Month: August 2018

A cheap knock-off of goodness

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I am Christian with all the bells and whistles and social hang ups that come with having an objective standard to the way I think and the kindness and affection I bestow to my fellow man or hu-man, if you will. So, you’ve been forewarned.

(dramatic pause)

I hate evil and so should you.

Evil is a cheap knock sham of goodness and the beauty of truth. Where love should be in place of father feeding and caring his son and daughter with evil you find hateful neglect and crimes worthy of death and imprisonment.

I’m sure your imagination can fill in for you on merits of hugging a child vs the stupidity of harming a youth in the infancy of their years of living.

You’ll have to excuse my fancy for the poetic at this time. The inspiration of this post is coming from the dark revelations of pedophilia and ramped unchecked evil in high positions of dominance coming out of the Catholic Church tribe. 

Not, that I speak from such a high position of  moral nobility. There are similar cases that have come out of the protest-ant band of brothers of which I throw my hat in but really this hellish evil is every where. In the hills of Hollywood and in the backdoor business rooms of eastern coast of my county. Can any country be free of this poison.

It’s a conveniently evil modern age we live in for all it’s mixture of the modern marvels of technology and freedoms. As I have said once before, life isn’t simple or easy to understand or live. Yet, I wouldn’t dare say that I would wish to live in a different age then I’m in.

I’m a 21st poor man of letters my interest very but are limited. I’m not overall an above average intelligent man. But, I find myself thinking on evil a lot this year more then then my previous years of existence.

Why would a purely loving God allow this to happen? One might ask. I wouldn’t know. I don’t believe in purely loving weak God. My God is Holy and the source of all Goodness and justice. The better question is why would a Holy GOD stand to be around people determined to ignore and turn their backs on abused children and render justice for their fellow-man and indeed exchanging their cheap knock-off morality for what they know in their hearts is nothing more then dark twisted imaginations from a wonderland of hell.

I told you before, I hate evil (present tense, always) and so should you.

L. M. Paker

Creation from a artist perspective

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I’ve had more then a few lessons in piano playing and performance and I enjoy the practice of piano playing and the improvisation though I am hardly the avid player I can hold my own for a few short minutes of enjoyment. Still for all my practice of my fingers dancing on the black and white keys, playing piano has been more of a hobby for me then what writing and storytelling have always been to my storyteller heart and man-of-letters mind.

Creation is what I love best about writing. Though in all honesty it isn’t all together real “creation” but a gathering of thoughts, ideas, images experiences, and feelings to form something odd, something weird or something beautiful from the material of life.

There is nothing like the joy of starting from a blank screen or blank piece of paper and then with the first word, with the first sentence something appears out of the brain storms in your head to set you on a journey of wonder and enjoyment. The journey is what I like the most. My ideas, my morality and the very things I value most can some times just appear out of a string of sentences that all seem random but aren’t.

There is a place I’m trying to get to and a journey I’m on for adventure of it. I’m only seeing out of spyglass with one eye on the target area. The details of the story always seem to come slowly though I can some times see the complete image of the island a distance away while at sea on the journey. The distance is still faraway.

I find music most enjoyable to play and listen to with my ears and from my audiophile sensory memory but I find writing to be a different beast.

He’s been with me for a while yet and has been a hard animal to train low these three decades we’ve started out together. Writing hasn’t been easy for me to master. I find my writing to be lazy if not tempered with patience, practice and feed with reading writing can sure sleep easy or go into hiding when I’ve been neglectful.

You’ll have to excuse my poetic side it shows up some times so I’ll say this plainly: I love writing because it is the channel of motivation and imagination for me to craft my own worlds with a strange magic from my youth and a wisdom from the elders that came before me and taught me the way.

L. M. Parker

What does it mean to be a man?

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The question of manhood?

I’ve spent almost the whole of my youth and adult years wrestling with this question. I’ve set it a side at times in favor of focusing on crafting a life for myself or perfecting my art of the written word. But, the question never really goes away or the need to put away childish mindsets for the freedom and some times hardships of being a man.

What brings on these thoughts now in a blog post?

In the continuing series in the Life of A Prince, The Engagement, The Gathering and the last book still forthcoming  I’ve written about men of different backgrounds and character traits and shades of masculine natures. These archetypes of manhood didn’t come easy for me to craft into the story in my limited experiences being in the company of strong male figures. Most of my experiences have come from books, observations and analyzing whether or not a male could keep his word or valued his own word because I was also experienced having male figures in my life not keep their promises or word to me.

I grew up for a large half of my life without my Dad’s influences from the age of 11 when my father died of cancer. I have had misty recollections of him when I was a child to this current time and I have struggled at times throughout my life keeping his template in my thoughts. My father was strong of Christian male character and valued physical exercise and loyalty to family and friends. Though, he wasn’t faultless because he was indeed mortal and a man. He had his human pride and anger. He made mistakes and had to learn to be a man without even knowing who his own father was.

We both grew up into adulthood without a father figure in our lives. We both shared that common thread of many black men. Though, my Dad became more of a man much faster then I for whatever strange reason. My lessons came much more harder. Still, this isn’t a complaint. Life isn’t easy or simple and I have never seen any value in complaining about the faults of humans in my life both past and present in falling short of honesty and perfection. What I learned the hard way I hope to write stories and show examples for other young males on the quest for manhood to see and learn from the easy way.

But, I can not finish this post without answering my own question as best as I can. Though, I am still a semi/self taught student of the subject.

What does it mean to be a man? 

A man is of a strong moral character. He doesn’t abandon his responsibilities or shrink away from the trials of life. A man faces the challenges of life and strives to overcome no matter his disadvantages born with or thrust upon his body or life. He does not give in to evil but overcomes evil with righteous.

L.M. Parker

Ownership

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When I first published Life of A Prince: The Engagement the whole process was stressful and taught me a lot about editing, scheduling, team work and ownership. I worked with a company that I bought a package with that included editing help, publishing help and a assistant that helped me with getting the work done on a timely matter.

The money spent for this assistance numbered in the thousandths rang and the lessons I learned from the process were worth every penny. I learned several things in the process that taught me a lot about myself and the value of having a team in the production of a book you choose and you direct personally and not through intermediate assistants.

The experience wasn’t at all what I expected there were several surprising and un-pleasant moments in the period that worked with this company that revealed several things about whose team I was going with what loyalties that team held to. I also realized my own needs for having control over my own rights and the need in me to have complete control and ownership over the process. I don’t fault the company for the package they offered or the business we did together. I bought the package and so I surrendered over a bit of control over to this business but the end result of the finished product is my responsibility as are all the faults and all the rewards because I paid the company for their input and control in the project. I take ownership for my decisions and I take ownership of my mistakes.

The evolution of the Life Of A Prince The Engagement was a wonderful surprise as was the joy of rewriting, editing and editing. I enjoyed, every bit of it but I learned an important lesson about myself. I like to be in control over what belongs to me and any person I bring onto my team will answer and work for me and my interests. Never trade, sell or loan away ownership to something that is yours.

L. M. Parker.

Delays and progress

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What really matters?

I find myself asking that a lot in this year.

I’m experiencing a very interesting year. Interesting meaning tough and painful at times due to my grandmother dying, preparing to move and life going through several changes all at once.

I set out to publish Life Of A Prince part 2 The Gathering in the summer only to hit a wall in life and having to adjust myself with the sudden changes life throws at me I had to put it on hold. The book is finished eating maybe one more proofread and possible 4th edit session. It should come out in the fall of 2018.

The process taught me a lot about having a healthy critrical look at myself and being surprised again about what lessons I learned about where a story can go once you let the breaks off.

I like this story. It taught me a lot about my own views on family and what I value in life and what lessons I would like to leave behind as I continue writing.