Best Laid Plans

Posted on by

We’ve gotten Tiānmìng – Mandate of Heaven on Amazon’s bookshelves. Figuratively speaking, of course, since it is only out as a Kindle Edition. We’re offering it for free the Friday and Saturday before Father’s day 2013.

We’re now turning our attention to the second book, Tragic Wonders. We renamed it from Horrors of the Heart since a small circle of readers thought it had little horror in it (except for the grammatical errors). It will still be an anthology of stories and essays delving into our souls’ deepest fears and needs. We’d like this on shelves by the fall. The art department has designed the cover and we plan to post a thumbnail of it soon.

Book three is: Who Shall Be God. It is a fictional account of the struggles of two families, the Stadists and the Libertas, who live north and south of 38th street, respectively, in a Midwestern city. We have a cover in mind and the ending sketched out in broad outline.

Book four will be an anthology dealing with the perils of this digital age: from genetic engineering to surveillance and the Singularity. Book five must be about the coming clash between China and the Western world. They aren’t the Middle Kingdom for no reason.

Finally, we’ve been asked if we could do something funny (as in ha-ha, we already do strange). Book six may achieve that (although strange has its appeal).

We do not intend to do vampires, sleaze, or a self-publishing how-to. In this last vein (excuse the pun), the next post will recount what we remember of our experience producing Tiānmìng – Mandate of Heaven. Only the names have been changed to protect the participants.

Mandated Memoranda Publishing LLC announces new book

Posted on by

Mandated Memoranda Publishing LLC announces their first book: Tiānmìng – Mandate of Heaven. It is a reluctant journalist’s tale of geopolitical conflict and geologic catastrophe that upends the worldwide status quo.  It is approximately 138 pages long. You can read the somewhat breathless product description here. If you don’t have a Kindle reader and want to read it on a device you own, here are some software readers from Amazon. We plan to offer the book free on Friday June 14, 2013 (Midnight to Midnight, Pacific time) to boost “sales” numbers. You may want to purchase then. Thank you for your support for Mandated Memoranda Publishing LLC.

Singularity Stuff

Posted on by

“O, Singularity, where art thou?” Trainor yearned aloud.

“Can I have your stuff when you, you know, go Singular?” Bob asked.

“Certainly, puny human; I will have no need of such encumbrances.”

“Great, sign here, oh, and here. Thanks.”

“…And you and your kind, for your part, will curate my existence into the far future. I will be immortal!” Trainor exulted.

“Sure, whatever you say.” Trainor, his overlord and master? Bob knew better.

Quo Vadis?

Posted on by

Where are we going? Right now, we’re incorporating edits into Mandate of Heaven. Publication on Amazon is delayed until 2013. Our hand–picked readers are commenting on our second book, Horrors of the Heart. We’ve considered a new topic for our third book: the second American revolution. The topic may well become the working title. We’ve begun research into this third book and will post some related essays shortly. As with the first book, it is our sincere wish that its themes remain purely fictional.

Sulking – Timothy David Menotti

Posted on by

“Look Mac, here’s a house key” Becky said in the light of a new morning.

“I found a woman’s purse in the bushes, Becky. Identification says Margret Turner, five foot five, green eyes, glasses. Does that look like brown hair to you?” Mac inquired.

“Uh huh, do you think she’s another one?” Becky asked with a concerned look.

“Beck, look here in the alley. There is a lot of blood, some broken eye glasses, clothing. On second thought, maybe you don’t want to…” said Mac, too late to block Becky’s path.

“Mac, I’ve seen enough in my time.”

“That would be 13 so far, Beck” he stated with resignation.

“You’d think his cold storage would be overflowing by now, Mac” as she tried to inject sardonic humor.

“Amazing how the packages show up like clockwork at the community kitchen. No one ever sees anyone deliver them” Mac stated, changing the subject a bit.

“Who was it that tipped us to what was in them?” asked Becky.

“Old man Burns; says he knows the difference between what the labels say and what’s inside. Wartime behind the lines, he says” Mac reported.

“Grizzly old codger; you think it could be him, Mac?”

“Naw, he’s tipped us off over ten times; many before you got to town. I roughed him up the first three; got nothing from him. He’s too shell-shocked to do anyone any harm” Mac said with remorse for what he had done.

“They say it’s the quiet ones…” Becky added sarcastically.

“Becky, you’re not from around here. We’re dealing with a wolf. Maybe he hangs out in bars, scouts the pack, separates a weak one from the herd, and strikes” Mac matter-of-factly informed her.

“Same in the big city, Mac, I’m not afraid” she blustered.

“Probably that’s where he’s from. I bet he’ll be moving on soon” Mac guessed.

“Did we get approval from the Feds to bait this loser?” Becky asked.

“Not yet, Becks. What’s got you going?”

“Marnie, my sister Marnie; that’s what” she said with pain evident in her voice.

“You’re not going to bring her back, you know” Mac counseled.

“I know that, just this guy may have been her killer” Becky said.

“You said that was ten years ago. Do you think it could be the same one?”

“Could be, Mac.”

“What will you do, ask him?”

“I may just, I may just” Becky stated with resolve.

Flame Front – Priya Venkateswara

Posted on by

I must admit, this story is a failure. It is flawed. The events described in the dialogue really wouldn’t happen this way.

“This is some ‘how do you do’.”

“What are you talking about, Bill?”

“Remember those folks who thought there was life on other planets, Steve?”

“Yeah, so? Nothing ever came of it. Not much funding lost there.”

“Well, seems we should have looked harder. Maybe sent out better recorded messages on our satellites. Maybe our television signals should have been more religious than sacrilegious, or something.”

“Why, what’s wrong?”

“I hypothesize that some scientist’s experiment in a star system 12 light years away went seriously wrong.”

“How’s that?”

“Stars are exploding in a particular pattern that indicates the space-time origin of the initial event.”

“Initial event?”

“Yeah, whatever they did, I’m guessing, caused an incursion into our universe of another vacuum, Steve.”

“A baby universe?”

“If you want to call it that, but it isn’t cute. It’s in our universe, our galaxy no less. And I think its growth is accelerating.”

“This is wonderful. Think of the grants we could get to study it. This is the best thing that could have happened to us.”

“I’m dumbfounded. You and I are as good as dead, not to mention the entire world, and you think this is a funding opportunity.”

“Well, we don’t have to mention that in the grant application. We bury it in a footnote to the first year progress report… By the way, how long do we have?”

“I don’t know exactly…”

“See, that should be the first line of inquiry. I’ll get started with an outline and we can discuss it in the morning. We should hit DoE, NSF and some of the private foundations.”

“Why don’t you do just that…”

Respect – Neal Knit Farrah

Posted on by

As you might anticipate from my name, I’m not necessarily a looker, one who stands out from the crowd or some suave international hipster. My middle name is a cruel joke my parents played on me, naming me after a hobby they both took up while waiting for me to be born. Since no one on either side of the family was named Neal I can only guess what they meant there. I’ve been dealing with the concept of respect, both theoretically and in practice, for a very long time.

Now our culture would have you believe that there is some special someone, your soul mate or that one who completes you. Actually, this is just a ruse to cut down on crime, war and unsanctioned anti-social behavior; a successful ruse, thankfully, but not the original intent.

We don’t hear these words anymore but I’ll quote them anyway: “Then the Lord God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.”” A helper fit for him. Hmm, I wonder what that could mean. 

Perhaps it means what it says; it wasn’t good for him to be alone so He gave him one who was fit to help. Fit? That means suitable; more like ‘two peas in a pod’ than like ‘hand in a glove’ but you get the picture. Help? C’mon, you ever try to carry something heavy by yourself? Help!

When were either (they were both called Man, one male and the other female) going to be alone? All too soon. Driven from the ‘Tree of Life’ so they wouldn’t live forever in their fallen state, they were driven away from God’s presence, death’s real meaning.

So how does this all relate to respect? I bet you could tell me stories. But, this is my turn so here it goes. I found someone on a blind date. Unfortunately, I was a placeholder for the one she really wanted. Finding out and escaping with my soul wounded but intact, I was found by Christ.

One evening, among my peers, I was told this was my last chance to find a mate; I would have to make a decision one way or the other. I did not know the woman. We had never been more than acquaintances. I said no. What tragedy was needlessly perpetrated on her? Wouldn’t it have been kinder to say, “Do you really know him? Have you ever spoken heart to heart? What have you two decided together?” rather than try to broker some heroic “deal too far”?

No respect, no dignity.

Having been invited to dinner, I was plied with promised favors. Trying to be chaste, I declined. Her roommate brought up some rival. Fictional, I didn’t know? I wasn’t biting. Not long after, I was invited for coffee for one last chance at opportunity. I had to ask myself, “whose?”

No respect, no dignity.

One day I was introduced to a person with the explicit purpose of assessing whether I was mate material. This was her purpose, not mine. I only became aware of the ulterior motive after the fact. No doubt arranged by some well-meaning individual who wanted to fill a gap, meet a need or put me out of my ‘misery’. Or maybe they wanted me to be as happy as they were. And this happened in trusted circles. Just another way respect is in shortage.

 Perhaps you trade on your good looks (they fade), your status (it changes) or you just trade favors. Give these ways up. A long time ago, a taker, in a moment of candor, said “you have to figure out what you want out of life and get it”. I think you have to figure out what you want in life and give it. However, there are no guarantees for a return on your investment, at least not in this life. I want a help mate who fits. That will take respect and I plan to give it.

Fall Leaves – Natsui Ureshenko

Posted on by

A beautiful fall day; the leaves were turning to fire, rust, wine and gold. A magic time of early morning jogs, sunset walks and the rich smell of chimney smoke from fireplaces around town. The birds that stay here were settling in for the winter as were the squirrels and rabbits, foxes and skunks. The streams ran icy cold and the forests still concealed; fishermen and hunters were getting their last haul before winter enveloped everything in frost.

This season was really their time. They’ve been at it for thousands of years. The turn of colors signaled the cycle of life. No one really noticed the missing rabbits or squirrels. Once in a while there was an investigation when a jogger went missing. Otherwise, it was as it always had been.

Every morning, Rachel would go out on her run. She wanted to lose those few pounds before her high school prom. None of her friends thought she needed to lose any weight. Her mother always made sure her plate was full at dinner time. They would argue about the wisdom of this nightly ritual. However, Rachel always had the last word on it even though it sounded more like a retch.

This morning, Rachel noticed more leaves had fallen from the black mulberry tree outside her bedroom window. It always lost leaves earlier than the rest. It never seemed worse for it though. She picked one up to study it on her morning jog. She decided to take the route down by the reservoir.

As she ran, she twirled the leaf between her fingers. The veins in the leaf seemed to subtly pulse with life. Rachel didn’t remember any leaves doing that before. It appeared to turn a slight rust color where she was holding it. The path by the reservoir where she regularly ran was rarely raked in the fall. Leaves from hundreds of surrounding trees collected here. She found herself plowing through piles of them to make headway down the path…

Off a Cliff – Thomas Jefferson Douglass

Posted on by

How can our leaders blithely stand by while our economy careens toward a metaphorical cliff of runaway debt, tax increases of many sorts and a knee jerk cut to social entitlement and defense spending? At least that’s what the crisis is this time around.

It takes a body of people who freely exhibit extreme deception; manipulative cunning; lack of guilt, remorse, or empathy; a failure to accept responsibility for actions; a parasitic lifestyle; and a lack of long-term goals coupled with impulsivity. Wait just a minute, those characteristics are found in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th Edition, Text Revision. Hmm, I think we have a problem here.

Now ‘those leaders’ would have you believe that it is the fault of the rich, or the unions, or Wall Street, or those that don’t pay any income taxes at all. But that is not true. It’s everyone’s fault because ‘we the people’ voted them in and we keep on doing so. We’ve been warned about this looming cliff for more than twenty years by some folks reckoning. And we’ve done nothing except wring our hands and wait for ‘our leaders’ to kick the can down the road once again.

Nothing has happened so far, has it? Well, the bad news is that ‘nothing’ is coming to an end. Unless, of course that is what you want to have happen. What? Does anyone want the American economy ruined and the country, a hostile takeover candidate, subjugated by other nations?

Some think this nation inherited the imperial scepter from the last great power, England, and it wields it too well. Some think a nation constituted by the people is no different from a kingdom of tyrants and shouldn’t be cherished as the special experiment it is. Some want the nation punished for its ‘sins’. Some have hedged their bets. Some just want to fiddle while the nation burns. Maybe they’re right. ‘We the people’ don’t seem to deserve this nation any longer.

President George Washington said in 1789: “… since there exists in the economy and course of nature an indissoluble union between virtue and happiness; between duty and advantage; between the genuine maxims of an honest and magnanimous policy and the solid rewards of public prosperity and felicity; since we ought to be no less persuaded that the propitious smiles of Heaven can never be expected on a nation that disregards the eternal rules of order and right which Heaven itself has ordained; and since the preservation of the sacred fire of liberty and the destiny of the republican model of government are justly considered, perhaps, as deeply, as finally, staked on the experiment entrusted to the hands of the American people…”

 Flowery language for ones so modern as us; but, nevertheless, he was right. We have dishonored this great man, and even more, his entire generation, by our quest for happiness, advantage and public prosperity without virtue, duty and honest policy. We offend Heaven when we disregard ordained order and right. And finally, we abdicate liberty and representative government when we give over this final experiment to those we would not voluntarily let into our homes. We must exercise our franchise for those who would freely exhibit honesty and be honestly effective; show empathy; accept responsibility for actions; live a magnanimous lifestyle; and establish long-term goals coupled with determination to get things right for the nation.

Inevitable

Posted on by

It is inevitable that humans will continually strive for supremacy over one another. It started in a field long ago over whose worship was accepted and whose was rejected. It will be ended suddenly, without warning and with no chance for appeal. Any desired appeals must be made now. This opportunity comes as a result of another man’s act of worship and obedience that was accepted. That worship took place on a hill outside Jerusalem in the fullness of time.