Episode #268: To Use What You Were Given Sometimes Takes Guts

"My dude has fallen over in shock and he can't sit up!"

Reality is that I have very bad balance and I happened to bump into my c.d. rack, thus the new resting position. But, after reading my post, you may agree with his response.

Today's post is probably going to be a bit of a sticky wicket, so to speak, so I'm going to do my very best to keep it sensible. I would like to also note that I will also try not to deviate too much by covering certain facets that have already been discussed in greater detail elsewhere.

Personally, this particular topic has been a steady part of my writing for the past dozen years or so, which is directly due to me creating super strong female characters that would use everything in their arsenal to accomplish their goals.

The topic in question is weaponizing sex, or as Pat Benatar eloquently stated in a song that was ahead of its time: "Sex As A Weapon". Even though this topic is geared to both sexes, this post will concentrate more on women than on men.

What prompted me to write this post was a particular YouTube music channel that I subscribe to that features a very talented female Japanese guitarist based out of South Korea. It seems like from day one, she initially attracted subscribers using what God had graced her with (with some very creative cosplay costuming that always (barely) stayed within YouTube's ToS) and kept them with her exceptional musical talent. 

So I got to thinking about how this particular issue often plays out in other venues/avenues, sometimes voluntarily: e.g. concerts, cosplaying (of all types, including what's mentioned above) and involuntarily: e.g. pro wrestling, track & field and other sporting events. And fiction, which is a separate category of its own.

note: I am not touching on the topic of adult entertainment, simply because that's an extremely volatile issue that I do not wish to engage in.

Now I'm old enough (reluctantly knocking on the front door of 60) to remember the before of the involuntary weaponization of sex, where the athletic uniforms for track & field weren't so blatantly provocative as they are now. Ditto goes for professional wrestling, where the clothing attire for women was in the vein of one piece leotards (similar to what gymnasts wear). I'm pretty sure that the after of the involuntary is something that most everyone reading this has seen the aftereffects: exceptionally tiny uniforms for track & field, and booty-shorts and tinier than normal sports-bras, along with some....enhancements for female wrestlers (if you think I'm kidding, check out any video/t.v. program/facebook page that involves ladies professional wrestling for confirmation).

For those of you who have partaken of today's music scene, or even going back at least a decade, you have seen performers dress in ways that emphasizes what they got, sometimes modestly, sometimes not. Even though they may draw you in with their talent, sometimes it's that weaponization that keeps you hooked, like a double edge sword.

Whether it's voluntary or not, it still involves making a highly personal decision about how each performer wants to use what they got in order to make money. Some people are very comfortable in their own skin, and thus have no problem in using what they got to get what they want. Others may be comfortable in their own skin, but simply do not want to cross that particular line in the sand.

Now I mentioned that fiction is its own separate category. The reason why I believe this is that every writer often injects their own morals/mores into their stories, because more often than not, a given character in a given story is an extension of some type of the writer.

In my particular case, using sex as a weapon in my stories was always thing, no matter what level of weaponization was being applied to a given story. This was basically showcased in my fantasy series "Sister v Sister" where, for example, the Queen of the Pod Planet was forced to weaponize what the deities had graced her with in order to get what she needed to effectively rule the planet. It wasn't pretty and it was quite humiliating at times, but I tried to make it so that everyone in the Queen's inner circle knew how bad it was, so they tried to help mitigate the degradation she was forced to endure as much as possible.

I think what it boils down to, at least in the real world, on how much is a woman willing to compromise their personal beliefs in order to have the career that they'd decided to pursue. The fictional world is far more nuanced, in my personal opinion, since no matter what the medium may be, it's the writer that builds that character and decides how much of themselves do they want to be injected into their characters.

For me personally, I do not question how a person, male or female, wants to use what the deities of their religion had graced them with in order to have a fulfilling life. As my very opinionated/well-informed daughter is often fond of saying, "my body, my choice.", and that is a mantra that I try to abide by (which is why, for example, tattoos do not bother me whatsoever, and even if some did, my opinion does not matter).

So my friends, what's your opinion about women using sex as a weapon, either voluntarily or involuntarily? Please keep in mind, I'm not touching upon the industry that is exclusively for adults whatsoever. I'm only touching upon what the general public, ages 15 and up, sees on a daily/weekly basis.

{c} 2025 by G.B. Miller. All Rights Reserved

Episode #267: It's An Extremely Casual Road To Nowhere

Spring is really, really, really trying to make an appearance on the mountain this month. Let's give this little guy three cheers and a GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAL!!!!!*

*for those of you who do not know, this word is now a worldwide sports meme, both audio and video.

Have you even sit down in front of your computer, open up your brain after opening up a freshly blank document and start pounding away on a story idea/blog post that sounded "oh-so-promising",  produce maybe five paragraphs, then realize it wasn't such a hot idea after all, so you nuke that mess and start all over again from scratch?

Glad to know that I'm not the only one with a slushie-brain in a tidy world.

Anyways, I wanted to give a writing update this week, but consider how few "hits" I get from people to visit, as opposed to my non-writing related blog posts (averaging about 36 hits per week), I wanted to spice things up by bringing back my Abnormal Reviews reviewers Ted & Bob, to liven things up. Alas, I had no such luck, as per the opening paragraph, it was a downhill ride to the cesspool of nonsense, thus we decided to flush it away.

So here we are, a little flummoxed on how best to give a writing update w/o people yawning until they cry. But since we have that can-do attitude of stubbornness, we're going to give it our best shot. To begin at the beginning, we have our recently completed novella, now called "To Live Is To Die Young".

Unlike last year, when it literally took a village over the course of two months in order to come up with a title, long blurb, short blurb and even a cover design for my novella The Mortality of Familial Love, this year, for my upcoming novella, it literally took me a total of seventy-five minutes, spread out over three days, to come up with a title {pen, paper, and nailed it on the ninth try}, a long blurb {fourth draft was the keeper} and a basic outline for a cover design. It's currently on the back burner due to budgetary constraints and the lack of a short blurb.

And since I needed to stay occupied in some particular way, we decided to work on a short story collection. I have three short stories {two original and one re-edit from a blog posting} already in the can, so it took me but twenty minutes to go through all of the short stories from my defunct short story blog and find a half dozen suitable specimens that I can rewrite. I also decided to write one fresh story featuring my wonderful literary muse, who was finally given a proper name and in this story, was elevated to be an upper-crust member of society.

The fun thing about this story, in addition to being low-fantasy, is that it's sprinkled quite liberally with concepts from my recently completed five volume fantasy series {e.g. telepathy, intraspace travel and sentients/empaths}, and most importantly, the story is basically writing itself. Like I'm just the conduit for the main character {my literary muse} as well as the supporting cast. It's only been about one calendar week, as of the date of this post, and I have the equivalent of 13 typewritten pages hammered out.

So this is my, what I hope to be, a lighthearted writing update. I say 'lighthearted', because I don't think I've had a long period of time where a short story simply flowed out of my pen to paper, nor did getting three of the four major items needed to publish a book completed with relative ease.

I like things to be easy in my writing life. Makes me feel like I can actually complete something without getting aggravated.

A very happy Monday to one and all.

{c} 2025 by G.B. Miller. All Rights Reserved

Episode #266: I......Am Hooked On A Name!

Flashback to the early 2010's, when my Holly was the absolute chillest cat you ever laid eyes on.

Back in mid-October 2024, I wrote a post that touched upon naming throwaway characters. It was a fascinating read to be sure, as I tried to dig a little deeper into my reasoning behind using certain names for my throwaways.

Today I decided to revisit that particular post in order to make another attempt at understanding why I like to use certain names repeatedly.

I think this is something that all writers go through from time to time, in that they become overly attached to a particular name, male or female, and decide to use an ungodly amount of time. If you really think about it, repeatedly using a particular name can be considered trope-like behavior.

Let's use me as a good example of trope behavior without really recognizing that I was doing it until a number of years had passed.

Way early on, I became quite enamored with the name Nikia. I first heard it used in the movie "Kill Bill, Vol 1", and I thought it was quite the badass name, even if it was attached to a young tween. So I started using it for a lot of my early stories whenever my lead female character was a badass. Ultimately it took me until the mid 2010's to pull the plug on using the name, as by that point it was going to be part and parcel of five stories (two novellas and a failed trilogy), and I was becoming quite sick of using it.

That 'sickness' eventually worked itself away, as I started using other types of names for my badass female characters (some involving a twist to the dark original name, e.g. Machiavelli). But it didn't really work for my male characters, as you will soon see.

The only reason that I fell in love with the name Melvin, is because of its versatility. Not as a character that would make a great protagonist, but as a character that would make a great antagonist. What immediately springs to mind when you hear the name Melvin? Annoyance? Disdain? Loathing?

Melvin is one of those names that you can say with any type of emotion and chances are, a character will be born out of that emotion. Think I'm kidding? Let me show you a few examples.

1} In my currently unpublished five volume fantasy series "Sister vs Sister", Melvin is portrayed as a loathsome, misogynistic piece of human excrement who is looking to take over the world (no, really). So in this particular instance, when I'm speaking/reading the name Melvin, I'm instantly disgusted/turned off by the mere utterance of his name. In other words, his name leaves a sour taste in my mouth.

2} Let's take a modest step back to the novella that I'm looking to publish this year, "To Live Is To Die Young". In this particular instance, Melvin is written as one of those fringe members of a society that really doesn't care about him. He comes off as an intolerable nuisance with barely any redeeming qualities. This time, when I'm reading/speaking his name, I want to severely mock him for being such a useless member of society, so in my head, my pronunciation of his name is one octave lower on the first three letters and one octave higher on the last three.

3) Let's take one more step back to a short story that I'm editing/reformatting for another small novella that I decided to work on while putting the aforementioned novella on the back-burner for a small moment in time. In this particular instance, Melvin is the name of the narrator of the story. He is written as someone who is both respected and loathed in equal amounts in a given friend group. In other words, when I read/speak his name, I want to treat him as someone who is the necessary evil that you need to keep your disparate friend group coagulating on a daily/weekly basis. In other words, I say his name with a healthy mix of disdain and tolerance.

So as you can see from these examples, the name Melvin can be molded/manipulated to any kind of character that you want to create, simply by uttering his name with whatever type of emotion you want to inject the name with. To be honest, it's starting to look like the name Melvin is going to be the literary equivalent of a character actor who becomes part of a movie/t.v. star's acting crew (e.g. John Wayne had a set number of character actor friends who appeared in his movies from the 30's through the 60's).

If I need an antagonist of some kind, whether minor/mid-level/semi-major, Melvin is going to be my go-to character name to fulfill that particular role. So my question to you is this: do you have a particular name, male or female, that in your eyes is versatile enough to appear in a good percentage of your stories in some particular way?

{c} 2025 by G.B. Miller. All Rights Reserved

Episode #265: It's Never Simple!

Harbinger of what we hope will be a pleasant Spring 2025.

The title of this week's blog post was a favorite saying of a wonderful old supervisor of mine back when I was a newbie state employee in the late 90's. She would often utter this phrase whenever she came across a particularly annoying government rule that was explicitly designed to make something 10 times more difficult to complete than it needed to be.

I found myself thinking about that particular phrase when I was trying to come up with something to write about this week {fun fact: this year marks my 17th consecutive year as a blogger, having started in 2008}, and after pondering about during a Saturday evening nap, I realize that blogging is painfully similar to writing a novel.

Point A: Trying to come up with a topic (blog) or an idea for a story (writing). Both have a gestation period, but a blog's, due to circumstances, is the equivalent of the lifespan of a house fly; while a story idea's gestation period is the equivalent of the lifespan of a fruit fly.

Point B: Fleshing out a blog post to the exact point where it can keep a reader engaged is a tricky endeavor, since if you make it too long, people will step out and not finish reading it. Make it too short and people will get the idea that you write clickbait; while fleshing out a story idea is an easier endeavor, in that the only limit you have is your preferred production type (e.g. short story, flash, novella).

Point C: Engaging the reader. A blog post, above all else, must engage the reader in a topic that they would want to know more of, in some particular way. Make it too esoteric, and you'll attract a minuscule fraction of the actual audience you want; on the other hand, a story idea often has a built in audience to begin with, and it often boils down on how you wish to expand and expound upon said idea in order to keep that built in audience engaged.

Point D: Offensiveness. Obviously, you have to tread a very fine line of a hair follicle when it comes to writing a blog post, with the main reason being is that you run the very real risk of alienating part of your audience if you write about a hot-button issue (politics for example) in specific terms rather than general terms (national politics vs local/state); a story idea is the complete opposite, in that while you may alienate some with the way you expand/expound on your story idea, the bulk of your audience with not be alienated.

Point E: Well, I don't really think there's a fifth point to be had, as I basically covered the four main differences between blogging and writing. 

However, in summation, it's never simple when it comes to blogging, because if you make a direct comparison to writing, blogging has way more rules that you have to perpetually navigate on a (in my case) weekly basis, whereas when it comes to story writing, the only rules that you have to navigate are those in your chosen length and genre. 

{c} 2025 by G.B. Miller. All Rights Reserved

Episode #264: Deep Down We All Have 2 Brains

This is what I would imagine myself to be after spending a day trying to understand why myself decided to usurp myself.

I am a typical guy when it comes to my health, in that it does not matter what happens to us, we do our best interpretation of the Black Knight before continuing on with our day.

Unless we get a cold, then we don't act like a typical guy. Instead, we simply brush it off and continue with our day in good old Black Knight fashion. But sometimes, every once in a while, things go a tiny bit sideways. When that happens, our second brain kicks in and takes over.

Think I'm kidding? Well, here's the deal: we all have a Big Brain* that we use to govern every part of our existence. Living, breathing, eating, relaxing, etc. etc. etc. It's used extensively and for the most part, what we say goes. But there are times when our body finally says, "ENOUGH!", and decides to do something about decision making process.

This is where the Not-So-Big-Brain comes into play. "How?", you may ask. Well, it's pretty simple really. Because I'm always a good malleable subject when it comes to exploring certain harebrained theories, we'll use me, because, unlike others in the world today, I don't suffer from phantom maladies, but I do suffer from a good sense of humor.

Now, everyone's Not-So-Big-Brain is located deep inside their Big Brain, and is only accessible by the Body, and no one else. Not you or I, nor the Big Brain, just the Body. So, getting back to me.

Like I stated earlier, I'm one of those guys who can be quite stubborn about their health, and this past week was no exception. In spite of the increasing pain in my lower extremity, I did my normal walking and ran my normal errands, and ignored all of the warning signs that my body was telling me. Well, my body finally said, "ENOUGH!", whipped out the Not-So-Big-Brain, and took over.

They decided that I should be punished for my ignorance by increasing the pain in my lower extremity to the point where I actually had to go to see my doctor before my scheduled appointment to have it taken care of. The immediate aftermath of this was that I am not allowed to do any long distance walking for at least a couple of weeks.

If you think that's no big deal, think again. I am one of those people who simply cannot sit on my buttocks whenever I want to listen to any kind of audio medium (e.g. podcasts, c.d., radio, sports, YT). I actually have to be doing SOMETHING. Doesn't matter what that something is, I need to do it if I want to have a fulfilling audio life.

So, not being able to get my 3+ miles of daily walking in while methodically listening to 27+ podcast feeds/5+ YouTube channels that specialize in pop culture content, bothers me to no end. Makes my body happier than a foodie creating sugary masterpieces in the kitchen, knowing that they're in the driver's seat because the weather has just started to turn for the better here in Connecticut, and that makes them cackle with glee.

And there really isn't thing one I can do about, because we all know that when our body wants to do something proper, like healing from an illness, and we don't, it's going to make damn sure that we suffer the consequences of our own blithering idiocy.

So my friends, always remember that if you and your Big Brain don't listen to your body from time to time, your body is gonna whip out that Not-So-Big-Brain and make you suffer the consequences of not paying attention. Just like me.**

*: "Big Brain" is a phrase that well known YouTuber Simon Whistler, who hosts almost one dozen channels and at least three that double as podcasts, is very fond of using, mostly as a gentle insult to himself and others.

**: I had developed a nasty foot ailment that I'd ignored for the past three months until the pain got to be unbearable. End result, ailment fixed but now forbidden from hardcore walking for at least two weeks. So now I'm substituting crosswords puzzles during the same two time frames for walking, in order not to fall too far behind with my podcasts subscriptions.

{c} 2025 by G.B. Miller. All Rights Reserved

Episode #263: Why I Like Certain Kinds Of True Crime Books

A more lighthearted example of the kind of true-crime books that I own/read. This is actually the 2nd edition, which I found of B&N, written by a current (?) National Service Park Ranger.

I'm not sure why I was drawn to true-crime books, but I think it was a young boy's curiosity with different types of non-fiction books beyond the bios and pop culture that I was reading at the time. I do know that the earliest true crime books that got my curiosity pique about true crime, were two particular books that I read some ten years apart.

The first one was about the Mob & the Mafia back when I was in middle school (late 70's). It was pretty graphic to say the least, much like the movie horror mag Fangoria years later. The second one that really piqued my curiosity was the paperback version of the book "Helter Skelter", while graphic text-wise, was not picture-wise.

As the decades progressed, I found myself going through mellowing out, so to speak, with true crime in general. I was finding that most of the true crime books were becoming somewhat redundant in formula and content, so I started searching out other types of books to get my true crime fix, like the one pictured above. I found about that one pre-pandemic via a YouTube documentary about Yellowstone Park. But that particular book was not my initial foray into different types of true crime books. Instead, it was more like a pleasant exit from the now tasteless (to some) highway I was currently traveling.

Pictorial history, for lack of a better phrase.

Back in the late 90's, I had gotten hooked into an HBO show about autopsies hosted by Dr Michael Baden, well known forensic pathologist. Curiosity piqued, it eventually led me down the very weird rabbit hole of true-crime pictorial death.

Over the next few decades, I purchased a few true-crime pictorial books that featured stories/pictures about death and policing in the United States. One book, that featured the LAPD, featured stories about policing in the early part of the 20th century, as well as stories about dying (from the local coroners's office). While informative, it was also pretty grim and depressing look at live in United States during that aforementioned era of the 20th century.

I also purchased one put out by CourtTV, that featured a lot of true crime photography mostly shot by New York crime photographer Weegee.This book also featured both crime scene photos along with specific stories for certain types of crime scenes as well.

I was, and still am, an ardent student of American History, especially the seedier side of history, which is why books like the aforementioned pictorial books about the LAPD crime archives and the CourtTV book about crime in NYC intrigued me so. You really can't get a good understanding about the history of the US without delving into books like these, not so much for the pictures but for the stories connected to those pictures.

The most interesting aspect about my tiptoeing into this particular realm of true-crime, is that I've already had exposure to this kind of pictorial writing earlier in my life. My late father was a US Civil War buff who, when I was a school-aged lad in middle school and high school, would lecture at my schools throughout the years about this era of American History. So decades prior to Time-Life getting out of the book business, I managed to acquire by subscription, their entire 35 volume series on the US Civil War.

This also gave me exposure to the great 19th century photographer Matthew Brady, whose grim battlefield pictures truly brought home the abject horror of war to the masses. And some of these pictures actually made it to American History textbooks, back when a school education actually meant something.

Overall, true-crime is actually a good genre to pursue as a reader, because it can cover a myriad of social and political issues that you really can't get anywhere else, except maybe podcasts, which is a whole other post entirely.

Thanks for stopping by to learn yet another interesting facet about what I like to read. The true-crime genre has always fascinated me, which is why, even though I don't read that much true crime these days, I subscribe and listen to nearly a half dozen long running and limited podcast series to get my true crime fix.

{c} 2025 by G.B. Miller. All Rights Reserved

Episode #262: Casually Moving From That To This

No hidden meaning behind the pic. Just pining for the warmer weather of Spring after battling the nasty cold of Winter.

I have officially put my five volume fantasy series "Sister vs Sister" to bed, as the final seven chapters {113-120} was properly transcribed, printed, three hole punched, stashed in a three ring binder, and had the requisite editorial notes written on their formerly pristine pages before it was lovingly tucked away in a plastic milk crate so that it could rest up for the next few months, because as you all know, editing is where the wannabes are brutally separated from those who are.

Of course, the issue now facing me is...what do I do next? I mean, I just spent 2 1/2 years working on a project that theoretically took over every waking moment of my life, and now I'm just supposed to find something else that would also take over every waking moment of my life?

The obvious answer to that question is supposed to be a resounding YES. But to be perfectly frank with everyone, the well has run temporarily dry when it comes to churning out fresh new product.

But, even though the well has run temporarily dry, I still got something up my proverbial sleeve that I can work on. Something that I actually finished work on around 2 1/2 years ago, when I had finished up a second round of edits, and just before starting my fantasy series: a re-re-re-re-worked novella that actually has the working title/blog tag of Average American Novella.

Funny thing about this novella, which is a fast-paced fantasy crime drama of the R rated variety, is that throughout the entire time I was writing it, it felt like I was possessed by it. No, seriously, I think I was possessed by the story itself. I mean, once I was finally able to find a good plot line to work with, {on the fourth try, hence the re-re-re-re-work} it just...took on a life of its own.

I mean, the time that I had spent on this novella just seemed to fly on by, especially when I did the switch to handwriting the final nine chapters. Now that I had some time to reflect on it, I made the switch from straight computer writing to pen and paper midway through because the hand fatigue that I was suffering for the past several years was getting progressively worse, so I figured it was time to try something new. And, as the tired cliche goes, the rest is history.

My goal with this novella is to have it published in 2025, so to that end, we're starting off the process by applying another round of edits and printing out a fresh copy to play with. Once that's been done, the next trio of issues that I will need to tackle, which are the usual bane of any writer's existence: a title; a medium length blurb; and a short length blurb.

There are few other issues that I will need to spend some time on, but those three are the main ones that will require my immediate attention once I get everything printed out again. While not completely taking over my life like my fantasy series did, it will demand just enough of my attention to keep my writer's brain from atrophying through non-use.

Tune in next week when I should have a better idea on what I need to blog about in regards to this novella, since the last time I had blogged about it was nearly 3 years ago. But hey, redundancy can be a good thing, right?

{c} 2025 by G.B. Miller. All Rights Reserved

Episode #261: The Winner For Strangest Non-True Crime Book Read Is...

The star of today's post for strangest book read.

Simple question for everyone perusing this post: What is the strangest book that you've ever read?

Caveat: Only non-fiction non-true crime choices.

Reason: We all know that fiction and its wonderful genres, sub-genres and sub-sub-genres can be...strange to a certain degree to everyone. So trying to come up with a fictional title that would qualify as strange would be quite difficult, because someone else's strange is someone else's normal. So fiction is eliminated because it's difficult/nearly impossible to come up with a viable choice that people can agree upon.

But non-fiction, that's a whole other pork pie. Because with non-fiction, you can generally come to a consensus about the strangeness/oddity of a given book. And trust me, since the heady start up days of the printing press back in the 15th century, non-fiction has always had that special singular ability to churn out some really odd choices for reading material. Also, no true-crime, because that is a whole different zoo of its own and I want to keep everything at least PG-13 or lower.

Pivoting back to me. I've always held a deep fondness for the non-fiction genre, as it was the very first overall genre that I had fallen in love with as a child and is the only genre that has stuck with me in for my entire life. No matter what sub-genre that has sprouted from it over the decades, I've probably sampled at least one from those sub-genres.

Over the years, especially in the past few, I've read some very quirky non-fiction titles over an assorted range of topics: animals {ex. barn owls}, historical events {ex. the Oregon trail} and national parks {ex Yellowstone}. But the subject of today's post has to be the strangest one that I've encountered and read by far: the Oxford English Dictionary.

This one I came across at my local library's gently used books store during my continuing adventures of finding a book for nearly any topic under the sun*, and this one really piqued my curiosity that I was more than willing to shell out $4 USD for it.

*for those of you who may be first time readers, I've been on a journey to prove a theory that you can find a book for any topic that you can think of. I have purchased several very odd books in support of that theory, of which three are mentioned above.

The premise of the book is pretty basic: it's about the people who help create the Oxford English Dictionary (this monstrosity was begun in the Victorian era and the main body was completed in the 1930's, with addendums being produced throughout the decades afterwards), with the chapters being broken down by the type of people involved (much like Sue Grafton's Alphabet Mysteries).

To give you a basic idea on how they were broken down, here is short list of four chapters:

1. P is for Pornographers
2. Q is for Queers (male or female)
3. R is for Rain Collectors
4. S is for Suffragists

Now, while these categories sound very odd, you have to remember that the bulk of the OED was originally created during the Victorian Age, so you know how publicly prudish/morally uptight (for letters P & Q), exceptionally odd (letter R), and politically active (letter S) people were.

Overall, this book was an exceptionally fascinating read, not only because I often wondered (in general) how dictionaries were created, but the rich history behind the creation of it (including the Victorian equivalent of a Kickstarter campaign to recruit volunteers). 

If you enjoy watching shows like "How It's Made" or YouTube channels that feature quirky stuff like that, then you will absolutely enjoy this book. This book is my choice for the strangest non-crime book that I've ever read. So tell me, what's the oddest non-true crime book that you've ever read?

{c} 2025 by G.B. Miller. All Rights Reserved

Episode #260: Playing Nice In 2025

A winter scene of both discontent and peace of mind {photo taken in the mid 2010s}.

I've been going through a spate of blahness this week, in that things that would normally roll off my back decided to affect me mentally. Which in turn kind of affected my blogging, as I had a very difficult time in coming up with a suitable topic to blog about. But, as you can see, I did, so here we go.

Back in my younger-ish days (say three decades ago), I was very much, as I like to call someone today, a Richard Cranium with my interactions with people. I didn't bother playing nice with people, made a complete nuisance of myself online, and all around I was generally not a very nice person to be around.

Fast forward to now. I'm a father and a grandfather and I've managed to mellow out quite a bit, both with the general public as well as my family. I'm way more tolerant and easy going with my RW interactions. Online though, is a whole different enchilada.

Life is way more polarized online now, than it has been before. It really doesn't matter what platform is being used nor what topic is being discussed, it's gotten to the point where you can simply start a flame war simply by pointing out the fallacy/hypocrisy of a person's argument. Especially if the person is a part of the entertainment industry (granted, this is a very big umbrella).

Lately, I've been forced into the position of unfollowing people on the various social media platforms, as it seems to be the only way that I can give myself peace of mind while following a basic tenet that people have seem to completely abandon today.

Scrolling on by. Not watching. Not reading. Completely ignoring.

I learned this lesson early on while participating in socialized media. Basically, it works like this: no one is forcing you to read, to watch or to listen to anything that you come across. If you no like, you no have to participate. It's just that simple. Normally, if I see something I don't like, I don't pay attention to it and I try not to engage, which in today's world is very hard to do.

The hive mind is a terrible thing to experience, mostly because the hive mind will often be led by people who portray themselves to be open-minded, but show themselves that they're anything but. I have experienced this on numerous occasions, and it pains me deeply whenever I'm forced to deal with it. Constructive debate is always a good thing, and I enjoy a healthy difference of opinions. But it's hard to have a healthy debate of opinions when the other participants don't want to....well, participate.

So, it truly saddens me when I'm forced to go NC or LC with people who I've known for years (mostly online), simply because of their inability to play nice, at least with people who do not share the same viewpoint as they do.*

*this is the closest that I will come to laying out the actual reasoning to me going NC and/or LC with others. pretty sure you can make an educated guess.

It bothers me greatly when my online world is nothing like my real world. It was, at one point decades ago. But now, people completely embrace the keyboard commando ethos with their online world and ignore the collateral damage they leave behind. The collateral damage is very much real and quite destructive in the long term.

I'm turning 60 this year, and to be frank, I'm way too old to be dealing with the close-minded hypocrites of the modern world. It's tiring, dull, and very unimaginative, especially if you're dealing with the hive community of whatever topic that is being bandied about (e.g. writing). I have better things to do with my time than to make an attempt at engaging in a polite discussion with people who choose not to do so.

Thank you for allowing me to bend your ear about playing nice in 2025. The one thing that you should take away from this, is that sometimes, you have to stay in your own lane if you want to maintain your peace of mind online. There is absolutely no shame in applying the philosophy of "scrolling by" in your online world, nor is there any shame of going LC or NC with someone in your online world.

Peace of mind is something we all can strive to acquire and enjoy, especially in today's noisy online world. Remember, you have the power to simply walk away and unplug. Do it today, and you'll feel better tomorrow.

{c} 2025 by G.B. Miller. All Rights Reserved

Episode #259: My "Hot Mess" Is Now "Sister vs Sister"

This pic from the late '00's represents the fire that was first lit in June 2022 was finally extinguished on January 23, 2025.

June 2022. The sentence, "Jhon staggered into the bathroom, flipped the light switch and screamed in pain as the soft white light shot a dual laser beam directly into his eyeballs.", was the opening salvo to a story that immediately took hold of me much like my only trad published novel.

January 23, 2025: The sentence, "Fifteen seconds later Blanco and Akhal took off in the same cloud of dust towards home.", was the closing salvo to a truly epic fantasy story.

In between those two sentences, we wrote an estimated 600k words, totaling an estimated 1,320 pages, contained in 120 chapters, spread across five glorious volumes, with the overall series title being "Sister vs Sister". This particular project was not only an obsessive labor of love, but it was the first to be written completely by hand before transcribing it to the computer.*#

*t.l.;d.r.: less digital distractions, more meatiness to the story.

#longer t.l.;d.r.: basement flooded in 2021, recovered four writing projects in various stages of completion, this project was the third of four to be worked on to completion.

The interesting thing about this particular series, is that when it came time to finally tidy up all the loose ends once we arrived at the original conclusion, it became remarkably easy to actually write those conclusions. Over the years I've always had major problems in writing personally satisfying endings to my stories, which I think had a lot to do with trying to reconcile what I wanted to see as a reader versus what I actually wanted to write. Writing by hand helped me tremendously to properly resolve the nearly one dozen story lines that I had woven throughout the series.

A few random observations to give you the reader a better understanding of what it took to write this series.

1. The page count given equates to the minimum amount of notebook paper used as 660 sheets: two pages of transcribed text per sheet. However, the reality was more like this: 1 1/2 pages of printed text equates to one page (give or take a paragraph) of transcribed text. So this in turn, bumps up the amount of notebook paper used to nearly 1,000 sheets (1,320 transcribed pages at 1 1/2 handwritten pages per one page of text equals to roughly 1,980 handwritten pages, or about 990 sheets). To put this in perspective, I probably wrote out the equivalent of nearly three Harry Potter novels in order to write this series. I think I was a medieval scribe in a previous life.
2. The amount of pens and assorted items to fix corrections was mind boggling. For starters, I employed a rotation of 4 pens, two black & two blue, to write this series. Using a rotation like this helped me limit the overall total of pens used to about 25-30 for the entire 2 1/2 years spent writing this series. This total includes the two cheap ten packs bought, but also several others that were simply gathering dust in my pen box. As for the fixing of mistakes, I employed a two prong attack: liquid paper and address/file folder labels. In regards to the former, I did not have the hand strength to use the standard stuff, so we switched to the liquid stuff, of which roughly 10 bottles were used. As for the labels, a pair of scissors allowed me to squeeze out two to three strips per label in order to fix large errors. I won't even tell you what I used to do to fix seriously egregious errors like making a character go into a direction not of their choice and having to bring them back.
3. There really is no number three to speak. I mean everything else that was associated with this project was just part and parcel of my editing routine: reams of paper (currently finishing #4 and will be purchasing #5-8 shortly) and toner to print everything out; three ring binders (8) along with the requisite dividers (20 packs in total as they ranged from 5-10 per); and bullet point chapter synopsis so that I could easily find a particular point in the story (stopped after chapter 96).

Like I stated earlier, this project was very much an obsessive labor of love, and unlike the previous stories written where I had stressed about how to get from point A to point Z while making sure that I touched on the remaining letters of the alphabet, my stress level was significantly lower this time around. I'm pretty sure that the new writing routine was a large contributor to reducing my stress level (if you go slower, you can see further ahead) thus allowing me to pursue the statement in parenthesis to its ultimate conclusion.

Thank you for joining me on this Don Quixote-esque journey exploring just how far I can stretch my imagination while staying strongly tethered to the reality of today.

{c} 2025 by G.B. Miller. All Rights Reserved

Episode #258: I Always Enjoy The Music Around Me

No matter how crappy your week might get, it's the little things that keep you chugging along.

I've mentioned over the years that I have a very modest (compared to others) music collection that is mostly vinyl and c.d.s, with the vinyl split between LP and 45 then further split between new and used.

I rarely buy new vinyl because it's a prohibitively expensive 100% money grab (average price for a single LP is about the cost of one half to one third of tank of gas depending on where you live), and I rarely buy used vinyl, because there's no used record stores near me or the what GoodWill/Salvation Army/Savers carries is not conducive for listening if you're under the age of 60 and your music tastes have not been permanently stunted.

Over the years, my little brother (four years younger than moi) has always been on the lookout for vinyl for me. He often collects it from clients (he's a handyman/super), garage sales and even once found some by the curbside, and I often receive them as b'day gifts or Christmas presents. 

Because I'm not one to turn down free vinyl of any sort, I now possess music in all kinds of genres: 30's-70's pop, 80's rock, 90's indie rock, soul, jazz, comedy and everything else in between. I should mention that what my brother gifts me is nearly all original issues, with almost zero being reissues. Trust me, it's pretty easy to tell if you got an original, especially if you know the basic history of a particular artist. With that being said, I would like to share some examples, split between LP and 45, of what my brother has gifted me over the years. Please note that these examples are all original releases and some of the 45s come with the original sleeve.

1. Steve Lawrence- "In Time/My Claire De Lune": Most people know Steve Lawrence from his various comedic appearances on shows like The Carol Burnett Show or Johnny Carson, but he was a very accomplished singer in his own right. A United Artists release from the 60's.
2. Inez Foxx- "Mockingbird/Jaybirds: If you've listened to the golden oldies radio format, you're very familiar with the A side. What's interesting about 45, is that the previous owner had put little yellow dots noting the year (1963) and the length of the end fade (:04). A Symbol Records release.
3. Don McLean- "American Pie"- promo radio version in mono: I have both the reissue long version and I believe the original long version on 45. A United Artists release.
4. Wilton Place Street Band- "I Love Lucy Theme/You Don't Even Know Who We Are": Not familiar with this band, although a lot of minimally known bands/artists often became one hit wonders for their theme songs. This was released on an Island Records subsidiary called Disco Lucy in 1978. Make of that what you will.
5. Journey- "Open Arms" promo 45: We all know of Journey, that late 70's/early 80's arena rock band that is currently being ossified on classic rock radio. This particular release is strictly a radio station copy, as both A & B sides are the same song. A Columbia Records release.
6. Billy Stewart- "I Do Love You/Keep Loving": If you're not familiar with Billy Stewart, he had that monster hit called "Summertime", a cover version from a featured song in the play "Porgy and Bess". This was also a radio promo copy with the first song listed being the plug. A Chess Record release.

As I've stated earlier, these are all original releases, with the majority of them being promo records given to radio stations. Now let's move on to a sampling of LPs, most of which are original releases.

1. John Lennon- "Mind Games": A great musician but a mediocre human being, he put out some fantastic music during his solo career. This is a Capitol Records reissue that I'm guessing came out after his untimely passing.
2. Bruce Springsteen- "Born In The U.S.A.": I was a fan of Bruce Springsteen once, until he turned into one of those money grubbing people that he used to rail about. Now he just rails about the people who dare not to vote his way, who used to make up the majority of his fan base. Have to give him props for producing an album that featured at least six top 25 hits. A Columbia Records original release.
3. Andy Gibbs- "After Dark": An often overlooked artist who sadly flamed out after his massive hit "Shadow Dancing", which this album does not contain. An original RSO Records release.
4. The Mamas & Papas- "If You Can Believe Your Eyes And Ears": An excellent folk rock band from the late 60's. I already have an original version (#2 I believe) of this release. The reason why I say 'number two', is if you remember how puritanical the entertainment industry was in the 60's, the original cover photo of this album made everyone clutch their pearls, as it originally showed the group, fully clothed in a bathtub with a toilet in full view. The cover was quickly redone and in some versions, the toilet was mostly blocked out, leaving only the handle showing and in other versions, I believe everything was blacked out save for the band members. An original ABC/Dunhill Records release.
   
5. The Rolling Stones- "Aftermath": What can I say about the Rolling Stones other than in my personal opinion they jumped the shark in the mid 90's and been on a fast downhill slide to money-grubbing irrelevance. Still, this early original album features such dinosaur classics as "Paint It; Black", "Lady Jane", and "Under My Thumb". Original stereo London Records release.

This is just a very tiny sampling of the type of music that my brother has graciously gifted to me over the years (I was also gifted such interesting items like full orchestral 45 e.p.s), to which I am forever grateful. I have just recently acquired a portable record player and I'm slowly starting to get back into the swing of listening to my vinyl once again (for example, I recently listened to an original Simon & Garfunkel album that featured "I Am A Rock" and "Richard Corey").

I truly enjoy exploring the vast Mariana Trench that is music, and that exploration has led me to a diverse group of artists like Samantha Fish (blues), The Pretty Reckless (hard rock), Band Maid (Japanese hard rock), and Sammy Kershaw (country-pop) and genres like country-pop, easy listening, rock, jazz and even 18th century classical/ballads. 

Explore your horizons today, you just might find something that is so out of the ordinary that it will tickle your fancy enough to dig that deep rabbit hole.

{c} 2025 by G.B. Miller. All Rights Reserved

Episode #257: How Do I Edit Thee? It's A Seriously Zen Level Of Nerdvana

The tranquility of a waterfall is the perfect outlet to bathe your brain in the zenith of the moment before you wash it with the tonal sounds of the wind meandering through the tentacles of the universe.

At the close of the last post, I stated that the fat man (moi) had a final aria to perform prior to the intermission of Act III. Suffice to say, to semi-quote a well known lyricist, I can't dance and I certainly can't sing. But what I can do is channel my inner microscopic micro-manager and present to you a blog post on how not to edit like normal folks. 

For the past umpteen years (translation: a number between the high end of a tween and mid-nadir of young adulthood), no matter what length of story I had decided to write, a printed copy I did create for editing purposes. I was one those seriously short attention span people who could not stay glued to a computer screen to read a story for longer than ninety seconds (which is why I do not own an e-reader). So editing my work straight up on my computer screen was not a viable option for me employ.

However, what was a viable option for me was to print out a story, use a pen to write copious amounts of notes/make copious amounts of corrections, and then add those edits onto the original computer copy. Simple enough for a short story. But....would that same philosophy apply to something longer than a short story, like a novella or a novel? Well, as you're probably no doubt aware of, the answer to the question is a resounding YES.

Let's use two projects as good examples of this philosophy: an upcoming novella for 2025 and my current five volume (I pinky promise) project that should be finished (I triple dog dare myself) by the end of this month.

Novella: This upcoming 2025 novella has a boatload in common with my 2024 novella: long gestation period (10+ years); no current title after multiple tries (7 I think); no real blurb or synopsis going for it either; lots of R-rated violence, just to name a few. It also has the very odd editing philosophy applied it as well.

So when we were writing draft #4 (I think, maybe it was #5?) we would simply print out each completed chapter, three hole punch that bad boy, pulled out a 1" three ring binder (note, if it says 220pg capacity, they are lying like a sleeping chow-chow), a bunch of dividers, and shmashed it all together into a cohesive pile numbering 126 pages containing just a kiss under 56k words.

In the course of one day, with my handy-dandy generic version of a Bic pen, we took copious amount of notes, circled incorrect words and typos, and generously added blue and black ink to those formerly unblemished pages of a intelligently written story. Those copious notes were actually written on the pages themselves, because you know, short attention span theater here.

Anyways, we washed/rinsed/repeated a few more times before putting this lovely story back into the Comfy Chair's estranged sibling, the Comfy Bed. In total, it took me about three weeks of manual editing before deciding it was (at that time) good enough to move onto the next phase, which were creating a title and synopsis (long and short). Novellas are easy enough to handle without getting a professional involved until you got to the nitty-gritty portion of it.

Now if you thought this was a time consuming and perhaps that time would be better spent editing on the computer, then you're very welcome to your own opinion on performing your editing chores. I, however, found editing on the computer actually hindered my ability to make any kind of writing progress, which was one of the main reasons of editing this way. The other reason was that it was a great meditation tool.

With my current project, with the odd blog tag of Hot Mess, I settled down into a routine of writing two chapters (later expanded to three until constricting back to two), transcribing those chapters, and doing all of the stuff mentioned earlier with the novella before editing. The way it became a meditation tool for me was that until I had finished editing those chapters, I simply did not produce any new writing. 

This had produced a few pleasant side effects: 1) it allowed me to concentrate on how each particular plot line needs to move in that particular direction; 2) it allowed me to mentally plot out how best to continue each plot line; and 3) it became my bi-weekly sojourn into non-stressful me time, which was something that I've been able to continue on for the past 2 1/2 years.

So my friends, this is how I edit my work: write it, transcribe it, print it, then manual edit. I should note that I have yet to apply ANY of the editing notes/corrections that I have made so far, as I want to wait until I type in the proverbial, "The End", which marks the completion of this five volume journey. And let me tell you, that's when the genuine milkshake is going to consume the inside of your lungs as you try to inhale that goodness through the straw, because the edits I have to apply will, at the very end, make me want to pluck out my mustache follicles with my fingernails.

Happy Monday to one and all.

{c} 2025 by G.B. Miller. All Rights Reserved

Episode #256: How Do I Write Thee? It's A Complicated Process

To semi-quote Yogi Berra, "It's deja vu all over again."

Even though this was taken two days after Christmas 2023, we were greeted by the same exact display two days after Christmas 2024. Makes me want to play this Valentine favorite from my high school days.

My writing process, for lack of a better word, is "complicated". It wasn't always this way though, as previous to 2021, I wrote like every other writer on the planet: with a computer (laptop/PC/any other computer related device). But unlike everyone else, my output could be calculated in weeks/months, instead of hours/days.

And the worse that my genetic malady affected my hands, the more that my output dried up. Until finally in late 2020, I decided to become like the writers prior to the creation of the computer and typewriter, and do everything with pen and paper. I had last done pen and paper with my blog between 2007-2009 before the motivation dried up, so resurrecting the pen and paper seemed like a no-brainer.

But, a funny thing happened along the way of doing my writing the old fashioned way (not completely as draft 1A was transcribed to the computer): I began to actually pay attention to what I was writing for characters and scenes. For those who constantly battle with variations of the old adage of "distractions often drain the creative juices dry", I managed to bring that battle to a well deserved stalemate.

Here's how I managed to accomplish this feat of daring-do.

1.  I do not have Meta Inc on my phone, nor do I play with any other of the popular socialized media platforms save YouTube (I am forever connected to Alphabet Inc). In fact, I have seven apps that get regular use: two music/podcast apps, two news apps, YouTube, a crossword puzzle app and a sports app.
2. I use Google for research purposes while I'm writing (e.g. grammar, culture, religion) at least 97% of the time with the remaining 3% used for crossword puzzle breaks to recover from hand fatigue.
3. Because of the previous two points, my actual total digital time spent while I am actually writing totals about one hour, out of a typical six hour blocked out day for writing (normally 2 hours in the morning, an hour in the afternoon and the remaining three in the evening), with the remaining non-sleep hours doing other non-computer things.
4. Finally, more writing by hand equals less total time spent on the computer per day. Add in the fact that I'm happily retired and enjoy doing other things than doom scrolling on my computer, and my total time on the computer per day is a generous 1.25, 1.5 if I'm struggling to properly start a new chapter.

So what is the cumulative result of this digital malnutrition? A vastly improved writer. Allow me to elaborate.

I've long ago, at least 15+ years, paid closer attention to the books/stories that I was reading, partially to see how the good reputable writers properly crafted their stories. While I did, and continue to do, pick up valuable writing tips, I was often at a loss on how to properly apply them. Only when I had consciously decided to make the switch to pen and paper in 2021 was I able to really apply those tips.

Unlike when I was exclusively using my computer to write, in which beefy characters/scenes were frustratingly inconsistent, using pen and paper forced me to slow down my thought process by a factor of twenty. This slowing down allowed me to properly use the various writing tips that I had acquired, e.g. judiciously drip-dropping background info so as to more fully flesh out the characters, which in turn made my stories to be (hopefully) more compelling.

As with every preferred writing style/routine that a person decides to use, there were a few minor inconveniences that took me a very long time to get used to.

1. Word count: this was the first major hurdle that I had to overcome. I believe I've explained this elsewhere in the past four years, but to refresh everyone's memory, I never lost the ability to cramp my printing yet maintain that legibility at the same time. In short, I've learned to estimate what my word count per chapter is based on the amount of handwritten pages I would generate. So roughly 20-22 pages of handwritten text would equal about 12 computer pages totaling 5,300 +/- words per chapter. Consistently I might add.
2. Mistakes: this was the second major hurdle that I had to overcome. In short, I learned to use great quantities of liquid paper/white-out and blank file folder labels if I'd made a mistake while writing. This has basically forced me to double/triple check to make sure that what I was writing was what I'd wanted to write. In extreme cases, this would lead me to doing the following laborious task.
3. The type of mistake that would send a story off in the wrong direction: There were times throughout my current project where, after taking a break to think about what I had written while doing other things, I would realize that a particular scene was going in a direction that did not jive with the a given plotline. This would necessitate, regardless how bad the error was, to rewrite from where it began to stray and make it right. The amount of aggravation I would have to go through to fix and get the story back on track would boggle your mind. 

To be fair, point three is where I would often envy normal writers, because for them it would be the simple matter of either wiping out the entire error and restarting, or printing out and restarting, both of which required a few clicks of the mouse to fix and only two to three minutes wasted. For me, to fix an error of that magnitude would require, depending on the severity, fifteen to twenty-five minutes to fix.

Still, the one main point that I had managed to accomplish by writing with pen/paper, is that I was able to forcibly slow down my thought process so that everything coagulated properly, and most importantly, made sense. I often had the problem, no matter what stage of life I was at, to miss things while writing so that the final product did not make sense, or worse, shoot from the lip (aka, speak/type without thinking, often with disastrous results).

In general, I am extremely happy with the way I now create my stories, both fresh and rewrites. My aggravation factor is almost nil since changing, which is directly due to being able to concentrate more fully on what I'm writing (especially when I finishing up for the day, more often than not, I don't stop in the middle of a thought, but carry it through to the natural conclusion), whether it's a particular character or a specific scene.

I will say one thing though, that I have carried on/carry forward one particular computer related process to my current process, and that's printing out every completed chapter written. T.L.; D.R., there is a serious issue of control freakiness/microscopic micro-managing attached to that last statement. Blog reader beware, as the fat writer has a closing aria for the intermission of Act III.

It's Monday of the official first week of January 2025, why aren't you still on holiday?

{c} 2025 by G.B. Miller. All Rights Reserved