Guest Post: "Words Gone Wild"

Gareth L. Powell, a science fiction author, has been so kind as to accept and post an article I wrote for him, which I've playfully titled, "Words Gone Wild." Now's your chance to go over there and tell me how off base I am on my opinion.

Check it out and let me know what you think.

Piracy - Avast ye Writers!

Dean Wesley Smith was kind enough to point out a blog post by Joe Konrath titled, Piracy...Again. I encourage you to read it.

I wanted to state where I think Joe has it right, and well, maybe not so right.

First, where I do disagree is the issue of whether piracy of an ebook, digital music file, etc. is stealing or not. The bottom line is, of course it is. Plain and simple. Copyright means the author has the right to decide who can copy, that is, publish, his or her material. That right is given through a contract with the author granting those rights to a publisher. I'm the only one who can legally give permission for someone to make copies, i.e., publish, my material. Anyone who makes a copy of an ebook and delivers it to a third party for their use is publishing.

It matters not whether they are making money off of it. They are stealing my rights. I don't think anyone can get past that point with honest integrety.

Now, the argument is that this is no different than if someone goes to the library and reads your book, or sells a used book to someone else. The author isn't compensated for the exchange. Copyright law doesn't deal in whether money is made in an exchange, it deals with who has the right to make copies of a work. Looking at a painting in a museum is not making a copy of that painting. Checking out a book in a library is not making a copy of a book. The author has already been compensated for that particular copy anyway (in most cases). Same for selling a used book.

Making a copy of an ebook without my express permission is a violation of the copyright law and is stealing my intellectual property. If a person gives away or sells that ebook and then deletes it off his or her hard drive, that's akin to selling a used book. But to make a copy of a digital file is the same thing as if I went to the library and checked out someone's book, scanned it, and then published it through a POD, or printed it on my printer and gave it to my mother to read. Whether I made money off of it or not, I would be stealing the author's rights and work.

I say all that to say this: let's drop this charade of trying to pretend this is not stealing. That argument is a dead-end street. It is all too clear that it is, and to claim it isn't only makes your case weaker, not stronger.

What is all too true, however, is that fighting piracy is also a dead-end street. Let's put it this way. For the author, what is going to make him more money? Writing and selling another book? Or paying a lawyer and spending the time hunting down and prosecuting ebook thieves? No brainer. The former. So bottom line, why waste your time?

This is highlighted by the fact that ebook piracy has little negative consequence for the author. Yes, that copy of your ebook out there represents someone getting a brand new, published copy of your book for zilch. So it is an illegal copy that you should have been paid for, or at least asked for. But nine times out of ten, that person wouldn't have bought a copy of your book, ebook or paperback, ever. So what it does is spread your name around, people read your book who wouldn't have. They find a new author they like, and they go buy your books on Amazon.

Word of mouth advertising is an author's best friend. This is the best form of it, in that it is your mouth that is doing the talking. Authors like Cory Doctorow have shown that giving away free ebooks generally results in increased sales of paperbacks. So it's not likely that the person getting an illegal copy of your ebook has lost you any money. Only in the rare case where someone wants your book, is about to buy it on Amazon when they stumble across a free ebook copy and forgo purchasing it. But what is more likely is (if you've written a good story), they will read it, enjoy it, and tell their friends about it, and they will go and purchase the book, or even many times that person will then purchase the hard copy so they can have it or buy it for gifts. In most cases, it is more likely that ebook piracy will benefit you financially than hurt you.

Case in point. When I bought a new computer a few years ago, it came with some default songs in the "My Music" folder. Not samples, but full songs. One song particularly made an impression not just on me, but on my whole family. It was "Older" by They Might Be Giants. I'd never heard of the group before that. But I quickly did a search, discovered they had done a ton of work since the 80s and still going strong. I purchased their "Flood" album from Amazon, and loved it. We've since purchased several more albums, and I have a slue of their music, most of it I've bought, some of it from songs they've given away for free. That one free mp3 song has made them a decent return not just on our own purchases, but anyone we've told them about and have done the same.

Financially it doesn't make much sense to pursue prosecuting ebook piracy for the author. After all, think about it. Someone has stolen an ebook valued at $4.99-$9.99 and your going to spend how many dollars in lawyer fees making an example of this fella? And it won't stop the rest. Why waste the money combating something that in many cases will benefit you financially? It's like cutting off your foot because you can't get rid of the wart on your toe.

So I agree with Joe's basic point and premise. Don't worry about ebook piracy. It in the long run, it is unlikely to hurt you, and for the author attempting to get his name out there, it is great marketing. Your time is better spent writing that next book so you can create a new revenue stream than spending money attacking your fans, as Cory Doctorow likes to point out.

But I do think it is stealing, and morally wrong. Let's not attempt to justify it with arguments that avoid the point of copyright--who has the rights to make copies of something, and either sell them or give them away. The author by default has those rights, and can lease them to whoever. Anyone who makes a copy for a third party without the author's approval is breaking the law, and stealing. Someone who sells a copy they have and they delete it from their hard drive isn't breaking the law. Someone who checks out a book at a library isn't breaking the law. Someone who hears it being read by someone who owns a copy isn't breaking the law. But you do break the law when you copy an ebook, a digital song, or any copyrighted work, and then transfer that to someone else for their use.

That's the law and you can't get around it with rationalizations. And as you can see above, the argument about the pointlessness of trying to stop piracy can only be weakened by employing this line of reasoning, not strengthen it. There are enough reasons to warn authors to avoid that pitfall without trying to make an illegal activity "legal."

What do you think? Am I off the mark?

Describing Description Detail

On this third and final day of the CSFF Blog Tour, I thought I would offer up an article which arose from discussion of my review of Jill Williamson's book, By Darkness Hid (see previous post). Jill painted some very vivid scenery settings that added to her story, but in my review I also mentioned that I tired of telling us what everyone was wearing, whether it fed into the story or not. The question arose in my mind, how do we decide what level of detail in our descriptions is "just right"?

Now, to be honest, one could make the case that what people are wearing is part of the scenery as well. And I would acknowledge that point. And I also understand that in a high fantasy such as this book, such level of detail is expected. But as I also pointed out in the comments, not even the high fantasy king himself, J. R. Tolkien, gave us much clues what his characters looked like beyond some bare descriptions.

For instance, when Gandalf comes on the scene, he only is described as wearing a long cloak, a pointy hat, and big, bushy eyebrows that (strangely enough) stick out past his hat's brim. I've always had a hard time viewing that. But it clearly says, "eccentric, old wizard coming." And for Frodo, you'd be hard pressed to find any description of him at all. You have to rely upon what Tolkien describes in the prologue about Hobbits in general, but that still doesn't tell you what Frodo looks like. The more important the character it appears, the less description they get with Tolkien.

To sum that up, the level of detail in a story is primarily a preference thing, both for the author and for the reader. Some want you to paint the full picture in every detail, others don't want you to slow down the story with minute detail. There's a balance each author has to find that works for their fans.

That said, there are some considerations an author should take into account when on how much detail to use. There are several factors that could change what you do.

Type of Story - If your writing an action story, you'll want to keep the descriptions down to what is absolutely needed to tell the story. Extra descriptions will slow things down unless you are skilled enough to relate that info while "in action." But even that can get too much. By definition, when a character is fighting or running, etc., they are so focused on what they are doing, on their opponent, that they don't notice the scenery, what people are wearing, etc. So putting much detail into such a scene would cause it to feel unreal.

Likewise, if your story is a character-based story, descriptions become important. You can set mood and foreshadowing with good descriptions, not only of surrounding scenery, but also expressions on a character's face, describing their reactions. A literary story, by nature, needs plenty of poetic description. They thrive on them, and some are known for the way they describe something, not having a traditional plot, climax, or ending in many cases.

Additionally, a short story doesn't have a lot of time for long, detail descriptions, whereas in a novel you have more room for that sort of thing.

Audience - Young Adult, especially if you're focused on the early teens, generally wouldn't need Tolkien-like scene descriptions. I remember when I was reading Lord of the Rings to my two sons at bedtime. My youngest, about twelve at the time, complained, "He just took a whole paragraph to tell us, 'They got off their horses.'" I'm growing a book critic.

Meanwhile, adult or even later teens would appreciate more description than the bare bones, especially in a novel. I have one friend who relishes rich descriptions. She can "see" it in her mind. In my mind, what was said at the start becomes fuzzy as I read a lengthy detailed description, so I don't hold a whole picture in my mind. It is more like seeing a sliver of the scene and panning across it. By the time I'm at the end, I've forgotten what I saw at the beginning, and so the whole scene is foggy at best. Shorter descriptions make it easier for my mind to process and form a picture.

Point of View - Omniscient point of view will enable the author to go into lots of detail, much as Tolkien did. A limited third, first person, however, will by necessity mean you'll get less detail—if you stay in the point of view.

When I took driver's ed in high school, we watched a film and were told to notice as many things as we could. Now, this is with us trying to be observant. The film was from inside a car, driving down a road. At the end of it, we were asked a series of questions, like "what color was the car dealership sign." I caught some, missed many. So did a lot of people. When you're going through your normal daily routine, you notice even less.

Actually, from a first person point of view, or close third, you would rarely mention any scenery because we frequently don't pay attention to it. But that's one area where books aren't exactly like real life because you really need to tell the reader more than what the average person would notice. That said, in a close point of view, you'll stay more in it if you pick out specific descriptions. When you go into a more detailed description in such a point of view, you are actually moving out of that point of view and into a camera or omniscient narrator point of view. The good news is, if done right, the reader will rarely notice this. But if you overdo it, it can become jarring.

The circumstances - There are naturally times when your character would notice detail more, and your descriptions would reflect that. When I wrote a scene in my yet to be published book, where my protag first enters a virtual reality world, I have him noticing things in great detail. The idea is that he would be soaking this new experience in. He'd be studying his surroundings, so naturally the descriptions should reflect that level of attention.

Another key circumstance is what importance a place, person, or event has for the point of view character. The more important it is to them, the more description you'll want to give it. The more it plays into the story, the higher up the ladder of detail you'll want to use.

This is even true in omniscient point of views. While they can go to town on description, not being limited to one person's point of view, if you describe everything in the characters life in vivid detail, you're going to end up with a long book full of descriptions but little room left for plot or story. You'll bore your reader if you describe in detail every cup a character uses. Unless that information is vital to the story, you'll do more harm than good.

You'll want your description level to reflect what your character would notice at any given time, and what they notice should be important to them: what they like, what they would naturally notice, with the caveat that sometimes we as authors have to add in more than they would naturally notice to make the story work.

The Type of Description - Scenery and character descriptions have two different goals. Scenery you want to not only give the reader an idea of what environment your current scene is taking place, and describe that adequately enough that they can form a clear picture in their mind, but you also want to use it set a mood, sometimes even to foreshadow something. How much? Again, it goes back to what we've discussed so far. Who is the audience? What type of writing/story is this? How important is this place? How important is this scene (i.e., is it the climax, major plot point?) But finally it can depend on the author's style and preference as well.

Describing characters has a different goal. It doesn't hurt to know what color their hair and eyes are, how they're built, but there are two general rules to be aware of and to break them on purpose rather than accidentally.

One, the main reason to describe a person in the story is to add depth to that character, to highlight the traits that make the character more real, tell us their inner character as well as their outer looks. If a description doesn't do that in some fashion, then it is best to be left off. As an example, there's not much reason to tell us if the character is right handed or left, unless that fact either becomes important to the story later, or tells us something about that character. Emphasizing that a person in your story is left-handed could indicate the person doesn't go along with the crowd or looks at the world in a non-standard way. But to tell us that just to tell us that adds little to the character or the story.

Two, if your point of view is a close one, first or third, you want to avoid describing the point of view character. It is simply rare that such a character would ever do that. First, if you're in their "eyes," you are not going to see yourself very often. Second, if they do see themselves, say in a mirror, they are going to be so used to it that they won't notice in particular the color of their hair or eyes. When you brush your hair in the morning, do you think to yourself, "I swept the prickly brush through my deep, amber hair while my blue eyes stared back at me." No, you've seen and done this who knows how many hundreds of times. You're character isn't going to be noticing these things. Especially if he is a man.

And I guess I'm obligated to say that this point, that having a character describe themselves in a reflection will usually mark you as a beginner in most editor's eyes. Avoid doing that.

If traits of your character do need noticing, there are ways to get around this. One, have other people notice them. In Jill's book I reviewed, Achen had a "stray brand" on his back, left shoulder. He couldn't see it, but when a helper pulls his shirt off and reacts, you get the idea that there is something important on there. As it happens, this plays into the story later on, so it is important the reader be aware of this. By having this servant, and later Sir Gavin take notice of this, the reader is let in on its presence even though Achen can't see it and would generally not even think about it.

Another equally valid route is if your book has two points of view and they meet, they can describe each other in their points of view. Usually first time they met, as that's when they'd particularly notice various traits. If your story picks up after they've been together for a while, however, they aren't going to be thinking about the others looks unless you have a "special moment," like when the two stare into each others eyes. The point of view character is likely to notice the others eyes at that point.

I could probably dig up more, but those are the key points to consider. Probably the biggest mistake new writers make is describing events, places, or people in detail who aren't really that important to the story. If a description isn't either adding to the storyline, or setting the scene/mood of your story, then consider dropping it.

But in the end, this is one of those things writers will disagree on. Some like it thicker, others like it thinner. Since there are both kinds of readers out there, we're probably both safe. What guides do you use to decide how much description to lay on the reader?

Check out these other sites participating in the CSFF Blog Tour:

Brandon Barr Keanan Brand Gina Burgess Beckie Burnham Melissa Carswell Valerie Comer Karri Compton Amy Cruson CSFF Blog Tour Stacey Dale D. G. D. Davidson Jeff Draper Emmalyn Edwards April Erwin Sarah Flanagan Andrea Graham Tori Greene Ryan Heart Joleen Howell Becky Jesse

Cris Jesse Jason Joyner Julie Carol Keen Krystine Kercher Dawn King Leighton Rebecca LuElla Miller New Authors Fellowship John W. Otte Crista Richey Chawna Schroeder Andrea Schultz James Somers Rachel Starr Thomson Steve Trower Fred Warren Dona Watson Phyllis Wheeler KM Wilsher

Review: By Darkness Hidby Jill Williamson

ISBN: 978-0-9821049-5-8
Disclaimer: In conjunction with the CSFF Blog Tour, I received a free copy of this book from the publisher.

I love it when I read a book that has great characters, an unpredictable plot, and clear writing that doesn't get in the way of the story. And by all accounts, that's what you can expect to find in By Darkenss Hid, by Jill Williamson.

Jill creates an interesting and well developed cast, both with the two protagonist and the supporting characters. They read and feel like individuals with their own history and motives, and the chemistry between many of them simply works. The reader won't find themselves bored with the interaction between these characters and will cheer on the protagonist.

On the face of it, the plot could have been, and may feel to some, as trite. My first impression of young Achen, the primary star of the show, was similar to Harry Potter's situation. He has a gift of which he is unaware: bloodvoicing, which is a telepathic ability to listen into another's thoughts and experiences as well as communicate with other bloodvoicers within a given range. Achen's "guardians" work to keep that ability hidden from him, of which he is particularly gifted, using a "tonic" he has to drink everyday.

But the similarities end at that point. Not only because this alternate world of Er'Rets is set in a Medieval culture, but the reason behind this charade becomes the primary plot revelation toward the end of the book, and thus the thematic climax. This book details the events which transpire to bring this revelation into the open. I feared for a while that we would get a "Luke, I am your father" moment, but that didn't happen. The revelation actually is intricate and well played, and makes sense of the situation where we find Achen when the story starts. Not that some couldn't guess the outcome, but when it hit, I wasn't looking for it, though I did guess correctly on some key parts. What could have been another trite plot, however, was developed by the author and made her own unique contribution that kept me interested in what would happen next.

The alternate thread of this plot involves a young girl, who in an attempt to avoid being married to the selfish and vile prince, goes into hiding as a boy named Vrell Sparrow. While this part of the story wasn't as intriguing as Achen's, I did find her growing on me and sucked into that part of the story as well. My only complain there was the trip to Master Hadar, who trains her in bloodvoicing, felt a little long. Some interesting things happen along the way, but I was ready for it to end before it did.

Yet, her story plays into Achen's as the story progresses, and their paths naturally cross. Her secret, which the reader knows, doesn't get revealed to the rest of the characters except for a select few who figure it out. And her story isn't fully resolved on that point, obviously to be revealed in the next book. I did find her interesting, however, and her plot line adds to the story.

There are two areas concerning the plot that the reader needs to be aware of. One is that the end of the book is a good cliffhanger. You will be wanting to read the second book once done with this one. While there are some things of great importance you learn, there are several threads that are left for another book or two to resolve. The reader simply needs to be aware of that going in, and plan on getting the rest of the series if you want the full story. This is not a self-contained story.

A second issue is once the revelation was revealed, there was an aspect of it I found a little hard to swallow. An attempt is made well enough to account for it, but it still sounded a little unlikely to me. What is the plot hole? Well, if I told you that, you'd have no reason to read the book. Then we'd have to mindwipe you. That taken into account, I was willing to give the author the benefit of doubt on it, and suspend disbelief, but it did feel unlikely to me. Most people will probably not even notice it or be bothered about it if they do. Indeed, the book is so well done, by the time you get there, you're invested in the story and that isn't likely to throw you. It is possible it could have happened that way, so I'm willing to give that to her. Just not probable.

The world setting was well developed. There is political intrigue behind the story, and competing factions. One interesting aspect of this world is that part of it is set in "Darkness," apparently a very thick mist that blocks out the sun. This book doesn't get into the reason for this darkness, but apparently there are whole cities in it.

One seeming inconsistency I noticed are among those who live in the darkness. One race of men have been driven mad by it, so they appear to act and react as animals. Achen is warned not to go into it, and they appear to fear being driven mad themselves by it. Yet there are whole cities that exist in the darkness that don't seem affected by it. Achen meets some of them, even appearing to nearly fall in love with one of the ladies who comes across as kind and noble. It could be in the next book we'll learn more about the world and why this disparity exist between these two races living in the darkness, but it would seem just being in the darkness doesn't necessarily make one mad, though it can. Why one group does go mad and the other doesn't is yet to be revealed.

But the world itself is real and believable, even if unique. Yet there is still much more to learn about it that isn't revealed in this book. Most readers will find the setting interesting and fun.

On the writing front, the author does a good job of staying out of the way, letting the words build pictures and develop the story rather than calling attention to themselves. She writes in a way that is easy to follow and leads to little, if any, confusion as to what is happening. Action scenes are described in a clear manner. The text contains very few typos; only two jumped out at me.

I liked her descriptions, but felt on one point they were overdone. To continually be describing what everyone is wearing was too much for my taste. Sometimes that was needed, but other times I wondered why I even needed to know that information. Most of the other descriptions felt appropriate and painted the scenes in vivid color.

The bottom line? I fully enjoyed reading this book. The characters, the interesting plot, the writing style, all come together to give the reader a story they can lose themselves in. I'm ready for book two, To Darkness Fled. You will be too once you dig into this 490 page volume and spends some hours in Er'Rets with Achen and Vrell. I recommend this novel and give it 4 out of 5 stars.

Check out these other sites participating in the CSFF Blog Tour:

Brandon Barr
Keanan Brand
Gina Burgess
Beckie Burnham
Melissa Carswell
Valerie Comer
Karri Compton
Amy Cruson
CSFF Blog Tour
Stacey Dale
D. G. D. Davidson
Jeff Draper
Emmalyn Edwards
April Erwin
Sarah Flanagan
Andrea Graham
Tori Greene
Ryan Heart
Joleen Howell
Becky Jesse
Cris Jesse
Jason Joyner
Julie
Carol Keen
Krystine Kercher
Dawn King
Leighton
Rebecca LuElla Miller
New Authors Fellowship
John W. Otte
Crista Richey
Chawna Schroeder
Andrea Schultz
James Somers
Rachel Starr Thomson
Steve Trower
Fred Warren
Dona Watson
Phyllis Wheeler
KM Wilsher

"Spacy Date" Now in Print

Digital Dragon Magazine has published my flash fiction titled, Spacy Date. A sort of odd little bit of space opera that will spark some memories of Christmas as we head into summer! Check it out!

The Steam House Revealed

My novella, Infinite Realities, is known for being allegorical. And yes, intentionally, it is. One reviewer mentioned how the allegory wasn't all that hidden, was on the surface. And I made some of them that way on purpose. But there are levels here, not all of it is obvious.

The book has been out for nearly two and a half years now, and though I know there are a lot of people who haven't read it yet, I thought it was time to dive into some of the allegory behind it. And to start off, I wanted to focus on the central building and room, the Steam House in Sisko's home village--Reol.

This is an interesting one, in that it took on a life of its own. I had two thoughts in the back of my mind that it represented, but one of them really developed into its main theme even though it wasn't a major thought at the time I created it.

Keep in mind, the idea for this story arose from a challenge at a critique group I frequent. A magazine was running a contest and the short story for it had to deal with the theme "hot" in some fashion. As I began rolling ideas through my brain, one jumped out at me in short order. The Last Judgment. In traditional Christian theology, the concept of hell wasn't so much a place as a state of existence before God. This is clearly depicted through the Old Testament where God is depicted as fire, or a brilliant glory. You see this predominately in God's leading the Israelites from Egypt, and especially in Moses experience of God, seeing his backside. For as God tells Moses, no man can see God's face and live.

You also see this theme presented in the Psalms, one of the more overt is:

Jehovah reigneth; let the earth rejoice; Let the multitude of isles be glad. Clouds and darkness are round about him: Righteousness and justice are the foundation of his throne. A fire goeth before him, And burneth up his adversaries round about. His lightnings lightened the world: The earth saw, and trembled. The mountains melted like wax at the presence of Jehovah, At the presence of the Lord of the whole earth. The heavens declare his righteousness, And all the peoples have seen his glory.
(Psa 97:1-6 ASV)

And

Thou wilt make them as a fiery furnace in the time of thine anger: Jehovah will swallow them up in his wrath, And the fire shall devour them.
(Psa 21:9 ASV)

In Revelations it makes this link clear as well:

He also shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is prepared unmixed in the cup of his anger; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb:
(Rev 14:10 ASV)

And that the source of the "Lake of Fire" is before God's throne:

And I saw as it were a sea of glass mingled with fire; and them that come off victorious from the beast, and from his image, and from the number of his name, standing by the sea of glass, having harps of God.
(Rev 15:2 ASV)

Well, so much for the mini Bible study. Point being, those who haven't been saved, haven't been given the life of God through Jesus Christ, experience His presence as a literal hell, while those who have been, experience it as light and joy. It is that concept that I wanted to depict in this steam house. The allegory is in large part pointed or foreshadowing the Last Judgment, where every man and woman's deeds will be revealed, where we will be tested "as through the fire" and our real character revealed.

It is in part why through the series, there is no magic or power that can stand up to the steam house's, because it is analogous to the ultimate power, God Himself. It reveals God's presence and the user of the steam house is either ready for it or isn't. It reveals the hidden reality of each person's life, in this story, characterized by what it changes one into, or for those whose hearts are in the right place, what it enables them to do for God, as in Sisko's case.

But the steam house isn't just that, because otherwise we would be talking about the end of the story instead of its beginning. And that is what the steam house really ends up representing. I had a hint of that initially in that I made the building octagonal. If one goes back into their Christian history, especially were it involves the construction of the baptisteries, they were usually created with eight sides. This was a representation of the eighth day.

What is the eighth day? Glad you asked. In Genesis 1, it states that God created the heavens and the earth in six days, and He rested on the seventh, otherwise known as the Sabbath. Many have lost this connection because we tend to call Sunday the Sabbath, but in the early Church, it was not so. Saturday was still the Sabbath. When Christ descended into Hades, to free those held captive there by death, it is understood that He rested on the Sabbath as well, only to arise on the next day. This day of His resurrection was considered a new day of creation, the eighth day of creation, when Christ made all things new through His resurrection. He opened up the way into Paradise for those trapped in Hades.

Therefore, baptism was seen as this entry into the eighth day, our route into Paradise, where the person was created new, forgiven their sins, and made alive unto God. So when I created the steam house, I had the Last Judgment foremost in my mind, but I also had this connection with baptism in there. And that theme ended up becoming the dominate analogy of the steam house.

And the cool thing is, that an element of the Last Judgment is still in baptism. For we are dying to the Old Man, dross is burned away primarily because we are exposed to His life--His glory. And because it is through Christ, it saves us instead of destroys us.

So you see, when someone goes into the Steam House, they never come out unaffected. Even a demon. Especially a demon. And those so blessed by it, leave with a mission and the ability to perform that mission while those who aren't ready to encounter God are forced to deal with who they really are.

What will happen when we encounter God's unfiltered presence? And are you prepared to see the reality that lies within you when that happens?

I'm grasping for the wind!

That is, I'm a guest blogger at the blog, "Grasping For the Wind." I wrote an article titled "A Little More Sin, Please." Check it out.

Likewise, John Ottinger is also giving away a couple of "Infinite Realities" novella. Here's how to enter that deal.

Be sure to check out the article, post a comment, and/or enter the giveaway if you're so inclined.