In The Middle Of Nowhere / Happenings In The Outhouse 04-March-2022

A few weeks back I wrote a blog post about the myth of a small town.  I want to expand on that for a moment.

I may live in a town that someone has called "in the middle of fields and nothingness."  She meant it a as a joke, but at the same time there is a little truth to it.  With a little over 1,300 residents, there are two towns with roughly 8,000 people, give or take, about 20-25 miles away, and another town of around 60,000 about 50 miles away.

I have been through some parts of our country where you can go for several miles of nothingness.  Literally.

I'm writing this as more of an irritation I have when media hosts (whether it on TV, radio, or even on a podcast) says something is in the middle of nowhere and literally less than a half hour drive there is a sizeable town.  No, it may not be Los Angeles, Chicago, St. Louis, or even Minneapolis, but they're large enough to house some bad, creepy individuals.

Our words matter, depending on your circumstances.  Just because a town is small doesn't mean evil doesn't reside in it.

Ed Gein anyone?

Myth Of The Small Town / Happenings In The Outhouse 21-Jan-2022

I've been listening to a few true crime podcasts lately (don't I always?) and the same phrase keeps popping up over and over again.

"It was a small town.  A place where everyone knew everyone."

FALSE!  UTTER BS!

I can speak with firsthand knowledge that, no matter how small the town is, no one can possibly know everyone.  Everyone will have a past or desire no one knows about.

Because, in many of the true crime cases, that someone who ends up being the killer is one they didn't suspect.

What does this have to do with writing?  Plenty, my friend.  You see, it all comes down to character development.  Call it creating a "round" character if you wish, but everyone has motives and events in the past no one knows about.

Use that creativity and shape memorable characters.

And please, for the love of God, do not use the phrase "a place where everyone knows everyone" at all.  Strike it from your vocabulary, unless you are making a satirical statement about it.

I have surpassed the 80,000 word mark on my current work-in-progress.  I have a goal to hit PUBLISH by the end of March.  But there is still a lot yet to write, and I am only in the third of four parts to the novel.  So it might be beyond that date.

Alienating your audience / Happenings In The Outhouse 19-Apr-2019

A month ago, I posted a blog about two events, one of which involved two true crime podcasts.  Here's a link if you wish to refresh your memory (the podcast event was at the end of the post).

Well, there has been a new development.  Again, I apologize for doing so without naming names.  But there's a reason for it, a lesson for all of us to learn without any names--besides, I don't want to be the target of any backlash so better safe than sorry.

The true crime podcast who did the shaming of the other has tackled some large cases in depth, one involving a young man who was charged and found guilty of murdering a fellow high school girl.  Other podcasts have done deep dives into this case, including a recent HBO documentary, and I have clear opinions on the case--my opinions I'm keeping to myself.

However, last weekend, the podcast's host took to Twitter and ranted on and on, alienating many people as racist, etc. if they didn't take the host's point of view.  There were even people who responded to the host, stating they are of the same political affiliation, and took the host's view as hypocritical.  Unfortunately, that didn't stop the host's tirade.

In the end, not only did I unsubscribe from the podcast, I deleted all of the episodes I hadn't gotten to yet--which is pretty much everything after season one, about the case I indicated above.  I will never listen to another episode of this podcast.

Authors, actors, and other creative types have also done this time and again--especially in today's age, with our current POTUS, social media is ripe with this kind of crap.  I have also blacklisted them.

Beware of what you say or post online, for you may be alienating your audience.  You may not care.  That's fine, if that is the risk you want to take.  Here's the approach I would take: focus on your art, your creation.  That is what the fans want to see, not your personal views on controversial topics.

Perspectives and paradigms / Happenings In The Outhouse 15-March-2019

How do you view the world?  What lens do you look at things around you?  Take an honest look at it.  Take a step back, if you have to.  Are you able to view events from varying perspectives, from another person's shoes?  Or are you narrow in how you view the world, that your way is the only way?

Given the current political climate, those who lean toward the liberal (left) side may view everything that Trump does is bad and should be criticized accordingly AND that everything they view on their side is for the greater good.  One may also say the same thing about the previous Obama administration in regards to conservatives/GOP.

But how much of it is true?

Two events happened last week, one personally on Friday and another more public fiasco on Saturday that spurned this post on perspectives/paradigms and how others view the world.

Friday, I saw a FB post from a science fiction author (no, I will not share who it is) who was criticizing the current President for signing Bibles while visiting the recent havoc caused by tornadoes in Alabama.  Now, my first instinct was to ignore it, hide it, and move on with my life.  But I was curious.  I inquired as to why they saw it as a problem.  In their opinion, people shouldn't be signing books they didn't write.  And since he didn't write the Bible, he shouldn't sign it.

Okay . . .

So, I poked the bear a little more--grin.  A gentle poke, mind you.  Writers may be asked to sign other things, like part of someone's body or their Kindle/iPad.  What did I get back?  The same rehashing, that it was odd he was asked to sign a Bible, clearly a book he didn't write, this author said.

In viewing the other comments, it didn't take a genius to figure out how politically-slated the author's "friends" were, not to mention the pure hatred toward a single member of our society.

Keep in mind, with my gentle poke, I reminded them that if the President handed out copies of his books, signed and all, how would the media portray it?  The response from said SF author?  Same old rehash from before.  The author didn't answer my question at all (I wanted to remind this author of how a certain president with the last name of Obama gave a gift of a iPod with all of his speeches on it, but thought better of it.)

In the end, I just deleted the comment, "snoozed" the author for 30 days, and went on with my life.  This author clearly was too narrow-minded and hypocritical to expand their thinking, even to have a civil dialogue.  Because a civil dialogue was my only intention.

The other event took the true crime podcast community by storm.  Again, I'm not mentioning names, but a popular true crime podcast was removed from a network (a podcast network, not a media network like CNN or Fox; again, no names here) for posting a meme on Twitter.  Looking at it from both sides, I saw people who were clear supporters of the podcast and those who hated it.  There was much blaming on both sides.

I'll end this post quickly, as I see that it's rambling on for quite a length, but the true lesson learned from the true crime podcast fiasco is this: when dealing with something, be it a meme or a post, before responding, take a pause.  Ask yourself: do I want to do this?  What are the consequences, if I do?

Even though our natural response to a stimulus is to quickly respond, take a moment . . . and ask if you really should respond the way you want.
I could go on and on, but this post is long enough.  I may revisit this topic at another time.

400,000+ / Happenings In The Outhouse 09-Nov-2018

The number is estimated to be between 200,000 to 400,000, and depending on what reports you read that number could be well over 400,000.

Why such a high number?  For budgetary reasons.  It's honorable that some of the world's wealthiest have banded together to fight such diseases such as malaria and AIDS.  Even fighting the evils of cancer and diabetes brings the battle closer to home.

But what is this number I'm talking about?

Untested rape and DNA kits.  The evidence linking victims with the perpetrators.

Imagine for a moment, you're the victim of a violent sexual assault.  Or your daughter, son, sister, mother, grandmother, aunt, father, brother, uncle are the victim of a brutal murder or rape.  Horrible to imagine, right?  Imagine for a moment that this vicious act took place years ago, decades ago, and the evidence of the crime is sitting, untested, in an evidence locker, waiting to be chosen.

In a simple rudimentary search, the cost of testing these kits range from as little as $600 to $2000.  That's a rough number of $240 million to $800 million just to clear the books.

How many crimes could be solved, and how many future crimes could be prevented, by having these kits tested and the perpetrators sent away?

Definition of a small town / Happenings In The Outhouse 05-Oct-2018

I grew up in a town with around 2,300 people.

I went to college (for 5 years) in a town of a little over 11,000 people.

I currently live in a town with around 1,400 people.

Forty-five minutes away is a town of over 56,000 people and an hour away from that town is another with around 120,000-plus.

Yet, when I read articles or listen to podcasts, and they mention small towns, these generally range around the last two: 50,000-plus.

Sorry to disappoint you but these are not small towns.  When there are malls and multiple McDonald's locations and Starbucks (or two or three), they are not what I consider small.  Even my old college town was not small in my opinion.  I've lived near town where, if you blink, you might miss the town.  Seriously.

Now, I'm just having a little fun here as well as a mini-rant.  There is a true crime podcast called Small Town Murder, where they really do focus on what I consider small towns.  A few may skirt the edge of my definition, but by and large they do a great job.

I know, I know, those who live in cities would call towns like Fargo, North Dakota, with over 120,000 people small.  I do not.

And that is where we have to agree to disagree . . .

Disclaimers and expectations / Happenings In The Outhouse 25-May-2018

I have been listening to a number of true crime podcasts lately (thanks in big part to the Netflix show Mindhunter).

One thing I have noticed about a fair amount of them are the disclaimers they have before each podcast.  Or, if they come to a graphic part where they're describing a murder or something demented being done to another person, they give a disclaimer.

Why?

First, these are true crime podcasts.  We should expect the blood and gore, the graphic nature of the sick individuals who create much havoc in society.  My wife buys a lot of discounted or free ebooks, many of them in the romance genre.  I will admit, I do read some of these.  I recently read one that bordered on pornography.  It was extremely graphic and delved into the weirder side of sex.  I will not give the title or the author, but I did look back to see if there was a disclaimer.

There wasn't one.

I read a number of thrillers and true crime books.  Again, no disclaimers there either.

Why is this?

It's because we expect it.

I've read a fair amount of Stephen King horror novels and I don't believe I have found one single disclaimer on any of them.  Why?  Because we expect to be scared to death.

The same goes with thrillers and the like.

So, to all of the true crime podcasters out there, quit putting disclaimers on your podcasts.  We expect the blood and gore and graphic crap.  It's true crime for crying out loud!

We expect it!

Sequel to Beholder's Eye / Happenings In The Outhouse 12-Jan-2018

I am busy working on the immediate sequel to Beholder's Eye.
Now, before you tell me there already is a second book (and as many as four in the Central Division Series so far), let me stress the word "immediate."
When I was working on the edits to Beholder's Eye, digging deep into the mind of a serial killer and mental illness, I questioned how it all came to be.  I ended the novel on a happy note (happy is relative, depending on your point of view) but where I left off was the aftermath of the destruction the serial killer caused.
How did the killer do it?
How much planning was involved?
I am a sucker for true crime stuff.  Especially about serial killers, but true crime in general.  Sometimes the true crimes are more fascinating (again, fascinating is relative, because at the heart of it is the cruelty towards another person, albeit an innocent one) than fiction.
This immediate sequel, tentatively titled Training Grounds, answers the questions revolving around the killer's planning.  I will share a link when it becomes available for pre-order.
Speaking of pre-orders (see what I did there?), Strange Birth: Book One of the Repel Trilogy is up for pre-sale.  Please click on this link.  The book is set for a February 1st, 2018, release date.