The Invisible Society Chronicles: Choosers of the Slain

I finished the second part of Invisible Society Book 1 yesterday. This is the second story involving sorcerer/tough guy Jack Fugazi.

I'm not going to give away a lot of information about it here but I do want to discuss the process that goes into it. The concept behind this series is the existence of a society of sorcerer's that live unseen among us. The idea itself is nothing brand new I'm sure. Harry Potter is the most famous example but I like to tell my stories with a darker edge. and for me it was that I loved fantasy as a younger man but know dick all about castles or horses and didn't care to become an expert. So for me it was just about taking what I liked about that genre and moving it to a setting I could relate to when writing.

Another part of the equation occurred to me while considering the concept of evil sorcerer dark lord types and the paths they took to get there. Now Sauron was more than a sorcerer he was sort of a sub-demon under what was essentialy Tolkien's devil Morgoth. Terry Brooks's Warlock Lord was corrupted by a magical tome known as the Ildatch so was essentially a pawn to a dark power. and what of Voldemort, speaking of Harry Potter? Tom Riddle was a boy born racist and with a dark streak a mile wide. I'm not trying to offend any fans of Robert Jordan but I tried to get into the Cycle of Time series and could not break 30 pages. Now, while all of these books are classic in their own rights it didn't provide much for me by way of understanding the motivation of the regular guy who tries to go all Aaron Burr on the rest of us.

But what I have come to understand after watching enough politics on TV is that some folks are not flexible on their worldview. It's not ever really been a surprise that some folks have some very specific ideas of what right and wrong really is...for the rest of us. This was way more useful in the creation of someone who is power hungry. I can see You're not doing it right! as a fairly direct path towards seeing what you can do to making those other folks to whom rules apply comply. Now naturally, not everyone with similar ideas about the methodology of making others behave has the same idea of how they should behave or who should be in charge of making them behave.

Now I was sort of caught up with an intellectual conundrum embracing this premise it seems like The Invisible Society would, among other things, be a Voldemort factory. There would probably be some small but undeniable presence of wannabe dark lords each with plans and ambitions. You'd need a no pest strip for these dudes. Of course, some of these people would not be alpha types so that would account for fewer actually vying for power but that would just leave brotherhoods and cabals now vying for control.

That was just about when it snapped into focus. Of course The Invisible Society would naturally attempt to create authority in their ranks to get this under control but as with organized crime there would be a lot of things happening in secret and below radar. But these wannabe dark lords made open moves for power they would not only have to deal with essentially law enforcement but other ambitious sorcerers as well. It seemed to me that there would be occasional flareups but that the factions would actually lead to a balance of power among the outlaws. Lots of these sorcerer dictators would probably have little Apocalypse Now type societies set up away from the prying eyes of the law and other sorcerers.

That is all just concept work on how this world works. Where I want to pick up here in The Invisible Society is where the sort of average joes of this world trip over not just the existence of this society but one of its hungriest, ambitious residents. This is where The Pain Eaters picks up. Invisible College graduate and newly educated sorcerer Jack Fugazi has returned to pick up his normal life keeping the Society's secrets meantime. A terrified raver girl comes staggering into his establishment after a day of being terrorized leads noble tough guy Jack into direct confrontation with the forces of a mysterious bad ass he only identified as The German. The point of the first volume of The Invisible Society is to create a power vacuum and meet the central players of the continuum.

I have a commitment to keep with Matt Campbell to finish the first arc of his Mythica series. So I will likely be writing about that process as I go through it. It will be challenging as my most sustained scripting effort at one time and involve a lot of interaction with Matt as creator and sort of God of this universe. Matt has created some characters that let me stretch my skills a bit but are ripe canvasses for truly epic emotional journeys. But once I'm done with that run or at least locked in on those 88 pages I will return to part 3 of  The Invisible Society: Mrs. Downbelow.

Pick up part 1 of The Invisible Society:Pain Eaters at this link on Amazon and I'll post here and on my Author Page on Facebook. For a list of my collected work on Amazon go to My Collected Works Page here.

Thanks for reading. Be sure to check in for more Mythica, Creephouse and Invisible Society posts, and feel free to comment or ask questions.

Advice for aspiring writers

People often look at actors and think how hard could it be?

It looks easy to stand in front of large crowds and use parts of your own life to stand emotionally raw in front of an audience that is drawn into the moment and share that sort of intimacy. Real acting is often conflated with screaming foul language and posing as a tough guy, waking up in manufactured sweat screaming, NO! Sure anyone can read a script in front of people (unless you're afraid of crowds) but without an understanding of how to break down text, to pull real feelings out of yourself you sound stilted and fake.

Writing feels like the same thing to some people. "I can write a book and make a million dollars," thinks anyone who has ever read a trashy novel or Twilight. But the fact is it is much harder than those people think. First of all, let's just move past the notion that making a million dollars off a book is going to happen. Unless you're Stephen King, promoted by Oprah or a controversial public figure it's probably not going to happen. Most writers don't get to do it full time. If you want that kind of money you are going to have to write non stop across many mediums and even then real wealth may simply be beyond you.

In todays era of the internet and self publishing it is true anyone can get a book made. You can throw any dreck on a printed page and some company will make sure you spelled it all right and throw it out there for a grand or two. A friend of mine at work told me about a guy he knew who made a MILLION copies of a book he wrote about his life's philosophy. He didn't promote it. He just thought his genius would start a riot and it would fly off the shelves. He didn't start with 5000 copies to create demand with the presses ready to go back to work. This (inherited) millionaire just fronted for what now fills a warehouse with no market research, no advertising and no buzz.

The writing of the book is the fun and rewarding part. Making money off of it is the real work and it involves tallking about yourself well beyond the limits of what most people are comfortable with. Now please understand, getting to the point where you have anything ready to go is is a hike up the mountain before hiking up the higher mountain, If you're like most aspiring writers you have the limbs of your story strewn about your workspace. A beginning here, an ending there, a few dramatic middle parts, lists of characters and plot ideas and one day, if you're lucky a halfway decent short story to try ands get published.

If you're good, you will start getting picked up by zines either local or national. These are normally put together by your local writing enthusiast and if you're lucky he has some sort of standard for what he will put in this amatuer periodical which means you pass a test and you aren't embarassed by the shit you see on the page facing yours. Use this as an opportunity to network with other writers and people in the arts. Let me say this again, I can't stress it enough NETWORK, All the breaks that I've ever gotten have come from knowing other people who know where

the demand for talent was. If they respect your work and they like you they will throw things your way. People in the arts with no friends in the arts, brilliantly talented or not, are people you will never hear of.

Now, one pet peeve of mine is the loose definition of writer people use. Journalists...writers. Copywrighters...writers. Fiction writers...writers. Biographers, poets, published historians, people publishing in academic fields and folks writing in similar contexts are all writers. They convey ideas, they use complete sentences and know there from they're from their and other things that composers using "C U L8R" do not have a command.

If you write in your journal about your hopes and dreams and don't show anyone ever...not a writer. If you wake up and shorthand your dreams into a blank book that never sees daylight...not a writer. Shopping lists don't count. Things you write that will never have an audience because you're too shy, the contents are too personal or because you don't have the nerve to allow anyone an opinion on what you have written you do not get to announce to a room full of people that you are the same as someone who has worked hard at their craft, laboring in obscurity trying to make their voice heard.

I know you love Grisham, Nora Roberts or J.D. Robb but don't kid yourself about the amount of understanding of the subject matter you need to have. It's almost a cliche now to say, "write what you know." If you try to write a courtroom thriller but don't know the law even kind of people can tell. If you're writing a murder mystery but don't understand how to follow clues or what motivates a criminal or even what makes other people tick kit's going to fall flat.

If you know about life in a small town then find a story to tell that exploits your knowledge of that. if you work retail the world of something like "Clerks" is real to you and you can be convincing with it. If something interests you persue it or do research to the point you can ring true. Be who you are, be honest and straight forward with your work. That is what people want to read no matter what. If you can establish a real emotional connection with your reader then you have done right.

Now I am going to impart to you a truth that is going to sting a little. Brilliant, creative ideas are like flies on shit. They're everywhere and most people have at least one. Great concepts are easy. Executing an idea to make it interesting, exciting, inspiring, funny or moving is hard as hell. Don't tell me your idea. I don't care about an idea in its infancy, there are 1000 directions to take it in and 964 of them will suck and be so embrassing on analysis you were better off to not have tried. Don't come up and unravel this idea you've been working on since third grade certain that this will be the next Horse Whisperer or Shogun if only someone would pay you to write it,

Do not wait for someone to hear about your incomplete, non started idea and pay you a fat sack of cash to write it. They won't. People pay for completed pieces of work, not ideas for them. if you're a novelist or short story writer then write this materpiece. If you're a comic writer get a reliable artist (they're hard to find and luckily I have 3 I can work with but they took YEARS to find) and create this vision so people can read and judge it without trying to imnagine what you're going for.

And finally, if you complete the work and it makes people puke but you just have to be a writer...keep writing until your good. Read other good authors, read your work outloud to yourself or someone else to make sure it rings true and write about everything that interests you. Experiment. Push boundaries, keep that journal and write to yourself to get better. If any one part of these things I've told you is more work than you care to do then quit. You have to chase this roadrunner for years, sometimes decades before you catch a break and if you aren't persuing it as a calling or because you absolutely love the work you are wasting your time.

Now, having said all that I'm going to open it up...any questions?