With retailers stretching their seasonal sales earlier and earlier, most of us in the U.S. started seeing Halloween decorations on the shelves in August. It’s a little hard to get into the spirit* of things after being pelted with pumpkin decorations at every turn for weeks on end. To help you restore some of that holiday fear**, why not pick up an anthology of ghost stories? In fact, let me suggest one anthology in particular. The recently released Haunted: 11 Tales of Ghostly Horror includes a story of mine- The Angry Stick.

This book has been a long time in the making, but the story even longer. I was approached by Matt McElroy of Flames Rising Press back in early 2010 about submitting an anthology story for consideration. Honestly, it was a pretty rough time for me. Ed and I were working like mad to put the finishing touches on Degrees of Horror, our big (and I mean BIG) Pinebox setting book for Savage Worlds set on the ETU campus. By that point we’d been running that particular marathon for several months. The last thing I needed to do was take on more writing work. Still, when opportunity knocks it’s hard to plug your ears.

The Angry Stick started as a thematic sibling to another project I’d started in 2009. That one was a sci-fi story (working title Mission Incomplete) that I’d started but set aside until I could figure out how to pull off the ending. I knew how I wanted it to end thematically, but I hadn’t worked out the actual mechanics of what the protagonist would do to generate the resolution I had in mind. The Haunted anthology story would be totally different– present-day ghost hunting had absolutely nothing in common with my sci-fi story. Yet as I cast about for ideas I came around to that same theme I had been exploring in Mission Incomplete. Apparently it was an idea that wanted out one way or another, and as elements clicked into place I saw how I could make the story work. The good news is that whereas Mission Incomplete lay, well…incomplete, the resolution on The Angry Stick came about much more easily. There’s something to be said for persistence and re-writing.

The protagonist in The Angry Stick is a seasoned ghost hunter who has been drawn to a pool hall in Pinebox, Texas by reports of strong supernatural activity. I had some backstory in which the protagonist got his start in Pinebox, but almost all of that ended up on the cutting room floor in favor of fleshing out other parts of the story. Those are the kinds of tough choices you have to make when you’re working under a word limit and I appreciate editor Monica Valentinelli’s wisdom on zeroing in on the more important parts. The story is better for her input.

It’s been more than a year since I wrote The Angry Stick and maybe 6 months since I turned in the final requested edits. With the benefit of time and experience, I recently picked up Mission Incomplete again. I’ve been polishing the parts I’d written two years ago and drawing closer to the ending I knew I wanted. Only, a few days ago I realized that what I’d originally envisioned (and pulled off in The Angry Stick) really didn’t entirely make sense for the protagonist in this situation. Now I either have to figure out how to re-frame things such that the ending is still logical or I have to come up with another ending that still satisfies the overall theme of the story. That’s okay though. I’m a writer. I have some ideas.

*See what I did there?
**And there?

One of our standing dates was a short 10 mile drive to the tiny town of Harwood. I seriously doubt Harwood had a population in the triple digits at the time, but what it did have was an empty schoolhouse. Like many towns along the railroad connecting Houston to San Antonio, Harwood had once been a thriving community. The town’s lifeblood dried up with the decline of passenger travel by rail and the introduction of the Interstate highway a few miles away. This old, brick building was a monument to livelier times and boasted a handful of classrooms as well as a cafeteria with a stage at one end—perfect for a monthly bluegrass jam.

I took the bluegrass jam for granted, just as teens take nearly everything for granted. Some of the bluegrass musicians drove three hours or more to spend an afternoon and evening in a vacant building in a speck of a community just for the joy of jamming with each other. Even while groups took turn on stage (two songs per turn), other musicians would meet in the hallway or outside to teach each other new licks or just have fun. While some musicians came to the bluegrass jam as a group, just as many arrived singly and formed groups for the night right on the spot. Many months, the tiny schoolhouse was filled with 60 to 80 enthusiasts. Remarkably, there was no admission fee for the event, only a tip jar to cover the cost of renting the building for the day.

All of which is to say, even though my eyes were set on rock and roll as a teen, more than a little of that good bluegrass music made its way into my heart. Thus it was with a mixture of nostalgia, appreciation for good music, and a respect for Steve Martin (yes, THAT Steve Martin) that I picked up Rare Bird Alert. His banjo prowess astounded me even when I watched a video of his standup routine, and it seems that he has finally returned to a music he clearly loves. My reintroduction to Steve’s new work came through a YouTube video of one of the songs on this album, a funny “gospel” song called Atheists Don’t Have No Songs. When I earned a $15 Amazon credit for pre-ordering something else, I decided on impulse to give Rare Bird Alert a try.

I should also mention that as I near 40 years old, I fully recognize that I’m not in the record companies’ demographics. I rarely buy music anymore, preferring to listen to Pandora. When I do buy music, it is always digital. I made an exception this time for two reasons. First, Amazon’s credit excluded digital downloads, and second, a customer review noted that the liner notes took the package to another level. Now that I have the CD in hand I have to agree. Clearly a lot of production work went into the physical package, from the trading cards(!) to the liner notes. I usually couldn’t care less about liner notes, but the notes helped me paint a mental picture while listening to the songs with no lyrics.

I won’t comment on every song, but there are a few that really stood out for me. Yellow-backed Fly is a fishing song with a whole lot of simple charm. I could listen to it over and over. Steve Martin’s sense of humor comes out in Jubilation Day, a song about breaking up. The Great Remember is a beautiful song in which lyrics would have only served to gild the lily. The previously mentioned Atheists Don’t Have No Songs is also a fun, funny treat.

I’ve listened to Rare Bird Alert completely twice now, and it will probably be in heavy rotation as soon as I can rip it to MP3. My only complaint really isn’t a mark against the album as it is a statement about my preferences. Rare Bird Alert is a studio album and sounds like it. The recording and production are top notch, the playing flawless … yet there’s a certain zest that comes from jamming together that’s missing. That is simply the nature of a studio album versus a live recording, and it’s a preference I’m sure wholly influenced by many a summer night spent listening to live bluegrass jams. Regardless, I’ll definitely be adding The Crow: New Songs for the Five String Banjo, Mr. Martin’s prior bluegrass CD, to my wishlist.

Magnetic Field around a Sunspot. Image credit Hinode JAXA/NASA

I’ve had a long-standing interest in solar power, the effect of solar cycles on our weather, and the like. I suppose that’s why I’m fascinated by the Carrington Flare– an 1859 solar flare so strong that the magnetic effects on earth caused telegraph wires to spark and catch fire.  It really sparks the imagination. What would a flare of that magnitude do to our wired world today? Forget climate change– how could society react if the majority (or even merely half) of electronic equipment around the world simultaneously fried? It revives all those Y2K fears all over again, except we don’t know when the hammer will fall and we’re not sure how much we can protect. Imagine banking computers going down, hard drives frying, power transformers blowing out (such as the one pictured in the linked article), and cellular satellites and towers failing. Okay, I admit it. My fascination has less to do with science than an imaginary scenario in which the technological glue holding modern society together comes unstuck. There’s a “World War Z” story in there, sans zombies.

At any rate, it is worth noting that we appear to be emerging from a deep solar minimum (period of low sunspot activity). That means we’ll see roughly 11 years of growing sunspot activity, which means growing flare activity, which means increased magnetic fluctuation. Whether we’re due for a new Carrington-level event is a matter of conjecture, but it makes for nice drama. Maybe the Mayans were onto something with this whole calendar-ending thing. Anyone want to place bets? Electronic payment not accepted.

Sure I may have been discouraged, but after a while I picked up my ego, dusted it off, and resumed dreaming. I envisioned a new trilogy, and spent the following grade year writing it in my spiral-bound notebook. It topped out at around 110 hand-written pages, and was about a pair of young boys who gain supernatural powers. At the end of the first book the main protagonist’s girlfriend was killed in an explosion meant for him, and the second book–started but never finished–introduced a new pair of protagonists, girls who were also given supernatural powers. The final book in the trilogy was to be about the final showdown between good (the teens) and evil, and I think it involved rediscovering Atlantis.

I never finished that trilogy, but I did continue to write short stories through high school and–less frequently–college. Writers are driven. The stories that bubble and build inside of us have to find a way out. Writers are also dreamers. Sure, we write for ourselves, but we also write for the dream of success and admiration that we secretly (or not so secretly) think we deserve. We write with the dream that one day our lives will be something like this:

However, writers who do more than dream, the ones who read and research and network and learn the biz realize that the reality isn’t quite as glamorous. It’s… well, it’s more like this:

Why would anyone want to subject themselves to that exercise in ego destruction? Why, after getting a C- on my 6th grade novella, did I start plotting out an even greater story? What drives us to keep writing and trying in the face of all opposition, or even worse–apathy? I’m not sure what it is, but I know it’s there. I’ve come a long way from that first novella. Having a story in Buried Tales of Pinebox, Texas
was a great milestone for me, but it’s not the end. I’ve got stories to tell, and they want–they need–to be told.

Now I just have to keep off the Xbox 360 long enough to write them.

Speaking of water, in climate change news new research into the rapid melting of Antarctic’s Pine Island Glacier is casting doubt on global warming as a cause. Apparently the melt-off has been in the works for a long time and would be happening now with or without global warming. This research does nothing to disprove global warming, but it does remove a piece of “evidence” from the table.

I’m sure you’ve heard about the vast mineral wealth found in Afghanistan? The article says that they could become the “Saudi Arabia of lithium.” If managed properly, these mineral resources could replace opium as the main source of income for many Afghanis. Of course, getting access to these resources will mean major infrastructure improvements, such as railroads, roads, and reliable electricity. With this much wealth at stake, I think you can forget Afghanistan being abandoned. Even if we completely turned out backs on the country, the Chinese would immediately step in. Batteries play a huge role in our “green” future, which means our insatiable appetite for oil will be replaced for an insatiable appetite for minerals like lithium. The big question is, what will it take to keep the Taliban from sabotaging efforts to improve the infrastructure of their own country? Because they control the roads, they have already stopped an effort to revitalize a hydro-electric plant and return reliable electricity to the southern part of the country.

Want to argue the politics of our place in Afghanistan? I don’t. If you want to chew on politics, I was recently reminded of this old article in which the author suggests we abandon the old two-dimensional left-right political spectrum in favor of a more sophisticated model for political axis. It’s as good as any. Or, you could check out some of the others mentioned on Wikipedia. They have the benefit of prettier graphics.

And, We’re too Broke to be this Stupid. “In one-sixth of British households, not a single family member works. They are not so much without employment as without need of it. At a certain level, your hard-working bourgeois understands that the bulk of his contribution to the treasury is entirely wasted. It’s one of the basic rules of life: if you reward bad behaviour, you get more of it. But, in good and good-ish times, who cares?”

I’m sure you’ve seen Soaring Costs Force Canada to Reassess Health Model. Yeah, the one we apparently want to emulate.

Space X’s Falcon 9 rocket recently had a successful test launch. Couple that with Bigelow Aerospace’s planned private space stations, and commercial space exploration is looking up even as NASA’s manned budget is being reduced.

Here’s an interesting look, from an engineering perspective, of the BP oil spill and the technical hurdles in capping it. There’s also some commentary (3rd article down) about the absurdity of BP’s “plan”. To be clear, cleanup “blamestorming” aside, BP’s actions leading up to the blowout appear quite negligent. Meanwhile, regular folks on the coast sum it up best. “This is the biggest damn mess I’ve ever seen.”

Into photography? Buy a Canon.

Remember what Mark Twain said about lies? Here’s another case of lies, damn lies, and statistics. In this case it’s Census job numbers.

This sounds like a major medical breakthrough, to me. Researchers have found an agent that appears to stop metastasis in cancer cells. Basically, it keeps them from growing. So far the tests have only been conducted in mice, so we don’t know if there are any side effects that would make this a deal-killer.

You know I’m a fan of Michael Yon. This beautiful photo series was reprinted (with permission) on an Air Force site.

Ever wonder what’s so wrong with arrest quotas? This article, if true, about NY city’s practices should be pretty disturbing. Here’s a money quote.

One officer with the unit acknowledged the political pressure to juke the stats. “The mayor’s looking for it, the police commissioner’s looking for it…every commanding officer wants to show it,” he said. “So there’s motivation not to classify reports for the seven major crimes.”

Sometime when you’re at home and have a few minutes to play with something really cool, visit Sounds of Hamburg. This Flash site lets you compose music by cleverly using the random motions of pedestrians in public webcams. It’s a fun, cool, site. Obviously you’ll need sound to enjoy this site.

[This is the result of allowing] racists into positions of power.

and

I had hoped that our Governor and law-makers would listen to their consciences and not be swayed by the voices of bigotry and racism. With the Governor’s signing of SB 1070, it seems that for now the advocates of fear and hatred have won over those of charity and love.

I’ve seen variations on this commentary repeated several times by many different people. It’s disappointing because it almost completely precludes the option for dialog. Once the “racisim card” is played, it means listening is over and a judgement has already been passed. There can be no national dialog on immigration reform when the first words are name-calling and demonization. However, if we lived in a society that favored rational discourse, I would pose the following questions.

Is there value in having national borders and controlling who belongs within one’s borders? Are borders an outdated concept, or do they still serve a useful purpose?

If the federal government decided to completely open our borders and stop all attempts to regulate who or what enters our country, what would be the outcome? And what would be the outcome of that? Follow the chain two more steps, then repeat the exercise with two other initial outcomes.

Assume that the Arizona law is NOT institutionalized racism and that it is an attempt to solve a problem. What do you perceive to be the problem, and what would be better solutions?

If race and immigration are inexorably linked, is there any way to talk about controlling immigration without appearing to be race biased? Or does immigration control automatically mean racism?

You probably know where I fall on the issue, and if you want to call me a racist then there’s nothing I can do to budge you from that mental sloth. Sure, I’m part Hispanic and sure I enrolled my eldest child in my school district’s dual-language program so that 80-90% of his instruction would be in Spanish, but those are just inconvenient details. Let the name-calling resume.

The following essay was written by Ed Wetterman, a Texas junior high social studies teacher and department head, who recently attended a state association meeting. He posted the essay below on his Facebook account and has graciously allowed me to repost it here so it may be more easily linked.

***********************

Texas Social Studies Supervisors Association

I attended the TSSA conference in Austin and it was great. I learned some new practices for the classroom, how to improve student achievement, and some on how to lower the achievement gap between white and minority students.

Of course the most interesting part of the conference was today. It began with a discussion by Dr. James B. Kracht of Texas A&M and Dr. Jesus de la Teja, professor and chairman of History at Texas State University and the first Texas State Historian. Both men served on the Social Studies committee to revise the TEKs that have caused so much national controversy, and hearing their stories was most interesting.

Some of the national bruhaha has been over details of the State Mandated Curriculum. As I’m sure you have heard on various news programs (FOX) and others, some of these changes have been met with anger and misunderstanding. I’ll be honest, I was NOT happy with the soundbites I heard either.

So, here is what I learned. First they were brutally honest about how difficult it is to work with elected folks who are not educators to write curriculum. Just as the nation is polarized into left and right, liberal and conservative, these same polarizations came into play during the three months of debate on the revision of the TEKS (Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills-that every public school must teach and be tested on using standardized testing).

Dr. Teja put it best (I’m paraphrasing from memory, notes, and my own ideas on the subject). Many on the left want to focus on the ugly and bad things America has done to various groups throughout our history to the exclusion of any good. Meanwhile the right want to present social studies in an Ozzie and Harriet, Leave it to Beaver, everything was so much better before Vietnam vision, without ever confronting the evils of our history. Man did I agree with this proposition! Meanwhile, the truth, as it usually is, is somewhere in the middle.

Social studies teachers in general believe that we must teach the good and the bad. Look, if America was as bad as the left wants to paint us, then why are people from all over the world still trying to immigrate here? But it is just as wrong to paint an Anglo-centric, saving the savages from themselves, in a perfect fifties world. Any historian will tell you that history is messy, and it is out of this mess that many good things have occurred. Dr. Martin Luther King was thought to be a rabble rouser and a dangerous man forty years ago by many of those in power. Today he is recognized for the good things he did, things he set out to do, and his vision that is coming to pass. The truth is many Americans were disenfranchised in the 50s, were not given their civil rights, and there truly were never the “good old days.” Social studies should teach inclusively, so that all Americans, whatever their background, can identify with the history of our nation, and be a true part of it. All cultures are part of our story and should be celebrated.

So…they debated with people, who are not educators, on both extremes. Not the best working situation. Meanwhile the media went for soundbites that in actuality are NOT true. Example One: Fox reported and it was picked up by everyone that “They are cutting Thomas Jefferson out of the curriculum standards.” This is WRONG! Curriculum consists of many areas. Thomas Jefferson is taught as the writer of the Declaration of Independence, a statesman of the Early Republic, a diplomat to France, a member of Washington’s first Cabinet, the leader of the Democratic-Republican party, an anti-federalist, who served as the 3rd President of the United States, was responsible for the Louisiana Purchase, and saw the US through many difficulties with England and France. What they “cut” was his LISTING as one of the great enlightenment thinkers of the 18th century. And that was only as a LISTING! They never said he wasn’t a great thinker, and many of the ideas of the Enlightenment, he incorporated into the Declaration of Independence and this is STILL taught.

The media doesn’t tell you all that does it? That isn’t good story. The good story was “Texas cuts Jefferson from Curriculum standards.” So…do you still believe everything you read or hear on Fox news? Fair and balanced? hmmm. What’s really funny to my independent ass, is that I heard my Left friends shouting about those Crazy Conservatives, and my Right friends saying look what those damn leftists are doing! Geez….get REAL FOLKS!

Example Two: “Texas got rid of the concept of Capitalism.” Boy the Righteous Republicans went nuts with this one. Look up the definition of Capitalism: “an economic system characterized by private or corporate ownership of capital goods, by investments that are determined by private decision, and by prices, production, and the distribution of goods that are determined mainly by competition in a free market.” In the new standards, they replaced the word Capitalism with Free Enterprise. “freedom of private business to organize and operate for profit in a competitive system without interference by government beyond regulation necessary to protect public interest and keep the national economy in balance.” (Merrriam Webster-online). Now, which better represents what we have? Is there a difference? Is it teaching socialism? Come on now!

Example Three: Changing the government LISTING from Democracy to Republic (Both are still taught in the Standards, but again, that’s not good media soundbites). Sigh.. Left and Right again. Left=Democrats=sounds like Democracy, while the Right=Republicans=sounds like Republic…

WRONGGGGGGGGGGG!!!! Folks, Democracy and Republic have nothing to do with the modern political parties, other than they are both involved in the process of Democracy in our Republic! Democracy is when the citizens of a place vote on every law and create government. Think ancient Athens. Was it good? Did everyone vote? Certainly not the slaves, non-citizens, or women. A Republic is when we elect others to make our laws and see to the practice of government in the name of the people (not socialist PEOPLE, but you know…American people). That is what we have! Move on.

Fox also recently reported that evil South Carolina was removing the Founding Father’s from their US History standards in High School. Folks, for over thirty years, Texas and many other states, have traditionally taught the Founding Fathers in JUNIOR HIGH 8th grade, not in high school. See South Carolina was generally moving into the more traditionalist way of teaching this subject, not removing it from being taught. Fox portrayed South Carolina as believing that the early republic is not important. Simply not true.

Were there problems? YES! However, these problems come from politically minded, non-educators, who were elected to serve on the state board of education, who came with an agenda that truly does not serve all our students. Despite this, I think if anyone bothers to read the entire TEKS when they are published in May, you will find that Thomas Jefferson is still in there, Democracy is still in there, and so is Capitalism. We cannot be so caught up in our own political agendas that we don’t tell our history (stories) in ways that are meaningful to our multi-cultural students. To put it another way, all Americans should see themselves as a part of our US story.

American history is made up of lots of different parts, some good, some bad. It must have balance (not the Fox variety), and certainly NOT the expression of the two extreme views that so divide our nation today. The truth is that it is the LIST of the examples that has caused all this craziness, not the actual TEKS that state things like: Students should be able to identify important political ideas of Enlightenment thinkers.

Finally, a last point. State standards do not deprive teachers of using many people, events, or examples in their lesson that are NOT mentioned in the standards. In fact, this may come from district curriculum that best serves their own student populations. Local curriculum should be written in ways that are meaningful to the children in each individual school district. The state Curriculum TEKS starting points, not an ending point. Narrow-minded, restricted perspectives are not what our students need or deserve.

So I learned a lot about what happened, and yes, I am not happy with all the changes, but overall I think they did their best given the extremist politicos that were also involved in the debates.

The TSSSA drafted a statement that will be sent out in the next few days to all the media outlets. I bet you don’t read it or hear it. No one wants common sense anymore.

Hope I’ve enlightened some of ya’ll that bothered to read this long post.

Remember, we are ALL Americans, even those on the other side.