by Glenn | Oct 24, 2012 | Writing
Micheal Rivers is best known as being a genuinely talented author of paranormal thrillers and true friend to the indie world. I’ve read several of his novels, truly enjoyed them, and I am quite fortunate to personally know such a fine gentleman. Previously, Nicholas Guild, a best-selling, international author, was kind enough to write a guest post for my site’s readers. Today, I am proud to include one by Micheal Rivers in my treasure chest of writing jewels. Whether you’re a seasoned novelist or novice, there is definitely something to learn from Mr. Rivers’ article.
A WRITER’S DILEMMA
Micheal Rivers
A writer is a wonderful individual. Throughout the centuries mankind has borrowed, purchased and cajoled anything they possibly could to either educate themselves or entertain themselves through books. Whether you are highly educated or you are just a beginning reader you will find enjoyment within the pages of a book. 
Let’s take a look at writing and how it is accomplished. I will use the works of fiction for this topic. Fiction is tool for the entertainment of readers, but it too has rules that need to be followed to be successful.
A novice writer may or may not realize how much preparation goes into a single work of fiction. Just as if you are writing non-fiction you have to research your subject matter. For every great work of fiction lies the grain of truth. Poor research on your subject will carry you into a story that is not plausible in any state and will destroy any efforts you have put into the book very quickly.
In your research the characters must remain in their original state, such as their manner of speech, or the way they conduct themselves. A sudden change in the character’s development will result in the destruction of what you have already introduced your reader to. The reader will keep this in mind and begin to automatically distrust the rest of the story regardless of its worth. This will come back to you when a book is reviewed by the public. Which would you rather have, a four or five star review or a two star stating your story is good but the characters lack substance?
A well written story will engross the reader to such a point minor mistakes may be overlooked to an extent. This being said I research my books almost to a fault. Trust me; you will still have readers to disagree due to their lack of research about what they doubt concerning what you have written.
Many of your best writers place themselves in the story written from a witness’s point of view. You must distance yourself from that aspect unless you are capable of writing the story with a nonpartisan aspect. It is difficult but not impossible for newer writers in the field.
One of the biggest mistakes a new writer will make is believing he has written the perfect novel and will be beloved among his fellow authors. Usually his editing in his zeal for perfection is his death knell. A professional editor is a mandatory necessity. Although you have done this you will still find minor mistakes, the more eyes on your manuscript the better off you are. This is not saying release it to the public for scrutiny, far from it. Your objective is to give the reader the best story you possibly can and retain your style. Some editors will attempt to change things in your story which not only does not fit and cause hours of rewrites, but will also cause you to lose what your readers love about your stories. If your first release is poorly edited because you trusted your publisher, it is not the fault of the publisher. The final release is your responsibility and that story will come back to haunt you for years to come.
Do your words flow across the page or do they read as a conglomeration of statements? It will make a very large difference as to how your story will be perceived by a wide audience. You must remember the reader cannot read your thoughts or see what you are envisioning. You must lead him by the hand into a world you have created. Let him see what you see. Do your characters and settings induce emotional responses? This is very important also and must coordinate with the flow of the sentences.
I have dozens of people ask me who the protagonist is in a story. I neither build characters or protagonist. I, personally consider myself to build people, someone you can identify with if necessary. A person in a story cannot carry the story alone, just as in real life there is always somebody to share the burden in some form. This is only one point of view and I am sure there will be those who differ in opinion. I am happy with that; it makes the world a little brighter.
If you succeed in getting the reader to understand your character, good or bad, you have succeeded in bringing the character to life. Written correctly he or she can become as three dimensional as you wish them to be. Rhyme and reason will take you far. 
Visit Micheal Rivers site at http://www.MichealRivers.com to learn more about him.
by Glenn | Oct 18, 2012 | Life
After a long year I recently completed the first draft of Amazon Moon. The first full edit went fairly smooth, or at least as painless as I could make it. Now I’m patiently awaiting replies from a few beta 
readers and then will go through the novel once more to finalize it.
The writing of Amazon Moon has truly been an interesting, personal journey for me as an author. I set out upon the path of wanting to write a good, action-adventure story with a bit of sci-fi set in the deep, mysterious Amazonia region—and ended with a discovery of evils that I did not know so fully existed.
The goal of every author is to be a good storyteller, yet as writers, we hold a responsibility to educate our readers as well about certain facts as we move them through chapters until the end. Such responsibility was better understood by me once my protagonist, John Alvarez, entered the rain forest.
A psychologist might have a field day analyzing John; the boy who longed for love, became lost within himself when his family was lost to him, yet as a man, eventually found a home within the Marine Corps to anchor his soul to. He learned warfare well, possibly too well. That could be debated, and then came the insanity thrust upon him by having to doubt the truths of all he has learned to date once in the rain forest. But as I wrote this novel, John Alvarez took a slightly different path in his life than I originally intended. The variation began when he met the indigenous people of the Amazon and discovered their plights.
Simply saying, “the Amazon,” invokes images of thick jungle, wild animals, hidden tribes, and the immediate setting of danger at every turn. It’s one of the last bastions of immense territory in the world yet to be fully explored. Yet, with all its hazards and menace, we owe so much to this region.
The bio-diversity of the Amazonia rain forest is vital to our eco-system and pharmaceuticals. Climate change is heavily dependent upon it and we need the forest to keep it in balance. Over two-thirds of all mass produced drugs are derived from medicinal plants. In the Amazon, 650 species of plants with pharmaceutical value have been discovered. Gold, oil, and other resources are within this region as well. The value of the rain forest is immense, and it is home to many indigenous Indian tribes. 
The history overall of the Amazon is fascinating and truly worthy of reading. But it is saddening as well, often to the point of being comparable to what our Native American Indians endured as the government and gold seekers chose to steal their rich lands.
There may be predatory creatures in the Amazon—black caiman, jaguar, cougar, piranha, viperous bushmaster snakes and monstrous anacondas—but none so vile and vicious as the “civilized” men and governments who decided they wanted to drive the tribes out in order to fill their pockets from the sale of the region’s rich resources.
Every country the Amazonia region touches is guilty in one form or another of injustices against the indigenous tribes. That in itself should be an embarrassment to mankind, yet little has been done by governments to protect these native people or the Amazon. What has been done is nothing more than creating a façade to display to the world.
Imagine if your family lived in a rain forest village under primitive conditions. In addition to the daily struggles to provide food for your family, you must be concerned with brutal Maoist guerilla factions such as the Shining Path traveling through your land; drug cartels and trafficking, their soldiers killing anyone they find in order to protect their drugs; land grabbers and ‘loggers’ raping and savagely killing your loved ones then burning your village to the ground because they want the trees for lumber—or the gold seekers who murder villagers in order to stake a claim and destroy the land as they mine for gold. But worse, is when governments such as the Peruvian government use their military to bomb your village and then send in militia to drive you out.
The indigenous tribes of Amazonia once numbered in the thousands, now due to civilized society’s gifts of rape, torture, murder, infectious diseases, venereal diseases, and violent land grabbing, some tribes are near extinction and fragmented while others only number in the hundreds.
Does this all sound painfully similar to our own embarrassing United States history in the dealings with Native American Indians? Unfortunately, it is almost verbatim.
In one disgusting account, I read that loggers used a different approach to rid themselves of a tribe. They donated clothes to the tribe. It sounds quite peaceful and generous until it was discovered that the clothes had all been worn by people sick with small pox and other infectious diseases—then was intentionally given to the Indians. The outcome was as expected by the loggers. The majority of the tribe died.
I read one news report of loggers burning an eight years old village child to death. They caught the girl, tied her to a tree then set fire to her while she was alive. It was part of their tactic to force the tribe off their land so the timber could be taken. The government was still investigating and said they believed it never happened although they did not discuss the tribes that have been almost massacred by loggers.
It would take a novel to fully tell of the injustices alone performed and being performed today on the Amazonia tribes. My hope with this article is to inform readers there are far more stories to be known than what I have now written. 
I encourage you to seek out the information and read it for yourself. Use the Internet and search for “indigenous tribes of the Amazon” then begin reading about the atrocities committed against them. Perform a search on “rainforest loggers” and “Amazon gold miners” and see for yourself the volumes of real-life horror stories that will appear.
When Amazon Moon is published in the future, I hope you will enjoy its action filled, adventurous story, as well as my other presently published novels. But I hope most of all you will continue reading about the Amazon itself.
One day mankind may learn to not repeat the mistakes we have made throughout history. For now, I doubt so.
Sincerely,
Glenn
by Glenn | Aug 26, 2012 | Writing
Glenn’s Note: I have always stated Nicholas Guild is one of the few select authors I consider as my mentor of the writing craft. After all, one should choose the best to learn from. He’s been 
writing since 1975, has been published around the world with many of his works being international bestsellers, and as Publishers Weekly described him, is “…a master of timing, plot and style.” From The New York Times Book Review to the Washington Post, Nicholas Guild has received accolades aspiring writers dream of, and published authors wish for. I’m honored to present this article written by him for my website. His generosity in setting time aside to do so during his hectic schedule is truly appreciated. There is much to learn from my friend and I hope you will enjoy this as I did.
THE CHARACTER OF CHARACTER by Nicholas Guild
When I was teaching literature I had a colleague who liked to say, “There are no characters in fiction, only words,” and at the most literal level he was, of course, correct. A novel is merely another species of rhetorical performance, and when we read a story nothing happens in the world outside our nervous systems. We are only processing words.
The problem is that my colleague’s maxim is only literally true. It does not correspond to the ways people, both readers and writers, experience fiction. There is what Coleridge called “the willing suspension of disbelief.” We know, for example, that Elizabeth Bennett and Darcy are not real people and therefore they never actually fall in love, yet we always experience relief and pleasure when at last they come to a right understanding of each other. When we talk about any particular novel or story we talk about the characters as if they were real because on some level they are real for us. There is even a certain amount of neurological evidence that readers experience fiction in much the same way that we all experience real life, and with something like the same intensity. 
And when we talk about characters in fiction we are not far from the way we use the word “character” in real life. For instance, when we describe some real person as a “character” we are referring to a bundle of behavioral quirks that distinguish that person. Our impression of that person is defined by peculiarities of speech, dress, behavior, appearance, etc. which he or she exhibits. Thus in our imagination Theodore Roosevelt always has pince-nez glasses, a walrus moustache and, when he smiles, enormous teeth—and he is always describing things as “bully”.
Comic characters frequently have “character” in this sense. Mr. Micawber in David Copperfield always speaks with a comic formality which is instantly recognizable and is always waiting for “something to turn up.” Mr. Collins in Pride and Prejudice is always expatiating on the wealth, grandeur and “condescension” of his patroness Lady Catherine de Bourgh. Mammy Yokum in Li’l Abner of blessed memory always smokes a pipe, ends every discussion with the words “Ah has spoken!” and could have beaten Jack Dempsey to a pulp. Such characters are usually what E.M. Forster described as “flat”—two dimensional and with no psychological depth, no more than the sum of their mannerisms.
Of course not all flat characters are comic. Television abounds with heroic types who are essentially flat. My personal favorite was always Steve McGarrett of Hawaii 5-O (if anyone remembers that series). He had a vocabulary of about four words—“Book ‘em. Murder One!”—and it is impossible to imagine what his childhood would have been like. But generally speaking we expect non-comic characters in fiction to have a little more depth. To use Forster’s term, we expect them to be “round”.
Round characters are those we can imagine having an inner life. They are allowed, even expected, to exhibit contradictions. They are human the way we are human.
But to my mind there is one possible difference. Our sense of “character” in fiction is in many ways close to another way we use the word in real life, which is essentially moral. We speak of people as possessing “character” as an attribute, like eye color. George VI of England showed “character” during World War II by identifying himself personally with the goal of victory. He refused to let his family seek safety in Canada and he made it clear he would not come to any kind of terms with the Germans, even if England were overrun and occupied. He was prepared, apparently, to fight to his dying breath, and thus he revealed—or appeared to reveal—the core of his nature.expected, to exhibit contradictions. They are human they way we are human.
It is open to question whether any of us really have such unified personalities. Perhaps all we have are random clusters of impulses. I don’t pretend to know. But such unity is precisely what we expect to find in fictional characters.
Of course fictional characters have the advantage of being knowable in a way real people simply are not.
Our knowledge of the external world, and that includes our knowledge of other people, comes through the senses. We see other people, we hear them, we touch, smell and sometimes 
even taste them. Yet we are constantly being blindsided by our fellow mortals and discovering that the person we thought we knew doesn’t exist, is actually another sort of person altogether, and the reason this happens is not difficult to discover.
What do we actually know about anyone else’s inner life? Only what they choose to show us, or let slip—in other words, a highly edited version.
But characters in fiction are open to us. The author, who created them, tells us what they are thinking, sometimes even gives us a transcript. Their desires and anxieties are, quite literally, an open book to us. Therefore it is possible for us to know that core we think of as the essence of each person’s private humanity.
Thus, while we only intermittently judge each other, our moral judgments of characters in fiction are relentless. It is a point writers forget at their peril: readers read from within the context of their most conservative morality.
It is also worth remembering that controlling the sympathy of a reader is a complicated business. Think of the reader as resembling a bull wearing blinders and a ring in its nose. It can only see straight ahead, and straight ahead is a direction you control. The writer creates an imaginary world and all the reader can experience of it is what he or she is shown. The writer is in control, so he or she had better be careful.
A student of mine once wrote a story about the interior life of a girl in a coma. The problem was that the girl had reached this state by mixing drugs and alcohol, which my student seemed to regard as the moral equivalent of being struck by lightning. It took me a while to convince her that the reader would judge her character negatively and that this would affect the impact of the story in ways she hadn’t anticipated and didn’t want.
That was the sort of oversight which hopefully is restricted to the very young (my student, as I remember, was nineteen). Every writer wants the reader to be on the side of their hero or heroine. But the same considerations apply when you are creating a villain.
Villains are tough. If you make them too evil the reader will lose interest. Thus you have to make your villains credibly human. Why do they do all those terrible things? What do they want? The essence of the thing is that everyone has a point of view, even Jack the Ripper and Adolf Hitler, and real people are more interesting than monsters. The reader needs at least to understand the bad guy, so always provide him with a backstory.
End of sermon.
by Glenn | Aug 6, 2012 | Writing
It was a wonderful surprise and honor to receive an email from Joyce Faulkner, President of the Military Writers Society of America, which said: “Congratulations, Glenn! Your novel “Solomon’s Men” has been nominated as a finalist in the Mystery/Thriller genre of our 2012 Conference…” 
I say ‘surprise’ because that is exactly what it was… “Solomon’s Men” had been reviewed by a MWSA reviewer and received a very nice write-up which is posted on Amazon and Goodreads websites. Unknown to me, the reviewer entered my work in their upcoming conference to be held in September at Dayton, Ohio. MWSA yearly reviews hundreds of books and to be selected as a finalist is an honor in itself for me.
The Military Writers Society of America is an organization with a large membership of current and former military personnel, as well as persons related and connected with the military services in some manner. The writers in the organization, and the categories and volumes of books you will find in MWSA is phenomenal. If you are a historian, served in the military, are researching wars your loved ones served in, or simply looking for good books of any genre to read, then Military Writers Society of America is for you. I highly recommend you stop in and browse the site, especially if you are a veteran. There are a lot of discussions on many topics of interest.
And if you are on Goodreads, visit the MWSA Awards 2012 Nominees list of books and click a vote for “Solomon’s Men.” This has nothing to do with the conference awards, but is for recognition of the books.
Now comes the waiting to learn the final outcome of the nomination. To be recognized by MWSA is honor enough…winning the category will be the icing on the cake.
by Glenn | Jul 6, 2012 | Crime, General, Law Enforcement, Life
There are times when reality hits home, gives you a wake-up call, and leaves you with the realization the dirty side of life still exists even though you may have forgotten or chose to ignore it. Some people don’t have the luxury to forget. They work it every day, seemingly living it because they must. It’s their job. Such are the men and women of the T.G.I.A., Texas Gang Investigators Association.
After reading my novels, Mr. Paul Zamarripa, T.G.I.A. South Region Director, Position 1, contacted and invited me to attend their conference in San Antonio, Texas. That was quite an honor for me. Considering my former experience as a law enforcement officer, he believed it would be a good opportunity to present something different to the attendees; have me sign my books, talk with everyone, and allow them to see there can be life outside of their daily jobs which are mentally grueling.
Of course I accepted! What author wouldn’t? So for two full days I signed books, met old friends, people engaged in gang investigations and enforcement, and made new friends – one of which was Mr. Zamarripa.
Were the 750 conference attendees all cops? No. They ranged from federal agencies of all levels, constables, state, county and municipal law enforcement, and parole/probation officers to school counselors and court administration. Yes, I probably missed someone in that list of attendees. But as you can see, it takes such a spectrum of people, working hand in hand, to address today’s growing problems with gangs.
There was a time long, long ago when you said the word “gangs” and only images of leather-vested motorcycle riders and teenagers in neighborhoods with aerosol paint cans came to mind. The majority of the public never came in contact with them. Fast forward ahead and now everyone across our nation and in foreign countries is infected with a mounting crime rate rising from street thug gangs to violent drug cartel involvement. Big cities to small country towns, the types of crimes related to them seems endless: theft, burglary, drugs, rape, prostitution, kidnapping, assault, murder, and so on. And there are no barriers when it comes to age and social economic status as well. Children to adults are recruited, and the poor from slums and barrios to the college educated crowd living in well-to-do neighborhoods are brought into the fold.
What lies at the base of the gang problem? Money, economics; the list of reasons continues but those two are the meat and potatoes of the issue. And solving gang problems that have such far reaching tentacles into the criminal underworld often feels as if you are at the beach trying to hold back the waves of the ocean. 
When drug cartels have enough money to recruit whole units of deserters from Mexican Army special forces units to do their violent bidding, they certainly have no qualms in hiring stateside ‘wannabe-gangstas’ or organized gangs to run dope and make hits on selected targets. Doing so keeps the cartel’s hands clean.
This is where the men and women of the T.G.I.A. come into play. They don’t just work ‘9 to 5’ and walk away at the end of the day. They live it ‘24-7’ and shift between the cruelties of the gang world and their home life, constantly struggling to maintain their sanity and a positive outlook on society. Their phones ring day and night and they are often called away for investigations while enjoying a little time with family. That’s one reason divorce rates are high in police work. While I was at the conference I listened to probation officers getting calls about parole violators, and investigators talking to patrol officers about certain ‘tats’ on a suspect.
Conferences are important for several reasons – networking, sharing intel, learning from one another – earning educational hours required by the State of Texas as part of their continuing education to retain their licenses – but to me, most of all, it gives them some down time to clear their heads, especially when you are not working undercover and feel you need to always dress the part of being a gang member. Like patrol officers and detectives working the streets, it’s easy to get wrapped up in the ‘us versus them’ syndrome whereby it’s the police against everyone outside of law enforcement because all you see is the crap side of life and wonder if anyone good is left other than another cop.
The stories these people can tell you about gang violence and activities and working the streets would make most authors’ crime novels look like kindergarten books.
Take the time to browse various websites of your local law enforcement such as Stop Houston Gangs and related associations such as the T.G.I.A. Read about the crimes gangs commit and how they operate. See for yourself how big the problems truly are. After all, the end product of their criminal acts affects your tax dollars!
What can you do to help? First, start by telling your children they are loved – and talk to them. Have conversations with them about problems they see and may be confronted with in school or in the neighborhood. Don’t wait until your children are teenagers. Start talking to them when they are much younger.
Gangs are a subject which could be studied for semesters in a classroom setting and you still wouldn’t learn all there is to know. So my hat’s off to the members of the TGIA, as well as all law enforcement related personnel, for their commitment to keeping our streets clean.
And my thanks to Mr. Paul Zamarippa for the invitation which allowed me to learn about this association.
Glenn
Micheal Rivers is best known as being a genuinely talented author of paranormal thrillers and true friend to the indie world. I’ve read several of his novels, truly enjoyed them, and I am quite fortunate to personally know such a fine gentleman. Previously, Nicholas Guild, a best-selling, international author, was kind enough to write a guest post for my site’s readers. Today, I am proud to include one by Micheal Rivers in my treasure chest of writing jewels. Whether you’re a seasoned novelist or novice, there is definitely something to learn from Mr. Rivers’ article.
Many of your best writers place themselves in the story written from a witness’s point of view. You must distance yourself from that aspect unless you are capable of writing the story with a nonpartisan aspect. It is difficult but not impossible for newer writers in the field.
If you succeed in getting the reader to understand your character, good or bad, you have succeeded in bringing the character to life. Written correctly he or she can become as three dimensional as you wish them to be. Rhyme and reason will take you far. 
