RLLauthor@outlook.com and @RLL_author GO TO AMAZON KINDLE STORE AND TYPE RLL. YOU WILL FIND MY BOOKS.

Sunday 29 December 2013

AN AUTHOR’S LIBRARY AT YEAR’S END: A REPORT FROM A FUGITIVE.

Did I clear loads of shelves when I tackled unread books? No. I set out to read at least a book a week in 2013. Did I demolish 52 tomes? I did, with weeks to spare, for I read more than 60 books this year. Action. Consequence.
   I knew I’d take a hit on word-count, going in with that attitude. Here’s the thing. I wanted to. More time reading and more time organising meant less time writing. I’d radically reinvent time if I could, but I just don’t have the space.
   Last year I put out a million words. I think I may have been lucky to read a dozen books that year. More than likely, I managed half that.
   Did I fare badly, one orbit later? I published a third of a million words this year. Life stumbled in the way. Would I have been happy with a greater output?
   No. Truth is, I’m grumbling about managing a third of a million. Should have settled for a quarter. Yes, writers fear burnout if they are smart about writing too damned much.
   What does the future hold? Jetpacks for all. No, wait, that’s some weird American 1955 future world. So my future holds water, if nothing else. As the year’s end loomed, I felt I wanted to achieve a realistic writing goal.
   Realistic goal? Write an instant smash-hit genre-defining cast-iron classic. Realistic? No. You’d employ steel of a stainless variety, for starters. This is what I went after. The Amazon carousel on my blog holds up to ten items. I had nine sitting there.
   Put a tenth item on that carousel by year’s end. Doable?
   Done. And now? Finish projects I started. Help other authors. Continue blogging. Begin a new archive. Engage with the internet, now that I have the internet.
   How much did adding the internet affect my writing? I gained the mystical line to the web in September. By then I was hovering around 300,000 words of output in one form or another. I could have closed off another project and added 100,000 to the total, putting me one novel shy of a half-million.
   Instead, I found myself spending a huge amount of time throwing some blogging plans together for the world’s first ever READ TUESDAY. There was much to learn. And there still is.
   The wind howls at my back, pressing on the windows. Hell, it could be a Scottish summer I’m describing, with the amount of rain that worries the panes. I write from the depths of winter. 

*

Yes. Begin a new archive. I recommend doing that by first putting the old archive in order. Recently I discovered Amazon has no outward memory. I updated book blurb by adding bold type. To feed that massive change into Amazon, the whole book must be republished. You gain a new publication date as a result.
   Internally, on the Amazon dashboard, the original date of publication is preserved. Saves a lot of hassle if your ability to keep records is somewhat lacking. Watch out for those quirks.
*

So now there are ten items on my carousel gadget. Ten products. Go and buy them. Buy one, at least. Okay, at the very least, go and read the start of one of my books on Amazon. They are all free to read at the start. What’s stopping you? Nothing.
   I know. World doesn’t owe me any favours. Well, I turn up to write these books. The people who turn up to read them are few and far and rare and…entertained. I don’t much care for the notion of reaching my audience one reader at a time. Good, but slow.
   Those who turn up to read the stories like them. Spread the word. Get people reading. Yes, do it for me. The more people do that for me, the more stories I can write. It’s a virtuous circle – if you believe what I do for readers is virtuous.
   Being a digital author with no access to the internet was hard. I published from my phone. This was easier than blogging from my phone. Now that I have access to the internet, I am swamped by advice on how to crack that audience and make myself millions. I don’t care. Seriously. I think what I should be doing is writing and publishing more stories.
   Should I automate my Twitter feed and aggravate everyone with endless plugs for my work? I’d rather post a photo of a cream bun I am about to demolish. (Been there. Done that.) That’s how much I care about the dreaded Search Engine Optimisation and the much-lauded (and derided) Return on Investment.™
   If I turn myself into a robot, only the machines will read my work. Right now, I have maybe half a dozen people and two weevils reading my stories. They are uproariously entertained. It can’t go on like that, of course. Weevils are not noted for adherence to tales featuring gerbil porn. 

*

What was that about? Stating a mission? That, with the internet at my fingertips, I should now devote myself to grabbing an audience through fair means or foul? I love writing stories. They can’t take that away from me. So I’ll look into gaining an audience without turning into a clockwork writer.
   Bzzzt.

*

READ TUESDAY was set up as a winter sale day for books. How many books did I buy? None. My book embargo is in place. Finish writing what I started and finish reading what I bought. On the day I plugged other authors and their discounted works, I couldn’t walk an extra step in the book-buying direction. A mile in those shoes is a long bloody trudge…
   And so I have resolutely battered sale after sale out of my way. Each mightier than the last, to steal from Tennyson. Even chopping down more than a book a week, I’ll be a long time chewing through those free shelves I’ve stacked up and racked up.
   Support for authors comes and goes in many forms. Featuring people on the blog. Going backstage and chatting about formatting problems. On the 25th of December 2013, I was recovering from a massive meal and giving copyright and contract advice to another writer.
   Yes, that was my Christmas.
   Writers are always on the job. I should have been editing MURDER BOX, which I published on the 27th anyway. Mr Scrooge let me have a minute or two off. 

*

The future? Helping more writers, even when I haven’t the time or inclination. For I’ll never have the time. I am always stuck with the inclination. Somehow, I’ll get by.
   Writers call in and leave notes. I’m being told, in dribs and drabs, that my stories are entertaining and that I’m going to make it in this business. We’ll see. There’ll be more to discover on the risks and rewards of editing. Books are built to be consumed.
   (Though I keep looking at H. Melville, and end up backing away each time.)
   Just there I wrote a story about murderous characters and their waspish comments. For many reasons, MURDER BOX was one of the hardest stories I’d written. I was glad to see the back of it when I was done. But I still enjoyed writing the awkward thing.
   If you read this far, go all the way to Amazon. Pick up a free Kindle reading app. Then grab one of my stories. Grab some other writer’s story, too. No rivals here. ;) 

*
After writing that post, I felt like slashing the hell out of it. Changed my mind. Thought it negative. Well, I say positive things behind the clouds. So I’ll end with this…
   Thanks. To anyone who picked up my books in the recent sales. I’ll thank everyone for the honesty of their reviews. Behind the scenes, I received help from assorted authors who made a point of giving their time to me even though they had no time to give. (Cough, Vanderkarr. Splutter, Biozarre.)
   And I helped authors. Sitting there on the 25th of December encouraging a writer to get out of her publishing contract as soon as physically possible, I knew I was doing good. Offering to format and edit stuff so that writers had a shot at getting out of a financial hole. That was good too.
   I’ve yet to commit to a single project in that area. If my next year’s word-count is lower than this year’s, I’ll shoulder the blame of editing other writers into publishing existence with a song in my heart. Must choose that song.
   Insert your choice of song in the comments below.

Friday 27 December 2013

MURDER BOX. AMAZON KINDLE: A REPORT FROM A FUGITIVE.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/MURDER-BOX-FICTION-FACTORY-RLL-ebook/dp/B00HK0DLL8/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1388179119&sr=1-1&keywords=rll+murder+box

FICTION FACTORY. Welcome to my self-publishing imprint for stories running around 30,000 words. These are not collected or bundled with other tales.

MURDER is legal inside the box. SUICIDE is legal inside the box. The action isn’t televised. No gawkers here. Only stalkers here. Exclusive event. No downloadable content, status updates, or selfies. Be there to enjoy this party. Admission is free. Escape will cost you.
   Homiciders visit for the thrill. No comeback - save one. You might not make it out alive. Suiciders visit to avoid being shipped to the Evaluation Wards. The drawback? You might make it out alive.
   Contract signed. Drugged. Searched. The spotlight is on you. A bell rings. The exit closes. You wear a T-shirt with your own slogan, a monitor to note your pulse, and an earpiece for talking to the other contestants.
   In your pocket lies half a key. You must kill to obtain another half. Eleven contestants have something to say about that.

Gwen asks herself why anyone would go inside. She rips the plastic poster from the fence and answers that question by heading on in.

36,000 words, plus notes.




Monday 23 December 2013

SUICIDE: A REPORT FROM A FUGITIVE.

If you clicked here to read a how-to guide, you’ve come to the wrong place. Incidentally, there is no right place for that. Stop looking for a one-stop-off-yourself shop. In your worst worthless moments, there are better things worth doing.
Find those things. Crawl across broken glass to reach those better things. They needn’t be major. Eat grapes. Relish the sound of popcorn springing to life. Catch another sunset, or sunrise. Ease out of those shoes. Smell the radio. Listen to strawberries. Mix up your sentences.

*

I was trying and failing to put a story together. (And yes, it’s important to fail. Try again.) The tale? MURDER BOX. A game of murder in the near-dark. I’d absorbed a load of stories in which this or that became legal. Why not write a tale of my own?
A game of murder. Survival against waves of killers. But wait a bit. Not legal. Therefore, hidden away. Not broadcast. What? NOT BROADCAST.
Are you fucking kidding me?
We’ve reached a peculiar point in our technological evolution. The nightmarish dystopian future is no longer one in which reality is broadcast – it is the one in which reality is not.
I hummed and hawed over the notion. There’s an underground murder game. Strict invitation. Recruiting killers. Looking for homicidal participants who won’t sneak transmission devices into the venue, spoiling the special mood.
Add a strip-search. Metal detectors.
Next, add cameras built into press-on fingernails. So we do have a broadcaster inside the secret show. I ran a cheap movie idea. The lead character would give her middle finger to the bad guy, broadcasting his face to the world.
I laughed, and abandoned the notion of some super-twist to the tale. This needed a rethink. Maybe the game was legal. Still not broadcast, though.
Add a strip-search. Metal detectors.
The event was always called MURDER BOX. With the set-up illegal, I decided there’d be shiny plastic posters tied to fences and rails. Showing a red box. Red box wasn’t quite right. Turn the box, and you have a diamond. Welcome to the underground.
A red sign of double danger. What to put inside the icon? MURDER BOX. Too literal. I had my star. Gwendolyn. Why was she going to participate in the hunt?
Revenge. Chasing her sister’s killer. Boring. No guarantee of meeting the killer, just a killer. It’s all secret. How do you find out about this in the first place if it isn’t broadcast – only covertly advertised…
People who participate leave clues. No. People who participate don’t want to lead the cops straight home. No clues. And no covert broadcasting.
I swirled the story around. Gwen ran the whole thing, and decided to feel the experience for herself – revealing her position to other contestants.
Bonus kill for someone, nailing the owner of the franchise. Explains how Gwen knows about the set-up, true. No. I dump the obvious twist.
Swirl, swirl.

*

Okay. This calls for research. So what’s the game to be? Legal thing. The posters are arranged by the government, making the contest a legitimate (taxed) form of homicide and suicide. Suicide is for cowards, it’s often said. This game could be murder as suicide for cowards who are too cowardly to commit suicide. Arrange your own killer? Twisty. Deep. Getting there.

*

Bleak stuff, I know.
Research. Start with the personal, if you can.
I recalled a conversation I had in San Francisco. Then another. Two different talks, connected to the bridge. The Suicide Forest, in Japan, is hinted at in this murder story of mine. (Walking from cubicle to cubicle is a bit like walking through a forest. Patches of light and dark. Spaces in the woods.)
That forest is a top suicide-spot so well-known that running an internet search on Suicide Forest will turn up footage of spooky trees. Trees you’ll find in…
Aokigahara.
The Golden Gate Bridge is another top suicide-spot. In the case of the forest, seclusion is provided. And in the case of the bridge, jumpers have a near-certain fatal drop awaiting them.
Yes. The jump is survivable. Surviving that, leapers may still drown or die cold.
One conversation on dealing with the Golden Gate
A man talked about his time with the coastguard. He found retrieving bodies from the bay difficult. Particularly the corpses of people who left unrequired clothes ashore. (The bridge being considered too conspicuous to jump from, by some.)
When retrieving bodies, you can snag a hook on a jacket far more easily – by an order of magnitude – according to those in the know.
Maybe there’s a heavy psychological aspect to retrieval, too. People employed to deal with that stuff find it easier to snag clothed bodies. Possibly. It’s the tiny details that get lodged in the telling. (Blankness persists. That guy from the coastguard left out as much detail as possible.)
My other conversation was with a man who observed America as an outsider. He looked at the bridge and thought of the people who jumped. The height. Water, waiting. The current, racing to drag what was left away. People rushing in to help – they’d stop leapers if they could.
The observer said suicide was cowardly and brave in the same breath. Ending it all was a cowardly way out. But he was amazed at the courage required to literally take that step into the void – as far as the bridge was concerned.
Then again, maybe he was fixated on the height and the watery landing – hence his perception of courage. His view of cowardice came from another culture…
Having moved to America, he couldn’t see why anyone there would kill themselves. Not in the amazing United States.

*

I almost had my way into the story. Disrespect reared as a theme on the internet. The disrespect for the dead mentioned by people who found footage of spooky Japanese trees distasteful.
How they navigated their way to that stuff on the internet to complain about it, we may only speculate. Perhaps it is disrespectful to run an internet search.
From the internet, I took a great degree of sarcasm and disrespect – as a feature of my story-to-be. The murder game accepts people who want to die and people who want to kill. This is appalling.
Hey you guys, get a room. So. The game is a legal form of suicide and state-sponsored murder. Promoted by posters. Actual physical posters, not internet ones.
The event is not broadcast – to give that truly exclusive feel. Yes, the seclusion of the forest. Throw in a few murderers, and you have the near-guaranteed death usually provided by the long drop from the road-deck of a very famous bridge.
Almost there. Research. What do I look for? Suicide. But if I run an internet search on that, I could uncover suicide-bombers, pro-suicide groups, how-to guides, actual footage of the deed, and a world of hate.
Bile of the JUST KILL YOURSELF variety.
Who would say that? Loads of people. Virtual keyboard warriors, tapping a virtual keyboard on a phone. Thumbsters.
There’d be positive messages, and bile swamping the positive. Almost there. I was going to write a story about legal murder-suicide treated as a game. Unbroadcast – not for reasons of unbroadcastability, for nowadays there ain’t no such thing. But for the snobbier reason of exclusivity.

*

We could broadcast, but, being above all that…
Hey, we choose not to.
This really is something you can’t get anywhere else.
Solid gold status for losers and cowards who want someone to step in and do the job.
No long drop or expensive trip to Japan required.
Or. The ultimate hunt for the killer in you.

*

Sick – because it is taken as normal in the fictional world I created. And sick because the idea is tame, too. There are far wilder stories out there.
I felt the idea needed a slice of mundanity without boring the readers. This was never going to be the be-all and end-all of end-it-all stories. Some of the action had to be tame, to bring it to life.
Matter-of-fact, rather than utterly tedious.
So I looked at the internet and I searched for entries on suicide. If you do that, you’ll be directed to songs, bands, and scantily-clad women. (No, really.)
Now my blog post is out there, you’ll be directed to these words.
Soon the videos popped up. The mistaken news broadcast of a suicide…using the word live. True irony. Tribute movies to those who’d gone. Sadness there. An ocean-sized wave of bile in the comments, too.
What was missing from my story? More sarcasm. Additional bile. Further invective. I added SUCK BLEACH! to the narrative, and the cover. Did I have a message? Yes, and it wasn’t to suck bleach.
How many of these internet movies did I watch? Enough. One came in near the top of my search, and I viewed that with a sense of trepidation.
Okay, I get reality. One day, everyone who posted a video on the internet will be dead.
In this case, watching a film on the topic of suicide, her attempted suicide, I couldn’t be sure the woman was dead or alive. Was I going to scroll through more recent videos and find a tribute to her because she’d gone? This was all a bit spooky – mainly as it was so mundane.
Really casual. What I was looking for, truth be told.
A young woman sits in front of her machine and talks to the screen. Talks to the world. About death. With minimal focus on the attempt she made, and much more in the way of chat dealing with support for others. She spoke of consequences.
Seeing relatives ripped to shreds by her actions. Consequences. This was a very positive film. About the future. Not the past. People make movies, and face that ceaseless wave of bile from thumbsters chanting SUCK BLEACH!
But the insult can easily splash back on those idiots. Splash it back, I say. They tell you to kill yourself – you tell THEM to suck bleach.
About four hours went by, after I created the bleach slogan. Then I discovered a suicide-themed video mentioning bleach. Spooky. But no, not unexpected.
Running a search on suicide as a general topic will lead to specific digital alleyways on methods. Slowest and most painful, as well as the expected entries for quickest and most painless. That set me thinking about different approaches to the subject.
There’s no easy path to outlining my research – I’ve had to turn the dial down on these notes. If that makes me seem impersonal, it only makes me seem impersonal.
You can solve just about any problem in your life, given some time and thought. Slitting a wrist may be the mistake you wish to take back, with little time and thought left to you. Think better of yourself and the world you inhabit.

*

I looked into the male perspective. A guy tried to kill himself when he was much younger. His telling of the tale was more squeamish-sounding than the woman’s story. She was matter-of-fact about the nastiness of it. He really threw the awfulness of his chosen method in your face.
Not graphically. This guy didn’t appear in his video, but he used a really smart non-appearing way to slide his point across. There was a sense of humour to his approach. And a slice-o’-life stint of mundanity. Ordinariness.
Her method was no less awful than his was, and had grim consequences for recovery. Still…
His method was fucking ghastly. How did she survive? Inexperience. How did he survive? Inexperience.
This research wasn’t quite enough. I went looking for the opinion of an observer. That took me off at an angle. I found a guy considering the potential absence of a selfish fucker of a friend who contemplated ending it all.
That observer came across as selfish when he said it’s all about me and how I feel about your stupid selfish wannabe suicide. Which was just a cry for help and not a real attempt. I am so hurt by what you did. Me me me me me me me.
And that went way beyond close friends, relatives, being cut to shreds. It went into the selfish world. Your pain has inconvenienced me. (At this point, I don’t really have the words. Unless those words are fucking and hell.)
What was I building to?
Maybe you should go and kill yourself…
SUCK BLEACH!
Bile floats freely. The woman who made her video was one of many who faced internet vomit. Often, these people were accused of lying. A woman tried to kill herself and failed. Response. Not a genuine attempt, blah, blah, blah. She didn’t mean it, and didn’t even do it.
Yes, because there were Global Conspiracy™ spy-cameras filming her every move and she seemed too upbeat to be a real contender. If it doesn’t happen in front of an internet troll, it isn’t real. And if she smiles once in her life long after the attempt, the attempt didn’t count. Yeah…
Get me started on that one.
The theme of fakery proved popular in many a video’s comment section. Fact. People who discuss suicide in videos – they are all sophisticated animatronic puppets. None of that footage is real. CGI. Vast conspiracy. Trolls are in the same boat, not being real – with sticks up their arses.
I think I found the level of bile I was looking for. As for seeming too upbeat. Look into the concept of the smile as camouflage. It’s only there tryin’ to fool the public.
That woman decided to present an upbeat tone in a video meant to be positive. What do the trolls expect? A live broadcast from Casa Addams, complete with thunderstorm and mascara flooding over the screen?
*

Research. I still hadn’t used research from my own computer. Would I consider that stuff? I have received suicidally-themed e-mail. I’ll outline here, keeping some details back. Information was edited, for protection.
In my response, I stated I had no desire to betray a confidence. That’s still true. Is there ever a reason to betray a confidence?
Yes.
To save someone. Or to attempt to save someone – not quite the same thing, I know. To save others. Make an effort to prevent harm. In mentioning my receipt of suicidally-themed e-mail here, I may help people in a general way.
Some have a void in life. What to do about the void? Keep going through it, looking for a way out that isn’t final. I know that advice is boring and conventional. Sounds tedious, but it was the advice I gave in response to the e-mail.
That incoming e-mail was about ending the pain – permanently.
I can’t let something like that pass without comment. You may have a heart of stone. How’s that working out for you? No, that wasn’t a trick-question – it was a sarcastic one. I can’t lighten this text with fluffy humour and clowns – some people are scared of clowns.
#CLOWNS.
#INSENSITIVE.
Well, I did my best to talk the person through some things. And I did that in very different ways, as I saw more casual suicidal comments coming out. The problem with a casual suicidal comment is that there’s no such thing as a casual suicidal comment.
Now the other person I spoke to is getting on fine, and has okayed my chat here in this text. Vast improvement. Getting through to people in an e-mail can be impossible when dealing with that sort of talk.
I was thanked in a roundabout way. Not for that stuff – being thanked for something else looked like a means to avoid talking about thanking me, awkwardly, for the main thing.
Extract from my response. I correspond with Americans for the most part. Why don’t I set the other half of this tale in America for convenience…

*

Okay. America is an ocean and a chunk of land away from here. Anything I say to you is pretty useless. I can’t really help you at all. All I can do is encourage you to think over things and hang in there.

*

On reflection, hang in there isn’t the best phrase to use under the circumstances. I have to file that one under grim irony. Don’t shoot the breeze either. I could go on, but you’ve had the idea ladled to you.
As far as the other person is concerned – I didn’t do the work. All I did was minimal stuff. Maybe I helped tremendously. Perhaps my so-called help wasn’t needed.
The point is – it’s hard to help suicidal people in an e-mail. I know I was thanked, and that was fine. If that person commits suicide in the future, I’ll be upset – but I know I did my bit at the time when things seemed grimmer. You can only do so much from overseas. I didn’t want to let someone down.
What if you came to my blog for other reasons? Only little things can improve your outlook, unless a major event comes along. Don’t wait for a major event. Tackle some of the little things. Not all. Some.
Is it really about wanting to die? Come on. Isn’t it about struggling to live the way you live? Change the way you live, but not THAT fucking much. Not permanently, no-way-back. Find a better way to live. When life hands you lemons, at least they aren’t oysters.
Consider the raw honesty of people who come out with these suicidal statements. That e-mail – I was more shocked by the honesty than surprised by the self-destructive element.
What to do, this time around, for readers who came here looking for suicide and who read this far? Why not take a quick dip into my response…

*

Because I’m half a world away, you made a statement to me that doesn’t come with every incident in your life attached. So there’s a stark nature to the statement, and it can be taken as very severe.
If you are telling me for a while I was afraid and that’s really secret code for I am still afraid, then you need to talk to people on your side of the Atlantic in an emergency. I usually only check my e-mail once a week. If you miss me by a few hours, a whole week goes by before I read something. That’s not useful to you if you send an instant cry for help several thousand miles when you should be calling people nearer you.
I’d listen and respond belatedly, of course. This isn’t about me, and how worried I’d become if I suddenly read an e-mail that said you’d taken drastic action. How worried a person in receipt of news is – that becomes irrelevant next to the safety of the person who cried out. That’s the person who is in trouble. The sender of the message, and not the receiver.
You can talk about suicidal feelings. There’s no taboo here. And there’s NO WRONG here. I admire your courage in speaking out. You don’t indicate that you still feel that way.
So I’m going to ask you. You felt that bad. Do you still feel that bad? If you do, you can vent steam in a gloomy e-mail to me. In fact, if you have persistent suicidal feelings, I encourage you to let rip with the depiction of those feelings. Don’t hold back gloomy thoughts. Write it all down.
Boring advice. Suicide isn’t the answer. Keep going. Yes, I’m a little worried by your roundabout expression of all this. Well, now alarm bells are ringing. Is the crisis over, or not?
Try not to put an exact value on help. Help should be give and take. Not all GIVE on one side and all TAKE on the other. Give and take. Keep going. If you feel suicidal, talk it over with someone. Even if you have to go on an anonymous telephone hotline. That may not be your thing. One step back from that is to have the telephone hotline number built into your phone. Just in case.
Find something wonderful in the day. And if you don’t, there’s always the next day to hunt for something. Sometimes the hunt for something wonderful leads on such an unexpected trip that you stumble on something else.
I’ve read over this waffle. The advice the suicidal don’t want to hear is IT’LL GET BETTER. Well that’s not necessarily true. Shares can fall as well as rise. It goes on. And if you feel grim, you’ll think it goes on and on and on and on…
Depressing, I know.
Right. I don’t know how deep in you are. And I can’t help you from here if you have your head in a guillotine with a phone in one hand and a rope in the other. If you do feel suicidal, yes, talk to me. But talk to people who at least have a semi-decent chance of kicking a door in and dragging you from the guillotine. I think the guillotine image is a bit strong, but I’ll leave it in this message to you.
Astonishingly, I can’t kick a door in across the Atlantic. So have a local contingency if things get bad. And never give up.

*

Okay, I think I should add clarification. For those who don’t know, I’m Scottish. I now check my e-mail more than once a week. Some of you may think I was callous for mentioning a guillotine in an anti-suicide e-mail. Think what you like. Made sense to me.
The bit about give and take was edited out of a much wider context, and has lost a significant amount of meaning here. Just be aware of that, if you were puzzled by it.
There was further discussion. The person concerned apologised for being a burden on me. That was nonsense, and I said so in a follow-up…

*

You don’t have to be apologetic about anything – you didn’t put me through an ordeal. I had a stressed-out day for other reasons, and, strange as it sounds, reading about someone else’s troubles was a temporary distraction from the bad day I had. So I was fine about your e-mails.
The initial comment you made was vague in its suicidal content. So I had to ask the basic question – are you okay? That way, the other person can say yes or no. If the answer is yes, that’s that. And if that depressed person finds the answer is no at a later date, there’s the memory of the questions asking. So there’s always scope for the depressed person to go back and talk to the person who asked. If the situation deteriorates. Or if the situation is the same, but the person wants to leave the vagueness behind.
That’s how I see things, anyway.
I felt it was important to let you know that you can talk if you have to, and not feel bad about hitting out with a whole world full of gloom.

*

Time passed. I stick by what I wrote there. If someone hints that all is not well, how selfish are you going to be in response? You ask the question. Are you okay? Yes may lead to no later, as circumstances shift, and there’s always further opportunity to talk.
Okay. There are failures. People go through with suicide. They become faces in grim compilation movies on the everlasting internet. Behind each face, you’ll find a hidden group of family members grieving. At least, you’d like to think so.

*

What of my murder story? Making light of suicide through sarcasm? Of course not. Noting a trend on the internet. You could be the most amazing person on the internet, kill yourself, and still be hated by people with time on their thumbs. Thumbsters.
Anyway, I wrote this blog post as a means of propelling myself into writing that murder story. No matter how I slice it up, as a topic it’s still rough when fictionalised. This blog post will appear in the notes at the conclusion of my tale.
As for the book’s cover. Remember the slogan is used against those who tell you to kill yourself. They are the ones who should suck bleach. That’s awful of me, I know, thinking that of internet trolls. When thinking of trolls, remember these two entirely unconnected statements.
You should never wish death on anyone.
Patience is there to be tried.

*

If you have suicidal thoughts, type SUICIDE PREVENTION into your search engine and follow every link. Every link.

*

What to say of that blog post? Many sources went into the generation of the piece, and I blurred a world of lines to create a post that might prove useful to anyone who went to read it for all the wrong reasons.
There is no single person, pink-haired or otherwise, who fell off the internet and appeared in this story or the associated blog post.
During a not-so-grim research phase, I discovered an army of women with improbably-hued hairstyles. Most were prepared to talk of self-harm, suicidal thoughts, and other deep dark disturbing topics.
It’s not all about style-tips.
The research was not-so-grim as these people had a sense of humour. Self-referential. Bleak, true. Too much to take for some observers. The humour was in abundance. Oh, there were tears under the pink and green and blue and platinum coiffeurs.
At times, judging from the opening shot of this or that twenty-minute YouTube video, I didn’t relish the prospect of sitting through a raging gloomfest. Research is research, and I persisted. Those raging gloomfests were articulate, informative, heartening, and not as raging or as gloomy as…
The troll comments. Those people have no, but NO, fucking sense of humour. A troll could watch a ruby-hued woman commit suicide wearing a SUICIDE T-shirt, and declare you are not really suicidal though, are you…
My spelling is too tidy to be trollish.
The MURDER BOX is the internet. People wander in and comment on everything. If there were no acid comments, I wouldn’t have written this story. I’d be a poor defender of free speech if I only concerned myself with stuff I liked.
Yes, I hate the bile. But the bile acts as a sign warning me off those people, so I accept the freedom of speech along with the vile talk. Provided no other laws are broken – incitement to commit suicide may constitute a crime where you are or aren’t. The internet is quirky that way.
Tastelessness is unfortunate. It’s even more tasteless to censor the tasteless. For taste is taste, and varies from mind to mind. Some readers are sure to find my tale tasteless. There’s little to say on that topic, bar the preceding sentence.
If opinion were fact, the world would be a different place – and that’s a fact, or an opinion.

*

The story? I was tempted to write the entire tale inside quotation marks. Direct speech only. But no. With enough contestants to fill the warehouse, I also wanted to avoid…
“Now you die.”
“Come and get me.”
“Fuck you.”
“Eat me.”
“Bite me.”
“The hell, I say.”
“Where’s the exit?”
“Go in through the out…”
“Did you hear that?”
“No. Did you?”
“Depends. What was it?”
“I can see the pub from here.”
“Nurse, the screens!”
How many characters were speaking? Thirteen, or two? The idea of numbering characters made it easier to pull switches. Two plus two is 22.
8Player Seven here.8
This is not a pipe.
After I spent time fixing numerical detail into the story, characters were lost in a mini-maze of boxes that didn’t need to be described again in every single sentence.
I kicked a lot of bovine shit out of this tale as I fixed details to the page.
The action occurs inside a massive warehouse. Time and space bend themselves to accommodate slack writing. Slack writing is spotted and shot. I run a clear view of numbered contestants appearing in ascending order, following a clockwise direction.
So clear that, in slack writing, I mistakenly reversed the order part of the way through. The characters moved across the same map. And they moved in the right order. Except when I threw in an explanation, to clarify.
I frazzled the so-called clarity and returned to a degree of normalcy. Maps with arrows showing direction of travel won over perverse text, every time I strayed.
Atmosphere. Character. Continuity draws the shortest straw and the longest stares. I tried to keep things stark, to set the readers thinking.
If MURDER BOX were real, would it be kept out of our clutches? No TV? Absolutely no broadcast? Nothing on YouTube except fakers and parodies of fakers? Three guys in orange rubber suits, running around a factory during lunch, throwing wet sponges at each other.
I think I’ll stick to my guns. The nightmarish dystopian future is no longer one in which reality is broadcast – it is the one in which reality is not.
Feeling trapped? Exclusivity is prized beyond the lure of making money from broadcasting. Even a public accustomed to gladiatorial combat turns jaded in time. Harvesting estates from dead participants – that never grows stale. I left the conspiratorial side of it off the plate…
People aren’t manipulated into joining MURDER BOX. Except in the sense of being made aware of the situation through posters.
Huge conspiracy? Then you are into the dystopian turf of giving your (male) star a revenge-motive and enough juice to bring down the whole rotten system. Usually with fisticuffs in the closing minute.
Pardon me while I yawn. If the story is about murder, and suicide, then the tale has to be personal to the (female) star. Just as it aims to be personal for many different readers. Despite the gloom, positive, I’d hope.
Once I had the legal idea worked out, I resolved that Gwen went into the box as a participant. I left it to the readers to decide if she went in as an eager killer or a willing victim. As mere author, I hold no view either way.

*

In creating the blog post, I clicked on many a YouTube video. I also called on the services of individuals who cannot be named here. They know who they are, and receive my covert thanks. There are a few unusual suspects I’ll also thank without naming.
Bringing focus to the topic required the assistance of a mental health advocate, and I’d like to thank YouTuber and Moroccan carpet purchaser Melissa C. Water for her comments. She characterised her input as addled from lack of sleep. Only her notion of having addled comments was addled. The comments were fine.
For clarity, Melissa is Canadian. The carpet is Moroccan.
Melissa has posted many YouTube videos dealing with suicidal thoughts, self-harm, and other related issues. For those interested in her perspective, here’s the YouTube link: idranktheseawater.

*

And, supposing you missed this…
If you have suicidal thoughts, type SUICIDE PREVENTION into your search engine and follow every link. Every link.

Friday 20 December 2013

COMING SOON ON AMAZON - RETAIL MEMORIES: WHEN CUSTOMERS ATTACK, BY PAPI Z: A REPORT FROM A FUGITIVE.



Recently I hosted a bunch of people on this blog in support of READ TUESDAY. It didn't matter to me if people were in the sale or not...
   Just as it didn't matter to me if some people weren't even published. I always hope that these scribblers take a shot at publication...
   With that in mind, the unpublished Papi Zilla has gone fifteen rounds with his retail demons and come out bloodied yet unbowed.
   Here's the cover for his book. Papi hopes to have that on the Amazon Kindle shelves by the 23rd of December, 2013.
   Papi is a blogger over at The Literary Syndicate. Makes him sound like some kind of outlaw.


http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&ved=0CCoQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Ftheliterarysyndicate.com%2F&ei=xIWzUpOyCOqj0QWxtIGQDQ&usg=AFQjCNEGWp-I2gsDGfZXB5HD2NFTUsQ72A&sig2=V9RZJmI4jcHDg-MQ7w6tLQ&bvm=bv.58187178,d.d2k
   His book is a (koff, thinly-disguised, koff) highly fictional version of his life and times in the retail biz. If he knows where the bodies are buried, he ain't saying who they were.
   The raging red cover is by DANIELLE TAYLOR. Filled with humor, horror, and gift-wrap murder, this is a must-have book for your holiday! It will be available on Amazon Kindle for $0.99. The perfect stocking-stuffer.
   Basking in the radioactive glow of memories both good and bad, Papi Z takes you on a whirlwind tour of retail life from the perspective of a beleaguered world-weary Twilight Zone: store management.
   Hostile customers, vermin, and misadventures await as Papi Z escorts you through the dark times of Christmas and various other highly-stressful purchasing situations.

Papi Z was born many moons ago on Krypton deleted for legal reasons an alien world. Sent to Earth to assist humanity in shopping-related manners, he left the retail life and founded The Literary Syndicate. He currently lives on Earth with a human wife and daughter.
   To reach Papi Zilla when the Batphone isn't working, try Facebook, Twitter, or The Literary Syndicate.

Horror and gift-wrap murder? The perfect family gift, I say.



Sunday 15 December 2013

READ TUESDAY. TWENTY QUESTIONS FOR…RLL: A REPORT FROM A FUGITIVE.

In support of READ TUESDAY, I answered my own questions on other people's blogs. Writers chatting to each other on writing. Tedious or devious? Let’s have one more batch of twenty questions, and find out.
   Time for some alternative answers...where possible.

 

1. Fire rages in your house. Everyone is safe, but you. You decide to smash through the window, shielding your face with a book. What is the book?

The book is pressed right into my face; I've cannily opened the tome, to widen the shielding properties. I hum and haw over this. The shield is wider, though now thinner. And it's still paper-based, so only acts as a temporary shield. However, if I wait too long the smoke will nail me. So a temporary shield is all I need. I've opened the book with the pages facing me, and all I take in during this fiery drama is the letter E.

2. Asleep in your rebuilt house, you dream of meeting a dead author. But not in a creepy stalkerish way, so you shoo Mr Poe out of the kitchen. Instead, you sit down and have cake with which dead author?

That one. Him. And I berate him for having wasted my time on his fiction. As he sits slack-jawed, I eat his portion of cake.

3. Would you name six essential items for writers? If, you know, cornered and threatened with torture.

Yes, it was a GREAT idea to answer this question differently every single time. Well, I - oh - hey, look at that interesting thing over there...

4. Who’d win in a fight between Count Dracula and Frankenstein’s monster? If, you know, you were writing that scene.

Someone else steps in and wins this fight. Did you ever hear of...Kong?

5. It’s the end of a long and tiring day. You are still writing a scene. Do you see it through to the end, even though matchsticks prop your eyelids open, or do you sleep on it and return, refreshed, to slay that literary dragon another day?

The question is clearly bogus. Who says I'll wake feeling refreshed?

6. You must introduce a plot-twist. Evil twin or luggage mix-up?

I introduce a mix-up that isn't meant to be part of the plot. This mixed-up mix-up involves luggage belonging to a guy named Mick. Mick's mixed-up mix-up diverts the readers from a massive hole in the plot - something to do with an evil twin. I wasn't really listening. What was the question again?

7. Let’s say you write a bunch of books featuring an amazing recurring villain. At the end of your latest story you have definitely absitively posolutely killed off the villain for all time and then some. Did you pepper your narrative with clues hinting at the chance of a villainous return in the next book?

Yes, but the villain then returns in a prequel instead.

8. You are at sea in a lifeboat, with the barest chance of surviving the raging storm. There’s one opportunity to save a character, drifting by this scene. Do you save the idealistic hero or the tragic villain?

I save both and watch them fight it out - drifting in the ocean would be empty and meaningless otherwise.

9. It’s time to kill a much-loved character – that pesky plot intrudes. Do you just type it up, heartlessly, or are there any strange rituals to be performed before the deed is done?

First, I mix up some luggage.

10. Embarrassing typo time. I’m always typing thongs instead of things. One day, that’ll land me in trouble. Care to share any wildly embarrassing typing anecdotes? If, you know, the wrong word suddenly made something so much funnier. (My last crime against typing lay in omitting the u from Superman.)

I recall typing this pen is running out of ink, omitting a space of strategic importance.

11. I’ve fallen out of my chair laughing at all sorts of thongs I’ve typed. Have you?

These days, my office chair has no castors. I'd say falling out of my chair is slightly more difficult, as a result of the change.

12. You take a classic literary work and update it by throwing in rocket ships. Dare you name that story? Pride and Prejudice on Mars. That kind of thing.

The Maltese Millennium Falcon.

13. Seen the movie. Read the book. And your preference was for?

What a cracked question. And it's taken me this long to realise. I've missed out books I've read and associated movie adaptations I haven't seen. Yes, I've read The Scarlet Letter. No, somehow I haven't managed to catch D. Moore in the movie version. Let's try a quote from Demi.

   "In truth, not very many people have read the book."

   In its day, from the off, Nat Hawthorne's book was a bestseller. Maybe one day I'll watch that film. Yes. One day.

14. Occupational hazard of being a writer. Has a book ever fallen on your head? This may occasionally happen to non-writers, it must be said.

I should have given thought to other occupational hazards. Or boons. Your odd behaviour is always explained away by using the old magic charm...

   "Oh, I'm a writer."

   After saying that to worried guards, have no fear. Those people will let you wander nuclear power stations.

15. Did you ever read a series of books out of sequence?

This is far easier to do if you read comic books. Batman hit the stands in 1939. Every decade, it became necessary to recreate the character. Update. Alter. Revamp. Good luck reading all the Caped Crusader's adventures in order.

16. You encounter a story just as you are writing the same type of tale. Do you abandon your work, or keep going with the other one to ensure there won’t be endless similarities?

Work is abandoned when it is published.

17. Have you ever stumbled across a Much-Loved Children’s Classic™ that you’ve never heard of?

I've bumped into a few I wish we could all pretend we'd left unread.

18. You build a secret passage into your story. Where?

I'd build it where no one would expect. Where is that? Even I don't know. I've been looking for that secret passage...how long now? Must be here somewhere. This loose panel...

19. Facing the prospect of writing erotica, you decide on a racy pen-name. And that would be…

Max Jiggle.

20. On a train a fan praises your work, mistaking you for another author. What happens next?

We go to sea in a beautiful pea-green boat.

Here's a blog post on READ TUESDAY.

And here's a funny one on CONTACTING PEOPLE FOR READ TUESDAY.