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Since April begins with April Fools’ Day, I thought I’d write about those who make us laugh and push our buttons. In the first book of my time travel series, I introduce you to Alan a Dale—Robin Hood’s famous minstrel and part of his band of merry teens. In my version, Alan is a teenage jongleur—a.k.a. juggler— and is instrumental in helping the Timekeepers with their mission in Nottingham. Jongleurs and juggles and jesters all fall into the same category: their purpose was to entertain royalty and commoners alike. In fact, the word ‘jester’ derives from the Anglo-Norman (French) words gestouror jestour meaning storyteller or minstrel.
Jesters (or fools as they were known) held a position of power and privilege within a royal or noble household. They could get away with saying or doing anything to the king or queen or nobles—literally anyone—without being punished. Compare the antics to our modern day comedians like Tim Allen, Robin Williams (still miss him), Ellen DeGeneres, or any past or present Saturday Night Livecomedians and you get what I mean. Comedians will say and do anything (most times for the shock value) and get away with it.
Now, if you think about it, books are a huge part of the entertainment industry. We writers are present day jesters and fools too. Words are power. And like comedians, we can pretty much say whatever we want in the written form, and publish it on Amazon or any other on-line publishing site. But there’s a fine line here. Back in the day, when jesters got a free pass for their behavior (with the exception of a few who did get reprimanded or whipped), they didn’t have the social media circus that we have now. Nowadays, if someone says something out of turn, you can bet it will be tweeted or shared! The jester’s main job was to entertain through stories or music or juggling. They poked fun at others, helped them to lighten up, and made them smile and laugh. Sometimes they even stopped wars from happening by detonating a situation between royals.
Imagine if writers had that kind of power? To write a book so powerful it could stop a war. Put down prose that would allow a reader to visualize walking in a character’s shoes. Or just create a story that will take readers away from their mundane existence. Keep in mind the intent of such power, and use intention as a foundation, and you’ve probably written a generational book that will continued to be talked about and read in the future. Think To Kill a Mockingbird or Les Miserables or The Catcher in the Rye, and you know what I’m talking about. Jesters, like authors, aren’t so far apart after all. We just have to remember to lighten-up, ourselves.
So, what makes you laugh-out-loud? Do you have a favorite modern day jester? How about a book that affected you so deeply that you’d recommend your kids and grandchildren should read it? Would love to read your comments! Cheers and thank you for reading my blog!
Five years. That's right, I'm celebrating five years of my blog. Looking back at this year's posts, I see there aren't too many, but there's good reason for that. I'll get to that in a moment. There are lots of things to cover.
First, I want to say that Robin Williams made my day. Please don't take this the wrong way. I am not trying to make light of a tragic situation. I know both depression and addiction are powerful diseases. My point in saying he made my day is that it emphasizes no matter how successful or financially well off you are, you are still not immune. It reminds me that chasing every last dollar and stressing over bills is not the answer. We live in a beautiful world and need to focus on the truly important things.
Now, as soon as I can put my soap box away, let's get on with the party...
A little bit further down this post, you can find details on the blogiversary prizes. Some of you may have noticed that I have been a bit absent from the "writing world" coming close to a year now. At least, I hope you noticed. Well, there's good reason for that. I've actually been living a childhood dream.
I'm currently a Walt Disney World Monorail Pilot! Ever since I was a little boy, I wanted to drive one of those things. Last November, an opportunity arose and I took it. Let me tell you, the actual drive training is one of the most challenging things I've done in a long time. Every minute has been worth it! I am having a blast and spend my days with some absolutely amazing cast members.
As for my writing, I have some plans and things are coming together.
My friends at Helping Hands Press (www.myhelpinghandspress.com) are helping me celebrate this blogiversary for the next 25 days. I have two projects that I am working on for them. Quite a while ago, I started co-authoring a story called Amish Wonder. When finished, it will be a novella about a young Amish boy thrust out into the secular world. For fans of the Defective Amish Detective, I will be re-editing those stories into a complete novel with a nice surprise on the end.
I am also working with Dinosaur George Media on two different series. Ask DG is a question and answer picture book for young readers. Book 2 will feature illustrations from the very talented Victor Donahue. Both Ask DG and Dinosaur George and the Paleonauts book 2 are expected to be available by Christmas. You can find these books and more here: store.dinosaurgeorge.com
And the one that started it all - The Empyrical Tales. Book Four of the Empyrical Tales will continue the story of Zandria and Olena by telling the tale of The First Queen. The whole series will be revamped and re-introduced soon. Until then, I will keep those details under wraps. Please visit my official website for more details and the series and my other books - www.MillerWords.com.
While you are there, please check out my new online store, where you can get autographed copies of all of my paperbacks at a special price with free shipping.
In five years of writing, blogging and social media, I have met some fantastic writers and been blessed with some great fans. I've received humbling reviews and inspiring emails. I've tried my hand (not always successfully) in many different genres and have something for most every type of reader. To celebrate, I am giving away the gifts. Here are the links to five of my paperbacks available through Goodreads.com:
In addition to the paperbacks, Helping Hands Press has put together a prize pack of selected eBooks (mine and some of my author-friends). Lazarus Filmworks, for whom I wrote the adaptation of Daniel's Lot, is also including some prizes. Please be sure to visit both of my sponsors. This part of the giveaway will be done through Rafflecopter exclusively on my blog. You can earn an unlimited amount of entries by using social media once a day for the next 25 days.
In closing, I want to express my gratitude. That is one thing of which I have an abundance and can afford. I am full of thanks for all of my experiences over the past five years. I am thankful for the people, both real and virtual, that I have met. I am thankful for the opportunities I've had. In this time, I have also watched my family grow and change and I thank God for that gift. Please feel free to share this post and all of the prize links. And, as always, I appreciate any comments on my blog.
Thank you for the past five years,
and I look forward to the next five!
Mark
0 Comments on 5th Blogiversary Celebration as of 9/1/2014 3:41:00 AM
New York Times culture reporter Dave Itzkoff has landed a deal with Henry Holt and Company to pen a biography about the lateRobin Williams. Williams (pictured, via) had passed on in early August 2014.
Executive editor Paul Golob negotiated the deal with Daniel Greenberg of the Levine Greenberg Rostan Literary Agency. Golob will edit the manuscript. The publisher has not scheduled a release date for the untitled book.
The sad suicide of Robin Williams last week has sparked another 'conversation' in the press and on social media about mental illness - and more particularly about the link between creativity and depression.
I think this 'conversation' - and the dispelling of ignorance and myths about these conditions by those of us who are sufferers speaking out honestly - is very important indeed. It is, if you like, the inner and unseen darkness we need to make visible, which is why I have written before, both here and elsewhere, about my own battles with the Beast of chronic depression and how, in some of those darker moments, I turn to writing poetry as a way to battle the demons. Externalising them on paper is, for me at least, a way of dispersing some of their power over me.
Sometimes, though, when the despair becomes a deep physical paralysis, even the act of writing a single word seems impossible, and it at those times that the 'world would be better off without me' thoughts creep in. To the 'well brain' this is inexplicable - but the 'well brain' of a depressive is not always in charge. That is what the people who accuse Williams of 'selfishness' need to understand. Suicide, where mental illness is concerned, is not a choice. It is the last, most desperate act of a despairing brain which just wants the demons to stop eating it.
When I was first officially diagnosed with depression, I had a deep need to find a way to understand it which avoided medical jargon (to which I am deeply allergic). Being a writer, I turned to other writers to see what their experiences were - and how they had coped. The first name which came up was William Styron, whose book, 'Darkness Visible', about his own journey through depression became my manual. The title comes from Milton's'Paradise Lost'.
'No light, but rather darkness visible served only to discover sights of woe'
Writing is, for the most part, a solitary profession. In my case, I mostly sit in a room, on my own, making stuff up and setting the visions that churn around in my head down on a screen. It is hardly surprising that, living as I do in a daily creative world where evil Egyptian crocodile deities demand human sacrifices, immortal beasts battle horrid heroes and skeleton dragons with flaming red eyes menace innocent children, my own mind should sometimes rise up against me.
Every writer, whether with depression or without, will know that little nagging head voice which tells us that what we do is unutterably useless and pointless. Styron describes his thought processes 'being engulfed by a toxic and unnameable tide that obliterated any enjoyable response to the living world.' Reading those words was, for me, a recognition akin to a light being turned on in a dark room. When I first read Styron's book I did what I never do (being a respecter of the sanctity of the printed page). I underlined and made comments and wrote 'YES!!' in large capitals in many places. I have scribbled a lot more on it since. I felt as if, finally, I had found a fellow wanderer in an empty desert who could describe not only what and how I was feeling, but also do it in words simple and direct enough that others--those 'healthy people' on the outside of this condition--might be able to understand too. When Styron speaks of the 'weather of depression', I understand precisely what he means. For him its light is a 'brownout', for me a greyish fog impossible to see anything in except blurred shapes and outlines.
It's hard for me to describe how strengthening and comforting it felt to read something which made sense of my own experience, and which reminded me gently of how many other writers have been in the depths of the pit too. Shakespeare certainly understood it - how else would he have written Hamlet? Emily Dickinson, John Donne, Camus, Manley Hopkins, Beethoven, Van Gogh - these and so many more were troubled by the Beast, so I am in hallowed company when I travel through Dante's 'dark wood'.
For now, I am in a stable place, where it is possible to 'riveder le stelle' - to 'behold the stars once more.'. But when the Beast visits again (as it inevitably will, because that is its nature) I will try to remind myself that I am not alone.
All of these are 5" x7", done with Polychromo colored pencils on Fabriano paper
Prints and some of the originals are in the etsy shop. (These images are of the originals, with the paper texture background. For the prints, I used Photoshop to clean up the backgrounds to pure white.)
Go here to hear them sing the song in Central Park.
That's all I can muster today. Robin Williams leaving us has knocked the wind out of my sails, completely. He lived in my old neighborhood in San Francisco, and was part of the fabric of everyone's lives there for years. I just can't believe he's gone. RIP Robin.
0 Comments on Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme as of 8/14/2014 9:42:00 PM
Two months ago, my mom and dad decided to separate. Now they live in different houses. My brother Andrew says that we aren’t to be a family anymore. Is this true? Did I lose my family? Is there anything I can do to get my parents back together? Sincerely, Katie McCormick.”
Oh, my dear Katie. You know, some parents, when they’re angry, they get along much better when they don’t live together. They don’t fight all the time, and they can become better people, and much better mummies and daddies for you. And sometimes they get back together. And sometimes they don’t, dear. And if they don’t, don’t blame yourself. Just because they don’t love each other anymore, doesn’t mean that they don’t love you. There are all sorts of different families, Katie. Some families have one mommy, some families have one daddy, or two families. And some children live with their uncle or aunt. Some live with their grandparents, and some children live with foster parents. And some live in separate homes, in separate neighborhoods, in different areas of the country – and they may not see each other for days, or weeks, months… even years at a time. But if there’s love, dear… those are the ties that bind, and you’ll have a family in your heart, forever. All my love to you, poppet, you’re going to be all right… bye-bye. ~Mrs. Dountfire
Remembering Robin Williams.
0 Comments on Dude Looks Like a Lady! as of 8/14/2014 4:44:00 AM
The reaction to Robin Williams’ death has been unlike any celebrity death I can remember. We all knew Whitney was going to go, and Michael Jackson’s end was as expected as it was bizarre. With Williams there seem to be few mysteries. It was a battle, and he lost. Yet the shock of his tragic decision seems to have transcended our celebrity autopsy culture with its essential question: how can someone who gave so much, who had so much to give, have turned away from the light with such finality?
It’s a question we’ve all tried to answer at one point.
It’s also opened up a floodgate of frank talk about depression. As many have pointed out, there’s a difference between the blues—temporary depression we’ve all suffered from at one time or another—and the deep, clinical depression that killed Williams and Kurt and Plath and so many others.
Depression, and its ugly twin, substance abuse, are both hazards of the creative life. My Facebook feed has been flooded with creative people discussing their own depression, sometimes with courage, sometimes with dread. Neither is the “right” response. This is a daily battle we all face, the important part is to get through, to know you are not alone, to find the light in what seems like an endless darkness. We get by in measures that are appropriate.
Joshua Hale Fialkov has a much linked to post that expresses all this much better than I can. Fialkov’s own battle is with migraines, not depression but the battle is similar.
There is never enough. Never enough time, never enough money, never enough success, never enough praise, never enough sales. Never enough. That’s part of the life I’ve chosen. We struggle to find that thing that makes us feel satisfied, that gives us joy, but, the truth is that the joy is fleeting. The feeling of being ‘full’ only lasts for a few moments before the hunger returns.
This is the life of an artist. This is the life of anyone who aspires to be greater than they are.
This is unattainable. This is the bottom line to life, from top to bottom from the most successful man on earth to the weakest child on the playground. Nothing you ever do will be enough.
The talking is good. I had a long talk with one of my oldest friends I don’t speak with as much as I should who had dated Williams back in the day. Some of her stories were hilarious but they are hers to tell. So many people have shared stories of Williams shopping in their comics stores or book stores (the guy liked to read!), or meeting him at charity events. All the stories are of a kind man, a giving man. I dread the day when the celebrity autopsy horror stories come out…for now keeping these kind, human moments alive helps with getting through.
I’ve had a case of the blahs myself of late. Not being productive enough, things I let slide, the dog days of August, post Comic-Con let-down. Nothing I haven’t felt before—I’ve learned to be pretty resilient in my life. Like I said, we all have good days and bad days. Last night I got together with two industry colleagues and in a few hours of smart, funny talk about life and comics—moments where I never looked at my cell phone—everything was OK again. On to the next battle.
The communal mourning and questioning is part of the healing. I almost feel like the good from all the sharing has overwhelmed the sadness. Life is both beautiful and terrifying, but its beauties and terrors are best experienced knowing you are not alone in this glorious muddle. You are not alone. We are not alone.
PS: Yes I forgot Popeye in my first post about Robin Williams. Which sucks because despite it being a horrible flop, it’s a sweet, wonderful movie— written by Jules Feiffer! Wacky as hell, a glorious muddle. And a role, like so many others, that Williams was born to play.
9 Comments on Robin Williams, depression and life, last added: 8/16/2014
“The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation. What is called resignation is confirmed desperation. From the desperate city you go into the desperate country, and have to console yourself with the bravery of minks and muskrats. A stereotyped but unconscious despair is concealed even under what are called the games and amusements of mankind. There is no play in them, for this comes after work. But it is a characteristic of wisdom not to do desperate things.”
Henry David Thoreau
or “The Voiceless” by Oliver Wendell Holmes
Sometimes, the world laughs with you.
Sometimes, God laughs at you.
If we are lucky, we are not alone at the end.
And so it goes…
Heidi MacDonald said, on 8/13/2014 10:00:00 AM
Torsten, did you just quote Oliver Wendell Holmes at us?
Randy @ WCG Comics said, on 8/13/2014 11:59:00 AM
Yes, if there is one “positive” to come out of this, it’s the fact that people seemed to have become more sensitive to and understanding about depression. In many cases, substance abuse is a by-product of depression and other related clinical issues, in that it is sometimes an attempt at “self-medication” by the user.
An aside: Popeye is a charming film, but in his recent memoir, Feiffer says filmmaker Robert Altman basically went to Malta so that he could film whatever he wanted with minimal interference from the studio (I think he pretty much threw out the script). No doubt partly because of this, he didn’t have sufficient money to complete the film in an adequate manner. Williams went in believing this would be a franchise, but it didn’t quite turn out well, through no fault of Williams or any of the other performers.
Torsten Adair said, on 8/13/2014 2:24:00 PM
No, I quoted Thoreau.
I suggested Oliver Wendell Holmes’ poem.
The next three lines are me.
The last line is Harlan Ellison.
Pedro Bouça said, on 8/14/2014 6:53:00 AM
The Popeye movie suffers from a peculiar problem fairly common in comics adaptations (it’s endemic on french comics adaptations, for exemple). I got so caught up trying to emulate the look and feel of the source material that it forgot how to entertain.
Looking at these still pictures, or even at a few short clips, the movie appears to be perfect. Sadly the whole thing is a mess.
And, indeed, by no fault of the performers. Robin Williams is the perfect Popeye and Shelley Duvall was BORN to play Olive Oyl!
It’s quite sad, really. I wish they could have done a second, better movie with the same cast.
Bryan L said, on 8/14/2014 11:19:00 AM
Popeye has its problems, but it’s the first time I ever remember being awestruck by Robin Williams. Popeye’s constant muttering is an amazing stream-of-consciousness running commentary that I have to believe was largely ad-libbed. And even if it was scripted, the sheer enormity of maintaining that through dozens of takes and days and days of shooting is a feat of monumental proportions.
Rich H said, on 8/14/2014 12:14:00 PM
As someone who tried to end his own life, unplanned, just this May, driven by unrelenting bullying thoughts, and you listen to the thoughts… this Robin Williams news has hit me so hard. It makes you think… how everyone is struggling, really, no matter your status or success in life. I wish I could’ve stopped him from what he did. I’ll miss him.
sroman said, on 8/14/2014 4:30:00 PM
“The last line is Harlan Ellison.”
Actually, Torsten, “And so it goes…” belongs to Kurt Vonnegut and his novel Slaughterhouse Five, used whenever someone Billy Pilgrim knows dies.
george said, on 8/16/2014 3:55:00 PM
Popeye is one of the most polarizing movies ever made. People tend to love it or loathe it. I love it, and have ever since I saw it in 1980. And this isn’t childhood nostalgia talking; I was a college student at the time.
I’ve given up on debating Popeye. You’re either on Altman’s (and Feiffer’s) wave length, or you’re not.
As for the claims that Popeye was a major box-office disaster, it was actually the 12th highest grossing film of 1980, grossing just under $50M (which was real money then). It grossed more than Urban Cowboy, The Shining, Caddyshack, Friday the 13th, The Elephant Man, Flash Gordon, Raging Bull, Xanadu and Fame. It’s probably earned well over $100M by now.
It’s only a bomb in relation to expectations. Disney and Paramount wanted a hit on the level of Star Wars. They apparently didn’t know that Altman was not the guy to hire when you want a movie that will appeal to everyone.
Here are the official statements on the death of Robin Williams provided by Eric Goldberg, the supervising animator of the Genie in "Aladdin," and John Musker and Ron Clements, the directors of "Aladdin."
Zelda Williams, the daughter of the late Robin Williams, shared a quote from Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’sThe Little Prince on Twitter and Instagram in remembrance of her father.
In her posts, Zelda wrote: “You – you alone will have the stars as no one else has them…In one of the stars I shall be living. In one of them I shall be laughing. And so it will be as if all the stars were laughing, when you look at the sky at night…You – only you – will have stars that laugh.”
i just wanted to be mork, as a kid. make everybody laugh and go to another planet as maybe that's where i came from, all along? sigh...xoxoxoxo, robin.
Among the juicier dramas surrounding the production of the megahit Despicable Me 2 is Al Pacino’s sudden departure from the film. Six weeks before the film’s premiere at Annecy, Pacino quit the film as the voice of the antagonist El Macho. Neither side will say what happening, simply citing ‘creative differences.’
At that point, the production was nearly finished and the animation had already been locked. This sent Illumination head Chris Meledandri scrambling to find a replacement, which turned out to be Benjamin Bratt. Since no new animation could be created at that late stage, Bratt re-recorded the dialogue by matching the existing animation, and in true Hollywood fashion, they fixed it all in post.
The controversy serves as a perfect case study for one of the long-running debates in the animation world, which is whether celebrities make any box office impact on the success or failure of an animated feature.
Back in the early-1990s, when Robin Williams provided the voice of the Genie in Aladdin, he earned scale pay for his performance, which was less than $100,000, so it hardly mattered whether celebrities affected the bottomline. But today, celebrities demand lucrative fees for their voices and drive film budgets up by tens of millions of dollars. Owen Wilson took home $2.5 million for Cars 2, Cameron Diaz had a $10 million payday for Shrek Forever After and Tom Hanks earned a reported $15 million for Toy Story 3.
What would happen if you took a celebrity out of one of these films? Would audiences still show up? That’s exactly what happened with Despicable Me 2. The result? It was the fourth-biggest opening ever for an animated feature in the United States.
Those who create animation know the reality: audiences don’t go see animated features because Al Pacino is in it. They go see animated films because they want to be entertained, and the quality of the animation performance and storytelling are far bigger factors than who voices any particular character. The most popular characters in Despicable Me 2, the minions, are voiced by two no-name French actors—Chris Renaud and Pierre Coffin. They’re not well known actors because they were the directors of the film.
The celebrity culture of animated features won’t change anytime soon. Studios believe that they derive benefits from having A-listers in films because audiences love celebrities. But there’s no empirical evidence that audiences are attracted to famous voices in the same way that they are attracted to seeing those actors in the flesh.
Still, celebrities do play one hugely important role in the animation process. They pad the egos of fragile animation executives who would otherwise be embarrassed to tell people they produce animation. At Hollywood parties, these execs can tout to their friends that they, too, are working with A-list Hollywood stars. Because after all, who would want to tell their friends that the stars of their hit film is two French dudes named Chris Renaud and Pierre Coffin?
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“The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation. What is called resignation is confirmed desperation. From the desperate city you go into the desperate country, and have to console yourself with the bravery of minks and muskrats. A stereotyped but unconscious despair is concealed even under what are called the games and amusements of mankind. There is no play in them, for this comes after work. But it is a characteristic of wisdom not to do desperate things.”
Henry David Thoreau
or “The Voiceless” by Oliver Wendell Holmes
Sometimes, the world laughs with you.
Sometimes, God laughs at you.
If we are lucky, we are not alone at the end.
And so it goes…
Torsten, did you just quote Oliver Wendell Holmes at us?
Yes, if there is one “positive” to come out of this, it’s the fact that people seemed to have become more sensitive to and understanding about depression. In many cases, substance abuse is a by-product of depression and other related clinical issues, in that it is sometimes an attempt at “self-medication” by the user.
An aside: Popeye is a charming film, but in his recent memoir, Feiffer says filmmaker Robert Altman basically went to Malta so that he could film whatever he wanted with minimal interference from the studio (I think he pretty much threw out the script). No doubt partly because of this, he didn’t have sufficient money to complete the film in an adequate manner. Williams went in believing this would be a franchise, but it didn’t quite turn out well, through no fault of Williams or any of the other performers.
No, I quoted Thoreau.
I suggested Oliver Wendell Holmes’ poem.
The next three lines are me.
The last line is Harlan Ellison.
The Popeye movie suffers from a peculiar problem fairly common in comics adaptations (it’s endemic on french comics adaptations, for exemple). I got so caught up trying to emulate the look and feel of the source material that it forgot how to entertain.
Looking at these still pictures, or even at a few short clips, the movie appears to be perfect. Sadly the whole thing is a mess.
And, indeed, by no fault of the performers. Robin Williams is the perfect Popeye and Shelley Duvall was BORN to play Olive Oyl!
It’s quite sad, really. I wish they could have done a second, better movie with the same cast.
Popeye has its problems, but it’s the first time I ever remember being awestruck by Robin Williams. Popeye’s constant muttering is an amazing stream-of-consciousness running commentary that I have to believe was largely ad-libbed. And even if it was scripted, the sheer enormity of maintaining that through dozens of takes and days and days of shooting is a feat of monumental proportions.
As someone who tried to end his own life, unplanned, just this May, driven by unrelenting bullying thoughts, and you listen to the thoughts… this Robin Williams news has hit me so hard. It makes you think… how everyone is struggling, really, no matter your status or success in life. I wish I could’ve stopped him from what he did. I’ll miss him.
“The last line is Harlan Ellison.”
Actually, Torsten, “And so it goes…” belongs to Kurt Vonnegut and his novel Slaughterhouse Five, used whenever someone Billy Pilgrim knows dies.
Popeye is one of the most polarizing movies ever made. People tend to love it or loathe it. I love it, and have ever since I saw it in 1980. And this isn’t childhood nostalgia talking; I was a college student at the time.
I’ve given up on debating Popeye. You’re either on Altman’s (and Feiffer’s) wave length, or you’re not.
As for the claims that Popeye was a major box-office disaster, it was actually the 12th highest grossing film of 1980, grossing just under $50M (which was real money then). It grossed more than Urban Cowboy, The Shining, Caddyshack, Friday the 13th, The Elephant Man, Flash Gordon, Raging Bull, Xanadu and Fame. It’s probably earned well over $100M by now.
It’s only a bomb in relation to expectations. Disney and Paramount wanted a hit on the level of Star Wars. They apparently didn’t know that Altman was not the guy to hire when you want a movie that will appeal to everyone.