Goal Post: A Week of Randomly Staring at Things

Posted on March 15, 2025 by Charles Yallowitz

(Okay, this is a pretty big rant post about humans.  Guess it was one of those weeks.)

That’s been my week due to exhaustion and weird health blips.  I became so worn down by Monday evening that all attempts to edit were met with blank staring.  I did manage to get one page of Darwin & the Beast Collector done.  Hopefully, I can recover and get the rest of the chapter done this weekend.  Need fresh air badly, so I’ll be taking a bunch of walks for Pokemon, my health, and socializing.  Might not be enough to ward off the fatigue, but fingers crossed.

That’s if this is even fatigue.  The whole experience is strange.  I wake up feeling ‘odd’, but my blood-oxygen, pulse, and blood pressure are typically normal.  Once I had really high BP for a minute after waking up in a panic.  So, this could be anxiety, which wasn’t helped by me accepting a glass of wine last night.  Ugh, I don’t drink much these days, but I still need to say no more consistently.  Anyway, I did my best to rest when I could, but there were a lot of stressors.

First, it was a week long ‘Battle of the Classes’ at work, so a bunch of activities were going on.  It’s a lot of fun, but the kids I work with can have trouble.  Schedules are changed, so all of us are thrown off.  I even found myself suffering from a little overstimulation, which is why walks after work were necessary.  Next week won’t be as crazy, but we still have 4 to go before reaching spring break.  I’m trying really hard not to succumb to whatever is beating me up because I don’t want to take a day off aside from a personal day in April.  I don’t know why I’m determined to do so, but I am.  Maybe it’s to make sure I don’t lose money even though I have enough sick days.  Not making much extra money, which is also why I’m trying to convince people to give me Lego giftcards for my birthday in April.

I’m also tired of dealing with selfish people who see being fair as them being victimized and screwed.  Maybe I give off a pheromone that attracts narcissists because the amount of people I’ve run into this year with this mentality is insane.  Did I miss a memo where everyone is out for themselves?  I’m typically down and feeling like the universe is out to get me, but these people are the types to punch you in the face and call you a monster for their knuckles getting bruised.  They’ll pull a stunt and shriek in rage when you give them a taste of their own medicine.  Exhausting to deal with such people.

Third, I’m also tired of . . . Okay, this might piss some people off.  I’m tired of people who think empathy is a weakness and caring about fellow humans who aren’t from your ‘tribe’ is wrong.  These are the same people who applaud while watching the rich and powerful turn people against each other and act like barely cloaked monsters.  Why?  Because the groups being targeted aren’t the same ones they hate primarily for existing or voicing a different opinion.  The amount of times I’ve been insulted, ridiculed, and faced with anger by stating you should care about certain groups or that a person’s favorite billionaire is clearly a bad person is crazy.  Even worse, I sometimes see kids emulating the public displays of rudeness and cruelty because the powerful are doing it with applause instead of consequences.

That was as vague as I could make it since I know a few people who watch this blog and will come at me in real life.  Some probably will even if I’m not talking about them.  Ugh, I don’t even know where to go from here.

Next week doesn’t have a going on, but I might be able to get a little editing in on Wednesday or Thursday.  I still bring a chapter with me to work in case I’m the only one without a coverage at some point.  Can’t edit when other people are around because I feel it might be rude.  Definitely not a good idea this week because this is the hump for the stretch between winter and spring break.  3 weeks down and then 3 weeks left after this one, which is going to be grueling.  On the plus side, the weather looks nice enough for most of the afternoons to give me some walking time after work.  That’s been helping with my mood in spite of the exhaustion.

So, what are the goals of the week?

  1. Edit more of Darwin & the Beast Collector
  2. Daily walks . . . That came out weird.
  3. Helping son with homework and life stresses.
  4. Do a few May posts.
  5. Puzzle time.
  6. Continue planning dinners for a period of time I have the house to myself.
  7. Try to avoid the above stressors.  I know one of them is unavoidable.
  8. Sleep better.
  9. Finish watching ‘Invincible’.
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You’re Not the Hero?

Posted on March 14, 2025 by Charles Yallowitz

Batman Villains

Villain 1– We meet at least, great hero.  Now you will . . . Why are you wearing all black like me?

Villain 2– You can’t trick me, hero.  Pretending to be like me and . . . Are you riding a skeletal horse?

V1– I summoned it from the deepest depths of Hell.

V2–  That’s where I got my demonic eagle mount from.  Strange.

V1– What did you do to gain your great power of light?

V2– I use necromancy and I traded the souls of 100 orphaned puppies to get it.  Is your castle built on an active acid volcano?  I smell burning flesh too.

V1– Leave my lunch out of this.  Why do you have a priestess’s shrunken head hanging from your belt?

V2– Follow your own advice.  So . . . Are we both villains?

V1– It seems so.  Makes me wonder why I bothered threatening your family.

V2– Thanks for forcing me to get rid of that weakness.  You still angry about me killing your children last month?

V1– They were planning on betraying me anyway.  I used their souls to gain immortality.

V2– I sacrificed an entire species to get mine.  Probably a survivor out there planning to kill me one day.

V1– Oh, I’m sure I have a bastard child out there destined to do the same.  Honestly, I thought that was you.

V2– Why would you think that?

V1– It was when you slaughtered one of my bases and made an altar out of my soldiers’ skulls.  Reminded me of my younger days.

V2– Wanted to go classic with that attack since it was an old fort.  It was sitting on a dragon egg nest that I wanted.

V1– I don’t see an army of dragons.

V2– I had them fight until only the strongest was left alive and now it guards my castle.

V1– Better idea than me using them for an omelet party.

V2– I roc eggs.  Are we friends or enemies now?

V1– Allies until one of us betrays the other.

V2– Well, I don’t know of any heroes we can unite against.  Seems like a pointless alliance until one shows up.

V1– Good point. Split the land and stay out of each other’s way until we’re forced into a conflict?

V2– Sure, but I’m going to push on your borders and jump at any opportunity to gain an advantage.

V1– I’d expect no less.

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Why Write Short Stories

Posted on March 14, 2025 by Charles Yallowitz

Hi SEers! Denise here to reshare an updated post from 2-21 or my second post here. I love writing short stories, and thought bringing the subject up …

Why Write Short Stories
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Poetry Day- Our Fiction Fascination

Posted on March 13, 2025 by Charles Yallowitz

Carl Sagan Quote (Supposedly. Internet isn’t always honest.)

(This is about how humans created and enjoy fiction.  It’s rather unique to our species as far as I know.  We do what we can to explore other words and leave reality behind.  Is it a species-wide form of mental illness or a natural defense mechanism to help us handle the stress of existence?)

Everyone dreams
Whether waking or asleep
Leaving reality behind
Pondering the false
As if it may come true

 

When did man
Become enamored
With worlds that had no form
And people with no voice
Beyond the written word

 

I see it in our children
Masquerading in wild garb
Superheroes and adventurers
Princesses and fairies
Not a one believes them false

 

Even older ones indulge
Reading fiction like addicts
Indulging in films
Of false worlds and rules
All to escape our bland reality

 

This has gone on
Through all our many years
Every time an artist works
The fascination grows
Encompassing all in view

 

Maybe it is part of nature
The reason we excel
Our ability to think
Outside reality’s norm
Creating worlds of wonder

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7 Tips To An All Villain Story

Posted on March 12, 2025 by Charles Yallowitz

Google Image Search

The meme above sums it up pretty well, but there are times when characters know they’re doing bad things.  So, what can you do if you want to write a story where everyone, or at least the big ones, are bad guys?

  1. Understand that villainy works on a scale.  So, not every character will be willing to murder.  There can be some warped morality in a villain with a line that they refuse to cross.  In turn, they will severely punish anyone who does.  For example, a serial killer who hates child rapists.  They won’t go that far and will remove such criminals from the gene pool if they find them.  Doesn’t make the serial killer a hero, but it shows that it can’t be ‘black and white’ evil.
  2. Villains do tend to stab each other in the back because there is a level of selfishness in their personality.  Yet, they can’t do it all the time.  If a villain is routinely betraying their allies, they’re going to end up alone.  Worse is that all of the people they stabbed in the back will unite against them.  Such a villain can make for a good story, but they narrow your finale options.
  3. Not every villain has a temper or is insane.  If they’re all like this then it will be hard for the story to move forward.  A variety of evil personalities is needed to fill the void left by not having a hero.  That means somebody needs to be sane, level-headed, and cautious with minimal bloodlust.  Doesn’t even have to be one character with those traits, but they should be around to avoid people wondering why the maniacs don’t simply have a murderous rumble to end it all.
  4. While villains act evil, they do need some type of charm.  This would explain why they would have minions.  Yes, you can have a lone villain as your hero, but that can lead them into anti-hero territory if you’re not careful.  As the meme said, villains tend to think of themselves as villains, which is what should be considered to explain how they attract weaker bad guys.  Basically, what can they provide their henchmen besides a paycheck?
  5. Not every villain needs a traumatic childhood.  It’s an easy origin to explain where they came from, but people kind of expect that.  Having a villain come from a loving family would add a new layer and help them stand out.  Makes one wonder what could have happened to change them.  Not to mention the idea that a villain is made and not like this out of the womb.
  6. It is possible to have some heroic types in this kind of story, but they shouldn’t be on the POV list.  They are minor characters and obstacles that can help showcase the villainous protagonist’s actions.  These characters can also be used to demonstrate how the villain is able to corrupt others.
  7. Justification of actions stays within the story.  A character and their allies can justify the horrible things that they do.  The audience might not agree and assume the author supports such actions in real life.  Make it clear in the story that the villains are still evil even if they think they are right.  Even showing that one of them has a flicker of doubt beforehand or regret afterwards can get this point across.  More importantly, it also reminds the audience that the villains are human and not soulless monsters.
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Setting Up: Finessing the When and Where

Posted on March 12, 2025 by Charles Yallowitz

By Stephen Geez This 3-part series on story setting starts fairly simply before exploring the widest range of possibilities. Newer writers should pay…

Setting Up: Finessing the When and Where
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Teaser Tuesday: Passage of Time

Posted on March 11, 2025 by Charles Yallowitz

Cover by Alison Hunt

(Check out Do I Need to Use a Dragon? on Amazon.  Please remember that these are teasers and not the full entries.)

Let’s be honest. We, as authors, can take the passage of time for granted when it comes to our stories. It can feel like an extra, unnecessary aspect to pay attention to since we don’t expect readers to track the days. So, characters will traverse a massive desert in days or train in a new skill without a changing of the seasons. There are times we mention days and weeks so casually that we ignore the fact that our story may have inadvertently spanned a year. We can go the opposite route and fixate so much that the adventure gets bogged down. No, we don’t have to show every day of training or travel. This puts us in a rough spot of having to catalog time while skipping it, which is frustrating when you’d prefer to use that energy for the more visible aspects of the story. Don’t fret though. Plenty of ways to make this quick and painless . . . Well, quicker and less painful at least.

The best tool to use here is a timeline, which you can create as you write. This doesn’t have to be complicated. Just a note of how many days are passing and seeing if you have to change things accordingly. Passing time transitions build up faster than you realize, so it helps to log it at some level. Personally, I try to get a general idea of the season I’m working with because Windemere has four moons with each one being the primary in the sky depending on the time of year. They are different colors, so I need to know the kind of light characters are working with during night scenes. A timeline helps me know if things stay the same or if the next book will be at least one season ahead. Another tool I have is a simple calendar for Windemere, which has months, days in each one, and the connected seasons. Of course, I have yet to mention any of the months in the books because they never come up in my previous books and series. Still, it helps to have the guidance.

When choosing the amount of time that is passing, you need to consider what you are working with. A single story having a massive jump of years might not work because it drastically changes the landscape and characters within the same volume. You can cover days, weeks, and months with more ease and believability. That isn’t to say years can’t be done, but you have to be ready to go back several steps in world-building. If the world is identical after a decade to what it was at the beginning of the book then it won’t feel like time passed. This is why series benefit more from having a volume taking place over days and the overall adventure spanning months or years. You can easily explain why characters are getting stronger if there is a time gap between volumes, but having it be a jump between chapters will be jarring.

You don’t want the passage of time to feel jerky or full of holes. Length of the series and overall plot factor into this as well. Legends of Windemere is about a quest to save the world, which is fairly time sensitive and involves heroes who are being hunted. I could comfortably skip a month or two between volumes, but jumping years takes away the urgency. Meanwhile, War of Nytefall involves a civil war between the two types of vampires in Windemere. Being that the characters are immortal and they are trying to keep their activities a secret from mortals, it can be believed that more than a decade will pass between big, volume-worthy events. All I have to do here is remember to show how Windemere has changed between volumes and over the course of the entire series. This is where you are going to find the biggest challenge when it comes to showing time in your stories.

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When Every Character Is A Villain

Posted on March 10, 2025 by Charles Yallowitz

The Penguin

I watched ‘The Penguin’ months ago and I liked it.  Not saying I loved the characters in a way that I wanted to be them.  Some of their actions were horrific, but it worked for the story.  In fact, I can’t think of any character that would be considered a hero.  They were all mobsters, drug dealers, manipulators, murderers, and corrupt officials.  Yet, I didn’t find myself shoved out of the story by the lack of a noble hero.  Got me thinking about how an all villain story can work.

First, I know this type of story isn’t for everyone.  Many people need good in a story to balance the evil.  They need that ‘black and white’ or at least no slide into terrible actions like grotesque murders.  Audience members like this will hate such a story because they will be focused on how wrong everything is.  Not that others won’t see that as well, but there will be no justification for any of the actions.  It will be seen entirely as evil with no reason.  I thought I would feel that, but it never happened with ‘The Penguin’.

Right off the bat, you’re shown that this is going to be a morally dark story.  This doesn’t start in a bright, happy place, but in a desolate area and the atmosphere kind of stays that way.  I think that’s an important factor for a story where everyone is a villain.  If you start them in the light, they might be seen as being heroes when they aren’t even close.  So, the story needs to begin dark and brutal to set the tone.  This way, nobody in the audience can be fully surprised by future actions.

There’s also a fascination with people doing evil things.  Through the eyes of a hero, we only see them as bad and nothing else.  A story like this will show them as multi-dimensional.  We get an origin to show how they turned out this way, which touches on how villains aren’t typically born evil.  For some, you end up seeing that they were a bad apple to begin with and nothing was done to turn them away from darkness.  Others are born into the evil and only know that life, so they grow into it.  Then, you have the villains who do start off good and inevitably fall into darkness.  ‘The Penguin’ had a good variety of these types, which made it even more fascinating.

The funny thing for me is that I did find myself rooting for characters, but it wasn’t always for them to win.  Many times, it was for them to get their comeuppance.  There were times I felt that I had to side with Penguin too because the other villains were acting worse than him.  Without wishing for a hero to show up, I think I was simply indulging in the experience and letting the tension take over.  I knew the entire time that every character didn’t deserve to win.  Yet, someone had to and it came down to simply seeing which monster was left standing.

I almost compared this type of story to one where you have monsters fighting each other like ‘Freddy vs Jason’ or the original ‘Godzilla vs King Kong’.  Those stories don’t match with ‘The Penguin’ because they had heroes or at least innocents.  It wasn’t the monsters you were following as the audience, but their victims.  In this series, you’re sitting on the villains’ shoulders and have nowhere else to go.  There are no other points of view to give yourself a flicker of light and hope.  Probably why I couldn’t binge watch more than two episodes at a time before taking a break.  The later ones especially required that I walk away and defrag my brain before going back.

Personally, I enjoyed this type of story, but I can see how it’s very hard to pull it off. An author can fall into the trap of making the villains cartoonishly compete with each other to be the most evil character.  You need to keep them serious and within their abilities and personalities.  A psychopath with a temper will kill at the slightest provocation, but the more tempered villain will be more elaborate and cruel with his actions.  One can be shifted to the other over time, but you need to have that play out.  So, you can’t really rush the story and depend entirely on shock value.  Characterization is essential here.

So, anybody else like stories with all villains?  I mean, real villains and not the Disney origin ones we see all the time.

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The Growing Influence of Podcasts

Posted on March 10, 2025 by Charles Yallowitz

Greetings once again. Beem Weeks back with you for another post. This month, we’ll look at podcasting as a marketing tool for writers and indie …

The Growing Influence of Podcasts
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National American Paddlefish Day

Posted on March 9, 2025 by Charles Yallowitz

Stumbled onto this holiday and thought this was an interesting animal to make a post about.  I don’t touch on fish outside of sharks very often, so I jumped at the chance for a new critter.  So, what is an American paddlefish?

First, it is the last living species of paddlefish after the Chinese paddlefish was officially declared extinct in 2022.  The factors that led to the latter’s extinction is what the former now faces.  They have been overfished for caviar and suffer from habitat destruction.  Yes, they are a target of sports fishing, but that is highly regulated and only allowed in areas with high populations that can safely support the activity.  Still, the global demand for the caviar has creating a poaching issue.  Finally, American paddlefish lose much of their food source to zebra mussels, which is an invasive species.  All of this makes them listed as vulnerable and is why there is a really big conservation and reintroduction program in the USA.

The American paddlefish is a unique species that is found in freshwater.  They eat by swimming around with their mouths open to filter out plankton.  Inside their gills are structures called gill rakers that catch the food for swallowing.  From the pictures below, you will see that they have long ‘noses’ called a rostrum, which makes them oddly shark-like in appearance. They also have cartilage skeletons instead of bone, but they are more closely related to sturgeons than sharks.  As for the rostrum, it isn’t a nose, but part of their skull.

Here are some other facts:

  • They sexually mature later in life with females not spawning anywhere from 7 to 18 years old.
  • Hatchlings are not born with the rostrum fully developed.  It grows over time.
  • They average 40 pounds, but some have been found at 200 pounds.
  • It’s range is mostly the Mississippi, but it was once found throughout the Great Lakes.
  • They can also be found in Montana.
  • Paddlefish ancestors lived here about 125 million years ago.
  • The rostrum has electroreceptors on the tip to help them find plankton.

Time for pictures and videos, so people get a good idea of what they look like.

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