F. P. Dorchak

Speculative Fiction Author

To Be Human

Writing The Distasteful

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No Frills, No Thrills. (Gregorio De Ferrari [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons)
No Frills, No Thrills. (Gregorio De Ferrari [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons)
I do not like violence.

I like writing about it even less.

While working the Psychic manuscript, I have great misgivings about  how nasty I should go, regarding a certain scene that comes later in the book (to be honest, I have a couple scenes, but one, in particular, really bugs me).

Do I back off it, or give it its full measure?

It’s not a pleasant scene. Very distasteful to write.

I’ve written plenty of distasteful stuff over my writing career, most of it may never be seen, since it was my early horror writing years (unless I do a collection of my short stories—which I really want to do!—and clean up the more presentable works…). In The Uninvited, I have some nasty scenes. And after writing my last post, many might well wonder, what the hell, Frank? Really? Practice what you preach, man!

Being a writer puts a person in an interesting position. For one thing, when you write something, people wonder how much of it is really “you.” I get it. It’s like when I hear songs, I often wonder the same of the groups singing them. Curiously, I don’t necessarily think the same of writers, because I do understand the process…that just because a writer writes something inflaming or physically nasty or offending doesn’t necessarily mean the writer is the same. I do begin to question that, however, if there is a series and they’re all nasty (I’m defining “nasty” as incredibly violence, distasteful, offending in some manner, beyond just taking a haymaker to the head or saying “someone was raped”).

You see, when you write “nasty,” you have to focus on that. The nasty thing you’re writing. For extended periods of time. And when you focus on something for so long, it’s in your mind. A lot. Even when not writing. I don’t like to focus on the negative and violent. So, any time I do have to write a violent scene, I try to make it as short as possible, while not cheating the story. When I write violent scenes (say the front lawn bathtub scene in Uninvited), they serve to advance the story in a way merely talking about them, “politely referring to them,” simply cannot do. I need to show the bad side of a character or event for a reason…whatever that reason is. I may not even know that reason…you see, I don’t outline ahead of time. I don’t preplan. When I write a story, I let it flow out of me, on its own. It’s called “organic” writing. I just sit down to the keyboard and start typing. It’s only later, when I “reverse outline” the book, that is, I list out in outline form the beats of the story. Then I rework, reshuffle, edit x 3 my work. But as I’m laying down the first draft, I allow the story to come to me in its own form…its own way. I do not censor in any way. I don’t sit and think, “Gee…it would be really cool if this scene was in there…” or “Wow, something more graphic would really stir up the pot!” The story reveals itself to me on its own. In its own way. Afterward, I may or may not do some of this (and, in fact, I did add an “inorganic” scene to this novel, after a friend of mine read the thing and made a suggestion that just nailed the whole “Victor Black” thread…). I will, however, embellish.

So…I have to be true to the story.

If all I did was gloss over certain things I found objectionable, it would be akin to the old “No Frills” books that had been put out in 1950s. Fifty or sixty pages long. “He was abducted and tortured. The good guys came, killed the bad guys, and released him. He went home.” There’s no emotional investment in any of that. Nothing to get you all riled up and pissed off at the adversaries. To really root for the hero/ine…feel his or her pain and, later, redemption. It’s not like the writer has to get incredibly graphic…but they do have to give you enough…mentally or physically—even spiritually—to make that point. Make you feel a part of the story. Sympathize with the characters. Drive that emotional stake into your soul.

So, this section has bugged me, since I wrote it, 14 years ago. I’ve reworked it, thought about removing it. Gave it less shrift than it deserved, perhaps, but finally decided to dive into it and face it. I’ve been working on it some 2 1/2 weeks. Maybe it’s just that I’ve been so focused on it this past few weeks that it’s become a “issue” for me, and it’s really nothing at all to be worried about, but, I think I’ve done all I can with it (for now), and am leaving it for a spell. See what my proofreader thinks about it.

But, in any case, I simply need to get away from it!

It’s tough when your spouse asks you if you had a good morning of writing. “Yeah! Sure did! Man, wrote a killer scene in which a person gets (<brutalized>). Repeatedly. Man, the things I thought of reworking that scene (Being intentionally vague, here, since don’t want to give the scene away)!

So, don’t take me (or other writers like me) to task over these things…don’t ask me why do I think of this shit. Don’t rub my nose in them. They are what they are, and they came with the telling of the story. I didn’t sit around thinking of them, trying to come up with their horrific content. I don’t walk this Earth contemplating mean and nasty ways to abuse others. But, when the story demands a needed scene, I try not to shy away from it. If my stories don’t “ring true” (verisimilitude) to real life enough…my stories won’t work, because I deal with real life situations, not fantasy writing.

And there’s another consideration.

What if…these stories I’m relating…have something to do with other lives of mine. A Zen reincarnational aspect to my life, where I’m releasing and dealing with tendencies from other lives in a more positive and less violence manner than I may have in those other lives? I do believe I’ve lived and fought in the Civil War, was a WWII B-17 tail gunner…and it’s been mentioned another thought I might have been a Roman soldier.

It always comes back to the metaphysical for me, doesn’t it?

But might there be some truth to this? We don’t know everything. And, it’s all energy…good and bad, are forms of energy. If I have had more violent existences in other lives, maybe my writing is giving a cathartic release to that type of energy and yielding a more positive growth experience for all involved?

It’s something to think about.

I know, on the cosmic scale of things, to readers, this [most likely] won’t be a big deal…but to me, the writer, to my constant focus on the subject matter for 2 1/2 weeks, it was problematic. I think I’ve worked through it, I think I did it justice…and that scene will make a later scene even that much more “sweeter.” Okay, maybe “sweeter” isn’t a good word choice. More justified.

And, I know, I can’t please everyone. It’s impossible. There’s good and bad out there, and in my work, I do try to mirror that so that—in some way—I can help explain it. And in explaining it from my point of view, hopefully see how we can do better. Give new or different points of view from which to act…and if the points of view are no different, maybe the words are expressed differently enough so that the end result is easier to see, to act upon in our own lives.

Again, these scene just come with the story.

In the end, I am driven to write. These stories beg my attention. I do my best with them.

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2014 Graduation Speech: Were I To Deliver One

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Give Your Life Some Serious Thought! (http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9d/Graduation_Thinker_LuMaxArt.jpg)
Give Your Life Some Serious Thought! (http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9d/Graduation_Thinker_LuMaxArt.jpg)

Perusing through the Sunday paper, last week, I was inspired by an article that talked about graduation speeches. I’ve never been called upon to deliver one, doubt I ever will, but I thought, hmmm…what would I like to hear in one, were I, once again, graduating from Saranac Lake Central High School or Northern Arizona University…and my life was still ahead of me?

To The Graduating Classes of 2014:

Take control of your life.

When you leave here, setting out for your course through life, you will have all sorts of choices. Some of you will enter the military or government services. So will become celebrities of one kind or another. Some will become academicians. Journalists. Managers. Writers. Film makers. Some will lead simple, quiet lives.

But you will all, eventually, die.

We all will.

How will you look back on your lives at the end?

Will you be satisfied? Even have time to do so? Will you have helped make life a better place to live?

Here is what I ask: be yourself, and don’t cave into the fear mongering that’s out there. Create the world you would like to see, to live in, and spread the joy.

There’s a lot of “evil” out there, and evil is as evil does…but there is also far more good. If there wasn’t, we wouldn’t be here. We would not be enjoying what freedoms we do have, however meager you may, now, feel we are or are not enjoying. Now, there are a lot of arguments out there about protecting those liberties, and the “mechanics” behind said protection, but I’m here to tell you of a very simple way we can all practice without putting ourselves into harm’s way or debating global politics.

Focus on the good in your own minds.

Now, this might sound all Pollyanna nonsense, but think about this: nothing becomes exterior in your lives that has not first existed within your minds.

There is a quote by Joe Queenan, columnist in the Wall Street Journal (not sure if he still is), who said, “People are…sensitive about what they put into their bodies…but will put anything into their brains. They eat free-range chicken, but they watch TV shows about headless suburban demons. They ingest loads of parsnips but never Picasso. Call me a hidebound traditionalist, but the brain as every bit as important as the small intestine.”

I substitute “mind” for “brains,” but the sentiment is adequate.

You put out what you think about, what you concentrate upon. If you think the world a bad place to live, you think everyone’s out to get you, absolutely every one of your actions will telegraph that. Spew that. Absolutely everything you do will be to that end. Consciously or unconsciously, this will be your experience.

If you believe we all get sick the older we get, this will happen.

If you believe all politicians are all corrupt, this will happen.

If you believe in living in fear, this will be your experience.

There is much truth to this on a Zen level, but on an everyday level it also bears itself out. You will not look for optimistic, beneficial solutions. You will only look and see and select the negative side of things. You will only see fear and only do things that will attract and corroborate fear mongering. Because you cannot see past it.

If, however, you look outside the box, as the phrase goes, if you open yourselves up to the optimistic, you have now given yourself at least twice as many options. While living in fear, you only see half the coin. Flip that damned thing over. Put as much effort and energy into the rest of the equation, into positive approaches to living and creating life.

On the Zen side, we’ve all heard the other time-worn phrase that like attracts like. Where do these trite phrases come from? Might there not be some truth to them?

Haven’t you ever notice that when you were in a bad mood, a sick mood, everything appeared dour and wicked…while in a great mood and enjoying yourself, everything seemed happy and optimistic? It’s not just brain chemicals, no matter what your science courses may have tried to impress upon you. Sometimes the effects are real, not just chemically induced hallucinations.

Simply stated, there is a lot to be said for sunny dispositions. Positive outlooks. Even medical and psychological sciences are beginning to see this. Sub-atomic physics.

Find new and creative ways in expressing this philosophy that fits into your life.

Take control of your life.

Change the entrenched paradigms of fear and negativity that seem to be permeating the media. Turn off your damned cell phones and look up, as that one video rapped. Look around, look down. Look into the faces, the eyes, of the people and places you meet. If you’re going into the film or video business, quit making films that degrade or cheapen the human experience. There’s a lot of talk about whether or not video games or movies make killers out of people…but if all you do is immerse yourself into violence and depravity…whether in a movie or video games…all day, and that is the sum total of your daily experience, tell me, what the hell else do you expect of that person when they go out into the real world? In fact, what is real, what becomes real, to someone like that? What the kind of output do you actually expect from that kind of mind? You honestly expect that person to become a preacher, a teacher, a kind and caring parent?

If all you watch are news reports about death and destruction, do you really expect to have a positive outlook in life?

Take control of your life.

If we can all take control of our lives in more positive ways…the benefits will be enormous. Earth- and life-shaking. It can, literally, change the direction of all our lives. Because, and this is another Zen thing, there are things called probabilities out there. Roads not taken, waiting to be taken. And they all intersect, so one road not taken at one point, can certainly be taken later on down that other road taken. Not everything talked about has to be manifested into physical reality. Wars, droughts, climate change. Sometimes they can be manifested in the nonphysical, the mental landscapes of Humanity…and sometimes both. There seems to be a lot of angst and fear out there…and through all this—all I’ve had to say, here—I ask that all of you out there steer clear of that fear and angst. “Go around the rocks,” as I’d once read. Expect a different probability than what we are all currently experiencing. A more positive one, free from wars (or lessened conflicts, at the very least). Where we can all live among each other, tolerating each other, trying to make a go at this thing called life, but not at any others’ expense. Wish for the best, and the best will come. Maybe not completely (not everyone is a saint…but not everyone is a sinner, either…), maybe not exactly as you might expect it to be, but it will come. If we all focus and act in the best possible ways, then what else can one reasonably expect—even if you don’t buy into all I’ve said 100%? What could it hurt? Even 10% is doable. Would make a difference.

Try it.

Take control of your lives.

Congratulations to all of you, I wish you all the best. And congratulations, Alek!

The Monroe Institute

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We Are More Than Our Bodies. By Luigi Schiavonetti (†1810).Tvwatch at de.wikipedia [Public domain], from Wikimedia Commons.
We Are More Than Our Bodies. By Luigi Schiavonetti (†1810).Tvwatch at de.wikipedia [Public domain], from Wikimedia Commons.
I learned about The Monroe Institute (TMI) long ago, and am not sure if it was through Jane Roberts and Rob Butts’ exploration into the nature of consciousness or from Robert Monroe’s original book, Journeys Out of the Body, published in 1971. But as I read about the world of remote viewing, I discovered that it had also been part of the remote viewing world. TMI is situated near Virginia’s Blue Ridge Mountains, and is, according to their website, “...a non-profit research and educational organization dedicated to enhancing the uses and understanding of human consciousness.” They claim no religious, philosophical, nor spiritual affiliations. Further, they state: “We ask only that you consider the possibility that you are more than your physical body.”

TMI is about exploring human consciousness. It’s about expanding what we think we know about consciousness, life, and death. Anyone who can afford the time away and fee for attendances can go and learn how to tune into the inner world, through various programs and the incorporation of cutting edge audio technical wizardry (e.g., Hemi-Sync, Spatial Angle Modulation). I’ve purchased some of the home-use material, over the years, and have loved what I’ve used. Really cool stuff. I’ve been meditating off and on since kidhood, and have read metaphysical works since same, so none of this was new to me, but I loved how Mr. Monroe, like Jane and Rob, had brought the inner world out into the mainstream. There will always be people out there to dismiss and stomp on anything, no matter the “proof” that exists, and one person’s proof is another’s myth, but I learn from experience. What I learn may not be what you learn…but there is certainly much to be learned from TMI’s (and others’) experiences.

We all have our paths to follow.

So…as my fiction writer’s mind went to work (back in the late 90’s and early 2000s) and I considered probabilities, alternate realities, JFK, psychic “mechanics,” and my next writing project, I thought, man, I’d love to write something about remote viewing and this TMI stuff. Psychic is the result of those musings. Psychic is not Sleepwalkers, but the two are related. Psychic is darker, grittier. In my novel, I created “The Center,” which is a mash-up of TMI and Fort Meade, where the government’s remote viewing projects were located. The Center is a might darker than TMI. TMI is nothing like my novel. I’ve never been to TMI. I like what it’s about, and hope for more of that kind of research to flourish and make itself known. So much good can come from that kind of exploration, spread across the globe without the guise or filters of “religious, philosophical, nor spiritual affiliations.” In my humblest of opinions, we need more non-denominational explorations into the nature of consciousness. People can and will apply that knowledge through their various personal filters, and that is as it should be, but we need to know the lowest common denominators of what it is consciousness is all about. What we make of it, how we employ that knowledge is up to us.

But, hey, let’s make the world a better place with it.

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The Indie Author Manifesto, by Mark Coker

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We Hold These Truths To Be Self-Evident! (Howard Chandler Christy [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons)
We Hold These Truths To Be Self-Evident! (Howard Chandler Christy [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons)
I love this guy!

Mark Coker.

Creator of Smashwords.

I met him at a writer’s conference a couple years ago, drove him to the airport with a carload of other VIPs. This guy is so cool, so down to earth, so frigging real. He isn’t afraid to stand up to the icons of the publishing industry and call “Foul!” Dazzle them with the facts.

From his current post, I have lifted what he is calling, his Indie Author Manifesto.

Rock on, Mark Coker!

THE INDIE AUTHOR MANIFESTO

We indie authors believe all writers are created equal, that all writers are endowed with natural creative potential, and that writers have an unalienable right to exercise, explore and realize their potential through the freedom of publication.

I hold these truths to be self-evident:

  1. I am an indie author
  2. I have experienced the pleasure and satisfaction that comes from self-publishing
  3. I have a right to publish
  4. My creative control is important to me.  I decide when, where and how my writing graduates to become a published book.
  5. Indie does not mean “alone.”  I choose my partners.
  6. I shall not bow beholden or subservient to any publisher. In my business relationships, I seek partnership, fairness, equity and mutually aligned interests.
  7. We indie author comprise diverse writers unified by a common purpose to advance, empower and celebrate writers everywhere.
  8. I am a professional.  I take pride in my work, and I strive to improve my craft to better serve my readers, myself, my fellow indie authors and the culture of books
  9. My writing is valuable and important.  This value and importance cannot be measured by commercial sales alone.
  10. I celebrate the success of my fellow indie authors, for their success is mine, and mine theirs. Together we are pioneering a better future for books marked by greater quality, creativity, diversity, choice, availability, affordability and accessibility.

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To Blog or Not To Blog a Novel

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By Camdiluv, from Concepción, CHILE (Colours) [CC-BY-SA-2.0 (http://creativecommons)
By Camdiluv, from Concepción, CHILE (Colours) [CC-BY-SA-2.0 (http://creativecommons)
I say “novel,” but it could just as well be a short story.

I’m going to try to make this short and sweet.

There are all kinds of advice floating around about whether or not one should or shouldn’t blog out portions of one’s work into the Internet…how it might or might not damage the success of said work, should the blogger want to publish it, en masse.

Dare I say it?

Bullshit.

To that I add: pure bullshit.

A member of the writing I belong to expressed concern about that, because that was what this member was doing…then had stopped…but was, again, considering doing. He did it because of several reasons, some of which were that he enjoyed doing it. It got him writing. He’d found an audience.

I’d say the following be my opinion, but I really don’t think it’s an isolated “opinion” anymore. Heck an opinion at all; it has become fact: As long as what you do doesn’t hurt anyone, do what you love. Do what you enjoy. There are always people out there who love serials…and those who would love to read those serials again…or in one complete form. Those who have never seen your work, so one platform or the other serves them.

Do you really think a traditional publisher is going to care whether or not you blogged about your work–if they really felt they could make millions of you?

Hell no.

Any free promotion they can get to help sell their version of your work, all the better.

Look, no trad publisher is gonna take you if they don’t feel they can make a buck off of you, period. Your blogging of your book is an antiquated issue, based upon antiquated reasoning. Antiquated reasoning is what’s damaged (and continues to damage) traditional publishing. Reasoning can be made for or against anything, but it’s all about packaging. Look at all the crap out there that’s been out there for ever, suddenly repackaged and re-promoted. Instead of bitching and moaning about what not to do, about how terrible the world is and how things “could never work,” why not spin that frown upside down, my perfectly bound friends? Anything can be sold. Just put out a little effort, for crying out loud.

And you can always, always, Indie publish (don’t even get me going about how Indie publishing merely promulgates more shitty work into the world).

Do what gives you joy.

It’s your life.

Live it as you want. If your work is good or meant to succeed–in however way you define it—it will.

Just ignore all the white noise out there, and do what makes you happy. Life is short. Play hard.

To “he” out there, you go, dude! Have fun and keep your audience wanting more!

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Psychic Cover Reveal!

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© Psychic (F. P. Dorchak and Duvall Design, 2014)
© Psychic (F. P. Dorchak and Duvall Design, 2014)

Here is the front cover to my new novel, Psychic.

I decided to do the cover early, this time. I’m still polishing the manuscript, which, I think, still has a couple of months to go. But I’ve had such a hard time visualizing what I wanted for the cover since the very beginning of this manuscript’s creation…and, with the help of Karen Duvall, of Duvall Design, we came up with a great image, huh? I really love it.

Psychic is about a humble and angst-ridden hotline psychic who gets embroiled within a remote viewer government conspiracy, headed up by one shady, evil, Victor NMI Black. It’s an action/adventure that shows the origin of The Man With No Name (MWNN), a character from Sleepwalkers, and interlaces an alternate history storyline with John F. Kennedy. The story takes place in 1994, where JFK is 77 years old. The date is also significant, since the official remote viewer organization the government had used (in our present-day reality) was officially disbanded that year. I use a present day organization, The Monroe Institute and morph it into an alternate location, called the JFK Center, where my story’s remote viewer activities take place. The story is heavy on probabilities…the different roads that actions and people can take…or not. I play around with time…time travel…paradoxes…how scary, nefarious people can come into other people’s lives and simply take them over. How much of what you read in the news is real…or fashioned. Can “facts”…change? This is an intricate story…a gritty story (much grittier than Sleepwalkers…but it is part of the Sleepwalkers “universe”; I expect at least one more novel to come out of this universe)…and gets into the “backgrounds” of our lives and how things may—or may not—come into being in our everyday lives, however nasty those things may be….

Check out my Psychic Pinterest board for images related to this novel!

Many, many thanks go to my “cover girl,” Karen Duvall, of Duvall Design. And I hope you’ll all join me when Psychic is unleashed upon the world, and enjoy what I’m billing as the ultimate conspiracy!

Feel free to freely use the cover graphic in any (legal and tasteful) ways possible, just properly attribute ownership!

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