This plant is a Snow Flurry Astor, a perennial considered by some to be a weed because the leaves have serrated edges and it grows wild. Yet, it is beautiful and natural. In North America, we have inherited an attitude prominent in the Victorian era in which everything must be classified, ordered and controlled. Victorian men were convinced they could turn nature to their desires and tame it for their benefits. Victorian gardens are planned and layout out systematically. Everything goes in its place. What does not fit in the scheme is torn out.
Order was not restricted to gardens. From the Victorian attitude, people are also classified, ordered and controlled for the benefit of those in power. Herein is a root of racism, misogyny and the destruction of the environment we all depend on for survival. People who fall outside the norm are treated as weeds. They are stripped of their human rights and respect to benefit those who have ordered our society for their short-term gain. Diversity in the garden is condemned. Diversity in society is persecuted.
It is time to stop planting lawns and promote meadows, both for flora and people.
In a masters course, world renowned and award winning author Salman Rushdie said authors should writer they know, and authors have to know a lot. He went on to say authors need to research the subjects and people in their books with journalistic skills.
Writing what you know can entail emotions. You have likely experienced many emotions in you life, both good and troubling. This is material to draw upon. You can also extrapolate and heighten emotions and experiences you have had. You may want to write about a character who has a broken arm. You can research broken arms and read accounts by people who have broken an arm. To bring about the emotional response, think about a time when you had a toothache or other injury. Mentally transfer the pain to an arm and multiply it by 100.
Yet, writing what you know can go beyond emotions when you create situations and cultures that are not your own. Another thing Mr. Rushdie said is if white people can only write about white people and black people about black people and men about men and women about women, the form of the novel is dead.
To write about cultures or people outside your personal experience requires you to both study the subject in detail and speak directly with people of different communities. Mr. Rushdie sites a major female character in one of his books who is strong and competent. He is not a woman, has not personally experience the exclusion many women do, has never given birth. He talked to woman and used a historical woman who was strong in the ways his character is as a role model to effectively create a whole and compelling character that people believe in.
Artists and writers have been subject to persecution, banishment and death over history when they stood up to prejudice, tyranny and injustice and changed the world.
Charles Dickens' Oliver Twist changed child labors laws in 19th century England. His story was unpopular with industrialists and politicians who profited from the practice. When people read the story that was serialized in a magazine, they leaned a truth they were unaware of and demanded change. The Politicians were forced to pass laws protecting children from what was de facto slavery.
That is one of the roles of art in society. The shock of the new. The voice to speak out when it's unpopular because it's right.
Everyone must decide what they want to do with their lives and whether they want to stand up and possibly be ridiculed or worse. Some have died because of their views. Murders of journalists in Russia, China, Saudi Arabia and other dictatorial nations is on the rise, yet journalists continue to expose what is really happening outside the propaganda.
Vladimir Putin falsely claims his forces are liberating Ukraine from Nazis and are not bombing hospitals and launching missiles against civilian apartment buildings. Anyone in Russia today who says it's a war or contradicts what Putin says can be arrested and disappear, never to be seen again. Yet, journalist, authors, poets and individuals have courageously stood up and told the truth.
Democracies dies through complacency one step at a time. It is regained when individuals stand up.
I’m getting ready to release Covenant With the Dragons, the final volume of my epic fantasy series The Carandir Sage. The evil dragon can wake at any time. Civil war rages. Missions to seek aid are thwarted. A young princess born away from the strife is tempered to return and face the evil. It is.
Up to now, the books have been available on Amazon and in physical bookstores through a process called print-on-demand. It sounds great. There is no upfront printing costs because books are only printed when ordered by bookstores and libraries. The orders pay the printing costs plus my profit.
Unfortunately, it costs up to 40% more per copy than if the books are printed ahead of time in a batch and there is a grave risk. Since the 1940s, bookstores have demanded the ability to return unsold copies to publishers. When this happens, I must cover the printing and shipping fees. Up to December of 2020, I had only had 5 books returned and the profit from other sales more than covered this. That December, a bad player with an Amazon store ordered 200 books and promptly returned them all. Other independent published have had the same thing happen to them. I have no control over how many books are printed and distributed with print-on-demand. I can’t even restrict who orders books. In January of 2021, I had to pay an unexpected $2,000 in U.S. finds for those returns. I was forced to mark all of my books as nonreturnable to protect myself. This means that sellers like Barnes & Noble in the states, Indigo in Canada and others will list the books in their online catalogues where books are paid for at the time customers order them, but will not stock them in physical stores. That and the higher retail price I have to charge puts me at a competitive disadvantage.
I have started a Kickstarter campaign to print a batch of Covenant With the Dragons with a lower price and get it into physical bookstores through a distributor. This will allow me to make appearances again where I use my decades of theater experience to engage customers and sell lots of books. My stretch goals include printing batches of all my titles to get completely out of print-on-demand.
There are just 16 days left to reach the goal. If you could make a donation it would help greatly. Even small amounts add up. Whether or not you can make a donation, you can help me by sharing this message with people you know who might be able to.
https://tinyurl.com/2p9v9jyp
