I’m Back. Let’s Get to Brass Tacks.

Is This Thing On?

A writer is supposed to write for an audience of one, themself, before anyone else. If I can amuse myself with a turn of phrase or by spending some time exploring an idea, then I’m successful in the writing of that piece. If that bit of writing happens to amuse, bemuse, enrage, or otherwise engage others, then the piece itself is successful.

Hi. I’m Jason and I write things. I hope you enjoy them as much as I do.

Organ of Record

Typically, I’ll spend a couple of hours each night after work on writing. It’s not every day because it doesn’t have to be. There are no deadlines beyond the ones I’ve put in place for myself, and there’s no clamor for the next book so I really am writing to amuse myself at this point. And just so it’s clear, I’m good with the state of things as they are currently. It means I get to create without a lot of folks looking over my shoulder but when I’m done, there are a few who are interested and want to read. An ideal state, all things considered.

I’ve been busy the last few years and writing has come in spurts, often between obligations like school and work. Now that I’m done with school, I’m using the time I spent studying to apply myself to writing. I have a lot of goals for the year – some of which I’ve mentioned here – but mostly it’s getting back in the saddle to type away at things that have been running back and forth across my mind.

Over the last year I would come home from work, watch 45-60 minutes of whatever show I was trying to keep up with while eating dinner, then spend three hours (sometimes more) working on assignments, reading the texts, or engaging in the interminable discussion questions online students get to work on instead of engaging with classmates in person. When I couldn’t work any more I would go out to the living room where my wife and the dog would pretend to recognize me and spend an hour or so with them before shambling off to bed and not-very-often restful sleep. The alarm would startle me awake and I’d start the process over again: commute, work, commute, dinner, homework, family time, sleep. It was the rhythm of life for me.

Truthfully, it’s been a week and I kind of miss it. However, I have stories I want to tell, so I’m using the discipline learned in school and applying it to writing. It’s been really helpful.

So in the week since I finished, I’ve been in revisions on War In Vain, the second Wave book with Rob Schamberger. (You can buy the first one, Rudow Can’t Fail at this link.)The truest thing about writing what you want to read is that you better want to read it because you’re going to read that writing dozens of times (if you’re doing it correctly) before any other eyes see it. I’ve read this novella ten times and I’m still amazed that I wrote it. It’s paced well and I love the characters. Despite that, Rob reminded me when we finally got to hang out last week that the third act had some issues. He is, of course, right about this because his story sense is highly developed and though I didn’t see it at first, with each re-read it came to me. I’ve been using time in the garden and walking the dog, as well as my commute, to work on the issues and I’m building that fix in my writing time.

Revisions should be done soonish, depending on how much I get done over the weekend, and then I’m rereading the draft for a solo novella, Black Moon, and revising that for release later in the year. I’m also working on plotting the third (untitled) Wave book and another solo novella, both due by the end of spring in 2023. My writing plans encompass the next three years at this point. You see, I’ve got a lot of time to make up for and I mean to do it.

Brighter Than a Thousand Suns

In the Shrimad Bhagavad Gita – translated as “The Song by God” and referred to as the Gita – a most holy Hindu text, the character Arjuna is enlightened by his mentor, Krishna, with supreme knowledge before going into war. Enjoined by Arjuna to reveal his true self, Krishna manifests himself as a being with many mouths and many eyes. Interpret that as you will, but the atomic scientist Robert Oppenheimer noted for himself during the Trinity test in New Mexico that the moment was as “[I]f the radiance of a thousand suns were to burst at once into the sky, that would be like the splendour of the mighty one.” You may be more familiar with the other quote that comes from the same source: “Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.”

As I learn more about other cultures than mine, I become fascinated with the intersections like those above. Hinduism has, as noted in the linked article above, a non-linear sense of time and that intrigues me as a storyteller. In the terrific first season of HBO’s True Detective, Rust Cohle delivers the cryptic line “Time is a flat circle” and that intersection of pop culture and religion is even more enticing. Now I’m thinking about how time can be linear, non-linear, or something else completely new.

Over the last year and a half or so I’ve become a big fan of Killing Joke and as I was working my way through their discography, I ‘discovered’ their 1986 album Brighter Than a Thousand Suns. It’s a very commercial record, sounds a lot like U2 in the period only tougher and waaaay more political but not nearly as tough as the punk ethic of their first three albums and not as accessible, maybe, as Night Time which spawned the iconic single Eighties but there are some real gems here. In particular I want to point to Rubicon which has this line:

The magic of our science shines brighter than a thousand suns

Liberty in new dimensions ruthless and spectacular

Songwriters: Jeremy Coleman / Kevin Walker / Matthew Ferguson / Paul Vincent Raven

With the chorus, it sort of makes a perfect protest song in this moment, though I can’t say if that was the original intention. I say that because of this article I heard on NPR last week.

You want to know where science fiction and fantasy writers get their ideas? This is one way that works for me. Absorbing as much as I can about as much as I can and waiting for the connections to close. So if time is a flat circle, and yet non-linear, and it can be bent by the magic of science to show us new dimensions? Yeah, I want to explore that. If you add in the personal philosophy of KJ’s singer-seer Jaz Coleman, there’s endless ideas to mine from all that. I watched the Killing Joke documentary The Death and Resurrection Show agape and disbelieving in how they view their music (energy generation), each other, and the world around them. I don’t agree with all of it but that’s the beauty of being open-minded: all I have to do is be quiet and try to understand. Check them out if you like and if you’re not into punk or metal, Night Time and Brighter Than a Thousand Suns might appeal to you.

At Capacity

I’m not aiming to write a bunch of long-winded posts all the time, and frankly I believe I’ll just be here monthly at this point with only the occasional mid-month update. Like if there’s something exciting I want to point to or I’m going to be somewhere in the real world where we might meet. I’ll update the APPEARANCES tab when it’s appropriate, too.

I’m not going to lie that pursuing my education online after decades away from a classroom was easy because it wasn’t. I work full-time and have relationships to maintain (though I’m not always the best at that in good times). Add in the stress and strain of the pandemic, lockdown, paranoia vis a vis vaccines, a brutal election cycle, and the growing divisions among people who have always had more in common with each other than difference, and you have an idea how crazy my life has been these last few years. Patience is a virtue, for sure, and determination. I worked hard, did all the readings, participated in all those damned discussions, and put every ounce of energy (and as much creativity as possible) into the assignments in each class. I did well, too.

But downtime is important. And kindness. Remember that everyone reacts to everything very differently. You probably see this in your own household, so I would ask you to take the patience and kindness that you can exhibit at home and apply it to the rest of the world. I promise you that those in the service industries are doing the absolute best they can with the staff, support, and training they get which – often more than sometimes – isn’t sufficient when everything was what we considered ‘normal’ before. Take care of yourself so that you can show that kindness and patience to others. Hug the ones you love.

I’m grateful to you who read this entire thing. I’ll see you when I see you.