The Last Crusade: In the Kingdom of Witches

John C Wright posted an article called The Last Crusade: In the Kingdom of Witches, part of his series on what's wrong with Western Civ.

The only takeaway from this that the usual crowd had was "JOHN C WRIGHT BELIEVES IN WITCHES TRYING TO TAKE OVER THE WORLD."

They have, once again, missed the point.

I have taken it upon myself to translate a great essay into small words, to be understood by small people. I hope I am stupid enough to live down to the task.

The following, believe it or not, contains spoilers for Love at First Bite.

Leftism as it stands today has always been a religion. Don't believe me? Modern Leftism bases most of their beliefs in your basic, boilerplate socialism of the Russian kind. And, since the Russian revolution took  a lot from the French revolution, there is a lot of blood as part of the Leftist faith, and a lot of anti-theist secularism.

Leftism has kept up this tradition, perhaps even better than the Soviet Union ever did. Communism killed a hundred million people in the last century, over the course of 70 years.

Just to highlight this one more time. That's a hundred million. 100,000,000 dead.

In the United States, we're up to, what, fifty million aborted children and counting?  Over the course of less than fifty years? We keep that up, abortion will have wiped out more people than Communism along the same amount of time.

What what do you want to consider a group of people who are hip deep in blood and want to dive in some more? I think witches is a good summary, don't you?

But JCW wants to go deeper.

But the essential nature of a witch, as she was portrayed in fairy tales (which contain a good deal more sense than newspapers) was of a withered, childless spinster: a woman with nothing to offer the community, but whom age and curiosity had opened the secret properties of plants and stars and other things easily turned to venom.

Welcome to Leftism. Nothing can be good and pure and simple. 

Maleficent cannot be an evil psychotic killer who will take deadly retribution over minor slights; she must be rewritten over a backstory where she's actually the heroine. 

Gaston and his henchman cannot be Alpha and lackey, but there must be a homosexual component to it. We don't even go into how many people tried to make Samwise and Frodo's relationship as gay. Or Holmes and Watson. Or Archie Goodwin and Nero Wolfe. Because good pure and simple friendships can't exist in their world, it must be sexual, because sex is everything, right?

Do we even want to get into the freaks that have been on parade? I refuse to call any of them protesters, or people who marched for Civil Rights, because, sorry, that's Martin Luther King Jr leading a parade of people down the street wearing their Sunday finest, because they all just wanted to join the main stream. I don't care if you look at the Occupy rioters living like animals and defecating on the streets and businesses of New York City, or if you want to look at the "womyn" in gynecological garb wandering around a few weeks ago, these are people who very clearly don't want to be maintstream. They want the mainstream to accept THEM, condone, bless, and accept whatever the BS du jour is -- and no, I don't mean "tolerate," as toleration means to put up with something that is abhorrent to you. "I don't care" is not allowed -- you will be made to care. You will be made to accept it and bless it, and kneel before whatever bull is being force fed you, the culture, and whatever else they can get their hands on.

And no, their isn't a mystical, black-helicopter "they." They're in plain sight, after all. Marching in the circus garb they call "a statement," when it's really more like a thousand clowns.

Witches subvert. Witches turn things that are good and pure into poison. THey turn children into child sacrifice. They turn the feminism of Susan B Anthony into genitalia on parade. They turn Christian Charity into entitlement programs to buy votes. They promise a great society and deliver a broken culture and destroyed family. 

Leftism has its own altars in the abortion clinic, and its own sacrifices called children. They have their own public displays of faith called riots, only disguised as "protests."

Leftism. Witchcraft. Subversion. Alinsky. Same Stuff, Different Decade.

And if you want more application of faith brought into a world like this, check out the Love At First Bite Series

Review: Starship Grifters, by Robert Kroese

From the author of The Big Sheep, comes Starship Grifters.

.... Remember how strange The Big Sheep was?

A space-faring ne’er-do-well with more bravado than brains, Rex Nihilo plies the known universe in a tireless quest for his own personal gain. But when he fleeces a wealthy weapons dealer in a high-stakes poker game, he ends up winning a worthless planet…and owing an outstanding debt more vast than space itself!

The only way for Rex to escape a lifetime of torture on the prison world Gulagatraz is to score a big payday by pulling off his biggest scam. But getting mixed up in the struggle between the tyrannical Malarchian Empire and the plucky rebels of the Revolting Front—and trying to double-cross them both—may be his biggest mistake. Luckily for Rex, his frustrated but faithful robot sidekick has the cyber-smarts to deal with buxom bounty hunters, pudgy princesses, overbearing overlords, and interstellar evangelists…while still keeping Rex’s martini glass filled.

Okay, brace yourselves, this is going to be really strange.

Imagine PG Wodehouse's Jeeves and Wooster series. Make Bertie Wooster an interstellar con man with problems holding onto a single time, even in his successful cons. Make Jeeves a vaguely female robot who can't actually have an original thought -- for consistent, well explained and thought out reasons -- without shutting down. Put them onto a gambling casino, that's raided by "the Malarchy," drop them into a dead world that's in hock up to its eyeballs, and have them chase and be chased all over creation.

It's quite insane.

And, in case you haven't figured it out, this parodies elements of Star Wars: the Malarchy as Evil Empire, with a henchman with a high-pitched voice instead of James Earl Jones; the Revolting Front was a Rebel Alliance, "Until the law suit;" the Marlachy marines have a really good reason for their surprisingly terrible aim. The princess is built like the fat lady in an opera.

Imagine if Terry Pratchett had only seen Spaceballs and decided "I can top that."

The funniest part of all of this is ... it all fits together neatly by the time it's all said and done. It's a brilliantly constructed puzzle that you didn't even know was coming together. As Matt Bowman pointed out, con movies are supposed to con the audiences as well as the mark in the story. This one cons the mark, cons the audience, and cons the con artists.

It's quite the piece of work. I think at the end of the day, I may have to reread this in order to see just how well this is all put together.

Personally, I still recommend The Big Sheep. But if you've already read that one, I'd suggest Starship Grifters as a good followup.

Let's give this one four out of five. Or 4.5 out of five.

Also, the sequel is out today.

And if you want more snarky humor, check out the Love At First Bite Series

Review: Escaping Infinity, by Richard Paolinelli

Guess what I did on my break.

....I read.

Shocking, huh?

A .... somewhat embarrassingly long time ago, Richard Paolinelli gave me an e-copy of Escaping Infinity. I didn't get around to it for multiple reasons -- including that I really hate using Calibre conversion from PDF to Mobi.

Either way, I really wasn't quite certain what to expect, even when I saw the description on Amazon.

Thousands have checked into the Infinity Hotel over the years. None of them have ever checked out. Peter Childress and Charlie Womack are successful engineers on their way to Phoenix for an important presentation. But one of Charlie’s infamous “shortcuts” has gotten them good and lost once again. As night falls, the pair stumble across the Infinity Hotel and the promise of a meal, fuel and a good night’s sleep before starting off fresh in the morning is too good to pass up. But while Charlie immediately takes to the hotel’s amazing amenities, Peter begins to uncover some of the hotel’s dark secrets – a seemingly unlimited number of floors, guests that appear out of time and place and a next morning that never seems to come. Worse still, the entrance to the Infinity has disappeared and no other apparent exit back to the outside world is in sight. Now, under the watchful eyes of the hotel’s manager and front desk clerk, Peter searches for a way back out and uncovers the horrible truth behind the mystery of the Infinity Hotel.

Reads like a scifi version of The Twilight Zone as done in The Hotel California, doesn't it?

Yeah, pretty much. Sort of. After a fashion. Though if you're worried that the description above will spoil the plot, it only covers up to chapter 2. Our hero, Childress, has already started to peace together that the hotel is bigger on the inside by this point.

Yes, the Hotel Infinity is bigger on the inside. And if you think that's bad, you should see the Star Trek references. Heh.

The book is written in a style that's very novel-like. Less Victor Hugo, and more modern novel, but Richard is very much an artist with no pretensions. It's smart and well-thought-out, a mystery that plays perfectly fair, and gives the reader all of the pieces and parts to figure out what the bloody blue heck is going on. However, you really won't figure it out.

And, one of the nice things here is that everyone has a back story. And I do mean everybody. If they have a name, they have a backstory. There's at least one chapter of history for almost every named character.

I will say that going from the prologue to chapter 1 in a little disorienting, as it goes from space opera, David Weber style, to a road trip in the South West. The last 10% of the book could have been an additional novel by itself, with what it pulled off. But the ending we got gave a complete, satisfying conclusion to the story, the characters, and the world that's been established.

At the end of the day, this book starts out like David Weber, continued as written by Rod Serling, and ends with the epic scope of  John C. Wright.  Yes. I went there. Richard Paolinelli obviously thinks in terms of epic scope. I won't say that Paolinelli is in Wright's league just yet. Give him another book or two, and expect Wright to have serious competition in the "awe-inspiring scale" category.

For JCW, I would give a 6/5 if I could. Richard will just have to settle with a 5/5.

Remember how I had problems with deciding what my "best scifi novel" would be for this year's Dragon Awards? I don't have that problem anymore.

Also, check the date -- it came out in December. If people still need to nominate for the Hugos, trust me, you'll want to consider this one.

Escaping Infinity is an awesome book, and I look forward to Paolinelli's next work.

While not quites as epic, but nearly as good, check out the Love At First Bite Series. 

And if you have, please leave a review.

The Catholic Geek: with Jon Del Arroz 03/05

The Catholic Geek: with Jon Del Arroz 03/05 by We Built That Network | Books Podcasts:



AT 7 PM, EST TONIGHT, Author Jon Del Arroz joins the Catholic Geek for two hours of insanity. There is no plan, no planned topic, so expect two hours of talking about Babylon 5, television, and space opera in general.

Jon Del Arroz is the author of the top-10 amazon bestselling space opera novel, Star Realms: Rescue Run. He hails from the San Francisco Bay Area and plans on continuing writing science fiction and space opera until the end of his days. He's currently taking a small break from space in the next few months release a steampunk novel, For Steam and Country, which will be the first book in the Adventures of Baron von Monocle series.

For good storylines with some great romantic tension, check out the Love At First Bite Series

I Miss The Misery by Halestorm

This will be my last post since Declan will be back on Monday. I'm sure everyone is thankful for that. (I know I am.)

Since I get to pick the last vacation song, it's going to be one by a band that Declan introduced me too a while ago. One of the songs had lyrics he thought fit some collaborative writing I was working on at the time.

So here you go...

If you haven't already, sign up for Declan's email list and check out his books on Amazon. 

Give me food or give me death!

Declan will be back on Monday. Until then, since we can't take the city boy to the farm, we're bringing the farm to him, via Bokerah Brumley. 

“Give me [food] or give me death!”


What's that you say? You need to consult with the others, but I've got the quote wrong?


I'll wait.

Fine. That’s not how the original went, but it’s the version that's been rolling around my head for the last six months.

In a literal way, it's a true thing; no food = death. Moreover, a lack of real food also equals death, albeit a slower one. Historically, though, food has been one of the ways the ruling government controls its populace is to control its food. Today is no different.

I touch on this idea of egregious, governmental food control in the CLFA anthology, Freedom's Light, and my contribution, Dollars on the Nightstand.

Let's pretend that I'm your neighbor. I've invited you over to dinner. We ate a delicious, crispy-skinned broiler chicken that was free-ranging on my grassy pasture yesterday. As a family, we processed it, slicked it with butter made from my cow's milk, and then seasoned it with herbs from our herb garden. The green beans were canned from last year's harvest, and the water is from our well.

Everything is delicious, and as we're cleaning up, you notice that I have an excess of raw milk in my fridge.

"Can I buy some?" you ask. "Let me at least help pay for some of the feed and work you've put into it." You know how I keep my animals. You see that they're happy and healthy, and you've had the milk before. It's creamy and delicious.

"Nope, sorry, it's illegal. They might take all my animals and arrest me for selling you a little milk."

Really? Yes. Really.

You know what's insane? Minus the last one hundred years, the very thing I just described was a normal occurrence. AND WE SURVIVED IT! WITHOUT government invention. This was life. We bartered as a way to survive. We shared our excess of one thing with out neighbor, and we were the better for it.

In place of this, the government has institutionalized food that's chemically mass produced and emptied of all goodness. Chickens are housed in miserable conditions. Cattle are kept in feedlots, living miserable lives, shot full of antibiotics and fed diets that are not meant to keep them healthy, but meant to make them gain weight. We eat obese food, and we're shocked that the country is suffering from obesity. There have been two studies hinting at the link between these two things." You are what you eat," as grandma used to say.

The USDA manages all aspects of our food industry, based on recommended daily allowances. However, their RDAs are based on the *minimum* allowable of calories, vitamins, and minerals that will net a passably health human. Actual needs are usually much more and not often met by what is now the standard American diet.

But when it comes to the small farm, the USDA invades with oppressive regulations, fees, certifications, and laws that make it nearly impossible for a small farm to bring a livable wage to the small farmer. They can enter a farm without permission, run a single test, and euthanize entire flocks without explanation. Personal autonomy and liberty is ignored.

"In the 1930s, the United States was home to 6.3 million farms; today, there are approximately 2.2 million, and fewer every day. The average age of today’s farmer or rancher is 59 years old, and many are retiring without a successor, as their children don’t want — or can’t afford — to take over the family business. Thus, as farms’ inheritors increasingly abandon the farm, a vacuum of stewardship opens up, leaving many wondering who, or what, will take their place." -- From Down on the Farm by Gracy Olmstead, National Review, August 15, 2016

(Read more at: http://www.nationalreview.com/article/438983/small-farms-big-business-family-farms-struggle-against-industrial-agriculture)

Food shortages will be a real thing in our future world. Yet it will not be from a lack of individuals that would love to take on the task, but from the inability to enter the industry without millions in pocketbook capital.

As Patricia Foreman, one of the founders of the Chicken Underground, likes to say, "It is a constitutional right for people to feed themselves and their neighbors, if they choose. We lived this way for thousands of years." The USDA allows unhealthy, over-crowding in chicken houses that require HAZMAT suits and protocol to walk through, but demand egg washing that removes the bloom (natural protective coating) from fresh eggs. She also likes to point out that Europeans usually do not wash or refrigerate eggs as it isn't necessary for fresh-from-the-farm eggs. Indeed, if you compare a standard store-bought egg with an egg from a pasture-raised chicken, you will find significant differences in the color and consistency as well as the nutritional content.

According to Joel Salatin (a self-proclaimed "...Christian libertarian environmentalist capitalist lunatic"), founder of Polyface Farms, Inc., author of Everything I Want to Do is Illegal, there is a prejudice against scale. Crop-insurance doesn't benefit the health of the agricultural market or increase productivity. It insures that the current degenerative farming practices stay in place, depleting the soil and ruining the land for generations, while insuring that regenerative farming practice that use common sense over the "we can chemically engineer it so we will" attitude (example: Round Up and the plight of the honey bees and other natural pollinators). “Innovation starts embryonically, creation starts small,” he says.

But, for us, for our family, it's more than that. It's a throw-back to a simpler time when kids were connected to the value of life and the value of hard work.

Or more simply...

"I reject your reality and substitute my own." -- Adam Savage

Farming is a way to be free and unplugged from a societal breakdown. They can riot in the cities when the government decides to face the music and stop printing money; we're working our sustainable plan. Society can collapse. Permaculture farming is the ticket to a kind of freedom that has been in short supply since Big Gov took over the food industry (and schooling, but that that's a story for a different day). We'll still have food and food to share.

At least until we're arrested for selling milk. But you didn't hear that from me.

"Give me [food] liberty or give me death!"

Bokerah Brumley is a speculative fiction writer making stuff up on a trampoline in West Texas. When she's not playing with the quirky characters in her head, she's addicted to Twitter pitch events, writing contests, and social media in general. She lives on ten permaculture acres with five home-educated children and one husband. In her imaginary spare time, she also serves as the blue-haired President of the Cisco Writers Club. 

Her work can be found in Havok Magazine (July issue), Southern Writers Magazine (Summer 2016 issue), Echoes of Liberty (The Clarion Call Book 2), The Stars at My Door (April Moon Books), A Fellowship of Fantasy Anthology: Fantastic Creatures, The Light Leads to Hope and Peace (Reflections of Faith Book 2), Freedom's Light: Short Stories, and three more upcoming anthologies. 

She was awarded first place in the FenCon Short Story Contest, third place in the Southern Writers Magazine Short Story Contest, and fifth place in the Children's/Young Adult category for the 85th Annual Writer's Digest Writing Competition. More recently, she was selected as a 2016 Pitch Slam! finalist. 

And, yes, her latest book release is about a whale shifter. Go figure. (:

I am Finn’s Firebrand

Shawn Hoge Remfrey is today's guest blogger with this fun tribute. I'm sure we can all relate. 

Finn's – of or belonging to Finn
Firebrand – someone who promotes radical change, a burning piece of wood

I am a possession.  Not only that, I’m on fire.  *cue music*

I am part of Finn’s crew, his posse.  That’s how we roll.  Alright, that sounded lame even to me.

The fact is, I don’t even remember how I became a Firebrand.  I’m pretty sure Declan bought me somewhere.  Probably an antique store shoved in the back under the old books.   Hopefully he kept the receipt, just in case he needs to return me.

Being a Firebrand comes with lots of perks.

I know more about AR-15s than any of the kids on my block.  Not only that, I’ve gotten to have several dreams where I take out vampires with a Hello Kitty decorated gun.

I get to relive my Babylon 5 joy.  I’d forgotten how much I wanted a bed just like Delenn’s.  I still want one, but I haven’t gotten around to finding someone to build it for me yet.  You’d think she’d have a lot more swelling in her feet than she did.

I get behind the scenes footage as Finn prepares his books.  I get updates on where he’s going to be and when so that I can properly stalk him.

I have a front row seat to Finn’s sense of humor.  It’s witty and dry and cracks me up.  I’m still laughing over Rumors Bargains & Lies from January.

Being a Firebrand opens me up to the possibility of intelligent debate.  I don’t normally join in. Perhaps I’m not intelligent.  Perhaps I just haven’t found the right debate subject yet.

Being a Firebrand is a lot like being a Wonder Twin, except there are more of us.  Firebrand powers…activate!  Form of…

ummm...a Vatican ninja? 😁 If you want to get in know, join Finn's Firebrands on Facebook or sign up for Declan's mailing list. Psst...you get free goodies in the mailing list. 

For good storylines with some great romantic tension, check out the Love At First Bite Series

Generic Shoujo Garbage, I Think I Love You

Today Jon Del Arroz is filing in for Declan while he's on vacation. Be sure to check out Jon's book Star Realms: Rescue Run and blog.

This last weekend, I discovered a Japanese drama by the name of Good Morning Call. The premise is that two high school students thought they separately rented their own apartment, with the intention of living alone. When they arrived, they found the place had been double rented. The reasons they can’t back out are thin, but that doesn’t matter as the story progresses. Epic trope-filled relationship drama ensues, filled with love triangles and evil popular girl clubs.

It sounds ridiculous, doesn’t it?  Shoujo is a whole manga/anime genre dedicated to this kind of storytelling.  It’s aimed at a young teenaged female audience and actually can come in all shapes and forms. A great fantasy series, Fushigi Yuugi, is a tale from the 90s where two middle school girls get transported back into a magical ancient China. While a plot does whirl around them, what’s most central to the story is the relationship between Miaka and a brooding man who has taken it upon himself to be her protector. It goes through all sorts of stages as other characters try to date Miaka, including the Emperor, but their souls are destined to be together.

I find myself loving the trope of that brooding man who deep down will protect the woman at any cost, even if he’s stoically focused on whatever his actual problems are.  It’s fun watching the female protagonists pick away the layers to find out the trauma that brought them to this point. In Good Morning Call, Uehara’s parents died in an accident when he was young, and he quite literally has to fend for himself with little to no support. Tamahome in Fushigi Yuugi has a similar story, as he appears greedy on the service, but in truth is solely providing for little brothers and sisters in his family who are dirt poor and have no one else to help them. As the women in these stories uncover these layers, they  are justified in their intense love for these men who, at the beginning, appear to be selfish idiots.

The main focus in these stories is always about coming into your own and discovering love. And that’s what makes it so exciting. That intense emotion that we had as teenagers IS silly, and causes us to do the most ridiculous things. While a lot of this anime can come across as immature and trite, it creates fun because of that. The way that these shows blend comedic humor in situations, with intense love pangs, and very often tragedy that accompanies it, actually pushes the full emotional spectrum and creates more three-dimensional characters than a lot of western stories.
At the same time, almost all of shoujo stories are heavily trope-filled. I can predict almost every episode of Good Morning Call as it gets into the opening scenes of an episode. It completely relies on the character moments and your love of the characters to make the show work, as do most of these series. Nana was a series that had a lot of the same scenarios: girl going out to live on her own for the first time, trying desperately to find love, looking in the wrong places and ending up in some awkward situations. It still stands completely distinct because of how the unique characters interact in other ways.

My favorite in the genre is an anime called Your Lie In April. We have two high school students, but this one is actually from the male perspective. He’s a dorky kid, and finds a blonde goddess who plays music on such a high emotional level that it floors him. He’s also got a hang up in a trope where his mother died (typical to find orphans in these shows) at a young age, and she was the reason that he played the piano, consequently leading him to never play since. His love for this girl is so pure, and comes out through his music, which she prods him into taking up again. She pushes him to excellence, and he overcomes his mental blocks through love and through playing. It’s really beautiful, and there is quite a bit of tragedy in it which I won’t spoil as the show  makes for a satisfying, cathartic experience.

In my own writing, I’ve pushed the boundaries in science fiction and fantasy of how much romance plays a central role to the story. Some have criticized me for that, but I find that these types of human connections transcend situations and genre, which makes it fun to focus on. These shows, while often trite and silly, do firm up those relationship elements to an extent where it helps to create very real characters.

Declan himself pushed the boundaries of vampire horror in Murphy’s Law of Vampires with his own take on the relationships of the dead. It’s really fun to watch, and in our genre, I find that these tropes are not explored nearly enough. You, dear reader, may want to check out some shoujo yourself to connect with feelings you haven’t explored in years, or to find a way to add some depth to genre writing. I’ll be here to chat and be a shoulder to cry on when you finish watching any of these series.

Check out: Fushigi Yuugi (Fantasy), Aria (science fantasy), Your Lie In April (Modern, light supernatural), Nana (Modern, no supernatural)





Don't forget to sign up for Declan's mailing list. His short, Bad Date is still available for free to new subscribers.

For good storylines with some great romantic tension, check out the Love At First Bite Series

Show, Don't Tell In Song

John Earle is filling in for Declan today who is still locked out of the office.


Occasionally I get to work with writers who feel they need to tell the reader how a character feels about a statement from another, or an event. I usually advise them to “Show, don’t tell.”

Nothing new there... except many seem to have a hard time with the concept. Oh, they GET it. It’s just hard to know how to DO it.

I like to take a tip from songwriters. Some of them can show me an entire story occurring over several years using just three or four short verses. Here’s what I sometimes use as an example. Are you familiar with the George Strait song “I Can Still Make Cheyenne?”

Lyrics

She heard his voice on the other end of the line
She wondered what was wrong this time
She never knew what his calls might bring
With a cowboy like him it could be anything
And she always expected the worst in the back of her mind.

He said, "It's cold out here and I'm all alone,
I didn't make the short go again and I'm coming home.
I know I've been away too long.
I never got a chance to write or call
And I know this rodeo has been hard on us all
But I'll be home soon and honey is there something wrong?"


[Chorus:]

She said, "Don't bother comin' home.
By the time you get here I'll be long gone.
There's somebody new and he sure ain't no rodeo man."
He said, "I'm sorry it's come down to this.
There's so much about you that I'm gonna miss.
But it's alright baby, if I hurry I can still make Cheyenne.
Gotta go now baby, if I hurry I can still make Cheyenne.

He left that phone danglin' off the hook
Then slowly turned around and gave it one last look
Then he just walked away
He aimed his truck toward that Wyoming line
With a little luck he could still get there in time
And in that Cheyenne wind he could still hear her say.

[Chorus]


If you want to hear it, here’s a link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nj3O-uK6NGk

The first stanza sets the scene. I figure that in paragraph form it would be written in three sentences, punctuated like this:

Her telephone rang 'bout a quarter to nine. She heard his voice on the other end of the line; she wondered what was wrong this time. She never knew what his calls might bring—
with a cowboy like him it could be anything—and she always expected the worst in the back of her mind.

In those three sentences we know that the two are apart, that his infrequent calls often mean “something’s wrong” since she thinks, “this time.” We learn he’s a cowboy, thus it could be “anything,” and we gather that it’s usually bad since she always expects the worst. In just those three sentences, we are “shown” a lot, but the hook is set. We want to know what “it” is this time. We assume it’s evening, and the tension is palpable.

But look at what we learn from the next three sentences; all dialogue from him:

He said, "It's cold out here and I'm all alone; I didn't make the short go again and I'm coming home. I know I've been away too long. I never got a chance to write or call,
and I know this rodeo has been hard on us all, but I'll be home soon... and Honey, is there something wrong?"

We’re immediately in his head. From his three sentences we learn that he’s down and out. He wants her to know that he’s alone, so he mentions it almost first thing. Why? Out of guilt? Has he been alone all along, or just now? Why does he feel the need to tell her; shouldn’t she assume he’s been alone? Hmmm. Cold and alone? Looking for sympathy. He’s trying to work her. “... didn’t make the short go again.” Translation: he’s about out of money, so he’s heading back to Mama. He’s feeling guilty, and his guilt forces an admission: “I know I’ve been away too long. I never got a chance to write or call. I know this rodeo’s been hard on us all...” Wow. We can see him humble, cowering, almost crawling. He says, “I know...” twice, trying to convince her he can change. And he says, “...hard on us all.” There’s a family here, not just a man and a woman. He’s left her with the kid(s) to do his own thing. He knows who it’s been hardest on.

“But I’ll be home soon...” He’s hopeful, wanting to end on a positive. But when he doesn’t get his hoped-for reprieve (we assume there’s only silence), he tries to sound concerned, “...and Honey” (Oooo, a pet name! THAT oughta make her feel better!) “...is there something wrong?” What could possibly be wrong? I’ve apologized, I’m coming home soon and everything will be fine. We can almost hear him teetering between hope and desperation, figuring out what he needs to say next to get her to come around.

She lowers the boom. No gentle build up, no hope of reprieve. It’s a done deal.

She said, "Don't bother comin' home. By the time you get here, I'll be long gone.

There's somebody new, and he sure ain't no rodeo man." Three short sentences. You can hear the finality and the disgust. She’s made her plans and is on her way out of there tonight, or tomorrow for sure. She sums up his sins and his shortcomings and their incompatibility in her final words, “...he sure ain’t no rodeo man.” Just six words. She knows what he is, and she will have no further part of it. Whatever they had, it’s over. And that’s all she has to say.

But do we need a description of his countenance, mood, attitude, emotions to “see” him? No. His simple response in dialogue without any descriptors paints the clearest of pictures.

He said, "I'm sorry it's come down to this. There's so much about you that I'm gonna miss.

But it's alright baby, if I hurry I can still make Cheyenne. Gotta go now baby, if I hurry I can still make Cheyenne.” You can hear the resignation mixed with relief in those words. He knew! He knew it was over, but they hadn’t admitted it to each other so it didn’t seem real. Now it’s real, and his path forward is clear. There’s no need to argue, plead, cajole or deny.

“I’m sorry... I’ll miss you... But it’s alright, because now I can do what I want to do without so much guilt.”

So few words, almost no adjectives or adverbs, yet we get such a clear picture. That’s showing, not telling.

As for the rest; why didn’t he hang up the phone? Then, he gave it one last look before walking away to his truck. I think it’s because we are being SHOWN that he was torn; he didn’t want to be the one to sever the connection they had once had. He remembered how good it used to be, but his rodeo addiction was too strong and he knew he was giving in to it despite being tugged toward her.

Here you could say we are being told as much as shown:

He left that phone danglin' off the hook,
Then slowly turned around and gave it one last look.
Then he just walked away.
He aimed his truck toward that Wyoming line;
With a little luck he could still get there in time.
And in that Cheyenne wind he could still hear her say...

But I think this is also showing. We are told of his actions, and thoughts, but they give us more insight into his real feelings and emotions which are shown by his actions.

Okay, enough. Clearly this song is a favorite of mine. In those few verses we get enough hints of the man’s life before and after this one phone call that a novel, or a movie screenplay could be written.

I love songs that do that.


For good storylines with some great romantic tension, check out the Love At First Bite Series

The Catholic Geek with Lamplighter and Wright 02/26

Catholic Geek Radio with Lamplighter and Wright 02/26 by We Built That Network | Books Podcasts:




Rachel Griffin and Sigfried Smith will interview characters from other books written by John C. Wright and L. Jagi Lamplighter.

Yup. I'm still not there. The Wrights will be.

If you haven't already, check out some of the books below.

And if you have, please leave a review.

Thanks.