Sexual Currency
I write this as a father, as a husband, and as a son; not as an author. Please, remember that throughout. I am not offering a professional critique or judgement about style or stilted dialogue.
I write this because I hate seeing women being taken advantage of. Historically speaking, empire after empire has proven just how easy it is to subjugate, suppress, and enslave women. That is nothing new. Appalling and immoral? sure, absolutely, but it’s still the case. What I see now, and have been seeing culturally over the last few years in our media, I find even more appalling because, you see, mankind is now using that very sexual repression as a tool against women.
This may come as a surprise to a lot of men, but women are people, too. What a shocking concept! Women are living, breathing humans with sexual needs and desires? Wow, I never would have guessed it!
Here’s what has me saddened – instead of women finally having those sexual shackles removed, they’re now being financially taken advantage of, a molestation of their finances just for a chance to slacken or excite those desires. It is happening on TV, at the cinema, and in the book world. Erotica as a sub genre of romance, is fine, healthy even. Most women want their sexual excitement to be subtle and building, not the in-your-face aspect of pornography, “I’m here to fix your cable. Oh, you can’t pay, but your nymphomaniac bi-curious roommate just came home? We’ll work something out.” Please add the cheesy porn music of your choice.
Most women don’t want that. The greedy forge of MANkind knows this. I wish that the world was run on a currency system backed on the milk of human kindness and not gold, silver, oil, or entertainment. But, we don’t live in that happy world. So, all that female sexual repression, dating back the length of human existence, is now a nice shiny new collar for women to wear.
I don’t want that for my daughters, for my wife, or for my mother.
Throughout any of this media frenzy of female sexual predation have you heard women say, of said book, show, or movie, “It is a well crafted story of the trials of a girl transforming into a woman.”?
No, you hear some variation of, “Naughty, raunchy, or sexy.”
New millennium, new versions of vices and temptations; same old greed based repression and advantage. Only this time women can choose to wear that collar of repression or not.
I suppose all I can do is pay attention to the women I care about, so they don’t feel that pressing need of transference. Love and play with my daughters, so they don’y have Daddy-issues later in life. Love and care for my wife, treat her with compassion and trust. Love my mother for all she has done for me… and hope that the strength of a real man is enough.
“Excuse Me While I Whip This Out.”
I have some imagery for you. Now, don’t worry I love both Hot Dogs & the USA, this is not an anti-either post……..it’s more of a, Hey can’t we switch to a different unofficial food type thing.
(Warning this may be graphic! But, then again in a country that thinks “50 Shades of Grey” is a good book and “Magic Mike” a good movie, who knows?)
Why must we celebrate our country’s birth by jamming a phallic shaped mystery meat into our mouths? Sure, we bite down, we’re Americans damn it, we’re nobody’s bitch…but we do swallow, so maybe we’re just a nation of sluts, I don’t know. I love a good hot dog, don’t get me wrong. But today it’s just kind of difficult not to picture Uncle Sam with his star-spangled trousers around his knees, pushing all those wieners into the mouths of Americans at picnics and backyard BB&Qs. “That’s right, Oh yeah, take it. The whole thing, hey, hey slow down, slow down. That’s it. There’s plenty more where that came from, no, no, no, that’s just the special sauce! It adds to the flavor….”
Dreams
Dreams are never easy to accomplish. If you believe otherwise then you have only had ideas, not dreams. Dreams test you. They drag you trough pain and anguish, burn you, break you, destroy and elevate you. And win or lose, succeed or fail, dreams teach you who you are. That kind of illumination should never come easy.
Wobble Wonkers!
Language is inherently fluid, but I see generational and cultural slang as a sort of dam to that flow. Instead of allowing myself to be swept away in the asinine argot I plan to invent my own slang. Who knows, perhaps in another year your teenager may be saying some of Nick’s new words?
I find “lol” and “lmao” to be truly representative of our culture’s lassitude. So, from now on if something is funny I shall say, “Wobble Wonkers!” which in a few months will devolve into “W Wonkers” then “W Wonk” perhaps an urban revival into “Wobbizzle Wonkshizzle” but eventually it will be just like the half-assed aforementioned slangs and be typed “WW!”
It’s a good thing Bill Joel stopped at the 90′s
The scariest aspect of living in this day and age is not that mental shock of, What the hell happened to the world!? No, what’s really terrifying is the answer, not the question. Go to Yahoo.com, don’t click on anything, just let it sit there on their homepage, and look around. What do you see? A visual assault of commercials and the most asinine news coverage as it scrolls through ludicrous headlines.
Smut vs Novels
Steven Spielberg makes movies, right? But by that logic, so does the pornography industry. Would anyone be audacious enough to group Spielberg flicks in with pornos? I wouldn’t.
So I’m asking the book world, as both an author and a reader, don’t group smut in with the real novels. It’s insulting to those who put their hearts, minds and souls into their work.
For the Wolves
It is very difficult to be a writer for the wolves. Not the literal Canis lupus or some overdone werewolf lycanthropy nonsense, no. I write for the figurative wolves. My fans and readers are the wolves out there among the sheep.
As a fellow wolf I understand that wolves want to think for themselves.
Wolves have a hard enough time listening to the advice of other wolves, let alone trying to shut out the blather of the sheep, “Bah bah bah boobies. Bah bah booty. Bah bah boom!” It’s the hardest, coldest truth in business - sex and sadism always sell.
Silly sheep saw sex sold said surely sounds like a seller.…..try saying that five times fast!
So, as a wolf I applaud all of the wolves out there that want to make up their own minds. Please, keep thinking for yourselves and I’ll keep writing stories that make you think.
On the Horizon
Balance series fans, I’m glad to note that Zeus The Balance: Book Three is currently in the editing/test reading phase. I don’t believe in that whole line it up in a good week when other new books in the genre aren’t coming out. The books are done when they are done, I’m not playing games. So, I hope to have Zeus in stores by the end of summer.
Now, there will still be eight Balance books, but I needed to work on something else between books three and four. Something lighthearted. Believe it or not, I’m working up an outline for a romantic comedy. Don’t worry that is not a capitulation to the market masses. I do have a fully entertaining story, told in my style and not just some attempt to pull in a different demographic. But, I know many of the readers have sent me emails saying, “I told my friends they have to read the Balance books, but I get, ‘Oh I don’t read that type of book’.”
I know the world now judges a book not only by its cover but by its genre as well, sad but true. Alas, readers, now when you hear that response you’ll be able to rebut that Nick Shamhart also has a romantic comedy available, too. Hopefully that will be in stores by the holiday season ’12.
Dear Hollywood, Please Stop!
I take it as a compliment when readers tell me The Balance Books should be made into movies.
I realized today when I saw a commercial for “Battleship” the movie that it may be less a compliment and more a cry for help. When Hollywood starts turning board games into movies it is time for a pop culture revolt! Please, movie fans if you keep encouraging this kind of cinematic disrespect then………….Jerry Bruckheimer presents “Chutes and Ladders” in 3D!!! Cannot be far behind.
