Welcome to 2020

Good evening. I suppose you're wondering why I've called you here today. We have unfinished business which has been overlooked for far too long.

When last I posted, it was May in the year 2019. I posted an assortment of material based on April being National Poetry Month. Apologies for verse which was, shall we say, not exactly the worst but not quite the best. Some were from the vast world of Twitter where there are strict limits on what a poet might do.

After that post, I had the best of intentions. I planned to continue the effort more or less on a three posts per month average schedule. However, I quickly became busy with personal matters. Besides, it was summer by then and I usually have taken a month off, anyway.

But summer went on and on, especially since I did not go to China to teach a summer class as in past summers. I was left with time on my hands. And I didn't know what to do. Unfortunately, more blogging never occurred to me. I decided to travel. I can share more of that adventure in upcoming posts.

At the end of the summer, I became stricken by a strange illness I later attributed to ineffective treatment of the hurricane-stricken interiors of the hotel in which I stayed. The coastal town had been battered and the hotel suffered damage. Alas, the hotel appeared completely rebuilt so I gave them my business. Upon departure, I noticed the first of what would become a long list of awful symptoms. First, I had to suffer through a week of horrible misery worse than anything I've ever imparted on any protagonist I've written.

The experience of weeks of recovery derailed again my desire to blog like there was no tomorrow. That is my story and I believe I shall stick with it. Or, in the alternative, I kept thinking I should get back to blogging but, like so many other blog attempts, I feared something would happen - meaning a tragic event - so it seemed inappropriate to post.

I missed my chance to blog again in 2019. Now I am about to miss my last opportunity to start blogging again with the first month of the new year. But as this is the Year of the Rat (or Mouse, if you prefer), I should get started again because . . . because there's probably some link between blogging and this particular mammal. It's in some ancient Chinese text somewhere. 

Therefore, you find yourself reading this post - unless you have already bailed out. If you have chosen to endure, kudos to you! 

For 2020, I shall commit to posting once a month. More often if the mood hits me or you start begging for more. Besides, I have a new novel coming out soon so it makes sense for me to get the ol' blog-a-thon rolling again. The usual suspects will likely appear: writing, my writing, amusing anecdotes, extreme diatribes, rants on the nature of nurturing, and a bit of alliteration. It is possible I may post something of interest to you at random.

U P D A T E - KC CHIEFS HAVE WON SUPER BOWL LIV 31-20. 

One of the first items on my agenda is the Kansas City Chiefs' appearance in Super Bowl 54, a mere 50 years after winning Super Bowl 4 against the Minnesota Vikings. This coming Sunday everything will be decided once more. I predict a victory for the Chiefs vs the San Francisco 49ers by a score of 38 to 24.


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(C) Copyright 2010-2020 by Stephen M. Swartz. All Rights Reserved. No part of this blog, whether text or image, may be used without me giving you written permission, except for brief excerpts that are accompanied by a link to this entire blog. Violators shall be written into novels as characters who are killed off. Serious violators shall be identified and dealt with according to the laws of the United States of America.

Sloth & Indolence: A Grand Re-Imagining

Happy New Year! Like most people I know, I have been busier the past couple months than I would have expected or wished. No, it has actually been quite the opposite: a time of sloth and indolence with the best of intentions. Oh, sure, we had our holidays, full of the usual mirth and merriment, family squabbles and sporting events, and the ever-stressful shopping online for the relations. Books were offered up as suitable gifts and I missed the deadline.

Now I'm trying to make amends by pushing out my next here in the early year. I hope that the third book of a trilogy would be enough excitement to get readers of the first two books to the keyboard to click a Kindle into their lives or else to order the full paperback version for its tactile pleasures. Aside from that New Year's wish, I should take time to reintroduce myself.

What is The Deconstruction of the Sekuatean Empire?

When I first hammered this blog from hell's own fire and brimstone, I had in mind a place to post the "back material" for my sci-fi interdimensional drama THE DREAM LAND Trilogy. Because the trilogy is set partly on another world, where the chief political entity of that world, known as the Sekuatean Empire, becomes a focal point. Hence, the title of this blog would make sense: taking apart the history, geography, culture and customs of the place where much of the action of the story occurs. However, as time has progressed, other books have come to the forefront which have nothing to do with Sekuate or its hard-working rebels. It seemed at the time to be too much effort to create a wholly new blog from whole cloth.

You will also note the list of book titles with convenient hyperlinks in the upper right corner of this blog page. They are not simple decoration but actually serve as keys that open doors to my dementia. Experience them and be enlightened forever more! Or, at the least, be entertained, perhaps even enthralled. My writing strives to enfold profound truths of the human condition within pages of action and adventure, liberally marbled with reasonably applied sex and romance while sprinkled with haughty pontifications and jokes best left on the cutting room floor. That sounds a lot like a warning, doesn't it? But it's all in jest. I can assure you that 99.9% of the words are spelled correctly and good grammar is always in use - except for the dialog of those characters who have not been well-educated and then only for the sake of authenticity.

To update you now, the conclusion of my "medically accurate" vampire trilogy is about to launch. The conclusion to the story which began in Book I, A Dry Patch of Skin (2014), and continued through Book II, Sunrise (2018), follows a romantic phlebotomist with a dark family history through his transformation into a vampire (according to medical plausibility) and, in Book II, into his playboy years. Book III takes us up to the year 2099 when he has gained a sizable reputation for cruelty. With Book II being titled Sunrise, Book III's title seems obvious: Sunset. More on this trilogy in my next blog post.

Aside from the latest novel hitting the electronic shelves soon, I have also written science fiction, fantasy (indeed EPIC fantasy!), and a few contemporary (a.k.a. literary) dramas and what I would call action/adventure tales about real; people with real problems in real settings. You know the genre. (You can read samples of other books on the other pages of this blog.) I dabble at poetry. I've written a few screenplays, too. I love to invent stories, generally as a way for me to tease out the answer(s) to an assortment of "what-if" questions. For example, what would it be like if a man and a tiger could read each other's minds? This premise will be available to sort out in my next novel, Year of the Tiger, by the way. Because I am happiest when I am deep in a story, fighting my way through to an end that comes too soon, I will always be writing. I have ideas for the next five years. By then I will have ideas for the next five, and so on. I call these my "five-year plans".

I strive to post a new entry once a week, all the better to take advantage of certain Twitter hashtags (@StephenSwartz1) such as   #SundayBlogShare,  #MondayBlogs,  #TuesdayShares,  #Wednesdayblogs, and  #Blogorama. I do not hold to this schedule religiously, however - as this month's fare will attest. But I try. You know how life tends to interfere with your best intentions? It's doubly so for writers and teachers. Worse yet if one is both a writer and a teacher. But I'm not complaining. Not really. 

In keeping with a "best practices" model of book promotion, I shall attempt to keep blatant marketing efforts to a minimum - except when something new is launched. As always, I expect followers of this blog to read everything I produce and go forth to gather all their family members and friends, coworkers, and just about everyone they encounter in their daily lives, and make them also followers of this blog, readers of these books, and all-around nice people who live to love and love to live, helping all of us enjoy this wonderful world we occupy and yet still be prepared to battle the interstellar aliens who will invade us circa 2345 2217. The choice is yours, as always. But I have high hopes for you!

Thanks for your attention to these matters. Now carry on making the world a better place for me. And I shall return the favor wholeheartedly!

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(C) Copyright 2010-2019 by Stephen M. Swartz. All Rights Reserved. No part of this blog, whether text or image, may be used without me giving you written permission, except for brief excerpts that are accompanied by a link to this entire blog. Violators shall be written into novels as characters who are killed off. Serious violators shall be identified and dealt with according to the laws of the United States of America.

The Year's End of Kind of a Review

There comes a time in every blogger's life when the blogging is easy, and that time is known as the Year End Review or some variation on that topic. You simply recount everything you have done, and/or blogged about, during the year. It's a chance to rewrite history or boast on yourself, or perhaps humbly beg for more readers.

For me, this has been a difficult year - and yet I have persisted, keeping my claws locked in the edge of the cliffs time and time again. Fortunately, my actual life and my writing life have coincided strangely. When I don't feel well, my protagonist has difficulties, too. When something goes right for me, my hero has a good day, too. It's eerie how that alter ego keeps me going. But I suspect many writers role play a happier life (or, at least, a more invigorating life) through the fictional personas they create. Am I right? Am I?

So 2018 began for me with the finishing of the second volume of my vampire trilogy. Any Book 2 of a trilogy exists because something was not addressed in Book 1. And Book 3 follows automatically once the decision has been made to take the plunge into a 2nd volume after a so-called stand-alone novel fails to wrap up one or two crucial issues. So I did that, and launching Book 2 of the Stefan Szekely Trilogy was a pleasant diversion from the run of the mill runs around that old mill.

But seriously, then Book 3 stared me straight in the face, demanding what I would do for an encore. I said, "Here, hold my Merlot goblet." And promptly ratcheted up the rhetoric and the horror. For what could be more horrible that to be forced to commit evil every day lest you be punished? Everyone hates you for that daily act of evil yet you must do it or those around you whom you care for will suffer. It's an unpleasant conundrum. How to escape from this situation? Ah hah! And so Book 3 was born and shall be available soon enough (yet not so soon that you wouldn't have time to read Books 1 and 2 first). As with previous years, I went to China to teach a class in the summer and spent a lot of my free time alone in my hotel room typing away on the latest book. 

Besides the day job, that is what has occupied my time and attention for the bulk of the year. Except for the NaNo - the National Novel Writing Month - which I elected to indulge in by finally writing my autobiography. You know: finally a chance to write down all those little anecdotes you remember being told about when you were a baby or a toddler, and the adventures you remember from your elementary school days, and the first inkling of puppy love in junior high school.... Oh dear! I sense I'm getting into "spoiler" territory so I must cease. Well, it remains unfinished, as most good autobiographies are until the author ends it with a good whack or a doctor's note.

So what else did I do in 2018? You can look back through the blog posts of this year, down by count from previous years. As mentioned in a blog post or two, on too many occasions, when I planned to post a light-hearted entry about nothing important at all, something horrible would happen in the real world and my blog post seemed even more frivolous, so I did not post. I don't think the problem was my posts but, rather, the things people do to each other. What work of fiction can stand up to the reality we often face every day? It almost makes the writing of fiction a delicate luxury: a place to hide, or an escape into a mental landscape - which is good for a time, yes, but should not be a permanent condition.

Alas, as with every end of the year, the optimist I keep in my shirt pocket pops out his little head and grins precociously as if certain the new year will be nothing but merriment and mirth. I wish always to agree. And yet, as we so well know, it may not be. In each of our corners of the world, or in our own little neighborhood, try to take care of each other, share stories, be less suspicious and ready to wield weapons. Talk - for that was the reason the great Rhetoric was invented. Words are not sticks and stones; they're made of phonemes, which are soft and squishy and slide right off us unless we pin them to ourselves.

"Good night and have a pleasant tomorrow." 

-Weekend Update sign-off, Saturday Night Live

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(C) Copyright 2010-2018 by Stephen M. Swartz. All Rights Reserved. No part of this blog, whether text or image, may be used without me giving you written permission, except for brief excerpts that are accompanied by a link to this entire blog. Violators shall be written into novels as characters who are killed off. Serious violators shall be identified and dealt with according to the laws of the United States of America.

Are You Addicted to Killing Time?

Strange sensation, the pull of words! The push of perusers! The tickle of the morning light full of the scent of java, and how it calls the fingers to the keyboard even before the mind has formed any thoughts, translated them into language, and sent them along the neural pathways down to the fingertips. And yet...I'm doing it. Like I have for countless millennia. So it seems. It is less than an addiction,yet more than OCD.

These days, it seems, especially now that my so-called day job has exploded into a full-time monstrosity, a certain portion of each day must be spent on connecting to one's myriad electronic venues. I speak of the ill-named social media. Perhaps Socialist media would be more apt, but I jest. The analogy cannot hold. Almost every day I can survey my classroom and find most students engaged with their little pocket pets. Go into a coffee shop and many are similarly engaged with the electronic genie. Everyone seeking engagement, stimulation, and yet they dare not raise their eyes to the next person. 

There has always been email to check (usually worth a moment's amusement), and the more accounts one has - each for its own nefarious purpose, I have no doubt - but now there is also Facebook and its multiple personas to monitor and manage, and the same perhaps for MySpace, Tumblr, and other similar "social networking" sites. (I wish I had coined that term; could be making billions of rubles off the rights by now!) Plus the noisy bird-filled tree branches Twitter - again with multiple accounts for slightly different agendas. And Pinterest, Instagram, Snapchat, and the newer WeChat and Whatsapp! I find myself unable to not be a part of them. Even LinkedIn has captured my attention.

And the Google+ which I'm still not sure how to operate or for what unique intention it was created. And for writers and readers, there are plenty of sites online such as Goodreads, of which I have become a member in order to introduce my books to an unreading world. I have also joined a site for those interested in steampunk, a genre or sub-genre (no fights, please) of science-fiction or utopian/dystopian fiction. And don't get me started on all the blogs my friends and a few strangers have created, maintain, and add to often enough to occasionally intrigue or amuse or infuriate me.

I find myself getting up earlier now than I really need to just to get myself ready for a day's normal effort simply to be able to check everything. I need to be sure the world is safe for social networking. I need to be certain that my previous comment(s) have been commented on - or rejected - or, worse, ignored. I shun arguments on walls and feeds - unless I'm right and everyone knows it. I must check that things are happening, that political views are in balance, that social issues are being taken care of by someone, someone other than me. And, for good measure, I usually check them all again, in order or perhaps only the most critical ones, before eventually logging off and leaving for the day's Grand Illusion.

On good days, that could occupy two full hours. On bad days, only an hour. Weekends, I tend to languish over anything that might engage me, that could possibly stimulate the pleasure centers of my brain. In other words, I could remain plugged in the better part of a Saturday. I feel refreshed, confident, and ultimately relaxed, knowing that I have checked in, that my field of audiences have been informed that I still exist. Some may be surprised, but that is another blog post. 

Perhaps the fact of my existence itself is enough to compel some to socially dismiss the network in favor of the other, older networks: what used to be the visual arena of ideas and entertainment, expanded a thousandfold. Yes, I speak of television, that splintered soul now languishing in the wastelands of electronica, hanging on for dear life with dancers and singers and the scandalous Hollywood mavens of malevolence, or whatever else can be stood in front of a camera and later mocked. It's endless, of course.

And so there remains, for an escape, the ancient art of linguistic scribbles pressed into wood shavings. I refer to the ubiquitous book. Such pleasures I have known with a good book between my hands! Such adventures I have had once I've fled the world to enrapture myself in! And still, that paradise, that comfy bed of brain bliss, even that venue is changing! Yes, the sacred objet-d'art is joining the electronic universe! With a few tweaks and more than a few reconsiderations ("Do I really want to say that? Will anyone actually read this?"), any book written today may be sent through the vast airwaves to a handheld mechanical device, a mere tablet with screen projecting...wait for it...a page of text upon which one's eyes may focus for pleasure, perversion, or perhaps a person's private pontification. The possibilities are perfectly pointless.

However, this is not the place for a discussion of the nature of the newest Age of Books. It may seem to be, given this post, and being one of those electronic utopias about which I am ranting, yet it is not. As I have stated, it is necessary to engage, to feel connected, to matter to someone somewhere - even a Twitter poet in a city on the opposite side of the world whose 140 characters touch something you thought long hidden, long lost deep inside your head. And so you type back a complimentary remark to connect albeit only electronically. Can you feel the sizzle of satisfaction?

Ah! The good ol' days of pen to paper, the envelope, the postage, the weeks getting there and the weeks of return, to read a response to something you had forgotten you'd sent. Those good ol' days. I'll bet you've forgotten them.

I must now click the "post" button and make my words part of the universe - praying that someday, some far-away intellectual on a far-away world, in some random, slavish moment of silence comes to encounter these words, translate them into ideas, and thereby know that I existed, once upon a very long time ago, a time which was less fairy tale than instructional manual, and closes its eye(s) in delightful calm after a good night's fine contemplation. Soon the aliens will arrive and ponder over all of our magnetic ink.

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(C) Copyright 2010-2018 by Stephen M. Swartz. All Rights Reserved. No part of this blog, whether text or image, may be used without me giving you written permission, except for brief excerpts that are accompanied by a link to this entire blog. Violators shall be written into novels as characters who are killed off. Serious violators shall be identified and dealt with according to the laws of the United States of America.

A New Year Full of Blogging?

Well, it seems it's finally that time of year again! Time for the new semester to begin, mere hours away, for I am, as close followers of this blog may recall, one of those of the teacherly persuasion. And, thus, the new semester dawns once more.

Sure, I had the usual holiday/slash/winter break but it is never enough to recover from a fall semester which, as usual,is filled with mountains of papers to grade and lessons to prepare and conduct. All part of the plan, of course. I have accepted that plan. After all, teaching writing is the second best thing I know how to do. Writing itself would be the first best thing, by my humble estimation. However, even those marks may seem pale compared to many other writers' marks which I have encountered in my life. Nevertheless....

I like to begin a blog year with a reintroduction. To those who know everything already, I beg your indulgence. 

This blog has no real rhyme or reason to it; it is more often than not the musings which come into my head and go out through my fingertips willy-nilly. On occasion, I endeavor to offer some writing advice, some technique examples, discussions of grammar issues, or similar authorical esoterica. At other times, I will update blog followers on my latest writing efforts or publishing achievements. I may wax poetic on the woes of me whenever the mood strikes me. Sometimes I may have a guest blogger or share someone else's news or book. I may, if you are the lucky few, also bore you will my various travel adventures.

First, you will note the name of this blog. What could it possibly mean? The DeConstruction of the Sekuatean Empire? When I first hammered this blog from hell's own fire and brimstone, I had in mind a place to post the "back material" for THE DREAM LAND Trilogy. Because the trilogy is set partly on another world, the chief political entity of that world, known as the Sekuatean Empire, becomes a focal point. Hence, the title of this blog would make sense: taking apart the history, geography, culture and customs of the place where much of the action of the story occurs. However, as time has progressed, other books have come to the forefront which have nothing to do with Sekuate or its hard-working rebels.

You will also note the list of book titles with convenient hyperlinks in the upper right corner of this blog page. They are not simple decoration but actually serve as keys that open doors to my dementia. Experience them and be enlightened forever more! Or, at the least, be entertained. My writing strives to enfold profound truths of the human condition within pages of action and adventure, liberally marbled with sex and romance and sprinkled with haughty pontifications and jokes best left on the cutting room floor. That sounds a lot like a warning, doesn't it? But it's all in jest. I can assure you that 99.9% of the words are spelled correctly and good grammar is always in use - except for the dialog of those characters who have not been well-educated and then only for the sake of authenticity.

Behold my current cache of verbiage: everything from serious literary introspective relationship drama to exciting sci-fi/ steampunk/ interdimensional adventure or contemporary action/adventure with romantic themes, to the semi-biography of an Inuit orphan girl. I've also delved into the horror genre with a vampire novel (soon to be a trilogy). For further information, click on a book link to the upper right of this blog page. Thanks.

To update you now, I am working on the revision of the sequel to my vampire novel, A Dry Patch of Skin (2014). Approaching the end of the story, I realized the possibilities for further adventure, thus creating a trilogy. This vampire trilogy focuses on medically accurate vampirism and, with Book 1 set in 2013-14, Book 2 and 3 will necessarily be set in the future - 2027-28 and 2099-2100, respectively. I expect Book 2, titled Sunrise, will be out this year (aka 2018). Book 3 will be titled Sunset, which seemed appropriate.

Furthermore, I strive to post a new entry once a week, all the better to take advantage of Twitter hashtags (@StephenSwartz1) such as #SundayBlogShare, #MondayBlogs, #TuesdayShares, #Wednesdayblogs, and #Blogorama. I do not hold to this schedule religiously, however - as this month's fare will attest. But I try. You know how life tends to interfere with your best intentions? It's doubly so for writers and teachers. Worse yet if one is both a writer and a teacher. But I'm not complaining. Not really.

In keeping with a "best practices" model of book promotion, I shall attempt to keep blatant marketing efforts to a minimum - except when something new is launched. As always, I expect followers of this blog to read everything I produce and go forth to gather all their family members and friends, coworkers, and just about everyone they encounter in their daily lives, and make them also followers of this blog, readers of these books, and all-around nice people who live to love and love to live, helping all of us enjoy this wonderful world we occupy and yet still be prepared to battle the interstellar aliens who will invade us circa 2345. Or not. The choice is yours, as always. But I have high hopes for you.

Thanks for your attention to these matters. Now carry on making the world a better place for me. And I shall return the favor!

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(C) Copyright 2010-2018 by Stephen M. Swartz. All Rights Reserved. No part of this blog, whether text or image, may be used without me giving you written permission, except for brief excerpts that are accompanied by a link to this entire blog. Violators shall be written into novels as characters who are killed off. Serious violators shall be identified and dealt with according to the laws of the United States of America.

The Year That Wasn't

This is the first year in which I realize I am getting old. There have been other years in which I felt old. Or I could imagine getting old in an esoteric, quasi-philosophical sense. But this year - finally- I know it's happening. And I'm not much impressed with this development.

You see, I'm used to living my life in five-year plans much like the Communist parties of Russia and China used to do. You have a goal and five years to achieve it. Mine went a bit differently, however. I had a goal and muddled around for five years until I needed to come up with a new goal. So each period of five years has seemed to be a life in and of itself, with no ties to the future or to my own mortality. I have always assumed - based on this pattern - that I would simply start again, start a new plan. And that seemed to work - until this year.

I am in year eight of the current plan. There is no end in sight. I have passed the post, left the farm, and have no more fodder for renewing myself. The best I can do is write a story in which I can play for a time as a fictional character. It helps ward off the morbid thoughts that come at night, when the house is silent and the shadows deep. Then I worry about vampires, which have not been a concern until recently.

No, this year started all right, as most years do, full of joy and positivity, resolutions and such. Then things started to happen. Some good, most bad. This was not a model year, which is one reason I feel the turn has occurred for me. No more five-year plans.

It was easy enough to launch an epic fantasy novel involving dragons. That was in March, when dragons hatch. It was also delightful to teach a course on Romantic Literature. Both helped remind me of my youth, my origins in fantasy, both reading and writing. I remembered that I was a Romantic at heart. Yes, I knew it intellectually, but in my spirit I needed reminding. Returning to the works of poetry and prose which matched and fired up my spirit gave me new life. I soared! I wrote silly poetry again. I wanted to fall in love once more, one last time.

Then summer came and all manner of obstacles to moving forward were thrown up at me. But I got to China, taught the class on business writing, still filled with that Romantic spirit. Life was good. Especially including a former student of mine turned dear friend (code name: Maria). I returned home still filled with that delight, still soaring. I had high hopes. I could make a new five-year plan - despite my true age. Then it all came crashing down.

Throughout the year, I've posted blogs about all sorts of things. Many times when I've been about to post a blog full of silly trivial topics, something awful has happened in the world. The usual suspects: man-made violence or natural disasters. With so much reality in our consciousness it seemed pointless, even counterproductive, to post a blog about, say, writing tips, when people had lost loved ones, lost property, didn't know where their next five-year plan would go. 

Often I posted a blog, feeling cheery, only to have the news report of something awful later the same day. I began to be leery of posting any blog until I checked the news reports. This year, it has seemed that far too many weekends have contained awful events - to the point where I felt like giving up. If every time I try to post a blog about something stupid, going for humor, something truly terrible happens, then maybe I'm the jinx.

Well, it's been a few weekends with nothing worse happening than my football team extending their losing streak. So I'm blogging again. About blogging. The obvious topic. In fact, many bloggers recommend blogging about blogging when you can't think of anything to blog about.

Did I mention hurricanes? This year featured three big ones and finally - finally! - it involved me. My parents' home is/was near the beach in Texas when Harvey the Hurricane came to visit. Dealing with that clean-up (on-going) and taking care of my elderly parents (they have long accepted their ages) has ruined what should have been a continuation of my summer delight. My five-year plan is ruined. It lays in tatters now. And finally, seeing these two old people relying on me shows me - in a show-don't-tell mantra we writers like to repeat - that I am heading there, too.

I am a couple weeks away from instigating my first ever ten-year plan. If I should live that long. However, I don't know what will happen beyond the first month. I have no resolutions - never have, actually, but I like to say the word. I hope to launch the sequel to my 2014 vampire novel in the spring, so I suppose I will then start writing the third book so I can call it a trilogy. And I'm scheduled to teach a course in World Literature, which again should lift my intellectual spirits. I think I will return to China, as well, for perhaps the last time. I will drink more coffee and consume less ice cream. It is a plan.


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(C) Copyright 2010-2017 by Stephen M. Swartz. All Rights Reserved. No part of this blog, whether text or image, may be used without me giving you written permission, except for brief excerpts that are accompanied by a link to this entire blog. Violators shall be written into novels as characters who are killed off. Serious violators shall be identified and dealt with according to the laws of the United States of America.

The Greatest Week Ever!

I awoke this morning with no intention of blogging. After all, I tend to be lazy. Also, it is Super Bowl Sunday so nobody would be reading or retweeting my blog anyway. Then I realized the amazing juxtaposition of all of the universe's prime events coinciding in a single week and had to type a few sentences to record the moment I thought of it.

Today is Super Bowl Sunday or, as many people say, another Sunday with a football game. For me, it is the last chance to down a batch of guacamole without no excuses. [UPDATE: Denver 24, Carolina 10.]

Also today (or tomorrow if you are on this side of the world) is the far older event known as Chinese New Year, a measure of the lunar cycles. They have been followed since long before the sun calendar was invented. You can google that. This year is the year of the Fire Monkey. I thought it was simply monkey but Chinese friends are calling it Fire Monkey so I'll go with that although it seems either a difficult situation for the monkey or downright arousing. Anyway, noodles and dumplings are on me! May your Fortune Cookie crack your way!

This is also the week I get my taxes done. Hopefully. Doing it early so I know how much to save to hand over in a couple months.

At the end of the week is Valentine's Day, which I have blogged about with more or less candor in previous years. A sample of my gripes is here.

And let us not forget the birthday of someone famous: Mr. Abraham Lincoln, the 16th president of the United States. Never met him but he's been in some movies.

Last but not least, this week also has embodied in its days the celebration of Mardi Gras, or Fat Tuesday for the Anglophones among us. It is the day to fatten thyself in anticipation for a lengthy fast. It's for religious purposes. Or because in the olden days the lambs had not yet been born so everyone was hungry anyway. Read it online so it must be true.

So here is my blog for today, for this week, the first for this month. Now I've got it covered. Thanks for your indulgence and your patience. And if you're Mom or Dad, send money. Thanks! 


PS--Also this week is the birthday of the world's greatest daughter, but it would embarrass her to have me mention it, so mum's the word! Love you!

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(C) Copyright 2010-2016 by Stephen M. Swartz. All Rights Reserved. No part of this blog, whether text or image, may be used without me giving you written permission, except for brief excerpts that are accompanied by a link to this entire blog. Violators shall be written into novels as characters who are killed off. Serious violators shall be identified and dealt with according to the laws of the United States of America.

Out to Lunch

Welcome to this blog! Hope your summer is going as well as can be expected or, perhaps, better than that. Do not be alarmed. This blog has not been abandoned. The situation is simply that the blogger has gone on vacation. He shall return soon and likely blog about the vacation. 

Until then, if you would like to help cover the cost of his vacation, there are now seven books available for you to read. Surely one will strike your fancy and please your soul.

Here are all the ebook/Kindle links, but all of these exist also in paperback. Happy reading!

AIKO (just launched)

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00Y997IZS

A DRY PATCH OF SKIN (last fall's big vampire hit!)

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00O82ESRC

A BEAUTIFUL CHILL (sexy campus anti-romance)

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00I6M4R9Y

THE DREAM LAND 

(a sci-fi/steampunk trilogy on interdimensional intrigue)

Book I "Long Distance Voyager" 
 http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00AH1V78Q

Book II Dreams of Future's Past  http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00D94Y06O 

Book III Diaspora  http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00GVJGP9E

Check your local Amazon listings; you may be able to get these for free 

if you are a Kindle Unlimited or Amazon Prime member!

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(C) Copyright 2010-2015 by Stephen M. Swartz. All Rights Reserved. No part of this blog, whether text or image, may be used without me giving you written permission, except for brief excerpts that are accompanied by a link to this entire blog. Violators shall be written into novels as characters who are killed off. Serious violators shall be identified and dealt with according to the laws of the United States of America.

Are you still blogging?

This is the blog about blogging.

It's in my contract that I must blog about blogging no less than once per calendar year. Coming off my annual blogcation, in which I do not blog for a week or two, it seems a worthy topic and comes at just the right time.

Recently, an author friend of mine declared: "I really don't want to blog any more. Am I the only one?" 

That unleashed a plethora of responses (edited for clarity):

"I'm with you- I never get the time to commit to it."

"I don't like it, so I don't do it."

"I hate blogging."

"I used to blog weekly but then it felt like a chore rather than fun. Now I only blog when I feel like it....maybe once a month."

"I only like recapping TV shows" [or book reviews, etc.] "that's why I still do it. Otherwise my blog would be done for!"

"Blogging is how I blow off steam!"

"I don't blog as often as I'd like. My writing time is at a premium so I tend to be on my stories rather than the blogs."

"I like to blog when I'm not working on a book. I think feeling compelled to do that is partially responsible for my disenchantment with blogging."

"Author interviews generate a lot of initial interest, I think. But craft posts might have a more enduring appeal."

And my response (trying to be as clever as tolerable):

I have seldom felt pressure to blog. I just happen to have something to write about once a week, except this week, and maybe next week, but I call it a blogcation and I'm happy my few readers are happy not to have to read anything I blog about, because we all know it's mostly an exercise in overt narcissism--mine, not theirs--and so anything I write inevitably falls into the category of self-promotion, and we cannot have any of that by God! lest we be accused of self-promotion; but I ask you, and this is not a blog post by any means, if I do not promote my own work, wouldn't it stand to reason that I lack confidence in my work? I mean, isn't that what people would think? Or perhaps I'm just talking to the hand....

So it all seems to come down to two big questions: What / Why, and When / How. These further boil down to two opposing positions:

• Blogging is necessary to have a "presence", to stay in touch with fans, to help other writers.

• Blogging takes away time from my real writing, I have nothing to blog about, I've run out of ideas.

Please help me understand this blogging obsession. Comment below, if you feel the urge.

Question #1

Do you blog? If you blog, why? If you do not blog, why not?

My friends and colleagues who are writers seem to blog more than the usual everyday riff-raff, or maybe I just hangout online more with friends and colleagues than the usual everyday riff-raff. However, my friends and colleagues who blog tend to say one thing: "I blog to stay in contact with potential readers." Coming in second is "I blog because sometimes I have something I just have to say to the world." (my paraphrase)

In fact, my decision to start a blog long ago had little to do with my career as a writer. The idea of a blog was new to everyone at that time. I thought it might be fun. I could riff on whatever the topic of the day was. Just like recess; a play time. Then I learned that blogging is a serious business. I could even make money from blogging, some blogs told me.

I quickly realized, however, that I had few opinions about most things (politics, social issues, aggravations, etc.), so I lapsed. There were a few "gems" I'm still proud of. When my first novel was on the launch pad, the blog was there to help promote it. Probably my reason to blog now is so that, far into the future, there will be a steady stream of posts on whatever, without lapse, for the alien archaeologists to discover long after I'm gone.

Question #2

What do you blog about? When do you blog?

Blog topics! Here is the mother load of blog topic lists by Molly Green. Go here first if you don't know what to blog about. I'm serious.

Blogs on particular topics related to what I'm writing about, such as this one on the reality of vampires by Amarisgrey.

Blogs about blogging, such as this one about blog headlines by Josh Coffy.

Blogs often focus on what to do or not do in self-publishing or indie publishing. Here's an example from Kristen Lamb's blog. Or this example by James Altucher on ProBlogger which flips it around.

Blogs may offer advice about writing, writing craft, grammar and usage, or other topics of interest to writers. Here is an example from The Writer's Bureau by Janice Hardy.

Blogs on topics of interest to writers, such as what to do when querying an agent or publisher, such as this one by Rachelle Gardner (one of my favorite blogs).

Granted, many of our favorite blogs or the "best" blogs are written by someone with a company backing them up, someone with time and resources.


However, even the rest of us can blog about something. Who knows what will be of interest to our friends and colleagues? Even if not every blog stops me in my tracks, I still like to keep in touch, see what they are doing, and maybe glean some useful idea. So I want to encourage everyone who is blogging to keep blogging.

If you don't feel like blogging on any particular week, just post a cute bunny picture so we know you are alive and well. Or, in the alternative, post a link to someone else's blog, perhaps with a comment similar to "What she said" to give us some closure. Or just say "Howdy!"


Please take a look at the blogs I follow (in the column on left of this page) and give them a click, a read, a comment if you like what you see. They have all been personally approved by me.

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(C) Copyright 2010-2014 by Stephen M. Swartz. All Rights Reserved. No part of this blog, whether text or image, may be used without me giving you written permission, except for brief excerpts that are accompanied by a link to this entire blog. Violators shall be written into novels as characters who are killed off. Serious violators shall be identified and dealt with according to the laws of the United States of America.