The Vice of Life

Can you feel it?

The pressure that builds moment upon moment, day after day, squeezing against your skull like an invisible vice that some unseen assailant keeps turning tighter and tighter and tighter until your about ready to fucking pop?!

The Vice of Life.

We all experience this to some degree and we all handle it differently. But with the current state of affairs with our economy, we may see more and more people let it get the best of them.

Or maybe we'll all eventually be naked in a huge field together singing "Kumbaya."

Somehow I doubt that.

Especially with the percentages of unemployment, foreclosures, and divorces being so high.

And let's not forget we're still in this fucking war, while Iran and North Korea are becoming more dangerous every time you look at the news.  Add to it all the piling bills, nagging spouse, pressuring boss, screaming kids—it's a surprise we're not all in the nuthouse.

Americans are fighting depression, anger, despair. This generally tends to make people act out in some way. Whether out in the open or in secret. Telling off a boss, getting into a fight, committing adultery, or even picking up a good drug addiction. Some way of rebelling, letting off steam, and controlling even just one aspect of your life, even if it's a negative.

But what concerns me are the extreme cases. The ones who get absolutely crushed by the Vice and lose their goddamn minds.

I'm talking about the stable wife and soccer mom, who locks her two and four year olds in the truck of her car and drives off a bridge into a river. The ideal employee who never missed a day of work, but comes in one day with an assault rifle riddling the mazes of cubicles with bullets, bursting office workers skulls like water balloons. Rape, murder, abuse, suicide. You name it—it's on the news … daily.

Who knows, a day may come when the economy stabilizes, numbers of unemployment and foreclosures drop, war ends, it's safe to invest again, the swine flu disappears, soccer is recognized as America's new pastime, and we'll all be rolling in fucking money. And the only violent deaths in the news come from your typical homegrown psychopaths and criminals.

But until then, who's going to be the next to lose control and wind up as tragedy on their local news?

Could it be you?

BT

 

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FWA Conference

The Rogues Gallery Writers represented themselves well at the Florida Writers Association Conference October 22-25. Jeff Swesky, Rebekah Hunter Scott and Michael Ray King each won prestigious awards for their writing.

Rebekah garnered the best short fiction out of hundreds of entries competing for publication in the book From Our Family to Yours. Her story Variations on Mr. Cornflake was voted the top story in the book. Rebekah autographed many books and looked natural in an author's seat.

Jeff scored a Second Place trophy in the RPLA's (Royal Palm Literary Award) for unpublished autobiography for the book Flight From Fear. Jeff had the only book-length work up for an award and his Second Place showing brings that much more credibility to our group. This book will be making some publicity noise in the near future.

Michael scored a First Place trophy in the Poetry category for his work Rendezvous from the recently published book Loves Lost and Found. The book is illustrated by fellow Rogue Tracy McDurmon. She interpreted Michael's poetry through acrylic paints. The poem lends the book more prestige with it's top award-winning notoriety.

All in all, the FWA Conference 2009 has been a success for the Rogues Gallery Writers. Yes, we would have loved to have scored trophies in the RPLA's short fiction categories. We had five - yes five - finalist manuscripts in the category, but we were shut out. We will come out of this more determined to reach the pinnacle in 2010.

Congratulations to all the Rogues! We all emerged winners! Was there ever any doubt?

Rogues in Writing Competition

The big day is almost here. This weekend the Rogues Gallery Writers enter into the final leg of writing competition. The Florida Writers Association sets forth the winners of the 2009 RPLA awards. The Rogues have a lot to be excited about. We have seven, count them, seven manuscripts that are finalists for an RPLA award. This is a big deal to us.

BloodTrail has a semi-ghost written memoir that achieved finalist status. This book covers the turbulent life of a Rabbi in Europe during the Nazi years and beyond. We are VERY excited about this manuscript.

Rednekah has a short story up in the finalist spotlight. The story, Five Easy Minutes is one of the best written short stories of its length ever written, and appears in the upcoming anthology Writing is Easy. If there was ever a lock on an award winning story, Five Easy Minutes is it in my humble opinion. Rednekah also will be the top author signing her autograph in the new book - From Our Family to Yours - a collection of short stories about family that the FWA put together. Rednekah's story - Variations on Mr. Cornflake was awarded the top story designation by an FWA panel of judges and chief judge Suzette Standring. A much-deserved accolade to be sure.

Then there's DarkThorn. Yeah. Me. Ok, so I entered a lot more material than my fellow Rogues. I happen to believe in the theory of numbers. I have 5 pieces that are finalists in the RPLA's. Two short stories (yep, I'm up against ol' Rednekah, and I don't like my chances there), two flash fictions and one poem. The four fictions- The Road Home, Lavender Hour, Autumn Wind and Witch Moon - can be found in the upcoming book Writing is Easy as well and the poem - Rendezvous - can be found in the just published Loves Lost and Found.

Last year the Rogues were virtually shut out of the top spots in the RPLA's with DarkThorn's Fatherhood 101 placing third in the non-fiction category. This year we bounced back with volume and quality. Keep your fingers crossed. Rub those lucky rabbit's feet. We aim to take home ton's of recognition.

Rogues in Edit

Why edit a Rogue? We say whatever we wish anyway, right? When it comes to books, though, we get real serious. Our book is going through multiple readers at this very moment. In fact, we will have Writing is Easy back in our hot little hands in just a few days.

Then we each have a week to complete our edits before we turn the book over to our professional editor. That's the next to last step before sending the manuscript off to the printer. These are hectic times. Forget the upcoming holidays. The Rogues are busting ass to be ready for those holidays with new books.

This process doesn't just happen. You must be dedicated and pig-headed and focused and anal retentive and all the other things that thwart would be writers from their goal. The Rogues are stubborn. We want success. We strive for excellence in writing. We are also tired of crap winning writing awards. The way we look at it, our crap is better than the crap winning these awards out there, so we're careening pall mall toward our goal of two new books by December 2009. Stay tuned. Writing is Easy and Motherhood is Easy are barreling your way...

Book Bunko Bash!

The ever-inventive Rogues Gallery Writers dreamed up the idea of a Book Bunko Bash! If you've never played Bunko, you've missed out on Jupiter-sized fun. When the Rogues get done with this soiree, we just hope the walls will still be standing.

Obviously, due to the word "bash", we are planning a party. But this is no ordinary party, it's a Bunko party! Bunko is one of the great "mixer" party games that cause grown people to act like children and get a little goofy.

But Bunko is not the only draw here. The Rogues Gallery Writers will be unveiling two books - Writing is Easy and Motherhood is Easy. In fact, the three prizes given out at every Bunko party will be one of each of those books as well as a copy of Loves Lost and Found co-authored by two Rogues - Panthera and DarkThorn.

The Rogues are planning for this party to be huge, so location and time are still being worked out. You will want to be there, so stay tuned to the blog and all the announcements cascading from all the Rogues social media sites. You have some quality reading coming your way. Wait for it . . . wait for it ...

A New Head of Steam

Writing is such an up-and-down occupation. Hell, so is life. Writers work to convey life in their writing, therefore we are roller-coastering right along. The Rogues Gallery Writers are no different. Life intrudes, kicks us around a bit, and then we pick ourselves up (often through our words) and get on with it.

Getting behind the keyboard can be challenging. I realize that only writer understand this. A non-writer will say, "C'mon! How hard can it be?" Pretty damned tough when the yard needs mowed, the son gets suspended from school, you back into the neighbors car and you strain your femoral bicep ligament and muscle. Then there's meals, phone calls, emails, meetings, mail, bills, your other job, children, spouses, friends, pets, spills, broken dishes, leaky roofs, preparations for presentations to various groups and a whole torrid-paced pile of other 'stuff'.

One of my solutions to the "everything-else-takes-precedence-over-my-writing" syndrome is to buck up, give up a little sleep time, and make sure I clock at least 1000 words each day. Two nights of getting to bed an hour late has spurred me to write during the day - like right now (noon) - so that I can get a good night's sleep.

It's amazing how discomfort will effect a change in your patterns. I'm promoting a "discomfort" approach to writing. Make your life a little uncomfortable by making writing a priority at some critical point in your day. You'll then find a way to get it done at a less inconvenient time.

I believe most writers will tell you they LOVE the process of writing. It's the process of GETTING TO THE WRITING that squelches them. I know this is the case for this Rogue. I handle more in a day than many people do in a week. But I deny myself the one thing I desire to "hand my hat on" professionally - writing. That's bullshit. We must stop holding ourselves back. We need to forge ahead and make things happen.

The Rogues are gearing up to do just that. We have some aggressive goals that, quite frankly, scare the hell out of me. I know, Rogues should be tough. We have a goal of producing two books by the first week in December. This is no small task people. Two books at once with two months to get them done is aggressive. This is a "don't try this at home" kinda gig.

We're also producing Rogues Gallery T-shirts that will go on sale at the end of the month. We are also up for all kinds of awards at the Florida Writer's Association Conference at the end of the month. Two of us, Panthera and I, just published Loves Lost and Found.

I look at all that is going on and I'm amazed. Too often I only see things in a microcosm and have to step back and look at what's really going on. The Rogues are gearing up for a Blitzkrieg. Our new head of steam is building. We're preparing to cut loose again. Watch out! Ready or not, here we come!!!!