Tag Archives: fiction

Be curious. And please argue!

Elizabeth Gagnon, podcast host of Teatime with Miss Liz, asked me recently what single word defines my character. I chose curious. I recall reviewing movie producer Brian Grazer‘s memoir, A Curious Mind, in which he claims that asking questions of influencers, such as directors and studio moguls with experience in showbiz, has been his secret to success. He goes on to claim that curiosity is the single most valuable trait that teachers should encourage in schoolchildren.

We’re now at a phase in the evolution of technology when rote memorization of names, dates, and events is no longer necessary. Decades ago, the invention of the handheld calculator eliminated one of the most annoying chores of my grade-school education – long division. Now with even the most inexpensive computer, you can make an Excel spreadsheet do calculus for you – and some apps have generation of complex curves built-in. That’s a subject I never even attempted because so many of my freshman-college classmates were failing the course. (I don’t like to fail, but when I have, I’ve learned more from the recovery than from any advice I ever got.)

What remains essential – fundamental – is curiosity.

We’re all online data drillers now. But if you don’t know what questions to ask, how can you progress? At anything?

My podcast GetPublished! Radio is on indefinite hiatus but remains a rich online archive. The late, great announcer Bill Navarro would introduce me:

And now, here’s your host Gerald Everett Jones. He has the answers because he’s already made all the mistakes himself!

That’s another thing about curiosity: It will make you skeptical about advice you hear – and presumed facts that might be little more than gossip. Curiosity will drive you to challenge opinions and check facts.

When I was in middle school, it was generally understood that studying for history exams was all about memorizing names, dates, and events. A great-uncle who was a believer in phrenology once felt the shape of my forehead and pronounced I would have a lifelong propensity for such rote learning.

But the most valuable thing I ever learned in any history class was a single sentence spoken by my seventh-grade teacher:

Remember that Russia will always covet warm-water ports.

Do you want the answer to why – in today’s news – Russia wants to guarantee its access to the Black Sea? Why Syria is their alternate route to the Mediterranean? Why building a pipeline from the oil fields surrounding the Caspian Sea – through Afghanistan – to the waters of the Indian Ocean was important enough to fight a war that destroyed the Soviet system?

Curiosity will take you there. And bear in mind that as wondrous as AI might be or become, nothing starts until you ask the robot a question.

Oh, and when you have opinions about what you discover, please argue with your comrades about it. I don’t mean argue as in provocation for a fistfight. I mean argue in the lawyers’ sense of developing a case and backing it up with evidence.

Yes, debate. That’s the skill the kids should learn after they’ve honed their curiosity and research skills. When I was in debate club in high school, we participated in competitions with clubs from other schools. The topic for the semester was set. Back then it was, “Should the United States commit to nuclear disarmament?” And our team engaged in furious (library) research.

Does it strike you that members of Congress seem to have forgotten the skills of serious debate? Wouldn’t it be sweet to hear some reasonable arguments?

The catch was, in those school debate competitions, your team wouldn’t find out which side of the question you were expected to take until right before the judges told you to begin!

“I could argue either side.” Most law-school students can claim that. And they might argue with passion, but they learn that passion shouldn’t make them deaf to their opponents’ objections.

But what about grade-school children in, say, Florida? In your town?

Preacher Evan Wycliff is a an amateur sleuth, a reluctant investigator because he has a curious mind and sympathy for unresolved personal problems. This first book in the series is free as Kindle or EPUB. The other two novels are $2.99 now.

Storytelling and the Subconscious

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Author Gerald Everett Jones

I recently finished the manuscript of Preacher Fakes a Miracle. I’m amazed once again at the role of my subconscious in the writing process. I had no idea how the story would play out when I started writing.

And if I don’t know where it’s going from one page to the next, how can you? Oh, you might have a good guess – several guesses, even. But I’m beginning to think this is a good way to write a suspenseful story that keeps curiosity fully engaged – to the last page.

When I used to write business and technical books, it was all laid out in advance, outlined to the last chapter, peppered with bullet points. The publisher’s editor would track my progress diligently, requiring me to submit one or two chapters a week for ten weeks or more of daily, diligent effort. And I either sketched illustrations for the artist or provided photos I’d taken myself. Then they usually made me build the index (no fun).

But after ten novels now, I can honestly say that for most of them I had little notion of where they would end up, almost from the first page. The exceptions were the three books I adapted from unsold screenplays – the rom-com My Inflatable Friend, the huckster madcap misadventure Mr. Ballpoint, and the family melodrama Christmas Karma. Even then, the writing was beset by inventive surprises. I had to learn the lesson, for example, that the novelist must paint what the camera sees. Duh. Writing between the lines of the script, you could call it. (When it’s in dialogue, those clever actors call it subtext.)

But the joy and the agony and the thrill of making it up as you go along in fiction are bound up in trusting where it’s all going. I’d put in a quirk or a character detail and then forget about it. Fifty or a hundred pages later, that info-morsel would figure into some plot twist – proving to be a significant clue or motivation.

And that surprise is my delight, frankly. I boasted to some of the beta readers of Preacher Finds a Corpse that I didn’t really know how the plot would ultimately get resolved until I wrote the last page. And a couple of them concurred with me that they were also guessing until the very end.

And the experience of finishing Preacher Fakes a Miracle has been much the same. I wrote the last sentence of the last chapter and thought, Wow, that’s what I was going for! That ties it up! And then I realized the next day that there remained an unanswered question (what Dan Brown calls a promise to the reader). So, remembering I had a Prologue (one bookend), I realized that neat construction and a stable bookcase, as well as paying off that debt, required an Epilogue.

Another delicious surprise!

If you think iPhone intros were crazy, the first ballpoint’s was way wackier!

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What was so funny in 1945?

Milton Reynolds introduced the ballpoint to the United States and triggered the biggest single-day shopping riot in history at Gimbels in Manhattan.

He made $5 million in eight weeks during the first non-wartime Christmas season. Then came competition and sales stunts of the “Pen Wars.” An exuberant entrepreneur, Reynolds bragged he “stole it fair and square.” This novel is told from his mild-mannered son Jim’s point of view, about coping with Milton’s outrageous schemes, then their sudden success.

Young adults, particularly males who identify with Jim, will take away…

  • What it was like to start a business when there were no rules (why capitalism can be fun)
  • A book report choice they will actually enjoy (reading or listening to the audiobook)
  • The difference between a huckster’s promise and a lie (they hope you’ll get what you want)
  • How to captivate the girl of your dreams (keep your word)
  • How to step out of your father’s shadow (when he’s larger than life)
  • What makes a grown man get out of bed each morning? (______!)

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Mr. Ballpoint is available in hardcover, trade paperback, Kindle, EPUB, and Audible Audiobook.

EPUB from Kobo  Nook from B&N

New Rave Review for Choke Hold – a crime novel about police brutality

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This from D. Donovan, Senior Reviewer for Midwest Book Review:

Choke Hold sounds like a legal thriller, but it opens with a dose of unexpected humor: “Putting a law firm above a funeral home might seem an unwise marketing decision. But the price was right on the rent.” Both businesses are struggling, and both proprietors are involved in civil rights issues in their community which take them away from their appointed positions and into dangers which include confronting injustice and murder.

Subtle humor is injected into a story line that holds emotional connections, action, and social issues alike (“Whenever they turned on the waterworks, he could feel the size of his retainer shrinking…So, here she was – no cash, no credit – and probably (and this was the real challenge) with no idea whatever where chubby hubby had his assets hid.”). The infusion of all these elements into a story that ultimately revolves around murder and survival makes for a multi-faceted production that is, in turn, a gripping story of lost causes, choking situations, and heartbreak.

It should be noted that Choke Hold is replete with descriptions of urban noir culture and a sense of the urgency of race relations in the 1980s. Issues of oppression and justice are wound into the overall story of character choices and interactions, making for a saga that takes one man’s ill-fated encounter with the police and expands the tale to demonstrate its wider-reaching impact on individuals and the community.

What happens when authorities and justice systems don’t seem to care about injustice and the outcome of brutality?

Choke Hold succeeds in posing some hard questions in the course of its descriptions of a personal injury lawyer’s special challenge, making it a top recommendation for those who like police and legal procedural mysteries tempered by a healthy dose of social inspection and a light dash of wry humor throughout.

Choke Hold is now available in paperback and in EPUB (Nook) and Kindle formats.

One practical result of this book’s publication could be to encourage debate about whether to bring back the inquest process in police-involved wrongful-death cases. I’ve read that even some parties in law enforcement and the judiciary think that such a prompt, open process could help defuse public anger and improve communication based on facts rather than rumors.

 

Feeling Blue on Black Friday?

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Christmas Karma book cover sketch and finished cartoon by Gary Palmatier, Ideas to Images

Christmas Karma book cover sketch and finished cartoon by Gary Palmatier, Ideas to Images

As the holidays approach, I’m not necessarily happy about it.

I wrote Christmas Karma after I’d gone through a series of personal losses. I think in those situations everyone experiences a whole spectrum of emotions, from bewilderment, to anger, and even at times some relief that your dear one’s suffering is over. And then I thought about how, if the soul is truly immortal – and, if so, it can’t ever be hurt, harmed, or endangered – wouldn’t it have a sense of humor?

You don’t need to have any particular brand of religious faith – or any at all – to enjoy this book. Most of all, please don’t take any of it too seriously. And if you post reviews – and I hope you will – please hold back the spoilers! If the sometimes bewildering plot twists entertained you, you’ll understand why it wouldn’t be, ah, good karma to give the game away.

May it bring you some welcome tears and laughter.