Loading...Lancer Kind, Malicous Deviant or just writing?
I’ve been accused of being unsavory or even outright bad, but also I’ve been accused of being a great citizen. None of those charges, I’m happy to say, have stuck!
As an author, I get to create characters that are bad people. In “Better than God,” I plausibly simulate a very rich jerk who likes to show others he’s the boss, to the point of getting away with murder. This story has been published in a book filled with stories of people doing bad things, called Malicious Deviance. Its editor, Robert Essig, sent me a message about how he found the story a little offensive, and that’s why he wanted to buy it for the anthology. The anthology’s published by Library of Horror Press so it’s loaded with stories that are better than a triple latte for staying up at night (my mom had to force herself to stop reading James A Sabata’s “Gossip Hounds of Sherry Town” so she could sleep). The anthology was reviewed by HellNotes. My story, “Better than God,” is about this very successful jerk who owns a Ferrari and knows how to use it. What could be so offensive about that?
Some may say that to write such a character, I must have quite the inner jerk. And to that I say, NO! Maybe there have been causes where I was a jerk to you, dear reader, or perhaps I was just “writing.” For like Brad Pitt who is just acting handsome for the cameras (Angelina Joli says he has a horrendous beer belly), a writer who misbehaves so he can tap the correct keys on his keyboard, is just writing.
To everyone who wishes to defame my character, you’re wrong! I’m not a jerk–I’m writing. So I’ll not apologize for working on my craft. Someone has to suffer for art, so it might as well be you.
Do you agree? Take control of the world, even though it’s only one corner, but hey, if the world was square, you’d have 1/4 of it. So take control by answering the below poll. Defame Lancer’s character or cover the man’s back.
Comments
Comment from Abby Goldsmith
Time May 26, 2011 at 06:48
Every character is part of you, and you are part of every character. I told my mom recently, “I might have a depressed alcoholic character lurking inside me, but that’s just a tiny aspect of me. Every character I write is part of me; even the Commander of All Living Things.” I don’t think that reassured her. Well, clearly you have a rich asshole lurking inside of you. I hope it isn’t too close to the surface!
Comment from Lancer Kind
Time June 27, 2011 at 12:55
Hmmm…. I could live with being a rich assehole. 
Comment from Thunderman
Time July 15, 2011 at 17:30
Sometimes i ponder about why society has become like this. It really is just demoralizing 
. I’m gonna go consume a beer and loosen up right now! I am sorry if i got everyone down.
Comment from Lancer Kind
Time July 15, 2011 at 19:02
It’s this dissatisfaction which makes us human. Spending all day eating tree fruits, relaxing in the sun, and occasional catching a snake and eating it sounds like a really good time during human prehistory. If we, as a species didn’t get dissatisfied, we’d have stayed on those sandy beaches eating tree fruit, fish, and snakes.
Pondering is an important function, and then doing something about it to make it incrementally better is even more important. Incremental progress.
You’ll see evidence of humanity always being dissatisfied with the status quo in literature. A science fiction story written by an unhappy politician, Ignatius Donnelly in the 1890s. He wrote a “warning story” about what will happen in the future of the 20th century if things continued the way they were. It’s interesting to read in the context of the 1890s, but Ignatius isn’t the writer that Orwell was.
http://www.amazon.com/Caesars-Column-Story-Twentieth-Century/dp/1410107612/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1310727271&sr=1-1
Hopefully, many of the stories in Malicious Deviance cause people to ponder along with making the experience entertaining.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts! Keep pondering, try to improve the word in some increment (big changes are hard, but enough small changes, then others will see what you are doing and help), and fight the good fight!
==>Lancer—
Comment from Lancer Kind
Time July 15, 2011 at 19:40
Oh, and Ignatious’s dissatisfaction read a lot like the same things we are dissatisfied about today: business leaders getting rich, workers wages becoming less, poor medical for the poor.
You can read his forward (and perhaps the whole book) here: http://books.google.com/books?id=mnx45UQY9DMC&pg=PR22&lpg=PR22&dq=forward+caesar%27s+column&source=bl&ots=4ISBxAYbrg&sig=WniaH4StC-kym3Z8fgUwGoIpH0s&hl=en&ei=ZyYgTrvNFJG-sAPl7eBk&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2&ved=0CB8Q6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=forward%20caesar%27s%20column&f=false
Comment from Cedric Ulwelling
Time July 17, 2011 at 03:27
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Time September 11, 2011 at 08:21
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Time September 14, 2011 at 09:31
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Comment from Resa Till Italien
Time February 15, 2012 at 20:12
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Time July 22, 2012 at 16:57
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Comment from Lancer Kind
Time August 23, 2012 at 11:50
It takes some technical computer knowledge but no coding skills. It’s easiest to start with an already installed system like getting a blog on http://Wordpress.com.
Comment from Travis Heermann
Time May 25, 2011 at 23:13
My story “Punishment” is in there, too. I told my mom she couldn’t read this one. Some things are just too nasty for family to read.