Sunday, May 8, 2011

Should Writers Be Told They Can ONLY Write Certain Types Of Material? Parental Meddling In A Small Town Seems To Push This Idea

Democratic Underground brings us news of a teacher who has led an exemplary career of twenty five years, and now faces possible administrative action because she writes adult themed novels as a side career. Judy Buranich writes under the pen name of Judy Mays. At this time, there are no accusations that Judy has acted inappropriately with any student over her career, no allegations that she has been promoting or sharing her books in school or otherwise directing her work towards an anyone who is underage.

Wendy Apple is a parent of a child at Judy's school, and says she fears for what her son may be thinking when he is in her class, based on the presumption that she (Judy) may be having some sort of inappropriate thoughts about her son.

Wendy has appointed herself a leader of local parents who have been notorious for being the community's "Moral Police", and poking around the private lives of local citizens who have not been arrested nor accused of a major crime which would pose a community safety concern. According to a private source, this group of parents has a thirst for attention and they have been on television before with another one of their modern day witch hunts.

These parents used a really sordid tactic by throwing one of their ADULT daughters on TV to say that she thought Judy's books crossed the line.

The discussion at Democratic Underground gives a link to the news coverage.

What these self appointed moral cops have done is to beg the question, "Can a teacher write about adult themes under a pen name and is there a limit about what can be written about?" Do writers now have to watch where their creative process takes them in the production of their material for fear of being publicly judged to be a bad character based on a work of fiction?

Carrington Corner now asks the following questions:

1. What about Judy's First Amendment rights? Where and when does her Federal protection kick in?

2. Does Judy's material really appeal to the prurient interests when taken as a whole in the face of modern contemporary community standards?

3. Does her work under her pen name actually violate any morals or teacher contract provisions based on moral conduct or interference to daily school operations?

4. If a teacher in small town U.S.A. can be given this sort of treatment, what about others in positions of responsibility? What about those in the sales, aviation, law enforcement, fire, EMS, Healthcare, business administration, property management / property sales, government, broadcast, and entertainment professions? Doesn't this hold them to the same unfair levels of scrutiny in their private lives also?

5. Where do we start minding our own business and respecting the rights of others around us to be anonymous if they haven't knowingly & forcibly hurt anyone or made an attempt to do such a thing?

6. Should writers be told they can only write certain types of material? If we demand this, then we have to lay the same uniform rules for everyone since every position in life has some sort of responsibility attached to it. Do we really want to destroy the rights of free speech and free association to make a few people happy?

7. Do we decide that only certain groups in America have rights while others do not, based on their professional position in life? What a slippery slope!

The fundamental assertion of the fact that there is no such thing as a thought crime, the fundamental right of a person to write whatever their creative process inspires and to hold their creative process as either a hobby or profession has been attacked since the early days of humanity. Just when we thought we have grown past such vile behavior, a few idiots rise from out of nowhere. Let's all be reminded that the fight for our First Amendment right to free expression and to be free from fear of reprisal for our protected expression will likely never end.

Carrington Corner asks that authors, even if hobbyists, support their local First Amendment Advocacy groups, and urges ADULTS 21 or older to buy Judy's books to show her support if her genre is your taste.

Sunday, May 1, 2011

Congradulations To Our U.S. Armed Forces!

You have done well! Your mission was accomplished with excellence! The world is proud of our heroes tonight and we will never forget you! The death of Osama Bin Laden means that the world can breathe easier. Tonight is the night that families who suffered losses on 9-11-01, and the families who lost their loved ones in the line of duty can see some closure and know that justice has been carried out. 

Seasons Of Our Lives - Living & Dying: A Writer's Perspective

Recently, this author has had occasion to come across a book called "The Fall Of Freddie The Leaf" written by Leo Buscaglia, Ph.D.



This book has a copyright date of 1982. At first glance, "The Fall of Freddie The Leaf" appears to be a work for a younger audience. As it turns out, Leo was targeting all ages with this story. When taken altogether, this book tells the story of what life is, what it means to live, and how to deal with the various stages of life in a way that is fresh without any judgements about morals, faith, politics, race, ethnicity, social status, or financial class.

Leo uses his artistry in this story to give the reader a perspective on the process of dying as Freddie The Leaf falls from the tree, closes his eyes, and becomes just a memory of what he once was. In the book, Freddie did not know the snow would melt and he would break down to become part of the ground to nourish the tree he once was a living part of.

Each one of us in this big world gets to look at ourselves from the angles of reflection, introspection, and hindsight. As we stumble through our time on earth, we make decisions that are good, and we also make costly foibles we cannot help but regret. Living is much more than waking up each day only to repeat the mundane routines that make up the reality of our individual lives. Our time here is temporary.

As the trees and plants around us experience life cycles with each change of season, so are we also subject to changing seasons in our on lives that are more significant than the four seasons of winter, spring, summer, and fall. We are dying from the time we are born in the most literal sense. As our lives mature, we can know the joy of being emotionally & spiritually alive. We can also know the process of emotional & spiritual death.

In the inside cover of the particular copy of this book I ran across was a handwritten dedication dating back to exactly November 1st, 1984 that said this:

Dear Judy,

May this book bring you new insights into the mysteries of life and help you better understand life's "formulas". The book will make a good companion and compassionate friend any year you read or re-read it.

Here's to better understanding, greater hope and dreams fulfilled.

Love Forever,
         Mom

Judy's mother sounds like a beautiful person who saw the wisdom in this book. I cannot say for sure if Judy's mother was preparing to leave us or preparing to say a temporary good-bye while passing on wise words of love to Judy. Maybe Judy was a young lady who was growing up and preparing to live her adult life among us where ever she may be.

It isn't everyday a person randomly runs across a treasure given to somebody from a person who is  as important as a parent, and it isn't everyday a parent writes something so touching, profound, encouraging, and wise to their child. Leo put his heart into "The Fall Of Freddie The Leaf", and Judy's mother gave this book to her along with her heart and the warm memories that are obviously attached to it.

Judy may have willingly passed this book on to be treasured by someone else as she herself once treasured it, or it may have been lost and made its way through the hands of many. Whatever the circumstance, we can be sure of this: Leo's work and the special communication between a mother and her beloved daughter have touched the lives of people, one of whom thought it so highly that it just had to be written about and shared with the world.

Thursday, April 28, 2011

National Geographic Talks About Time Travel, Big Bang

According to one view presented in the newest article at National Geographic...

Time Travel May Occur Unnoticed
"While the new experiment—and our everyday experience—appear to rule out the possibility of time travel, there are still a lot of unknowns about the universe, and physicists can imagine scenarios in which time travel is possible."

This latest piece on time travel should provide inspiration to us writers who love the whole idea of what can be created in the context of time travel stories. I'll be careful not to get down on those who like to write fan fiction based on popular movies or books of the past even though there is just too much of that material out here. After reading this article, what ideas do you have? Did it motivate you to sit down and write something that you can be proud of adding to your growing list of works?

I know that I have been looking forward to the day when I could create a Science Fiction project like this with an attention keeping, intriguing quality to it that gets people really involved in the story. We have all had a book in the past that we just couldn't put down. THAT is what I want a Science Fiction project to be!

How many stories have we seen that are all the same in their construction, ideas, plot, etc? The last REALLY GOOD time travel story written came from Disney in the late 80s when they released "Flight Of The Navigator". I can only wonder about the timing of that release with Back To The Future 2 & 3. Was there any intention for Disney to compete in that day & age with other movie releases?

Carrington Corner would love to hear from other writers about their newest or proudest sci-fi project. What in you rmind makes a sci-fi time travel story good? What makes it outstanding? What makes you sneer and never read one of these works again?

Monday, April 11, 2011

One Of The Dominoes

"Heaven, heaven, help me....I'm one of the dominoes, chain reaction coming blow by blow." "walking 'round blind to the harm that's bein' done...he thinks it's alright cause it's happenin' to everyone." "Heaven help a seeker of truth in an age of lies! gonna make himself believe that the truth is whatever he buys".

So went the wisdom of Mark Heard who was in fact the most gifted writer and performer on the face of the planet. Mark had no clue whatsoever that his songs were both the story of current day truths AND prophecy. Although there was a very stark and revealing world view present in Mark's work, Mark also wrote his material in such a way that we each as individuals can look into our lives and see where this truth & wisdom applies.

The year was 1982 when Mark wrote an album called "Victims of The Age" and on that album was a song called "Heart Of Hearts". Heat Of Hearts told the story of one chaotic night as seen through the eyes of a man who knew he was humbled to be alive because he was fortunate enough to have known divine love.

Between the knowledge of being fortunate enough to know divine love, there were "tears in the city and nobody is really surprised, ya know". Mark knew "the world is in shambles, I'm just a young man but it's getting a little bit old to me. I'm already aching, the years have been taking a little bit of a toll on me." From there, Mark says: "Two in the morning, the siren is warning that everything is not quite alright. City is sleeping and I'm down on my knees in the night tonight."

As we stop at this moment to look at the world events taking place everywhere, we have to acknowledge that we aren't only part of our local community but also a part of a bigger world. We now stop to look at ourselves in the context of our own life's dealings at work and in private. Does anyone now see a pattern of two things? History repeating itself combined with the fact that we can all somehow truly identify with the masterful lyrics in Mark's songs?

Only once in a lifetime does it happen that a person lives here among the rest of us who really knows something we will not ever understand even if we lived to be two hundred years old. Having never known Mark, I cannot say for sure if he ever really knew the implications of his music career and exactly how far reaching his words were nor will I ever know if Mark even had a sense that he was speaking wisdom beyond his own existence.

As writers, our job may be to simply entertain; to give people a way to pass their time pleasantly and somehow keep cranking out material by whatever inspiration happens when our muse is active, BUT, we can't ever disregard the multiple conditions of the world around us. The effects, the consequences actually DO filter down into our local communities and affect our lives. We can entertain, we can be great at what we do, yet, we can also be the instruments in the world who cause change to take place.

We can be people or sheeple. No matter what world leaders say publicly, the economy is NOT recovering, the unemployment rate is not getting better, businesses are still steadily shutting down or at least making severe cuts to survive. The lyrics in Mark's works were about the ridiculous things we do, it was about the mundane parts of life we take for granted, and how that plays into each of us becoming lax about our very presence here.

Apathy, indifference, name your human condition and it applies. Collectively, we are victims of the age because we have trusted leaders who have taken us all for a ride and divided us while they laugh all the way home. What I know in my heart of hearts other than I have been fortunate to know divine love is that I am also one of the dominoes.

Note: Youtube video embedding would not work with this post. Click on the links to see the videos!

Friday, April 8, 2011

Life As A Writer

Writers are a strange lot aren't we? We don't see ourselves as strange, but the outside world sees us as being out there. We make mental notes when a notebook and pen aren't handy, some of us carry a notebook and pen with us. Some writers carry a voice recorder, and yet other writers use their cell phones to call their voicemail and leave messages for themselves.

The community of writers, serious writers, is vast! Some writers are already making a nice steady income and worry for nothing while other writers are still trying to get there. One thing for sure that us writers all have in common is the desire to never ever work for anyone else ever again! There are those of us who aren't necessarily looking to get rich and others who are looking to get so rich that they can think about generations down the road instead of worrying about how to survive the rest of the year.

Life as a writer is actually work! Some writers are people with responsibilities such as wives, husbands, children, and the whole long list goes on. Some writers have only themselves they need to worry about, so they live a simple life without too many distractions. What we writers have in common within all of this is that we all have to work on a set schedule of some sort. We spend so much time on daily personal items, then we sit at our keyboards and work on whatever project is on the schedule for the day.

How long do we work for? For as long as our eyes can deal with staring at a screen, for as long as our backs, shoulders, necks, and heads can deal with our office chairs combined with the repetitive motions of typing. When we get thirsty we get up and get a drink. When we get hungry we stop to eat. We take bathroom breaks, those who smoke or do the whole caffeine routine will get up to do those things.

We become writers because we have something to communicate to the world around us. We have something to add to the world in the literary arts, in the news journalism circles, in the blogosphere, in whatever genre there is. One thing we as writers have in common with each other here is that we are solitary. We require total concentration, quiet, peace, and sometimes we require total privacy or even personal reflection time.

Our impulse to write, to communicate, to share our creativity with the world around us is both impulsive and compulsive. Many people mistakenly think we are addicted to our art, to our computers, etc. What we do is work and it requires our devotion to tasks just as your job requires you to devote yourself to the tasks you receive a corporate paycheck for.

Statistics accurately prove that many of us writers are people who are deeply into humanity & deeply into ourselves. Many of us are trying to find a life for ourselves once we have found our identity. Writing really is a great tool for personal growth. We come from every background, every walk of life, every economic situation, every faith, every race, every ethnicity, and every country on the planet (some of us may possibly come from other planets, but that's another discussion.) As you can see here, us writers do have a sense of humor and some of us are better than others with it.

A writer's need to express their hearts and minds comes from various places within themselves. This writer comes places in life where there has been almost every situation you can think of. This means I have known the same happiness and joys you have known, but I have also seen ugliness and trauma the likes of which would make your worst nightmares look like a walk on a sunny day. Writers are all emotional people and this writer is no exception.

We even go through times when we swear we feel nothing at all. We get moody, we get anxious, we get depressed, we fall into ruts where our muse and inspiration leaves us high & dry. We writers rely on our friends & family to provide moral support, to be our allies, to be everything to us that they can be. Just like anyone else in the world, we have a need to get out and have a life. We need to interact with the public that makes up the outside world. This is where we find our inspiration most of the time.

Life as a writer is different from life as a corporate worker. Unfortunately, most people don't see what we do as a "real job", as if a corporate career is anymore real than anything else. See, we actually do have bosses...our bosses are those who read our material. Our bosses are the private clients that some of us do work for. Our bosses are the agents and publishers we work with, the people who help promote us visibly in the world.

There is no such thing as a writer who starts their career and makes enough to live on right away, just as there is no such thing as a corporate worker who makes enough money to live on immediately. It simply isn't an overnight deal! We call our culture "writerish". We do "writerish" things. Hopefully the day will come when "writerish" gets its recognition as a real word versus just a social term.

This writer has been finding new inspiration for the craft and for everyday life with thanks from a certain colleague who turned me onto a place called Lifechurch.tv. I seriously hope you're happy! I've become an on-line follower of this church whose Pastor is a dynamite speaker! This church and their Pastor aren't the stereotypical "religiously obsessed" people. Craig Groeschel heads Lifechurch with a contemporary style emphasizing practicality.

LifeChurch - Who We Are 

Watching Craig speak this evening has given me some ideas that are "weird" . Watching this man speak was the inspiration for tonight's entry. Before I close, please remember that this blog is a work in progress. There will be additions to it in the weeks to come. A links section will be added with who knows what other stuff. Thanks for reading Carrington Corner!

Wednesday, April 6, 2011

Welcome To Carrington Corner!

I'm Carrington, Frasier Carrington. Carrington Corner exists to keep everyone up to date with my creative endeavors. I'm a writer specializing in Mystical Fiction, Adventure, Satire, and Non-Fiction of sorts. 

I also write essays about things I am passionate about. My passions make up a unique list. When I become vocal about something, I do it for everyone. Writing is the greatest form of communication there is and ever will be. I believe in the magic of words and how similar words are to the world's greatest paintings. Words paint pictures in our minds where it matters most. 

Please make yourself at home! Visit often! If there is anything you would like to see here, please share your interest. Welcome to Carrington Corner!