I can't believe it's been a month since my last entry. Well, yes I can, since I see the date of my last one, but the month went by way too fast.
We're a weird species. We go to work and hope the day goes by quickly. The we hope the week gets over pretty quickly. Then we wonder how come the month went by so quickly.
What writing time I've had has been dedicated to Lying Swords and submitting a couple of short stories, and editing those specifically for the market I'm submitting to.
I ran out of new stuff to read so I've picked up a couple of old paperbacks I haven't read in at least ten years. I finished Priest-Kings of Gor and I'm now working on Beasts of Gor. These are two of very many Gor books by John Norman.
The basic tenet of these stories is that they happen on the planet Gor—the counter-earth. The planet is in the exact same orbit as Earth and always on the exact opposite side of the sun. Gor was brought to the solar system by a technologically advanced species called Priest-Kings. The first book in the series, Tarnsman of Gor, reveals a lot of this plus details.
These stories are told in first person by Tarl Cabot, a man of Earth who was brought to Gor in one of the voyages of acquisition. The plots and characters of these novels are generally very entertaining. On the downside, Norman is obsessed with a certain philosophy of sex and the relationship between men and women. Each successive book, it seems, has more and more words devoted to this theory until it becomes tiresome. Since I've read Beasts of Gor once before I find it easy to skip over the pedantry and get to the meat of the story.
Norman has an interesting writing style, or style of expression, that is both unique, entertaining and annoying. I have copied it a little in my longer works, not intentionally applying the style while realizing that I am doing it, if that makes sense. Norman has a PhD in philosophy, which helps explain the long paragraphs of message. But his stories and world-building are excellent in the first half-dozen or so, and then the story-telling declines. I wish I had more than the two I do have.
Here's a link to the Wikipedia article on Norman which includes a list of his 35 (!) Gor books: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Norman
It has been a weird year so far (like this is news)and it just got more so. The corona virus has clobbered the economy, sports, and caused the death of over 100,000 Americans and it ain't done yet. And then George Floyd was murdered by a cop, and other cops not only allowed it to happen but made sure no non-cop interfered. They've been charged with crimes. Good. I don't know if Chauvin intended to kill George Floyd, but it was quite clear that neither he nor his compatriots had the slightest concern for the welfare of the victim and were quite satisfied with the situation that lasted for nine minutes.
Now we have demonstrations, peaceful and violent, trying to get systematic change in the treatment of black Americans by society in general and police specifically.
And no matter how they try to spin the view, neither the Trump administration nor his ass-kissing political supporters dispute that peaceful protestors, exercising the Constitutional rights, were gassed (either tear gas or smoke) and chased away by violent means so that President Trump could walk across the area to stand in front of a church and hold a Bible upside down to have his picture taken.
One more viewpoint: in April, gas prices in Wisconsin flirted with $1 per gallon--$1.29 in Prairie du Chien. Now, less than two months later, it's $2.14. Sure, some of that is because the demand has increased.
However...
Earlier in the year Russia and Saudi Arabia were waging an oil price war. Gas prices were down because oil prices were down—way down—because of this price war. Then the price war ended and prices climbed quickly. Why did that war end? Because President Trump convinced those countries to stop the war because the billion-dollar oil companies based in the U.S. were losing money.
Trump took care of his billionaire friends, bragged about it, and left us to pay for it.
Remember that when you buy gas in November, and when you vote.
We're a weird species. We go to work and hope the day goes by quickly. The we hope the week gets over pretty quickly. Then we wonder how come the month went by so quickly.
What writing time I've had has been dedicated to Lying Swords and submitting a couple of short stories, and editing those specifically for the market I'm submitting to.
I ran out of new stuff to read so I've picked up a couple of old paperbacks I haven't read in at least ten years. I finished Priest-Kings of Gor and I'm now working on Beasts of Gor. These are two of very many Gor books by John Norman.
The basic tenet of these stories is that they happen on the planet Gor—the counter-earth. The planet is in the exact same orbit as Earth and always on the exact opposite side of the sun. Gor was brought to the solar system by a technologically advanced species called Priest-Kings. The first book in the series, Tarnsman of Gor, reveals a lot of this plus details.
These stories are told in first person by Tarl Cabot, a man of Earth who was brought to Gor in one of the voyages of acquisition. The plots and characters of these novels are generally very entertaining. On the downside, Norman is obsessed with a certain philosophy of sex and the relationship between men and women. Each successive book, it seems, has more and more words devoted to this theory until it becomes tiresome. Since I've read Beasts of Gor once before I find it easy to skip over the pedantry and get to the meat of the story.
Norman has an interesting writing style, or style of expression, that is both unique, entertaining and annoying. I have copied it a little in my longer works, not intentionally applying the style while realizing that I am doing it, if that makes sense. Norman has a PhD in philosophy, which helps explain the long paragraphs of message. But his stories and world-building are excellent in the first half-dozen or so, and then the story-telling declines. I wish I had more than the two I do have.
Here's a link to the Wikipedia article on Norman which includes a list of his 35 (!) Gor books: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Norman
It has been a weird year so far (like this is news)and it just got more so. The corona virus has clobbered the economy, sports, and caused the death of over 100,000 Americans and it ain't done yet. And then George Floyd was murdered by a cop, and other cops not only allowed it to happen but made sure no non-cop interfered. They've been charged with crimes. Good. I don't know if Chauvin intended to kill George Floyd, but it was quite clear that neither he nor his compatriots had the slightest concern for the welfare of the victim and were quite satisfied with the situation that lasted for nine minutes.
Now we have demonstrations, peaceful and violent, trying to get systematic change in the treatment of black Americans by society in general and police specifically.
And no matter how they try to spin the view, neither the Trump administration nor his ass-kissing political supporters dispute that peaceful protestors, exercising the Constitutional rights, were gassed (either tear gas or smoke) and chased away by violent means so that President Trump could walk across the area to stand in front of a church and hold a Bible upside down to have his picture taken.
One more viewpoint: in April, gas prices in Wisconsin flirted with $1 per gallon--$1.29 in Prairie du Chien. Now, less than two months later, it's $2.14. Sure, some of that is because the demand has increased.
However...
Earlier in the year Russia and Saudi Arabia were waging an oil price war. Gas prices were down because oil prices were down—way down—because of this price war. Then the price war ended and prices climbed quickly. Why did that war end? Because President Trump convinced those countries to stop the war because the billion-dollar oil companies based in the U.S. were losing money.
Trump took care of his billionaire friends, bragged about it, and left us to pay for it.
Remember that when you buy gas in November, and when you vote.
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