left open.

Normally, the door in question leads to the outside. In my case, however, it doesn’t have to be the front or back door, or even the garage door.

Cupboards, drawers, lids—these are the open ‘doors’ I’m fighting against constantly.

The main idea here is, you get the metaphor.

In contemplating the symbolism of shutting open doors, I naturally came to another metaphor. Shutting an open door can also be construed as turning your back on an opportunity.

Like burning bridges. I avoid burning bridges, but yet I shut doors on a regular basis.

Here we go again!

Now, I think we can all agree, unless you’re in a war, and the bridge holds a tactical advantage to the enemy, and less so to you, you don’t burn a bridge. However, there is nothing inherently wrong with shutting a door. In fact, a lot of times it’s good to do. It keeps the cool air in, the warm air out, or vice-versa, depending on the season. It keeps out flies, bees, and some other unwanted houseguests that aren’t nearly as wily as spiders.

Depending on the neighborhood you live in, it can keep out the two-legged undesirables, too.

And of course, there’s the privacy issue. Most doors are solid, and they keep prying eyes focused elsewhere.

That’s why you’re more likely to hear, “You make a great door!” than you are to hear, “You make a great window!”

I close doors, drawers and lids, though, to reduce the accident factor. I do this, despite the fact that it’s very rarely me who runs into them. Mostly, the culprit is the one who gets the knock on the noggin or the dent in the shin.

You’d think after a few times of running into open cupboards or drawers, that the culprit would learn to shut them after use. Apparently, the damage done each time is not akin to burning your hand on a stove, or shocking yourself in an outlet. Or nearly drowning. Those, if you survive, tend to be life altering experiences, that can lead to phobias on the one hand, or a healthy respect and caution on the other.

Call me an enabler, but I’d rather no one get hurt. Don’t get me wrong, I’m in favor of tough love, but in this case, it just leads to whining and complaining (though, thankfully, not a doctor’s visit), so in addition to avoiding bumps and bruises, there is the small order of my sanity involved.

That, and the fact that some people are just naturally predisposed to bang their head against the wall. Over, and over, and over again.

Metaphorically speaking, of course.

When is giving up on the dream the right thing to do?

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I’ve been wrestling with a question of late. It’s got some layers to it, but the quick version is, “When is giving up on the dream the right thing to do?”

From 2000-2012, I was gainfully employed as an owner and publisher of weekly newspapers. At the end of 2012, I had to shutter the doors due to a change in state law where I operated my business.

The year before that, I finally, after a lifetime of desiring to do so, published my first novel. This blog, along with a few other websites, a few twitter handles, and a Facebook page, were also created to help promote that novel, its sequel, which came out earlier this year, and those that are to follow them.

The idea, at the time, was to keep publishing newspapers, support myself and my family through them while I continued to write and publish novels. As any self-published author knows, the mountain is almost always high, the climb steep, the road long. I wasn’t expecting an overnight success, though I think we all dream of such things. I had, believed, however, that I would go on publishing newspapers for as long as it took to get the books written and promoted.

I was wrong.

Back in 2009, just before the biggest year our newspapers ever had, I felt I should try to put them up for sale. At the time, I wasn’t entirely sure why. That was the first year we’d actually had an increase in revenue, and while it wouldn’t be the record, businesses are always more valuable when there’s the potential for greater growth. Without going into details, suffice it to say, I kept the newspapers.

I now know why I was supposed to sell them.

Fortunately, I followed other promptings. I paid off our house, two cars, put some money in the bank, and renovated our forty-year old office. With the first three, I wasn’t entirely sure why, again, but the fourth one seemed pretty necessary at the time, given the state of the building. Even it, however, turned out to be for the same reason. The newspapers were going out of business in a couple of years, and now that building is up for sale.

For the last nine months, I’ve been trying to develop some other revenue stream, either through another business venture, or through employment. Neither has produced anything. In between job searching and business developing, I’ve been trying to promote the books. I’m currently offering The Foolish and the Weak for free at thefoolishandtheweak.com. As of this writing, there are twelve chapters available, with more planned.

Thanks to the savings and the lowered expenses, along with a smattering of other income, we’ve made it this far without major changes in our lifestyle. However, this can’t go on indefinitely, so, as I opened this post, I’ve been questioning whether or not it’s time for me to put the dream back in its box and hope someday to bring it back out again.

With the newspapers, I had employees and freelancers who did the bulk of the work. I had time to write and promote them.

I’m told I could do the same thing with a full-time job. I know that’s not true. I tried it already. That’s a big reason why I waited so long to work on a novel, let alone try to promote it. My priorities were first having a family, and then not just supporting them, but spending meaningful time with them. It’s not all about quantity, but you don’t get to quality if you’re never or very seldom around.

Besides, the tools available now to make a career as an independent author successful didn’t exist twenty-odd years ago, so I was okay with putting the dream on hold.

To do so now, though, feels like giving up. If I can’t make it now, when there’s time and resources still available to do it, when will I be able to?

But I can’t just walk away from my duty as breadwinner, either. I know my wife would be willing to take on more to make money, but I just can’t ask her to do that.

So, I know there are many of you out there following a dream of some kind. Maybe you find yourself in similar circumstances as me. I know what I want to do, but I’d really be interested in hearing from anyone, even if you don’t have personal experience in answering the question, what you would do if you were in my shoes. When is it time to hang up the dream?

Feel free to leave comments, please, or reply to me on Twitter @AgeORestoration.

NASA denies receipt of bizarre transmission detailing MJ, Lucas collaboration

After the U.S. space agency jumped the gun with the news that Voyager 1, the 36-year-old satellite, had reached interstellar space, NASA itself confirmed on September 12 that the spacecraft had indeed moved beyond the heliosphere.

The error in March, when it was first reported Voyager 1 left the solar system, was attributed to a previously unknown section of solar space NASA scientists refer to simply as “the magnetic highway.”

What was not reported either time, however, was a bizarre transmission received from Voyager 1 while traveling through the magnetic highway—a transmission which has profound effects on life in the universe as we know it.

In other words, it answers the question, “Are we alone in the universe?”

Or, more correctly, “Are we alone in the multiverse?”

We here at the Truth Seekers of Global Conspiracy Cover Ups (TSGCCU) have learned from a former NASA employee, on conditions of anonymity, that the aforementioned twenty-two minute transmission, of which only a little over four minutes is intelligible, impossibly discusses a collaboration between George Lucas and Michael Jackson specifically for Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith.

It is a well known fact that Mr. Jackson loved Star Wars, and was a very good friend of Mr. Lucas. However, there is no evidence of any actual collaboration between the two on Star Wars. Even rumors that Captain EO, Jackson’s 3D sci-fi adventure, was a tribute to Star Wars and Lucas, have been debunked in recent years.

This transmission, however, of which TSGCCU has obtained a copy, describes in documentary fashion, a song accordingly written by Jackson entitled, “Ani, are you okay?” which was to play after the battle Anakin Skywalker has with Obi-wan Kenobi at the end of RotS.

The soaring overture can be heard while Padmé, distraught with grief, cradles the charred and near limbless body of Anakin in her arms and repeats over and over again, “Ani, are you okay? Are you okay, Ani?”

The snippet of audio discusses how Jackson, after years as a world renown pop star, wanted an appropriate outlet for an opus which he describes, in his own words, as, “Haunting me day and night.” Jackson’s manager, Frank DiLeo, was concerned it would upset the flow if included in a concert, and refused to even work it into any of Jackson’s subsequent albums. Quincy Jones, CEO of Jackson’s label, Epic, also nixed the idea.

This was okay with Jackson, as he was convinced it was destined to be heard as part of a movie soundtrack.

And the rest, as they say, is history.

Except, that it never happened. Not on this Earth, anyway.

Anyone who has seen RotS, especially fanboys, will know that the movie does not feature a scene where Padmé utters those words while rocking a dying Anakin in her arms. In fact, Padmé is already unconscious after having been nearly force-choked to death by Anakin himself. That leads to the battle with Obi-Wan, who, after defeating his Padawan, leaves the Jedi-turned-Sith to die. Skywalker is later saved by Dark Sidious, who puts him into the now iconic Darth Vader mask and suit.

As for the music, Jackson did write a pop song which includes the lyrics, “Ani, are you okay?” The title? “Smooth Criminal,” off of his 1987 album, “Bad.” The song, along with others, was featured in another film Jackson starred in called, “Moonwalker.”

So, the audio must be a hoax, right?

TSGCCU reached out to both the estate of Jackson and to Lucas Arts shortly after reviewing the audio for ourselves. Both parties denied any knowledge of the transmission, though they did admit that the voices portrayed as Jackson and Lucas do sound identical. TSGCCU has since had the voices tested by a third party voice expert using sound wave recordings of the pop star and filmmaker. The results were conclusive: they match the voices exactly.

We then checked to see if any terrestrial transmission had been made, particularly one corresponding with the time Voyager 1 was within the magnetic highway. The response was unanimous. This was the first time anyone had ever heard of such a broadcast, let alone produced it.

Yet, the transmission exists. We have authenticated it, as well. Our expert tells us the noises heard throughout the transmission are consistent with the interference encountered in other recordings Voyager 1 has made over its nearly four-decade journey across the solar system. No one else at NASA, aside from our anonymous tipster, was willing to corroborate the transmission, on or off the record. In fact, NASA has flatly denied any knowledge of the audio whatsoever.

Why?

Well, either the audio is the most elaborate interstellar fraud to date, or it is real. If the former is true, sooner or later we will debunk it. If not, the only explanation for its existence, one that would give a reason for why NASA is keeping this close to the vest, just as it has with many other extraterrestrial encounters, is that the transmission actually originates from a parallel Earth.

Scientists have long hypothesized the possibilities of alternate universes. Some unexplained phenomena have inconclusively pointed to different realities. This recording, however, would prove, without a shadow of a doubt, that at least a second Earth, mirroring our own, is out there.

Where can only be speculated. We have confirmed that magnetic waves, like those found in the magnetic highway, could enhance the receptive capabilities onboard Voyager 1 to unexpected levels. Enough to pick up transmissions across space, time and dimensions.

If true, the answer to the questions posed above, “Are we alone?” would be answered with a resounding, “No!” Not only is there other life out there, somewhere, it would seem that they are just like us. Put more succinctly, they may very well be US.

Author’s disclaimer: While various elements of the above post are true, as far as I know, NASA did not retrieve secret transmissions from Voyager 1 alluding to a Star Wars collaboration between Mr. Jackson and Mr. Lucas. This post was created purely for entertainment purposes only, and is in no way affiliated with the estate of Mr. Jackson or his properties, nor that of Mr. Lucas and his holdings.

A disaster of biblical proportions!

Here’s another scene from the original Ghostbusters I like. Aside from the fact they’re trying to sell the impending doom to the mayor of New York as “real wrath of God-type stuff,” I enjoy the way each one of the ‘busters contributes. You can tell which of the characters actually knows something from the Bible and which ones don’t, or mix up references. It’s funny on its own, but even more hilarious if you have your own scriptural knowledge.

Enjoy!

Listen! You smell something?

Just thought I’d share one of my favorite lines from the original Ghostbusters movie.

My Mom used to say something about my Dad that’s similar. “He can’t hear without his glasses.”

Makes me smile every time I think of it.

Enjoy your weekend!