Another Change, a Book, and Getting South

It's been a while since I've written anything substantial.  My predilection for writing trivial nonsense oftentimes overcomes my sensibility and need to write things more productive.  Such has been my life for the past month.  In my defense, I have made yet another big life change by relocating to Augusta, Georgia, leaving behind the cold, snow-infested heaps of eastern Pennsylvania in exchange for heat, humidity, and mosquitos roughly the size of Volkswagon Beetles.

As most are aware, because I annoy everyone in my social media circles to death with updates and such, I have written my first novel and have found a willing accomplice who has promised to publish my work.  The first installment of what I hope will be a long-running series, Of Blood and Stone, is off to the printer for hardcopy proofs.  After everything is approved by my publisher and me, it's off to the presses for mass distribution. 

I cannot convey how apprehensive I am about the prospect of having something pulled from my own mind, documented and in the hands of readers.  When I stop to think about it I realize how lucky I am, but also consider that some will enjoy it, while others will not--and that's the hard pill to swallow. 

I'm not so insecure as to believe that there will be those who won't enjoy the book; I guess I fear failure or disappointing those who have supported me through this process.  All of that being said, I'm not one to be a pessimist and know you all will enjoy the book and look forward to the next installment.  Haha!

Bill Evers has been a character who was born from my zeal for the military, the art of fighting, conspiracy theory and travel.  A man who suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder, who longed for nothing more than to be left alone in the deep woods of Alabama, Evers gets pulled back into action by his old mentor, Buddy Smith.

I look forward to "watching" Evers develop as an individual as he copes with his psychological disorder.  More importantly, I love the process of writing and story telling in its purest form--the written word. 

I can't stress enough how enjoyable it is to be in a slower paced environment.  It took me a few years to realize I'm not cut out for the rat race, and in a couple short weeks Cathy will be here with me.  She's looking forward to getting out of the race too, although I suspect it will take her a little more time to acclimate to the southern drawl, the pace, and the sweet tea.

Finally, I would invite each of you to check out my website, which is far from completion, and offer suggestions and feedback.  Bear in mind I'm creating it myself, and I make no assertions about my website development capabilities.  On the contrary, had it not been for "drag and drop," I don't know what I would have done.  :)

www.howardupton.com

Peace, love, and yogurt to all y'all.

Seek Laughter in the Darkest of Times

Since the announcement of Robin William's untimely death, many have been left to ponder what success and wealth truly mean.  Williams was an actor that crossed racial, political, and social spectrums with his incredible intellect and brand of humor that most would concede was, if you'll pardon the cliché, once in a generation. 

The sad realization is that we have no idea what goes on behind the closed doors of someone's mind, the battles they face, nor understand things that may have contributed to their depression or mental illness.  BUT, we should also take a cue from Robin and know that laughter cures many ills.

Now, before I receive a bevy of messages and emails stating that "laughter won't cure depression," let me state, unequivocally, that I agree.  My point is this: this old world needs more laughter, less ridicule, and just a little more understanding for those silently screaming for help. 

I'll be the first to admit that I'm not always the most compassionate person, but I work hard to see things from another person's point of view.  I attempt to walk in their shoes, even if only in my mind, before I reach a forgone conclusion about them.  At the end of the day, we're all human and, as such, should attempt to help one another whenever or wherever possible.

Speaking for myself only, I can say that laughter has pulled me out of several mental funks.  Like everyone, I've fought depression in some form or other, although I wouldn't place my struggles in the clinical depression category, and most often I can feel myself rising from some dark, cavernous abyss when someone is able to make me laugh. 

I would implore you to help anyone you believe needs help, whether their struggles be mental, or perhaps attributed to chemical or alcohol dependency, or maybe just acute loneliness.  Not everyone will accept your help, but don't give up.....maybe, just maybe......that person you're trying to help is waiting on you to make him or her.......simply....laugh.

Our on-line image and the personalities we create

We're all guilty of it--I'm certainly no exception.  Sometimes, while I'm lost in my own thoughts, or simply bored out of my ever-living-mind, I placate myself by engaging in self-deprecating humor.  Other times, I rail on about political issues, and still others, I write about my desire to be.....well, a writer. 


No matter the reason, contrived or otherwise, most of us spend a significant amount of time on our computers with social media being at the top of our Internet usage.  I'm beginning to understand many things specific to the human psyche, most of it learned through my own flawed personality, and some via those "Facebook friends" that we all have.


Before I delve into some of the interesting on-line personas I encounter on a daily basis, let me first say this: my life isn't that exciting.  I am well-traveled, but the vast majority of my travel hasn't been personal/vacation/retreat kind-of-travel; on the contrary, it's largely work related.  What's the difference?  About ten thousand photos taken and hung in my personal "Cloud."  That's the difference.  When I participate in work travel....I work.  Sometimes I get a few hours to sight-see, but mostly, well, I'm in a hotel, or on my computer catching up on work e-mails, or on the phone dealing with some work related issue.  So, while I might inadvertently paint a picture of my own redneck refinement, I can assure you I'm just a simple guy who takes his work to other places.


Also, I have many, many interests, as do most of us.  I attempt to share some of these with friends and family, but in retrospect, I'm sure they may come off as "look at what I can do," or "I think I'm better than you."  Please let me assure you that I don't intend for that to ever be my personal message.  In fact, I enjoy sharing experiences with people, telling stories, and generally relish life. 


With all that said, let's talk about other people.   :)


There are a host of on-line personas that make me laugh.  I would venture to guess that these same personas aggravate, or even infuriate, a host of people, but I take everything I read with a grain of salt and shrug off ninety-nine percent of it.


The on-line tough guy/keyboard warrior:  This is the guy who creates an imaginary world so full of self-indulgent grandeur that even a Marvel Comics story writer would be impressed.  This is especially prevalent in the martial arts world where the vast majority of practitioners have never been in a real fight, and even those who have been are now getting up there in years and have dropped off in their ability. 


The internet historian:  We've all seen this guy.  He's the one who will correct even the most mundane of historical fact.  Most of the time he does this without first verifying what he's written on snopes.com or some other credible site. 


The drama queen: This man/woman will post every visage of h/her life for the world to read, but get anxious and exceptionally upset when someone says something h/she perceives as negative. 


The political guru: Okay, I'm talking about me here......nothing to see....move along.


The grammar Nazi: I've fallen into this one several times, but attempt to curtail my spelling/syntax OCD by counting to ten before responding.  It helps...but not always.


The photo blast expert: This person has at h/her disposal the best camera on the market, with some of the best software available.  We are subjected to a bevy of floral, insect, tree, children, food and sunset/sunrise shots. 


The "I love everybody" person: No matter the issue, no matter the circumstance, this person just wants equality for all, but struggles to define the inequality the person or group has suffered. 


The passive-aggressive: Yeah, you'll have to re-read what he said three or four times before you realize he was telling you to piss off. 


The sports authority: Look, this guy has every sports channel available in the world and rarely ventures off the sports reservation.  What he doesn't know he can google in .1 second.


I know I've missed several, but these are the folks I laugh at regularly.  We all take part in the on-line persona game, and to some extent it's fun....just don't let it dominate your life, and stop taking yourself so seriously. 

Creating an imaginary world from reality

I recently remarked to someone that I'm passionate about creative writing, and more specifically story telling, because I'm always so anxious to find out how the story ends.  In writing circles, people like me are known as "pantsers," or those who write without a predetermined course.  Those who create outlines and work within those confines are known as "plotters."  I fall somewhere between these two labels, as I generally begin with an outline, drop it, and continue writing based upon research, gut feel, and simple intuition.

Many, if not most, of the places appearing in my first novel I have visited first-hand.  When I travel, I try to get a feel for the "vibe" of a place.  Are the locals and visitors at ease, laughing, and having a care-free time, or is there a more pessimistic impression that I sense?  What is the climate like in that region, and what do people generally wear to help protect them from the elements?  Is the air tepid or frigid?  The local architecture is as drastically important as the people moving through it when developing "my world."  After all, how boring would a story be without envisioning the surroundings?  Do the locals commute on mass transit, or via personal vehicle?  What kind of vehicle is prevalent in the locale? 

I make a concerted effort to take in various smells in a particular area, as I never know when I might attempt to work that place into a scene.  As an example, New York City is made up of widely contrasting neighborhoods, ethnicities, foods, high rise apartment and business complexes, smells, and sights.  The subterranean world moving passengers beneath New York is a city in and of itself.  Sweltering heat, dripping water, the rats, dirty tiled walls, street musicians, and droves of tourists.....all of it......make up a tightly woven conurbation connected by tunnels, trains, and concrete. 

Within the reality of a setting comes the dramatic, personified algorithm that becomes my make-believe world.  Our nightmares, after all, are made up of self-perpetuated dreamscapes born of reality, fear and anxiety.  With that thought in mind, it isn't so far-fetched for a lover of the fictitious to try to bring imagined life into reality.

All of my characters are created with attributes I've personally witnessed in others, or in myself.  The good, bad, love, loneliness, feelings of helplessness, and evil (as we've come to define it), are things I've experienced or have seen people experience first-hand.  In several cases, I've interviewed people dealing with certain conditions, such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) to acquire a better understanding of the condition and stress it creates in the human brain. 

Finally, I don't sit around attempting to develop a plot for a story.  On the contrary, an idea will simply strike me as interesting and I will pursue it.  Other times, a story will have to stew in my mind, festering like a boil on infected skin, until it rises to the top finally revealing itself to me. 

Like I've told many over the years: I don't fancy myself some linguistic artist struggling to make it in a world wrought with competition.  No, I'm just a story-teller who enjoys the craft....and a guy who needs to know how the story ends.  :)

Blogger's note:

Photo 1.) Makati, Manila The Philippines
Photo 2.) Quebec City, Quebec, Canada
Photo 3.) The Delicate Arch, Arches National Park, Utah
Photo 4.) Somewhere in NW New Mexico

Who is Bill Evers?

For me, writing is a passion--always has been.  I can't imagine not having this creative outlet; without it I would go insane.  Sometimes, however, the creative channels shut down for whatever reason, leaving me in a state of flux and confusion.  What do I mean by that?  Like every one of you, there's a creative urge that gnaws at my brain, but there are also times that the creativity refuses to surface.  When the creativity doesn't flow, it leaves a void....an itch left unscratched, if you will, and this drives me crazy.


So, you can imagine my elation when I finished my first manuscript and sent it to publishers for consideration.  Just completing such an undertaking was an accomplishment in and of itself, but to have a publisher say "we want to publish this" made me want to do a cartwheel.  (Insert fat boy cartwheel jokes here.)


My protagonist is based upon numerous people I've met over the years, and personal interests that I've acquired.  Psychology plays an enormous role in character development, in my humble opinion.  Without really understanding your characters, it's difficult to convey to a reader who and what they are.  As simplistic as this sounds, it truly is a difficult thing to put emotion, morals (or lack thereof), desires, and the vast array of feelings and complexities that make us human into the written word. 


Bill Evers is, again in my opinion, quite an enigma.  He's a man trained in the combat arts, both military and martial.  The one thing he knows is killing.  Unfortunately, post combat and mercenary roles, he had little else to fall back on, which prevented him from getting out of "the life."  Further complicating things for him is the post-traumatic stress disorder that haunts his sleep.


Trained in Yoshukai Karate and judo, Evers sees people as "targets" or "non-targets."    He isn't a loose cannon, but he is emotionally disconnected from taking a life; that is, if that life was a target and not an innocent.  He believes in striking hard and fast.  Testosterone laden talk is for amateurs and bullies--combat, in his mind, was designed as a means of survival, both physical and economic.


Evers sees the world for what it is: a place ruled by the few, rather than by the many.  He has no sympathy for government officials, seeing each as the hand controlling the chess board, and a country's citizenry as the pawns awaiting their next move.  To remove a target serving the lesser good is fine by him...and it pays well too.


I hope you'll "like" and follow my Bill Evers page as his life becomes a strange reality once the words are finally put to paper.  Lastly, I ask each of you, should the urge strike you, to share the page with your friends and family to help me get the word out to the public at large.  Without you, this dream of mine would not have been made possible.  Thanks for the friendship and reading loyalty! 

https://www.facebook.com/BillEversAdventures

The Liberal Founding Fathers--A Mythos

For the past few years I've heard many espouse the "liberal" nature of our Founding Fathers.  I've scratched my head numerous times as I've read their assumptions and presumptions about the political nature of George Washington and the other British rebels who defied King George and his band of red coats. 

According to Webster's online dictionary, liberalism is defined as such:

1. the quality or state of being liberal

 

 

 2.  often capitalized: a movement in modern Protestantism emphasizing intellectual liberty and the spiritual and ethical content of Christianity

b: a theory in economics emphasizing individual freedom from restraint and usually based on free competition, the self-regulating market, and the gold standard

c: a political philosophy based on belief in progress, the essential goodness of the human race, and the autonomy of the individual and standing for the protection of political and civil liberties; specifically: such a philosophy that considers government as a crucial instrument for amelioration of social inequities (as those involving race, gender, or class)

 

I found this Webster's definition especially enticing, not because I believe in the modern interpretation of those things "liberal," but because so many "liberals" believe in their alleged altruistic approach to government, life, and liberty as "liberal." 

 

First, you will notice that liberalism includes a specific alignment with Protestantism and direct tie to Christianity.  It also purports to believe in a self-regulating market and a gold standard.  Next, you'll find that liberalism is founded on the belief that the protection of political and civil liberties of all men and women should be adhered to under these principles.

 

Lastly, liberalism believes in the amelioration, or enhancement, of social inequities. 

 

What I find in Webster's definition of liberalism is one half of what the Founders intended (black men and women notwithstanding). 

 

With that, we must now look at Webster's definition of conservatism:

 

1

capitalized

a: the principles and policies of a Conservative party

b: the Conservative party

2

a: disposition in politics to preserve what is established

b: a political philosophy based on tradition and social stability, stressing established institutions, and preferring gradual development to abrupt change; specifically:

3

: the tendency to prefer an existing or traditional situation to change

 

Should we look at the Founder's belief in a political system, and their desire to separate Church and State, then it's obvious, at least to me, that they were focused on economic and social anonymity.  They also understood the need for strong national borders and the ability to be self-sufficient. 

 

If we were all to base our beliefs on Webster's definition of these two party beliefs, there should be no doubt that we are all liberal/conservatives.  Unfortunately, there has been a serious bastardization in both parties, but mostly in the "liberal" or democratic party.  Why?  They have moved to the hard left...to the party of government sustenance and acceptance of all things once considered immoral or socially unacceptable.  When we look at issues like abortion, we must ask ourselves when life truly begins, what self-reliance means, and what a self-reliant/free market really means. 

 

How is it then that liberals think the Founders were somehow liberal?  Perhaps at the time Webster defined liberalism they really were!  But by today's standards, our Founders were wholly conservative and defined themselves as individual thinkers who wanted little change outside totalitarian control by England and King George (who, by the way, was a true liberal by today's definition).

 

Our Founders wanted slow change.  That's why they incorporated three branches of government into our government's creation.  By this standard and definition, they were very....even ultra-conservative.  They believed all men (everyone, less blacks and all women....we had to overcome that nonsense, which was a part of their liberal ideology) were created equal, and the system of government they set up should be one of debate and systematic slowness, with little intervention beyond the rights of the individual states.  Why is this so difficult for today's "liberals" to grasp? 

 

Fundamental freedoms from an overseeing Big Brother and imperialistic government is what the Founders wanted to escape.  Today's liberals want Big Brother to take care of them, rather than being self-reliant and capable. 

God bless our conservative Founding Fathers.

 

 

 

 

Life Well Experienced

I'm an educated man.  That is to say I have a piece of paper that tells me I've accomplished enough to be considered educated.  The reality is, however, education is only as good as the person purporting to be educated and how that education is put to use.

With that said, my honest opinion is that experience is the truest form of education.  Learning is born not by reading about the heavens; rather, it is gleaned by staring at the stars.  Understanding how a tree takes root and grows through the decades is no substitute for walking in the woods and taking in a lungful of the air it gives us. 

Don't get me wrong--I'm not here to poo-poo the world of academia.  Quite the contrary, I'm a lover of books, science and learning.  It's just that academics, with little or no real world experience, have little to share with the rest of the world beyond their own limited scope.  An academic may understand the intricacies of wind dynamics and electricity transference, but if that academic has never built a windmill then he lacks a general understanding of hard work and application of knowledge.

It's crucial, in my opinion, that one have a good grasp of mathematics, science and an overall command of his/her native tongue, but what matters more is putting into motion those very things to better serve yourself and society at large.  In fact, I am reminded of a time when a college professor of mine remarked, "If my car breaks down I'm not interested in a bunch of preachers stopping to pray over it.  No, what I want is a bunch of Harley Davidson riders to stop and give me a hand.  Those boys know how to fix stuff!"

Now, before anyone gets their silky undies in a knot over that crude analogy, I think it's fitting to take note of the underlying sentiment.  His comments weren't a slight toward organized religion or preachers, but more a testament (see what I did there?) of Harley Davidson riders knowing how to repair things.....especially since Harley Davidsons were previously known for spending more time in a garage being fixed than they were on some black topped road.  But I digress......

Another story I'll share about reality and experience is this: An older friend of mine went to a cardiologist several years ago on recommendation by his doctor.  My friend was a big man--at least six foot three inches and every bit of two-hundred ninety pounds.  The doctor was worried my friend had some blockage in an artery or two and wanted to make sure all of his plumbing was working as it was supposed to.

My friend was hooked up to all kinds of equipment and monitors and told to walk on a treadmill for what he described as "forever."  After some time he was told to stop, given a towel and allowed to dry off.  He went back to his room and dressed, sat down and waited on the doctor to return with the news about his heart health.

"Well," the doctor began, "there's absolutely nothing wrong with you except that you need to lose some weight."

Without hesitation my friend replied, "No.  What I need is a fat doctor who understands what I'm going through.  That's what I need."

The doctor, a man who had spent ten years of his life in the world of academics, was speechless.

You see?  It's all about experience and the real world.