News, Notes, and a Niggle

What is the Greater Good?We hear that, but do we honestly understand it? Start by searching the net. You cannot get just one set definition. There isn’t one because it changes with every situation that refers to it. For one person, it might mean their family line survives throughout time. For another, it might mean the family lines of their friends and neighbors also survive. For a third, it could mean their country rules all others. For a fourth, it could mean that all evil people are killed. For the fifth, it is that killing for any reason should be illegal. For a sixth, it might be solving one of the world’s problems–like hunger, but for the seventh, it might mean an end to the world as we know it so that another society with vastly different rules can take its place.See what I mean? It is based on what is important to us personally. Very few citizens of any nation think of the success of the entire world on levels of building a peaceful, enlightened future together. We’re greedy. We see our ‘big picture’, but not the one our neighbor has hanging above his fireplace, not the dream in a foreigner’s mind, nor the one that our leaders have hidden in their hearts. To say anything is for the Greater Good is biased, and therefor, unreliable under the current definition, or I should say, lack thereof.So, let’s give it a set definition for those who wish Safe Haven was real and this world was fiction.The Greater Good:What best serves a set and defined dream for the future.
It seems that we require a set and defined dream for the future, but who gets to pick that? Should I, as the creator of SH? Should you, as the readers who’ve brought it to life? Should the retailers, who so generously take their cut and change my prices at their whims? Should the law, since more than a few of SH’s rules are illegal by today’s society? Should it be based on a particular religion or declaration? Or maybe we’ll use little bits of all. those mentioned.Most new civilizations that formed have used that last theory, but has it (or any attempt) worked? Has the future of mankind improved since, say, the 1400s? You could say yes, that science and technology have made such leaps as to account for the other less nice things that we’ve done to ourselves and each other since then. You could say we have the internet and it’s helped millions of people, that medical breakthroughs and research proven more than makes up for the mistakes.I say that’s shit and that deep down, we all know it. To build a perfect world, you have to do imperfect things, like get rid of evil people instead of renaming them so they’re classified as ill instead of a criminal once they’ve been caught (Ex: Pedophiles. They just can’t stop, so it’s an illness, not a crime. By those standards, bank robbers have money syndrome and should be listed as theft-challenged on their record. Huge snort. A crime, is a crime, is a crime. The true statistics don’t improve when you only change the titles.Someone very close to me recently said that because of personal freedoms that I would remove, my idea of life post shtf was unreasonable, unrealistic, and they wouldn’t want to live in an afterworld that I create.Ouch.This came from a talk of insurance>teen drivers>personal freedoms. It wasn’t a pick-a-fight moment for either of us–it just came up. I stated that 16-year-olds shouldn’t be allowed to have a license at that age, and that elderly folks should have a more detailed renewal test as they age. To me, both of those are common sense. Remove those two portions of drivers from the roads and it will be safer. Notice, I didn’t say safe. Nothing can make a highway safe, but we all know there are people who should not be on there, right? If they were gone, it would be safer.Now, I didn’t say if you’re old or young, you can’t drive. I said 16 is too young, and people should be tested more in-depth as they age. That got us into the talk of personal freedoms, and I swear, I don’t understand how anyone can look at the world and think no laws is a good idea. I agree that many of the ones we have are useless. Clearly, after writing so many novels that bash oppression and claim freedom is a right, I also feel smothered by the regulation and rules and dangers that we’re now facing. But does that honestly mean that no laws should be the rule of the land? That’s the only way to not take away any personal freedoms.Let’s break to Ben Franklin, who added to my ire when I was quoted something he said during the slightly heated conversation.
“Those who desire to give up freedom in order to gain security will not have, nor do they deserve, either one.”
He signed off on a whole list of laws for our society to follow. He took away personal freedoms to start America and I’ve always found it quite hypocritical. That feeling increased after re-reading the Declaration of Independence (a transcript-3 pages) this morning. Almost all of the things he was fighting against have come to pass for us. Why? Lack of foresight on the part of the FFs? Laws instead of complete freedom? Fate? Destiny? Or was it all shit and they planned for it to eventually become what it did?I have a hard time believing that the FFs wanted this world. I also doubt they thought we’d flourish they way we have. My vote is on simple lack of foresight. They didn’t think that American generations would ever allow their dreams to be corrupted, so they didn’t put enough measures in place to prevent it from ever being changed. Some would argue that our laws are supposed to change based on our needs, or even that the FF thought we wouldn’t need laws in the future because real freedom would sink in and magically make people do the right thing.  Others would tell me that if the documents were followed to the letter it would be the way it was meant to and there would at least be more peace than we have now.I won’t rule any of those things out, since I only see so far back in time from my seat in history, but my argument would be that not expecting it to happen or hoping it would get better or evolve on its own, is not something that I would ever be willing to tolerate. I was made to solve and build, to explore and create, and it goes against every fiber of my being to discover a problem and leave it there, or to only consider a short while into the future instead of as far as I can imagine. My God, World! What happened to us that we went from dreaming of landing on and then colonizing the moon, to miserably toiling and suffering the fools we call leaders every day now?Sigh.I sucked it up this morning and said we needed to change the subject because I was getting pissed. It wasn’t because the person didn’t agree with me, or that even that they said something so hurtful to me personally. It was being faced with more proof that even when the truth looks us in the face, we won’t/can’t accept it. No laws at all? Really? Think about that a sec.Hospitals don’t have to treat your emergency if you can’t pay for it then and you die because your next paycheck got halved when your employer chose to cut salary for the third time this year. Your husband/wife couldn’t come and help you because your neighbor took your car again after beating their ass and raping your daughter.All legal and the only defense is who can kill who first. That would be better? How?I know! People everywhere wake up on the first day of having no laws and are so lightened of their societal burdens that they no longer commit wrong acts? Damn. That’s fiction light-years beyond what I can write. Even famous stories about that sort of thing involve a chemical introduced to their air or water.Should I assume the person meant only some laws? Then what was wrong with raising the driving age and in-depth testing of drivers as they age? Where the hell has common sense gone? And why do I keep hearing that exact remark from people who will have a clear lane in front of them at the store lot where they parked and still insist on backing out into a blind spot where they could be hit or tag a shopper?That’s my bitterness. How can we ever evolve to a time where we honestly won’t need laws or to take away personal liberties? I want that world more than I can tell you. That’s my greater good and I understand we have to have good laws, breed good people, and work hard to get there. I don’t understand why I seem to be so alone in that view lately.The hope came from my own reaction. I ended the coming fight without being too mean (imao) or giving in (which means more), and that newest hollow place in my heart made this fire burn hotter in my gut to accomplish my goals. It also added another brick to the wall I’ve been erecting against those who don’t see any further than their own views, doors, or neighborhood boundaries. Without that distraction/pain/frustration, I can get more work done on my goals.Which is what I’ve been doing. Here's the Jan news and notes:
Where We Stand -LAW 6 will be on B&N, Amazon, Smashwords, & Kobo in the next week. iTunes, as always, could be yesterday, last year, or a century from now. (Roughly the message you get when you publish there.)
I am 150 pages into the third and final book of the Bachelor Battles. It will go up for pre-order in the next week or two, and thank you to everyone who grabs a copy early. Money is tight right now and I appreciate it. (That is the best way to help an author after putting up reviews. We wait an entire month between checks and those few bucks in the paypal account sure make the difference for some of us.) 
The Safe Haven website is now open in Beta mode. You can spend days there exploring each icon, lesson, and interaction. I suggest bookmarking it and coming back upon each book release once you get through it all. I will add new pages/links/activities/ with each new LAW book that comes out.
I hope to have book 7 (still unnamed) out by the end of this year. Please try not to ride my ass any more than you have to. This one will be really, really good if you can give me the time to it right. With Brady in charge, sparks should fly and the enemy should die.
The Killin’ Fields, Book 2 of the Alexa’s Travels series, will come out during the summer.
I now have more than 800 premade book covers on my website. If you need a art cover, please check me out.
I’ll be holding an author Q&A on 4/12. We’ll talk about the LAW series and bs for a couple hours. You ca RSVP on the new website.
That’s it for now. I’m back to the book files with a slightly lighter mood. Sometimes, you just have to get it out of your mind and let it be heard, whether people want to hear it or not. I’ll either keep the whining to a minimum for the rest of the year, or make this a weekly post. We’ll see how it goes.
Lighting a smoke and shrugging it off,Ang