Weston Ochse's Blog, page 49
September 30, 2010
Badmoon Books and Horror Mall have signed copies of Empire of Salt
LIKE YOUR ZOMBIES SALTY? EMPIRE OF SALT SIGNED COPIES BY WESTON OCHSE NOW IN STOCK!
[image error]
EMPIRE OF SALT by Weston Ochse (SIGNED paperback)
The Olivers have a chance to make a new home at Salton Sea. Looking forward to California fun, sun and adventure they are unprepared for the ecological devastation they find. The sea is rotting, the town of Bombay Beach is dying and the citizens are like bait, waiting to be plucked from their homes by what comes from the sea. Beware the coming of the green, they say. Beware the coming of the night.
Not only is the Salton Sea a large, stagnant saltwater lake, Bombay Beach is populated by the sort of people one might imagine would be left if everyone with common sense and means just up and left. Not only is Bombay Beach populated by a reformed crackhead with too many kids, a Romanian Elvis-impersonating ex-soldier, and a naked preacher, there's also a secret, gated installation. And zombies. Don't forget the zombies.
As Natasha, Derrick and their friend Veronica discover that some of the kooky stories might not be all myth, they rescue a soldier from a group of zombies and, with the help of a few of Bombay Beach's more colorful characters, attempt to end the clandestine military project behind the zombie outbreak and escape the Salton Sea once and for all.
[image error]
EMPIRE OF SALT by Weston Ochse (SIGNED paperback)
The Olivers have a chance to make a new home at Salton Sea. Looking forward to California fun, sun and adventure they are unprepared for the ecological devastation they find. The sea is rotting, the town of Bombay Beach is dying and the citizens are like bait, waiting to be plucked from their homes by what comes from the sea. Beware the coming of the green, they say. Beware the coming of the night.
Not only is the Salton Sea a large, stagnant saltwater lake, Bombay Beach is populated by the sort of people one might imagine would be left if everyone with common sense and means just up and left. Not only is Bombay Beach populated by a reformed crackhead with too many kids, a Romanian Elvis-impersonating ex-soldier, and a naked preacher, there's also a secret, gated installation. And zombies. Don't forget the zombies.
As Natasha, Derrick and their friend Veronica discover that some of the kooky stories might not be all myth, they rescue a soldier from a group of zombies and, with the help of a few of Bombay Beach's more colorful characters, attempt to end the clandestine military project behind the zombie outbreak and escape the Salton Sea once and for all.
September 29, 2010
OPEN LETTER To Campbell H.S., Litchfield N.H. – Free Yourself
[image error]Ernest Hemingway
Dear students, faculty, administration, teachers and members of the school board,
Looking over the American Library Association's list of Banned Books for 2010, I was shocked that there are so many communities willing to be oppressed. Books such as Farenheit 451, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, The Color Purple, A Prayer for Owen Meany, and To Kill a Mockingbird have been banned by your fellow Americans. To think that there are those who believe that issues such as censorship, slavery, racisim, and the loss of a parent shouldn't be dealt with reminds me that we live in a country where people would rather not know, than know, and where Sarah Palin can ask her local library what the process is to ban a book.
Regarding your community and your high school, it has come to my attention that you have been oppressed. It seems that a group of parents has banded together and removed Ernest Hemingway's short story Hills Like White Elephants from the curriculum. First let me offer my condolences. Hills stands as the seminal model for dealing with abortion in the entire cannon of modern American literature. Hemingway creates such a realistic engagement between the two main characters that every reader is capable of taking away strategies to deal with this polemic and decisive issue, that whether we like it or not, is a societal reality. I can't comprehend how young adults and parents are capable of dealing with this issue in a conversational and informational vacuum. It's through literature that we obtain examples of how others deal with things. It is through great literature that we are able to take examples to influence our daily lives. In Hills, Hemingway never used the word abortion. He alludes to it through allegory and metaphor only. This story is rife with heartbreak, loss, misunderstanding, and the wonderment and fear of what the future might hold, much like one might experience if the plot became a reality. It doesn't honor abortion, but rather deals with the emotions involved in the decision.
The Real Ann Frank
When a Culpeper, Virginia public school was asked by a parent to stop teaching The Diary of Anne Frank, they acquiesced. According to the American Library Association "it was reported that officials decided to stop assigning a version of Anne Frank's diary, one of the most enduring symbols of the atrocities of the Nazi regime, due to the complaint that the book includes sexual material and homosexual themes. The director of instruction announced (that) the edition, published on the Fiftieth Anniversary of Frank's death in a concentration camp, will not be used in the future despite the fact the school system did not follow its own policy for handling complaints. The remarks set off a hailstorm of criticism online and brought international attention to the 7,600-student school system in rural Virginia. The superintendent said, however, that the book will remain a part of the English classes, although it may be taught at a different grade level."
Hats off to the principal and the community for coming to the aid of common sense. Cheers to them for not allowing one person's fear of their child being confronted with the reality of our world affect an entire student body. The Diary of Anne Frank has become a perennial favorite in elementary and middle schools because it is so accessible to the students. Anne was a young child just like the students, and the similarity helps accentuate the gravitas of the vile evil perpetrated by the Nazis and all of their colluders. You can teach about evil from the front of the classroom for days and not have the same effect as when a student puts him or herself in the place of Anne Frank, hiding in fear for her life, knowing that she might be found and sent to a concentration camp to be killed.
Although the teachers of Campbell H.S. can teach about the emotional and psychological effects of abortion and the decision-making process from the front of a classroom, when these issues are lived through the souls of Hemingway's characters, they create a new and increased level of awareness of the depth of the issue.
[image error]
There are dozens of stories in the cannon that deal with this issue that are not banned. Would you believe that Mary Shelly's Frankenstein, written in 1817, also deals with abortion, asking the question that if the creation is too ugly should it even be born? Not only is this an issue that has transmigrated across the centuries, but it poses the unspoken question whether those children with disabilities or malformities should even be born. Explosions from Chinese author Mo Yan deals with the idea of a government-forced abortion in response to China's One Child Policy. The poem The Abortion from Ann Sexton reverberates not about the act, but about the consequences and the feeling. Are these to be banned as well?
Whether I am in favor of abortion or not is not the issue. I am in favor of freedom of speech. I am in favor of the constitution. I am in favor of exercising the mind and making it work through tough social, philosophical and political issues.
Too many of us are told what to think and we react accordingly. We've gone to war with countries that have done the same in an attempt to free their populace from the iron grip of censorship, misinformation, and dictatorial direction. If we hold our freedoms so dear, then why do we continue to allow ourselves to be oppressed?
So I ask you this, students, faculty, administration, teachers and members of the school board of Campbell H.S.:
Do not do to yourselves what we free other countries from. Do not create your own literary gulag where the rule of the loudest few subverts the rights of the many.Do give your children the ability to learn from our literary masters.Do talk to your children about these issues so that they are informed of all sides.Do fight against oppression – YES! What this group of parents has done to you is oppression. How does it feel to be oppressed? What are you thinking?The amazing thing about fiction is that it can teach and inform us of things in a much more accessible way than classic "teach-question-answer-test" methodology.
So for the last time, I am pleading to your sense of Americanism. Don't ban books. Don't abrogate your rights. Don't be oppressed.
Thank You,
Weston Ochse
Author, Soldier, Father
Dear students, faculty, administration, teachers and members of the school board,
Looking over the American Library Association's list of Banned Books for 2010, I was shocked that there are so many communities willing to be oppressed. Books such as Farenheit 451, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, The Color Purple, A Prayer for Owen Meany, and To Kill a Mockingbird have been banned by your fellow Americans. To think that there are those who believe that issues such as censorship, slavery, racisim, and the loss of a parent shouldn't be dealt with reminds me that we live in a country where people would rather not know, than know, and where Sarah Palin can ask her local library what the process is to ban a book.
Regarding your community and your high school, it has come to my attention that you have been oppressed. It seems that a group of parents has banded together and removed Ernest Hemingway's short story Hills Like White Elephants from the curriculum. First let me offer my condolences. Hills stands as the seminal model for dealing with abortion in the entire cannon of modern American literature. Hemingway creates such a realistic engagement between the two main characters that every reader is capable of taking away strategies to deal with this polemic and decisive issue, that whether we like it or not, is a societal reality. I can't comprehend how young adults and parents are capable of dealing with this issue in a conversational and informational vacuum. It's through literature that we obtain examples of how others deal with things. It is through great literature that we are able to take examples to influence our daily lives. In Hills, Hemingway never used the word abortion. He alludes to it through allegory and metaphor only. This story is rife with heartbreak, loss, misunderstanding, and the wonderment and fear of what the future might hold, much like one might experience if the plot became a reality. It doesn't honor abortion, but rather deals with the emotions involved in the decision.
The Real Ann FrankWhen a Culpeper, Virginia public school was asked by a parent to stop teaching The Diary of Anne Frank, they acquiesced. According to the American Library Association "it was reported that officials decided to stop assigning a version of Anne Frank's diary, one of the most enduring symbols of the atrocities of the Nazi regime, due to the complaint that the book includes sexual material and homosexual themes. The director of instruction announced (that) the edition, published on the Fiftieth Anniversary of Frank's death in a concentration camp, will not be used in the future despite the fact the school system did not follow its own policy for handling complaints. The remarks set off a hailstorm of criticism online and brought international attention to the 7,600-student school system in rural Virginia. The superintendent said, however, that the book will remain a part of the English classes, although it may be taught at a different grade level."
Hats off to the principal and the community for coming to the aid of common sense. Cheers to them for not allowing one person's fear of their child being confronted with the reality of our world affect an entire student body. The Diary of Anne Frank has become a perennial favorite in elementary and middle schools because it is so accessible to the students. Anne was a young child just like the students, and the similarity helps accentuate the gravitas of the vile evil perpetrated by the Nazis and all of their colluders. You can teach about evil from the front of the classroom for days and not have the same effect as when a student puts him or herself in the place of Anne Frank, hiding in fear for her life, knowing that she might be found and sent to a concentration camp to be killed.
Although the teachers of Campbell H.S. can teach about the emotional and psychological effects of abortion and the decision-making process from the front of a classroom, when these issues are lived through the souls of Hemingway's characters, they create a new and increased level of awareness of the depth of the issue.
[image error]
There are dozens of stories in the cannon that deal with this issue that are not banned. Would you believe that Mary Shelly's Frankenstein, written in 1817, also deals with abortion, asking the question that if the creation is too ugly should it even be born? Not only is this an issue that has transmigrated across the centuries, but it poses the unspoken question whether those children with disabilities or malformities should even be born. Explosions from Chinese author Mo Yan deals with the idea of a government-forced abortion in response to China's One Child Policy. The poem The Abortion from Ann Sexton reverberates not about the act, but about the consequences and the feeling. Are these to be banned as well?
Whether I am in favor of abortion or not is not the issue. I am in favor of freedom of speech. I am in favor of the constitution. I am in favor of exercising the mind and making it work through tough social, philosophical and political issues.
Too many of us are told what to think and we react accordingly. We've gone to war with countries that have done the same in an attempt to free their populace from the iron grip of censorship, misinformation, and dictatorial direction. If we hold our freedoms so dear, then why do we continue to allow ourselves to be oppressed?
So I ask you this, students, faculty, administration, teachers and members of the school board of Campbell H.S.:
Do not do to yourselves what we free other countries from. Do not create your own literary gulag where the rule of the loudest few subverts the rights of the many.Do give your children the ability to learn from our literary masters.Do talk to your children about these issues so that they are informed of all sides.Do fight against oppression – YES! What this group of parents has done to you is oppression. How does it feel to be oppressed? What are you thinking?The amazing thing about fiction is that it can teach and inform us of things in a much more accessible way than classic "teach-question-answer-test" methodology.
So for the last time, I am pleading to your sense of Americanism. Don't ban books. Don't abrogate your rights. Don't be oppressed.
Thank You,
Weston Ochse
Author, Soldier, Father
September 24, 2010
Zombies to Invade Book Store - Eat Customers!
So far it's kind of been pathetic. When I wrote Empire of Salt, I figured I'd have two built in markets- the living and the undead. So far the living have been snatching it up like free popcorn at a dive bar. No complaints at all. I'm happy. The editor is happy. The publisher is happy. Everyone who is living is happy. To date, I've only had a few sad zombies stagger by one of my signings. Of course it was in Bisbee, which could mean that they were real zombies, or just stoned.
[image error]Zombies in...
[image error]Zombies in...
September 23, 2010
Follow Me
I need Followers. If you are reading this, do me a favor and click on that follow me button right over to your right... no, your other right.
Yes.
That one.
Thanks
You rock!
And it didn't even cost anything.
Don't you feel better now?
Yes.
That one.
Thanks
You rock!
And it didn't even cost anything.
Don't you feel better now?
Look Out World
Here they come.
Last night, I spent about two hours with about thirty aspiring young writers and their professors at Cochise College. This college is a traditional two year college with traditional tracks, as well as alternative tracks, such as degree tracks in Rodeo Clowning and Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Flight Operator. How cool is that?
Professor Leslie Clark had invited me to speak to her creative writing class. That expanded to several classes, as the Horace Steel Room at the college library...
Last night, I spent about two hours with about thirty aspiring young writers and their professors at Cochise College. This college is a traditional two year college with traditional tracks, as well as alternative tracks, such as degree tracks in Rodeo Clowning and Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Flight Operator. How cool is that?Professor Leslie Clark had invited me to speak to her creative writing class. That expanded to several classes, as the Horace Steel Room at the college library...
September 22, 2010
THE END
House from Burnt Offerings and PhantasmNot really the end of me, but the end of the weekend. We made it actually, but the weekend came to an end and I have mixed feelings about that.If you read chronological through our blog posts on the Haunted Mansion Retreat Blog, you can get an interesting psychological profile of our group. At first we were titillated. We kind of relished the ability to poke and prod everything ghostly. Then the next morning came an onslaught of what-the-f*ck-were-we-thi...
September 17, 2010
Haunted Mansion 4
The Cavalry
Eunice Pretending to be dead... not coolThe cavalry arrived in the form of three tattooed young girls. Ghost-Girls.org is their name and even as I type this they are busy settingup IR cameras, full spectrom cameras, trip wires, pits with pungi sticks, flypaper traps, and trip lines to capture every ghost in the freaking mansion.
If we survive, I'll give you the full low down skinny.
BTW, Scott Brown, Eunice Magill and Dan Wiedman went down to the pond awhile ago. They had to pass...
Eunice Pretending to be dead... not coolThe cavalry arrived in the form of three tattooed young girls. Ghost-Girls.org is their name and even as I type this they are busy settingup IR cameras, full spectrom cameras, trip wires, pits with pungi sticks, flypaper traps, and trip lines to capture every ghost in the freaking mansion.If we survive, I'll give you the full low down skinny.
BTW, Scott Brown, Eunice Magill and Dan Wiedman went down to the pond awhile ago. They had to pass...
Haunted Mansion 3
Crossposted from http://hauntedmansionwriters.blogspot... Friday, September 17, 2010 Calm Before the Storm I survived the first night. I think we all did, although I'm not sure of the whereabouts of Sephera and Rain. Either they're sill crashed in their rooms or they were taken to the ghost dimension. Also, if you haven't read Scott's post, you need to. He had an absolutely horrific experience. As someone who has had a similar ghostly paralysis, minus the shaking Scott experienced, I ca...
Haunted Mansion 2
Crossposted from http://hauntedmansionwriters.blogspot... K2 Meter So we took a tour of the mansion with a K2 EMF Meter. Rain picked me to hold it. Not so bad. Earlier Von and I had a scary ass experience with a certain door and stairway...goosebumps are still flipping. Anyway, I got three bars in two places in the house, one which was on those stairs. Even without the k2 I had some crazy crazy goosebumps.More later.
Haunted Mansion 1
Crossposted from http://hauntedmansionwriters.blogspot...
Haunted Mansion Reading - Writing Material
So I'm going into the Haunted Mansion this weekend. Actually it's the a well known Retreat in Mill Valley, CA. My number one Dark Tango Poet, Ms. Rain Graves invited a bunch of to participate in a writer's retreat. It's going to be something special.
But I want to make sure I'm in the right frame of mind when I get there. So I've decided not to bring any novels to read that take me outside th...
Haunted Mansion Reading - Writing Material
So I'm going into the Haunted Mansion this weekend. Actually it's the a well known Retreat in Mill Valley, CA. My number one Dark Tango Poet, Ms. Rain Graves invited a bunch of to participate in a writer's retreat. It's going to be something special.But I want to make sure I'm in the right frame of mind when I get there. So I've decided not to bring any novels to read that take me outside th...
![[image error]](http://blogs.tamu.edu/halhall/files/2007/03/frankensteinpb-195-small.jpg){kind=link}
