Archive for the ‘Reflections’ Category

Another Shooting Happens, Yet Some Are Still Not Seeing The Point

Posted: February 1, 2013 in Politics and Leadership, Reflections
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Yesterday, a shooting occurred at a junior high school in Atlanta, Georgia. According to the news reports, the working theory is that two students got into some sort of fight, one pulled out a gun, and started shooting. The student who fired the gun is currently in custody, while one student who was shot in the neck survived, is in the hospital, and at last update, was in good condition, thank God. There were other minor injuries, but thank God no deaths. The school itself, as well as neighboring elementary and high schools were placed on lock down for two hours before students were released to their anxious, loving parents.

It seems President Obama was correct when he said we are suffering from an epidemic of violence. And speaking of the President, deliberations over gun control are still raging in Congress, where some still deny that we need stricter gun control. I mean come on! A kid nearly died of injuries because another student somehow got access to a gun and brought it to school with him! And yet there are people who use the craziest arguments to say that we need looser laws on guns. Let me repeat that: looser laws on gun control. And I italicize that for a reason: because it’s nuts, and it’s not a solution.

Now I know conservatives fear that stricter gun control laws will immediately lead to a dictatorship where guns are only held by the authroities and the people are powerless. This phobia of theirs is the basis of all their arguments. For this phobia, I recommend seeing a psychiatrist, because it’s just not going to happen. America is not going to turn into Nazi Germany, because Nazi Germany was the result of a madman taking advantage of a system with way more flaws than our system and a people who were unused to democracy and thought it was decadent. Does that sound like our system? Does that sound like our President?

Oh, and Mr. LaPierre, you said nearly fifteen years ago that you supported universal background checks (and so does a majority of the organization you head, by the way). What changed? All those checks from gun manufacturers go to your head? And to Ms. Treyor, the woman who told the thrilling story of a woman who used her legally-bought home weapon to defend herself against attackers, the woman in your story used a shotgun, not an assault rifle. The weapon in question would be allowed under an assault weapons ban. How can you not know this before you tell your story?

Honestly, I find the fact that I’m compelled to write these posts every now and again ludicrous. I mean seriously, we regulate driving and women’s uteruses more than we regulate guns! The last I checked, guns were killing more people than cars or uteruses! There needs to be some consistency here, folks! We need to stop this epidemic of violence.

And not only do we need stricter regulations on guns, we also need to do something for those with severe mental illnesses, especially those whose illnesses make them a danger either to themselves or others. Ever since deinstitutionalization in the fifties and sixties, there’s been no safety net for those with mental illnesses that aren’t helped by drugs. We need to reestablish a safety net, if only to see that these people can get the help they need. Sure it might cost us a little more in taxes, but it’s better than having another Sandy Hook, isn’t it?

So Congress, stop listening to the fear-mongering and the lobbyists with the checkbooks, and get to work doing your jobs, which is helping the American people. Because sitting around and quibbling over whether or not an imaginary dictatorship waiting to rise from Clint Eastwood’s friend the chair does not help us with our actual, not-imaginary problems.

To Write Means To Give Up Vanity

Posted: January 31, 2013 in Reflections, Writing
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In my creative writing class yesterday we critiqued a story by one of our classmates, the story starring a rather interesting character. The “interesting” part I’ll decline to elaborate too much on in case this classmate edits this story and it gets published or something, but there is something that I can reveal: the main character is one of those writers who think they are the best thing since Shakespeare, that they are destined for greatness and anyone who dislikes or doesn’t understand their work is an idiot who couldn’t find brilliance if brilliance kicked them in the ass.

The funny thing is, every writer has been that writer at some point in their careers. I certainly was. It’s usually at that point where we can string together some semblance of a story together with any coherence to it. For those who discovered the joys of writing young, that’s usually in the teen years. I know for a while I thought all I had to do was write and eventually I’d come out with a novel that would be published within a year of finishing it, sell millions around the world, and I’d have an actress girlfriend whom I’d take to the premiere of the movie version with me.

Thank God, most of us outgrow this phase and realize that writing’s hard, good writing is harder, and writing anything that could be published is an amazing feat. For some, it’s only done once or twice in a lifetime. Others get a bit luckier, and they get published several times. A few of those get famous for it, or at the very least can afford to take up writing full-time (I’ll settle for that if I can’t be famous). All of these people who have been published though, even if it’s only once, were published after they got through this “I’m brilliant” phase.

Now, I know there’s no way I can prove that to you. It’s not as if I went to thousands of published writers, both contemporary and in the past, and asked them what they thought of themselves and their writing. But I have a reason why I think this, and here’s my reasoning: the writers who believe this way look at those who can’t understand or don’t like their work as fools, as annoyances. At best, they should be tolerated, but according to these writers, the world’s better off without them.

Sounds a little sociopathic, doesn’t it? But I’m sure it’s a thought that every writer who’s dreamed of greatness has thought, especially during this vanity phase. And it’s a horrible thought if we let it take hold, because it make others look less than human. Subhuman. Inferior. Weak. And a writer writes stories for these people. Not for fame or for money (though I’m sure some writers do write for those very reasons, and if they have any talent, they are wasting it by writing that way), but for the people. We want to share our work with people, to let them enjoy our fantasies. Maybe they’ll like them, maybe they won’t. But we write for them.

And if we denigrate the common man, if we think our readers and the masses are fools compared to our geniuses, if we writers can’t empathize with the persons reading our work, then we can’t expect them to like our work. At some level, they’ll see the emotions we’re trying to portray through our work are false and that we don’t really feel them like others do and they’ll reject the story.

This came up yesterday in class. “If the writer can’t empathize with the readers, he can’t make a good piece of fiction.” That’s something like what my teacher said, and I think it’s true. The writers who let go of this egotistical, self-centered vanity, who don’t let it take hold of them, they’re the ones who end up published, who are in the bookstores or in the magazines or on the e-readers. The ones that don’t…well, if we could tell what they think when they think about themselves and then think about you and me, I think we could really learn to love to hate them.

Of course, you can be a little vain about your first published work or something that’s gotten some success. But for God’s sake, don’t go around thinking you’re all that and a bag of chips until you’ve sold a million copies of your novel, and even then, resist those thoughts! Not even the prettiest gold digger will want to be near you if you make it obvious that you are only interested in yourself and she’s just another planet revolving around your light. There’s a reason pride’s one of the 7 Deadly Sins.

Well, that’s all for now. If I don’t post anything tomorrow, have a good weekend.

The Rise of the Television Serial Killer

Posted: January 29, 2013 in Reflections, Scary Stuff
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Occasionally, I have to devote a post to some hardcore horror subjects, and today I’ve got something I’d like to discuss: serial killers on TV. It used to be that serial killers were relegated to the worlds of novels, and films and they stayed there. Why wwas this? Well, novels had long ago ceased to be scandalous, and a novel was only called to be banned if there was something very extreme about it (such as the gratuitous and very kinky sex of Fifty Shades of Gray, or the popularity and messages seen or percieved in Harry Potter). A serial killer or two in a thriller novel wasn’t so bad, especially since there was always a detective or two there to hunt the freak and his mommy issues down (because until recently, it’s always been mommy issues; damn you pop psychology!). As for movies, they may be decried for their violence and sex, but those sorts of horror movies are restricted to adults mostly, and it is difficult for a kid to get in to watch them. Even with videos and DVDs, not a lot of parents show their kids serial killer films, afraid their kid might become the next James Holmes, Eric Harris, or Adam Lanza.

If a serial killer did show up on TV, usually it was in a crime show, and only just for one episode (two, if it was an episode arc meant to draw out something special from a character). There were never any shows about serial killers, the movies that featured them were heavily edited for sexual content and swearing before airing (never mind being fitted so that the end on the :00 or the :30), and otherwise they weren’t a part of the wasteland that is television. Why is that?

I think it might be due to that TV, unlike the movies, is open to everybody with a TV and a remote, so it would suck if a kid whose favorite game is fairy princess sees Michael Myers stab two teens who’ve just been copulating. Also, TV shows are marketed to get the most viewers, unlike movies, which are marketed to get the most money from moviegoers. Yes, there is a difference: movie studios get a portion of the sales from movie theaters when people see their movies, while television studios get profits when companies pay to have their ads air during the commercial breaks of popular shows. Since a broad variety of people watch TV in general, unlike a single movie, so the shows are marketed to get the most people watching in order to get the most ad fees.

Horror only appeals to a small number of the TV-watching population, and serial killers appeal to only part of the horror fan community. With that in mind, horror doesn’t often get airtime, let alone serial killers. When horror does make an appearance, usually it’s during Halloween or it’s an element of a crime or drama show (examples are Grimm or SVU).

But for reasons I’m not sure about, serial killers are appearing on TV these days, with their own shows or being a huge part of other shows. I think it might have something to do with a resurgence of serious horror on TV. We’ve got Walking Dead on A&E, American Horror Story on FX, and Supernatural on CW, serious horror shows without any of the comedy associated with earlier horror shows like Buffy the Vampire Slayer or the girl-bonding themes of Charmed. No, this is serious horror with traditional tropes like angry spirits, demons, and zombies, and the critics and the viewers are eating it up like candy. I guess it was only a matter of time before serial killers started getting their fair share of airtime, and there’s been some pretty good sharing there:

There’s the Bloody Face character(s) of American Horror Story: Asylum, who’ve been bringing the terror to the TV screen; the cancelled J.J. Abrams show Alcatraz had several serial killer characters throughout the series; and The Following, a crime thriller about a serial killer with a following of killers he manipulates from his jail cell, is enjoying strong ratings on FOX. Plus there’s more: A&E is developing a prequel-that’s-not-a-prequel of the famous 1960 thriller movie Psycho called Bates Motel; and on NBC, there is a much talked about adaptation of the first Hannibal Lecter novel Red Dragon called Hannibal, that I am looking forward to with a vengeance.

So there are several shows featuring serial killers, some on the major networks such as FOX and NBC, and perhaps more will be made in the future. As a huge fan of serial killers (the fictional ones; I don’t condone killing outside of fiction) and a guy who penned a novel about one, I can’t complain about that. Thoguh don’t expect me to watch the Psycho prequel unless the reviews are phenomenal, because with a story like Psycho where the sort of psychosis that Norman Bates has isn’t even clearly defined, it’s going to be difficult to create a show based on how that psychosis developed and keep it interesting. Now if there was a show about Jason Voorhees between his supposed death and when he started killing…no, that’d still be difficult to sell to me.

Also, I would like to clarify some comments I made on this post. Although I said that parents don’t usually show serial killer-themed media to thier kids so they don’t become killers themselves, and that TV shows try not to traumatize kids for that same purpose, I don’t believe that violent movies/TV shows/videogames produce killers. Although there are studies that link excessive video game playing and violent behavior and stuff like that, there is no proof that these violent shows, movies, and games produce actual killers. And if there is any study that shows a correlation, feel free to show me, but I would like to remind you all that correlation doesn’t mean causation; I’ve taken two or three classes that have emphasized that point. Besides, the killers I listed above all had documented mental disorders, and there’s no study yet that show a correlation between movies/TV shows/video games and mental disorders.

And while we’re on the subject, mental disorder doesn’t necessarily mean dangerous. That’s very rare, and it usually doesn’t get to the level of violence we’ve seen in recent months when it is dangerous.

Now that I’ve said all this, I’d like to say good night.

Happy Birthday To Islam’s Founder

Posted: January 24, 2013 in Novel, Reflections, Writing
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My calendar tells me that today is the birthday of Mohammad, the founder of Islam, and I thought I’d mark this on my blog. Why? Because the main character of my science fiction novel Reborn City, Zahara Bakur, is a Muslim teenager, and one of the thintgs I do with her is try to show a side of Muslims not always portrayed in the media.

Muhammad lived in the 6th and 7th centuries in the Arabian peninsula. Around the year 610, he recieved revelations from the Archangel Gabriel, and began preaching in Mecca, stressing the importance of monotheism and lessening the divide between the very rich and the very poor in Mecca. This and a bunch of other events led to Islam, which means “submission to the will of Allah”, spreading across the Middle East and eventually around the world. Today, there are 1.57 billion people who identify themselves as Muslims, and they all look to Muhammad’s example and preachings in order to live life they believe Allah wants them too.

But what I like most about Muhammad is that while I know he felt obligated to carry out the Divine Will, he was mainly motivated by a desire to help others. In fact, before he saw Gabriel, Muhammad was looking into many spiritual practices and ways in order to better himself and those around him. In fact, the reason he went to the cave he met Gabriel in was because of this desire, though he had no idea he’d recieve a revelation there.

In a way, Zahara is very similar in this desire: although she follows many of the edicts of her faith because she believes it is Allah’s Will for her, she also does it because she feels it makes her a better person. Consequently her view of life, molded partially by her faith, allows her to exact a positive change over some of the other characters over time. Of course, she has to get herself about neck deep into trouble to accomplish this, but it’s a science fiction story, so what do you expect?

The point is though, Muhammad tried to help others in ancient Arabia, Zahara tries to help others in a fictional dystopic world, and billions of Muslims across the globe try and help people just by following their faith and being kind to others, as opposed to the images we are sometimes bombarded with depicting Muslims as dangerous. And it is the factual image stated above that I want to remind people of as Muslims everywhere observe the Prophet’s birthday.

Aasalam Ailakum, and thanks for reading.

Writing Is A Solitary Art

Posted: January 21, 2013 in Reflections, Writing
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People have some strange image of writers, that we sit at desks with pen and paper or computers all day and easily crank out word after word, and then in the evening we rub shoulders with the paparrazzi and the rich and elite and educated and the celebrated.

Well, that’s wrong.

True., we’re often at desks, and more writers are turning to computers to create their works of art. However, it’s not at all to write. We spend hours trying to force ourselves and our Muses to work, to create what for some is a means to live and for others is plain living. And you know what? We do it alone. Sure, some of us have assistants. Many of us have family and friends that support us, and of course there are Internet groups and people who critique your work and, should you be so lucky, fans.

But you’re the only one who’s doing the writing. And rarely do you get to hang out with the stars, if you even want to (they can be so snobbish sometimes). If you do get to hang out with the stars, it’s probably because your books are published by a major publishing house in New York and you’re one of their major money-earners. Then perhaps a few stars might show up at your launch party, but that doesn’t happen often.

I’m getting off-track. Where was I? Oh yes, now I remember:

You are alone in the writing endeavor. It’s just you, the story, and the medium you’re using to write. Most likely, those last two aren’t living, and if they are you have a huge problem! And it’s up to you to sit down and write what you’re writing, to go out and do the necessary research for the story, and to edit and re-edit the story before you send it to an editor or someone you trust to critique your story. You are alone in your passion, your art, your gift. It’s both a blessing and a curse.

Sometimes people will mistake your devotion to writing for being antisocial or for being socially awkward. I’m not antisocial, though I do like at least an hour of alone time for myself each day to unwind, and as a student, I’m often by myself as I head to classes or eat a quick meal before I get a start on homework. As for the socially awkward…yep, that’s me. Sometimes I have trouble with social situations and figuring out what’s the best course of action. It’s led to some awkward moments in my life.

However just because writers must sequester themselves away from others to do their craft doesn’t mean they’re intentionally avoiding being social. In fact, a writer, especially a fiction writer, can’t be any good at what they do if they can’t empathize with the feelings and emotions in the real world and in the world of thier creations. It’s just a requirement for us to be alone for hours on end if we want to create stories that bring us and others joy. It’s the sad truth, but it’s the truth.

And if it brings us the next Harry Potter or a future Ernest Hemingway, doing a solitary activity can’t be all bad, can it?

I Love Turning Stories On Their Heads

Posted: January 20, 2013 in ideas, Reflections, Writing
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We’re all familiar with the Brothers Grimm and their stories. Usually they involve a helpless princess being rescued by a dashing prince from some sort of evil, and then the evil is defeated and the prince and princess live happily ever after. They’re good tales, but once we get past a certain point we realize that the classic fairy tales are simple, slightly sexist, and don’t show much beyond the surface.Recently we’ve been getting some updated versions of the old classics: NBC has the supernatural crime thriller Grimm, where a Portland cop interacts with monsters in human form that inspired our myths of werewolves and dragons and ugly old hags. We’ve seen some reworkings of the Snow White myth with two movies this past year, plus Oz, The Great and Powerful rebooting the old Oz mythos this March. And who can forget Once Upon a Time, the ABC series that’s taking all the old tales and working them into a single, kick-ass narrative with a warrior Snow White, a Beauty dating a monstrous Rumplestiltskin, and a not-so-little Red Riding Hood with lycanthropy, told through flashbacks that relate to today’s events (of the story).

I was thinking of these sorts of stories and I realized something: I love those kinds of stories. I love how they take preconcieved notions that were before unbreakable and break them before building the stories into a new form. In fact, I’ve got four of those ideas for books or book series, though nothing involving Grimm. That’s probably best though: I can get a whole lot more fans by messing with 19th century children’s literature, Arthurian legend, Hans Christen Andersen, and Judeo-Christian mythology (that last one might offend a few people though. Oh well).

Why do we like these sorts of stories? Why are they so popular? Maybe we like seeing something we all grew up with in a new light, or perhaps we enjoy seeing something familiar without all the politically incorrect quirks we weren’t aware of when we were young. Or maybe we like seeing a new side of something familiar. Who’s to say? We’re all different, with different tastes, beliefs, and psychologies. Even identical twins aren’t always perfect mirrors of each other.

Whatever the reason, I can’t wait to tackle my own stories and turn them inside out. Just got to get some other stuff out before that. But I have a feeling I’ll do that soon.

Review: “The Hunger Games” Trilogy

Posted: January 13, 2013 in Novel, Reflections, Review, Writing
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Normally I wait a week before doing another review, but I think this time I’ll make an exception.

I decided to read The Hunger Games books for a number of reasons. One, because m sister was upset at how many things got changed between book and movie (the movie I saw first) and I wanted to know if it was really something to be upset over (I decided it wasn’t, but actually very clever). Another was that the second film is coming out later this yea and I wanted to be prepared for what I’d find, maybe be as upset as my sister (though that usually doesn’t happen). But finally, I decided to read the books because Ohio State’s having this mock-Hunger Games thing called the OSU Honor Games, a nonviolent contest based on Suzanne Collins’s twisted imagination, and I want to be a tribute for my dorm (go Jones Tower!).

So I read the books. And without going into what I thought of each separate book, I’ll give you my thoughts:

First off, I don’t read a lot of YA, so I don’t necessarily know the conventions that are associated with it. Still, I thought certain moments in the story, Collins relied too much on telling rather than showing. For instance, at the end of Books 2 and 3, Collins ties up events in only a short few paragraphs. At the end of Book 2 I was like, “There’s a rebellion in progress and Katniss was apart of it without knowing it, and yet you expect to tell me that in four little paragraphs and that I’d be satisfied with that? Puh-leaze!” And at the end of Book 3, after Katniss (spoiler alert!) kills Coin while Snow expires from being a sick, bloody old man, I tought Collins was rushing a bit to finish up the story, to have everything resolve itself without doing too much writing or exposition or lengthy conversation. Too much telling, and maybe a little lazy.

Not only was that a problem for me, but at certain points Collins puts us into dramatic moments without putting on the drama. When Katniss and her crew go into the Capital in Book 3 to take down Snow, it seems Collins is deliberately under-dramatizing it, making the mission seem as drawl as possible. I would’ve cued in on Katniss’s feelings as she stepped into the Capital with a gun and bow and arrows, looking around the snow-swept streets and the rising excitement and tension as she awaits her chance to kill Snow.

But Collins decides to just put us smack in the middle of the Capitol, and things only get dramatic when she actually feels like telling us in detail what’s happening instead of summarizing it for us.

And finally, the ending for Book 3 left me stunned. I mean really, Katniss kills Coin just like that? A little out of left field, if you ask me. Where’s the dramatic build-up, the chance to let the world know what Coin did, to refute it so that the world will see how cruel war can make us and make it stick that we shouldn’t fight like monsters? Nope, just kills the old hag after agreeing the Capitol children should participate in a Hunger Games. And speaking of which, did that ever happen? Or after President Coin’s death, did they just decide not to let the Capitol kids not die?

Whatever.

I thought the first book fantastic, but Books 2 and 3 were not as good. Sure, Collins made an effort to make Book 2 more than just a bridge between Books 1 and 3, but at times it dragged, and I thought it took too long to get to the Quarter Quell. And Book 3 alternated between me being interested and me being annoyed and bored.

Plus the resolution of the whole Peeta-Gale thing…Oy Gevalt! I feel like there were so much more to those characters. They were both capable of being great political and military leaders, especially Peeta. But all we really see is their obsessions with Katniss and perhaps a darker side of Peeta after he’s been hijacked. And then the way Katniss finally picks her man…was that Collins’s way of saying, “Oh yeah, this is who she finally picks and how it happens.” I definitely wouldn’t have written it that way, and I think I would’ve gone into Katniss actually weighing her feelings and what each boy represents to her. You know, make it seem like they’re both dreamy and she just can’t choose?

And by the way, what do those guys do at the end of the book? Does Peeta become mayor of District Twelve? Does Gale find a new girl while leading reconstruction efforts in other districts? A little explanation please! God, now I know why the movie went into further detail of the behind-the-scenes stuff: it was needed to make up for what was left out of the novel.

So finally, how about my ranking? For The Hunger Games, Catching Fire and Mockingjay, I give the whole trilogy a 2.6 out of 5. Great premise, great story overall, but there was room for improvement, if you ask me.

The Fifth Short Story For The Collection

Posted: January 9, 2013 in Progress Report, Reflections, short story, Writing
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Oh, my winter vacation assignment is done! Sure, it ended three days into the new semester, but I blame that on the fact that I had to wait until I got some research materials. Either way, Step 1 of creating this collection is done, so I’ll have to get to work on the next step in publishing a collection. But first, let’s talk a bit on this final short story:

The story is called “Enigma”, a title with many different meanings. For example, the main character, whom I named Jason, is a young boy with autism, and if there’s a medical disorder that can be called an enigma, autism qualifies. Current estimates suggest that 1 in 88 children might have some sort of autism-spectrum disorder, and yet the causes of autism, while most likely genetic in nature, are still unidentified. And every person with autism is unique in what they react to, how to treat them, and how they develop with or without treatment. It’s an enigma just figuring out all that!

There are other reasons why Jason is called an enigma, but I’m not going to get into that because it’ll reveal too much of this story, and we don’t want that. I will say though that this story draws a lot on Native American belief systems, especially Navajo belief systems, and uses a black dog spirit, or more specifically, a wolf spirit, which was believed to be an emissary of death in Navajo culture. According to the Navajo, death entered the world when mankind killed a wolf, so it made sense that wolves were associated with death. And I get to work that belief into the short story, so I’m definitely happy I did the research.

I’ll probably give this short story another look before I send it off to a friend who knows quite a bit on autism and other related disorders to look at and critique. I want to make sure that the story is being told from the perspective of a child with autism, and I want to see if I can heighten the tension during certain scenes. Maybe I’ll also work on the ending a little more.

Well, I’m done writing short stories for a little while, at least ones that won’t be used for creative writing classes. I’ll let you know how my collection is coming along, and hopefully it’ll be out by the time I start editing Snake in March. Wish me luck.

Taking Risks According to Anne Rice

Posted: January 6, 2013 in Living and Life, Reflections, Writing
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Ever since I decided to skip the traditional publishing route and go into self-publishing, I’ve had people in my head and people I’ve known for years telling me that it’s a big risk, especially since depending on how I do it I could end up spending a lot of money and not get a lot out of it. Sometimes these voices do worry me.

But I stay optimistic, I stay strong, and I plug ahead without hesitation or fear. And I think things will work out for me. Sometimes you just got to take risks and say “F**k it, I’m going to do it.” Which is definitely my intention.

And if you don’t believe me, believe Anne Rice. She’s taken her own shares of risks in her lifetime, and she’s willing to talk about them.

Writing as an Exorcism

Posted: January 1, 2013 in Reflections, Writing
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“Help, I’m stuck in a human body! Call a priest!”

Lately I’ve come to see the act of writing in a whole different light. Yes, writing for me is sharing my twisted imagination with the masses, that’s always been a fact. And writing is certainly a creative outlet for me. However, writing for me is also a form of exorcism. What do I mean by this? Allow me to explain:

When I have a story, until I start to write it down the story stays stored in my mind. However, in the ever-present chaos of my mind, the story takes on a fluid quality. Ideas and aspects for the story change every second, with some things being added in, others being taken out, and others evolving or taking on a new shape. Frankly, it’s a little annoying that the stories stored in my head can’t stay in the same shape for much longer than a day or so.

But when I start to outline the story, especially when it’s a novel, the story starts to calm down a little. And when I finally write it down, the story starts to solidify, to take on a definite form. Finally the story, once written out, is now concrete, immutable. The only thing that can change the story now is my will or the suggestion of an editor, and that is not experimental change like in my head, but change that is meant to improve the story once it has been enacted.

So in a strange way, writing for me is a two-part exorcism: I am exorcising the story from my head and onto paper, through which I can share it with as many people as I want, and it is an exorcism on the story, taking out that mercurial aspect and allowing the story to harden into a definite form that doesn’t change on me or the readers. And since I’m constantly coming up with ideas for stories, I have plenty of exorcising to do!

So in this new year of 2013, I hope to exorcise plenty of stories and share them with you. Wish me luck, and I wish you all a Happy New Year!

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