Dawn

by on September 17, 2022 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Diaries

Many of the balls and parties Dawn DeMarco organized or attended had no other reason than to pad her resume as a ball and partygoer. If people got arrested at all of them, bad actors would get suspicious, so most were completely clean, but she was always on the hunt for clues. And sometimes she would go in with malice afore thought, making certain to leave some opening for a target to think they were safe doing what she already had proof or suspicions they did. Then some police officer or interstellar investigator would “randomly” walk in and catch them in the act. Dawn was always shocked and amazed that anything illegal would go on in a ball or party she attended. She did such a good innocent act that nobody caught her. We would all get together for a private party afterwards, sit back, relax, maybe have some good drinks or smokes, and just celebrate another bust. And then she would go back to work the next morning looking for the next one. She was an amazing machine.

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A Rising Tide

by on September 16, 2022 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Diaries

I fully believe that a rising tide raises all boats. I also know that many believe taking from others is the only way to thrive. A civilization that wishes to harness the tide must hold the takers in check, or it will lose the tide altogether. My Jack of Harts stories tell of a civilization that managed to keep the takers in check. That created a world even we have trouble dreaming of, filled with effectively limitless energy and food, and fantastic towers and starships that proclaim the might of mankind. But the takers still exist, which is why there continues to be conflict for me to write stories about. Jack’s mission is to unknowingly follow the path his family has done for generations. He protects the tide and the civilization it has helped build from anyone who would seek to take it by force.

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A Rising Tide

by on September 15, 2022 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Diaries

A rising tide raises all boats. But not everybody believes that. Many believe that the only way to thrive is to take from other people rather than to trade or cooperate with them. The world this philosophy builds has far fewer boats in it, and a lot more people on rickety rafts desperately trying to escape. It also has fewer people, since taking lives is often part of taking riches. Hundreds of millions of people have died in the parts of the world ruled by takers in the last century, even as the rising tide built more boats than the rest of the world had ever seen in recorded history. Many of us live in a world of limitless possibilities, and others live in a world separated from it by razor wire fences and armed guards. The longer that continues, the more friction it causes, and the more opportunities we will all have to lose the rising tide.

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A Rising Tide

by on September 14, 2022 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Diaries

A rising tide raises all boats. We do not live in a world made of a limited pie, where when one person eats another must starve. We live in a world where when one person prospers other people can prosper in their wake. Or take an entirely different path. The industrial revolution of the 1800s started a rising tide in our world that has raised all of us far beyond what anyone alive in the 1700s could have dreamed of. We have built a world on this rising tide that has reached the moon, Mars, and sent probes into interstellar space. We grow enough food to feed every mouth on Earth, and cell phones with access to the accumulated knowledge of mankind can be found in a hand on any city street in the world. We have created a better world, and I hope to God we can hold onto it.

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Writing Prompts

by on September 13, 2022 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Diaries

I listen to music while writing. Always. I can’t imagine silence while doing it, as it helps to get me in the mood and tickles my inner muse. Johnny Cash is one of those artists that has tons of songs that breathe stories to life in a mind. But the songs he recorded in the last decades of his life are powerful even for him. The Man Comes Around is an amazing album with songs that make me want to write all kinds of stories. If you’ve ever heard his version of Hurt, you know there’s an awful lot of story there. Though it is a little more dark than I like to spend time writing in. Now Personal Jesus makes me want to write a story with a man stepping off his starship and sauntering into town as his eyes scan back and forth in search of something to do. Someone to save. All while looking cool doing it. Wearing shades and a snazzy suit. He’s the man with the plan to change someone’s world. Yeah. That’s a Jack story right there.

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