Paul Anthony: TNB Thing

Paul Anthony: TNB Thing: The Next Big Thing ~ Clive Eaton, one of my twitter pals, recently tagged me for a 'chain' blog entitled 'The Next Big Thing'. The ...

On the Poison Pot of Gold

"Murder in the Hamptons"

With my never-ending film to book obsession in addition to fascination of true crimes, I decided to check out the book behind the Lifetime film favorite of mine “Murder in the Hamptons”  (Almost Paradise:  The East Hampton Murder of Ted Ammon by Kieran Crowley) As usual, the book defines the story on a much deeper, disturbing level.

Pretty California girl Generosa Rand moves to New York City in the 1980s and meets a most eligible bachelor and dreamboat millionaire Ted Ammon.  Their mutual attraction leads to marriage, adoption of lovely children, fantastic homes, and the “perfect life” to people that apparently have everything.  Generosa was denied nothing, from her own art studio to her masterpiece home in the Hamptons in which she designed down to the last blade of grass in the landscaping.  Her exquisite taste made her complimentary; her flaring temper made her dreadful to those that worked with her.

As the years wore on, the natural consequences opened to a difficult marriage, stressed out children, and a horrific divorce.  The philandering husband was spared nothing from his vengeful, spiteful wife, who accused him of cheating on taxes, wearing her underwear, and incestuous behavior, with everything in between.  After a couple of hellish years, she found a boy toy friend in handyman Danny Pelosi while living the “tough life” in an upscale hotel on almost $100,000 dollars a month.  Four days before the divorce was to be signed, Ted Ammon was found bludgeoned viciously to death in the house in the Hamptons, a property she was determined to never give up.  During the investigation, she is diagnosed with advanced breast cancer, which she ignored for two years, and dies before the case is closed.  Pelosi was found guilty and sent to prison. 

As I think about this story, I’m reminded of the wealthy socialite Barbara Baekeland, as chronicled in “Savage Grace.”  People find strength, power, and freedom by means of money, leading to devastating results.  While these two women have similar traits, the absolute hostility in Generosa was beyond anything the Lifetime film could reach, though I liked the lead actress.  The question remains, “Was the money really worth it?  Will hundreds of millions of dollars buy happiness?” 

Some of the most important things in life simply cannot be bought.  When I reflect upon these true tragic stories, I try to remember the potential poison the pot of gold can bring.

On the Value of Virtual Friends

Virtual friend Author William Butler

As we move along with the evolution of social networking, we continue to make “friends” or “followers” in mostly Facebook and Twitter.  The negativity seems endless by the media, how it wastes time, how it perpetuates shallow social unreal interaction, the either illegal, tragic, or large-scale violent consequences when used amongst large populations.  But we still use social media, and interact with our virtual friends.  Does that matter to us?

As an adult, I think about the real friendships I’ve made through the years, and the ones still lasting today.  My close real time circle of friends is quite small; probably a combination of being an introvert, a non-conformist, and a married professional, beholding to the bare truth that a wife’s friends link to the husband’s more than vice-versa.  That may not be true in every relationship, and in my marriage I don’t consider it a negative, only a truth.  Men marry and continue their lives with families, sports, and talk about old times over beer.  Women marry with their lives encompassed with their children, and for the childless married woman, like myself, in the closest friendship there’s not much in common in everyday life. 

I’ve written before about how a few wonderful ladies introduced me to social networking.  From the beginning, I’m still meeting great people virtually.  Of course in virtual friendship, we see whatever the person wants us to see.  But that’s part of the deal, taking the good with the bad.  As a new author, I’ve found some of my virtual friends to be my biggest cheerleaders in my writing journey, and they give me encouragement during the tough times.  I’m happy to do the same for them.  Why not?  That’s what’s good about technology; maybe we can make someone smile sometimes.  In reality, that level of giving is wonderful, so why should it not apply virtually?  Sure, there is the negative spin, ugly book reviews, and political arguments, but that’s where we can shut out the virtual part.  Virtual enemies wearing a mask of friendship aren’t family bullies we have to endure because our parents force us.  We have a choice.

In the big scheme of things, I like my virtual friends.  Technology has a double edge, but there’s more good than bad.  Like others, of course my real life friends and family take precedence, as they should.  To me, that’s another definition entirely; virtual friendships are exactly that…virtual.  I’m glad to have them.

On Knocking the Chip Off My Shoulder

Princess Diana

Back in the 1990s, I was in the latter days of what I’ve referred to in past articles as my “vast hard science educational background.”  The 90s pulled every bit of strength I had every day, with difficult training, the loss of my sister, my family split apart, my husband in graduate school while working, financial difficulties, and I worked a demanding job while in school that encompassed nights and entire weekends.   In general, the 1990s were a lost decade for me. 

While working on a weekend, I tried to get an hour or two of sleep and just before I turned the television off, the news alert said, “Princess Diana had been severely injured in a automobile accident.”  I switched it off, struggling to get a bit of rest before the next day started with an unforgiving amount of workload and testing.  Failure was not in my rulebook when it came to my education and job.

I didn’t sleep well, but never did in those days.  I thought about Diana. During my one trip overseas to England was when she gave birth to Prince William, and did she look great the next day, after a night of labor!  She was always in the tabloids, with her failed marriage, her stunning dresses, I mean, how many crowns did she have?  She always looked so perfect.  Sometimes I’d see news clips or magazine covers of her visiting the poor or abused.  She seemed nice.  I thought if I met her, I would have liked her. 

Then my mind took a dark turn.  Would she have liked me?  Hmm…An American wearing the same clothes for three days.  Aristocracy isn’t a concept easy for Americans to take in, though it’s generally respected.  In America, many have to work hard to crash through the glass of poverty, and at that time, I was building my hammer.  Then I thought, the truth is, Diana is a Princess, and I am a nobody.  To her, I’m a nobody and my recently deceased sister is a nobody.  But she’s been in a car accident.  Who’s in the worst position?  I thought, “Nothing will happen to her.  She’s rich and the whole world will bend over backwards to help her.”  I fell asleep.

Morning came, and the person coming on to take my place exchanged the usual hellos.  Before I picked up my bag to leave she said, “And Princess Diana died.”  A cold chill swept through me.  What a fool I was!  A shallow, stupid idiot, low class, imbecile taking for granted that money shelters people from something as common and deadly as automobile accidents.  As a worker in the health care industry, I know all too well how many lives are claimed.  Angry with myself, I watched all of the televised features about Princess Diana, and my favorite was Elizabeth Taylor’s interview when she said, “They killed the world’s Princess.” 

On August 31, 1997, we did lose the world’s Princess.  She was classy, beautiful, compassionate, and yes, wealthy.  And after that day I grew up and knocked the class chip off my shoulder.  Everyone is a person, and life is fragile.  Bless the Princess.

On the Hazards of Success

http://shevata-cccole.blogspot.com/2011/09/review-of-how-i-sold-1-million-ebooks.html 

Like many other Indie writers, I did a lot of virtual hand-shaking to writer John Locke, who busted the Indie branding with his entertaining novels, and was generous enough to let us struggling Indies in on the “secret” of his success with his widely sold ebook “How I sold 1 Million eBooks...”  See my review above.

A few days ago, Locke’s story changed.  According to a high-profile newspaper, http://mobile.nytimes.com/2012/08/26/business/book-reviewers-for-hire-meet-a-demand-for-online-raves.xml Mr. Locke purchased 300 book reviews.  But he is no fool.  As part of the purchase, his books had to be “purchases,” therefore, making the reviews look credible on amazon.  So, he bought purchases with the reviews.  Wow, what a trick. 

First, let’s defend Mr. Locke, who according to his Facebook page is a married man, a former investor, and as we all know now, a well-off man in the self-publishing industry.  What about his “how-to” book?  Was it really helpful?  I gave it 4 stars over Michael Robb Mathias 5 stars of a similar book, because to me, Locke’s was “showcased.”  It seemed more about him than about helping writers.  But it wasn’t bad.  He told a bare truth:  “You’re probably not a great writer, but to sell books, you need to be an entertaining writer.”   He didn’t mention that he purchased the reviews, so what does that mean?  Answer:  That he isn’t stupid.

He also defended himself (link above).  I have to agree with him, yes, it is probably easier to buy reviews than to grow an audience.  Money can buy pretty much anything, and for Indie books, he’s now exhibit A.  What about his other defenders?  Some say this has been happening a long time, it’s his business, so what?  OK.  That’s right, it’s his work, his books, and his success.  We’re not attacking his work, it the methods being questioned.  For traditional published books, do they buy reviews?  They can answer that question better than I can, but the answer doesn’t impact an Indie writer to me.

It’s also been brought up that we teeny-weeny Indies have friends and family post reviews for us, and that we give away books to reviewers.  It’s hardly news that the NYT isn’t beating down the doors of new writers to post glowing reviews of our books.  And the dialogue “Indies just couldn’t make it in the real traditional publishing world” sorry, that genie is out of the bottle and many ears are deaf to that.  We Indies have to find support, which isn’t easy, but we do without the help of big companies with big dollars.  The early reviews may be from friends, then usually branch out as the writer learns social networking.

Are Locke’s actions our business at all as Indie writers?  Yes.  Admit it or not, we “star-gaze” on amazon.  As a reviewer, I do write brief reviews because I read a lot of books and have been burned by spoilers in the past.  Now I have to re-visit that method, which is OK, I'm willing to modify and improve to make the world better for Indie writers.  But what do reviews mean anymore?  He’s brought question of credibility to the one thing that does help Indie writers:  Reviews and sales.

Do I wish any harm to Mr. Locke?  Of course not, and if his fans enjoy his books, go for it.  If one of his books makes a blockbuster film starring Tom Cruise, that’s great.  But he did affect writers that found him inspiring.  That’s a terrible thing to do, and if he has a conscience, he will cry all the way to the bank. 

The Monster on the Roof

Hurricane Camille

Myself as five-year-old child:

We had a bad storm last week.  I was playing outside with my older brother and sister when it got cloudy and looked like it was going to rain.  Momma made us come in the house, and said we couldn’t go back outside for a while.  So we sat and watched TV until the lights went out.  Everything got so dark!  I knew it wasn’t night yet, because a game show was on.  I went to look out the window, but Momma made us go in the bathroom and sit on the floor. Daddy wasn’t there, but he’s not home much.

My sister lit a candle and somehow some paper got set on fire.  My brother said we did it, but I think he did it.  Momma told us to shut up and be quiet or get a spanking.  Then it got really loud outside, like a storm only a whole lot worse.  Something was hitting the house outside on the walls and on the roof.  A couple of times we heard some really loud bangs on the roof, and I got scared.  I said, “Momma, what is it?”

She said, “It’s a hurricane.”

I said, “What’s a hurricane?”

She said, “A monster.  It’s on the roof.  But it can’t get in.”

I said, “OK” and went to sleep some time later, though it was so loud! Our dogs were let inside too and I was glad about that. 

The next morning was quiet.  We got up and asked Momma if we could go outside.  She said yes, but to stay with my brother.  When we opened the door, it was weird.  The yard was all tumbled.  The swing set was upside down.  Tree limbs were everywhere.  A tree was down on a power line.  A lot of trees lost the tops, so I could climb them for a change!  That was fun.  Pieces of our roof were on the ground.  That was from the monster.  My grandfather came over later to see how we were doing.  He said he saw his wheelbarrow move around the yard in the storm by itself!  We thought that was funny. 

Now I’ve got to start school.  I’ll be in the first grade.  My brother and sister say I’ll get spankings because they did.  Momma told me not to talk in class.  I can read my Bible stories, so I hope I do OK.  I sure hope that monster stays off our roof from now on.

On August 17, 1969, category 5 Hurricane Camille slammed into the Mississippi Gulf Coast with winds over 200 mph and spread destruction into the Applachians.  In my mind these extremely dangerous natural events are “monsters.”

On Political Bestsellers

As I continue to move out of “Fifty Shades” and continue with my out-of-genre reading journey, I’ve hit what I call the “Political genre.”  During the American Presidential election season, with 24/7 news, Internet, old school broadcast and word of mouth, I’m reminded of how glad I am that this happens every four years.  Don’t get me wrong, I’m a strong supporter of our Republic, but if there is ever a season of over stimulation, it’s a hotly contested Presidential election year.

While reading an article by one of the smart people in the media, I ran upon one of the “hit-books” of our President, “The Amateur” by Edward Klein.  I don’t usually read these books, but I thought, since this is a bestseller, and part of being a writer is to know what people are reading, I downloaded it and gave it a chance.

The questions I asked myself:  Can a political book be balanced?  Many of these books are written by reporters, and give some vivid detail with actual dialogue of famous political figures and family members.  As we know, they cannot reveal their sources.  Are these tapes?  Or did this dialogue come from a steel-trap memory of a witness to the conversation?  Or is there a disclaimer somewhere that I missed?  (Likely).  Biggest question:  Can a political book be reviewed with balance?

In “The Amateur” the writer gives a political summary of the President’s first term from the standpoint mostly from the executive branch of the US Government. The appearance of games to us as we see it in the news is a serious game in reality.  Decisions that affect billions of people worldwide isn’t reality TV or WarCraft.  The book gives the reader an unflattering hefty detailed account of one Presidential blunder after another, with aggressive legislation, executive orders, and controversial meetings with longtime allies; “hit piece” stuff to fans and truths to non-fans.

On the other hand, I found a few points in “The Amateur” where “bashing” was subject to interpretation.  If the President didn’t feel obligated to socially host certain high profile celebrities or wealthy political families, to me that is up to him and his family.  What obligation does a President have to help others make money off of him?  Why does he have to please famous people because they are famous?  In a sense, being “Amateur” is being independent in his own way, though not the way of “the establishment.”  I think the point was potential donor alienation, which is another serious part of the “game.”

Overall, I didn’t hate this book, and didn’t put it on the highest tier because so much of it is regurgitation of what is already seen in the media.  The President’s policies are hardly a secret. One either agrees with them or not.  Lots of people read these books. I’ve written before how politics is a “hot button” topic, and it’s because politics affects us all.