Guns - Bad News

Guns are bad news. I don't say this because of the recent horror in Las Vegas. Or the other horrors that have occurred in so many other places in so many other instances. I say this because guns exist for only one reason. To kill. Whether it's people or animals, the reason is the same. Kill.

Hunters use guns to kill deer, ducks wild boars, or whatever else they're hunting. Soldiers use guns to kill enemy soldiers. Murderers use guns to kill innocent people. Whatever the target, the result is the same. Killing. With guns.

I am not a hunter. And I am not a soldier. I know police have guns. I will defend a policeman's right to have a gun for self-defense. Because criminals will use guns against policemen. It's a necessary evil. Necessary because evil exists. And policemen are in the front lines fighting that evil.

But during these modern times, does hunting really need to exist? I don't have the right to say it doesn't. I don't have the right to say people should not be hunters. But I do have the right to have an opinion. My opinion is that hunting is an obsolete sport. Killing a deer, or a duck, or a wild boar, or whatever... I don't see the sport in that. So I don't think hunting is a very cool sport. That's my opinion. Hunting...killing...guns...I wish those things would go away.

Of course the next argument is self-defense, like I was using for the police. There is evil out there. Thus we have police. And they have guns. Which I just admitted they need. So why don't everyday citizens also need guns for their protection? That's where I'm going with this post. Those citizens would not need guns if criminals did not have guns to use against them.

But how can that be? Criminals always have a way to get guns. Well, if Martin Luther King could have a dream, why can't I? My dream is this: What if all guns could go away? All guns except those in the military and law enforcement. No guns anywhere else. Wouldn't that be nice? Then the nuts like in Las Vegas and Sandy Hook, and Columbine, and San Bernardino, and everywhere else would not have had the ability to do what they did.

Sure, they might still have driven cars or trucks into crowds of people. Or concocted some kind of pressure cooker bombs, like the Boston Bombers did. Or figured out some other means of mass murder. But with no guns the other types of killing wouldn't happen. Impulsive killing. And killings of passion. Like when someone loses it, and then there's a gun and he or she  uses it, like that guy who went into that beauty parlor in LA and shot eight people because he was mad at his wife. If that gun wasn't at his disposal, I'm betting at least seven of those people would still be alive today. Maybe I'd lose that bet, but I'd still make that bet.

I have a dream that there is a way to get rid of every gun from every house in every city and town in every state in the entire country. That's my dream. I know at least half of the people in this country don't share that dream. Maybe half of the people reading this are vehemently disagreeing with me right now. And if they are, they need not worry. Unlike Martin Luther King's dream, it's a dream that will never come true. And the killings and murders and mass killings and mass murders will continue. Year in. And year out.

Football Season is Upon Us

Football season is near. Training camps are underway. The first games will be next month. And next month my football book, Second Chance, a Football Story is going to be published. It is due to be released August 23rd. And I am happy about that. If you like football, you will like this story. Why? Because it's about football. And several different levels of football are portrayed. Sure, everyone knows about the NFL. In my book, I don't use "NFL" but I do mention professional football. And there's a couple scenes in the book where a group of friends are watching pro games on TV with beer and pizza.

I mention college football, too. I don't actually show any pro or college games. I just talk about them in the book. What I do show in the book mostly, (three full games and the second half of another,) is high school football games. That is the focus. High school football. And there's a lot of it. I had to be sure I had the high school football rules right. There are some differences between high school rules and pro rules which I'm more used to, and probably a lot of people are more used to. But I had to be sure I had the high school rules right. With three full games portrayed in my book, and the second half of another, it was very important I had that right. The plot of the story is the high school games. It's what drives the storyline.

There's a city parks and recreation flag football league portrayed in the story, too. The main character is actually a city parks and rec employee, and it's his job to organize and referee those parks and rec flag football games. It's a major part of the storyline, too, btw. And there's at least two or three city flag league games portrayed in the story.

There's sandlot football, too. As early as chapter one. If you don't know what sandlot football is, I will tell you. It's when a group of guys, (or gals) get together and play a football game. There's no refs, no pads, sometimes not even a football field. Maybe it's at a park, and sometimes it's on the street. If it's on the street, it won't be tackle. But if it's on a grass field often the guys play tackle. Even without pads. It can be brutal. It can be painful. But it sure is fun. That is if you love the game of football. And a lot of people do. So much so, that football is America's number one sport. It has been for a long time. It's my favorite sport, that's for sure. It always has been.

Not just my favorite sport. It's one of my all time favorite things, period. Sure, I have a wife, I have two sons, (both of whom play football, btw,) and even a mother-in-law. Sure I'm a teacher with hundreds of students and a classroom, (two classrooms, actually, one for drawing and one for ceramic sculpture,) and sure I love all of those things. Sure I love art, (being an art teacher, that's a given,) and sure I love music, like everyone else. (I even write and compose my own music!) And sure I love writing about things that fascinate me, like great heroes who are magnificent martial artists, like Trent Smith in my two Killer books. And sure I love history, which is what propelled my book about the true life story of John Dunn, and even my Middle East thriller called The Vase.

Yes, I love all of those things. But football is right up there at or near the top of all things I love. So one day I wrote a novel about it. You know already how it came about, because I've blogged about it before. I had a dream. No, not like MLK. I had a dream about football. Several dreams, actually. Since high school, I've said many times, I've had recurring dreams about football. If you want to get into the psychology of it, it's probably because my own football experiences were never fully realized. I never reached my full potential. Bad decisions and bad luck were large parts of that.

I had some minor success at the high school level, but I fell far short of what I should have accomplished. And mostly, it's my own fault. Sure there were the bad luck injuries. But again, had I made better decisions, who knows if those injuries would have happened. It affected my later bad decisions. I might have played in college, but I didn't. Bad luck? Bad decisions? They went hand in hand in my case. Sure I played sandlot football. A lot of sandlot football. And my last hurrah, so to speak was a stint in a city parks and recreation flag football league.

But again, it was far short of my potential. Okay, that's the psychological angle behind my recurring football dreams. Which led to the story in Second Chance, my football novel. I dreamed it. When I woke up, I thought, wow, that was like watching a movie. So then I thought, I should write it down. I did. Then I thought, I should write it as a novel. I did. And now it's being published. So that's the history of how Second Chance, a Football Story came about. It's a great story. If you like football, you'll love this book. Watch for it next month. Stay tuned.

Football, the Greatest Sport

For me, football is the greatest team sport. It's the greatest game, period. I have always had a passion for football. I played whenever I could. I would rather be on a football field, playing football, even in a sandlot game, than anywhere else and doing anything else. That's what football meant to me. My wife thinks I should have been a football coach. And I did dabble in it for a bit.

It's weird that my own high school football experience was cut short, but that's another story from a long and distant past. The story that is current, which is the story that has me excited, is my new upcoming novel called Second Chance. It's not a biography, no. I didn't do any of those things in the novel. But I did dream the story. You see, for forty years I had been having a  recurring dream about football. Particularly high school football. Not necessarily of things I did back then. More like things I might have done if I had been a wiser teenager.

I don't suppose I'm the only person who could have done things better as a teenager. But I continued to have dreams about football that might have or could have been. And one day I had a dream about a football player who gets a second chance. It wasn't me. It was a dream, but it was a dream as if I was watching a movie. And when I woke up, I thought to write it all down. After doing that, I thought to myself that it was about time I wrote my fifth novel, and it was going to be about football -- more specifically about the football dream I had. And I did.

I had procured a publisher for my book John Dunn - Heart of a Zulu, and when I mentioned that I had just completed a sports novel about a football player, my publisher was interested in publishing that, too. And because football starts in August, that was the date my novel was pegged to be released. Even ahead of the John Dunn novel.

So I've been working very hard on it the last couple months, and I'm glad I have been. Because I'm not a newbie when it comes to getting published. I've already learned to go over and over and over that manuscript before it's published. And I have. And Second Chance - A Football Story is as pristine a manuscript as you can get. I won't say it's perfect. Typos have a way to stay hidden. So I will read it one more time and submit it on Monday for this August's publication.

I'm very pleased at this point. Because after this, I have my John Dunn book to polish up. Even though it's already polished up. Doesn't mean it can't be more polished up. Gang way!

Actress for Susie Quinn Finally Found--Not

I used to enjoy looking for actors and actresses who could play the parts of the characters in my novel, Killer of Killers, and its sequel, Killer Eyes. I had come up with a couple actors for the main character, Trent Smith. Those actors included Casper Van Dien and then more recently, Dustin Clare. I blogged a few times that Amber Heard would make a perfect Samantha Jones. And the other characters were not hard to match with current actors and actresses. Except for one. The part of Susie Quinn. Susie Quinn is described as "one of the most impressive women Trent had ever seen." Impressive looking that is. And seeing as how Susie Quinn is an exotic dancer, Trent had a very good look at her. Now I know there are plenty of beautiful black actresses, but none that I had seen really looked like how I envisioned Susie Quinn to look.

Well, I was watching the new STARZ show, Ash vs. Evil Dead, and it suddenly occurred to me. The actress Jill Marie Jones might be right for the part of Susie Quinn. At least that's what I thought when I was watching her on the Ash vs. Evil Dead show. But when I looked up her bio, I found out that she's 40 years old! She'll be 41 this January! So, um, no. If Killer of Killers ever gets made into a movie, it won't be anytime soon. That means by the time Killer of Killers were to be made into a movie, it would be very likely Jill Marie Jones would be closing in on 50. And I can't imagine a 50 year old actress playing the part of an exotic dancer.

So the search for the actress for Susie Quinn continues. I mean, if they made the move this year...by that I mean starting tomorrow...then she could play the part. But that won't happen. Heck, I'd call myself lucky if the movie could be made in time for Dustin Clare and Amber Heard to play their respective parts, and still be young enough. Yeah, I know. It won't. Can't blame a guy for dreaming. You know...sometimes dreams come true. Sometimes.

Dreamed of a New Story for a New Book

Sometimes I have dreams that will actually result in new artistic endeavors. When I was in my music writing phase, I had a dream with a new song playing. I woke up and went to my "music room" and wrote it down before I forgot the tune. It turned out to be one of my favorite songs.

Well, I'm in my book writing phase now, and a couple days ago, I had a dream of a new story. Not about Trent Smith, and it had nothing to do with The Vase. Nor did it have anything to do with John Dunn, or anything to do with the MG/YA story I've had on the back burner for a while.

It was a completely different story, a completely different genre, and a story that otherwise I might not have ever even considered writing. It was a FOOTBALL story. I've never really been big on football stories, even though I am a big football fan. I've loved playing football throughout my younger years, and I love that my son is a football player. I've even dabbled a bit in coaching some football.

But when it comes to football stories, I've never read one. I did see Brian's Song, and The Longest Yard. I saw that movie with Al Pacino, and the one with Nick Nolte. None of them were very interesting to me, however. And I've never seen the TV show Friday Night Lights. Nope. Didn't appeal to me. I do watch some of those NFL talk shows on the NFL network, and on ESPN. I do follow pro football, and I have an interest in which college players are excelling.

But again, when it comes to football stories in books or movies, I'm not interested. Until now. I dreamed of a story, and the story unfolded in my dream just like it would in a movie. No, it didn't have me in it. I don't even know who the main character was. But it could have been me, I suppose. Twenty years younger, though. I don't want to divulge any of the story details right now, but it does have a plot. And I've already started writing an outline. So far, it looks like it's a good concept, one that's never been done. At least not in the shows I've mentioned. It seems to be an intriguing concept, and I'm kind of motivated to see how it pans out if I pursue it.

And if I do, it just might happen this summer. I wrote my four prior books during summer vacations. I used last summer and the summer before to prepare KOK and The Vase respectively for publication, so I'm actually a couple summers behind on that note. I was planning on using this summer for prepping Killer Eyes, and getting the John Dunn revisions underway.

But maybe I'll use this coming up summer vacation to write my football story. If I stay intrigued by it, that is. If I stay motivated, it will happen. That's what it depends on. We'll see. I'll keep you posted. That's what this blog is for, after all. To chronicle my writing experiences and log my journey to publication. For all of my books.

Dreams and Ideas

I have some interesting dreams and sometimes those dreams are ideas for scenes or even a premise. The other night I dreamed I was someone fighting aliens, but I don't consider myself a sci fi writer. One day I might try it. I've always liked sci fi as a kid. And I did begin a graphic novel that was sci fi. I even completed two episodes of a four part series.

Still, when it comes to dreams I just wonder where those things come from. There was one where I was fighting some giant monstrosity who couldn't be harmed. That might have been triggered by some movie I saw recently, but it didn't look anything like any movie I'd seen.

When I was writing KILLER OF KILLERS, at least twice I dreamed of characters from that story and things happening that I might put in there. And one thing happened that was interesting. Shoji Wada, the old master of the Martial Arts Academy had transformed at the moment of death, somehow, and I considered using that. But then I said no. It was too much like the time Obiwan Kenobi from Star Wars seemed to do just that at the moment Darth Vader killed him.

No matter what, I don't want to bite off any other story. If it's not my idea entirely, I don't want to use it. And it could very well be true that dreams don't originate from you. They might just come from someone else. And that's kind of scary unto itself.

Dreams Again

I have read advice that you don't want too many dreams in your stories. I have read that you most certainly don't want to begin your story with a dream. And I don't in any of my stories. But I do use dream sequences a couple times in KOK. Drugs are involved in that story and in KILLER EYES. It's a super drug invented to heal injuries at an accelerated rate. But it does more than that. It affects the body chemistry, like drugs do, and makes dreams seem more real. Of course it does a lot more than that, too, but that's why I have a couple dream sequences in KOK and KILLER EYES.

Speaking of dreams, I had one this morning before I woke up, and it was about waiting for some man to interview me about publishing my book, THE VASE. But it was weird, as dreams can be, that I didn't want to wait for the dude. I was at a mall or something like that, and invited into this sort of reception room where I was waiting to be seen by some fast-talking con man, and I got up and left because I was unwilling to wait.

And that's funny unto itself, because the submission process is largely about waiting. But after I got up, these scary looking men followed me and tried to bring me back to that room, and even grabbed me to force me back, but I wouldn't go with them. I was not so eager to get published by these guys. I think I believed they were some kind of subsidy publishers. And it's true one publisher that contacted me was just that. You had to agree to buy something like five thousand dollars of books from them to get published by them. That sounded ridiculous to me, so no thanks.

What a Nightmare

Wow, had a nightmare this morning. Woke up from it just before the alarm clock sounded. Have you ever been glad the dream you had was just a dream? I don't even want to describe it. I guess it really wasn't that bad as dreams go, but still...it just goes to show, no matter how bad things may be for you, it could be worse. I'm glad for what I have, and I'm glad that was just a dream. Whew!

Son's Football and Dreams

Yesterday I was out with my two sons all day. My oldest is in his first year of high school, and is on the Frosh-Soph football team. Their first practice game was today, and I took my little son with me to watch him play. He caught three passes, one for a TD. It was great. I'm glad I was there. I hope he appreciated his old man watching him play in his first organized game.

Yeah, it brought back memories of my football days. I was a pretty good player myself. I was a DB/Safety, and played some QB, as well. I had some good speed. You know, I still have dreams of playing football...wow, all these years later. It's one of two recurring dreams I seem to be having through the years of my life. The other recurring dream is that I am flying. Not falling, mind you...actual flying. No, not in an airplane, but just me flying in the air...no parachute, no glider wings, no skydiving...nothing like that. But not like Superman either. It's really weird. Mostly it's weird because, like I said, I keep having this dream, but in different scenarios.

But the common element is that I have this ability to just let myself rise into the air, almost as if I can defy gravity just by concentrating, and up I go. It's not like I'm soaring like an eagle. I just hover, but I can direct myself to go somewhere if I choose to...but not very fast. Like I'm floating in the wind, but I can change direction and land unharmed.

There is something to be said about dreams. Sometimes I have dreams I can actually interpret, which brings me to writing. When I started this post, I didn't even plan to talk about dreams. I just went off on that tangent. But coincidentally, I just wrote a dream sequence in my WIP tonight. Trent had just been clobbered by this big guy, but saved by a woman who digs him. When she brings him back to his hotel room, he sleeps it off, and has this dream. It involves the leading ladies from the fist novel, Killer of Killers. And it has a very important connection to the plot in this story, which is the sequel to KOK.

I have read where agents or whoever frown on dream sequences in stories. I agree to not open a novel with a dream, but they can play a very important role in the advancement of your plot, and in the portrayal of a character's personality or even physical traits. Of course, like I said with humor the other day, you have to be careful with it. You have to put it in the right place, and write it well. And don't overdo it...like The Sopranos did.

That's all.