Seven Deadly Sins and Apple Pie

 

The seven deadly sins, as proposed by Pope Gregory the Great in the sixth century, are pride, envy, anger, sloth, greed, gluttony and lust. Although these sins lead down the path to hell, they are not only committed every day by many Americans, but encouraged by our culture. Hence, my premise is that the seven deadly sins are as American as apple pie.

We pride ourselves as a Godly people, generous and kind, favored above all other nations by the Almighty. Ah, but isn't this the deadly sin of pride. We're proud of our country. In war we say, "My country, right or wrong." We encourage pride of our sports teams, of our school, of our workplace and above all ourselves. It's common these days to talk of self-esteem. What is self-esteem, but pride in ourselves?

Our capitalist system encourages Americans to envy those who have material possessions that we lack. The essence of advertising is to induce envy. We are bombarded night and day with advertising. We hide beautiful scenery behind billboards, ten minutes out every half hour on television is devoted to advertising, most of our Sunday newspaper consists of commercial flyers, the Internet flings advertising at us from every direction.

Many Americans are angry and full of hate. They hate the people of countries whose leaders have quarrels with American policy. They hate people who are different from themselves, people with a different shade of skin, people who worship differently or don't believe in a deity at all, people whose sexual orientation is toward their own sex, people whose ancestors came from a land different from their own ancestors and above all people whose philosophy and political view differs from theirs. I've spoken to people who say we should drop bombs and torture people of nations who they consider America's enemies.

Sloth and gluttony go hand in hand. Look around. Americans are getting fatter and lazier every day despite exhortation by the government and news media about the bad health effects of bad diet and lack of exercise. Of course, on the other hand, a good percentage of advertising is for fast food restaurants, luxury automobiles, labor saving devices, sweets, and alcoholic beverages. Video games, computers, high-definition television keep us sitting for hours in front of a cathode-ray-tube.

Greed is the essence of the American way. No matter how wealthy and materially well offwe are we want more. We're the richest nation in the world, yet we begrudge sharing any of our wealth with people of other countries. People cheat, steal and perform any sort of immoral, dangerous or disgusting act for money. Look at some of our popular television shows, The Apprentice, Fear Factor, The Price is Right, are all based on the premise that people will do anything for money. Las Vegas, state lotteries, and church bingo depend on people's greed to prosper.

Finally, there is lust. Again we're encouraged by advertising, television and movies to lust. Sex exploitation is everywhere in our society. The advertising man knows that "Sex sells." 

There you have it. As you can see, we love our deadly sins. Perhaps, instead of "God Bless America," the motto should be changed to "Satan Loves Americans."

Recipe for Disaster

Contrary to the propaganda put out by Fox News and the Tea Party advocates, it is not government that is driving our country into becoming a third world land. One of their favorite sayings is that large corporations and wealthy people are "job creators." Nothing could be further than the truth. For example, in the first ten years after Wal-Mart came to Iowa, that state lost 555 grocery stores, 298 building supply stores, 161 variety stores, 158 women's apparel stores, 116 drug stores, and 111 men's apparel stores. Now such huge retailers have multiplied all over the country. In addition, most of the products sold are made in countries outside the United States. And we wonder why unemployment is so high.

Because government does not regulate polluters effectively, mainly due to obstructionism and lobbying by the advocates for big business, especially big oil, there are less than 4% of our original forests left, there are over 100,000 synthetic chemicals in commerce of which only a handful have been tested for human health impacts, and 4 billion pounds of toxic chemicals each year. Forty percent of the water in waterways in the US has become undrinkable.

We are our own worst enemies. With 5% of the world's population, Americans consume 80% of the resources and create 80% of the waste. If the entire world consumed as much as Americans, we would need three to five planets to sustain us. The average person in the US consumes twice as much as he or she did fifty years ago. We see more advertisements in one year than people saw in a lifetime fifty years ago. We spend three to four times as many hours shopping than our counterparts in Europe do. Average house size has doubled since the 1970s. Each person in the US makes 4.5 pounds of garbage a day, twice as much as we did 20 years ago. And for every one can of garbage a household puts out, 70 cans of garbage was required to make the junk we throw out.

Drowning in Advertising

If you take a ride in the country in Europe, to an American it seems like something is missing. Finally you realize what it is. There are no billboards to spoil the scenery. Nowhere except in America are people inundated with propaganda night and day. What is worse, because we've become so used to being overwhelmed with the stuff, Madison Avenue and others keeps thinking up more ways to get our attention to buy their products. 

Take the Sunday newspaper, for example. My paper delivery person struggles under the heavy load of thick bundles of newsprint. After I take out all the ads, about five thin sheets are left and even those have advertisements on them. Every day, when I go to my mailbox, I pull out tons of junk mail, most of which goes directly into the recycling bin. Out of every hour of television being broadcast, twenty minutes is devoted to advertising. And even when no commercials are on, shows like the morning network news are mostly devoted to demonstrating various products or are come-ons for new movies or TV shows. Even theaters that show movies now put on ads before the feature. Video tapes and DVDs contain advertisements.

And the Internet is almost all advertising. When I go to get my E-mail, besides the usual tons of Spam, there are pop-up ads that cover the ads already on the web site. Does that make sense? Now, with everyone having a cell phone glued to their ears, I'm sure someone will find a way to broadcast commercials during lulls in the conversation.

Don't get me started on telemarketers. They invariably call in the middle of a meal. When you tell them that you're not interested, they keep on talking. Then they wonder why you hang up.

Now they have robots to do the talking.

Yes, we Americans are drowning in advertising, which inspired me to write a short story, Psychic Pop-Up. Here it is:

George Slimey was somewhat daunted by Pricella Lucretia, vice-president of sales of the Pharmaceutical Institute Laboratories Ltd., his largest client. She had jet black hair twisted into a complicated bun, a pinstriped power business suit over her overabundant curves, thick red lipstick in a mouth twisted into an expression of contempt and mascara laid on so thick her eyes seemed sunken in her pale skin. There was something almost demon-like about her. She lit up one of her skinny evil-smelling cigars with a gold lighter. She pointed it at Slimey. "What we want are results. Not bee ess. Despite all the money we've tossed down the drain, your ad campaign, flashy as it is, has not done anything for sales on Perkup. In fact, last months sales dropped to their lowest point. This is your last chance, Slimey. Next month we move to another agency."

            The product she alluded to was a dietary supplement which was touted as a pill that energized a person, gave them feelings of well-being, ensured rapid weight-loss without dieting or exercise,  lowered cholesterol, rid the person of wrinkles, improved sexual performance and slowed aging. Actually, no valid scientific tests except PILL's own lab reports had ever shown that it did any of those things. On the other hand, the side effects were horrendous, dry mouth, palpitations, itchy rashes, stomach cramps, diarrhea, possible blood clots leading to heart attack or stroke. Although it had been hushed up by handing large sums of money to their relatives, two healthy test subjects had died twenty-four hours after taking it. Originally it had been developed as a chemotherapy agent to fight colon cancer. Not only was it ineffective in fighting the disease, the cancer cells actually seemed to spread faster with its use. Also its effect on the patients was devastating; some autopsy results seemed to show that the people who had been taking it, might've died, not from the cancer, but from the product. Since PILL had produced an over abundance of the substance, upper management decided to market it as a supplement.

            Slimey rolled his eyes and smiled sickly. "You must give us time, Pricella ..."

            "I don't like familiarities from business associates. Ms. Lucretia, if you please." She puffed out black smoke into Slimey's face.

            "Yes, of course. I'm sorry. But, as I was saying, we need to get the campaign rolling."

            "So you say." Her face became as red and ugly as a lobster with outrage. Smoke from her cigar curled around her head to form horns. When she opened her mouth, her pointed bicuspids seemed extra long, and her tongue flicked in and out like a snake's. "As I said, because you've done well in the past, we're allowing you an extra month. If sales don't improve by a week from today, it's ..." She slid her forefinger with its long sharp nail across her windpipe.

            Slimey wiped perspiration from his brow. "Don't worry, Pri... Ms. Lucretia, Slimey Enterprises has never let a client down."

 ***

            After Lucretia left, Slimey called Robert Kissheiny, the account executive, into his office. "Bob, how's everything going with the PILL account?"

            Kissheiny smiled pleasantly. "Splendidly, George. Things couldn't be better."

            Slimey pounded his fist on the desk. "Crap. That evil female, Pricella Lucretia, was just here." He shook a finger at Kissheiny. "She complained that sales have been awful on Perkup."

            Kissheiny's face drooped until he resembled an aging bloodhound. "Oh, Perkup. Sorry George, I thought you meant their other products."

            "Look Bob, PILL is our largest client, and Perkup is the product they want results on. I placed you in charge because I thought you were our most competent ad exec. If we lose this client, not only will you be out on the street, but I'll personally see that you never work in advertising again. What exactly is the problem?"

            Kissheiny looked about to burst into tears. "It's the product itself, Mister Slimey. Word has sort of leaked out about its ... uh ... less desirable characteristics. We've tried everything to laud its marvelous curative powers. We've run humorous ads on TV day and night -- including, mind you -- during the Super Bowl, put full size spreads in newspapers and magazine, had telemarketers call people at all hours of the day and night, put pop-up ads that are impossible to suppress on all the most popular web sites, and constructed huge billboards on all the most scenic highways. Our salesman have lavished huge gifts on physicians in every major city to recommend Perkup to their patients. We even tried sky writing. Nothing seems to work."

            Slimey rubbed his chin. "The trouble is that none of those things actually make the consumer buy the product. Some of our surveys seem to show that people resent saturation advertising for some reason. I don't know what this country is coming to. Anyway, the onus is on you, Kissheiny. You've got to come up with some new ideas. Or else ..." He slid a finger across his Adam's apple.           

***

            Kissheiny spent the rest of the afternoon at his desk staring out the window, hardly moving except to chain smoke several packs of cigarettes. He knew his career was in the toilet. He'd tried every approach he could think of to sell that poison, Perkup. By next month, there would be no more six digit salary, no more luxury limo complete with driver, no more wood paneled office with its own bathroom and shower, no more thousand dollar tailored suits, no more dates with beautiful models. He'd be back on the streets selling cheap watches out of a suitcase. He racked his brain for some new method to get the public to buy Perkup, but came up empty.

            He unlocked the bottom left hand drawer of his desk and slid it open. He stared into it at the items lying there; a revolver, a package of shells for it, and a bottle of Jack Daniels. He took out the whiskey, took a big pull and replaced it. He removed the pistol and shells, slowly loaded the pistol and raised it to his head. Before he could squeeze the trigger, his secretary buzzed him. "Yes, Doris," he said in a quaking voice.

            "There's a woman here to see you. A Madam Zolarago. She says she has an appointment, but I can't find her listed on your calendar."

            Madam Zolarago, he thought. He'd forgotten that he'd made an appointment with a new psychic. He was a great believer in astrology and the occult and often visited psychics. Quickly, he put the gun away and locked the drawer. "Send her in."

            Madam Zolarago was a middle-aged woman on the plump side with enormous breasts, wearing too much jewelry, too much makeup and unfashionable garments. Thick black unruly hair hung to her waist. Dark eyes gazed intensely at Kissheiny in a way that made him uncomfortable so that he had to turn away.

            Nonetheless, he rose and put out his hand. "Good afternoon, Madam Zolargo. I'm sorry, but I almost forgotten our appointment. I've had a lot of things on my mind lately."

            As she shook his hand with pointed carmine nails like stilettos, she said, "I see that Mister Kissheiny. You seem to be a troubled man. Your aura is very dark."

            "You're quite right. Some business problems ..."

            She plumped down in a guest chair without being asked. "Perhaps I can help. Although I sense a troubled soul, I see a great light in your future. Sometimes things seem darkest just before the dawn -- as the adage goes."

            Her saying that seemed to take some of horror of his situation off his shoulders. Perhaps she was right. What was it that Slimey was always saying? Oh yes. There are no problems, only opportunities. If he could come up with a unique method for getting people to purchase Perkup, he'd be a hero, probably get a huge bonus of stock options. If Madam Zolarago could predict the future, maybe she saw the solution.

            After swearing her to secrecy, he told her his dilemma with Perkup.

            She placed her fingers to her temple and went into a trance. After a few moments, she opened her eyes. "Yes, that's it. You must see Professor Belial at the university."

            "Professor Belial?"

            "Yes. He's a friend of mine. You may mention my name. He has something. I'm not sure what it is exactly. But I have a vision. In my vision, I see a look of delight on both your faces when he tells you of his discovery."

            Kissheiny became excited. He hoped she was right ... but of course, she was right. After all, she was a medium with an excellent reputation among true believers like himself. "Really? Thank you, Madam Zolarago. By the way, how much is your fee?"

            She waved her hand. "I never charge a fee. I simply enjoy helping people. Of course, if you would like to give a donation to my nonprofit organization."

            "Of course, of course. How shall I make out the check?"

            "Madam Zolargo's Psychic Institute."

            He was feeling expansive and wrote the check out for a substantial amount. He felt as though Madam Zolargo had saved his life.

***

            Professor Belial's office was in an obscure corner of the university, in a basement actually, after Kissheiny made his way through a labyrinth of corridors, laboratories and stairwells. The room itself was gloomy and a mess. Hundreds of ancient books lined the walls and spilled over onto the floor. Belial's desk was covered with them along with charts, strange talismans, broken pencils and a large magnifying glass. Belial himself, as he stood to greet Kissheiny, was tall with shoulder-length brown hair, a VanDyck style beard and mustache, elf-like ears and the most penetrating eyes Kissheiny had ever seen under bushy eyebrows.

            "Madam Zolargo recommended you to me," Kissheiny said after their initial greetings.

            "Yes, she told me." Belial's voice was a deep baritone that somehow seemed to fit his sharp features and cruel mouth. "Are you interested in the supernatural, Mister Kissheiny? That is what I do, y'know. Psychic research."

            "I am, but she told me that you've made a recent discovery that may help me in my business."

            "May I ask what business you're in?"

            "Advertising. I'm an account executive at an agency."

            Belial stroked his beard. "Yes, I suppose that my discovery could be an aid in your business. I never thought of it in practical terms before. I was simply doing pure research."

            Kissheiny brightened up considerably. Perhaps Madam Zolargo had been right. He had been having doubts. "What's this discovery?"

            "Are you familiar with the term, human aura?"

            "Yes, it's like emanations given off by the soul."

            "Actually the aura and the soul are the same thing. But, as you say, it gives off emanations. In people with strong ESP potential, these emanations can be intercepted by them. I have found that these emanations can be amplified to the point that thought transfer or telepathy can be done by anyone through my Psychic Enhancer. Would you like to experience a demonstration?"

            "Yes. Of course." Kissheiny felt that this all very interesting, but he wondered how it could help him sell Perkup.

            Belial went to a cabinet and brought a metallic box that contained several dials and meters. He plugged it in a wall socket and attached an aluminum band which he placed on his head. Suddenly, a voice in Kissheiny's mind said, "Are you receiving my thoughts?"

            "Oh my! That's something. It's as though you were speaking directly to my brain."

            "Not you brain, your aura," the voice in his head said.

            Belial removed the band and turned off the machine. "Well, what do you think?"

            An idea began to form in Kissheiny's mind. "Suppose this enhancer of yours was increased in power, could it direct your thoughts to several people -- at say a great distance?"

            Belial twisted his mustache. "I imagine so. I've never tried. It would be an interesting experiment though."

            "How would you like to become a millionaire?"

            "A millionaire? Surely, you're joking."

            "No. If it can do what I think it can do, you and I will be rolling in dough."

            Kissheiny put Belial on the company payroll as a consultant. He hired an engineering firm to build a duplicate of Belial's machine only with a thousand times more power. It was ready in a week.

***

            Robert Drudge was at his desk shuffling papers from his in-box to his out-box, when a sudden thought came to him out of the blue, almost like a voice in his head. It said, "Want to improve yourself. Get a better job. Take Perkup." Right after work, he went to the pharmacy around the corner.

            Oliver Crude and his mistress were going at it hot and heavy in a hotel room. It was taking him a while to get to the point of the whole thing, when suddenly he rolled off of her and cried, "I know what I need. Some Perkup. I'll be back in a little while, baby. There's something I have to get at the drugstore."

            Hundreds of similar scenes were happening all over the city. Pharmacies and other stores that sold Perkup were getting more customers than they could handle and soon ran out of the supplement. Orders came into PILL faster than they could be filled. The manufacturing division went to three shifts to keep up. Doctors' offices were jammed with patients with symptoms described in the small print on the Perkup labels. Several seemingly healthy people died suddenly from a mysterious malady that had health officials scratching their heads.

***

            Pricella Lucretia flicked ashes somewhere near the tray on Slimey's desk. "Well Slimey, I have to congratulate you. Your ad campaign is finally doing some good. Bring out your contract, I'm ready to sign for another year. In fact, we've got a new product in the works called Zoom which we'll have ready to market as soon as we have the bugs to worked out. We had to fire the head of the research staff. He kept putting out reports that said that Zoom was dangerous even to handle. Can you beat that? What a fool."

            "Yes. Good help is hard to get. Some people choose integrity above company loyalty. Not my employees though. I weed out the bad apples quickly. As far as our ad campaign, far be from me to crow, but it was simply a matter of a new approach that I came up with the account exec."

            Actually Slimey had no idea how Kissheiny had turned things around. He made a note to ask him soon. He slid the new contract over to Lucretia. She read it over carefully and placed it on the desk to sign. As Slimey handed her a pen, she suddenly put her hand to her head and looked pained.

            "What's the matter, Pricella? Aren't you feeling well?"

            She grimaced at him. "I've got to see my psychiatrist. Lately I've been hearing voices in my head telling me to take Perkup. I must be having a breakdown." She quickly signed the contract and left the office in such a hurry that Slimey didn't have time to tell her that he had also been hearing voices. I wonder who her shrink is, he thought. Maybe I should see one too. It's the stress of this job. It gets to you after a while.

***

            After the success of Perkup, Kissheiny realized what a gold mine he really had with Belial's invention. Any product could be sold that way. People could ignore TV, radio and newspaper ads, hang up on telemarketers and buy antipopup software for their computers, but they could not ignore what was in their heads. He resigned Slimey Marketing and opened a new ad agency in partnership with Belial called Psychic Advertising Industries Network (PAIN for short). When word got around about his success with PILL's premier product, clients by the hundreds waited outside his door to sign up.

            At first he kept the Psychic Enhancer a secret, but soon industrial spies obtained the plans. Their employers made incremental improvements to get around patent infringements and began their own mental ad campaigns. Before long, everything was advertised in this manner. This had a disastrous effect on civilization. People's head became filled with slogans and jingles and nothing else. No one could think of anything else but the crazy ads in their brain, which became more numerous, louder and more insane every day.

            And that's the true story of how twenty-first century civilization ended -- not with the holocaust of an atomic war, not with a mile long meteor slamming into New York City, not with coastal cities being inundated by the rising of the oceans, not with people gasping for breaths due to pollution from automobiles and industrial plants, but by walking around like zombies unable to think about anything except soda pop, hamburgers, stomach remedies, sexy cars and other products that filled their otherwise empty heads.

            Actually, not much had changed from before the Psychic Enhancer came into general use. 

The End

Decline of the American Empire

Two recent events brought home the fact that the United States in a state of decline. First, there was the abandoning of the shuttle program and manned space flight using our own rockets. Secondly, the wrangling in Washington about the national debt. Empires, like all entities, are born, grow, reach their peak, decline and die. The Romans ruled the world for a thousand years, but by the fifth century A.D. Rome itself was sacked by barbarians.

 

England ruled the seas for centuries; eventually it reverted to a minor European country. The Soviet Union lasted from 1918 to 1991. These are only three examples of the many great empires that have come and gone.

At the end of World War II, the United States reached its peak. We were the strongest, best armed and richest empire the world has ever known. Immediately after hostilities ended, we were able to rebuild the war torn countries, had the exclusive use of the most powerful weapon ever conceived, had troops stationed all over the world, had begun to build the superhighways that span the nation, started the space program and had more wealth and prosperity than ever existed before. The years from 1946 to 1963 saw an empire that was extremely powerful and wealthy.  

Although the years that followed were prosperous and innovative, the slide had begun. First there was competition from other nations in some of our most favored industries such as automobiles, electronics and clothing. Then came unpopular wars that caused us to switch from a citizen (drafted) army to a mercenary (all-volunteer) defense force. Recent events have shown that the decline is accelerating.

Some of these signs are an economy that is manipulated by greed, the neglect of our infrastructure, insane politics where reason gives way to dogma, a government debt that is out of control, growing personal debt, heads of great corporations who allow personal greed to override ethics and the welfare of their own companies, disdain of art, science and education and costly never-ending wars with no clearly defined purpose or conclusion.  

How I became a published author

 

I believe fiction authors are born to tell stories. When I was a child, I was, and still am, a voracious reader, not only of genre fiction, but much else besides. As a youngster, I liked to make up stories in my head and act them out. I'd embarrass my parents by sword fighting or talking to myself while walking along besides them. I especially enjoyed the Oz books, sequels to The Wizard of Oz, and books about pirates and strange magical lands. I also enjoyed comic books. My favorites were Captain Marvel and some of the Disney characters. Around the age of twelve, I discovered the pulp magazines which featured science fiction, fantasy and horror. I also enjoyed such movies as The House of Frankenstein and the few science fiction films available in those days. .

I was not a very good student from the third grade up, although I did enjoy certain subjects such as math and science. English was not my best subject by far. My problem was that I was bored most of the time. What the teachers were teaching, I had read about long before attending the classes. In high school, I cut school quite often and had roaring battles with my mother.

After I graduated, for a short while, I worked in the printing trade because I thought I would be close to printed matter. I went from job to job for a while. After I met my wife to be, she encouraged me to go to electronics school to learn TV repair which was a trade that paid well. I finished the school in the summer, which was the slow season for TV repairs. As a result I found employment as tester in a factory that manufactured electronic devices.

At the age of 21, I was drafted into the army during the Korean War, which ended two weeks after I reported for duty. Because of my electronic schooling, I was placed in the Signal Corp to work in microwave communication. Sometime after leaving the army, I answered an ad by IBM to become a field engineer in the SAGE defense system.

When IBM lost the maintenance contract, a great opportunity opened up for me. I interviewed for a technical writer's position at one of IBM's research and development facilities. Finally I was doing something I really enjoyed – writing – even if it was only maintenance and customer manuals. I learned a lot as a technical writer, about writing and other things. For one thing, I learned to become thick-skinned as far as criticism goes.  In tech writing, many people have a say in your writing, engineers, marketing personel, your peers, quality control people, etc.

While I was still working, I never lost my desire to write fiction. As a result, I took a correspondence course in fiction writing. I'm glad I did. It gave me the basic knowledge I needed. I began by writing short stories with little success as far as getting them published. With four children and a full time job, I had little time nor a quiet place to write. Sometimes I would write during my lunch hour.

My chance came after I retired. Now I had the time, a converted recreation room to use as an office and a home computer. At first a few of my short stories were published in electronic magazines (e-zines). Very seldom was I paid for these. However, they acted as portfolio that I could refer to when submitting my novels to a publisher. Finally, a POD and e-book publisher picked up a science fiction novel I had written. The novel did not sell well mainly due to the publisher's lack of distribution. The only place it could be bought was on the publisher's own web site. I and this publisher soon parted ways. I found another POD publisher, but the same thing occurred.

Finally, I struck gold. My work was published by a strictly E-book publisher, who distributed my novels to all of the popular online booksellers such as Amazon, Fictionwise, etc. Soon my novels brought in royalties, not much at first, but the more novels I wrote, the more I sold. Not that I've ever had a best seller or anything close. But as a retired person, it is a source of extra income. It also gives me a few extra deductions on my income tax.

Of course, I soon found that just getting published is not the only thing involved with being an author. You must do research, promote your book, keep track of your sales, deal with problems with publishers, avoid getting writer's block, fight E-book piracy and write blogs like this one. Nonetheless, I love writing science fiction and fantasy. I even enjoy writing short articles such as his one. I love the idea that people are receiving pleasure from what I write.

Where Writers Ideas Come From

  People are always asking authors where they get their ideas. In my experience this varies with each writer and each piece of writing. With me, ideas seem to come from the oddest things, usually something a little peculiar or strange that I encounter. For example, in my humorous   fantasy White Queen, Black Knight, there is a scene where Dorian, the protagonist, enters a tunnel marked with the words "Dead Man's Tunnel" and a skull and crossbones. Well, I used to travel a road that went under a railroad bridge. Because it was also a curve and the road was narrowed to one lane, many head-on collisions occurred when a car entered it from each end at the same time. As a result, someone had placed graffiti in the tunnel in large bold letters, "Dead Man's Curve" with a skull and crossbones beneath it. That gave me an idea for a character who must travel through a tunnel marked in such a manner. I thought, Perhaps my hero is lost, maybe he was enchanted by a sorcerer to always head in the wrong direction. This thought gave me Dorian, a naive youth, who on his way to a tournament to win the hand of a princess is enchanted by evil sorcerer Mordrake to cause Dorian to always take the wrong path.

My Morgaine Series of eBooks started while listening to that old seventies hit, Dancing in the Moonlight. I pictured the scene, a moonlit clearing in the woods and odd people, Wiccans perhaps, dancing in the moonlight. I thought, what if an ordinary woman should come upon such a scene. I wanted to make it a supernatural romance, so I decided that the love interest would be an immortal sorcerer posing as a psychic, and the woman who falls in love with him would be an ordinary woman. Of course, there had to be a rival, which was a witch, Morgaine. Then I got to thinking, if the sorcerer was immortal, sooner or later he would have to disappear since he would not age. In another novel of the series, I had him go missing. His love, of course, hired a private investigator to find him. In another novel in the series, I got to wondering how Morgaine became a witch. I also saw a picture of little men attending a university of magic. I had Morgaine step into that picture to learn to be a sorceress. In another of the series, I got my inspiration from The Book of Revelations in the Bible. My protagonists had to stop an impending apocalypse.

Ideas can come from anywhere. All it takes is a little imagination to transfer something mundane or unusual into a scene, which in turn translates into characters (to be in the scene), background and an event. One thing leads to another, and soon you have story or a novel.

Explaining the Federal Reserve

The Federal Reserve has been in the news lately. Berneke, its head, has said that it is going to act to increase employment. Few people know exactly what the Federal Reserve is and what it does. I found the answer to these questions in a book called Schrodinger's Cat Trilogy by Robert Anton Wilson. This is a direct quote from the book.

"The Federal Reserve made it possible for other banks to loan what they didn't have. The Fed "guaranteed" the credit of other banks.

The Fed was able to make this guarantee because it had a lot of credit itself, in the form of government bonds.

The government bonds were good because they were guaranteed by loans from the Fed.

The loans from the Fed were guaranteed because the government gave them bonds.

And this was safe because the bonds (remember) were guaranteed by the Fed."

As you can see by the above, it is all smoke and mirrors. The people at the Fed are magicians who make scads of money out of nothing. And that explains a lot about how are economy works.

Making a Short Story into a Novel

Making a Short Story into a Novel

Recently I decided that a short story I had written could be expanded into novel length or at least a novella. Once I had accomplished that bit of work, I could submit it to my publisher to release it as an E-book. The story was a modern retelling of Sleeping Beauty – with a twist ending.

Here is a brief synopsis: a young man of college age takes co-ed of his acquaintance on a trip to New England to browse through antique stores. His hidden motive is to seduce her. While browsing through an antique store, the proprietor talks him into buying a small ornate wooden box. When he opens the box, he finds an old-fashioned iron key. His attempts at seduction fail miserably. When they return to the campus, she begins to see the star of the football team. Heartbroken, our hero goes on a guided tour of some Eastern Europe countries, including Romania where his ancestors originated. He leaves the tour to visit the village where his relatives live. On a hill overlooking the hamlet is a ruined castle. He is told that it is forbidden to go there. He has a dream that a sleeping beauty lies there. Determined to see what is really in the castle, he disobeys his uncle and heads for the castle, but finds it surrounded by a thick poisonous thorn hedge. By using a chain saw he makes his way through the hedge and enters the castle. What he finds there is my secret. You'll have to buy the E-book when it comes out if you're interested. All of this is told in the first person POV. The published version is entitled "The Sleeper."

The first thing I did to convert it to novel length is divide it into chapters, making each scene a separate chapter. Now, in a short story, pretty much all we know about the characters is what their action reveal about them. So I beefed up the main characters, giving background information and other detail about them. I had to do this without slowing the pace of the story too much.

Next I added new scenes. Where in the short story I might've had a sentence that simply made a statement about something that occurred simply to move the story along, I invented an entire scene to show everything that happened in detail.

Then I beefed up information about the locations and other background and environmental factors. Since part of the story was set on a tour of Eastern Europe, which I had also experienced, it was relatively easy to fill in detail about the places the protagonist visited during his trip.

By this time I had added a fair amount of wordage to the original story. As I edited for grammar and errors, I also found many places where I could beef the narrative and added a lot of enhancements of mood, imagery and foreshadowing.

All in all, it turned out fairly well. I raised the word count from five thousand words to a novella of over twenty thousand. This made it eligible for publishing as an E-book by my publisher. The published e-book is entitled "The Sleeper."

How my Morgaine series grew like Topsy

I thought maybe some of you might be interested in how my Morgaine Series of novels became a series. It started with a song, Dancing in the Moonlight. When I heard that song, I pictured Wiccans or some other new age group in a meadow in the forest having some sort of ritual. I thought, Suppose an ordinary person became somehow involved with such a group by fate, not by choice. So I created Melody Trent, a young widow, who falls in love with a psychic, Michael Ellul. But, who is this Michael? I decided to make him a thousand year old sorcerer who had been granted this extended life by a demon. I figured that Melody should have a rival for Michael's affection, so I created Morgaine Fabiano, a witch. I threw in some other complications such as Isaac the robot and soon I had a novel, which I titled Dancing in the Moonlight.

When I found a publisher for it, it was an E-book publisher, Renaissance E-Books. The publisher thought it was too long for an E-book. She wanted me to split it into two novels, which I did. They became the first two novels in the series, Morgaine and Michael, and Morgaine and Melody.

I was not quite satisfied with the ending. I thought to myself, What is going to happen when Melody ages and Michael remains youthful? It seems like he would disappear from her life after a while. Perhaps he would seek a means to restore her youth so that she would remain his lover and companion through the long centuries. And what would Melody do when he disappears? Hunt for him, of course. Well, she couldn't do this herself, so she hires Raven Lenore, a tough PI and Wiccan (a witch to catch a wizard). And of course, Morgaine has to fit into the story somehow. She returns as demon in order to somehow regain the love of Michael. Mix in a megalomaniac out to steal Michael's robot, and viola, you have Morgaine and Raven, a suspense thriller.

In the next novel, I told the story of how Morgaine became a witch, and how she met Michael for the first and second times, and from her point of view, why she did the things she did. Alas, this also turned out to be too long and had to be split into two books, Morgaine and Gretchen, and Morgaine and Asmodeus.

As a writer of science-fiction and fantasy, one of the things that's great fun to write about is the end of the world. I used the Book of Revelations of the Bible as a sort of outline plus some stuff from the internet about Armageddon, included the possibility of earth being struck by a gigantic meteorite, threw in Frankenstein, Dracula and various demons, bad guys, aliens and other strange characters. And of course the schemes of Morgaine played a big part. This weird mix became Morgaine and Armageddon.

At that point, I thought I was done with Morgaine and company. But then I thought, With all the strange things that had happened at Moonwood (Michael's mansion in the country), it would make a great background for a haunted house story. So I invented two new characters, a young engaged couple, Tom and Bridget, who were hired as contractors to repair the mansion. Of course, Morgaine and various demons and ghosts make life at Moonwood hell for the couple. I called this book Morgaine and Moonwood. My sequal to this is what happens after Bridget has the baby that she conceived when she was raped by the demon Asmodeus. This was to be the final book of the series and is called Morgaine and Nicholas. Since then, I've added two more novels to the series, Morgaine and the Necromancer and Morgaine and the Sorcerer's Guild.

Why I write fantasy

I've always loved the fantastic ever since I was a little child. When I was six or seven years old, my parents took me to see The Wizard of Oz with Judy Garland. I read the book and wanted more. (I was always a voracious reader, devouring books dozens at a time.) As a result, I spent every penny I could scrape up on Oz books, of which there were many, not only by Frank L. Baum, but by Ruth Plumly Thompson and John R. O'Neil. When I grew older, I became interested in Science Fiction. In those days most SF was published in pulp magazines. I bought as many of those as I could afford. In addition to SF, they contained fantasy as well. From reading in these genres, I gradually came to the realization that I would enjoy writing fantasy and science fiction.

As an adult I took a mail order writing course and tried my hand at writing, short stories at first and gradually worked my way up to novel length. At first I had little time to devote to writing due to work and household duties. The internet and retirement started my career. At first I had short stories published in E-zines. Finally, I became a published E-book author.

My first venture into fantasy was a humorous adult fairytale I called the Book of Retslu, about a youth who wants to win the hand of a princess by winning a tournament and going on a quest. His problem was that his nemesis, an evil sorcerer, enchanted him so that he always went in the wrong direction. I followed this up with three sequels.

Mostly, however, I write dark fantasy about witches, demons and vampires. My Morgaine the demon witch series is up to ten novels. I've also written a series about a character I created for the Morgaine series. Her name is Raven Lenore, and she is a tough private eye and psychic. I like writing in this genre because of all the possibilities from trips to hell and fairyland, time travel, magic, science fictional concepts, the occult and interesting characters. (I have also written science fiction.)

My favorite fantasy novels and authors. There are many. I love Pierre Anthony's Xanth series, all the Oz books, anything by H.P. Lovecraft, Lord of the Rings of course, and novels by Marion Zimmer Bradley, especially The Mists of Avalon.

Why do readers love fantasy? I believe it is because fantasy takes you away from the humdrum world that most of us live in and into worlds of adventure, magic and mystery.

Would I write fantasy if no one read it? Probably. I think writers are cursed to write. We are like drug addicts, only story addicts. Ideas are always popping into my mind that I need to write down. I'll probably never write all the stories that I have ideas for. I'd to be immortal, like some of my characters.

Scale Model of the Solar System

I thought that it might be fun to build a scale mode of the solar system. I decided to use the scale of 10 centimeter = 1 billion meters. I started by obtaining an enormous beach ball (1.4 meters or a little over 3 ft in diameter) as the sun. So I went to a softball field and placed the sun at home plate. Next came Mercury, a grain of sand 6 meters (18 feet) away, a third of the way to the pitcher's mound. Venus was 1.2 mm, a tiny pebble and was 10.7 meters from home plate, halfway to the pitcher's mound. Earth was about the same size 1.3 mm, another tiny pebble. I placed it 15 meters from home plate, three quarters of the distance to the pitcher's mound. Mars was a tiny, tiny pebble (0.6 mm) 22 meters from home plate, just outside the pitcher's mound.

At last I began to deal with some substantial planets. Jupiter was 14 centimeters in diameter, the size of a softball. I placed it 77 meters (253 feet) from home plate. I was now in deep centerfield. Saturn was 12 cm (5 inches), a slightly smaller ball. I had to leave the field to place it 1.4 km (0.8 miles) away. Uranus was about 6 cm (2.5 inches) and was placed 2.8 km (1.7 miles) from home plate, Neptune was 4.9 cm (2 inches) and 4.5 km (2.8 miles) away. Finally there was poor little Pluto, the dwarf planet, a grain of sand, 5.8 km (3.6 miles away).

Of course, I did this exercise in my head and making calculations of paper. It couldn't be done in real life unless one had a large property such as a farm or an estate to work with. What I think this shows is that the solar system is a really big place.

Love and Romance in Genre Fiction

I've watch "Titanic" for the upteenth time. I finally realized why I like that movie so much. The sinking of the Titanic is only the back story. The real theme of the movie is Jack's showing Rose how to live in the moment. I may be a romantic, but I believe love belongs in most fiction. I know that my novels all contain romantic love at some point although they are not love stories in the traditional sense.

Think about some of the greatest movies, Casablanca, Gone With the Wind, Pulp Fiction, Lord of the Rings and even Star Wars. These all have great love stories in them.

Of my own novels, three stand out. The first two books of the Morgaine series about a young woman who falls in love with an occultist and her rival, a witch. The second is For the Love of Kumiko which is about a man who falls in love with a humanoid robot and the chaos this romance causes in his life.

From Net to Mesh

At the moment the biggest threat to freedom on the internet is that it is controlled by large entities, such as telephone companies, cable companies and governments. For example, during the uprising in Egypt, the Egyptian government was able to disable the internet in that country relatively easily. Also, more and more of the internet is controlled by fewer and fewer corporations. How can this trend be countered?

The answer is "blowing in the wind." In the current configuration of the internet, most end nodes, desktops, laptops, smartphones, etc., are connected to relatively few connecting nodes provided by telephone and cable companies called IPs (internet providers). Well some tech people have built what is known as "mesh" networks where the end user nodes are also connecting nodes. For a relatively small investment in hardware and software, anyone with a wireless device of some sort can hook into one of these mesh networks. At the present, these communities are relatively small. But, I see this as the wave of the future. Eventually the intermesh will replace the internet in the same way that the internet grew from a few nodes to millions.

Is this a good thing or a bad thing? Good question! It will be absolutely impossible to police the intermesh. File sharing, copyright infringement, sexual content and all sorts of cyber crime will absolutely explode. On the other hand, political dissent, leaks of secret information and freedom of expression cannot be curtailed. This may change everything in ways impossible to foresee, as the internet and home computing has.

The Demons of Dante's Inferno

Most of Dante's demons come from Greek mythology.

Charon – Hell's ferryman. He carries souls of the newly deceased across the river Acheron. A coin to pay Charon for passage is sometimes placed in the mouth of a dead person. It is said that those who cannot pay are fated to wander the earth as ghosts for a hundred years.

Minos – Dante makes him the judge of the damned. He determines what part of Hell they will be placed. In Greek mythology, Minos was a king of Crete, the son of Zeus and Europa. Every nine years he made King Aegeus pick seven men and seven women to go to the labyrinth to be eaten by the Minotaur. After Minos died, he became a judge of the dead in Hades.

Cerebus – The three-head dog that guards the gates of Hell to prevent anyone from escaping.

Plutus – A wolf-like demon that guards the fourth circle of Hell, the hoarders and wasters.

Phlegyas – Ferryman of the river Styx and giant guardian of the Fifth Circle of Hell.

In Dante's inferno, the angels that rebelled against God led by Satan guard the City of Dis. They are not named.

Furies – In Greek mythology the Furies, Alecto, Tisiphone and Magaera are the children of Gaia and Uranus. In the Inferno they represent remorse and torment evildoers and sinners.

Medusa –  In Greek mythology, she is a Gorgon, a chthonic monster and the daughter of  Phorcys and Ceto. Gazing at her turns the onlooker to stone.

The Minotaur – A creature with the head of a bull and the body of a man. In mythology he dwelt in the labyrinth of Crete.

Three Centaurs, half horse, half human creatures, are mentioned in the Inferno. They are Chiron, Cacus and Nessus.

Harpies – In the Inferno, they are the guardians of suicides. They are often depicted as either beautiful women with wings or ugly winged bird women.

Demons of Bolga Five – Creatures who tear the grafters to pieces with claws and grappling hooks. Their leader is Malacoda.

The giants and Titans of Greek mythology are also mentioned. Nimrod, who built the tower of Babel, Ephistus, Briareus, Tityas, Typhon and Anterus.

Standing waist deep in ice in the lowest pit of Hell with three faces is Satan himself.

Planets suitable for life

Recently astronomers have discovered planets in orbit around most stars close enough to determine whether they have planets. But of all the billions of planetary systems, which of them have planets capable of supporting life? At present we do not have the technology to look closely at those systems. Of our own solar system, as far as we can tell, earth is the only one capable of supporting life. There are two other planets that might support life. Mars may have supported life in the past, but so far no concrete evidence of this has discovered. Europa, a moon of Jupiter, has a liquid ocean. Perhaps life developed there (if the ocean is water).

So what makes earth unique in the solar system. First, it is not too hot nor too cold to sustain life. Most of the planets and moons further from the sun than Mars are too cold. Mercury and Venus are too hot. Although Venus is not so close to the sun that a temperature within a range to support life is ruled out for that reason. Venus is sometimes regarded as earth's sister planet. Venus is only slightly smaller than Earth (95% of Earth's diameter, 80% of Earth's mass). Because of these similarities, it was thought that below its dense clouds Venus might be very Earth like and might even have life. Unfortunately, we now know that Venus may be the least hospitable place for life in the solar system.

The pressure of Venus' atmosphere at the surface is about the same as the pressure at a depth of one km in Earth's oceans. It is composed mostly of carbon dioxide. There are several layers of clouds many kilometers thick composed of sulfuric acid. These clouds completely obscure our view of the surface. This dense atmosphere produces a runaway greenhouse effect that raises Venus' surface temperature hot enough to melt lead. Venus' surface is actually hotter than Mercury's despite being nearly twice as far from the Sun.

Another factor to support life as we know it is the presence of water. Apparently Mars once had liquid water on its surface, but it no longer does. Another problem with Mars is its thin atmosphere. One possible reason that it no longer has water and air is its small mass. Any smaller planet would likely be completely airless like our own moon.

Hence, it can be seen that although three planets are in a zone capable of supporting life as far as distance from our star (the sun), only one can support life. The other two are too dry. One has an atmosphere that is too thick, the other an atmosphere that is too thin. Thus, it can be seen that planets capable of supporting life are relatively rare. The question is how rare. If ten percent of planets in the galaxy are capable of supporting life, there may be nine billion planet capable of supporting life. If this number is one percent there would nine hundred million; one tenth of one percent , ninety million. That's still a lot of planets capable of supporting life.

  

Entangled Teleportation

Recently on Nova, there has been a series of programs to explain some of the latest findings in cosmology and quantum mechanics. One of the most unusual phenomena in quantum mechanics is called entanglement. Quantum entanglement occurs when electrons, molecules, photons and other elementary particles interact physically and then separated. They affect each other in the same way no matter how much distance separates them. This has been described by some as "spooky action at a distance" since nothing connects the pair and the change is instantaneous.

In 1998, physicists at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), along with two European groups, successfully teleported a photon, a particle of energy that carries light. The Caltech group was able to read the atomic structure of a photon, send this information across 3.28 feet (about 1 meter) of coaxial cable and create a replica of the photon. As predicted, the original photon no longer existed once the replica was made.

The way that this would work on macroscopic scale -- in other words, the scale of things as we normally experience them as contrasted with the tiny world of particles and atoms – is that at one terminal of our teleporter would contain two booths. In one booth would be matter that is entangled with matter in a similar booth at the destination site. To teleport a person from the place of origin to the destination, the person would step into the second booth. The teleporter would then entangle the person's atoms and particles with the one in the other booth. This would destroy the person in the booth, but would cause an exact replica to be instantly created at the destination terminal.  

This brings up a philosophical question. Is the person who appeared at the destination site really the same person that was sent from the place of origin? He or she would be identical in every way including thoughts. If not, I don't think anyone would want to travel this way. It may be okay for transporting goods, however.

Black Holes

One of the most interesting phenomenon in the universe are black holes. For those of you who do not what a black hole is, it is a region of space from which nothing, not even light can escape. The existence of black holes is predicted by the General Theory of Relativity, which concludes that a sufficiently compact mass will cause space-time to form a black hole. Surrounding a black hole is a surface called the event horizon. Anything within the event horizon, including any sort of electromagnetic radiation such as light, can never escape.

Black holes are created when a star becomes so massive that it explodes into a supenova at the end of its life cycle. After a black hole is formed, it can grow by absorbing mass from its surroundings, such as other stars and even other black holes, eventually becoming what is called a super massive black hole. Some super-massive black holes have a mass that is as much as millions of solar masses. Super-massive black holes are often found in the center of galaxies. Our own Milky Way galaxy has one.

The question that arises is if no electromagnetic energy can escape a black hole, how can one be detected? It can be inferred through its interaction with other matter. Astronomers have identified many black holes in binary star systems where one of the stars is a black hole by studying the interaction with their companions.  Also, it turns out that quantum theory predicts that the surface of a black hole will radiate thermal energy.

A black hole has only three physical properties: mass, charge and angular momentum. These properties cause the black hole to be visible outside the hole. For example, a charged black hole repels other like charges.

When an object falls into a black hole, information about its shape or charge is lost to outside observers. Note: I doubt whether there are any inside observers either.

At a distance from a black hole, a particle can move in any direction, the only restriction is the speed of light. Close to a black hole space-time starts to deform. Once inside the event horizon the particle cannot escape. To a distant observer, clocks near a black hole slow down. This is called time dilation. On the other hand, an observer falling into a black hole does not experience these effects as he crosses the event horizon. According to his clock he crosses the event horizon after a finite time although he cannot determine the location of the event horizon from local observations. (There seems to be a science fiction story plot here.)      

Within a black hole there is a region of gravitational singularity, a region where space-time curvature becomes infinite. In a non-rotating black hole this region takes the shape of single point, but for a rotating black hole it is smeared out to form a ring singularity in the plane of rotation.

An observer falling into a non-rotating black hole is carried into the singularity once the observer crosses the event horizon. When they reach it, they are crushed to infinite density. However, in the case of a rotating black hole, it is possible to avoid the singularity. Hence there is the possibility of exiting the black hole into a different space-time. (This has been used to travel long distances in space in many a science-fiction story.) But, who knows where the other end of a black hole will take you. It might be an entire other universe.

There is much more to know about black holes. I have just covered the highlights.

     

     

     

What is beyond the universe?

Have you ever thought about infinity? Or read what modern cosmologists have to say about the universe? Back a few centuries, people who thought about such things figured that the universe consisted of the earth which was surround by crystal spheres. Astronomers (actually astrologers) of those days never wrote about what was outside the outermost crystal sphere. Then came along Copernicus, Galileo and Newton and the universe expanded somewhat to the size of the solar system and the fixed stars out there somewhere; nobody knew how far. When astronomers gazed through more powerful telescopes and other sophisticated gear, suddenly the universe expanded to billions of light years in size.

But how far did it go? Did it stretch on forever? In the early part of the twentieth century, Albert Einstein proposed his Theory of Relativity. This and other discoveries changed everything. Cosmologists began to think of the universe as a great expanding ball (or some other shape) that had a definite limit.

Okay, that is the current view of our universe. But if our universe is a great ball (or some other shape) curved in the fourth dimension, what lies outside of it? Recent articles I have read about what modern cosmologists and physicist think about the universe speak of "multiverses." I wonder what they are like.

Here are some thoughts on the matter. Not all of them are mine. According to one viewpoint,. the universe is defined to be everything, including space and time itself. Since the universe includes all space, there can be nothing "outside" the universe.

However, the Big Bang theory changed the view of cosmologists and others who study such things completely. According to the Big Bang theory, the Big Bang was not an explosion in a preexisting three-dimensional space, with matter and light expanding out into empty space from some central point; instead, matter and energy are understood to fill all of space (i.e. "the universe"), and what's expanding is space ("the universe") itself. But, wait a minute, if it's expanding, what is it expanding into?

The Big Bang theory is based on Einstein's theory of general relativity, which explains that gravity of matter/energy causes space-time to curve. The amount of curve depends on the average density of matter/energy throughout the universe, a consequence of this is that the universe as a whole can be curved, with either positive curvature, zero curvature, or negative curvature.

To visualize a closed universe with positive curvature, drop the dimensions by one. Instead of curved three-dimensional space, picture a two-dimensional universe in which two-dimensional space is curved into a sphere, and "expanding space" means that the sphere is blowing up like a balloon while the bits of two dimensional matter on the surface do not change in size. You can see that if you pasted a bunch of bits of paper on a balloon and then blew it up, each bit would see the other bits receding from it. This is what astronomers observe, when they view distant galaxies.

If you made a movie of the balloon blowing up and play the movie backwards, after a while the size of the sphere approaches zero, all the bits of matter throughout the balloon universe get more and more squished together and approach infinite density as the size approaches zero. This is what the big bang is supposed to be. Of course, this analogy forces you to picture the two dimensional surface of the sphere expanding into a third dimension, and our curved three dimensional space is expanding into four dimensional space. The question becomes what else is in the fourth dimensional space? Other balloons (universes)?

Also, if space is curved in the fourth dimension, what happens if you travel in a straight line as far as you could go? Would you return to your starting point? And if the fourth dimension is time, would you return to the point in time when you started your journey?

On the other hand, J. Bruno wrote: "The center of the universe is everywhere, as well as its border but does not exist anywhere." Thus, the universe has a center that exists everywhere and borders that exist everywhere. Think about this. Does this statement violate any physical or philosophical rules or not? If the answer is "not," the universe is and will stay infinite and isotropic.

Not everyone agrees. According to Stephen Hawkins, a black hole transports information to another universe. Another theory hypothesizes that there are many (perhaps an infinite number of) universes outside our own. In fact, one theory is that there is a larger universe of which our universe is only a part, like an atom of something much larger.

There is also the theory of parallel universes in which a new universe is created whenever two or more possible futures occur. That each possibility creates a new universe which is almost identical to the ones parallel to it except in one the change occurred one way, and in the other, it occurred the other way.

Of course, all this brings up the question of what is the universe composed. When we say that space is curved, what is this curved "space" composed of? Nothing? How can nothing be curved? It seems that there are more questions than answers. For more confusing answers and questions, go to any web site on modern cosmology.