Mormons, Halloween and the Paranormal

Recently my wife pointed out an article published on KSL.com, the NBC affiliate for Utah. In the interest of full disclosure, I contribute pieces to KSL on a fairly regular basis. The article my wife pointed out was another contribution piece by someone writing about Mormons and Halloween, which you can read for yourself by clicking here.

The author of the article is also Mormon and expresses his thoughts and feelings on the Halloween holiday, although I would argue he does it not very clearly. The overall feeling I got from the article was that the author still does not know what he thinks about Halloween and how it meshes or clashes with his religion. Being a good writer requires introspection, and not just some cursory reflections now and again. You have to be comfortable in your own skin and know where you stand.

Because I write about the paranormal constantly, I have already thought extensively about how I as a Mormon view the paranormal and Halloween, as well as how other Mormons do as well. I have also studied how other religious groups handle the two subjects, which is fascinating to me. The author of the article on KSL's website seems to float back and forth between viewing Halloween as a Satanic celebration and something that is silly and harmless and mostly for the kiddos. One big mistake I see the author and many others making is mislabeling druids, Wiccans or other groups as "Satanic" just because they don't understand/like what they believe. I have been on the receiving end of this religious ignorance, and it is not fun. To say that Halloween is fundamentally Satanic brings about all sorts of problems, like saying Harry Potter teaches kids how to perform witchcraft. If these people like Shakespeare, then they would be shocked to know that the incantation performed by the witches in Macbeth was a spell Shakespeare looked up in a real witchcraft book.

I could go on about this subject for a long, long time and am actually kicking around the idea of writing a book on it, just because I have so much to say about the subject. Some religious people love to label things as evil a lot, so the label starts to become almost meaningless. Really, these people label things as evil because of personal preference or fear, rather than reserving the label for this that truly are evil. I run into people all the time, both Mormons and from other religious groups, who think the paranormal is "evil." This translates into Halloween being an "evil" holiday. I sometimes ask these people if they believe in an afterlife, ghosts, and so forth. The responses I get are always entertaining, as these people really don't know what they believe but they love to run around and label things as "evil." For example, I have run into some Mormons who think that believing in hauntings is "evil" and yet they profess to believe in the Mormon concept of a spirit world, which is located here on earth. This means they believe spirits are all around us, yet hauntings just do not occur because the subject makes them uncomfortable.

I'll stop there, not because I don't have more to say, not because I'm afraid of offending anyone, but because I really should just write that book I have been considering. A book format would give me the space to really make my arguments and observations.

The Adventure of Working From Home

I have worked from home for a few years now, and it has been one of the most frustrating, wonderful, awful, enriching and detrimental things in my professional life. Confused? Well, I have learned one of the big secrets to working from home: it is what you make of it.

If you are thinking of working for yourself, it may be one of the smartest moves you could ever make. Many of the truly happy and fulfilled people I have run into in my life work for themselves. Also, some of the most haggard and negative people I have met have also worked for themselves. The big difference I have always perceived is that the people who are happy and fulfilled did not look at working for themselves as their only alternative to standing in the unemployment line. Instead of jumping into the self-employment pool like a cornered rat, these people saw power and freedom working for themselves.

I must admit that my own self-employment journey has swung both ways at different times, but recently I have started to gravitate further and further to the self-empowerment side of the spectrum. Would I then recommend self-employment to everyone? Absolutely not. Working for yourself takes guts, discipline, creativity and other traits not everyone has. Some people are very content to sit in a monochromatic cubicle under fluorescent lighting in exchange for the promise of consistent pay and other perceived forms of stability. The reality is that especially in this present economic situation, none of us are in highly stable situations. Still, though, for some people working from home would probably be a complete disaster.

So what is the secret to working from home? I'll tell you what I have learned thus far: there is no one-size-fits-all solution to how to work from home successfully. I have quite a few friends and associates who work from home, and I can tell you the ones who do so with any measurable success all do it differently. Some people sit down at a desk in an isolated room at 8 o'clock sharp each morning, wearing a nicely pressed shirt and slacks and they work until noon when they take an hour lunch break and then work until 5. Other people I know go days without working, and then they go on a work binge where they work constantly for days. Yet other people I know laze around the house during the day and then somehow cram all of their work into the nighttime hours. Of course, the type of work a self-employed person engages in does help dictate a working style, since some people work on independent projects while others may be chained to a computer or phone so they can collaborate with colleagues throughout the work day.

The dynamics of your household plays a factor in how you work from home. If you have small children at home, they naturally do not understand limits as well as school-aged children. Having a separate office area with a door creates different dynamics than having counter space in your kitchen to work on. One way is not inherently superior to another, just some people work better under certain conditions than others. The beautiful thing about self-employment is that it allows you the flexibility and the power to work the way that is best for you. Instead of having an idiot who used to manage a sports fanatic store in the mall telling you how to structure your life, you get to call the shots. Of course, some people need the structure brought by an idiot boss, and that is okay for them.

New Paranormal Articles by Me Coming Soon!

I used to write for Examiner.com as the Salt Lake City Paranormal Examiner and had a fair amount of success in that position. The articles I wrote often would hang around in the top 5 list for long periods of time and would draw in a steady and heavy flow of traffic. I would regularly be contacted by people--both here in Utah and even other parts of the country and world--for information about the paranormal, particularly about haunted locations in the state.

I enjoyed writing those paranormal articles on a regular basis, but for reasons I posted before I left Examiner. To my great pleasure, I recently received an opportunity to return to writing paranormal articles, but this time for a blog that specializes in just the paranormal. The blog is called Paranormal Old Pueblo and I am very excited to be moving forward with them. The good news is that Paranormal Old Pueblo steers clear of the crazy paranormal crowd, taking a more level-headed approach to the subject. I hope to have my first article up on the site soon, and will post on here when the article is live. For those of you who are interested, you can read my articles on Paranormal Old Pueblo for deeper thoughts and analysis of various paranormal subjects, including (one of my favorite) how culture shapes people's perception of the paranormal.

Update on Current Projects

Since I have this blog and it is supposed to be about my writing (as well as my interests and thoughts) I think I am going to start giving regular updates about the progress of the different creative projects I am working on. This way you can stay in tune with what is going on, how close different works are getting to publication and have some insight into the crazy life of working full-time on "normal" writing assignments while trying to squeeze in the time and energy to produce creative ventures.

First things first, the anonymous young adult novel project: so far it is still in the rough draft stage. I keep thinking I am going to have a good block of time to hammer out the rest of the rough draft, but life happens and I can't just write 24/7 (I could, but then my wife would kill me and then I wouldn't be writing at all). Seriously, though, I still like to live in the real world, and I have other responsibilities in life I have to attend to. I am hoping (yeah, yeah, you all say) to have a rough draft in the near future. No, I have not set I date. Yes, I know I should, but every time I do the date just sails past me. I have decided to at least shop this book with agents and publishers once I have polished it up, so I will be posting updates on that whole process. The last time I tried that, I didn't get very far, but again I was not as seasoned in the writing profession as I am now.

Secondly, the new Shades of Night: Perfect Village short story: this is also in the rough draft stage. I keep debating in my mind what I want to have happen, but in the end I think I am just going to set the characters loose and let them create a big mess I get to clean up. This one is looking like it will be significantly longer than the other Shades of Night stories, which will be good. I am hoping for a finished product up on the Internet by early next year (maybe sooner if luck smiles on me).

Third, The Devil's Nightmare: where do I begin with this one? I have a partial rough draft, which I have had for over a year now. I need to tear a lot of it apart, which goes against my instincts since I usually just get out a rough draft in its entirety and then I begin slaughtering the story into something else. Maybe I will do that with this, but there is so much I already know I want and need to change. When will this be ready? I am hoping next winter sometime, but that all depends on what happens with the young adult book (i.e. if anyone is interested in picking it up or if I take it independent like Shadow House).

So there you go, a little peek into what is going on right now. Like I said, I think I am going to be posting updates more often on here, including the big achievements, frustrations and setbacks I experience with each project. Who knows, maybe I will dissuade some of you from trying to write that book you have been mulling over in your head.

High vs. Low Fantasy

So many times in life we throw around terms we don't understand instead of humbling ourselves and looking up the meaning of what we are saying. I have learned the value of actually knowing--instead of just assuming--the meaning of a word through some embarrassing scenarios in my life.

I hear people all the time misuse the terms "high fantasy" and "low fantasy" like they mean "good fantasy" and "bad fantasy." I'm here to help set the record straight on what constitutes high fantasy versus low fantasy, and hopefully put an end to confusion.

High fantasy involves a story that takes place in an alternate or other reality, where the natural laws that rule our world are not entirely followed. The prime example of high fantasy would be Tolkien's books about Middle Earth, which is completely separate from our world. There magic very much exists, as well as a wide variety of fantastical creatures.

Low fantasy, on the other hand, involves fewer fantastical elements in the story. The fantastical features in the story exist in a real-world setting, so the line between fantasy and reality are blurred. There are numerous examples of low fantasy, such as Stephen King's book The Green Mile or Neil Gaiman's Coraline.

You may have a preference between having your fantasy in a straight shot, completely in another world, versus mixed with a good dose of our very real world. Whatever your preference may be, "low fantasy" does not mean it is inferior to other fantasy stories.

Who Should Die: Mom, Dad or the Kids?

I don't know if any of you know of or about Dr. Laura Schlessinger, the radio talk host who is also a therapist/psychologist or something of the sort. My exposure to Dr. Laura was mostly from when I was a teenager, since her show would be blasted in our house after the Rush Limbaugh Show. Personally, I hated both shows and would have far rather stuck my head in a blender and get it all over with, but I digress.

I remember one time vividly hearing Dr. Laura discussing with someone a hypothetical situation where a married couple is in a life boat with their child (or children, maybe) after the larger boat they were all in sunk in the middle of the ocean. With no land in sight, the life boat starts to take on water and sink as well. The couple deduces that the reason the life boat is sinking is that there is too much weight in the boat. I know, I know, I thought the same thing: perhaps the couple should have gone on a diet before sailing in the middle of the ocean. Well, they made some bad life choices and are now in the middle of the ocean and they can't just drop fifty pounds in five seconds, as nice of a thought as that would be.

In any case, the point of the hypothetical situation was to ask who should be thrown overboard and die in the shark-infested waters: mom, dad or the kid(s)? Well, being a parent who is also married, I can tell you there is no way I would look at one of my kids or even my wife and tell them "sorry, but I want to live" as I tossed them into the water. Makes sense, right?

Apparently the all-wise Dr. Laura saw things differently. She decided that the kid(s) should get the boot from the boat since the parents could always have more kids. Yeah, that's right. The parents both needed to live so they could replace the child so cruelly thrown into the shark-infested water because the parents just couldn't help but eat at the Cheesecake Factory at least once a week (and how could you pass up the appetizers the size of a regularly gluttonous meal?).

Do I think anyone is crazy to seek out Dr. Laura's advice on anything? Yes. But enough about what I think, even though this is my blog and my thoughts. What do the rest of you think about the whole hypothetical sinking lifeboat scenario?

Happy Birthday to Me

So today is my birthday, but it doesn't really feel like it. As an adult, if my birthday falls on a weekday, for me at least it is just another day where I work, do dishes and sling poopy diapers. Pretty exciting, I know. When I was a kid, the night before my birthday was almost as exciting as Christmas Eve.

I was originally born on a Friday the 13th, which I kind of wonder was some sort of a sign. It's too bad my birthday is on a Thursday this year, since Friday the 13ths are normally very lucky days for me.

What do I want for my birthday? Well, I would love to have a bunch of book sales, or downloads for my Shades of Night stories. Other than that, I really need a new pair of headphones. I listen to music constantly when I write, and actually wore out all of my headphones except for the sub-par ones that came with my phone. Let's just say Apple does not make stellar headphones, and I have been suffering with their hollow sound. Other than that, I am not really hoping for anything else, since I would be paying for other gifts. My how things change from childhood to adulthood.

My Top 10 Scary Movies, Without Gory Scenes

The wait is over! My top scary movies list has published on KSL.com for you all to view and enjoy. Click here to see how many on the list you have already seen, and to get ideas for other movies you can watch this Halloween season to get into the spirit of things (pun completely intended).

I love each of the movies on the list for very different reasons, which I explain in my article. If I had to pick just one movie to recommend... well that would be hard. I would have to say I would recommend The Others to people the most. Not only is it just a great movie, but it is surprisingly not as well-known as some of the other movies. I actually originally watched the movie for a literature and film class I took in college and was blown away with how good it was. People I have recommended The Others to have said "oh, that's just like The Sixth Sense, I heard." These people heard wrong and it would do them well to see the movie and judge for themselves.

Better yet, watch all of the movies and make it a scary movie marathon leading up to Halloween.

Going Global

My writing is gaining an increasing global presence. Shadow House has been available in print form around the world for quite some time. Now the digital version of Shadow House as well as my Shades of Night stores are available through Amazon's Kindle service in several countries. At first my digital works were available only in the United States and the United Kingdom. Fairly recently, my works went on sale in Germany. Just this past week, my digital titles were posted for sale in France. More countries should be coming in the near future.

This is an exciting time as I watch my international reach broaden and strengthen. As of right now, my works are only available in English, but down the road there is the possibility that they could be made available in other languages to further broaden my audience.

Who is Flynn Jensen?

I have taken a several month hiatus from my Shades of Night short story series, which publishes to the Amazon Kindle Store. After a long wait, you are about to see a new Shades of Night post in the near future (more on the exact date later).

With this new Shades of Night story comes the introduction of a new character, one who will be appearing in the Shades of Night series, and perhaps other books and stories in the future. The character's name is Flynn Jensen, and he is an ex-journalist who has fallen victim to the layoffs in the journalism field. Flynn was working at a newspaper in Wisconsin, hoping to one day become an investigative journalist, when his dream was cut short very early in his career. Instead of giving up completely, Flynn started his own investigative journalism blog and quickly began receiving tips and investigating purported paranormal cases.

Along the way, Flynn has stuck his nose in some of the "wrong" places and so he has earned some enemies, some of whom would love to so him quietly disappear. Flynn has people break into his house regularly, has had his computer stolen and has suspected people have tried to hack his phone and computer. Who exactly is doing these things and why is part of the mystery Flynn is trying to uncover, while at the same time keeping up with an increasing amount of leads.

The first story readers get to enjoy that features Flynn Jensen is Shades of Night: Perfect Village. Flynn follows up on a strange lead about a town in the Midwest that is perfect, and is called Perfect Village. Convinced that something paranormal is causing everyone to act in a stringently uniform manner, Flynn rents a house in Perfect Village to get to the bottom of the mystery. Can Flynn determine the cause of the phenomena, or will he become "perfect" as well? Find out when the story publishes on Amazon.

The List is Coming

I have been doing some occasional contributor pieces for KSL.com, which is the NBC station in Utah. So far, I have done an article about bike safety and another about the BYU and Utah rivalry. Yes, neither one of the published articles have anything to do with the paranormal, but then again my day job deals with writing about business practices, home improvement projects, technology and even gardening.

The next piece I am publishing with KSL involves a list of my favorite scary movies. I asked for input from people on Facebook and Twitter and received some interesting feedback that gave me a wide variety of movies to consider. After some mulling, I finally narrowed the list down to ten, so it is my top ten list of scary movies.

One thing I should mention about the list: none of the movies have any gore. It seems like some people think scary and blood or guts (or both) go hand-in-hand, but I disagree. There are a few (and I do mean a few) scary movies that have some goriness to them. For the most part, I prefer scares that involve building tension, atmospheric fear building and psychological frights. I think a lot of people during the Halloween season are looking for scary movies, but they don't want to be grossed out in the process.

The list is not viewable right now, but here is a picture from one of the movies to give you a little taste of things to come:

I am hoping the list will be published by about mid-October, but we will see. I will definitely post something on here when the list does go live on the web, and then you all can check out any movies on it you have no already seen (or refresh your memories of others you saw a long time ago).