EMBRACE: A ROMANCE COLLECTION now available!
The EMBRACE romance collection is now available on Amazon Kindle for $4.99. It includes a short story from New York Times bestseller Kat Martin, as well as a story from me titled "Arizona's Promise." Check it out Kindle readers!
http://tiny.cc/q6lclw
Sep 28, 2012 9:10:56 AM | Books
The Cost Of Selling On Craig's List
I have sold several things on Craig's List. It's a proven, immediate system that is supposed to be free. Yes, the ads don't cost anything to run, but I have heard so many stories... scary stories, from women who have had some real shady characters show up at their door. Though they may not buy anything, that doesn't stop them from calling later. Yeah, you know what I mean.
Last spring I sold my used John Deere riding lawn mower. I put fresh gas in it, changed the oil, and mowed the first mow of the year with it, and after making sure it worked okay, I cleaned it up and placed the add on Craig's List. The number I put in the ad was my cell phone, and it amazes me how few people call you, but send a text message. "Do you still have the mower?" they ask.
The first guy to come and look at it arrived with a trailer behind his pickup. He came prepared. His wife was with him, and he said he was buying it for her. They have a large acreage, and thought if they each had a mower they could get it done quicker. They both drove the mower around my yard, engaged the mower, and she said she loved it. So, they gave me the cash, loaded it on their trailer, and headed down the road.
A week later the guy called me (didn't text) and was madder than a she-grizzly. He said that the mower started having problems, so he took it to the John Deere dealership and the cost to repair it was more than he gave me for it. At least that was his story. I felt bad and since I did all the maintenace myself on the mower I asked him what was wrong. After he explained the problem I told him that he could get that part much cheaper and put it on himself, but he didn't want to mess with that. What he wanted was his money back.
I grew up on a farm and we bought and sold a lot of used equipment. I also came from a part of the world where we worked on our own stuff, and rarely ever took anything to a repair shop. If we bought something used, it was "as is." If we sold it, we sold it "as is." That was almost taken for granted. But in the city things are much different. It's a service world now, and people are used to taking things to get them fixed. I am quite sure I could have fixed the mower myself if it were my problem, but, it wasn't my problem any more. And offering to fix it for him would have likely created a situation where he pestered me to death.
Well, it didn't matter. He sent me so many text messages and called me so many times that I got used to seeing his number. The last four digits are "5454" so it's pretty easy to remember. I ignored all his calls and texts, and after a few days they'd stop. But every couple of weeks or so I'd get a text from his number that was blank. Again, this was last spring. It is almost October and I got another one today... that's right, it's blank.
Pretty spooky, in a way. He wants to remind me every so often that he felt cheated, when truly what he got was a case of bad luck. It has happened to me before, more than once. Some things in life are a gamble, and buying used equipment is one of them. I remember several years ago I bought a used pickup, and the day after I bought it the rig blew a head gasket. Tough luck, for sure, but the last thing I did was harrass the guy that sold it to me.
I made a new pact with myself, which was to not list my cell phone number on Craig's List any more. I've got a pay-by-minute cell phone I'll use which doesn't have texting, and I'll mention that in the add. When I'm not using that phone, it sits in a drawer in my office desk, powered down, so at least I won't be haunted by some loser who never learned the art of swap and trade.
Steven Law is the author of Yuma Gold (Berkley, 2011) and The True Father (Goldminds, 2008). Visit his website at www.stevenlaw.com.
Sep 25, 2012 6:23:48 PM | Current Affairs, Web/Tech
The Value of Silence and Compassion
Yes, it's true, that the First Amendment does offer us freedom of speech. We can speak openly about pretty much whatever we want, with the exception of libel, without legal repercussion. Doesn't matter if it's about politics, religion, business, sex, etc., it's all fair game. That doesn't mean, however, that anyone will be immune to social repercussions.
This has been a big topic on the world stage lately after an amateur filmmaker, with Coptic Christian beliefs, released a film poking fun at the Islamic prophet, Mohamed. As we all know, and certainly the filmmaker knew, such rhetoric inside the Muslim community is punishable only by death. It doesn't matter how extreme that may be, or how anyone else feels about it, it is a matter of how they feel, and they're not American. Step foot into their world, and I assure you the Bill of Rights won't protect you.
Author Salman Rushdie has been facing the same kind of backlash for his book The Satanic Verses ever since its release in 1988. The result was an Islamic fatwā which ordered his death, and as of late, the bounty is now set at $3.3 million. The British, Indian author, now living on American soil in New York City, has been living under police protection ever since.
Though it was his right to write and publish the book, as it was the right of the filmmaker to make the controversial video, it was also their right to keep their mouths shut, and they are reaping the consequences for not doing so. Rushdie is not taking the threat seriously, which surprises me, because all we have to do is look at what happened at the American Embassy in Egypt to know that the Islamic communities do take it seriously.
We don't have to be on the world stage to realize consequences for what we say or create. From our first social experiences as children, to present day, we have all learned that at times it was probably better that we not ignite, or not respond. Yeah, maybe that girl is wearing an ugly dress, but is it important that all your friends know your feelings? Very few have the guts to tell anyone directly how they feel, they usually spread it via malicious gossip, which is a weak, cowardly approach.
We have all experienced incidents like this over our lifetime, regardless of what painful end we are on. It doesn't matter whether you start it, or weather you're on the receiving end, it is always painful to either party. I say this because when someone starts malicious talk, especially the kind that is somewhat slanted and magnified to make it worse than it really is, then I will revert to an old saying that I like to use: karma is a bitch.
As I got older, through college, and out into the business world, I experienced a lot of this type of behavior that was truly no better than when we were in junior high school. It doesn't matter whether the person is at entry level, or a CEO of a Fortune 500 company, they all do it. I feel lucky to have had some good examples, even some good teaching from mentors, on how to handle these types of situations, and the best advice was not to participate in it, even if it's about you.
After every experience I had like this the better I got at handling it. I'm not saying that it's not hurtful, annoying, or that it doesn't anger me, but experience has taught me that keeping silent is the best remedy of all. The most hurtful part is that we usually end up losing so-called friends. No, they weren't our friends after all, but we may have thought there was something promising for the future.
I have read a lot of biographies of successful people, and quite often they will write about this very issue. Almost always they will be consistent with remaining calm, professional, and staying out of it. This is certainly true in personal situations. In business situations, sometimes there is a requirement to respond, and in doing so we are very careful to do so in a professional, non-threatening manner.
This reminds me of the numerous accounts in the arts where I have witnessed authors, musicians, actors, and the like, that were somewhat one-hit wonders because of the way they worked with people. Some like to call it "drama," which in many cases the most successful people I know try to avoid. Making way into the world of the professional arts is not near as difficult as staying in it. Once they break that barrier there are even more obstacles to overcome, and if they are more emotional than professional then it's unlikely their success will last.
Several years back, when Jay Leno took over the tonight show, there were things going on behind his back that he knew could destroy his chances at keeping the job. Rather than engage in the drama, Jay went straight to the source, the one who had the answers and could make the decisions, and worked things out. The result? Well, after all those years he is still on the air.
There have been three situations in the last year where people have tried to destroy my career. For whatever reasons they felt the need to do so, all three of them could have saved a lot of heartache for themselves as well as me if they would have just called me first and expressed their concerns. Instead, they made their judgment, based on hearsay, and went about spreading the rumors and creating a negative image about me and what I do. Again, they never, ever talked to me first.
When these rumors got around to the people that DO know me, and knew better, they called me. "Have you heard what so-and-so is saying? What's that all about?" They cared enough to inquire about it before they responded or said anything, which goes to show that the person that starts things usually doesn't care, and usually has self-serving reasons for doing so. The same with those who participate and take stock in the rumors, and have never heard my side of the story.
I am not surprised to know that all three cases are part of the same circle, just different ring leaders. Two of the three situations are over with, and I am standing just as tall, if not taller, than before. The third was even more damaging, and is yet to come to a close, but I assure you I will not be taken down by this. Everything I started in my career is going stronger than ever, and I credit it to keeping my nose to the grindstone and avoiding the senseless, pointless drama that can do nothing more than hold me back.
I have to make mention of the use of social media in these types of situations. Because of smart phones, tablets, or anything mobile that is connected to the Internet, we are in a communication revolution. What this means is that we communicate faster than ever before, and almost anything can become "live" in a nanosecond. Because of this, a lot of what we say or do online can't be undone, and if we don't take time to think about things before we post or hit send, it can be quite harmful to others and ourselves.
Facebook can be useful, but in many cases it's just as useless and counterproductive. People use Facebook for these social games they play with other people, and like any other medium of communication it's something not to take part in. The most successful people I know are not on Facebook, or if they are, they are not on there very much. I limit my time on all social media to just a few minutes each day, and most of that is on my business page. I used it more while I was on tour, but much less while I'm at home. My books are not going to write themselves.
First and foremost, I think that we have to understand why people say the things they do to help us realize why we don't do the same thing. The martyrs of our history, which go back more than two millennia, who lost their lives standing up for free speech, did so for the benefit of the human race. Some will argue the value of the Coptic filmmaker's work, or Salman Rushdie's book, but few will disagree that they didn't do it for attention to themselves, or their own personal gain, instead of the greater good.
It's the same for all expressions that are hurtful in nature and handled inappropriately, they did it for attention. They could have thought about the greater whole instead of themselves, and found themselves in a much better eye of those who chose not to take part or respond. That, my current and former friends, would have been exercising their freedom of silence, and a true ability to care about other people. That's the path I choose, and I hope you will too.
Sep 19, 2012 4:57:36 PM | Books, Current Affairs, History, Religion
The Power Of An Empty Chair
Long before Clint Eastwood delivered his controversial improv at the Republican National Convention, or the buzz of "Eastwooding" began, there has been and empty chair in my house that is much more than just a "conversation" piece, and the former inhabitants more than just imaginative.
Most of my readers know that my pen name, Law, came from my maternal grandmother. When my grandmother was only five years-old, her own mother passed away, and since her father didn't feel he could provide proper care for her and her two siblings, they were left to be raised by her grandparents. Her grandfather had a chair that she loved to sit in, and God only knows the things she learned or thought about while sitting in that chair, but more so, I am confident that my great-great-grandfather read some fantastic news stories while reading his newspaper in it.
It is possible that in that chair he learned of the panic in 1929 that began the Great Depression, something that would have affected them greatly since they owned and operated a general store. He likely listened to Roosevelt on the radio, maybe the comedy of Amos and Andy, or the Big Band music of Artie Shaw.
My grandma's uncle Otis was the first to inherit the chair, and the picture I have here is of him sitting in it, in his favorite spot next to his radio. The little girl in the picture is one of my mother's first cousins, which would date this photo in the early 1950s. Having learned about Otis and his interests, I'm quite certain that he listened to a lot of baseball games on that radio while sitting in the chair—perhaps he heard the play by play of the St. Louis Cardinals and Stan Musial as they won the 1942 World Series.
Otis died in 1963, and though I'm not sure how it worked out precisely, somehow my grandma Law inherited the chair. As a child I remember seeing the chair in the old farmhouse. Not considered an antique, but a regular part of the living room furniture, it was used for family and company. Though I can't remember specifically my grandmother reading to me in this chair, I'm quite sure it was in the same room when she did.
My grandma died in 1983, and several years after that my grandfather gave the chair to my mother. To her it was an heirloom and an antique, and was very proud of it. The cushion had been recovered from its original leather to a gold tweed upholstery, and it was part of my mom's decorative furniture for several years—never used, but sat empty and only to be admired by its appearance.
I loved the chair, for its style, appearance, and nostalgia, so I was very pleased when my mother gave it to me. I never intended to use it, only for it to sit empty and to decorate my home. But it was in bad need of a new finish, and I wanted to recover the cushion back to leather. My mom agreed to help me, and so before taking it to my home we stripped and refinished it ourselves, and my mom reupholstered the cushion. When done I couldn't have been more pleased with the results.
But in my house it sat, an empty chair, except when one of my cats or my dog took the notion to lay in it for a nap. On occasion, when my parents would visit, my mom would sit in the chair, maybe to absorb some of that nostalgic energy, or more likely to admire our work of restoration. I certainly loved having the chair for all those reasons.
Not long ago I was reading about Louis L'Amour's claim that he "could write anywhere with his typewriter balanced on his knees." I thought I should try to do something similar, and when passing through my living room I saw the chair and it hit me: I should write a novel in that chair.
After all, I write under my grandmother's name, and it belonged to her family. What another great tribute, I thought, and it would also give that particular book a special, personal contribution. So I committed to it, and when I started writing The Bitter Road, it was with my laptop balanced on my knees, in that once empty chair. Though I am still working on the novel as I write this, I can assure you that every single word has, and will be written in that chair.
And yes, even this blog post is being written in that chair.
One might wonder if it's comfortable, and I am amazed at just how comfortable it is. It's really no different than my office chair, which is designed after the old style wooden office chairs on caster wheels. Though I'm not convinced it's something I would want to write in full time, it's definitely fun to do as a tribute.
Now as for having conversations with this empty chair, that has never happened. I do think, however, that sometimes the chair talks to me. Not literally, of course, but spiritually. Five generations of my family have owned this chair, and it's my belief that it is on an incredible journey, and my contribution may only be a short chapter of where it has been and what is yet to come, but before my time is up, I may have to do some Eastwooding of my own. That's right, I can't bear the thought of saying goodbye to the chair without having a nice talk. We might even talk about politics.
Sep 9, 2012 6:36:19 PM | Books, History, Sports
"Hell on Wheels" On the Right Track
For many years I have been hoping for the TV Western to make a comeback, and the deeper I got into my writing career, and watching the market for Westerns fade to a fraction of those glory days, I wondered if it wasn't a hopeless dream. Thanks to AMC, and their latest endeavor, "Hell on Wheels," which just started its second season, is on the right track (pardon the pun) to defining the Western for the 21st century.
This is not the first Western series in the past decade or so to start its second season. "The Magnificent Seven," which started in 1998, ran for three seasons. The controversial HBO series "Deadwood" also ran for three seasons. TNT tried to tone things down a bit with Steven Speilberg's "Into the West," which took a fascinating look at the settlement of the American West from the perspective of both the Native American's and the Anglo settlers, but it aired only one season. From my perspective, it seemed to me that the TV industry was trying too hard to reinvent the wheel when what they needed to do was reinvent the Western for modern audiences.
To understand where I'm coming from you'll need to acknowledge that TV shows, like movies, are no different than Western novels—they are stories that all require a hungry audience. In his memoir Education of a Wandering Man, Louis L'Amour talked about the market for Westerns in the late 1940s and 1950s, when he wrote for the pulp magazines, being mostly concerned with the action, and less with the characters or even the plot, because from one to the other they were largely the same.
L'Amour was one of the authors that helped build the bridge toward this character driven story, and in the golden age of the TV Western the recurring characters became the draw. We grew to love the Cartwrights, the Barkleys, and Marshal Dillon and Festus. "Bonanza" ran for fifteen seasons, and "Gunsmoke" ran for twenty seasons, the longest running Western TV series ever. And I attribute that to the great writing that wove strong characters and stories together.
L'Amour also had a great deal to do with the incorporation of actual history into the stories. It was more than just a Hollywood studio set when the pilot of "Little House on the Prairie" first aired in 1975 (the year "Gunsmoke" went off the air). Though it still had the TV drama style, historical events and sequencing played a huge part in creating the storyline, which was based strongly on the series of novels from Laura Ingalls Wilder. After nine seasons, ending in 1983, this would be the beginning of the near end of the series Western in the twentieth century.
Where Hollywood failed is in their lack of recognizing the changing trends and the evolution of the Western. We went from action, to character, to historical. But then what? The changes were largely due to the culture of competition for entertainment and delivery, from TV networks to Cable TV and multiple channels. The only successful TV Western in the 1990s was "Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman" which ran for six seasons, and followed the adventures of a female frontier doctor. This may have been largely due to the cinema success of "Dances With Wolves" in 1990, which found unplowed ground playing on the sympathies of the Native Americans, or, in other words, being politically correct. "Dr. Quinn" was not your grandpa's Western, but more like your grandma's historical romance.
This plays into the same theory, which goes back to 1969, where some blame the film "Easy Rider" for the fall of the Western. It's not so much a change in genre preference as it is a change in attitudes, when the youth of that era began to challenge authority and the culture where it was bred. The values of the Greatest Generation were under fire, and even John Wayne spoke publically of how much he despised "Easy Rider" which did nothing more than fan the flames.
We have to remember, too, that John Wayne made a mark on the traditional character Western that will never be duplicated. Louis L'Amour did the same for novels, being a phenomenon in an era that eventually faded away. The great Western novelist Elmer Kelton, whose own novel The Good Old Boys was made into a TV movie on TNT in 1995, also wrote for the pulps, but made a niche for himself writing about less boastful characters and weaving them into actual historical events.
This was all starting to come together for the three of them when John Wayne's last role in "The Shootist" (1976) was the type of nontraditional character that could easily be seen as the next generation Western archetype. Louis L'Amour, a few years before his passing in 1988, was starting to write a different range of fiction, historical and contemporary, specifically The Walking Drum, The Haunted Mesa, and Last of the Breed.
L'Amour was editing his memoir Education of a Wandering Man when he died, and in that book he spoke of his interest in writing science fiction as well, which was evidence that he was evolving as the audience evolved. Elmer Kelton, who was still writing when he died in 2009, made it very clear that the heroes in his Western stories were average Joes that were not "six-foot-five and bullet proof, but five-foot-eight and nervous," which were more identifiable by the reader. This follows the theory that the reader was maturing, and the macho types of the previous generations no longer had the same appeal.
If this is true, then what is the next generation of Western story? "The Magnificent Seven" of the late 90s, which was based, of course, on the original 1960 movie, fell short after three seasons. This was an example of what I and many others refer to as the missing ambitions of Hollywood, unwilling to take chances on new turf, yet reinvent what has already been done. The "Deadwood" series may have been a bit ahead of it's time, then again it's not network TV, and not something you would want to watch with the whole family. "Into the West" was a terrific series, but it may have been too spaced out, covering too much history in too short of time, to ever succeed as a running series.
The most important discovery was AMC's Emmy-winning mini-series, "Broken Trail," in 2006. Here is a perfect example of "unplowed ground." It was an original, unique storyline, that catered to a mainstream audience. AMC has had a long string of success stories with original series programming, such as "Mad Men," "Breaking Bad," and "The Walking Dead," so naturally it took another stab at a series Western. I had to admit, though, when I first learned of the upcoming "Hell on Wheels" series I was a bit skeptical.
What I did like was how it followed one historical event—the building of the Transcontinental Railroad. I have often wondered why there wasn't more about this critical piece of history, so it was a good choice. It wasn't a large span of time, either. It was an event that could easily be spaced out and made to last. My concern, however, was the trite genre references and characterizations, a bow to political correctness, as well as overly macho roles that did nothing for the desires of mainstream audiences.
What we got was the best of both worlds. There is Western action, characters we are drawn to, historical following, and compelling storylines. There is political correctness, but there are also the hard historical realities. There are trite occurrences— the cliché of the confederate soldier coming home to a dead family, the military abuse of Indians, the greedy railroad tycoon, and I don't know how many times over the years I've heard, or read, the Revelation quote, "Behold a pale horse…" For some reason writers think that Bible quote is as iconic to the West as boots and spurs.
Like "Deadwood" there is the modern attraction to the graphic violence, the blood and gore, sexual content, and fairly explicit language. But in "Deadwood" it seemed to be added for superficial reasons rather than something true to the character and situation. In one of the newer episodes, I was a bit surprised when they showed the actual butchering of a hog. Graphic as it was, it was certainly a fair sampling of something one would have encountered in that period and place, and it was certainly not politically correct.
The key lead character, played by Anson Mount, is one of the most rugged original characters I've ever seen on TV. He is a product of the times, molded to ride the bloody edges of hell in a corrupt and lawless situation. He is far from friendly, polite, and controlled by his desire for revenge, yet we know that deep inside he searches for peace, even if it's through death, and despite of how many times he falls.
My next major compliment is the costume and staging. Rarely do you see anyone clean, nor were the streets around them neat and tidy. The mud, and the blood, are a vivid reality. The way they authentically created the tent cities, plank floors, and the commerce that provided the necessities, is to be commended. There is something very real about watching a woman walk across camp in a fancy dress and the edges of her petticoat all muddy.
I also enjoy the dialogue exchanges, among all the characters, which has a nice original, almost modern feel to it, yet mostly correct for the times. The situations among all the people in the camp, from the prostitutes to the Christian crusader, from the immigrant diversity to the racial epithets, have the essence of reality and originality. Along with these things and the compelling storylines, I do believe, all will be the reason it succeeds. Just how long is hard to tell. Regardless, it has my support, and I find myself anxiously awaiting the next episode. That hasn't happened to me in decades.
P.S. to those of you who have Dish Network, you have my sympathies. :)
Sep 1, 2012 10:53:02 AM