Limiting the Graphic Reality of Warfare

Psalm 137:9 Happy is the one who seizes your babies and dashes them against the rocks.

Ouch. That pretty rough psalm was written by the rivers of Babylon. In the Messengers series, B'vel was very loosely based on Babylon. It was more the general idea of Babylon than the city or empire. The next two books in the B'vellah War series take place during the war. That's not really a spoiler. ;) I've been wrestling with a lot of things for those. One of them is how to wage war against the enemy in a way that won't shock readers. In modern times we have all these rules and restrictions. In the U.S. people aren't used to the realities of combat. In real warfare soldiers do whatever they have to do to win. There's no coddling of the enemy. It can be merciless.

In Messengers, I tried to have the heroes treat prisoners very well but be somewhat ruthless in combat. I didn't describe body parts and rivers of blood or that sort of thing one could find in other books. I don't want to write stuff like that. However, the sequel is a full-blown war. Messengers fight to win, as was stated in the first series. Winning against a superior enemy requires drastic steps. That psalm came up in my Bible reading today. I think that sets my limit on what I'm allowed to do. There won't be any scenes where people smash babies against rocks while smiling.

That Don't Work
I'm seeing some progress for my That Don't Work YouTube channel. The greenscreen stands and clamps arrived today. I'm still waiting on the smoking pipe, which will be for gags not a corrupting influence on kids, and microphone batteries.

I need to dedicate the corner of a room for the "studio", but I don't have a lot of room to spare. I've been trying to make it work. I have some cheap studio lights. The stands have a certain footprint, as does the greenscreen setup. I'll be sitting in a chair. The space required is adding up. There are more problems than that, but it's kind of depressing.

As all this has slowly progressed, the concept of the channel has, too. It's going to have to be a show, at least the writing stuff. I'll have other videos like my Star Wars song. What's Darth Vader's helmet really for? If something could go viral, it would be that. If there's viewer mail, answering some of it on the show would almost automatically be funny.

There's money to be made on YouTube, but I'm not sure how universally appealing my concept is. Here's what I'm thinking. If I can make any money from it, great. The real value might be in book sales. It would take somewhere around 1,000,000 views to equal about 486 sales of the $2.99 books. If I had a million views, the value could mostly be in the promotional aspect. Some writers have YouTube trailers, etc. Some have blogs and websites. The show would be my version of that.

And, of course, I'd have to write it. It would all be writing practice. If everything goes well, I'd be devoting at least several hours a week to produce a show that might run 10 minutes or less that would make enough money for me to write full time. If I could get anywhere close to 1,000 sales a month, that would be possible.

YouTube Prep

I've created a YouTube channel for making writing videos. The basic concept is I'd play an English aristocrat type of character discussing "literature". I'd talk about a bad moment in an otherwise good, well-written book(or wherever) that either didn't work or didn't make a lick of sense then explain why it doesn't work and tell how to avoid that mistake or how to fix it. It would all be done with a slant toward humor and exaggeration while conveying useful tips and tricks. I wouldn't be an expert, guru or mentor, but it's not necessary to be those to spot mistakes. The idea is not to make fun of someone or that person's work. It's to learn from a bad moment while having fun. To make that happen, I'd want to avoid books that are genuinely bad.

 You put what in your story?

I do so dearly hope you avoid that mistake in the future.

That's most of my costume. Rich jacket and puffy ascot tie with a pipe and lots of gold trim. I don't have the pipe yet. It would be for gags only and not a bad example to children. The glasses are part of the costume. These pics aren't the best. It was windy and cold. My "photographer" fought me every step of the way. This isn't the exact look I'm going for, but it's the general idea. I probably need a tacky gold ring now that I see the pictures.

The irony of all this is that the Messengers series is FILLED with things you're not supposed to do in your writing. I'd be sharing tips while standing on a manual of what to never do. I hope to get something up in a week or two.

Book 2 Hiccough

One of the things I needed to do before doing anything more on book 2 of the B'vellah War series was to download the Messengers books to my Kindle and go through them looking for foreshadowing I may have forgotten, minor characters who need to return, plot ideas and general continuity things. I'm big on continuity. I was reading through book 1 and saw a ton of things that needed fixing. Most of it was simple, but the farther I got the more depressed and discouraged I felt. I couldn't believe what I was seeing or imagine how I'd missed so many things. That was hundreds of thousands of words ago. My style and skills have changed. But surely not that much, right? I couldn't believe all the junk that needed fixing. I was horrified and printed the book out to make fixes. I noticed on page one that my printout didn't match what was on my Kindle. That's when I started to freak. It looked like Amazon had not properly received the final files I uploaded way back when.

Fortunately, it turned out that my account is set to a previous version of the books and not the live version of today. Downloading anew did nothing. I had to get Amazon to update my account before downloading would give me the current version. I'd been freaking out thinking people were downloading that other version.

Once I started going through the live version, which I was afraid to do at first, it went much better. There are still things that need fixing. Too many exclamation points. Verb tenses that are harder to read. I'm not happy with all the dialogue. I'm on the lookout for voice problems. It wouldn't hurt a thing to trim the book down so it flows faster. One thing I'm happy with is the humanity of the characters. Despite any rough or embarrassing things I'm seeing, I see gold shining under the dirt.

And then a miracle happened.
I got an email this week from CreateSpace that they couldn't make a deposit, because my bank information was wrong. I changed banks in early 2014 after someone charged almost $120 to my account, and my bank wouldn't help me. I forgot to change my info at CreateSpace, because nobody ever bought my books in paperback. Well, last summer and fall someone bought 5 books. How did that happen?
I'm waiting on $2.56 to appear in my account.

That Don't Work
Sometimes I talk about the technical side of writing. I've decided to make a blog about things that don't work in books I read or things that don't make a lick of sense. I might also talk about things in life that don't work or don't make sense. The idea is to offer helpful writing advice in a humorous way. This is a natural for a YouTube channel. Check it out here.

Live Long and Prosper

There was an article about a new, possible longevity treatment. It extends the lives of mice up to 25 to 35 percent and lets them live healthier lives. Technical details are in the article. The lifespan in a human would be 115 to 120, if it works in people, too.
It wasn't that long ago that another anti-aging treatment made the news. That one could help people live to 120, and since it's an already known drug, it would be cheap to buy, less than 10 cents a pill.
If these treatments actually work, I wonder if they would enhance each other and increase lifespan beyond 120. That would be pretty interesting.

If you paid really close attention in the beginning of the Messengers series, it was mentioned that Aubrey the Messenger died about 100 years before book 1. The Marhelan War was 100 years before that. She would have been about 20 when she went to Yesh. Therefore, she died around 120 years old after a disease-free life. Honestly, it should have been longer, but for story reasons I had to limit it. My original plan was for them to live over 900 years. It just didn't work storywise.

I was thinking about these longevity treatments. The first people to get them would be the rich and powerful. Before genetic therapy was legal in the U.S., I saw an interview with a politician, I think it was Geraldine Ferraro, in which she casually mentioned that genetic therapy had cured her cancer. She didn't say where she got it. I was surprised at the time because that was illegal. Apparently, she had access to health care the average person didn't. But anyway. What if corrupt, evil politicians suddenly started living to 120? It's almost impossible to vote them out of office now. The re-election rate in congress is about 98% last time I heard a statistic on it. Would God have to intervene to remove those people? Would we see them dropping dead for no apparent reason? Would they start having freak accidents? How would that work spiritually? I'm not talking about good people. I mean the evil ones. Would God's hand become noticeable? It's something to think about.

For the record, I'm all for longevity treatments. I think the Tribulation is too close for me to see much benefit, but I'm all for it. Because of what God told Adam in Genesis, the human lifespan is limited to just under 1,000 years. I think God would let us do a lot in this area, since it wouldn't grant immortality. Spiritually, I don't have a problem with people living hundreds of years. I just wonder about the evil ones and what they would do with their long lives. What if the next Hitler had a 120 year lifespan?