F. P. Dorchak

Speculative Fiction (New Weird) Author

Holidays

Merry Christmas To All!

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Merry Christmas! (© F. P. Dorchak, December 22, 2016)
Merry Christmas! (© F. P. Dorchak, December 22, 2016)

This year has been head-spinning in many ways…many good ways! But, man, has it just flown by! Time is…fleeting, as The Rocky Horror Picture Show says. The past (in certain terms) is behind us and the future (in certain terms) before us. So where does that leave us?

In the present moment. All we really have is the present. So is it really any wonder that Christmas packages are called presents?

I enjoyed as much of the present moment as possible throughout this year, and I hope the rest of you did, too!

And I know there are other holidays out there. I wish you all the peace and love and joy you also celebrate.

I thank all of you who—in your own, sometimes most personal ways—for helping create a better world for yourselves and everyone else. Many of you perhaps don’t even realize this. Doing so can be as easy as keeping good and positive thoughts in your head…as well as doing the more public acts. The point is, doing good in the world is as easy as doing good for yourself and your immediate circle of influence, because everything affects everything else.

I thank my wife, Laura, for her love and in being the kind and gracious person she is. For staying with me…and for continuing to put up with me and all my weirdness. Es.

I thank my family—both near and far, nuclear and extended—for being themselves and continuing to put up with me and all my weirdness. Es.

I thank all my friends—both close and acquaintance—for being themselves and continuing to put up with me and all my weirdness. Es.

I thank all of you who invited me to all the literary events I went to this year. I am ever humbled by your invites! Thank you!

I thank Lon Kirschner for his incredible cover art! Thanks, Lon!

I thank Mandy Pratt for all her efforts and dedication (which continues!) on editing and proofing my short stories. Thank you!

I thank all my writing friends for being who you are, for writing your wonderful blogs, for writing stories that are important to you. For being open and supportive to the rest of us who are not at your levels-of-success (i.e., thanks for not being snooty). Thank you!

Any group or individual I may have missed, it was not intentional. I thank you, too!

To those of us who require a little extra work in various aspects of our lives…I wish us all the very best at becoming and being the best person we can be throughout the rest of our lives!

So, I send out massive amounts of love and peace and joy to all on this day that many of us celebrate for many reasons, not all of them religious.

Peace.

Love.

Joy!

Merry Christmas, everyone!

 

Merry Christmas To All!

by

Merry Christmas! (© F. P. Dorchak, December 22, 2016)
Merry Christmas! (© F. P. Dorchak, December 22, 2016)

This year has been head-spinning in many ways…many good ways! But, man, has it just flown by! Time is…fleeting, as The Rocky Horror Picture Show says. The past (in certain terms) is behind us and the future (in certain terms) before us. So where does that leave us?

In the present moment. All we really have is the present. So is it really any wonder that Christmas packages are called presents?

I enjoyed as much of the present moment as possible throughout this year, and I hope the rest of you did, too!

And I know there are other holidays out there. I wish you all the peace and love and joy you also celebrate.

I thank all of you who read and followed my blogs, Instagrams, tweets, LinkedIn, Pinterest boards, About Me, and Facebook. I thank all of you for reading my stories, short and long. I thank all of you for being my friends and family. I thank all of you for being who you are and remaining true to who you are.

I thank all of you who—in your own, sometimes most personal ways—for helping create a better world for yourselves and everyone else. Many of you perhaps don’t even realize this. Doing so can be as easy as keeping good and positive thoughts in your head…as well as doing the more public acts. The point is, doing good in the world is as easy as doing good for yourself and your immediate circle of influence, because everything affects everything else.

I thank my wife, Laura, for her love and in being the kind and gracious person she is. For staying with me…and for continuing to put up with me and all my weirdness. Es.

I thank my family—both near and far, nuclear and extended—for being themselves and continuing to put up with me and all my weirdness. Es.

I thank all my friends—both close and acquaintance—for being themselves and continuing to put up with me and all my weirdness. Es.

I thank all of you who invited me to all the literary events I went to this year. I am ever humbled by your invites! Thank you!

I thank Lon Kirschner for his incredible cover art! Thanks, Lon!

I thank Mandy Pratt for all her efforts and dedication (which continues!) on editing and proofing my short stories. Thank you!

I thank all my writing friends for being who you are, for writing your wonderful blogs, for writing stories that are important to you. For being open and supportive to the rest of us who are not at your levels-of-success (i.e., thanks for not being snooty). Thank you!

Any group or individual I may have missed, it was not intentional. I thank you, too!

To those of us who require a little extra work in various aspects of our lives…I wish us all the very best at becoming and being the best person we can be throughout the rest of our lives!

So, I send out massive amounts of love and peace and joy to all on this day that many of us celebrate for many reasons, not all of them religious.

Peace.

Love.

Joy!

Merry Christmas, everyone!

Merry Christmas To All!

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Merry Xmas! (Image by [no machine-readable author provided. Alsandro assumed (based on copyright claims] GFDL http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html or CC-BY-SA-3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/], via Wikimedia Commons)
Merry Xmas! (Image by [no machine-readable author provided. Alsandro assumed (based on copyright claims] GFDL http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html or CC-BY-SA-3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/%5D, via Wikimedia Commons)
I really love this time of year!

I love all the trappings, the fun, the feelings-of-love that run rampant come the Christmas timeframe.

Yeah, and I also like the lights, the ornaments, and all the “pretty colors”!

I’m not a traditionally religious guy. In fact, I’m not religious at all. My beliefs are my own, but I love all the fun that goes into this time of year…the giving of gifts…the receiving of them (oh, come on—you know you like getting as well as receiving! There’s nothing wrong in admitting that!)…the getting together. Reaching out to family, friends, and the world. To see how others “view” me in the fun and excitement of receiving well-thought-out gifts from others (yes, and I do the same when I get gifts for others…we all talk freely about giving…but no one talks about the receiving)!

I love the Christmas lights, the merriment, the decorated trees—I actually love wrapping gifts! It’s fun “hiding” something that I hope people are going to like…and looking forward to seeing them tear into it when given to them!

I do it rarely, but I also like holiday baking…and I just did some yesterday, making some Slovak apricot and poppyseed rolls. Love those things. Haven’t made them in a couple years…though I clearly need more practice….

I know we all celebrate in our own ways…many talk about the “reason for the season” and all, and that is their right. Many like to go to church…and that is their right. I do not like going to church one bit…if I go (aside from funerals or weddings and that kind of thing) it’s purely for family reasons. I allow each their own belief systems…and I allow all the joy of their expression!

So, please…allow everyone else around you who doesn’t believe as you do the joy of their expression. We all enjoy and celebrate Christmas for our own reasons…don’t trounce upon them or look down upon them like some poor, lost souls. Because many of us are not poor, lost souls. We’re just as excited and joyous in our own beliefs as you are of yours. Greet us with the smiles with which we greet you…give us the respect with which we afford you.

So to all, I wish you a Merry Christmas—enjoy it as you want to, but do enjoy it!

Merry Christmas, From WestJet!

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Okay, I don’t care what your thoughts on commercialized Christmas or Xmas are, focusing on Santa or on any religious meaning, this was really cool, what the Canadian airline, WestJet, did for some of its passengers. What the people of the company did. Read the story here.

As the article says, it’s nice to know that with all the bad out there, there are still those who try to do some good.

Do I care that it “only” comes at Christmas time?

No.

I care that it happens at all.

We like to bemoan, “Why doesn’t this kind of stuff happen throughout the year,” but do we really believe that, or do we just like to complain? There are all kinds of people and companies who do this kind of thing throughout the year, at differing levels of activity. And, sure, you could complain that it’s a marketing ploy. You could.

Orrr…you could just enjoy the caring and giving spirit of the simple act in and of itself and allow yourself to be swept away by the emotion of people helping people at all. About people trying to make the world a little better at all. About people trying to brighten other people’s lives at all.

And if you still can’t find it within yourself to see the good in people or this wonderful act, then maybe you should look at your own self and outlook on life and how your actions and thoughts contribute to making the world a better place in any way.

Oh, and WestJet says that since they met and exceeded their goal of 200,000 view (they actually got over 27 million views in a week), they are also going to donate holiday flights to charity.

Merry Christmas, everybody!

Related articles

December Is Here!

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Snowshoes
Snowshoes (Photo credit: Singularduality)

December is here!

I have three favorite times—or months—of the year. July, October, and December.

Why?

I think, to me, they (except for October, which is all about Hallowe’en) signify (note itals) being in the “middle” of two seasons, summer and winter, though, technically, less than half of December is in “winter.” But, when I was growing up in upstate New York, believe me, with first snow beginning to fall in October, and continuing on through into May, there was nothing “autumnal” nor “fall-like” about December! Of course, my birthday is in December, and—for the “Kid Year”—nothing beats “Kid Year” activities like Christmas, so I’m sure both of those affected my love for December (and I’ve always loved snow and all-things wintry)! At least once, our family actually went out caroling with others in the dark, frigid coldness of an Adirondack winter, not to mention all the other fun stuff we did, like snowshoeing, skiing, snowmobiling, or just (for me) hiking through the “back 40” of our and our neighbor’s heavily wooded properties, much like I described in ERO (well, except for the “weird shit”), in thick snow boots, wool pants, and everything else you typically wore back in the 60s and 70s. I love how the cold winds bite, the trees crack, the snow falls. The sound my boots (or snowshoes) make in the snow. How, with tons of fallen snow, all “the dirty” takes on that fresh, sparkling, “clean” look. The creation of ghostly vapors from my warm breath breathed out into frigid air….

I love the contrast in the seasons. Love how, in winter, the season becomes more…”pensive.” Inward directed. At least that’s what happens to me.

And, now, there’s snow falling all over this blog! I love it!

Can you hear the jingle bells?

I thought you could.

Happy December, everyone!

2013! Welcome To It and Barreling Forward!

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2013. Barreling forward. (Photo: By M@rcello;-) )
2013. Barreling forward. (Photo: By M@rcello;-) )

Well.  We made it.

No Mayan Apocalypse.

No fiscal cliffs.

No um…a third thing, I need a third thing….

Okay, no third thing.

New years are cool.  So are Julys. And Decembers. But, New Years are cool. Whether or not we admit to it, I believe we all kindasortado look forward to a “starting over” of sorts. I think it’s part of being Human (so I fall a trifle short, here [I’m told], by some of my friends). I mean, at the least, the Gregorian calendar is a limited time, 365/366 days. It comes to an end every, uh, year. So, it’s only natural to look back over the course of it and relive all the good and the bad, the exhausting…and just plain be…tired. Want to take a break—start over. No harm. No foul. Just Human Nature.

My 2012 was actually a blast. Had a good share of trips, road and air. And got a great start to a new novel—a series, actually. It’s kinda turning into a Romancing The Stone-meets-The X-Files (only because I’m in Peru—in the story, not physically, as I write this post—which is soon to change; started in New York, jetted to France, ended up in Peru—again, all on paper—wish I could say I actually went to these places, but, hey—New Year!). It’s coming along actually quite well, and is taking up lots of my time (finally!). Earlier in the year it was taking a while to get things going, but now, it finally has a life of its own, and I’ve passed the 300-page/50K words mark with still plenty to write, including a bit of back filling with a cool, evil, conspiratorial sub-plot I came up with <evil, rubbing-of-hands gesture>.

Christmas and New Year’s went well, though I got sick in between. I’m not dead yet, as Monty Python is want of saying, so am near 100%.

So, leaving 2012 and barreling into 2013, I want to thank all my followers and readers! And, yes, I’m doing my best in trying to keep up with all your blog posts! The weird thing is when you select “Follow,” you actually have to, you know, read the blogs (well, you don’t really have to do anything, but that brings up moral and ethical issues, for me…). It’s like the Seinfeld episode regarding “taking” and “holding” rental car reservations. “Anyone (fingers flicking through the air) can “Follow” a blog…but the trick is in actually reading the blog…. ”

Anyway, I’m in there, so thanks for your time and your words!

Thanks to my family and friends, both virtual and in-my-face! You all make life fun and worth living! Keep things real!

Thanks to my agent. I know, it’s been a slog, but you’ve stuck with me and believe in me. I know, it’s a weird market out there, and I’ll keep the rest of my thoughts on it clean and family oriented by just stopping there.  Thanks, again, Cherry!

I’d also like to thank what I hope will be my editor-to-be (you know who you are)! Thanks for you cornering me, in April, at that conference, and talking with me about the series idea. Thanks for giving me the tracks on which to place my train (oh, no, you di’n’t! add “that” word!)-of-a-story to barrel forward (noting a trend, here?). It’s given me a new direction. Hope we can do business in the coming year. Maybe even make you a tad paranoid once you read it (the Truth is Out There).  :-]

Thanks to the Metaphysical! Thanks to All That Is (some call This “God”) and to all those nonphysical mechanics (others might term these things angels, Fate, or whatnot; I don’t believe in them [okay, maybe the “whatnot”], hence my term) hard at work behind the curtain of my life! I am appreciative to all my “other selves,” my oversoul, any “Silver Beings,” and what/whomever else is at work at creating and guiding my life, including in-this-moment, little-old-me. Thanks, self, for being you!

Thanks to anyone else I might have missed. Or did miss.

So. Think that covers things. Thanks for stopping by, hope you continue to, and hope you all have had a similarly great Holiday Season, minus the sickness (unless you were listening to Disturbed), and have a similarly outstanding new year!

2013.

Bring it.