Writing Improved

During this "hiatus" stage which three of my novels are in right now, I've been rewriting each one over and over again, improving the writing, or the prose, or whatever you want to call it. And I have succeeded beyond even what I had thought possible. At this point the writing for Second Chance, The Vase, and John Dunn are many times better than what they were for their first publications.

Not to say anyone who bought and/or read any of those three books will have enjoyed it less for having done so. But I'm a perfectionist. As all artists should be. I don't settle. Meaning I don't content myself for any job I've done on anything that might have been done better.

I had already established to myself that the more I reread and revised any of my books, the better it became. So I didn't stop. Until they were published. But then, with those three books, the publishers went out of business. So that meant, to me, anyway, I had another opportunity to make those books even better. So for the last several months, I've been doing just that. And I've rewritten all three by this point. I just finished Second Chance, and I am very proud of how that came out. Now I've returned to The Vase. For the umpteenth time. And I'm making that one better than ever.

I've taken a break from John Dunn, my longest novel. Not to worry. I've rewritten that one at least three times over since its original publication, and it too is way better than it was for its first appearance in the book world. And when I'm done with this current rewrite of The Vase, you can bet that I'll return to John Dunn and make that one better still.

I'm doing the same thing with my music. I had written over a hundred songs during my musical creativity years, which was about twenty years ago. It lasted until about fifteen years ago. Which means for about five years of my life I dedicated my creative self to creating music. Before that I was more into creating art, as in drawings, paintings, and sculptures. But I switched to music for those years, because I had a musical background, having played the piano and keyboards for a rock band in the early days of my life. I didn't get too far into composing music at that point, however, so when I dedicated myself to writing music, the creativity flowed.

Now, these years later, I'm doing the same thing with my songs that I'm doing with my books. I'm making them better. I guess the proper term is rearranging them. As the songs remain basically the same, but with some "editing" so to speak, which is making them way better.

It's an interesting point in my life. My older son is grown, my younger son is a teenager, and I have more time to work on my personal goals. One of which is to put all my songs into the "albums" that I had originally envisioned them to be. I have only one on SoundCloud right now. Click on the Rockin the Cosmos icon in the right margin of this blog and you can hear it. It's Volume 12 of my collection of songs. I have another one ready, the Rockin the Afterlife album, which is Volume 13.

What I consider to be "ready" is when I have all the elements finished, which includes the vocals. And I've only put vocals on three of my "albums" so far. Volume 2, Volume 12, and Volume 13. That means Volume 1 and Volumes 4 through 11 are still in need of having the vocals included before I can call them ready. Volume 12 is "ready" and that's why it's over there for anyone to hear. Again, my singing sucks, but if you can get past that, I think the musical compositions are very well arranged with catchy tunes, and an intriguing "concept album" format.

And all the while, I'll keep making by books better. Who knows. They may get published again, and if they do, they'll be better than ever.

Last Kingdom Comes Around

I was saying how Last Kingdom blew it. And I still think they did. But the storyline had come around full circle, and once again, Uhtred is back with the Saxons and in full graces of King Alfred, (if not publicly, then at least privately.) So much so, anyway, that he has made it clear to his royal priest to see to it that after he dies Uhtred remains the right hand man for his son Edward when he becomes king. So yeah, I would call that full circle.

Alexander Dreymon as Uhtred

I do like the story development of how Alfred's daughter has a strong attraction to Uhtred. And I wouldn't mind if they actually hooked up, but since she's already married to the king of Mercia, I don't know if that would ever happen. At any rate, it's back to being a show I like, and that's a relief, as I had expressed my disappointment at how the story took a turn for the worse, imo.

Say, the actor, Alexander Dreymon, who plays Uhtred, and the actress, Thea Sofie Loch Næss, who plays Skade the witch in season three, might actually be good actors for the male and female leads in my Killer of Killers book. Here's a couple publicity photos and I think they would be good choices for the roles of Trent Smith and Samantha Jones if KOK were to ever make the big screen. Judge for yourself.

Thea Sofie Loch Naess

Dustin Clare was my first choice for Trent Smith, but his star has fallen since his heyday as Gannicus in the STARZ show Spartacus. He must have the worst agent ever. You might have thought that after he stole the show in the Spartacus series, he would have landed some big time roles.

But the guy hasn't been heard from since! It's like he's totally dropped off the radar. It's not understandable to me. He was a great actor, with a great screen presence, and fans adored him.

By contrast, Amber Heard, who I had initially chosen for the role of Samantha Jones, has since had an uptake in success in the DC movie Aquaman. But her role was small and her screen presence negligible.

I posted about that recently, and have chosen to continue my search for the right actress for the role.
Interesting to me is that, with the exception of Amber Heard, none of these actors are American. Dustin Clare is Australian, Alexander is German, and Thea Sofie is Norwegian. What happened to all the American talent? I'm sure there are some who would be more than capable to fill the bill. But I've yet to find them. No matter. It's only a pipe dream. But The Last Kingdom is back to being good. And I'll be looking forward to season four.

The Last Kingdom blows it

I guess it was bound to happen. I mean right when I'm thinking I'm liking a show, it makes a turn for the worse. Here was the hero, Uhtred, being ordered by the king to be the prince's right hand man when the prince becomes king, and it's too much for Uhtred. So he throws everything in the garbage by putting a knife to the the king's throat and escaping back to the Danes.

Now, instead of being a Lord in the emerging England, he's a condemned enemy fighting for the Danes who are slowly but surely being pushed out of England. I mean, who would do that? Who would switch from the winners, (which you had a big hand in making them the winners) and switch to the losers, whose time is limited.

Perhaps I speak in hindsight. Twelve hundred years of hindsight, but it just didn't make any sense.
And it happens all the time to me. I'll start watching a show, and it's a great show, and I rave about it, and then three years into the series, or so, I'm not liking it anymore.

The list is a long one. In the modern era, it's The Blacklist, The Walking Dead, Game of Thrones, and a slew of others that I can't even remember anymore. In the old days it was Lost in Space, The Man from Uncle, I Spy, and The Wild, Wild West.

I don't know what is wrong with TV writers. I guess it's just a simple thing. At first, they have a great concept and they have a lot of great ideas for stories to go with it. But then, after three years or so, the great ideas dry up. It happened with Star Trek too. I mean the original series, which was the only Star Trek that was worth watching.

For Star Trek, tos, they had the great concept, and they had great stories that lasted into its third season. But in that third season, you can tell they were on the down slide. And then when they brought the series back, called Star Trek, the Next Generation, the stories and characters were so bad, even the great concept couldn't make up for it.

And the same was true for every single Star Trek incarnation that followed. I mean every single new Star Trek series that followed sucked, and every single Star Trek movie that followed equally sucked. The concept of Star Trek was so great that they kept trying to rejuvenate it, but for some strange reason, no one could come up with a decent story to match the concept. Not since the original series, that is, and that is surely a shame.

We have probably the worst incarnation of Star Trek happening right now, which I couldn't even watch through the first full episode without turning it off in complete disgust. It was like the producers believed the great concept by itself was enough, (the same thing they always believed) and some actress from The Walking Dead had enough "star power" to make it a success, regardless of the lack of writing talent they put into the show.

It's a recipe for failure, and you would think they would learn their lesson by now. I figure if the current writers of whatever show run out of juice, then hire new writers who haven't been tapped out yet. They are out there. Give them a chance. Or is Hollywood stuck in the "same ol' same ol' system? You know -- the "good ol' boys" (or the "good ol' girls") system at work here. Probably is.

That's the worst shame of all. It means the same problem will just continue. As long as their bottom line is acceptable, nothing will change. And as long as you have the fan base blindly following a show for only its concept, being thrilled only by the sights and images, not caring if there's a quality story, the bottom line for Hollywood will continue to be acceptable. It is a shame.

Carl Deuker's Gym Candy - Good Book

Gym Candy 

After reading John Coy's Crackback, I read Carl Deuker's Gym Candy. And it's another good book worth reading. Like Crackback, it targets teenage boys, or high school boys, and especially those boys who play football. It really has an important message: stay away from steroids.

It's a message I hope all boys listen to, and not just football players. I know guys who lift weights to stay in shape, but they want to do more than just stay in shape. They want to build up their bodies. So they take steroids. You see, the human body can get only so big no matter how much you lift. But some men, (and I've known some personally) want to get more than just big. They want to get huge. Like Arnold Schwarzenegger huge. Or Dwayne Johnson huge. And the only way anyone can get that huge is from taking steroids. So they do it. And then they get huge and they are happy.

Crackback

But, to me, it's not worth the risks. Those risks are depicted in Deuker's Gym Candy. And those risks do include life threatening risks. I remember seeing Lyle Alzado's video after he was diagnosed with brain cancer. He admitted to being on steroids for most of his professional football career. Yeah it made him huge. And it made him ultra aggressive. And I suppose it made him a great football player. But he was dead before he reached fifty years old. I am glad I never used steroids. Because I am well over fifty now, and still healthy. And by the way, I still lift, and I'm pretty big for it. But I'm not huge and I don't need to be. I'll take normal big over the abnormal huge any day if that means I get to live longer than forty-eight years.


So yeah, having a great story is great for a book, but having a great message is also great, and that is the case with Carl Deuker's Gym Candy.

Second Chance
1st publication's cover

And btw, Gym Candy features a running back as the main character. Like you would think it would. Coy's Crackback and my football book, Second Chance feature a defensive back as the main character. So that was interesting to me. Bottom line is this: Crackback and Gym Candy are great books. And not just for MG/YA audiences. For all audiences, like Second Chance. Here's to hoping Second Chance gets a second chance at publication.

Fingers crossed.

The Last Kingdom way better than VIkings

The Last Kingdom - a Great Show

And it's not even close. Netflix's The Last Kingdom is 100 times better than History Channel's Vikings. That's not an exaggeration. It's that much better.

I've seen all five seasons of Vikings. I've had mixed feelings about it. Mostly I think it sucks. And there's a whole lotta reasons for that. I've only seen the first four episodes now of Netflix's The Last Kingdom. But that's all I needed to see to reach my conclusion that it's way better than Vikings. It takes place during the same time period as Vikings, and it's the same type of show. You know, Vikings invading England and both shows include the rise of Alfred the Great.

But Vikings is a poorly written show. It's premise is poor. The plots are poor. The directing is poor. Everything is poor. Bottom line: it sucks. In Vikings, Alfred the Great becomes king because his brother stepped down from consideration. And then his mother kills him anyway so as not to threaten her second son's claim to the throne. That's all bullshit.

In real life Alfred's brother WAS king, like in The Last Kingdom, and then when he died, Alfred became king, like in The Last Kingdom. And it's a way better story that way. It's the TRUE story. (Actually, three of Alfred's brothers were king before him, but the point is already made.) And the further point is that the Vikings' writers messed everything up with their attempt to make the story more melodramatic. But all they did is make it suck. The real life story is better and The Last Kingdom has it much closer to the way it was in real life and is far superior for that reason.

Vikings - this show sucks

Oh, and there's the "woman warrior" thing. Sheesh. I'm so tired of this "warrior woman" concept Hollywood is promoting over and over again. I mean Hollywood is shoving it down our throats that women are equal warriors to men. That is bullshit as I've chronicled here on the blog several times. I have made clear that women CAN be warriors, and some CAN be equal to most men, but that is the exception. I say again. It's the EXCEPTION, not the rule.

The Vikings show will have you believe it's the rule. They have women out there as warriors on the battlefield in near equal numbers as the men, and many of them are outfighting their male counterparts as if the men are nothing more than children. Again, that's bullshit. Sure, as I've said before there could very well have been a few women fighting in battles, but I say again that's the exception not the rule. And in The Last Kingdom they have it right. There are NO women warriors on any battlefield.

And I must be clear, that's not to say that women are weak characters. I will make my point for the hundredth time that women are STRONG characters, but they don't have to go around beating people up, or killing people to prove it. I would think any intelligent woman (or any intelligent man) would be in complete agreement with me.

But I digress. Suffice it to say The Last Kingdom is written way better, is produced way better, is directed way better, and is acted way better, with way better stories and more compelling plots than Vikings and again I say it's not even close. How and why Vikings keeps getting renewed for additional seasons is beyond me. It sucks. And it's even hard to watch.

So here's to the show that deserves to be long lived. Here's to the show that is fun to watch, the show that gets it right. The Last Kingdom. A way better show.

Crackback by John Coy is a good book

Crackback by John Coy is a good book to read. It's about a high school football player but you don't have to like football to like the book. It seems to target the high school reader which would make it an MG/YA book as far as genre is concerned. And John Coy is a great writer for that genre.

What makes it more interesting to me is that the main character in Crackback is a defensive back like the main character in my football book, Second Chance. You would think that football stories might feature quarterbacks, like Troy Aikman and Tom Brady, or running backs like Emmitt Smith and Barry Sanders. But no. It's a defensive back. Like Tony Belmont in Second Chance.


The difference is the main character in Crackback is a high school player. Whereas the main character in Second Chance is an adult playing with high school players. Of course that turns out to be a big mistake, as he finds out. But that's the story in Second Chance. That's the plot. And what a story it is. What a plot. And throughout the story I cover several different football games. Not just high school football games. There's a pick up game in the beginning and then there's some city-run flag football games too, because the main character, Tony Belmont works in the city's parks and recreation department, and they run the flag football leagues. I played in those leagues for three or four years, so that's where I got the idea for that.

And I cover the games with a lot of detail. All of them. Anyone who ever played football will appreciate the way I relay those games to the reader. It's like you're actually in the game playing. I must say that my style of writing is not necessarily for high school kids. Not if John Coy's book is the template for high school readers. My book, Second Chance, reads like my other books.

That's not to say a high school reader can't understand it. It might be geared for a high IQ high school reader, but who said some high school kids don't have high IQs? Yes, even football players can and do have high IQs. And it's probably those high IQ types who read in the first place.

As for Crackback, it's a very easy book to read. Even if you can't read well. Clearly, the author, John Coy, deliberately made it readable for all kids. Which is good thinking on his part. What's the use of writing a book for kids if kids can't read it? But you don't have to be a kid to enjoy Crackback. It's a football story, like Second Chance, but it's also a story about a teen boy going through the trials and tribulations of high school life.

And that high school life includes the acne, the girlfriends, the parents, the uncles, the other boys in the school, the pranks they play, the teachers, and their classes, and homework. The whole picture of high school life is depicted in Crackback, and Mr. Coy didn't miss a thing. Makes you remember your own high school days. Almost to a tee.

As for Second Chance, Tony Belmont only interacts with high schoolers on the football field. He's not into teen-aged stuff, since he's no longer a teenager. But everything catches up to him. I'ts what makes the story interesting.

So now that the first publisher went out of business, I'm hoping Second Chance will get a  new publisher. Whether that will be JustFiction Edition or some other publisher remains to be seen.

Jack Reacher - Good Movies

Just finished watching Jack Reacher, Never Go Back, which was the Jack Reacher 2 movie, and it was good. As a tough guy character, the Jack Reacher character fits the bill. But with Tom Cruise playing the part, I might say it could have been better cast.

That's not to say Tom Cruise doesn't make a good tough guy. He made a good tough guy in the Mission Impossible movies. And he does an adequate job as Jack Reacher. But that is mainly because he's a good actor. Like Keanu Reeves in the John Wick franchise.

But from what I understand, the novels by Lee Child described Jack Reacher as a dude who was 6' 3" tall. Tom Cruise is 5' 7" and that's a long way off.

I do believe the part could have been better cast if only for height alone. For instance, Keanu Reeves is 6' 1" and Hugh Jackman is 6' 2". Both make good tough guys and there are many more.

There is artistic license, of course, and movie magic can make an actor appear taller or shorter in a movie. But I would not approve of an actor over six feet tall to play Trent Smith from my Killer books. Because the whole point of those books is that the main character is an average sized dude who just happens to be the most lethal martial artist in the world. Which proves you don't have to be a big dude to be tough.

The Wolverine character was supposed to be an exclamation point to that idea. In the comics, Wolverine's height is listed as 5' 4". And that is awfully short for a tough guy. And no one questions the toughness of Wolverine. So what's with the 6' 2" Hugh Jackman getting the part? Well aside from his height, he actually does look like Wolverine, so there you go.

Anyway, the Jack Reacher franchise is worth seeing. I don't rank it up there with John Wick or any Jason Statham movies, but it holds its own.

With that said, here's to the imminent release of John Wick - Chapter 3. Can't wait.