Throwback Thursday: Not Fade Away

(This column originally published in The News Herald on Sunday, November 14, 2010)

Not fade away: Connecting across time and space

Surrounded and bolstered by kindred spirits on Thursday night, Wewahitchka-based author Michael Lister talked about the sacred calling of the storyteller. He used the word “shaman” to convey the mystical connection between the teller and the listener.

Like an alchemical equation seeking balance, the work birthed in the act of creating art can’t reach maturity until the work is interpreted. Otherwise creation is the silence in the forest when a tree falls and no one is there to hear it.

It’s the sound of one hand clapping.

Michael’s words, as usual, started me thinking. In particular, I recalled a few events of the past week where the things people said (or wrote) and the things I heard (or read) connected with memory to
create new meaning. You never know what people will say, or how the things they say will stick with you and bubble to the surface of your thoughts.

A couple of examples:
I visited the set of “A Doll’s House” on the Amelia Center Theater stage at Gulf Coast Community College this week. Decorated for Christmas, the lights and baubles stood in stark contrast to the dull walls and furnishings in shades of brown. It looked like a scene out of “A Christmas Story.”

The play is set in 1950s Chicago, and the short sequence I viewed made me think about those folks on our Squall Line who want their country back — one of whom even went so far this week to type on his or her computer that “The 1950s was a better time.”

On stage, the husband teased his wife with $10 bills that she greedily snatched from him, one by one, and promised to spend wisely. He called her pet names and spoke in soothing tones, making sure she understood her place and function in his world.

I was reminded of an early Saturday morning recently, when an older man joked about spending his entire “allowance” on yard sales. He circled among some tables stacked with colorful trinkets and clothing, asking silly questions and flirting with the ladies at the sale. Suddenly, he grew quiet.

“I was married three times,” this total stranger said to me, his breath misting in the morning cold. “I left the first one, the second one left me, and the third died. She was the only one who ever said she loved me. She was the only one I ever loved.”

He cleared a lump in his throat and pointed at a coffee maker designed for one person.

“Is that real or a toy?” he said, and I told him I believed that it was real.

He bought it and drove away alone.
Peace.

Behind the Writing (Part 3): Refilling the Creative Well

The following is the last in a three-part series about the craft of writing, specifically characters and situations, why we write stories, and how to refill the creative well. These conversations took place in early October 2015 with author Mark Boss and myself.

>>Click here to read the first installment<<
>>Or here to read the second one<<

Mark Boss, our friend Carole, and me at Books Alive 2015.

Mark: One last thought. I’ve been thinking about this one a lot lately. I’m convinced — you’re torn so many different ways. You’re expected to blog, you’re expected to tweet and Facebook and all these different things. But every time you do that during the day, I think you use up a little bit of creative energy. Maybe not a lot, but a little bit. And then you have to wonder, is there any left over when you actually go to write? So my question is not whether that’s worthwhile or not — because it’s probably necessary — but rather, how do you refill the well after you’re tapped out, after a long week or a month, or even when you finish a long project? Because with a book, you might be committing to a year or two’s worth or work.

Tony: And that last push leaves you with the thousand-yard stare.

Mark: And by the end, you’re a zombie. How to you refill the well? What goes into that to bring the water level back up? ... I find that I do a flurry a reading as soon as I’m done (writing) a book. All the stuff that’s been piling up on the Kindle or in stacks, and not just fiction, a lot of non-fiction. When I’m working, I might be reading about 50/50. But afterward, man, I’ve got to fill my brain back up. There’s wanting to catch up on all the TV shows you missed and all the movies you didn’t see. So, for like a month, I go nuts. But then, pretty soon, there’s that itch like, man, I’ve got to write something. You can’t wait until you feel full again to start writing.

Tony: For me, there’s a couple of things. One is, I give myself permission not to be obsessed or upset that I’m not writing. I didn’t always do that. I don’t really do a lot of reading while I’m in the middle of a project. I’ll read a comic book, or magazine articles, watch TV for an hour or two — during the writing process. After the writing, I want to go somewhere.
Mark: A change of scenery, literally, to refresh the brain.

Tony: Clear the palate, yeah, and I think that’s why going up to visit Birmingham even jumpstarted that (steampunk novel) idea. I was in the middle of a project, and it was driving me crazy trying to finish it so I could start the new one. I was writing notes on one and working on the other. That’s one thing I do, even if it’s just taking a day, me and my wife going to Apalachicola (about a 90-minute drive from home) and walking around. Just something to change the surroundings for a few hours and get your head out of the space it’s been in.

Mark: Get away from the computer. Plus, you bring up the point: Even though you have anew idea in your head, the discipline — the part that’s the difference between being a professional and not — is that you finish the project you’re on. And then you start the next one. You don’t get distracted and start something else. It’s a small point, but important for other writers out there, and readers.

Tony: Yeah, there’s really only two rules: (/Holds up one finger/) Sit your ass in the chair and write. (/Holds up second finger/) Finish what you start. Even if that means just getting to a stopping point. I spent too many years dropping a project and starting something new, just to drop that too.

Mark: I think that happens a lot.

Tony: Somebody said it’s like being in love. You’re committed to this project, and all of a sudden you see this nice shiny new idea over there. And you’re like, this project is just not as pretty as I thought she was. She makes me work too hard. But this idea is exciting. I think I’ll go play with this one a while.

Mark: I think it’s fear. I think people fear finishing. When you’re done, the dream is over. Now it’s time to let go. I really do think fear plays a big part in that. It’s easier to tinker than to finish.

Tony: Today, that fear goes even further. I can submit to all these (traditional publishers) and if they say no, then in the old days that was the end of the story. Now you can publish yourself so fairly easily that you don’t have any excuse to keep it hidden away in a drawer.

Mark: You can’t say, “Well, they kept me out. I never got my shot. I never had a chance.” Now, your baby has to get out there and compete, and it might get beat up on the playground. Those are my deep thoughts I had recently.

Tony: I appreciate it, because I had no deep thoughts to bring to the table.

Mark: You’re good at spontaneous deep thinking.

Tony: Or bullshitting.

Mark: It’s a craft.

Tony: It can be learned.

>>Check out Mark’s stories, available in ebook and paperback at Amazon.<<

Former narcotics agent begins third chapter

Merle & Judy with actor Shemar Moore

MEET THE AUTHOR

• Who: Merle Sheppard, author of “Ghostly Shade of Pale”
• Where and When: Sundog Books in Seaside 10 a.m. to noon Saturday, and Hidden Lantern Bookstore in Rosemary Beach 2-6 p.m. Saturday
• Details: MerleTemple.com and Facebook.com/Merle.Temple.1

 

SEASIDE — Merle Temple, at age 67, has begun a new career as a novelist — a third career, after retiring from the law enforcement and communications. He has worked for the FBI, the Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics, and BellSouth. Now, he’s a successful author.

I caught up to him by telephone this week as he relaxed in Destin with his wife, Judy. They had been out birding, and he had recently spoken to a class at a Destin elementary school. He mused upon his new life and how it reflected in those youngsters, just starting their lives.

“These books have opened up a whole new world for us in our retirement years,” he said. “I didn’t know if anyone other than friends and loved ones would want to read them. ... I am so grateful that I lived long enough and survived so much tragedy to know who and what never mattered, and Who always will.”

His debut novel, “A Ghostly Shade of Pale” introduced the character of Michael Parker, which is based on Merle. Parker leaves Ole Miss in the early 1970s to enter America’s “War on Drugs.” He is kidnapped by heroin dealers and held hostage while working solo undercover. Later, he’s ambushed near Memphis by contract killers hired by the Dixie Mafia. When he becomes a captain, he and his men are ambushed in a heroin deal near Columbus by a sniper.

“Only the dramatic intervention of God saves the lives of agents that day,” Merle said, adding, “All these things and more really happened.”

Merle, originally from Tupelo, Miss., claims to have crossed paths with many of the iconic figures of the 20th century, including Margaret Thatcher, Charlton Heston, Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, J. Edgar Hoover, Newt Gingrich, Dennis Hastert, and countless other senators, congressmen, governors and celebrities.

“I pull the curtain back to allow people to see Washington as it really is, and it is not a pretty sight — where everyone and everything is for sale,” he said.

The second book in the trilogy, “A Rented Love,” follows Parker into the corporate world and high-level politics. There, he finds that the organized crime figures who tried to kill him are choir boys compared to the political criminals he encounters in what Merle calls “the unholy trinity of crime, politics and business.”

Merle is currently at work on the final book in the trilogy, “The Redeemed,” in which Parker — a would-be dragonslayer — pays the price for his crusades and for opposing the power brokers. The treachery runs all the way to the White House, Merle hints.

 “So many I have known in politics love only power and money, but beyond that, so many of them refuse to surrender power even in old age and infirmity,” Merle said. “They made a Faustian deal to rule in hell on earth, rather than to serve eternally in heaven. They equate retirement with death, and they are terrified to stand before their maker. They know what they’ve done, and they know that the road is running out.”

The novels are being considered for adaptation into TV series by various Hollywood producers, which took Merle and Judy to the West Coast for meetings. They watched the filming of “Criminal Minds,” signed books for actors Joe Mantegna and Shemar Moore. The series writer-producer Jim Clemente is pitching “Ghostly” for Merle.

“I have written all my life in the public and private sector — speeches, technical papers,” he said. “People told me, ‘you have a gift of writing,’ but I found out fiction is difficult. It’s tricky to speak in other voices. It has so many threads in it, it’s so complex. It has been a real learning process.”

Merle also believes that what he writes and how he presents it is important. His work, placed in the public eye, is equivalent to the epitaph on his tombstone, he said, in that it’s how he will be remembered.

“My novels, written as fiction but drawn from my life, have no profanity or graphic intimacy,” he said. “They are written as literature to endure, and people love them for that reason. ... People are hungry right now for that, even if they’re gritty books, but behind it is a message that’s uplifting.”

Peace.

Behind the Writing (Part 2): Why do we write?

The following is the second in a three-part series about the craft of writing, specifically characters and situations, why we write stories, and how to refill the creative well. These conversations took place in early October 2015 with author Mark Boss and myself.

>>Click here to read the first installment.<<

Mark Boss

Mark: That brings me to my second question: What is it in us that demands that storytelling? I think you go to your caveman, and other people (with him) like stories but there’s probably only one person in the tribe or village that’s a storyteller, and he’s probably a shaman or he’s painting on the walls — “Oh, that was the best hunt ever!” (The number of storytellers is) probably a bigger percentage of the population now because the tools are available to write, but telling stories has always (come from) a small part of the population. I think it only feels big now because there’s so many people publishing. Why is it a small part, and why are people like us driven to tell stories?

Tony: If you strip all the publishing away from it and get down to storytelling, I think everybody tells stories. Every conversation we have with our loved ones, we’re telling stories. If my Mom calls and tells me about an uncle that’s not doing well, she’s storytelling. As a people, a species, we developed language and writing — well, in part to keep track of what we were telling —

Mark: To give it permanence, because we wanted to give stories multi-generations.

Tony: But in those days, and up until recently, most people couldn’t read and write, but everybody would go down to the square to hear the town crier tell what happened in the court, or gather around their radio to listen to serials.

Mark: My grandfather told stories on the porch, and neighbors would come over to listen.

Tony: When it comes to writing, I think the difference between most people and people like you and me is the difference between a child drawing a picture with crayons and the artist painting a landscape or portrait. We found something in us that felt fulfilled and we were drawn further to continue filling that empty hole in our hearts.

Mark: You’re so driven, you spend years learning the technical skills, just like a painter. You take it way beyond what most people would do because you spent all these years developing it. If everyone else did that, you’d have a lot more people who were writers. They’d end up at the same place.

Tony: It is a craft, and it can be taught. It can be learned. Those of us who felt drawn to it also had to learn it —

Mark: Over a long period of time —

Tony: With a lot of trial and error. … If I turn away from it for too long, as you do from time to time, I actually feel heartsick, like there’s something missing. That ‘something’ is telling those stories. At least, for me it is.

Mark: Sometimes it’s the only way I can cheer myself up. If I sit down and start writing, within an hour or two I’m smiling and happy again. It’s unreal. It’s weird how sometimes you purposely turn away from it, then you think, “What the heck was I thinking? Why am I not doing that?”

Tony: What are we hoping to do is to write something that’s going to affect somebody. That they’re going to carry with them, share with other people, and it’s going to make their world a better world, and it’s going to go on beyond you, after you’re long gone. Or, we could just be writing stories to have fun with. If we’re lucky, we’ll be like H. Rider Haggard and a hundred years after we’re gone people will still be making movies out of our stories.

In the next post, we’ll talk about how writers and readers can refill the creative well.

>>Check out Mark’s stories, available in ebook and paperback at Amazon.<<

Get your write on this NaNoWriMo

NaNoWriMo Kick-Off Party

• What: Tips and tricks for writers; light refreshments
• When: 5:30-7 p.m. Monday, Oct. 19
• Where: Bay County Public Library, at 898 W. 11th St., Panama City
• Details: nanowrimo.org or call 850-522-2120

PANAMA CITY — Writers, it’s time to limber up those typing or scribing fingers, bulk up the brain muscles (or whatever) and get ready for the best month of the year.

November is just around the corner, and that means you’re invited (in fact, encouraged — nay, required!) to set your mind to writing a novel during the 30 days of National Novel Writing Month, or “NaNoWriMo.”

“NaNoWriMo challenges people to write 50,000 words of a novel in the 30 days of November,” said Regina Burgess, Community Relations and Marketing Coordinator for the Northwest Regional Library System. “Crazy? Yes. Doable? Absolutely!”

My recent novel of zombie survival, “This Mortal Flesh,” began as a NaNoWriMo project. I’m planning to write the bulk of a new steampunk novel in November.

As Regina notes, more than 250 NaNoWriMo novels have been traditionally published, including Sara Gruen’s “Water for Elephants,” Erin Morgenstern’s “The Night Circus,” and many more. Last year, NaNoWriMo welcomed 351,142 writers from around the world. Of those participants, 58,917 hit their goals, completing a 50,000-word draft of a novel in November 2014.

If you’ve always said you wanted to do so too, then now’s the time.

To help locals get the ink flowing, the Bay County Public Library will host a NaNoWriMo Kick-Off Party from 5-7:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 19. I will join local authors Michael Lister, Sharman Ramsey and others during that period to share some helpful writing tips and prompts. Friends of the Bay County Public Libraries will supply light refreshments.

Attendees may also enter a drawing for three gift boxes, each of which includes goodies and the book that started it all: “No Plot, No Problem: A Low-Stress High-Velocity Guide to Writing a Novel in 30 Days” by NaNoWriMo founder Chris Baty.

The library will also host “Come Write In” sessions 5-7 p.m. each Monday in November, with library staff on hand for support and encouragement; participants are welcome to bring their own refreshments.

Finally, the library will have a “Thank God It’s Over” party 5-7:30 p.m. on Dec. 7 to celebrate finishing (or at least attempting to finish) your novels. Again, Friends of the Bay County Public Libraries will supply light refreshments.

 “We have some staff members who are going to participate in NaNoWriMo this year,” Regina said. “I’m one of them, and I am both looking forward to it and scared out of my wits! So far, I have no idea what I’m going to write about or even what genre I’ll attempt. But the unknown is half the fun!”

In writing, it’s about the journey as much as the destination. Come with us into the trackless unknown.

Peace.

Behind the Writing: PART 1: Characters or Situations?

The following is the first in a three-part series about the craft of writing, specifically characters and situations, why we write stories, and how to refill the creative well. These conversations took place in early October 2015 with author Mark Boss and myself.

Mark Boss at PC Creative Con 2K15

Mark: We were talking the other day about characters. You read Stephen King’s “On Writing,” and he says he always starts with a situation; I started thinking, how predominant is that? How many authors start with a situation versus starting with a character? When you told me about your Alabama trip, it seemed like the seed of it, the germ was the character first. What triggered that idea, and then did you build the situation around that character?

Tony: I think that story came out of inundating — immersing myself in a bunch of unrelated ideas. I’m in Birmingham, and there’s a lot of stuff about the Confederacy, it’s an iron town — that whole blacksmithy, iron works, steam era feel to it. And I’m reading a lot of steampunk. All of those things fed into the mulcher, and then, driving home, seeing those old Southern city names —

Mark: Specifically, Jemison and Thorsby. Were they in that order?

Tony: Yes.

Mark: Because you might not have thought of it (if they were in the reverse order).

Tony: Right. That came from character first, from a mixture of the names and a time period I had floating around in my head. So in a way, the situation was kind of already there. I was primed to find a story that was steeped in the Old South.

Mark: Which is quite a departure, because I’d say most steampunk, maybe 90 percent of it, is Victorian England. At best, they cross the Channel to France. So Steampunk-USA is a departure.

Tony: With my Caliban stories, it definitely came out of character first. I was 14 years old and wanted to write Doctor Strange. Before I knew it, I wasn’t writing about the wizard, I was writing about the kid he trained and the development of his potential as a magic-user. Over the years, both of those characters kind of developed in the back of my head. — So, how about you, Mark? Character or situation?

Mark:  Looking at the last few books, I realize I’m going more ‘situation.’ My thing was a “what-if.” What if all these bad things happened at the same time? I love zombie things, and zombies were very big at the time. And yet I thought, okay, what if we ramped it up? Because one apocalypse is not enough for me. That’s just too slow. I want to see us get devastated. So you throw in aliens — the classic thing of alien invasion — and then you throw in a robot uprising, and then we’re starting to get it boiling. We’ve brought it up to temperature. Then I started thinking, everyone is going to be caught in this, but we don’t want to follow the people who just sit in their basement and wait for it to stop. We want to follow people out there actually doing things. The books jump around a fair amount to different characters. Even so, I tried to focus on the excitement: Let’s go look for the most important things happening or the most fun things happening. That was more a situation thing, but I had never thought hard about it until recently.

In the next post, we’ll address the question: Why do we make up stories?

Check out Mark's blog "Chimp With Pencil"<<
Mark's website<<
and his Amazon author page<<

Best-selling author shares new novel

Lisa Wingate

PANAMA CITY — “Stories beget stories,” said best-selling author Lisa Wingate, who will share the sources of her inspirations with local readers Tuesday and Wednesday.

Wingate’s latest novel, “The Sea Keeper’s Daughters,” begins in 1935, as First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt cajoles her husband into signing an executive order creating what will become Federal Project Number One. The results will touch every corner of a vast but struggling country — yet, 80 years later, will be virtually forgotten.

“Those involved in Federal One were far ahead of their time,” Wingate said. “They were the beginning of the Civil Rights movement before there was a Civil Rights movement. They pushed toward equality for women before anyone was talking about equal opportunity.”

Her new novel.

The new novel follows the struggles of a young woman hired into the Federal Writer’s Project, a subdivision of Federal One.

“Roosevelt’s Federal Writers faced incredible challenges,” Wingate said. “They were told to document the stories of real lives and real people struggling to survive the Depression. Their mandate was to be all-inclusive, to break down hard and fast societal boundaries, much like Kathryn Sockett’s character does in ‘The Help,’ when she interviews black maids in the South.”

The Federal Writers not only documented the natural wonders of the country, but the hidden lives of minorities, working women, immigrant laborers, sharecroppers and others typically ignored by the history books. While Wingate’s tale is fictional, it brings to life the experiences of a Federal Writer when a modern-day woman discovers the letters of a great aunt who was disowned by her wealthy family after signing on with the WPA.

The tale explores the experiences of a woman traveling into the unknown, all for the sake of a story. The Federal Writers often found themselves on the wrong sides of local powerbrokers, special interest groups, and eventually Congressional committees hunting for communists at the dawn of the Red Scare.

The shifting of political fortunes meant the thousands of stories documented by the Federal Writers were quietly hidden away in filing vaults. Only now, as the Library of Congress begins posting the documents online, many of those narratives are being made available for the first time since they were written.

“These stories show us where we come from as a country and as a people,” Wingate said. “They inspired novels like Steinbeck’s ‘The Grapes of Wrath,’ yet so many of us know little about the Federal Writers themselves. I wrote ‘The Sea Keeper’s Daughters’ to bring to light not only the lives of the people on the pages, but the lives of the people behind the pens.”

The Federal Writers is a forgotten part of American cultural history in much the same way as family stories are lost between the generations, simply because someone felt uncomfortable or unappreciated and kept their mouths shut.

Wingate will speak on the importance of preserving our stories — including unobtrusive techniques one can employ to get still tongues wagging and record your own family narratives — during her appearances next week. Besides addressing the Panama City Rotary early Tuesday, she will have two signing and speaking events open to the general public.

She will be at St. Andrews Coffee House & Bistro, 1006 Beck Ave., in Panama City from 5-7 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 8; and at the Blountstown Public Library from 4-5:30 p.m. Wednesday.

“The Blountstown visit is special to me because my grandmother started that library,” said Kathie Bennett, Wingate’s publicist and the daughter of former Panama City mayor Gerry Clemons.

And one would be correct to suspect there’s an untold story waiting to be shared in that anecdote as well.

Peace.

Writers' Jargon (10)

Writers have their own language. A shorthand, if you will. Outsiders (non-writers) think they know what most of these words and phrases mean. But they don't. Here, in a continuing series of posts, I will divulge the SECRET MEANINGS OF WRITERS' JARGON:

Hero’s Journey: (cartographic term) The shortest route to the nearest sandwich shop.

Proposal: (verb) technique employed by non-fiction writers to trick a gainfully-employed partner into marriage when you have no prospects for other income; also used to convince publishers your idea for a book is worth funding. In either case, it’s a pay-for-play agreement.

Editor: (noun) Heart-breaker. Dream-maker. Love-taker. Don’t you mess around with me.

>>Earlier entries in the series<<

Writers' Jargon (9): Archetype, antagonist, protagonist

Writers have their own language. A shorthand, if you will. Outsiders (non-writers) think they know what most of these words and phrases mean. But they don't. Here, in a continuing series of posts, I will divulge the SECRET MEANINGS OF WRITERS' JARGON:

>>Earlier entries in the series<<

Archetype: (noun) What you prefer your characters to be recognized as rather than “cliché.”

Antagonist: (noun) The kid with the magnifying glass, focusing sunlight on ants.

Protagonist: (noun) The agony of the proletariat.

To be continued...

PC native ‘Blown’ home for book launch

‘BLOWN’ BOOK SIGNING

When: 4-7 p.m. Saturday, June 6

Where: Twisted Brew Coffee House, 103 W. 23rd St., Suite E7, Panama City

What: Author Chuck Barrett will be on hand to sign books and discuss writing his latest thriller novel featuring Agent Gregg Kaplan, “Blown” (Switchback Press, 337 pages, $16.95)

Details: ChuckBarrettBooks.com

PANAMA CITY — Lofted on the winds of indie publishing success, author Chuck Barrett returns to his old stomping grounds this weekend to celebrate the launch of his latest thriller novel, “Blown.”

Barrett will be at Twisted Brew Coffee House, 103 W. 23rd St., 4-7 p.m. Saturday, and will speak briefly about how the particular characters in “Blown” came to be and which real-life persons were inspirations or became characters in the book.

Chuck Barrett

“This is a much larger scale publicity push than I have ever done in the past and is designed to hopefully enlighten a lot of readers that many indie authors can and do produce stories just as good or better than those select few traditionally published powerhouses,” Barrett said. “Always the same names on the New York Times bestseller list!”

“Blown” marks the beginning of a new series focusing on protagonist Gregg Kaplan, who appeared as a supporting character in Barrett’s first two novels, “The Savannah Project” and “The Toymaker.” 

He said this book was a case of a character demanding a story.

“While writing ‘The Savannah Project,’ I realized I wanted to have a Gregg Kaplan series as well as a Jake Pendleton series,” Barrett said. “Their styles are drastically different, so it is fun changing things up. The idea for the story is about two years old and seemed appropriate for Kaplan’s rough and tumble style.”

No ordinary man, Kaplan has special skills, courtesy of the U.S. government. Assigned to stay off the grid, he innocently stumbles into a blown witness protection detail in Little Rock, Ark., and can’t walk away from the impending mayhem. After the dust settles, a mortally wounded Deputy U.S. Marshal makes Kaplan promise to personally deliver the witness to a safe site.

“Not just a promise, an oath,” Barrett said in describing the plot. “A pledge between ex-Army Delta Force comrades. A trust that could not be broken — once in, never out.”

Though he has lived in Fernandina Beach for 30 years, Barrett grew up in Panama City, living mostly in the Cove neighborhood, but then on State Avenue during high School. He attended Jinks Middle School and Bay High School before transferring to Mosley High. His parents still live in Lynn Haven.

“I graduated from Mosley in 1975 — first graduating class from the then-brand new school,” he said. “So technically, I went to Bay High for 10th grade and Mosley for 11th and 12th since there was no Mosley when I was in 10th grade.”

A retired air traffic controller, Barrett is a frequent visitor back to Bay County, and recently has been a featured author at the annual BooksAlive festival sponsored by the Bay County Public Library. He also conducts seminars on the art of self-publishing based on his book, “Publishing Unchained: An Off-Beat Guide To Independent Publishing.”

Barrett’s novel “Breach of Power” won the 2013 Indie Excellence Award in Political Thrillers, and was a finalist in the 2013 International Book Awards Thriller/Adventure category. “The Toymaker” was a finalist in the 2013 International Book Awards Thriller/Adventure and Mystery/Suspense categories.

“Don’t worry, the Jake Pendleton series is still alive,” Barrett assured fans. “The book after ‘Blown’ is another Jake Pendleton book. The plan is to alternate series for a while. Jake will return in 2016.”

Exhibits, contests explore ‘The Space Between Words’

FLORIOPOLIS | Contributed Photo

Artists are building a model replica of Beck Avenue in historic St. Andrews “out of words” as part of “The Space Between Words” exhibit currently running at the Floriopolis gallery and art center.

MY STORY CHOSEN AS 'STORY OF DISTINCTION' 

PANAMA CITY — You may have become adept at reading between the lines, but understanding and confusion come from the same place: the space between words.

Floriopolis, the arts and culture co-op in historic St. Andrews, is in the midst of a long-term interactive exhibit on that subject, which includes art on display, a short story contest and more. Heather Parker, the artist and creative director behind the Floriopolis, announced this week the winners of “The Space Between Words” short story contest.

“We had 16 entries and sent them all on to the judges,” Heather said. “The panel of three judges used a point system to narrow down the finalists and select an overall winner. We are looking into ways to include entries in other parts of our summer exhibit ‘The Space Between Words,’ so if you are interested in options that may come up, or have ideas to share, please do let us know.”

The winning story is “The Boy and His Beach” by D.A. Robin. Its 1,733 individual words and punctuation marks will be “sold” for $25 each to people who want to have the words, phrases and/or marks tattooed on their bodies (cost includes cost of the tattoo by Panama Fox). The project is a fundraiser for the non-profit gallery.

It’s amusing to consider a story being carried into the world in such a fashion.

“The winning story gives us the words to use for our community tattoo project and fundraiser,” Heather said. “We’re including punctuation in the ‘word count,’ for a total of 1,733 ‘words’ to sell. We won’t be releasing the winning story in its entirety for quite some time, focusing first on selling the words, phrases and punctuation, allowing buyers to make their own connections and participate in this large, ambitious project.”

Other stories in the contest also received note:

•Stories of Distinction were “Flashback” by Amy Topol, and “Whisper in the Night” by Tony Simmons (that’s me!).

•Honorable Mentions went to “The Space Between Words” by Gary Dearman, “Epilogue for a Corpse” by Samantha Neeley, “Tammy Fell Down” by Linda Morgan, “Tattoo Therapy” by Julie Werner, “Paul Clifford” by Dr. Dan Finley, and “Buddy” by Craig Bush.

For more information on the exhibit, the contest, and the tattoo portion of the project, drop by Floriopolis at 1125 Beck Ave. in Panama City (open 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesday and Saturday, and noon to 6 p.m. Wednesday-Friday), call 850-249-9295, or visit Facebook.com/Floriopolis.

Words and pictures also get close examination in the following contest and exhibit:

Poetry Month Contest

We can all use a little more poetry in our lives, and to that end the Bay County Public Library in Panama City (NWRLS.com) is holding a contest to mark National Poetry Month. Prizes will be awarded to the top three poems, all of which will be displayed in the library for a year. Here are the simple rules:

 Submit only one original poem.

 Poem can be printed in pencil, pen or typed. If it’s handwritten, make sure it’s legible.

 Put your name and a working phone number on the entry so you can be contacted.

 Place your poem in the container in front of the library’s National Poetry Month book display.

Librarians will judge the poems and announce the winner(s) at the end of April. It should go without saying, but don’t submit someone else’s poem as your own. Librarians will be checking for copyright infringement.

For more information, stop by or call the Reference Desk at 850-522-2107. The library is located at 898 W. 11th St., Panama City.

Posters Without Borders

Gulf Coast State College’s Visual & Performing Arts Division is opening an invitational exhibition, “Posters Without Borders” with a free lecture and public reception today. The exhibit was organized by Eric Boelts of Colorado State University, Antonio Castro of the University of Texas at El Paso, and Erin Wright of the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

Participating artists represent more than 20 countries around the world including Zimbabwe, Israel, Cuba, Mexico and Bulgaria. The exhibit explores the topic of immigration and raises questions such as: What is the meaning of nationality? What are the causes for immigration? What is the effect on the host country? What is the immigrant experience?

Wright will present a curatorial lecture 1-2 p.m. Friday in the Amelia Center, Room 128. An opening reception for the exhibit will be 5-7 p.m. Friday.    The exhibit will be on display in the Amelia Center Main Gallery, Room 112, until April 23; gallery hours are 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday-Thursday. Admission is free and open to the public. For details, contact Pavel Amromin at pamromin@gulfcoast.edu

In any case, remember to use your words.

Peace.

Writing Caliban: New ideas come from creative research

(I've decided to do a regular bit here in which I'll give you a look at my writing process. We start with a chapter in the second Caliban Cycle novel, which I'm currently working on. Don't panic: You didn't miss the first Caliban Cycle novel. It hasn't been published yet.)

I had in mind a scene that would take place in a vampire bar in London, as one of my characters seeks a "ground level" informant that might have a lead for him. I thought I might call the bar The London Underground.

So before I started writing the scene, I hit up Google for some info on the actual London "Tube" system, learning about its age and some of the travails of its construction — and it struck me that it would have been almost infinitely easier in the 1860s to build an elevated railway over existing roads and between low-rise buildings than to tunnel underneath those roads and buildings. Workers had to remove tons of earth (without causing sinkholes, cave-ins and the collapse of structures above), shore up walls of clay, pump out ground water, pump in fresh air, electricity and heat, build platforms and so forth — most of which would not be necessary if building an El train.

Conclusion: Subways were invented by vampires for the express purpose of allowing them to travel anywhere in the city without exposing themselves to the sun. Who but a vampire would think underground travel is preferable to open air travel? That led me to the next idea...

If subways are actually for the benefit of vampires living in the cities, then their bars and hangouts would be accessible through these same tunnels. That meant I could place my vampire bar along the Underground route; but now I didn't want to call the bar by the same name.

Ramses 2 and Tekhit

What emblem or name would be appropriate for a vamp nightclub? I wanted to avoid ones I'd seen or heard in movies or books or comics. I didn't want something obvious or cliche. It occurred to me that beer was at least as old as one of the characters in this story — the Egyptians fed it to their slaves to keep them mollified — so I looked for a heiroglyph that represented beer or partying. I found Tekhit.

Tekhit, according to this source, is the Egyptian goddess of beer. Her name translates as both "drunkeness" and "slaughter" — and what creature would equate slaughter with drunkeness more than a blood-drinker?

So bar would be called Tekhit, and her heiroglyph would be its emblem. More so, I decided there's a Tekhit club in every major city; it's a franchise; it's the Hard Rock Cafe of vampire clubs. Thus, my characters would be meeting at Tekhit London, sampling vintage 1972 harvested from a willing donor.

Also, what good is a bar scene without a fight? They'd do that too.
...And so it goes.

From a nightmare, a new book rises

THIS MORTAL FLESH

PANAMA CITY — I never dream about zombies, which is surprising given how thoroughly the creatures have saturated our media and culture.

I don’t need to run down the list of movies, TV shows, books, comics and video games that use them as fodder for storytelling. Or remind you that “The Walking Dead” is one of the most popular series on TV. But did you know:

•The Centers for Disease Control used a “zombie outbreak” to explore how people can prepare themselves for longterm survival in the event of a fast-moving contagion. >>Read the PDF<<

•Ace Hardware created a “Zombie Preparedness Guide” to suggest tools and supplies do-it-yourselfers should have on hand for emergencies.

•University of Michigan epidemiology students learned how to handle a disaster via a zombie response drill.

And that’s just scratching (and clawing) the surface.

Yet I never dreamed about zombies — except this one time when I did. I awoke from the dream only seconds into it, as I came to realize that I was not only surrounded by the undead, but I was one of them. I looked around at the carnage, realized what my future held ... and woke up, thinking, “This would make a cool story.”

Seeking to understand the dream, I did what anyone in this day and age would do, which is consult Dr. Google. He (or possibly she) said that such dreams indicate a person is feeling disconnected from others and “your own inner landscape,” whatever that means. The proper response to such a dream includes looking at aspects of my life and determining how “to reconnect and feel whole again.”

Thanks a lot, Dr. Google.

My way of reconnecting with myself is to write, because I don’t know what I’m thinking until I write it down and sort it out. I chose to meet the dream head-on, exploring its meaning as fiction. That required figuring out how to relate a tale from the point of view of a zombie — a conscious being with no conscience, who sees living humans as food and other zombies as competition.

I’m a pretty imaginative guy, but that stretched even my brainpan. The effort was disturbing, distressing, and ultimately cathartic in many ways — in that by playing out these various narrative scenarios, I could share how dangerous such a mindset would be, and how it could bend even the most selfless people in its orbit to become frightening beings as well.

The sad truth is that we all know someone like that (well, maybe not as extreme) — out for themselves only, at the expense of everyone else around them — sinister, manipulative, secretive and destructive. And sometimes it feels like the only way to beat them is to become them.

The result, for better or worse, is my new novel, “This Mortal Flesh.”

It has been out in ebook format since Feb. 7, and is now in paperback. We’re celebrating the launch with a gathering at St. AndrewsCoffee House and Bistro 5-7 p.m. Saturday. Host James Pigneri is prepping some finger food and refreshments, and his baristas are concocting a couple of specialty zombie potions for the evening. >>Check out the event page here.<<

We’ll have some “live” zombies on hand to creep you out and take photos with you.

Stop by and say hello. Pick up a book, if that’s your thing. Tell us what you think will happen on Sunday’s season finale of “The Walking Dead” (check out my friend Brad Milner's "Blogging Dead" entries to see what he thinks will happen).

Just don’t be a zombie. And don’t let them ruin your life.

Peace.

Back to school time for adult learners

Jim Barr, coordinator of Education Partnerships at Gulf Coast State College, poses with Barbara and Stan Guterman, who donated $1,000 to the Education Encore Scholarship Fund.

• EDUCATION ENCORE
• When: In-person registration is 8 a.m. Jan. 16; classes are six consecutive Fridays, Jan. 23 through Feb. 27
• Where: Gulf Coast State College, 5230 U.S. 98, Panama City
• What: Non-credit enrichment classes for adults
• Cost: $88
• Details: Online at GulfCoast.edu/EducationEncore; call 872-3823; or email Jim Barr at jbarr@gulfcoast.edu

PANAMA CITY — With Spring Break on the horizon, it’s time for the winter to start winding down — but that just means Education Encore is about to heat up. The winter session of Gulf Coast State College’s adult education program begins Jan. 23, with in-person registration taking place Friday, Jan. 16.

As I’ve noted in the past, I have had the pleasure — and the challenge — of teaching a writing course for the program, helping students ranging in age from 30 to 80 and ranging in experience from beginner to retired journalist. I have never yet met someone who is as bad a writer as they think they are, but I have met a few who were much better than they ever suspected.

The program, which meets on six consecutive Fridays, offers more than 80 non-credit classes, which are filled on a first-come, first-served basis. Doors will open at 7 a.m., and the fee for Panama City participants is $88, which includes four classes on each of the six Fridays. (Classes offered at the GCSC Port St. Joe campus, at a fee of $66, meet each Wednesday for six weeks.)

For details on the program and to see a list of classes, visit GulfCoast.edu/EducationEncore, call   872-3823 or e-mail Jim Barr, coordinator of Education Partnerships, at jbarr@gulfcoast.edu

“The goal of Education Encore is to provide a learning environment that is fun, lively and offers diversity, insight and wisdom — in which adults explore new ideas,” Jim said in an email to participants. “If you have been to college, this is an opportunity to re-live the college experience. If you have not attended college, this is an opportunity to live the college experience. Just as exercising the body keeps one physically fit, exercising the mind keeps one mentally fit.”

The program’s motto is “No Stress, No Tests, No Grades, Just Fun,” though some classes (like mine) encourage participants to work on projects throughout the week. (All good writing is re-writing, you know.)

Established in 1991, originally designed for retired senior adults, the program and the courses offered have evolved over the years. All ages of adults are welcome, and many of the courses are the result of requests and suggestions from students.

Some of the winter courses offered include bridge, quilting, Digital Image Editing, drawing, Heritage Skills for Modern Times, jewelry, Spanish conversation, Birding for Beginners, civil law, Firearms Safety,  History and Training of Navy Seals, line dancing,  storytelling, Fishing Florida Waters, History of Seminole Tribes, financial planning, Understanding Islam, Zumba, acrylic painting, photography, sign language, gardening, musical theatre history, sea life, interior decorating, journaling, Tai Chi, aquatic exercise, car maintenance, astronomy, fitness, physics, a capella harmony, gourmet cooking, yoga and many more.

In fact, writing has been such a popular subject, this year the program will offer four different classes for students to explore. Sherry Anderson will teach Writing Memoirs and Creative Non-fiction; Pat Sabiston has Journaling: A Powerful Tool to Write a Life Story; Michael Brim offers Fear and Fun of Writing Fiction; and I will be discussing the intersection of Writing and Life.

Maybe I’ll see you there?

Peace.

-----

This is my Undercurrents column for PanamaCity.com and The News Herald this week.

Writer's Jargon: Freelance,Galley,Ghost Writer & Gutter

Writers have their own language. A shorthand, if you will. Outsiders (non-writers) think they know what most of these words and phrases mean. But they don't. Here, in a continuing series of posts, I will divulge the SECRET MEANINGS OF WRITERS' JARGON:

Freelance: (verb) The act of starving to death (or dying from lack of health insurance) while maintaining your own business.

Galley: (noun) Where you sit in your chains and row the boat. Also known as a “proof,” as in, “Here’s proof of your misery.”

Ghost writer: (noun) What you will be when you die of freelancing.

Gutter: (noun) Where they’ll find your body.

...to be continued...

Writers' Jargon (7)

Writers have their own language. A shorthand, if you will. Outsiders (non-writers) think they know what most of these words and phrases mean. But they don't. Here, in a continuing series of posts, I will divulge the SECRET MEANINGS OF WRITERS' JARGON.

Synopsis: (thought experiment) If you could have told the story in a couple of pages, you wouldn’t have spent years writing 90,000 words.

Exposition: (legal term) The position your ex-spouse takes when suing for half of the earnings from the book you finally published after she/he left, citing emotional, financial and other forms of support during your years of work on the manuscript.

Preface: (noun) The youthful, hopeful, unlined features a writer puts forward before beginning work, as compared to the old, tired, bitter, wrinkled face he ends up with.

...to be continued ...

Writers' Jargon (6): The Guest Edition

Writers have their own language. A shorthand, if you will. Outsiders (non-writers) think they know what most of these words and phrases mean. But they don't. Here, in a continuing series of posts, I will divulge the SECRET MEANINGS OF WRITERS' JARGON.

Since this expose' began, some of my writerly friends have suggested some secret meanings from their own private stash, and here they are:

Hero's Journey: the delusion that as a writer, you're following some mythic path that will make you a more complete person. (Thanks to Mark Boss)

Purple Prose: the words you use to describe an idiotic book critic and their questionable ancestry. (Also from Mark Boss)


Beta Reader: a friend who hasn't opened a novel since high school that you rope into reading your un-edited, 300,000-word rip off of James Joyce. (Mark Boss)

Writer's vocation:  lifelong; unpaid; computer keyboard skills required. (Thanks to Marty Sirmons)

...to be continued ...

Writers' Jargon (5)

Writers have their own language. A shorthand, if you will. Outsiders (non-writers) think they know what most of these words and phrases mean. But they don't. Here, in a continuing series of posts, I will divulge the SECRET MEANINGS OF WRITERS' JARGON.

Orphan: (noun) What your kids feel like because you’re always writing or reading or editing. (Similar to, but not to be confused with, “widow.”)

Inciting Incident: (noun) Traumatizing event, usually occurring in childhood, that caused the emotional/neurological damage sufficient to make you think you could be a writer.

Pen Name: (Proper noun) What you call your favorite pen. I call mine “Lovely,” but then I was probably dropped on my head as a kid. (Not to be confused with “pseudonym.”)

... to be continued ...

Writers Jargon (4)

Writers have their own language. A shorthand, if you will. Outsiders (non-writers) think they know what most of these words and phrases mean. But they don't. Here, in a continuing series of posts, I will divulge the SECRET MEANINGS OF WRITERS' JARGON.

Interlude: (noun) The portion of the story that gets inserted between doses of ’ludes. Tends to give the other portions some clarity, explore backstory (see "backstory").

Plot: (noun) Where characters are buried when they die.

Backstory: (noun) The stuff only the writer knows about the situation and characters, often inserted into the narrative because he can’t figure out where the story should meander next. (See “Interlude.”)

...to be continued...

Writers Jargon (3)

Writers have their own language. A shorthand, if you will. Outsiders (non-writers) think they know what most of these words and phrases mean. But they don't. Here, in a continuing series of posts, I will divulge the SECRET MEANINGS OF WRITERS' JARGON.

Vanity Press: (noun) The coffee press you use to make your own special blend, and yet no one takes your coffee seriously.

Prologue: (noun) The log a person should be beaten with when he decides to write for a living. (Not to be confused with “prelude.”)

Prelude: (noun) The portion of the story you write before the ’ludes kick in. (Not to be confused with “prologue.”)