The Shade series.

I originally wrote the short story Shade for fun. It was a play on the old radio series "The Shadow" from the early years of radio. He was character who could cloud men's minds, so that they couldn't see him. In a day and age where people tend to trust their technical devices more than the senses they were born with, it was more important that my character be able to fool the computers. It also played on one of my favorite novels by Dean Koontz titled Dark Rivers of the Heart. In this book Koontz creates a tech savvy group that lives off the grid. These were some of the inspiration for the Subgridders in my Shade Series. I even took the code phrase that Koontz used in his book as a way of recognizing each other. Of course I gave him due credit for the whole idea. What keeps me writing this series?

Just look around at the news and you will find the answer. We have the media praising an athlete for admitting that he is gay while forgetting the deaths of real heroes in Benghazi and other places. To protect our children from drug addiction, and sexual diseases we teach them about drugs and sex. To protect them from guns we ban the gun, where is the logic in that? Some people are telling us that our children are not ours, but that they belong to the community in general. These are the concepts that Orwell warned us about in his book 1984 which scared everyone in my generation to death. It also helped me design the world in which the series takes place.  More and more our society is looking like Huxley's Brave New World where long term relationships and family life are considered detrimental to society. Our children are given heroes that really aren't heroic at all. Instead of people who make sacrifices for others, we tend to glorify the villains and entertainers. We know the names of everyone who committed a mass shooting, but who can name the policeman of fireman who saved the lives of the survivors?  All of these works of literature have played a part in the creation of the world in which Shade and his companions live.

The world has been turned upside down, good is now bad, logic is irrelevant, common sense is ridiculed, and it is scary to think that this is the world we are leaving our children and grandchildren. The bright side of it all is that there will always be the people who live on the land. They were the ones who got us through all of the hard times in the past and they will be the ones who get us through the hard times of the future. It will be those that remember the lessons of our grandparents who survived the Great Depression, fought WWII that will keep the flames of liberty and freedom alive. It is the hope that readers will take a new look at how we are living today, and where are grandparents lived to find the balance that will keep this dystopian world from becoming real.

Designing a fictional Government?

One of the things I have been working on with the new book is how to describe the differences between the two major groups in the world of Shade. The Ons live in the cities under constant surveillance. Their lives are dictated by a powerful central Government. Sanctioned drugs are given to the people in order to keep them docile and under control. Every move they make is monitored, and they receive only the information that the State wants them to know. Could this happen in America? Is it? Many think that it not only could but is happening slowly as I write this piece. Drones flying over our cities, invasive searches before flying, Bills being passed by people who haven't even read them. It isn't something that would happen overnight, it would take a couple of generations at least to make it happen. Nikita Khrushchev once bang his shoe on the desk in the UN General Assembly and announced that the United States would fall without the Soviets firing a single shot. While the Soviet Union fell apart first it doesn't mean that we are safe from following their lead. If this all controlling Government was to come about could it really control the whole country?

With our history of independence I don't think that they would be able to do more than control the major population centers. We as a people in general have been bred with a streak of hard headed reliance on ourselves and our God. While the cities might have the manufacturing and tech industries, they will need food, water, raw materials like lumber, oil, and various minerals, all of which come from the rural areas. Our DNA has a large dose of rebellion in it. Don't think so? Just ask an Apple user about Microsoft, throw Linux fan into the mix and watch the fireworks. We have people who hack computer systems just to show that they can. It is those people who live separate from the main populations in the Shade books and stories. They have their own government which is based on the ideas put forth by our Founding Fathers. Each group has its own rules that run the daily lives of its members, there is a loose coalition with other communities and even a central council made up of members from each of the smaller groups. The power to affect the daily lives of their population remains at the local level. This group is known as the Subs. They are not totally off the grid but they do operate just under the surface of the grid. It is their defense and a weapon against the Ons.

If the first part of this post were to come true, hopefully there will be a group like the Subs as well.

City vs Country

When our ancestors moved away from the settlements and struck out across the wilderness they had to rely on themselves. Along the way they built cities and communities before once more striking out on their own. Leaving civilization behind they pushed out onto the prairies and mountains. If something broke they either fixed it or did without it. People learned skills that were needed to survive. While there were blacksmiths and wheelwrights many people had to make repairs on their own if they were too far from one of those craftsmen. As the west grew and became more populated settlers were able to get things in town that they had once made themselves. Cities grew and the people who moved into them lost the skills that were vital on a farm or ranch. So did some of the people living close to town.

Even today people who live far from towns or cities can't just get in the car and run to the corner store, so they have to learn some of those lost skills. That is one of the reasons I have a problem with so many of the post apocalypse movies and books. Rural people know how to fix things that are needed for their own survival, they know how to build things and most importantly they know how to grow their own food. The movies and books make it seem like the rural areas will become places where roving gangs will take over by brute force. Funny the farmers, ranchers and other rural types I have met are physically strong and well versed in the use of firearms. Also country folks have a sense of individuality that makes it hard for them to just bow down because someone tells them to. More than once have I helped a neighbor erect a wood shed or other structure made out of things taken right from the land. I doubt seriously that the urban gangs would last very long out in the countryside where they had to forage to survive.

This is why the heroes in my Shade stories live in the rural areas. Without total disarmament keeping the people in those areas docile would be a very difficult task. It would also create problems for the urban areas who would need the food grown by these people. This is the area I am dealing with in the present Shade novel, it is a delicate balance between the two areas. How far can the Government which is an urban dictatorship push the rural areas that live a much freer life? Can the city dwellers force the people from the small towns and agricultural areas to help them find the fugitive who killed a sadistic Government official?

Turmoil

There has been a lot going on for the last couple of weeks. All of which have created a lot of turmoil. Between the truck breaking down numerous times, my wife dealing with health issues, needing to get to Washington State at least long enough to renew my driver's license, it has been stressful to say the least.

Then I take the time to read some of the news stories floating around and I feel like I am in the world I created for my Shade character. Sheriffs in Washington State are being given the charge to inspect the homes of legal gun owners once a year. Did Olympia pass a law that would violate citizen's rights under the Fourth Amendment? In the same bill the state legislature declared all guns illegal that use a removable magazine. Every handgun other than a revolver uses a removable magazine. So did they just outlaw all non-revolver handguns? Some big city police chiefs are standing up to say that we should deprive citizens of their Second Amendment Rights, while county sheriffs are defending the right to keep and bear arms.  In reacting to news stories about these subjects legislators said that they had not done their due diligence on the bills. What is that about? Are they passing bills without knowing what is in them? If this kind of gut reaction legislating without knowing exactly what is being passed keeps going, how long before we find ourselves in the future my story has depicted? That was in the state where I live.

Then Colorado the state I grew up in has a Representative saying that women aren't smart enough to own a gun, or capable of determining if a man might be intent on raping them. Topping that the University of Colorado Colorado Springs published a list of ideas for preventing rape that was ludicrous. All of these things may seem silly, but they are the stepping stones on the path to the worlds of Orwell's 1984 or the Stallone movie Demolition Man where everyone is dependent on a totalitarian Government. In a way my Shade character was influenced by both of these works.

The more I see these things happening the more fearful I am that the future will look like one of the dystopian worlds depicted in a science fiction novel.

What makes the difference?

As I sit here getting ready to watch the Superbowl there is one question that keeps nagging at my mind. Like many who follow the Special Operations world, I was stunned by the news that Navy SEAL and sniper extra ordinary Chris Kyle was killed. What shocked me even more was to find out that the person who killed him was a young man Kyle was trying to help deal with PTSD. Personally I have always been puzzled by this condition.


How is it that two people can go through the same hellish conditions and come out so different. Chris Kyle served numerous tours in Iraq and by all accounts he was involved in every major battle there. Among his awards and decorations are two Silver Stars, five Bronze Stars, numerous Purple Hearts and who knows what else, yet by all accounts he was a committed family man who gave much of himself back to the military community. I don't know the man other than his public persona, yet every time I saw him, he came across as the epitome of a humble man. In my own life I have known and served with men who spent years in some of the worst hell holes of their generation. Many of them were straight forward about their experiences while others were haunted by them. Is there some secret ingredient that gives one the strength to overcome almost any trial that is put in their path?

There is no doubt in my mind that PTSD is a very real problem, and that it affects many who have suffered through traumatic experiences of all kinds. What I struggle with is how do we find the key that allows some to deal with the trauma and rise above it, while others are destroyed by it. I don't have any answers, I can only give thanks for examples like Chris Kyle and mourn his loss. I also mourn for the tortured soul who took his life.

Guilty as charged.

My friend Robert Bidinotto also known as the Vigilante Author posted a link on his facebook page to an article titled But I Want Success Now! 
While I really didn't want to read the piece I knew that I should. So I reached down deep and found the courage. It definitely wasn't what I wanted to hear. All I really wanted was someone to tell me how I could become an overnight success next week. What I actually got from reading it was the honest truth. A simple fact that can be summed up in just two simple little words "Keep writing". The author of the piece Boyd Morrison talked about a number of very famous writers who had written numerous works before they actually hit the big time and became the names we know today. It also brought to mind a comment my wife told me about. A friend had mentioned how much my writing had improved since my first book. As I go back and read some of my early work I can see that my work has gotten better with practice. So while I see why Robert posted the article, it doesn't mean that I have to like their advice, but if I want to succeed I really need to follow it. Just as there have been times in my life that I wanted to just quit, it was the times that I refused to that paid off with the biggest rewards. So even though quick rewards would be great, they wouldn't taste as sweet as the ones I have had to work diligently to achieve. While somethings have come easily, the ones I am most proud of, took a lot of hard work and sacrifice. Thanks to Robert, for posting this and for always giving me a nudge in the right direction when I need it.

Changes

Well, last week I ran free promotions for "Shade on the Run" and the western novella, "The Last Raid" neither of which generated any sales afterwards. So that is a technique I think I will avoid from here on. If this seems like complaining it isn't. It is however a statement of the facts. This whole marketing thing baffles me. I will keep writing but not sure exactly where I will be taking it. The next Shade novel is started and well on its way. All outward signs tell me that I should be working on a western because those have been my best sellers, but the characters in Shade keep luring me back into the dystopian future. Not sure exactly why that is but, I am following where they lead.

I have some ideas for westerns that I would like to follow up on, but I haven't had the time to do the research needed. While most of my work is fiction, I do want to make sure that it is as close to fact as possible. Authors who fail to do their homework drive me nuts. A note to budding authors, do your own research. Nothing spoils a good read like running across something that just doesn't fit. Even with my science fiction, I ask people who should know, if something is possible. One of the many real characters who lived in the old west that fascinates me is the man they called Hi Jolly. He came to America with a load of camels. They were part of an experiment to see how viable it would be to use them in the Southwest. The Civil War put an end to the project, but not Hi Jolly. He made such a name for himself that when they buried him in the tiny town of Quartzsite Arizona, they built a monument over the grave along with a plaque telling the story of his life. To do the story right though I need a couple of days at least to spend in Quartzsite during the week, so that I can get to city hall and the public library. I am also working on a story about what might have happened to some of the horses the Nez Perce were forced to sell off after Chief Joseph surrendered. Only time will tell, in the mean time I will continue to move forward hoping to figure out the whole marketing issue along the way.