Nano Nano: 50K Words and the Elusive Polite Society

Well, writers, how did you do during November? 

Nanowrimo is marathon-running for the creative mind. The imagination is exercised by creating new characters, charting a destination, building a fantasy world, and writing everything in-between. It can feel like running an actual marathon. 

This year, I committed to writing Sacred Homicide. Unfortunately, I only wrote halfway to the goal of 25,000 words, due to constant interruptions in my environment. With an industrial air cleaner, laundry machines, and noise-cancelling headphones, you would think I could find the quiet time necessary to write. In normal circumstances, I would agree, but the peanut gallery who live around me believes that their ruckus is far superior to any neighbor's need for privacy. This entitlement to other people's time, energy, and property is a symptom of the me, me, me culture. 

Not sorry, but living out loud ends at my property line. I don't owe you anything. The time that is wasted by acting like out of control juveniles for my attention is time I can never get back. Theft comes in all forms, and stealing someone's time, energy, and the use of their private space is one of them. 

But you are living on stolen land! That is incorrect, where I live the land was purchased from the country south of our border. Not stolen: bought. Not once, but twice, did the landholder sell to the United States in the American southwest: The Treaty of Guadalupe-Hildago and The Treaty of the Gadsden Purchase. 

But, but, but...!!! I wish people would stop acting like their heads are in their butts. That would be most helpful. 

Stolen land, reparations are excuses to behave like situational victims, when in fact, other people haven't inflicted any course of action against you. Stolen land was hundreds of years ago. Reparations were over a hundred years ago. So, it appears the only person victimizing you is, well: YOU. Then you take that angst, attack your neighbor for their skin color and the lies of "social justice." Social justice in my day meant: vigilantism, and that domain was left for comicbook movie characters. There is no justice without a fair trial, and I preface that statement with being unbiased, uncensored, and politically neutral. 

If you truly wanted justice, then if your family was denied their reparations: it's called a lawsuit. It's not for politicians to hand you taxpayer money. You have to make a real evidentiary case out of why you deserve what was denied your ancestor. Until someone can prove beyond a reasonable doubt that this occurred and is a descendant, then why is this being used as emotional blackmail on other Americans? The court system is for Americans to redress their grievances, especially against their government. Go redress them, if you believe that you have a case.

Instead of doing the right thing, we have manufactured a culture of "karens." Karen is defined as someone who has to insert themselves voluntarily into other people's lives and then cries victim. I have an entire neighborhood full of karens. From playing loud music; drunk/disorderly parties; neglecting their children; loud, heavy bass vehicles; revving noisy engines at midnight; or anything else that creates undue attention to themselves, as long as the spectacle places them in the spotlight. Then these karens complain when you tell them to shove off and start acting like mature adults and responsible parents. 

But... but... but, here we go again. It's my culture. It's for my community. As an American? Nope, I don't think so, and it's embarrassing. Cultural appropriation of another nation's holidays and rites of passage is reprehensible. But, my grandmother came from the old country. You didn't, so what is your excuse? Don't say: stolen land, because you never owned this entire parcel of land. You only own your property. Just like me.

So which is it? Live your life in your front yard and middle of the street, which then your dirty laundry is open to public criticism. Or, live your life like respectable adults, and keep the shitshow away from public view? 

I rather keep my private life my own, so I can write, create digital art, and do community service... if it's all the same to you. 

Therefore, I uploaded another writing project to Nanowrimo that I have been working on: The Town Santa Forgot. It's complete, except for placing the correct word count on that site. Editing is done, but I am still polishing here and there for publication later on this month. 

The book cover is finished. There is a Cover Reveal Party this weekend online. I hope to see everyone who loves books participate.

And remember that being a good person who lives with others in peaceful harmony is more than a choice: it's how a society prospers. Without an auspicious society, we have no culture. No culture, and there is no need for creative writing, art, or community service. In a collectivist society, those expressions are hijacked for spreading propaganda. Be an individual and let your imagination become unleashed!

It's something to think about.

Have a great rest of your day.

_____

A writer at heart, Undawnted's own creative spark, DL Mullan, began writing short stories and poetry before adolescence. Over the years, Ms. Mullan has showcased her literary talents by self-publishing several collections of her poetry. She also writes novels, designs apparel, and creates digital art. Ms. Mullan‘s creative writing is available in digital and print collections, from academia to commercial anthologies. As an independent publisher, she produces her own book cover designs as well as maintains her own websites. She is an award-winning digital artist and poet. 

 Keep up with her activities by subscribing to her monthly/quarterly A Novelist Idea Newsletter.

Can We Get Back to a Classical Education Now?

Tired of young adults running around in the streets rioting, looting, murdering, and burning?

You are not alone.

A K-12 curriculum based on the United Nation's Agenda 21, Common Core, and Social Justice has destroyed our educational system. Young minds now believe in the opposite of sanity, which has led to having adults who have no idea which way is up. Chaos has become the norm.

Some say that corruption was by design. Some do not know anything about such insinuations. Nonetheless, Americans can see the results.

It is time for us to have a conversation about what Americans value in public education. Do Americans value social justice, revisionist history, comprehensive sexual education, and activism? Not really. Most of these topics are age inappropriate to childrens' ability to absorb, weigh, and analyze them.

Would you give your kindergartner a bottle of booze, a cartoon of cigarettes, and the keys to your car? How about your eight year old? Or, a ten year old? A twelve year old? Most people would not even give their licensed sixteen year old that combination.

Yet, educators have decided to "adult" children with mature content in their classrooms. Anyone who is thrust into adulthood without an adult mind would be piles of dry timber ready to combust. And boy, are these fire starters on a rampage. That is educators' fault.

Children view adults as authority figures. When these authority figures betray young minds, how would those children know the difference? Most adults cannot; so we cannot ask it of our younglings.

We need a counterbalance to negate the irresponsible education Americans are seeing in our public education system. We need to lay down some common sense and agreed upon tenets for pedagogy:

-Mathematics
-Physical Education, Health
-Science
-Social Science
-Foreign Languages, Culture
-Geography
-History
-Art
-Music, Band, Orchestra, Choir
-English, Literature

With an outline of what curriculum should not present to students:

-morality
-religion
-activism
-social justice
-criticism
-sexuality

Educators have overstepped their bounds and decided to become other people's children's parents, religious advisors, and life coaches. Instead of education, our children were indoctrinated by authoritarians. 

Life is our morality play. Each day with each interaction, we learn what is acceptable in our society and what is not. For most people morality is based on their religious upbringing. That is where parental guidance in such matters is of the upmost importance. 

Social justice and activism have been brought into the classroom. Why? Children are unable to vote. Until eighteen, children are in studying and learning mode, not direct action. Action is what is being modeled by teachers. Students are taken to the side of the road in order to protest. That is irresponsible and out of bounds. Children have no business being taught this behavior or modeling it for adults. Hate is a learned behavior and we have young people who are executing this behavior as programmed drones setting fires. 

Dissection of a subject is an advanced skill. This coursework is usually taught in graduate studies. Critical analysis is for the seasoned student. Yet we have children learning critical theories without the knowledge base to scrutinize and assess such complex topics. This skill is age inappropriate for its intended young audience. 

Comprehensive sexual education is also inappropriate in K-12 education. First, children's bodies are immature and their undeveloped brains are unable to make much sense out of this subject. If a child is too young to go to a PG-13, or rated R movie by themselves, then why are educators pushing NC-17 on them? Some mature knowledge is just that: for mature audiences only. Children do not have context for what is being displayed to them and has become the grounds of pedophilic-type grooming behavior by teachers.

The underlying issue is that we have an educational system geared toward "adulting" children. That in itself is morally and ethically abhorrent. The educational system is not the parent. Teachers are not the parent. The child's mother and father are the parents. It is about time America reconciles this notion and snap back to reality. 

American exceptionalism is not about egotism. This educational path is about knowledge and the application thereof. Americans learn the combustion engine: we build cars and highways. Americans learn the filament: we have lighting in all our houses. Americans learn science: we go to the Moon. That is how knowledge coupled with imagination and integrity works. 

The United Nation's interpretation of education has led American children to become incompetent, ignorant, and incompatible with reality. Arson anyone? 

Americans should be setting the example of what humans can do if we set our minds to it. 

Speaking of which, Americans should demand that our National Curriculum should be based around a Classical Education that gives age appropriate knowledge, real world application, and fosters the imagination. 

Children should learn the classics: Latin, Greek, as well as literature, history, and mathematics. These items are missing in education in order to promote over-emotionalism. Empathy has to be balanced with knowledge and ability or the emotive qualities of altruism becomes magnified and distorted as we are seeing today. 

Our individual skills, abilities, talents, and accomplishments should be highlighted and encouraged over group work and group think. A classical education that is reminiscent of Socrates and other great philosophers and educators would propel American ingenuity forward by leaps and bounds. 

So now the question becomes: who wanted to stifle American exceptionalism? 

And parents should ask: why did our educators follow this downward spiral without question? How have the standards plummeted math and reading scores? Just where should the blame be placed? 

Then how can America clean up our academic standards to promote American exceptionalism and eliminate American nihilism from our educational system? 

"You are not entitled to your opinion. You are entitled to your informed opinion. No one is entitled to be ignorant" -Harlan Ellison

The answer: getting America's educational system back to the classics and leave the indoctrination to authoritarian regimes where free thought is frowned upon.  

Because learning from the greats should be fearless.

 

Macbeth: Writing is About Inner Reflection and Exploration

The authentic soul of a writer cannot be defined by psychology or sociology. 

Writers who delve into the mysteries of the ages, read the depths of knowledge, and wallow in the forgotten landscape of ancient words are the writers of conscious. These individuals make up the heart of the writing community. Fads come and go but the true writer remains. 

Often sidelined for not being in the in-crowd, authentic spirits continue in their journey to enlightenment. Restless, these writers write what others scoff at: chivalry, morality, and fortitude. 

What do you write? 

In our quest to understand human nature, do we remember our own? Or, do we succumb to the voices without and ignore the voices within? 

Writing Exercise

How is Macbeth a victim of his own choices? to the external voices? 

How can writers learn from this Shakespearean tale? Are we in danger during these current turmoils to succumb to the hysterical cries of the mob? 

Write an essay using examples on how Macbeth is the symbol for the modern protester. Compare and contrast the idea. 

Is modern culture that different from the stories told hundreds of years ago? Have we changed for the better or the worse? 

For clues, ask Macbeth!

Have a great and wonderful day. 

 

_____

*Update: all workshops and special engagements have now been concluded, and new projects are now under Undawnted's Substack.

A writer at heart, Undawnted's own creative spark, DL Mullan, began writing short stories and poetry before adolescence. Over the years, Ms. Mullan has showcased her literary talents by self-publishing several collections of her poetry. She also writes novels, designs apparel, and creates digital art. Ms. Mullan‘s creative writing is available in digital and print collections, from academia to commercial anthologies. As an independent publisher, she produces her own book cover designs as well as maintains her own websites. She is an award-winning digital artist and poet. This year, DL Mullan has begun sharing her knowledge via A Novelist Idea Newsletter. If you too want to become a Fearless Phile, then subscribe to her newsletter on Substack.

Her innovative style teaches writers how to reach their creative potential, and write more effectively.

Learn. Grow. Master… with Undawnted. 

The Politics of the Creative Mind: Is Conformity Worth the Price of Admission?

In the United States of America, we have freedom of expression and speech. 

Well, we did until the political and social agendas changed toward censorship. Now someone can be censored off tech platforms, blocked by others on social media and even have their comments deleted from a forum because their speech was "rude" or uncomplimentary. None has disconcerted me more than in the creative art, craft, and writing fields. 

The tolerance level of social justice has become the intolerance that comes with a political movement called: censorship. You cannot hold this opinion because it doesn't validate someone's way of life, personal decisions, or just a fleeting emotion so you are not allowed your freedom of expression or speech. It might offend someone.

That is a corrupt system. A system that supports censorship does not tolerate anything or anyone outside a limited and cloistered psychological schema. First, you cannot say this word. Then you cannot express an idea. In the slow detachment of logic from the social constructions of dystopian control mechanisms, people learn to censor their own ideas and by default begin to control other people's behavior through peer pressure, bullying of the pecking order until the masses are so contorted that reality has bent into illusion. 

Those creative forces who are not under the mass socio-hypnosis are now the dissenting voices in a world gone mad. If you do not jump to key words and phrases of neurolinguistic programming, then you are seen as a threat. How dare people question the official story, someone's feelings, or another person's decisions even if those beliefs do not match up to reality, their feelings are detrimental and cause violent actions, or those decisions lead to permanent disability, scarring, or irreversible physical damage. 

If you see through the delusions of others and speak out, then you have no friends, no coworkers, no associations, and no way to defend yourself. The world implodes onto itself. The social credit score is thus born. 

You are now tied to other people's opinions about, of, and around you. She walked down that street in a miniskirt and got raped... she caused her own rape! That is the world we have come to in this reality side show: the conspiracy of dunces. 

In this world, the outlandish becomes the norm. You are six degrees from Kevin Bacon. So everything he does reflects on you! If he drinks organic, free trade coffee, then you are safe. If he believes a woman without evidence, then you are safe. If he supports mutilating children for transgenderism, then you are an acceptable person. Hell we have twelve years to turn around Climate Change, so you better give up your electricity or the Earth will melt! Once you do, you will be revered as a god/goddess of green environmentalism.

I just described bat shit crazy. 

I am six degrees away from Kevin Bacon. Actually, I have been less than six degrees from many in Hollywood. I can honestly tell you that their decisions in life do nothing for me. They live a separate life than me. That is the way it should be. We should live our own independent lives free from a social credit score. 

Free from censorship, but we have a group of Americans who have sold out to the ideas of social justice, which requires no evidence, no logic, and hypocritically, no justice at all. Americans do not get their day in court. People are smeared online, in the media, and in social circles when someone does not conform to the hive mind of social control. 

If you hunger for acceptance, want to conform, and need to control what others do and say, then you are not a creative person. You are a sellout. You sold your energy to become a mind slave to a dystopian future not even Orwell could devise. 

I know I am going to lose more "friends" over this essay because I am the dissenter. I am the logic. I am the person who researches what an idea is and follows that construct to its original source. I am often ridiculed, disrespected, attacked and threatened for voicing my informed, researched, and educated opinion. 

I am no degrees away from understanding the world around me.

And, that is a thought crime. 

If anything that has been said here today has offended you, then you have a belief system. Beliefs can be molded and changed over time. Cold hard facts cannot be changed, manipulated like in the case of statistics, but when you get right down to it: facts are facts. 

Facts are researchable. That leads to knowledge. Knowledge creates experience. And, experience becomes wisdom. 

Beliefs are driven by emotions. Emotions are malleable. Emotions are our own egos trying to defend the abstract, the unknowable, and the personal. Beliefs should never be substituted for facts, knowledge, experience, and of course, any form of wisdom. 

So who are you? What do you want? 

Do you want to live in a free society? A Constitutional Republic that protects freedoms, rights of the individual? 

Or, do you want to live in a concentration camp of your mind, plagued by beliefs and emotions changed by the dictator of the day? Because that is what mob rule, democracy is. What socialism and by extension Communism are.

Without freedom of speech and expression, there is no creative spirit. There are no masterpieces. There is no inspiration. 

So do you want to believe? Or, do you want to be free?

Until your next dose of reality: have a great and wonderful day.


-~o0o~-oOo-~o0o~-
This essay was syndicated by the Feral Human Project with permission of the author.

The Classics Never Get Old

As a disabled American, I cannot afford much on a fixed income. Internet is a medical necessity but overpriced as a luxury service. Not when I would pay sixty-five dollars in town for the same supplement bottle I buy online for under thirty. The internet ends up paying for itself. 

A tight budget means no cable. I cannot watch any of my favorite shows. The current fodder plastered on the small screen is chalk full of psychological manipulations and political pageantry. None of it is very satisfying and definitely more psyop than entertainment. I turned my set off for the summer. 

That was until Antenna TV began airing the Johnny Carson Show. First the network had the show on at 10:30pm. Great, I don't have to listen to the unfunny people of the other current late night talk shows. Then Johnny got switched to an hour later. 

All the shows I did not get to see because I was too young to watch; I had school the next day are now available to me. Well, every day except Fridays when I would catch a view from time to time. 

This old show from the sixties to the nineties was insightful, informative, and entertaining. The combination that is lacking in entertainment nowadays. From film to television, to reality shows, Hollywood is too geared toward teaching me how to sit and beg like a dog instead of having a real dog do the tricks. 

I surf by show after show that has gays, lesbians, or interracial couples. That's fine to see a mixture of people. We are the United States. The line I see entertainment crossing is social engineering us to think or feel one way or another.

Everything is about balance and our entertainment should represent our cultural wealth, not just a few segments of society. I'm still trying to find that richness, which is not celebrated on the screen.

I am a crazy person. I believe people should marry out of love and not because a film or show made it cool. A couple will not last long if they don't have anything in common. Love sometimes is just not enough. 

Even though in my stories, love is rewarded. I write in the Jane Austen school of thought where every woman should marry for love and always marry up. That is what makes a good story. Will s/he find their match in [insert character name here]? 

We are innately attracted to the romantic archetype. We also have other structures we love to watch. Performers performing to make us laugh or cry. Sometimes performers perform for the sake of a smile on another person's face.

Vaudville antics with interviews and comedians is a wonderful combination. I wish I could find more of that type of goodwill today. I turn on the television and receive a guttural dose of social justice warriors gone wild. 

And mad. These people seem very angry over every little damn thing. Everything is a personal mission. A boycott. A vendetta. 

Bored now. 

I like entertainment. 

How can I order that to be played instead of all the divisiveness?

The Entertainment Industry is So Woke that They've Become a Broke Joke

I am an artist and writer. I am publishing my own novels and chapbooks. My art is well received as book covers for a variety of authors. 

I love giving people a good story and a fresh perspective on today's issues through the allegories and metaphors of the paranormal and supernatural. I have debated on my site about: when is art imitating life considered a plot device versus social justice nonsense? Well, I believe I have figured it out. 

When entertainment becomes the agent of misinformation, disinformation, and downright conspiracy theory, that is when the line is crossed. I would expect some blurring of the lines on a show like the X Files, but even this show went straight into having a social justice tantrum from aliens building a wall around the Earth to a Russian committee secretly under the auspice of the Executive Branch of the United States government. Click! Turning the channel on this show. 

Other entertainment like award shows have gotten into the habit of promoting one point of view and culminating it into immaturity, disrespect, and falsities. These programs end up to be not worth watching at all. Click. Again.

If the Entertainment Industry took the time to actually research and educate themselves on the facts of the history of the USA, these people would see that there is more to the story than tit for tat. The USA has been corrupted at the highest levels and cannot be trusted until we get back to our founding documents. No more NSA spying. No more software back doors for hackers to steal our information so the government does not have to get a warrant. No more guilty before proven innocent. No more CIA propaganda within the borders of the United States. No more Fusion Centers. No more wars and profiteering. No more national security used to commit crimes. No more money laundering. No more Central Banking. 

You know... reality. 

However the Entertainment Industry is too much into kissing elite criminal asses, then doing the right thing. That is why programs and series are tanking in the ratings. Americans are tired of the incompetent, social justice warrior catastrophe. 

The CW Network is one of the worst programming agendas I have ever seen. If people are not gay, then people are in biracial relationships. If you happen to be a straight and/or white character on the CW Network, then you most likely have a horrible time with life, love, and the pursuit of happiness. Talk about manipulative programming. 

On one program, a Muslim character was brought on and the Jewish one was killed off. Are we tackling the Israeli-Palestinian fight on my television set? And, did the CW just take sides? Click.

I am a Generation Xer. I don't care if you are gay. I really don't care if you date across party lines. I don't care if you are Muslim. I don't care if you are Jewish. I just don't. 

What I care about is balance. The Entertainment Industry has lost its way trying to tell me and everyone else what to think and how to live. That is not your job. The industry should be upholding American values of the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights. Instead of reading the Federalist Papers, Hollywood in all its forms has been reading and implementing the Communist Manifesto. 

Yawn. 

You may be able to trick the Millennials with that garbage but not this Gen Xer. My grandmother fled the Bolshevik Revolution. So, I am not playin'. 

I write about the factual and hidden history of the United States in my novels. Some would call me a Truther. Some would call me a Patriot. When all I am doing is using my education to research beyond the hype and hysteria seen on the news, online, and in the predictive programming of movies, sports, and television.

I don't have cable. I don't go to the movies. I don't subscribe if a streaming service sells social justice. I am about to cut off watching my programs like Supergirl, X Files, Arrow, Flash, and Black Lightning (or should I call the show: Black Lives Matter?). 

I don't watch entertainment to be preached to, sermonized at. You are not my parents. You are creating problems where none has existed for some sadistic chuckle. I am frankly tired of it. Take the politics out of my shows. Or the next step is throwing out my television set.

Because, I hate to tell you this fact, Entertainment Industry, but your fifteen minutes are up.

Click.

 -~o0o~---oOo---~o0o~-

Original Content, Articles, and Reviews related to this topic:

• The Entertainment Industry's Late Night Shows are Ignorant Dribble 
• An Authentic Reality Deserves an Authentic Writer

As seen unedited on Variety.com in the comments section.
2/3/18

Art Imitates Life... but is it good Storytelling?

When does a writer and storyteller imbue their creations with a social, political, or economic reality? When does the intrusion become a spectacle instead of mood and setting to a story? 

As a writer, I have been struggling with this balance of fantasy and reality in my fiction stories for quite some time. I watched television shows that blur the lines too much and I am unable to be their viewer any longer. 

I want to be entertained not dictated or sermonized or shamed. 

I feel this way about my writing. When a character comes forth, I write that character as I am shown. I don't create circumstances in order to further a social, political, or economic agenda. I have done my research through my editorial days at the Villa de Paz Gazette to understand what is real and not real. I tend to stick to those points more than what I see on other newscasts or sites. 

Hode: The Legend Lives Again is a great example of using facts instead of the constructed false reality that pervades on the television and in movies. 

In the second installment of Hode, the character of Will Scarlet has come to me in two divergent modalities. One way has been that of a straight man. The other way was of a gay man. Which do I choose? 

I am not a Social Justice Warrior, but I am also not going to shy away from the topic either. 

Since there is so much in your face political correctness, I am heedful of using any triggering facts, figures, or events... then Saint in Communion and Saintuary comes along and my character finds herself on an old Louisiana Plantation. It is a long story. I guess you will have to read the three book series when they come out this summer.

So when is using real situations considered storytelling and when is it labeled: social justice? 

Inquiring minds want to know how to mirror reality without falling prey to its shortcomings.

Have a great and wonderful day!