C.G.Ayling

Month: July 2012

  • Gender Differentials.

    How differently men and women see things never ceases to amaze me. Their different outlooks show in the most unexpected places.

    After laying a clutch of eggs, loggerhead turtles abandon them to their fate.  From late spring to the end of summer, Department of Natural Resources volunteers keep watch for these nests down the Atlantic coastline.  I’m currently on vacation in Edisto Beach and accompanied my youngest daughter to a “turtle inventory”. This is where a DNR volunteer excavates a recently hatched nest (five days after the first baby turtles break free). During the excavation, they keep close track on various numbers. This is done in order to determine the success rate of hatchlings and to gather various statistical data on this endangered species.

    Along with about thirty other people, we watched with fading hope as a series of unbroken eggs were retrieved from the nest. Turns out a storm brought high tides which drowned most of the eggs in this particular nest. With the crowd’s mood somber, most of the smaller children moved away. After about five minutes of bad news, made more so by realization of the apparent callousness of nature, the DNR volunteer withdrew a baby turtle. Its immediately recognizable shape galvanized some of the parents to call back their children.

    Forever interested in human nature, I listened as a woman called out to her daughter, “They found a baby turtle, it isn’t alive.” A moment, and a man called to his, “They found a turtle, it’s dead.”

    The girls were of similar age, as were their parents.  The thing the parents said is the same.  Essentially.  Perhaps what each child heard was similarly the same, but perhaps it was not.

  • Especially for Laurie’s blog visitors.

    Thank you to any visitors directed to my website after reading Laurie’s Blog.  A special thanks also goes to Laurie herself, who has been most helpful to me and multiple other authors.

    Please remember that right now every single visitor to her blog can download an entirely free copy of the first novel in my Malmaxa series – “The Pilgrimage“.  If you haven’t already done so please do it now by visiting SmashWords – the free offer will be available for at least the next two weeks, however you don’t want to miss it and there really is no time like the present…  Oh, please be sure to pass the word along to anyone you know who might be interested in my particular style of writing, which I am beginning to describe as “Philosophy couched as Fantasy”, it sounds heavy – but it really isn’t and I promise I don’t attempt to sway you to my peculiar beliefs!

    As an added bonus I’ve decided to make a further concession to anyone who replies to this post during the course of this promotion.  I’ll personally email you a coupon code for a substantial discount off the SmashWords price of the second novel in the series “The Pilgrimage”.  I’ll send those emails out at the end of the promotion, which should give you enough time to read Beltamar’s War, and see if you care to proceed into your exploration of my world – Malmaxa.

    Thank you all for visiting!

  • Vengeance Cost

    Let’s forget our political woes for the moment, and get down to the important stuff – where am I with the third novel in Malmaxa?  Namely, Vengeance Cost.

    Well, I could lie, and say Vengeance Cost is going great.  Or, I could lie and say I’m struggling.  Though it goes against everything I am as a man, I won’t lie (but I console myself in this by keeping my lips firmly pressed together as I type – they aren’t moving, therefore I’m not lying…).  Vengeance Cost is going … OK.

    I have already defined the main threads, and even written the first 44 pages of the story.  So, I just lied – Malmaxa really writes itself – there, I feel better already :).  Don’t hold your breath though, there is a massive amount of work to be done before Vengeance Cost approaches readiness for release.  That said, things are definitely getting faster.  Beltamar’s War took me about two years (after literally a lifetime of dreaming about it), The Pilgrimage took just over a year, so perhaps Vengeance Cost will be out in less than a year?  I don’t think so, though hope springs eternal.

    One of the things I’m doing as I work on Vengeance Cost is re-reading both Beltamar’s War and The Pilgrimage to ensure continuity.  A side effect of that is that I will be releasing a revised edition of The Pilgrimage – I know this is hard to believe, but I’ve actually found several sentences that are currently beneath my  already low standards.  The paperback version of The Pilgrimage will be released with that revision.

    In case you’re wondering, the title of the third novel in Malmaxa was set to be “The Un-Matched Prophet”.  As with many things Malmaxa, that changed on a fateful impulse.  Though I won’t say what that impulse was, for fear of spoiling things for my readers, I will say this:-

    I find that much beloved, and often visited, perception, “Sometimes you must do the wrong thing, for the right reason”, to be fatally flawed.  Wrong, is wrong.  Though the perpetrator of wrong might eventually find their way to right, there is invariably a better path to justice than the one that leads through wrong.  Evil’s taint becomes increasingly tolerable, with each exposure…

    Still, the reasons that good people do bad things are compelling.  Poor behavior is almost endlessly fascinating.  Since Malmaxa is a thinly veiled look at real life, not even its best characters are exempt from poor choices and disastrous decisions.

    Does vengeance have a cost?  Indeed, it does and in Malmaxa, multiple paths lead toward vengeance.  The question must therefore be – To which thread in my written tapestry does the title refer, and what price will the capricious Gods levy for its satisfaction?

  • Supreme? In what sense?

    I am extremely disappointed at the latest evidence that the highest court in the land is far from supreme.  When did they discard their duty to uphold the constitution?  When did they decide to ignore the separation of powers between legislative and judicial?  Does political expediency outweigh their duty to uphold the constitution?  Doesn’t that idiotic mantra, “Three strikes and you’re out”, sound good right about now?

    The medical system in the USA is severely broken.  I don’t question this for a heartbeat.  However, the healthcare reform monstrosity, something that will forever remain part of President Obama’s legacy, fails to fix this.

    First, Obamacare weighs in at 2700 pages of legalese.  I’m confident it won’t contain any opportunities for misunderstanding – not.  Though I generally don’t like using catch phrases, the name “Obamacare” seems appropriate.  How many pages was the Constitution?  How about the ten commandments?  Or even the entire bible, both old and new testaments?  Cast in that light, 2700 pages seems to be exactly what it is – flagrantly excessive.

    However, the single thing that really concerns me is the individual mandate – a clearly unconstitutional law that forces us to pay privately operated healthcare entities insurance premiums.  We are compelled to do so.  We have no choice – we either give our money to these for-profit corporations, or the government punishes us.  This isn’t like other insurances related to fiscal responsibility.  While we can choose not to drive a car, we can’t choose not to live.

    Since taxes, by the very definition of the word, go to the government these compulsory insurance premiums are very obviously not a tax.  How the supreme court could choose to think premiums paid to private corporations are taxes…  well, that boggles my mind.  How the supreme court could choose to uphold a bill they openly acknowledge not even bothering to read… again, the mind boggles.

    The supreme court (deliberately not capitalized as they are clearly no longer worthy of respect), has shown itself to be far from supreme.  It has aligned itself with the legislative branch for the sake of convenience – not for the sake of right.

    I intend to vote for change.  I am distressed my choice in candidates is so abysmally poor.  In the coming election I won’t be voting for a candidate, or a party.  I won’t even be against a candidate, or a party (which might lend some satisfaction).  No, mine will be a vote for no other reason than change.

    What a horrible state of affairs must there be to choose the devil you don’t know, over the devil you do?  I think I finally understand why Egyptians, in their small minority, voted the way they did…

    They voted against what they had before – they voted for change, terrible though it will be.