Colin Barrett: Blog

Three chapters at once today. They're none of them all that short, but they present a sequence that I thought should be kept together.
Mostly my fiction is, well, fictitious, but I do take inspiration from real events that I remember. The story of Dead George is one that provided me more than inspiration, it actually happened just about exactly as Lisa recounts. I heard about it the same way Lisa did, from the poor woman who was involved. So anyone who doubts my presentation of Carlos' motivation for pursuing Jack is invited to remember that truth really can be stranger than fiction.

Just one chapter today, but it's a pretty full one.
So much for those of my readers (a few of you wrote me) who decided long ago that Richard was merely a thoughtless drone so inculcated in the trappings of his profession as to be incapable of independent thought. Consider that there's usually more to any person, whether real or fictional, than meets the casual eye. Sometimes for good, sometimes for ill, but you never get the full picture at a glance.

Usually, I limit my blog posting to when I'm submitting new chapters in whatever story/
novel I have in the works.
Today, though, I have a few things to say. In particular, I want to express my appreciation to Lazeez for what is the most user-friendly fiction site I've found. I only post my works here (well, the novels are also on Amazon, but that's a little different), and I do most of my on-line fiction reading here as well. I've tried one other site-the redoubtable Gina Marie Wylie's Beyond the Far Horizon-and while I still read there from time to time, I only posted one novel. Gina unfortunately doesn't provide for author blogs, which I find invaluable. There's also Wes Boyd's Spearfish Lake Tales, but that's only for his own work (a few other authors have similar sites). I'll also read occasionally on SOL's companion site, Finestories, but I haven't posted there yet; the readership is much smaller than SOL, and while my novels fit well with its non-erotic content (and it does allow blogs), I think it would mainly be duplicative of my posting here.
Lazeez generally does a marvellous job of turning my submissions into posted materials. For those who aren't sure how it's done-the submission process, that is-herewith a (very) brief tutorial. I use MS Word to format all my writing (I used to write with another word processor, but it was easy to upload to Word for final editing). MS Word lets you save your copy as a "Web page," which is HTML. I do that with each chapter separately and then submit chapter by chapter with SOL. Much better than using text files, since HTML retains my formatting (italics, bold face, indents, etc.). Lazeez apparently has some software to convert the HTMLs.
Actually, you don't need to buy Word for this. Any word processor or publishing package that converts to HTML files will do; or you can download the freeware Open Office software, which is an emulation of MS Office, and use its word processor just as you'd use Word.
Mostly the SOL conversion works very well. If I have unusual formatting I try to point that out in a part of the submission subroutine that lets you make "notes to the moderator," but sometimes that isn't initially successful. However, you can always refile a story or chapter, and when I do that with another moderator note it's always fixed as I request. One other kind of glitch crops up now and then. Occasionally Lazeez' conversion program will pick up the last few words of one paragraph and repeat them in place of the next full line of the following paragraph. No, that isn't in my original (I've checked), but again resubmission corrects this. I'm not sure why the glitch happens so erratically, but it's rare enough and so easily fixable that I don't worry about it.
Finally, I've found that if you submit a posting after midnight it won't show up on the site until about 8 a.m. the next day (all times are Eastern Standard U.S.), which is the easy way to build in a posting delay. But don't do that with complex formatting; wait until later in the day after the SOL folks have had time for a cup of coffee.
Just wanted to offer the benefits of my experience to encourage anyone out there who's intimidated to go ahead and post their work. This is a great site. I still can't figure out how the scoring system functions, but it seems to be pretty consistent and it'll give you feedback about your writing, which is always a boon to an author. I also get e-mails from some readers, a further help. So jump right in, the water's fine. By the way, even though there's something of a focus at SOL on erotic writing, I do fairly well on scores even though I don't have a lot of sex in my fiction writing (and none of it's at all explicit). So whether you write sexy stuff or non-sexy, SOL is the place for it.

Two chapters today to start off the new section.
The focus of chapter 37 on the "war on drugs" isn't accidental. I happen to think this is about as stupid an endeavor on which this country (along with many others, of course) has ever embarked. You simply cannot eliminate demand for something by placing constraints on supply. That's a kind of basic economics reality, but one we find politically expedient to ignore. You'll note that this sort of effort is attempted only when there are moral or religious objections to whatever's being made illegal. Recreational drugs, alcohol, tobacco to some degree, prostitution, personal firearms to an extent, gambling, public nudity, etc. (you'll think of more examples), have been and/or are subject to this fruitless attempt to extinguish or restrict possession, participation and use. Now and again, here and there, the same approach is also tried with certain types of expression (i.e., literature and visual art forms) and learning. Those who are caught violating the legislative or regulatory prohibitions are encarcerated or fined, which injures them but has little effect on reducing overall demand; it simply makes those who wish to partake more cautious in their doings. The result is simply an inconsistent and somewhat randomized application of what any rational person would consider to be a senseless approach to legal and political policy. Oh, yes, and the inevitable side-effect is to create an underground criminal sub-economy which, because it cannot rely on the law and its mechanisms, resorts instead to the kind of destructive and poorly targeted violence of anarchy for self-protection. Not, you must admit, the sort of impact that even the most short-sighted moralist who favors all these prohibitions finds desirable.
Once upon a time we executed those who refused to abide by the socially determined "thou shalts" and "thou shalt nots" of their time and location. They were "heretics," "hedonists" or some other pejorative name, and deemed not deserving of life. At least today the penalties are individually less drastic, but the damage to the social fabric is no less. Does anybody seriously fault Spook for refusing to participate in this farce?
I haven't traveled in Europe in many years, so some of my description of Jack, Lisa and John's visit may be a bit out of date, but it's based on my memory of my own long-ago visits to the places named and the reading and viewing I've done. Those who don't care for Paris, Florence or Rome, or who are especially partial to Venice may disagree with Jack's view, and more power to them. That's just how he sees these places.

The debate over the meaning and value of patriotism is an ongoing and free-ranging one that crosses all the commonly drawn lines of politics and society. Historically the concept derives from the tribalism of our ancestors whereby humans first drew the line of demarcation between "us" and "them," and it's the same line we continue to draw today. I won't go into it more here, Richard and Spook do that pretty thoroughly, I think.
The details of little John's birth, down to the construction of the crib, I took from the birth of my own child (a daughter, though, not a son). I think any man who's sat helplessly out there in the hospital waiting room while his wife-the woman he's sworn to protect-undergoes what's actually fairly significant (and it one time in not-all-that-long-ago history was almost always fatal) surgery, can get behind Jack's feelings. It's a scary time for the dad-to-be. But in fact a caesarian is these days an exceedingly safe method of giving birth; so far has modern medicine advanced.
These two chapters finish up the third section of the novel, and lead to the most action-packed one. Hope everyone's continuing to enjoy.