Bart Hopkins Jr.'s Blog, page 4

How We Think

Perhaps the key faculty that has helped make humans human is our ability to represent. That is, to literally “re-present.” To bring things to our mind which are not present, not in the immediate environment. This is what happens to us in dreams as we mix and recreate events. This is what happens when we talk or think about events or people or objects that are far away or even imaginary. This unique ability helped to free us from the present moment and allowed humans to plan the future, using...

Why Write?

Why Write?

Why write?
There is this constant interplay between the animal us, the physical beings who inhabit this earth, and the symbolic lives in our minds. There is a tension that we can never reconcile for long, between the two. When we enter the symbolic realm, we remain in the physical, but a distance between them occurs.
We long for the purely grounded life of “the moment” and then spend incredible amounts of time and effort describing those feelings with symbols.
We make up worlds,...

Sign Journeys Giveaway

Sign Journeys Amazon Giveaway Link: https://giveaway.amazon.com/p/be7e19079f2dbe35

New Short Short Project Stories Links. They are free now.

Coffee Break Murder Blues: https://www.books2read.com/u/31gpYw

Look: https://www.books2read.com/u/b5Oyk6

One Came Crashing In

Here is an excerpt from my latest novel, One Came Crashing In. Click to see at Amazon.

Love

Jack Crawford loved his wife.
He was amazed that beauty and grace such as hers existed at all. She’d astonished him since they met.
Emily had long, jet-black hair above greenish-grey eyes that gathered and reflected light. High cheek bones and white fair skin that took the sun well and tanned instead of burning. Her legs were long and lean and went forever. She had the economic style of a gymnast or a...

Fiction and Comedy

Fiction and Comedy are both venues where people tolerate actions and speech that they wouldn’t, probably, in everyday life. And I think it is terrific to have areas in our culture where the curtain of political correctness is lifted, if only briefly, to shine a spotlight on … ourselves.

 

Okay, a poem.

Okay, so I am not a poet, but a novelist. I did write one nonfiction book and really wasn’t that thrilled with it. But prose is not so different from poetry in some ways. It has a rhythm, a beat, a pulse. Below is something I have fooled around with for years, inspired by the song in Les Miserables.

 

 

I Had a Dream I Would Not Die

 

I had a dream I would not die,

I would persist, and live forever

Beneath a sere and dappled sky,

I would fly high, above the weather

My grip grew weak, my sight...

The Books

Click For Amazon Link [image error]

Click for Amazon Link

[image error][image error][image error][image error][image error][image error][image error]

Influence

My new novel Influence is finally out. A novel is dreamlike as you write it.

It is amorphous and unfinished, and lives mostly in your mind and imagination, taking shape and form only little by little, like a shadowy distant figure coming closer, word by word, on the page.

It is only when you push the button to upload the files and cover, and get that ISBN number, that it officially exists as a novel.

In that one instant, all the hours spent are recognized. For better or worse, something new is in the world.

And after that? After that, it's up to the readers. I thank those who helped make it happen, especially my son Bart.

Mind Views: A Little Book About Thought

So, Mind Views, my first nonfiction effort, is in a giveaway which ends today. I should have mentioned it before. It is a little book about thought, and really suitable, I think, only for those somewhat serious about the mind, symbols, language, and thought.

I did remember our Veterans and their service, however, and thank them all.

Best Wishes

Language

So, a few words about language. I've studied various aspects of language most of my adult life. As a writer, I work with it, and use it as a tool. I admire the artistic aspects of language use.

I am also pragmatic in my use of language. If you visited my website you would see a selection of book reviews that use language in some different ways. If you were walking through a typical day with me, you would see me use language in quite another way, a more practical and succinct manner.

Even in the five novels that I've written, there are differences in the way language is used. In the two Sign novels, there is almost no profanity of any type. Why? Because I didn't think it belonged or was necessary in those stories.

In my two suspense novels, Playtime and Game Time, there is more profanity, especially in the last mentioned. Why? Because these were novels where I thought profanity fit the situations. Especially in Game Time, which is told from multiple viewpoints, including those of several unsavory, criminal types. Once I had made the decision to tell the story that way, I found the use of profanity almost essential to the book. Why? Because that is the way those types of characters think and talk.

However, I do believe it is a good idea to let the reader know what they are in for. That is why I posted a warning at the bottom of my book description for Game Time. In that way, I hope that those readers who simply cannot abide with coarse language and some other mature situations, will be warned before buying or reading my latest novel.

I personally scan reviews, but always read the book descriptions and especially the samples provided by Amazon. In fact, I cannot imagine buying a book without reading a selection from it. Reading a few chapters gives me a pretty fair idea whether a book will be something I will enjoy or not.

In general, I am for free speech and against censorship, but I also think it is good for readers to know what they are getting into before they buy and read. I believe that is best for both reader and writer in the long run.