Posts Tagged ‘reflections’

Remembering Paris

Posted: July 4, 2014 in Living and Life, Reflections, Tales from Abroad
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The entrance to the Louvre, surrounding by many fountains.

The entrance to the Louvre, surrounding by many fountains.

The other night, I was watching the classic Doctor Who serial City of Death (one of these days I will have to write an article on Classic Who from a writer’s perspective, because it deserves one), and I found myself freaking out because the serial takes place mainly in Paris, about thirty-five years before I myself was there. (Fun fact: City of Death was the first Doctor Who serial to be filmed abroad, filming between April and May of 1979. So yeah, 35 years before I would visit the city itself).

It was delightful for me to see all those sights in the actual episode, because I’d been to those places and I remembered what it was like to be there. I found myself reliving riding the Metro after a long day, trying to navigate my way back out onto the street after taking a twenty-minute train ride, because those stations can sometimes be little mazes in themselves. Or walking along the river Seine during a leisurely stroll and then sitting in a café near the Champs Elyesees and having a crepe and Orangina (I miss that brand of soda, by the way. It’s so hard to find here in the States).

The Eiffel Tower at night.

The Eiffel Tower at night.

The serial also had scenes set at the Eiffel Tower and in the Louvre. Both those places hold a lot of memories for me. For the Eiffel Tower, it was one of the very first places I visited when I was in Paris. My friend Ramsey Hardin and I decided we go on a late-night jaunt to see the Eiffel Tower at night, and we ended up somehow climbing all the way to the second level (not the top, because that was closed that late at night). It was an amazing view. From every angle you could see Paris at night, a lovely city of lights and mystery. There are hardly any skyscrapers in Paris, mostly due to the French’s distaste for them, so we had a clear view of the city at night. The tower itself starts having a light show with flashing bulbs bright enough to give people seizures about every hour or so, and that was fun to watch. While there we also had the opportunity to talk to a family from the States who were there for a special birthday celebration (the mother’s) and a group from a technical school in Texas that were there for their own study-abroad trip. If the Tower hadn’t had to close, I’m sure we would’ve spent another hour or two there talking to people and enjoying the views.

Ramsey and I at the Eiffel Tower.

Ramsey and I at the Eiffel Tower.

The Louvre has an altogether different feeling. There is more nudity depicted in that museum than in the world’s biggest strip club, and yet there’s just as much religious iconography and scenes to rival the Vatican. And through it all is an air of strange reverence, as if everyone is aware that they are in a temple as holy as any shrine. Even as people take photos of the Mona Lisa or Madonna on the Rocks or paintings so big they take up an entire wall or ones small enough to fit on a cramped bookshelf, there’s a subdued air, as if people are paying their respects to the products of old history and culture. It’s very strange, and you can only really get a sense of it by actually going to the museum itself.

My most artistic selfie.

My most artistic selfie.

But compared to Notre Dame, the Louvre might be a funhouse. I went there after the Louvre, and it’s a very amazing place. From the moment you arrive, you are struck by the very detail of the building. The entrances have so many figures carved into them that you could spend an hour just looking at them and guessing who they are. And once inside, it is very dark and quiet, with people looking around or praying. You can’t help but feel a strange holiness to the place, a sense of godliness no matter what your religious beliefs (or lack of them) are. I even met a couple of OSU alumni there (we’re everywhere!) and they agreed with me on that. I might’v spent more time there if I didn’t have to be back to the hotel by a certain time to meet up for dinner.

See any hunchbacks behind me?

See any hunchbacks behind me?

What does all this rambling have to do with anything? Well, I guess it’s the power of memory. Although sometimes very fallible, the power of memory can transport you through time and space, landing you in a totally different age and location. Just watching that Doctor Who serial was enough to bring me all the way back to France and those five or six lovely, idyllic days of study and learning and wonder and fun, faster than even the TARDIS, even. And I was so happy to return too, because it’s an experience I’ll never be able to relive again, and the memories and photos are what keep the memories alive.

And I hope they stay alive for a long, long time.

How To Build A Haunted House

Posted: June 30, 2014 in Scary Stuff, Writing
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Not literally, of course. I mean how to make one for a horror novel, movie, or TV show.

Haunted houses are such a staple of horror, tales of them dating farther back than The Fall of the House of Usher, and have continued to terrify readers and viewers alike over the years, whether they be watching The Shining or American Horror Story or even that episode of Doctor Who with the haunted house. The question is, with so many famouse haunted houses out there, both real and fictional*, how do you construct one that stands out from the crowd (and once again, I mean metaphorically)? Here are some tips that might help.

*For those of you who don’t believe in ghosts or hauntings, you can interpret this as houses in the real world that have history of or are purported to be haunted. For those of you who believe in ghosts…well, I don’t need to finish that sentence, do I?

1. A haunted house doesn’t have to be old and dilapidated. I know the standard image in our minds of a haunted house is one that’s an old manor, with shingles falling out and holes in the porch and plenty of leaks in the pipes, or sometimes a castle with no glass windows and plenty of dungeons and hidden chambers.  That’s great if you want to market it to the Addams Family, but haunted houses don’t necessarily have to look like that. They can be only a few years old, very modern-looking, and in the middle of a nice neighborhood. Heck, you can even make the house a haunted apartment building if you so desired (there was a movie that did that a few years back. Would’ve been good if it hadn’t been a direct-to-DVD sequel).

Not your average haunted house, is it?

In this one novel I plan to write, I plan on the haunted house being only about three decades old, and without any sort of dilapidation or other trademarks to make it a haunted house. What makes it terrifying is its current occupant, as well as the atmosphere that hangs over the place.

For some good examples of haunted houses that don’t fit the standard mold, try the remake of When A Stranger Calls, the first season of American Horror Story, the Buffy episode Where the Wild Things Are, and (if you really want to) The Grudge 3 for that haunted apartment building. Oh, and Ghostbusters as well, that has a haunted apartment building. Or is that a doorway? You decide for yourself.

2. You don’t always need ghosts for a haunted house. For example, you can zombies, witches, a serial killer, vampires, werewolves, just something out of the ordinary. A haunted house doesn’t become haunted because it has ghosts in it, but when something (usually malevolent) is inside. That’s why the movie Cabin in the Woods is so genius: besides breaking down and exploring/philosophizing on the tropes of the horror genre, it also shows how much variety there is to the haunted house and what can haunt it. Anything from zombies to wraiths to werewolves to evil dolls to giant bats to merman to scarecrow people and everything in between, you can use.

3. Use plenty of description when describing the house. In a horror movie, you don’t need to describe the house, because you can see it just fine. But in a novel, the author has to supply the information. What does the outside look like? Is there a distinctive style of architecture involved? Is it painted in really ugly colors that don’t compliment one another? What’s inside? Accessories, knick-knacks, the odd little mirror that’s always in the northwest corner of a house? Is there a yard? What’s in the yard? Does a colony of rabbits live in the yard? Keep all this in mind the moment you introduce your characters (and by contrast, the readers) to your haunted house.

4. Don’t go all out as soon as the door’s closed. By this I mean one should use a subtle build-up in order to properly scare the reader. You can’t just come out with a ghost or an axe murderer showing up and attacking people the moment the door is closed and the character or characters are settled in. There should be a steady build-up. First small things go awry or weird things that can easily be explained but are still creepy nonetheless. Then weirder stuff happens: you might see a form out of the corner of your eye, or you walk into a room and the furniture is all moved or ruined. There might be voices you can’t explain, or perhaps something catches on fire inexplicably. You touch a certain section of the wall, and you feel intense pleasure or pain. And then finally, there’s no denying that weird stuff is going on: the ghost has appeared, the threat is revealed, you’re going to have to deal with it or die. Using the house to do all that and more can really ramp up the suspense and terror of the story and make your haunted house terrifying and distinctive.

Don’t reveal THIS too quickly.

A great example of this ramping up of the terror is the original Amityville Horror, as well as the movie Sinister.

5. Your house should have a history. Whether the house is ten, a hundred, or several hundred years old, it should have a history, and the author should know what it is, even if they won’t reveal all of it to the reader. What is the history of the house, or the land it sits on? Does it involve an Indian burial ground? Was there a really nasty murder there? Or was there something even darker than that lurking beneath the floorboards and behind the walls? This will help you flesh out the story, the haunting, and whatever is happening in your story. Also, often times one can figure out how to defeat the antagonist of the story through its history (like Jason Voorhees and water, or Goblin from Blackwood Manor by Anne Rice). And if this history involves certain people or objects, make sure to have that worked out as well.

There are many great examples of haunted houses with history, just watch any episode of a show for investigating haunted locations. If that isn’t your thing, try movies like The Conjuring, or the TV mini-series version of The Shining (not the movie though, that was a terrible adaptation).

6. Research common signs or symptoms of hauntings. I know some of you will be like, “What’s he talking about?” Well, besides sightings of ghosts or voices being heard, people often report certain things when experiencing a haunting: inexplicable areas where it is cold, electrical devices being drained, objects being moved, and even attacks, and each can happen for very different reasons. I like to include these things in my story because they seem to give my stories an air of authenticity (if you want to call it that). You don’t have to go this route with your haunted house, but if you do and you want to do some research, ghost-hunting shows or manuals on ghost-hunting can be great resources. Also do some research on why these signs and symptoms might not be caused by a haunting, because…

7. A little bit of uncertainty goes a long way. One of the scariest things with a haunted house is not knowing. Not knowing if you’re going crazy, not knowing if there’s actually a ghost in the house, not knowing what it wants or how you’re going to stop it. It’s scary not knowing, which is why a writer should exploit it for as long as they can in a story. It’ll make your story that much better. So knowing explainable ways for a “haunting” to occur can help to add to that uncertainty. Could it be electrical fields? Could it be a spirit? Or is it just the pipes and my new medication? It’s scary just not being sure.

Ultimately, it’s how the writer writes the story that makes the story scary. But if these tips have helped make your story scarier, then I’m glad to have helped and I hope that you have fun constructing your haunted house. I bet it’ll be very terrifying.

That’s all for now, I–that’s odd. My water bottle just fell off the counter. I could have sworn I put it farther back on the counter. Wait, what was that I just saw out of the corner of my mind. I must be working too hard or watching too many movies. I–oh my God! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!!

….

….

…

…

….

He’ll be coming for you next.

The “Joyland” Mix Up

Posted: June 26, 2014 in Living and Life, Novel, Reflections, Writing
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See the difference?

In 2006, author Emily Schultz published her first novel Joyland, about a teenage boy growing up in an Ontario town in 1984. This was her second published book, coming after a 2002 collection of short stories. It apparently got some really great editorial reviews from national publications, calling it a great coming-of-age novel and an exploration into teen sexuality.

About seven years later, His Royal Scariness Stephen King published a novel with the exact same name, about a college student in 1973 who gets a job at an amusement park and finds himself solving an unsolved murder (I’ll have tor find time to read it one of these days). Plenty of King fans went online to download the e-book (some may not have realized that for a while the book wasn’t available in that format, which will explain what happens next). But the funniest thing happened: several of these King fans downloaded Schultz’s book believing it was King’s book. And right until the end, some of them never realized they got a literary coming-of-age by a Canadian-American author instead of a dark, creepy whodunit from Stephen King!

And it reflected in the reviews some of these people gave Schultz’s book. Here’s one who absolutely hated it:

I have always loved Stephen King novels. However, this one was a rambling, stream of consciousness mess. I had to go back and read over the last pages again and again to try to understand what was happening. For a person who reads several books a week, this is annoying, to say the least. I will still read his next book, if there is one. He fascinates me with the way he thinks, generally. This book was not my favorite, by any means.

And here’s one who thought they’d try to counter-balance all the negative reviews from King fans:

However somebody give it a one star rating because THEY accidently purchased it thinking it was Stephen King, i’ve no idea how they did that but this review is too counter balance that one.

Here’s a prankster who thought they’d satire the whole confusion:

As soon as I learned Steven King had his sex change operation AND changed his name, I immediately rushed out and bought this book. The surgery (and hormone therapy) have really changed his appearance AND his writing. It’s amazing. It was almost like reading a completely different author.

Mrs King (Schultz), your new vagina has served you well! Nicely done!

And here’s one from someone who actually thought it was a great Stephen King novel, if you’ll believe it:

Full of suspense and mystery and real, visceral horror. Don’t be put off by the new nom de plume. King’s new pen name signifies another evolution in his career, just as he emerged from the Bachman years’ “Thinner” into the soul-baring masterpiece of “It”. Writing from a feminine perspective is admittedly experimental, but this experiment is a SUCCESS.

Now, I’m sure plenty of authors would be upset about this confusion. Ms.. Schultz has actually kind of taken advantage of the confusion and the money coming her way by creating a Tumblr blog called Spending the Stephen King Money, where she details how she’s been spending her unexpected royalties, from donation to charitable organization to IKEA shopping trips. And of course, it’s only brought more attention to her, and her book. I’m sure plenty of people will read it now just to read the story that got confused with a Stephen King novel.

In fact, there’s a certain author who plans to read the book:

Yep, King is ordering her book, and Ms. Schultz in turn is planning on reading Stephen King’s Joyland. It’s a really weird but hilarious ending to a rather strange series of events stemmingfrom a simple misunderstanding. But hey, I’m sure both authors will laugh about it when they look back on it years from now, if they aren’t laughing about it now. And who knows? Maybe they’ll collaborate torelease books around the same time with the same titles and see what happens. In fact, I kind of hoping they do!

I’m not sure how this sort of thing happens, except through serendipity. In fact, this is the first time I’ve heard of such a thing happening on such a scale that even some media organizations report it. Sure, we all have or know someone who went to get a certain book or movie or check out a certain TV show and ended up reading or watching something with a similar or identical title (that actually happened to me a couple of weeks ago). But on this massive scale? It’s almost a little hard o rap your head around. If Saturday Night Live was airing new episodes right now, this would be the subject of a Weekend Update joke.

Well, like I said above, this is a case of serendipity at work. Just a happy accident. I wish something like that would happen to me, and I’m sure plenty of people will echo the sentiment. Not only is it a funny story, the royalty checks and recognition wouldn’t be too bad either. But it’s still very unlikely, even when your book has a similar name to a bestseller (The Quiet Game and Snake aren’t the only books out there with those names, believe it or not).

But I don’t think’s that’s a bad thing. After all, it’d suck if a lot of negative reviews brought down your book’s average because of some silly confusion. And I’d prefer to get success through my own hard work, creativity, and the help of my good friends and/or readers rather than through some silly mix-up of random chance.  More satisfactory that way, anyway.

I just have to write something that will allow that sort of success. Well, hopefully that story will come soon, if it hasn’t already. We’ll just have to wait and see.

What do you think of the King/Schultz mix-up?

If this happened to you, how you would react?

My Affinity For Female Protagnoists

Posted: June 22, 2014 in Reflections, Writing
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I do a lot of female leads in my writing And for some time now, it’s been bothering me. Not the kind of bothering like “I’m a dude, I should write more male leads”, but the kind of bothering where you ask every four-year-old’s favorite question: why? Why do I feel such an affinity towards female leads? And why do they always seem to come into the story with some baggage or that they get baggage early on in the story?

I’ve been wondering about both points for some time, and I think I might finally have some answers. For why I prefer using female protagonists, I think it has a lot to do with my childhood. I grew up in a family with a lot of women in it. That has some upsides and some downsides, one of the upsides of which being that I had some very good examples of strong women right in my own home. My mother is a woman rabbi and became ordained in an era when there were very few women before her or with her in that role (there still aren’t many women rabbis, but there are certainly more than when my mother was ordained). And sometime after she divorced my dad, she became involved with another woman, who I’ve come to look up to as another mother. My mother’s partner is an accountant, and was there countless times when I was having trouble with math throughout middle school and high school. She was also one of the people who taught me to play sports during the few instances where I showed an interest in sports (rare instances, but thy exist).

Besides my family, some of my childhood heroes were actually heroines. Growing up, I was very big into shows with girls who could have normal lives one minute and kick monster ass the next. This primarily involved Sailor Moon and Buffy the Vampire Slayer, both of which I’m still huge fans of (by the way, Sailor Moon is getting an anime reboot next month. If you haven’t guessed, I’m kind of counting down the days till then). Besides sometimes having really creepy monsters and awesome battle scenes, these shows portrayed women as more than just screaming damsels in distress who need a man to help them. They show women able to fight back as well as have real character development and  growth. With all these influences, it’s no wonder as a writer I tend to write more female protagonists than male.

And I think that that’s a good thing, really. If you look at our contemporary media, you see several more men than women as leads, and generally the men are much more developed. Sure, there are women like Katniss Everdeen and Black Widow or Mystique, but the former seem very underdeveloped in Books 2 and 3 when you consider how she keeps going back to her romantic issues and how her life is mostly manipulated by powerful men, and the latter have yet to have their own solo films. Recently there’s been controversy over the new Assassin’s Creed game not having any female leads, and most video games still don’t have as many female playable characters as men, and those that do don’t always take the time to develop their leading ladies. To be sure, there are a new class of women (particularly women of color) emerging in the media who are portraying women in strong, positive, fully-developed roles, such as Olivia Pope in Scandal, the detectives from SVU, and even the women from Orange is the New Black. But there is still a long way to go, and the landscape is still very uneven.

Even though my work is only read by a small amount of people at this point, I like to think that with the large number of female protagonists I write (and hopefully received as well-written role models) is helping to correct the problem and give more girls what I was given at a young age, which was some great examples of strong women.

As for the whole thing with the baggage that a lot of my characters come with, I think that can be said for a lot of writers. Let’s face it, authors tend to have their characters come with baggage. Maybe they’re orphans, or they lost a loved one, or they have a dark past with family issues or drugs or something. I think that’s because we like our characters to be a little broken, in order to make them more identifiable and to make it easier for us to facilitate character growth. Honestly, I think it’d be more of a challenge to give a compelling story with development and growth to a character who doesn’t have anything worse than clinical depression or a tendency to pig out on junk food.

In any case, I’m happy to say I now have a better understanding of myself. I look forward to seeing what I can do and what I can write now that I have a better understanding of my process and the sort of characters I create.

Well, that’s all for now. I think I’ll sign off now and watch some TV. Have a good night, my Followers of Fear.

Conversations With Timothy Louis Baker

Posted: June 20, 2014 in Author Interciew, Writing
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He started out on a farm, but had to leave because people were after his life. What happened over the many years for this man, before turning to writing, involved a life with more twists and turns than a labyrinth, involving drugs and crime, camping and living in the mountains across North America, and even some interesting paranormal experiences. Today’s interview is with Timothy Louis Baker, author of Fantastic Florida Fun, Crime and Drugs on Trip City Street, and his autobiographical When North Meets South and East Meets West.

Based on the descriptions of your books, a lot of your writing seems to be based on your own personal experiences. What motivates you to write about your past and how do you come up with stories based on your life?         

Rami, I often make the comment that I write what I know and I know what I write and that holds true, through present I refer to things of my own life to write about and very little do I have to look up in another book or online somewhere. That is all because I have had such an interesting life and I’ve found that if I take those experiences I’ve had and expound upon them in fiction but along the same lines as has occurred in my own past, that my writing is just that, not only interesting but entertaining, to the ultimate degree. I’m very well-traveled and have been in a variety of locations and multitude of actual experiences, so I have no trouble in keeping a story line going about a certain person, place or thing. Whether I write fiction or non-fiction in the case of my autobiographical works, my story unfolds and continues consistently with new material and not keep repeating the same thing over again. If you examine my writing, you’ll find that the pace is fast and constantly changing, with either what the character is doing, where they are in location or what they are up to. It all varies at an incredible rate because that’s exactly how I’ve lived, continuously changing where I am, what I’m doing or whatever, there is never a dull moment. My lifestyle reflects upon the pages of my books, even the fiction works and really as a writer and an author, because of the kind of person I am, I wouldn’t have it any other way. That just goes to show you, personalities show up through our work and I think that’s the way it’s supposed to be.

Could you walk us through your writing process, from the moment you get an idea to when you publish the book? 

I started writing on pencil and paper then graduated to a typewriter and eventually by computer, but it all goes the same route. I write my story and then I edit it with my own author’s knowledge but sometimes, after submitting to a publisher, I have to crack down on myself and allow them to edit it also. My full-length autobiography Where North Meets South and East Meets West was an idea I had long ago, I mean like when I was 16 years old and hitchhiking to Florida with little or no money, I had an idea that my life was going to be long enough and full enough to write a book about it all, and more. When I was in my 20’s and living part time in the mountains of Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, and the forests of Michigan and Minnesota, I came about the idea for each and every story of all my books and made that mental note in my head the exact ideas I had for them, and eventually I did write them. It was easy because I already had the created version in my head, I just had to use my imagination to add the characters, places and events that were in my head to the pages of my books and behold I am an author again. Then after submission to publisher and acceptance of my manuscript I am again a published author. With me, writing is the work, editing is minuscule comparatively and when I get that acceptance email from a publisher is truly happiness. Because I know my writing is going to be available to the public for the people to have access and that is the point of my career. It’s not how much money I might make or how famous I will become that is important, but getting my writing out there to the people who may read it. The rest all comes along with extras in between that, not just as the main point of enjoyment in my life but the fulfillment of what I’ve written as an author to be enjoyed by others.

You’ve had some very interesting life experiences. What do you do now these days? Is your life any more interesting, or has things gotten somewhat calmer?                  

Ah, but life is the same. Now that I don’t do all of the things, as much or as many times in a row, as when I was younger, doesn’t mean that I’m any less active or live a less exhilarating lifestyle anymore. I keep occupied at what a great many people may do, and I’m sure they do, by online computer and other devices. Look we have access to all of the things that people used to have to go to the library to look up or reserve a mental note to ourselves to ask a certain particular person we might know, next time we see them. Now not only that we can read books and gain all of this information or personal entertainment, right at the touch of our fingertips. Life is as exciting as ever. I fish in the creek, I ride a bike almost everywhere I go in town and at 55 I still lift weights. Lifting weights is what I used to call bodybuilding, but because I’m not a spring chicken anymore and don’t grow as rapidly nor can I do as much weight as I used to, I now just ‘lift weights’ or ‘do my weightlifting.’ As far as living a calmer life? Maybe when I’m a hundred. Never a dull moment and I always mean that in a good way when I say it. One does not have to go thousands of miles to experience adventure. That is something a person can do anywhere they are and anything they’re doing. It is something you find inside yourself, so much of the time anyway. All it usually takes is a little bit of initiative to find or discover and that can be nearby as well as far away, it just depends on the situation. I like the days when the last thing I can possibly do that night when I go to bed is drag myself off to the bed and lay down to sleep, just as much as I like those days when I am able to sit for longer periods of time and let the radio or television entertain me rather than get it by just so much activity of my own hoping that will keep me excited enough to stay up without falling asleep until I get all the work done. Mentally I’m probably more active since becoming a writer than I ever was before. If not then just as much anyway.

How did you get into writing?               

When I was 33 years old I had the idea to write down some notes about my lifetime and because my life had been so interesting up to that point I soon invested in a typewriter that ended up the forerunner of a rough draft for my autobiography. I had lived so many interesting experiences that I thought the world should know all about them. It wasn’t until a few years later that I was able to gain the ownership of a computer but before I did I set down a rule in my house: Every time I came up with an idea on something pertaining to a real experience that happened to me personally in my lifetime I would write it down on a piece of scrap paper and lay it on a pile on my kitchen table. Well after several months and when the pile was a couple of inches tall and I was sure everything I would need the time to think of before writing had already taken place, I finally found a way to get a computer and that is when the placement in chronological and geographical locations began to take shape. With the computer I could write something where I thought it should be and then if I didn’t like where it was or how it was written, I could change it and copy and move it and paste it wherever the best place for it I judged would be at. Well this was OK except that something happened, that is now included in my autobiographical works, a catastrophe and all I got away with it all were the floppy disks of some of the stories of some of my books now, but also including a printout copy of my first rough draft. Well to make a long story short, being relocated a couple of times, finally I was able to manage to procure another computer and that was the one that wrote all of the rest of my seven books that I had not already written on either the floppy disks or the paper printout version of my autobiography. This led to me achieving internet access and that brought on copyrights for all seven books and eventual publishing of them all. Basically I got into writing because I had some things happen to me that I thought were so unique that nobody else in the world had these occurrences and so I was compelled to write then and that is my full-length version autobiography Where North Meets South and East Meets West, the less graphic and condensed edition An Experience Heaven Sent and My Life’s History in Poetry and the uniqueness of those events that I’ve never heard of happening to any living man in my generation were the miracles including and especially the living, waking, physical ascension in Heaven where everyone and everything was young and beautiful and lived forever. Then I was returned to the earth by my ‘higher power’ that had caused me to thus be arisen into that afterlife, also brought me back. If that isn’t something to write about then I certainly don’t know what is of my own personal lifetime of events and trivia.

What are you currently working on?                 

I haven’t been writing any actual books lately but I’ve got one started that I began a few years ago and sometime when the workload of book marketing the seven books I’ve already published slackens and begins to give me ample opportunity to finish writing that one I will. I have to have some time for me too on a personal level to do the things I want to do with my own time on my own space but the name of this newest work of mine is Some Sing Song Way and it is a historical novel about a man that is abducted by Indians from the Oregon Trail and he discovers that living with the red men is actually compatible to his own life. He has a past with the white men and now he lives with Indians, finally on a voluntary basis and actually sort of prefers them. Later in the book he will meet up with the past in a US fort out west and after that when he is alone and in solitude the events of his lifetime will unfold before him as he will contemplate that past with his own history with Indians, while he is living out in nature without either one, or anyone, and he will decide how he really feels about it all in his own present and that will make up his mind on his decision about how, where, and with who he will live the rest of his days.

What is some advice you would give a budding writer?              

I always give the same answer to people that ask me advice through posing this question and that is – write what you like and hopefully that will be what you know and if you write what you know, you are likely to write the very best that you can write. That has so far been my answer to this question of what to tell someone that asks what they should write for a book, written by them.

If you were stuck on a desert island and could only take three books with you, which ones would you take? 

That’s easy and they are all books that I have written. The books that are the most important things that I could ever take with me to be alone. Even if I ever doubted I would ever see anyone else ever again, I would take the three autobiographical works that I have written, Where North Meets South and East Meets West, An Experience Heaven Sent and My Life’s History in Poetry. Because in them I know what I left in print in books behind me back in civilization, the most important words or any kind of works I have ever performed in life would be there to remind me of what I left behind that someday, maybe not in my own lifetime, but someday in some generation in the future perhaps, would be invaluable to the rest of the world of their, those people’s time. In other words, someday in some generation this story will come out and make that big impression upon all humanity at that time and continue for the rest of life on earth as we now know it.

If you would like to know more about Timothy Louis Baker, you can find him at Author’s Den, on the website of SPBRA, Facebook, and Twitter. And if you’re interested in checking out his books, you can find them on Amazon.

That’s all for now. Hope to have some more interviews soon. And if you want to read previous interviews, head to the Interviews page, where authors and characters will tell you about themselves and their books (and whether they write them or spring from them).

Review: I Am a Ghost

Posted: June 19, 2014 in Review, Scary Stuff
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Two words: awesomely freaky!

Ever since I heard of this film and saw the trailer for it, I’ve been dying to get my hands on it. I mean, it’s won a lot of awards, and just watching the trailer you can tell it’s a truly terrifying movie. I’ve seen it a couple of times, and I still jump every time they do those creepy notes. (If you were unable to watch the trailer for any reason, please click here)

If you thought that was terrifying, you can see why I wanted to get this movie. Sadly, it was really hard for me to get my hands on, so I only got it tonight by downloading it off of Amazon. Suffice it to say, it was money well spent.

I Am a Ghost follows Emily, a woman in a 19th-century white dress living in a house with a strange mix of Victorian and early 20th century furniture. Slowly, you see her act out certain activities over and over. Each time, it’s a little different, a little stranger, a little freakier. And then comes in Sylvia, a psychic whom we don’t see. She is only accessible to Emily and to the viewer as a disembodied voice, a medium hired by the family who owns Emily’s house to help her move on. (We don’t see the family either, but if we did, I’d say it’s a couple of cheery kids who break into tears when freaky stuff happens, a wife who’s opened herself up to the paranormal because it threatens her family, and a father who’s reluctant to admit his house is haunted, let alone that they need a medium). From there, it is a strange, deeply psychological story that keeps you glued to the screen from strange start to terrifyingly freaky finish.

H.P. Mendoza, the writer, director, and cameraman of this film, weaves a very fascinating story, showing Emily’s chores and life through different angles as she repeats them in a dream over and over again, and then finding new ways to make them even freakier. Slowly but surely, you will find yourself drawn in like a fish on a reel, and as the film moves towards the end, we become shocked with more and more information on Emily’s life and death, which ultimately leads to an ending that will leave you terrified to the core.

Anna Ishida, the actress who plays Emily, gives a wonderful performance as a ghost stuck in time (or floating in time, considering that she’s comfortable in a house with furniture and technology from several eras, wears a 19th-century dress, and speaks like she’s from modern times). You find yourself unable to look away from her as she becomes slowly aware of why she’s been unable to move on and on how to get out. It became quite easy to identify with her early on. And Jeannie Barronga, who voices Sylvia, makes a great counselor, with a kind, maternal voice that makes you want to get on the red couch.

The script is well-written, and H.P. Mendoza has earned the comparisons to Hitchcock and Kubrick (though I have no idea who Bergman is), mixing suspense and avant-garde filming techniques in perfect harmony. And he found a gem in his make-up artist Diana Tenes, who did a wonderful job with a certain character near the end of the movie (I won’t spoil it, but I’m still reeling from what she did near the climax of the film with a certain creepy character). I’m sure in years to come, I Am a Ghost will receive plenty more awards, and a lot of analysis and interpretations, not just from filmmakers, but from academics and philosophers and filmophiles everywhere (in fact, there’s already a few on the website, but don’t read them till after you’ve seen the movie). I’d certainly love to read some of those analyses, if they ever make it into a published essay.

All in all, I Am a Ghost is a wonderful, terrifying tour de force, and well worth the time for any true fan of horror. I’m rating it a 4.5 out of 5. The only flaw, in my opinion, is that it wasn’t a little bit longer. I certainly wouldn’t have minded the movie being a little longer than it was. But the rest is just great, and I think H.P. Mendoza did an awesome job creating it. He’s definitely a director I wouldn’t mind letting adapt one of my stories or collaborate on a film together. And I don’t say that about a lot of directors.

A Biblical Reinterpretation of Homosexuality, Part 2

Posted: June 19, 2014 in Living and Life, Reflections, Social Activism
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I’m going to tell everyone a midrash, a story that helps to explain aspects of Judaism, and which may or may not be true, depending on the story. This story, no matter how you look at it, is very interesting and helps to explain why I’m able to give these reinterpretations.

The story dates back to the writing of the Talmud. Several rabbis were trying to decide on an issue of kashrut, or dietary law. Eventually all the rabbis except one decided a certain way on the issue, with the remaining rabbi insisting he alone was right. This rabbi, who was apparently so learned that he could teach Harry Potter a thing or two (my own phrasing, not the story’s), said that if he was right, then the walls in the study house would cave in, a tree would move from one place to another, and that the river outside would flow backwards. Sure enough, the walls started to lean in, a tree walked across the ground, and the river started flowing backwards. With each occurrence the other rabbis would remind the rebellious rabbi that walls, trees, and rivers don’t decide matters of Jewish law (and they chided the walls for trying to bring themselves down when it wasn’t their conflict). Finally the rebellious rabbi said, “If I am right, let a heavenly voice confirm it!”

At that moment a great voice from above was heard saying, “Follow this rabbi’s opinion!” The other rabbis, instead of cowering and giving in, replied to the voice, “Matters of law are now on Earth, not in Heaven.” The heavenly voice replied, “My sons have bested me.”

What does this tale tell, besides the fact that apparently Talmudic rabbis were said to be quite powerful? Besides the teaching that a majority rule is stronger than a single zealot (and the rebellious rabbi later became a heretic and was excommunicated, interestingly enough), the story shows that once God gave the Jewish people the Torah at Mt. Sinai, it was in their hands, and therefore they had to decide how to interpret it. So basically while some may claim that LGBT people and their allies are going to hell and claim the Bible says so, I can claim just as much that that law no longer applies and that LGBT people and their allies are just as holy as anyone else. And guess what? We can both be right!

I tell this story because a lot of people’s arguments and opposition to LGBT rights are based on a singular interpretation of the Bible, so alternative interpretations of the Bible can be just as legitimate as traditional ones. I also tell this story because, while two opinions can both be right, sometimes one opinion may have more reason to be right than the other (as in the ruling of the majority in the story). For example, I can say that I believe both evolution and the Genesis story to be right. I can’t ignore that dinosaurs, the fossil record, and the distance travelled by the light of certain stars make evolution seem more right than Genesis (which I tend to view as a metaphor for the Big Bang and evolution that humanity is too stupid to understand at this point in our existence).

No denying it: gay people are born that way. It’s in their DNA.

Understanding this, let us look at what science has proven: that sexuality is a genetic trait, and that multiple genes make up sexuality, so multiple sexualities arise. Some people, like a pastor I had the displeasure of hearing speak out on the Oval at OSU this spring, claims that meant homosexuality is a genetic defect. But that would mean there would have to be a loss or impairment of quality of life for the affected. If anything, the scientific method has shown through studies that people who are open about their sexuality and accepted for it tend to live happier lives. It’s only when they try to deny, change, or hide their sexuality that there is some impairment.

Likewise, this also means that homosexuality isn’t a lifestyle, or something you can indoctrinate youth into. As I said, differing sexualities are genetic, and you can’t pray away, condition someone, or ban something so caught up in the very DNA in a person.

Now, some might ask about my previous post, where I said that homosexuality was commonplace in Greece in a ritualized form. I say that was a form of cultural homosexuality. It was done because it was part of the culture, everyone was doing it, and nobody could see any reason not to do it. Plus, having a male lover was a choice, not a requirement. You could almost compare it to video games: everyone seems to play video games these days, and most people don’t see a reason not to play them if you can. (I know that we’re talking about two very different things here, but you get the idea, right?)

In any case, I’ve said what I wanted to say about the Bible, religion, and homosexuality before Pride weekend here in Columbus. I hope you enjoyed the posts I’ve written and perhaps were given some food for thought. And if you’re in the Columbus area this weekend and are looking for some fun, come to Pride. Leave the picketing signs at home, and have a blast. I’ll see you there.

Things That People Say That Get On Writers’ Nerves

Posted: June 18, 2014 in Living and Life, Reflections, Writing
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It’s been a while since I’ve done a post reflecting on the craft of writing (outside of Self-Published Authors Helping Other Authors, I mean), so I thought it’d be good to do one. And I figure a good one would be to write on things people say about writing that annoy writers to no end when they say them. You may have even heard some people say these things on writing and, whether you treat writing as a craft, a business, an art, a passion, or a calling, you’re bound to at leas give the speakers an eye-roll. Occasionally you may even call out the absurdity of what they’re saying, because to your ears it’s all so ridiculous.

And why did I decide to pursue this particular topic? Maybe because not too long ago someone said one of these to me and I just got so annoyed with it.

I want to write, but I hate reading. That’s like saying you want to be a chef but you hate eating gourmet food. It’s just not something that’s done. Writers read because it’s how we developed a love of literature, it’s where we study the work of others in order to better understand and improve our own work, and it’s just plain fun for us. So saying you hate reading is basically saying you’re not going to write because you’re not willing to do what’s absolutely essential to becoming a writer. I’d understand if you said you have trouble finding the time to read (we all do, even part-time workers like me), but hating reading is just inexcusable for any serious writer.

I’ll write when I’m retired. This is actually the one I heard recently, when I asked an acquaintance who has a very unconventional and interesting career to write about his experiences. Just because you suddenly aren’t obligated to go to work from 9 to 5 on weekdays doesn’t mean things are magically going to fall into place and you’ll have the time, energy, and will to write. If that were the case, I’d have retired right out of high school! Plus, who’s to say that in retirement you won’t just become busier? It’s happened, I’m sure.

I can write better stuff than the crap they’re publishing these days. First off, I hope you’re not including my work in that grouping. Second, you think you can write better? Pony up! And if you decide to actually try to write something better than what’s out there, be warned: while you may feel that everything you’ve written is more real and heartfelt than what you find at the library, not everyone may agree. Agents, editors, publishers, and readers can be very particular about what they think is a good story, and they may not always agree that you’re better than the other crap writers out there. Often times, what’s popular enough for you to read and decide it’s crap is popular for a reason, so just know what you’re competing against.

I have a story all in my head. Commas and all. I just have to find the time to write it. Okay, let me call the writing fairy to give you a sabbatical to write. Most writers carve out the time to write from their personal time. We don’t expect the time to find us, we actively make time. I’ve written when I could be taking a nap. One of my friends who recently published her first book wrote in notebooks on the buses to and from work. There are writers who get up an hour before everyone else in the house and stay up an hour later just so they can jot down 500 words or so and feel like they’ve made progress. So don’t expect to find the time or let it magically appear: go and make time!

Writing’s not something you can make money off of. Usually no, writing is not something you can make thousands of dollars off of. The writers who are able to write full-time are lucky. Most have day-jobs because writing alone will not pay the bills. I certainly have not made enough money off my work to take up writing full-time. However, most writers don’t get into the business for the money. We get into it because it’s a passion, something we really enjoy, and the money comes secondary to all that. Sure it’s nice, and we wouldn’t mind some income from our writing, but it’s not the main reason why we sit at our desks or on the couch punching out word after word after word. If it was, I would’ve given up writing a long time ago and would’ve gone into law.

I have this idea for a story about… I’m going to stop you write there. Normally I’m interested in hearing about other people’s stories, but I have a question: do you have any intention of writing it? If you don’t, it probably wouldn’t be good for hear it. I might just run away with it and use it for the basis of my own potential bestseller. Well, I wouldn’t, but there might be some unscrupulous fellows who would.

There are too many writers out there already. I can’t make an impression. Every writer worries about this, but most don’t let it keep them from trying. And you never know: you could end up being the next JK Rowling, F. Scott Fitzgerald, or William Shakespeare. But first you have to put yourself out there. Besides, if I was worried about impressions, I would’ve given up writing a long time ago and gone into–oh you know what I’m going to say!

I’m good, so I don’t need to edit. Even the greatest authors needed to edit! I don’t know a single author who doesn’t need to edit. We all make mistakes that others will point out, we all have flaws in our stories that will turn readers off. That’s why editors exist: they catch these problems before the book makes it to publication. Otherwise you have all that crap online that has little to no editing and that brings a bad name to self-publishers. So even if it’s sometimes a little expensive, you might want to shell out a little money for a copy-editor or a beta reader to take a look at your work, because it’ll improve your work vastly and you will benefit from it. Heck, I think the only writer out there who doesn’t need an editor is God…wait. There are some ambiguous phrases in the Bible that make no sense, and some that have garnered a lot of controversy. Plus the tobacco and marijuana plants: were they really necessary for the world? Yep, all writers need editors.

What are some things people have said to you about writing that you think si utterly ridiculous? What would you say to them?

A Biblical Reinterpretation of Homosexuality, Part 1

Posted: June 16, 2014 in Living and Life, Reflections, Social Activism
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With the Columbus Pride Festival coming up this weekend, LGBT people from around the country (including George Takei as Grand Marshal for events this year) will be descending upon Columbus for a huge parade and festival to celebrate their sexual orientations, fight discrimination and injustice, and to push for same-sex marriage in Ohio, which is on the ballot this year. It’s sure to be a great time for many.

For some though, the Pride Festival will not be so welcome, and while Columbus may be one of the Midwest’s LGBT hotspots, there is the very real chance that protesters will show up and decry what they see as perversion, sin a horrible lifestyle, or some sort of disease/genetic defect/psychological disorder. Usually I ignore these sorts of people, but I figured that since I’ll most likely be attending the Pride Festival this year (my first), I thought it would be interesting to do a post on these protestors, most of whom have a Biblical basis for why they’re opposed to homosexuality, and show how the Bible could actually endorse homosexuality rather than outright ban it.

Before I do though, I wanted to post this video I found, which I think is very eye-opening, and gives some very good points on the Bible and homosexuality:

Interesting, isn’t it? And that thing about Sodom and Gomorrah mirrors pretty closely what I learned growing up about why those cities were destroyed. In fact, I remember a pretty graphic tale about how two girls met at a well, one realized the other’s family was very poor and gave her some flour for her family. When the town elders heard about it, they basically took the first girl and stoned her in public (I’m not sure what happened to the second girl, but she probably came away from that emotionally scarred and still hungry, if not dead). And if you want to know more about that book they talked about in the video, here’s a TIME magazine article on it.

I would like to add some points on to these, based on my own upbringing, experience, and understanding of the Old Testament (I’m not very familiar with the New Testament of course, being Jewish). First, that famous verse in Leviticus that anti-gay pastors love to quote, “Thou shall not sleep with a man as thou sleeps with a woman”. First off, what can women do? Second, this sounds like a prohibition against homosexuality, but it could have other meanings.

Of course, there’s the anatomical one: men can’t sleep with other men like they can with women, because men don’t have vaginas. But I’m pretty sure that argument, although obvious, won’t sway many people, so here’s two more that might. Firstly, there’s the patriarchal argument: women in the days when the Bible was written were expected to attend to their husband’s sexual needs, and most likely that meant they had no say in it unless they were impure and couldn’t have sex anyway. In an age where men were expected to be dominant in all matters, especially in the home, forcing one man to attend to another man’s sexual needs at the latter’s beck and call would be considered the ultimate emasculation, so therefore sex between men was forbidden.

The other reason (and the one I feel makes the most sense), is based on pagan idol worship. Many Near East and Mediterranean societies practiced homosexuality, not as a distinct orientation, but as an activity. The Greeks were famous for having relationships between other males before marriage, and there were other societies at the time that had cultures that permitted men to have relationships with each other before or after marriage. Some of these relationships were especially prevalent in military circles to increase unit cohesion, and a few were ritualized in the form of idol worship. God would have seen this latter act, worship of idols through sexual intercourse, as detestable, so He created a form of worship and sacrifice that did not involve sex, and forbade a form of sex that does not lead to procreation, as well as because it was used in idol worship.

There’s a pretty big difference between this and emasculation or idol worship, wouldn’t you say?

Since today there is no idol worship through sex (as far as I know), it would be permissible for same-sex relations to occur. Besides, these interpretations deal with a form of emasculation or idol worship. They do not apply to men, women, or other gender-types who are in loving, committed relationships like we see today.

There are other factors to consider here as well. For example, there is the belief that marriage should be as it is in the Bible. If that’s the case though, why do we outlaw polygamy and women can choose who they marry? Not to mention the definition of marriage and marriage roles have changed throughout the years, so it’s no surprise that it’s being changed in our day and age and “pro-marriage” activists shouldn’t be alarmed. And even if not always legally accepted or endorsed by religious establishments, same-sex relationships have been taking place for many, many years. There have been relationships between high-ranking clergymen and other men since the early days of the Church, but it was tolerated because of fear of worse sins, ones that at the time that were considered venereal.

Even during waves of religious upheaval, reformation, or resurgence, same-sex relationships flourished: Queen Elizabeth may have been a lesbian, and several members of her court were gay and able to get away with it due to their status. King James–of the Bible translation–actually had several relationships with men as well as women. And recently there was an article from The Boston Globe about two women who lived together and were treated as married…in 1807! So even if it’s not exactly legal, same-sex marriage is not exactly as new as cell phones.

This post is getting very long, so I’m going to continue this discussion in another one. I hope some of you who read this post found it informative and may have given you some food for thought. I don’t think it’ll sway anyone who’ll protest at Pride this weekend, but it may sway some people who are undecided on the issue. Or that it may prove helpful for those who want to try to reconcile homosexuality with religion.

Oh, and before you wonder what sort of religious authority I am, I can only say that I’m the son of two Conservative rabbis, I went to a Jewish day school from Grades 4-12, I’ve gone to synagogue for most of my life, and I still learn and keep in touch with my religion. So I may not be a rabbi or pastor, but I’ve done as much studying as some, and more than some others. I guess I can speak with some authority on these matters. What do you say?

*I will be screening the comments for offensive, inappropriate, or just plain rude comments. Be warned.*

Being In Control

Posted: June 15, 2014 in Living and Life, Reflections
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Last night, my roommate and I went out on a pub crawl, trying various bars in the campus and Short North area. At some point we were joined by a friend of mine and his friend from Israel. It was a fun time and I enjoyed it very much, especially in the gay bars (for those of you who haven’t known me for that long, I came out in bisexual back in March of this year). I made some great memories with people I care about, I learned where you can get some interesting mixes and cocktails, and I even met one of Columbus’s drag icons (yes, we have drag icons. Not surprising, considering that Columbus is one of the LGBT capitals of the Midwest. Yes, Columbus is one of them).

However, there was one aspect of last night that I did not enjoy: around the time I was done at the Union bar (great fun, by the way), I started to feel very strange. I’d had a few drinks, and I guess I’d had more than I’ve previously had (even at that Jewish wedding not too long ago, if you can believe that), because I was feeling much more inebriated than I’d ever felt before. And despite how happy I was, I was kind of scared. I felt like the connections between the rational part of my brain and my body were being disconnected, because I had less control over my body. I also noticed that a few connections were being loosened between my rationality and whatever part of my brain makes decisions, because I was acting a little wilder than usual.

Luckily I didn’t do anything I’d end up regretting later on (so calm down, Ima and Abba). I do that often enough while sober. But at some point, I said to my friends that I’d had enough and that I wasn’t going to drink anymore. I got encouraged to have a few more drinks, but I held my ground and stopped drinking. Even at the next bar we visited, a famous dance club across from the Ohio Union, all I had was water (I was thirsty anyway, so it was good of me to get hydrated). And some of my friends thought I should’ve continued testing my limits or that I was trying to put a stop on my own 21st Birthday Pub Crawl, but I thought–or as much as I could think, anyway–and I still do think I made the right decision. I like being in a good mood, and last night I was in a very good mood, partly because of the alcohol I was drinking.

But I don’t like the feeling of my body and mind being so out of control. It’s a scary feeling, like watching yourself through your own eyes and not having any input over what’s happening. And it’s not something I’m willing to repeat any time soon. So for the time being I’m going to stay away from drinking (along with sweets and a few other things that aren’t necessarily good for me), even though my fridge is stocked with some really good drinks at the moment. I have a feeling that after last night, and with Columbus Pride Weekend and a wedding coming up soon, I would be better off holding off until the next weekend. And even then, I’ll probably drink sparingly.

Perhaps another time I’ll test my limits with alcohol. For now though, I think it’s best I stay at the limits I tested last night. Because not only do I not want to make a mistake that will haunt me while trying to have a good time, but I just don’t want to feel that out of control again. In fact, I don’t know why anyone would.

That’s all for now. I’m going to get some work done, and then do some reading before meeting my dad, my grandfather, and my sisters for a Father’s Day dinner. Happy Father’s Day, my Followers of Fear.

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