Lazlo Zalezac: Blog

Several people have written concerned that I haven't been posting as regularly as usual. I appreciated the concerns about my health. Fortunately, my health is not the reason I haven't been posting daily. Real life has grabbed me by the ear and dragged me off to work.

It has been eighteen hour days for the past few weeks and it doesn't look better for another week or two. I'll post some more, but it will be a few days between posts.

I'm not sure how many chapters I've posted, but you would think that I know how to do it by now. I accidentally uploaded chapter 14 as chapter 13. When I uploaded chapter 14, I received 175 e-mails in about an hour notifying me that I had posted chapter 13 twice.

Sorry about that.

Today I posted chapter 3 of The Millionaire Next Door and within 8 hours received 30 e-mails asking for links to the three articles mentioned in the story. I wish that I could give out links to them, but I can't. I would if I could, but they don't exist. At least, I've never found such an article.

Some readers may enjoy a little history about the facts of life presented in this story. I used to hear about the facts of life quite frequently, but no one could tell me what they were. On television shows, movies, and stories, people would say that it was time to explain the facts of life to their children. Usually this was followed by a lecture on human reproduction that was more often fiction than fact.

The whole idea of a set of statements that constituted the facts of life intrigued me. I felt that there had to be some facts about living that constituted the facts of life. I set about trying to come up with a list of statements that were always true and meaningful in terms of making decisions about life.

I came up with the first draft of the ten 'facts of life' presented in this story over twenty years ago. I've refined them over time trying to get them in a form that was as succinct as possible. I've had people argue against them, but no one has ever convinced me that they are anything other than fact.

Some observant readers may have noticed that I have included a few of the facts of life in the Damsels in Distress stories. I was about to start another story in that universe when the thought came upon me to showcase the facts of life in one story rather than distributed across multiple stories. The result of that thought is 'The Millionaire Next Door.' I hope that you enjoy that story.

After 49 chapters, Hunter has come to an end. Of all the stories that I've posted, this one has been the most controversial. I expected that and my expectations were well exceeded.

The feedback that I've received falls into five major categories: Bowman Detractors, Bowman Supporters, Analysts, Soldiers, and the Fearful.

Bowman Detractors - A lot of people really hated the character, his world view, and the setting of the story. Few of the readers in this category lasted more than a handful of chapters, but they were quite emphatic in their views that the story represented a fascist political stance and represented a real threat in terms of supporting racial hatreds.

Bowman Supporters - A lot of people really identified with the character, his world view, and the setting of the story. They felt that this was one of the first stories they read that presented their world view. They felt that today's world of political correctness is preventing us from addressing real problems.

Analysts - I was really surprised by the number of people who wrote me saying that they worked or had worked in the intelligence field. More often than not, they wrote that the world situation was far worse than described in the story. I had a few who said that the technical details were weak and in a few places they were clearly wrong.

Military - This group, for the most part, often wrote telling of their experience in the military and the difficulties of carrying out a mission amidst the politics. Those who served in the Middle East reported that they didn't trust the people there. Some described events that had occurred to them while stationed there. The stories were often very heartbreaking.

Fearful - A lot of e-mails were from people who felt that the world situation described in this story was too close to the truth for comfort. They hope that the story is not prophetic, but fear that it is. Based on the volume of e-mail, there are a lot of people who are afraid of the future.

Some will say that the story ended with too optimistic of a conclusion. World peace? After every war, people say that the death and violence of the war should serve as a lesson to support peace. Yet, there has always been another war. We can't ignore the lessons of the past. Recognizing that, I will say that it is a very optimistic conclusion.

I enjoyed writing this story. I hope that those who read it to the end enjoyed it. I hope that people found some of the ideas in it thought provoking.

For some reason or another, certain numbers seem to be more significant than others. For example, years ending in zeros are more significant than years ending in other digits. Years ending in two zeros have a greater significance than that while years ending in three zeros seem the ultimate in significance, at least as far as dates go. Other numbers pop up with great regularity in western culture, 2, 3, 7, 12, 13, and, after publication of the Hitchhikers' Guide To The Galaxy, 42. Let us not forget the magic age of 100 which is a landmark birthday of equal significance to Sweet 16, Voting 18, Drinking 21, and Retirement 65.

You might wonder why I'm talking so much about special numbers. Well, the most recent chapter of Hunter pushed me past another landmark number. I have now posted 15M characters of stories on SOL. (Hold on while I brush the confetti from my eyes).

I cringe somewhat when I read my first story, John Carter, and see how many errors there are in that story. One day I will go through and clean it up. Until that day, I'll continue to post more chapters. Who knows, maybe I'll hit another landmark number.

I would like to take a moment in the middle of the mad celebrations going on here to thank Lazeez for having provided a forum in which I can publish my works. I doubt that I would have made it to this point without the wonderful publishing environment that Lazeez had provided.

I also want to thank the readers who continue to send me e-mails despite the fact that I seldom answer them. So far, I have received 10,000 e-mails from readers. (That was another landmark number that I hit late last night and contributed to the degree of frenzy of my celebration.) I do want you to know that I appreciate them.