Master to All: Music and the Story

Listening to music while you’re writing or illustrating has been an issue of debate. Half want to say its an unforgivable distraction. It tears you away from your purpose and ensures no work gets done. The counter argument is that it fills the void between boredom and production. Personally I have a feeling that experts just love to disagree as people in said field are intrigued by the drama.

Those that have read End of Legend: In Search of the Warrior Queen and End of Legend: Death to the Gods know where my perspective lie. In the pretext i always affix a playlist that coincide with specific events in the book. It’s somewhat of a sound track for the book. Every blue moon I get asked why do i feel its important to include something like that in literature. The answer is almost a book itself.

I emphatically feel that music is a powerful driving force! Tempo, rhythm, percussion and melody transcends any language barrier. A chunky drum beat, a racy guitar rift, a piercing violin solo…they can carry meaning or explanations that require no words.In some instances my words seem inferior next to the strum of a harp or blast of a brass instrument.

As you can tell I’m an avid daydreamer. Music seems to inspire and guide my train of thought. Some of my favorite songs will spur the same dream over and over. That dream grows from a fledgling to a full blown saga. This is how the End of Legend series was born.

I often see music as motion. I really want the readers to understand the pace and flow of my imagination. This is also why i like having a playlist in my books. Where writing a series of events may get difficult the music seems to take away the confusion. There was a funny experiment i tried with a few friends. They were rather adamant about reading and listening to music at the same time but i was very persuasive. A free home cooked dinner and a copy of the playlist sealed the deal. Later i asked them about specific fights and events that i cued music to. The results were surprisingly unexpected! Despite my words everyone saw the events in their minds slightly different! Next to the music the words were just guidelines. The music actually spurred their own imagination and they saw a more tailored experience! I thought that was really interesting!

Surprisingly again the more i listened to music and daydreamed my characters developed a sort of musical personality! For instance, the Ash Queen always acts and is in tune with 80’s dance (Stay by Sash! for example). She always try to seem happy around Nathan but there’s a small hint of business and control in that kind of music. Since her swordsmanship and Warrior Queen magic revolves around dancing her personality blossomed from that genre. The god-sworn child Zid often becomes driven and blinded by his rage. His personality is definitely metal (I-E-A-I-A-I-O by System of a Down). Mir often has the same intense rage but with a taste of spoiled brat. Her elegance and ballet training remarkably fits in smoothly with rap music(Fireman by lil wayne). Bishop , the wolf dog, is very instinctual and primal! He is definitely dubstep (Crippled Camel by Downlink)! Nathan ,the main character, is a melting pot of heritage! He’s anything from Zydeco to punk! He is a very adaptive and fluid character.

In conclusion i believe music is master to All! It spurs my artistic process. My literature and illustrations flourish due to the inspiration it provides. If you are going to start writing I say give it a try with music! It may surprise you!

I frequently check tech blogs and have subscriptions

I frequently check tech blogs and have subscriptions to magazines like Popular Science. Today i wanted to write about how fascinating science can be. With each day that passes i feel the line blurring between science and science fiction. I seriously feel the day will come when authors like myself will no longer be writing fiction but whole truths made possible by science!

Instance number one. In many video games and movies there has always been a luring to glowing plants, seeds, and shrubby. Such a phenomenon is physically beautiful and inspiring. As of late it may no longer be a mystery. There is a kickstarter program where a group of scientists are embracing this field of study. A certain donation amount guarantees you seeds of the bioluminescent  tree under development. The really cool part is that their vision doesn’t stop at having a cool looking plant in your living room. These bioluminescent trees can replace light posts on streets and in parks! They require no bulbs, miles of conduit or maintenance. They are cheap to produce and dispose of.

Instance number two! Free and massive amounts of energy! This can lead to anything from Death Stars to Neo Tron-like cities! First off an overlooked element call thorium! It has now been labeled as the holy grail of nuclear energy! This element has NO POSSIBILITY FOR NUCLEAR MELTDOWN and is super cheap! It is as plentiful as aluminum which is found every so many feet on the crust of the earth’s surface. Easy to mine and cultivate. Secondly a scientists at the University of Connecticut has developed a nano antenna array for solar energy. It transfers thermal energy directly in to electrical energy without the need for a converter. The best solar panels we have now work at 20-25% efficiency. This new antenna array boasts a 70% efficiency! Next is ions! I believe this is humankind like source of propulsion and energy. Our world is full of it! Scientists want to pull ions from the earth’s stratosphere and use it to power cities and vehicles! No test has been conducted on this scale as of yet but laboratory tests are proving fruitful!

Lastly I do believe we are on the verge of achieving what every good sci-fi spaceship has. A warp drive! A former NASA propulsion engineer has been working on the project for years. As of late his scenarios and simulations has achieved remarkable results! The basics involve a probe at the front of a ship. This probe emits negative energy that flows backwards and envelops the ship. When the negative energy meets at the back of the ship it meets resistance  with positive energy that pushes the vehicle forward. Of course there are critics. His peers say there is no way to create that amount of negative energy considering most of the universe is positive energy. Well, my take is people cried impossible when negative energy was just a theory but that didn’t stop it from being discovered. People were adamant about traveling at the speed of light being impossible but here ,in a logic simulator, it is proven to be possible. We were taught a lot of wrong things in class growing up. Oil comes from dinosaur bones, Pluto is a planet, gravity equals mass…etc Gravity has proven to be a byproduct of velocity not mass! Do you know how long that so-called truth has held us back? New theories now involve devices moving at the same speed of the earth. Doing so creates a magnetic field separate but equal to the earth’s gravity field. Do you know what that means? Anti-gravity vehicles and the like! I say just give it some time and we will find the real truths of the universe.

I find discoveries like these to be inspiring! Our imaginations may no longer be seeds of impossibility. I look forward to seeing such visions come to surface! If you guys really want a good look into the future I highly recommend visiting the Venus Project in Florida. I went this year and it blew my mind! Check it!

Progatonist and Creator

So I get questions about the main character Nathan in the End of Legend series all the time. “Nathan is you isn’t it?” Is the primary inquiry. We have the same humor, the same mannerisms, speech patterns and reactions. With such similar personalities its hard to distinguish the difference between the two of us. Well I’m here to say Nathan is me in many ways. With any story written with soul, the heart of each character is shared with the author. Most tales come to me in the form of dreams and daydreams where I am the main character. I rarely dream from the outside looking in. When this all translates to paper it contains the personal actions I would have taken. This is what’s responsible for the laid back yet down to business attitude Nathan has. He’s a bit of a prankster  and flirt when the time is right but also a never swaying mountain when it comes to his ideals. These are the things I hold dear in my own everyday life.

With this being said it’s not just the protagonist that shares a piece of my soul. Even the lost demigod Khardis and the sadistic Mir have my essence. I get to vent the darkness in my own heart through these characters. As with Nathan, I walk in their shoes to some degree and I write the reactions i would have if given their life. I relish in every tantrum the bratty Mir has. Smashing particularly expensive trinket has a fine tone of pleasure to it! Why? Because daddy will buy me another! I can do whatever i want! The rest of the world is beneath me, nothing short of a nuisance willing to deny me the whims that are duly my right! I wish to drink those louts away alongside this dwindling bottle of fine scotch! I wish to set them afire and watch them drift away as ash!

What happens when you are surrounded by a world that hated and exterminated your kind? Your creator treated you just as badly. What happens when you finally get enough power to lash back? I’m justified in turning this world into ruin! I have no worry for anyone else! My sole well-being is my only concern and right now i hunger! I hunger for the sweet despair of this human and god-sworn race! I, Khardis, will envelop everything in shadow!

In the end however i have to answer like this: “No, I am not Nathan.” For in truth I envy him despite all the trials and hardships he must endure. I’m sure it’s like this for a lot of authors. We wish the worlds we visit every time we close our eyes were real. We wish to explore and unravel the mysteries we write about. Its such an amazing journey and to speak the truth I never know how each book will end until I write the final page.

So let it be know I share a special bond with all my characters. They are all multiple personalities that hide within myself. I know its a basket-case thing to say but I feel a strong emotional attachment to all the characters I introduce. Nathan is just as much apart of me as are all the creatures and deviants in the world of Legend.

A Little Southern Fried! EPISODE 01!

So I’ve been thinking about the best way to describe this term and I’ve decided to do it by sharing stories! For those not in the know in addition to being a writer I am a bartender at a well-known casino. Hopefully my experiences will help yo u better understand my fascinations with the south.

This tale is one of woe but still maintains a bit of laugh-ability. As things go, when you try to be a gentleman to crazy women it usually ends with foul play. Such is the case even with husbands and wives. This particular gentleman had a great job. He was a perfect father who didn’t care that the kids weren’t his and a man who catered to most of his wife’s whims. This hubby of the ages even let her quit her job and stay home all day…such a recipe for disaster!

Bored women of unsavory intent take about two seconds to get involved in some sort of mischief. One day the gentleman comes home and his wife wants a divorce out of the blue. With no job and no income her plan was to take the kids and make him pay to see them! The gentleman damn near cried away every bit of wit that rattled around in his head. Luckily he saved a drop or two and used it to see a lawyer. The gentleman was clued in as to how ludicrous her demands were. Come to find out he was entitled to a lot more and they flexed some legal muscle to turn the tables!

Now here is the kicker. This southern bell was furious and full of scorn! For revenge she waited until he went to work. In broad daylight they spotted his truck in a jam packed public parking lot. She and her new man crawled underneath the truck and stole the whole drive shaft! For you that don’t know its a rather heavy component that propels your vehicle and it has a certain level of difficulty to remove.

That was a hefty bit of ingenuity even if used for all the wrong reasons! Even the gentleman had to laugh and admire such tenacity! His vehicle was insured and he had plenty of friends willing to give him a ride home. The silver lining is that this tragedy was in fact a blessing. The crazy was torn from his life and he’s as free as a bird!

Welcome to Southern Fried!