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Where are the Fireworks, Cake and Balloons? April 14 is World Quantum Day. Yes, one month after PI day, 3.14. For those who say no, no only USA uses m,d,year. Not true, and check the internet! It’s World Quantum Day and the internet is never wrong. Why 4.14? Think…Come on. Energy of a photon related to its frequency. Yes, E=hv… Planck’s constant h, 4.14, the rounded first digits of the constant: 4.1356677×10−15 eV⋅s. Let the party begin. |
Roll the Credits I’ve noticed some interesting things with television series credits. First, the order of things, Generally the beginning credits are the lead actors and the series creator. What a title, creator. The order of the actors? Alphabetical? Is it in their contract? The closing credits are more interesting. Again, the order is interesting. Lots of producers, and different types of producers. Writers, editors. The number of people on the screen at one time an apparent measure of their ego, I meant to say importance. Then the screen gets filled with a dizzying array of names and titles, and they move so fast only a mother or father would spot the name of a son or daughter who was the location coordinator or Boom Operator Post by Damon Nomad Omnipotent Sage |
A Submission Misunderstanding Bubba was proud to tell people he was a writer. Pretty amazing since he hadn’t even graduated high school. Been posting stories on the internet for a month and now he was ready for the big time. He submitted a story for an anthology. He looked the word up. He was excited to see an email response the next day. Dear Bubba, We have received your submission for our new Horror anthology. Please never submit to us again. It is riddled with grammar and punctuation errors. There is no discernible plot and the dialog is simply horrible. Bubba quickly replied, Sorry thought it wuz a horrible anthology not horror. |
Come On WDC An old man, sitting on the sidewalk holding a sign ‘will work for food’. Okay, a bit of an exaggeration. Follow me. "Note: Follow Me and I'll Follow You Do you..." |
Follow Me and I'll Follow You Do you have books on Amazon? What about an Amazon author's site? I check my statistics for my pulbished works once a week or so. You can also see who is following you as an author. I don't have another followers to see who my followers are, yes it's embarrasing. if you send me a message or scribble in my notebook that you's started following me on Amazon. I will reciprocate if you provide me a link to one of your books or your Amazon page. https://www.amazon.com/author/damonnomad-books Just go to the bottom and follow. No expectations on buying, but hey if something suits your fancy. Come on it's free and exciting. |
The Perfect Crime? Imagine you had the power to push the entire stock market up or down. Say for example, by imposing world wide tariffs and then abruptly pausing them for ninety days a week later. Imagine being able to manipulate the market like that and profiting from it. To make this the perfect dream, imagine that these tariff actions are official duties for you as president and that The Supreme Court has ruled you cannot be prosecuted for official presidential duties. Sound like a dream? Or a nightmare? Or the Perfect Crime? Public Service Announcement by Taboo Information Services |
Down a Rabbit Hole I have become part of what I have often criticized , writing political commentary for an online news site. In doing research I have been researching sites that are news, there are so many it is shocking. This is where so many people now get their news, along with facebook, twitter… The tagline for one says in part ”the goal of our journalism is neither balance nor objectivity but” … Walter Cronkite, used to sign off . . . “that’s the way it is.” His goal and his generation of journalist prized balance and objectivity, there was no but. Sorry, Walter. |
| Unfortunately, it's hard to find any news organization now that does real news now. Forget about spelling, grammar, or even the W's and H's. (Who, What, Where, When, Why, and most importantly- HOW does this affect the reader or those impacted by it.) All things that were drummed into me when I worked on a newspaper but are lost now it seems. Everything is designed as click bait and the actual meaning of what news what about has been lost. It's one of the primary causes of the stupidity of America, right up there with elimination of the need to actually pass core classes in school, the removal of things like civics, and the introduction of the idiotic "cooperative learning" which just means group cheating. When the news stopped being considered an acceptable lost liter and public service and was turned into a "profit making division" all credibility went out the window. Now- half the news isn't even news- just celeb gossip, half-formed rumors, and out-right distortions with a simple job of getting people afraid of whatever is in the headline so they act with their primal brain instead of their logical brain. Not that people have a logical brain anymore. As a former teacher and a daughter of a former teacher, none of this is a surprise, but it doesn't lessen the sorrow of watching it continue to unfold, day by day. |
Don’t Forget to Check the Junk Pile A while back, it had been a few days since I checked my email junk folder for the account I always used for story and novel submissions. There it was, sitting there for two days, an acceptance for an anthology. Definitely not junk, for me. What’s the most important thing you have found in your junk folder? |
Rejection by Cancellation I recently had a new first in pulbishing. Well, a first for me. I have had some similiar experiences, where I never get an email and the project never seems to have been published, but never an explicit explanation. An email several weeks after the close of the submission window. My story wasn’t rejected or accepted. The publisher decided not to move forward because, "we've decided to take the unusual step of not moving forward with this anthology. We did receive many stories of good quality and great themes--however, in the totality, we did NOT receive enough stories that adhered to the requirements of the open call to fill out an entire volume." So they were not going forward with the anthology. I was puzzled, usually publishes are awash with several hundred submittals and their rejections or approval emails comment on the quality of submissions they received. Was my story one of the good ones? Drats! That’s what Charlie Brown would say. |
| In my (admittedly limited) experience, it means one of 4 things: 1) they're telling the truth. Too many who submit do not adhere to the submission guidelines because they think they are above them because they are just that damn good at this writing thing. And if what they were looking for was a rather niche topic/theme, then this becomes increasingly likely. 2) it's a cover story for the fact they have run out of money and cannot afford to publish. 3) they have grown frustrated dealing with the sheer volume of AI-generated slop and have given up. This is becoming unfortunately increasingly common. 4) they have discovered another anthology with the same theme has beaten them to it, and hence have gathered the better stories. Being negatively compared can hurt everything the company puts out, not just this one volume. Sorry to hear it, but as you can probably guess, it's happened to me as well in the past. Just one of the joys of settling in the trad-published sphere. |
A Strange Writing Experience For the past month, I have been writing daily political news-commentary articles for an online news site. An English language site in a foreign country about politics in the United States. I have long had an avid interest in politics and was surprised to get the freelance contract. I thought it might be fun, about a thousand words a day, every day, for 0.03/ word. This is a strange experience for me, in several ways. First of all, it’s a liberal leaning slant. Not that these labels mean anything. I find myself now left of center when I had considered myself slightly right of center most of my adult life. I felt things were right with the country when Reagan and both Bushes were elected, not that I agreed one hundred percent with everything they stood for. To me, I feel like its politics that changed, more than me. Anyway, I find myself writing articles about the danger of tariff wars, a president talking about a third term, alien enemies, late-night purges at government agencies, etc. that are considered liberal. As a relatively new, but older ‘writer’ or ‘author’: I find it strange to write to a daily deadline after having been retired for several years. It’s strange to write non-fiction, after having spent the last several years working on novels and short stories. Which I have not given up, and what I most enjoy. Finally, it is strange and somewhat disappointing that I will make more money in one month of political commentary than in chasing novels and short stories for more than five years. I can’t disclose the site name; the articles are only posted as bylines of the Editorial Team. Maybe if you search around, you might find some of them. I’ll see how long this lasts. |
Information Only The 22nd amendment does not say a person can not hold the office of president more than twice. Only that they can not get elected more than twice, these people are clever. There in lies the wiggle room. Don’t trust me? Read it and see what some experts say. A 1999 Minnesota Law Review article called "The Twice and Future President" explains that a twice-elected president could become vice president and then — if the current president were to be removed from office, resign or die — return as commander-in-chief. The federal government-sanctioned record of interpretations of the Constitution also points to the possibility of a former two-term president serving as speaker of the House of Representatives or as another federal officer who could become president through the Presidential Succession Act of 1947. Public Service Announcement from Taboo Services |
| Except that Amendment XII says: "But no person constitutionally ineligible to the office of President shall be eligible to that of Vice-President of the United States." And Amendment XXII makes it clear that one can only be elected President twice. I accept that Constitutional law experts know better than I do, but one of them should explain to me how XII wouldn't apply in this case. Those other cases, sure, maybe. But not VP. Except that laws don't matter anymore, in general. |
Robert Waltz  - That is a good point that legal scholars have pointed to that as well. The confounding difficulty is it sets up a sort of circular logic. to be completely honest, I think Steve Bannon is playing a bit of bait and switch here. The current President is 78 years old, Bannon is vested in the movement. If he can keep the interest in the movement alive, then maybe a surrogate runs in 2028, like maybe Donald Trump, Jr. and the current president stays living in the White House and enjoys his Dynasty. Just a thought. |
| Or even better, how about this foolproof scenario? A Republican majority in the House of Representatives selects Trump as Speaker of the House. You don’t need to be elected to anything to be Speaker of the House. You don’t even need to be a member of Congress. And the Speaker of the House is third in line for the presidency. So, all you need is two willing patsies instead of just the one who will run for POTUS and VP with every intention of then stepping aside to make the Speaker the default replacement. Because it’s really easy to find people who will run for president just to win and resign... |
Trump Says He Is Considering Third Term So, you thought my post a few days ago was silly "Note: Ready for A Third Term? Sorry for touchi...". You probably thought it was just some fringe reporter quoting Steve Bannon. To me, it was an obvious trial balloon from a long-term ally. Trump has joked about it a few times since getting elected, also small trial baloons. Now check out Associated Press, CNN, New York Times, NPR, Politico . . . It's already blowing up the internet. Associated Press Article  WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — President Donald Trump said Sunday that “I’m not joking” about trying to serve a third term, the clearest indication he is considering ways to breach a constitutional barrier against continuing to lead the country after his second term ends at the beginning of 2029. “There are methods which you could do it,” Trump said in a telephone interview with NBC News from Mar-a-Lago, his private club. This will be a story you will not be able to avoid. Have a good week. |
Damon Nomad  - I'm with you on this one. There are no limits to what he will try to do. None. He's our Nero and Caligula rolled into one. |
| I'd be interested in knowing exactly what he said, but all I can find is Kristen Welker talking about what he said. But even that is somewhat illuminating as she said she proposed several methods to him about how he might get a third term and he essentially agreed those were possibly methods. Kristen Welker suggesting to Trump that perhaps JD Vance might run at the top of the ticket with Trump as VP and Trump not rebuking her for her suggestion is not the same as Trump saying "I have this secret plan". The most interesting part is that Welker starts her report by saying "President Trump called me this morning". Anyone with secret plans doesn't call up the press and offer to answer questions. You cannot deny that press access to the president in this administration is unparalleled. |
Ned  - You make a fair point as to whether this is out of context. He is quoted from multiple sources from a telephone interview with NBC news as to being serious about it and that there are ways. I have not heard it directly, but seems like credible sources. |
Ready for A Third Term? Sorry for touching on one of the taboos, but have you seen the article from THE HILL . There are several other articles. Sorry, to say told you so, but I told you so. Remember this post "Note: Case Dismissed! Remember My 2022 Essay-Story? ..." And this essay-story,
I’m only the messenger  and I have poor impulse control on these topics. Something to get the weekend off on a bang. |
| I'm become pessimistic about the fate of our country. We've only begun to see the results of the catastrophic 2024 elections. Whatever happens, our country in 2028 and beyond is almost certain to be fundamentally different from the one we left behind in 2024. Indeed, I think the survival of our country as one unified nation is, while still the most likely outcome, no longer certain. At 75, I suspect I won't live long enough to see how this all works out. |
| I wake up every morning with a sigh and then while I'm having my coffee, groan as I load the news and wonder what fresh new he!! has happened today. Eventually people will get tired enough to do something, but until then we're all stuck feeling the pain of this crack monkey dumpster fire. |
Max Griffin 🏳️🌈  - I sadly see things very much the same way. The levels of division are nearly unprecedented. |
Counting Sheep for Writers I usually have no problem falling asleep. There is something I have been doing the last couple of years that seems to work well for dozing off. A derivative of counting sheep that helps with writing. There are two versions of the exercise. First is coming up with a story concept for a submission call when I have a few vague ideas in mind. I focus on one, and think of how the climax of the story might look and how I might get there. What might the main character be like to play out in this plot? I sometimes fall asleep with nothing helpful, but I often have an idea that seems to work and usually can recall the basics the next morning. The second version is very similar, but it is for the final stages of a story where I know something is not working and I have an idea why, but no solutions. I consider solution options as I head for la la land. This has also worked. Sleep tight and don’t the bed bugs bite. |
A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Getting Published So many lessons learned since starting down the path of becoming a traditionally published author about five years ago. I knew what I wanted to write: espionage thrillers and crime mysteries. The idea of short stories sounded like training wheels to me, I was arrogant enough to start with three novels as a series. Espionage thrillers. Eventually got a contract for all three, the first two got published and bombed. Wrote a second trilogy of crime mysteries, never published. The last two years, I focused on short stories and have nearly ten commercial credits. Mostly horror and two science fiction. Horror stories! How horrible that would have seemed to me when I started on this journey. Crummy slasher gore is what I would have mumbled under my breath. Well, it’s not all like that. You can write what you want. If you want to write short stories for the commercial market, it seems to be about seventy percent horror and twenty percent science fiction. |
| I was called 'an overnight success' by the publisher if Invasive Species... despite the fact it was my 5th trad published book and I'd had over 80 short stories in print by then! And that after too many years! Keep at it. I think not giving up and being willing to take critiques is what makes a writer successful. I have no doubt you will get there. |
| S 🤦 - Thanks for that. It will keep me young of mind and spirit as I continue, hopefully, to improve. Take the rejections as lessons to learn from and keep writing. |
| I think there's merit in writing short stories. They help you refine elements of craft, for example. They also help you with things like characterization and tension. The smaller pallette forces you to make every word count, which helps tighten your prose. Markets are tough, though. Most short fiction markets are hyper-specific about what they want. If you can write to this kind of demanding prompt, you can make sales with even flawed fiction. Indeed, looking at what some of these markets publish, they are not looking for effective prose at all--in some cases, I wonder if they even know that means. Instead, they are looking for splashy stories that fit precisely within the narrow scope of things they will consider. Novels are even more hit-or-miss. Commercial publishers are looking for the next best-seller, which means they are endlessly looking for imitations of the most recent best-seller. Again, if you're interest in imitating another author's voice instead of developing your own, it's a hard sell. I want readers, to be sure. But I don't write for sales, which seems to motivate almost all publishers, whether for short fiction or novels. There used to be venues, even niche venues, that were all about publishing good stories as opposed to making money off of stories. Making money off stories changes the focus to marketing rather than writing. It's telling how many of the authors on the NY Times best-seller lists started their careers in advertising. My advice if you want to make money writing stories is to study marketing, not writing. On the other hand, if your goal is artistic, to produce prose that touches the reader in moving, intimate ways, study writing. |
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Seriously, my biggest complaint with streaming channels is that they rush through or skip the credits to get to the next in queue. The credits are very important. I insist on reading them. The most important people in Hollywood and television - without whom movies and TV shows could not be made - are never famous, but they can be found in the credits.
The opening credits for Cheers are an example. The two stars are Shelly Long and Ted Danson, and they got joint top billing, i.e., are the first names shown on on the opening credits. They are on the same screen, but offset in a particular way. Shelly long is in the upper RIGHT of the screeen and Ted Danson is in the LOWER LEFT. So, reading top-to-bottom, Shelly Long is first. But, reading left-to-right, Ted Danson is first. This kind of credit is common and signals they have *equal* top billing. See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WB0nC3BkzPk
Another coveted posistion is the LAST actor credited on the screen roll. In the Cheers roll above, it's George Wendt, but that *could* be alphabetical. On the Mary Tyler Moore Show, the series actors were in the *closing* credits with no actor credits in the opening roll. Well, except Mary's name is in the shows TITLE. Anyway, in the closing credits, Cloris Leachman is listed last as a "special guest star," even though she's a series regular. She was a distinguished actress who eventually won an Oscar in 1972, and she was already better known than any of the other supporting actors. Her agent almost certainly negotiated that position for her since it signals she's "more significant" than the other supporting actors. She eventually also won an Emmy for her role on MTM. There's an example of the MTM closing credits here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1o3aWul6D9Y