I thought I would draw a little attention to an innocent article from the USA Today. I think the article, and some additional information, and a brief excerpt from Fishing for Light are a perfect opportunity to focus on the satires themes. I know some of the reviewers have found the satire a bit 'wacky' for their tastes, which I think is fair enough. But if you take a journey with me down this blog post, I think you'll find the information useful for your everyday life, and I think you'll begin Continue Reading
Father Figures
Life is complicated. We are born into an uncertain world, and then as the cliché goes, life happens. I hope before I can no longer communicate via the written word, I can share a few useful thoughts and observations. I wrote Fishing for Light as a satire because to write the story as pure literary fiction would be to painful for me. I learned a lot from Bobby's Socks. I prefer to encourage the reader to laugh, rather than cry. I'll explain an underlying theme to watch for from within the Continue Reading
Nom de plume
I had an old friend ask me, "Dude, what's up with the pen name?" I have several reasons I write using the pen name, Nathaniel Sewell. First off, after I wrote Bobby's Socks, my wife wondered if I'd want my young nephews and nieces to read the novel, and know it was my creation. Since the story is about the epi genetic link from child sexual abuse and suicide, the answer was - NO! For the most part, Nathaniel was chosen because we like the name. We are not parents by choice, not from any Continue Reading
The IRS – Updated 6/25/2014
My second novel, Fishing for Light was written several years ago, because it takes a long time to work through the editing and publishing process. At the time, I had not a clue we would end up living in Texas, and we would be watching the continuing border crisis on the evening news, and in particular watch the IRS mess continue to unfold. By the way, I did write this novel over three years ago, right? And no, I don't consider myself another second coming of Nostradamus, but keep reading ... it Continue Reading
Plastic Faces – What’s behind the mask?
The next time you are at the grocery store, and just before you get to the cashier, take a look around, and think about what you see? In part, the idea behind Fishing for Light was spawned from all those 'plastic, dead-eyed faces' - pasted to the colorful wall of glossy gossip magazines. I wonder at what point did 'those people' give up their souls and become human avatars? By the way, the noun, AVATAR, comes from Hinduism. There are several definitions, I'll use this one: "a manifestation Continue Reading
The Millennial’s!
The Millennials! No wait, it's - The Gen-Xers! No wait, it's - The Generation Y's! Or maybe, The Baby Boomers! Hmm, and who are those, The Silent Generation? And if they are SILENT, then how do we know they exist? I can go on, and on ... and yes, Eddie Wilcox, the main character from Fishing for Light, represents, The Millennials. To me, these Advertising/Political labels are used to divide and conquer us. They read like a new major motion picture action adventure 'cartoon series' with the Continue Reading
Erectile Dysfunction – Solved!
It occurred to me last night, I should share part of Chapter 13, the reason, you might not realize that from the novel, Fishing for Light, I wrote about the moment Professor Quan solved, erectile dysfunction. I know, I know, sex sells! And there are a zillion 'boner-pill' television commercials. Sorry, the fact they are on the flat screen every 3 minutes, and the voice over actors calming voice with actors that appear to longingly grin at each other with plastic faces, simply stated, they give Continue Reading
Satire – what in the world is Fishing for Light?
Well, I think as an artist, you need to be willing to accept the good with the bad, and not be afraid to go down the 'black diamond' slope. I specifically added - 'a satire' after the novel's title to give a potential reader a hint as to the stories true nature. As you will note, I pasted the definition of satire at the bottom of the this post because the one aspect I'd point out, I do not believe in 'ridicule' or 'derision'. I prefer to try and provide absurd humor, or exaggeration to common Continue Reading
Life Trauma – Genetic Marks
http://discovermagazine.com/2013/may/13-grandmas-experiences-leave-epigenetic-mark-on-your-genes I pasted above an article from Discover Magazine, I think it might be interesting because it explains, in part, why I wrote, Fishing for Light and Bobby's Socks. I had wondered how I might use this article. Well, today is the day, and I'll explain at the end of this post what motivates me to keep writing, even though my audience is 'tiny' and at present I have '1' fan on Goodreads.com, and yes, Continue Reading
Nashville
Part of the story from Fishing for Light is set in Nashville, Tennessee. For one thing, I have visited Nashville several times, but I don't live there, nor have I lived there, but why would I pick Nashville? I can answer that question easily, the Parthenon. And there is also another reference, Parthenogenesis, but I'll write about that another time. But it does have a cross reference to Ms. Prosperina. In Nashville, they built a full scale replica of the Parthenon, the fragile original Continue Reading