Confessions of a Starving Mystery Writer

Author Robert B. Parker died yesterday. It seems as though if you live long enough, all icons seem to fade into dust. Of the living mystery authors, Robert B. Parker was perhaps and Elmore Leonard executed the type of writing styles I aspire to. "We were at the other end of life..." Robert B. Parker

I knew a man named Jerry Ogg that wrote on the Blogisphere as Erik Ivan James. http://erikivanjames.blogspot.com - he was a great renaissance man. He has a completed novel that he was shopping to publishers but hadn't yet gotten pciked up. The following is something he wrote a couple of years ago and sums up the last several months of his life. He was a Veitnam Vet and had been a well repsected legal consultant. He had been to the hieghts of his profession and to the depths of human misery. I loved Jerry and he will be greatly missed. He did good things. "Middle-aged and well traveled in the trenches of human gutters; he wept through his story of hopelessness and despair. He cried over the loss of his soul. He asked if it would ever get better. He asked if he would ever know peace within himself. He asked if he would ever again find dignity. He asked if he could ever again know love. That night, he would destroy the most precious of gifts. He would pinch out the flame on the c...

If If you can keep your head when all about you Are losing theirs and blaming it on you; If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you, But make allowance for their doubting too; If you can wait and not be tired by waiting, Or, being lied about, don't deal in lies, Or, being hated, don't give way to hating, And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise; If you can dream - and not make dreams your master; If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim; If you can meet with triumph and disaster And treat those two imposters just the same; If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools, Or watch the things you gave your life to broken, And stoop and build 'em up with wornout tools; If you can make one heap of all your winnings And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss, And lose, and start again at your beginnings And never breath a word about your loss; If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew To serve your turn...

COMING TO A NIEGHBORHOOD NEAR YOU...SOON$$$$$

I first must say that I am not an Obama supporter. I am not a Clinton supporter. I am not even a Democrat. But...someone should say it. The mainstream media's daily whipping of Obama and his pastor seems a bit unjust and misplaced. It is very likely to make Obama unelectable in November or lose the nomination and destroy his Pastor's legacy. For shame. Please watch the following: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QOdlnzkeoyQ You decide if the comments are taken out of context, if the true message has been obliterated and distorted with collective misstatements, and snippets pieced together to develop the incendiary loop shown nightly on cable news. I wonder if any of the screaming heads and pundits have taken the time to view the entire sermon to determine what if any truth may be found in the ultimate message .

Real danger...and an insult to the secret service and US military that they would have the First Lady, her daughter, & Sinbad the comedian such danger. CHECK IT OUT: Hillary in Bosnia http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IxVsdS887HA&feature=related Has our threshold of holding a politician to the truth sunk so low that we can't see this as a flatout lie...and she is seeking the highest office is the land. I actually doubt her judgement, if it was true, that she would put her daughter in harms way.

It's the new year and I have yet to post a new blog. In the past I have tried inspirational, trite, crap that I tried to pass off as good writing. This year, we'll see. Late happy new year to all and good luck in 2008. With terrorists stapping bombs to mentally impared women and detonating them in Baghdad pet stores and our Presidential hopefuls tearing each other apart on religion, race, and the like it looks like we're in for a looooooonnnnnnngggggggg year. But hey, if they pass the Stimulous Package we'll all be getting a "free" check in the mail. Isn'tr there some line about the three biggest lies told?

A man sits. Alone. He stares. Christmas. To him it doesn't seem like Christmas. He used to love Christmas. The presents. He loved to buy presents. He would travel far and wide for just the right gift for the ones he loved. He really enjoyed wrapping presents. He'd buy special ribbons and bows and lace. He loved to give presents. In fact he loved to give of himself to every one. As long as he can remember, he lived for Christmas. The singing, the smells, the smiles - it warmed him. Nothing warms him now. He feels cold. Alone. It started benignly enough. He had kidney stones and a back ache. His doctor prescribed Vicodin. Vicodin. That's what did it. That's where it started. Kidney stones, a back ache and Vicodin. He liked Vicodin too much. The elixer from hell. He got hooked. His supply ran out. He wanted more. He broke the law. He was embarrassed. He's still embarrassed. He recovered. Or so he thought. Therapy. Counseling. It was tough but he kicked it. Completed w...

It's been a looooooonnnnnnnnng time since I have posted. I have no idea where the time has gone. My small law practice is growing - my fiction production is not. I recently discovered YouTube where, while searching for guitar lessons, I found this video of a version of Classical Gas . Check it out.........it's a gas. If you like'd that, check out Bohemian Rhapsody .

I returned to work, "the day job" this past November. It has been taking up every waking moment trying to rebuild a law practice in a very bad Michigan ecomony. I haven't written but a few pages of bad fiction in about six months. I miss it. There was an escape and freedom I enjoyed writing fiction that I do not get from writing briefs, motions, and objections. I hope to return to blogging and writing fiction soon. There are many stories I wrote that need revisions, revisions, revisions. I seem to lack the persistence necessary to be a true writer or my timing has been off. I hope all of my fellow bloggers and readers are well and hope one day to retrun with gusto to the blogshere. It's cold and lonely out here in the real world. . .

During a school parade in 2002, a Juneau-Douglas High School student named Joseph Frederick and some friends unfurled a 14-foot banner that read "Bong Hits 4 Jesus" just as cameras were passing them. Little did Mr. Federick know that his joke would set in motion a l1st amendment legal battle that will soon be decided by the US Supreme Court. Only in America can a school board, Kenneth Starr, and the Bush Administration be pitted against the religious right, the ACLU, and Mr. Federick. Politics and strange bedfellows. As reported by an MTV article , the dispute is the first school freedom of speech case to be heard by the Supreme Court in 40 years. "The case of Morse vs. Frederick could have serious implications on the limits of speech in public schools for generations to come, with one expert saying that a win for the administration's side could create schools in which any form of speech that isn't directly related to the "stated educational mission" is...

MLK 

" In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends. " MLK, Silence Society or members of it seem to eliminate good leaders before they are able to make their ultimate contribution. Martin Luther King made real strides to mend the American racial divide only to be hounded by government, threatened by racists, and ultimately assassinated for his belief's and influence. It was America's loss, possibly the worlds.

FDR...where are you when we need you? 

After watching the screaming punditry and media tsunami that we are all doomed, I believe we need to get a grip. Roosevelt's inaguration speech tag line was my inspiration - then I went back and read it... It begins: "I am certain that my fellow Americans expect that on my induction into the Presidency I will address them with a candor and a decision which the present situation of our people impel. This is preeminently the time to speak the truth, the whole truth, frankly and boldly. Nor need we shrink from honestly facing conditions in our country today. This great Nation will endure as it has endured, will revive and will prosper. So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself—nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance. In every dark hour of our national life a leadership of frankness and vigor has met with that understanding and support of the people themselves w...

Plutoed 

No longer a planet, Pluto 

It was my wish to write something profound for the new year. I struggled and struggled. I saw a recent article about Pluto, and there appeared a blog post. The American Dialect Society 2006 Word of the Year is Plutoed or "to pluto" as "to demote or devalue someone or something, as happened to the former planet Pluto when the General Assembly of the International Astronomical Union decided Pluto no longer met its definition of a planet." At one time I thought I could write. I have been Pluoed, by myself. I haven't or do not want it enough. There is a sacrifice required. A pound of flesh to be given that I cannot muster. I write, at times, well. It is sporadic, not professional. Not enough. If before they toss the last shovel of dirt in my face, I find that bit of inspiration, I intend to write it. I really enjoy blogging, but most of what I read and have written is tedious bullshit. The only thing that resonates is honesty and realism. I try and fail. Plutoed.

Merry Christmas!