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BOOKS
BY EDUARDO R CASAS
BOOKS BY
Sherrill L Homes
THE IRON MAIDEN
First let me say that I came to these conclusions on my own, since then I have found out that there are other people who have independently arrived at the same conclusions.
BLOCK 1
BUILDING A STORY IN BLOCKS USING
FLUID ANALYTICAL STORY STRUCTURE THEORY
AND FRACTAL FRACTURED NON-ORGANIZATION
The FASST method
I WAS GOING TO CALL IT
“FUN UNQUESTIONABLY CAN KINDLE INTERESTING TALES “
BUT THE ACRONYM
F.U.C.K. I.T. --JUST DID NOT SOUND RIGHT
Or
BUILDING UNQUESTIONABLE LYRIC AND LITERARY STORIES
HONESTLY INTELLIGENTLY TECHNICALLY
B.U.L.L. S.H.I.T THAT DIDN’T SOUND RIGHT EITHER
BLOCK 2 AN IDEA is a seed to be sowed, planted, nurtured, reaped , and marketed.
• If you get an idea for a story or any interesting thought, don’t let it die! Write it down, or tape it (planted it), same goes for a character, the overall plot and any subplots. Later you can add subtract or change as the fluid thoughts in your mind dictate. HERE IS WHERE YOU PASTE YOUR WEB BASED RESEARCH THAT YOU COPIED AND NEED TO “un-plagiarize" before using.
Why ‘cause your memory sucks that’s why.
• Bad grammar aint no problem, punctuation aint no problem even improper usage is no problem, or made up incorrect words like “iregardless", there is time to correct them later . GET THAT IDEA DOWN BRO!
• PROGRESSION
They are the source for your scenes which develop into chapters, then acts, and finally your story novel... the book.
BLOCK 3 CHAOS IS GOOD !
An ass-backwards start can be ass-good, ass-anywhere in between for that mater. Don’t let anybody tell you different! Where it starts DOES NOT MATER. (nurture it)
Why? It allows your subconscious, the process of your electrochemical brain to work as efficiently as it was designed to do. Overly structuring is over kill, it hampers imagination and creativity, and it inhibits and forces your brain to work like a one RAM laptop instead of a super computer. Fiction Writing IS first and foremost a creative process, leave the mechanics to the teachers and theorists. You my friend are an artist and a wordsmith… and don’t you forget it.
Unleash the kraken, let the force be with you, let it fly, let it soar. Don’t set limits and restrictions. Write what you have imagined.
BLOCK 4 I’LL MAKE IT FIT
• What you wrote down can be retrofitted into any story by creating a character or characters placing them in a situation-- combined they make a scene
o which may or may not feed the plot or even the sub plots
o but says something about the characters,
o its funny (never ever underestimate funny!)
o or provides interesting facts /information about the world and those in
it…the “Hey that’s cool” factor, or the Ed McMahon to Jonny Carson
"Did not know that sir” effect.
BLOCK 5 FLUIDITY
It isn’t mine so it must be urine
• YOUR THOUGHTS ARE FLUID, THEY GIVE THE DIRECTIONS, NOT
THE STRUCTURE, THIS IS SECONDARY, DO NOT ALLOW
STRUCTURE TO DICTATE
• Every thought must be captured, use a mini tape player or a pad
• Expand on it in your word processor
• Fractured and incoherent thoughts ARE YOUR CREATIVE JUICES AT
WORK don’t let them seep out
BLOCK 6
AMBIVALENCE IS UNCERTAINTY AND IT LEADS TO INDECISION, WHICH IS A KILLER TO CREATIVITY – DO IT write everything down now, if it is not good now it will be. Don't be intimidated by the structure of writing and its mechanics --- Make your God your religion and not your religion your god.
The story should be paramount, the way you express your self and the vocabulary used are critical, while the mechanics are a necessary evil.
BLOCK 7
“But before you start writing, you need to get organized”
NO YOU DON’T, YOU NEED IDEAS, LOTS OF THEM, AND YOU NEED TO WRITE THEM DOWN, REGARDLESS OF THE APPARENT DISORGANIZATION OR CHAOS.
Are you writer or a mouse?
MAIN IDEA ---WRITE IT DOWN see below for full blown plot example after revisions, all ideas were in original notes, written when they came to mind, then I added more and more then the clean up at the end.
- Yes, You need to re-group and summarize at intervals, when your creativity and imagination seems to wane you need to summarize the ideas… give your brain a rest by doing middles organization.
BLOCK 8
1. Write a preliminary summary of your novel’s main overall IDEA (plot). See
Example:
"This is a story about the first, the largest, and most insidious financial crime of the Twenty First century. This is also a tale of a man unwittingly caught up in a major financial scandal of global proportions, and the many murders committed to hide its secrets." This is your preface.
2. Expand on it (In the process creating a preview and creating a sneaky self-serving review at the same time) this will be the basis for a book proposal to promote your story to others)
Example:
"This story is Wall Street meets Angles and Demons meets The Jungle by Upton Sinclair, written in a flippant discourteous and disrespectable manner, with disdain towards authoritative institutions. This novel depicts and renders, through the experiences of one man, the particulars of this compelling crime story. Although not at all dark, gloomy or disheartening as that great original novel; nonetheless, and in contrast, this sometimes darkly humorous, tongue-in-cheek, whimsical, ironic, even flippant novel, based on observations of real life cases, captures the essence of this current crisis. "
Compelling? ---who the hell said that...you did, you cheekee monkey you.
BLOCK 9
3. Preliminary Story parts
Write down major story events, conflict, or goals and objectives , major catastrophes (every bodies , heroes and villains aren’t the only ones with goals too you know), or disasters and obstacles that eventually will be incorporated, in the storyline ( implies linear progression but it does not have to be a straight line ). Example: The protagonist must investigate and learn facts about a major crime to solve it and to solve the various murders that have occurred. He is thwarted at every turn by his superiors who are hiding something that he must discover, to save the lives and the savings of many. The ending if you know it now write it, if not, a preliminary one will do. This may change or evolve as the story talks back at you. Structure the above into a Prologue, Chapters and Epilogue. Chapters can be placed into several categories or Acts.
BLOCK 10
4. PROPEL THE STORY
PLOT DRIVEN vs. CHARACTER DRIVEN
Some people favor character driven stories, and they can be, but characters can easily be invented later to fit the plot , while a character driven story defines how he is going to act under given circumstances or scenarios , others favor plot driven.
I favor both, it just depends which one I create first and how do I want the character to react and the scenes to unfold and ultimately end. Create the scenario or sub-plots and decide which already created characters and what traits of these characters do you need to propel the story and make the scene work. Or create new characters and insert him/her in the scene, Ass- backwards filling in the characters you need to, it DOESN’T MATTER do both.
BLOCK 11
5. Create as many scenes, chapters and sections or acts in a logical manner as needed (does not mean sequential order) as you begin to tie in characters, their personal stories and sub plots into the main plot. List every scene and its conflict. Later expand to describe rising development towards a climax, and resolution on the down side.
6. You need heroes, villains, sub-villains, idiots, love interests, SEMI VILLAINS AND SEMI HEROES OF VARIOUS DEGREES, and innocuous participants.
7. You need places and scenery, list them as you think.
BLOCK 12
8 SIDE BAR
Sub plots or other circumstances events and situations within the main plot come in spurts and seem dislocated or are dislocated from the main plot, but you need them to explain the past, hopes for the future and current actions taking place at the same time the main plot moves forward. It s a device to propel or hold in suspense the main plot and to explain the characters, also used for comic relief, sexual relief, ego stroking , telling your audience who is the best team and why its your team , your views on politics motherhood, religion, and any other sort of mental masturbation you can think of. Hey, it’s your book!
BLOCK 13
9. PACE AND DIRECTION
Decide on the slope or degree of build up of the suspense to the plot and subplots and where the crescendo or climax will be reached and where any revelations and epiphanies will be disclosed. A rising development culminates in climax and resolution or leaves it open ended for later resolution. Begin each scene with something that raises a question, catches the interest, or shows prelude to action forthcoming alludes to the unknown the foreboding, an omen, the portent of things to come. The middle of the scene is the place to build tension by showing the goal and introducing conflict, the tension is raised, because the reader doesn’t know the dilemma yet but senses the imminent change or danger that is coming. The end of the scene should build to a climax that will leave the POV (point of view character) in a dilemma. This dilemma creates the page-turner. This scene develops dilemma and raises questions in the reader’s mind. These two things will make the reader anxious to see what happens next. This needs to happen over and over again through the rest of the novel, until the final resolution.
Applying a short story arc to each scene in a novel will strengthen the plot and character motivation, and build tension to the climax of the book.
Thinking of scenes as mini stories, each with a beginning, middle, and end helps writers to define the characters, plot, and subplot in a novel. A short story focuses on one plot element, and a scene should do the same thing. When scenes are written as mini stories, the plot and subplot become crystal clear for the reader, while increasing tension
Apply Story Arc to the Scene Structure
A story arc has three acts: the beginning, the middle, and the end. They can have many chapters and many scenes within. The beginning is where the characters and setting are introduced, along with their TRAITS see BLOCK 14 . The middle is where the events happen that lead to the major conflict or problem of the novel. The end is the resolution to that problem.
In a scene, an author doesn't need to introduce characters and setting every time but he may want to or have to. Those story elements are already developed. But the characters need to have goals that are important to the plot and those goals should be apparent in during the scene. This doesn't mean the goals must be explicitly stated each scene, just keep the characters true to what they want.
The middle of the scene should build the conflict, just as the second act of a novel builds in intensity. Just when it looks like some thing terrible is about to happen a surprise is introduced. Move on to the next scene. Leave the reader waiting to find out what happens next. If the reader cares about the characters and she will if the author has done a good job of character building, she'll turn the page.. Continue by showing their reaction to the surprise. Show them making a decision or taking action . Whatever the decision, it should lead to more trouble.
Story scene arcs with rising suspense of main plot
Use Scenes to Build Waves of Conflict
Each scene will build upon the one that came before, but each will still maintain that mini story arc. As this continues through the book, the tension will rise until the novel reaches its dark point. It will be like riding a crest of a wave that builds in power until it reaches the shore. At the dark point, the water recedes. To the unaware person, it might appear that things are going to be fine. Until you, the author, bring all the force of those waves back to shore in a tsunami, the climax of the story.
The last scenes are the resolution, the cleanup after the tsunami. In the case of a multi-book series, some of the lesser conflicts should be left unresolved, to be picked up in the next novel.
Applying a story arc in this way makes each scene a compact unit that combines with the others to build a fascinating and riveting story.
THINK INTRIGUE, SUSPENSE, THRILLER, TERROR ,SURPRISE, pose leading questions drop ideas, clues , red hearings in scenes… like Hansel and Gretel bread crumbs, or bring ’em up like a Jack in the box surprise.
BLOCK 14
10. CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT /TRAITS
• Character traits what type, yes type cast here
• The character's nature and name should match or be opposites
for comedy.
• A summary of the character's storyline
• The character's motivation (what drives him/her)
• The character's goal (what does he/she want out of each situation)
• The character's conflict (what prevents or interferes delaying
him/her from reaching this goal?)
• The character's development (what will he/she learn, how will he/she change since beginning of story due to experiences
BLOCK 15 Remember NOT IN STONE
11. ONGOING REVISIONS
• Many small-scale logic problems to work out here
12. Keep growing the story. Ramble on to your hearts content
BLOCK 16
13. TIE IN –CUT AND PASTE
• BEGIN CREATING CHAPTER TITLES they should provide the road map or skeleton to the intermediate objective of the subsequent narratives to follow below each chapter, your goal is a cohesive story, see below :
Cut and paste ideas developed into scenes into chapters created for them or create chapters that will be used after new ideas are subsequently developed. There are no rules no sequential progression to creativity, you can go back and forth.
BLOCK 17
14 FRR
Flesh out, Revise, and Rewrite ideas/scenes within each chapter.
Example of chapters
THE DEVIL’S AUDITOR
CHAPTER INDEX
PREFACE
PROLOGUE
CHAPTER 1
THE MAN THE MYTH THE LEGEND
CHAPTER 2
THE LOVE OF HIS LIFE, HIS BEST
GIRL FRIDAY, KATY
CHAPTER 3
CASTILLO FOR HIRE, ♪A THREE-HOUR
TOUR, A THREE-HOUR TOUR ♪
CHAPTER 4
I-AM-THE-LAW
CHAPTER 5
LET THE GAMES BEGIN
CHAPTER 6
♪ STIR IT UP LITTLE DARLING ♪
Or I never met a hand I didn’t bite
CHAPTER 7
THE CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARD
CHAPTER 8
EVERY “BODY” HAS A COUSIN
IN-MIAMI
CHAPTER 9
MURDER SO VILE
CHAPTER 10
CHAPTER 11
FUGU –MERCURY IS THE LEAST
OF YOUR PROBLEMS
CHAPTER 12
THE FIRM’S PARTNERS--“DOWE,
CHEATEM AND HOW”
CHAPTER 13
THE PARTNER– BP,
THE BRITISH PRICK
CHAPTER 14
MR. HOWELL’S LITTLE BOY, THE
LITTLE ELITIST SHIT
CHAPTER 15
LEAD-ON
CHAPTER 16
PETIT MADAME DU POI
CHAPTER 17
THE BODIES OF EVIDENCE WERE
MOUNTING…. EEK! , IS IT SAFE?
CHAPTER 18
♪ A TOTAL ECLIPSE OF THE
HEART OR WHAT DOESN’T KILL YOU,
WILL DEFINITELY EAT YOU…ALIVE
CHAPTER 19
WHO WAS IT THAT WHO DONE IT
CHAPTER 20
♪ OH TAHLEQUAH, OH TAHLEQUAH, ♫ Sung to the tune of Oh Canada
CHAPTER 21
YOU SAY ZOMBIE I SAY DRUG
INDUCED SEMI CATATONIC STUPOR
CHAPTER 22
THE QUEEN OF POLITICAL
CORRECTNESS
CHAPTER 23
AN EPIPHANY- NEITHER A MEDICAL
PROCEDURE NOR A GREEK PASTRY
CHAPTER 24
THE AMERICAN DREAM,
TO HAVE FRIENDS IN LOW PLACES
CHAPTER 25
LA MONA, MONKEY-GIRL
CHAPTER 26
AWAKEN THE KRAKEN
CHAPTER 27
THE LEVELING OF JUSTICE
CHAPTER 28
EARMARKED FOR TOO CLOSE
A SHAVE– I’M READY FOR MY
CLOSE UP MR. GILLETTE
CHAPTER 29
COCO-AND-THE-KID
CHAPTER 30
THE KEEPER OF THE GATES TO
CHAPTER 31
THE LUCKY LEPRECHAUN
CHAPTER 32
♪ FLY ME TO THE MOON, IN EVER
SO LIGHT GOSSAMER LOAFERS ♫
CHAPTER 33
SOMETHING DID NOT SMELL RIGHT
A NOSE FOR TROUBLE
CHAPTER 34
CHAPTER 35
OUR-MAN-IN-RIO
CHAPTER 36
THREE ON A MATCH ONE ON
A-LIGHTER
CHAPTER 37
CIRCLE THE WAGONS
CHAPTER 38
ATANAS, THE DEVIL INCARNATE
CHAPTER 39
♫ DIAMONDS ARE A GIRL’S AND
A GUY’S BEST FRIEND ♫
CHAPTER 40
DEAF, DUMB, AND BLIND JUSTICE
CHAPTER 41
♫ IN A CLEARING STANDS LIES
A BOXER ♪
CHAPTER 42
HE WHO LIVES BY THE POISON
CHAPTER 43
THE REVELATION, ♪ ITS
RETRIBUTION TIME ITS
RETRIBUTION TIME ♪
CHAPTER 44
JUSTICE DELAYED, JUSTICE
ACCELERATED OR NO
JUSTICE-AT ALL
CHAPTER 45
CARRIED OFF TO JAIL,
EPILOGUE
_________________________
FULL BLOWN PLOT
If you are a fan of Angels and Demons, you’ll like this book; the style, the plot, and many of the twists and turns are evocative of this story and genre. The “evil empire” is the finance banking industry; the story is more real, current, and scary than you would think. The effect on all our lives has been devastating and continues to “hit home.” The ending is unique, original, and surprising.
This story is Wall Street meets Angels and Demons meets The Jungle by Upton Sinclair, written in a flippant discourteous and disrespectable manner, with disdain towards authoritative institutions.
This book is predominantly a murder/mystery, however, if you saw WALL STREET–MONEY NEVER SLEEPS, this novel will answer questions raised but never answered. This novel will go behind the scenes to explore, not only the issues of what caused the meltdown, but also critical things that are hardly mentioned; mainly the inactions by the watchdogs and the systemic faults in the vetting process used to provide assurances to the public. This story explores the schemes devised to hide the fraud, and depicts the unsolved murders committed to hide it.
This is a story about the first, the largest, and most insidious financial crime of the Twenty First century. This is also a tale of a man unwittingly caught up in a major financial scandal of global proportions, and the many murders committed to hide its secrets.
Much like Upton Sinclair’s "The Jungle," a novel that captured the realities and exposed the abuses and crimes in the Chicago meatpacking industry; this novel similarly captures, through this fictional expose, the realities, and exposes the abuses and crimes of the financial mortgage industry.
This novel depicts and renders, through the experiences of one man, the particulars of this compelling crime story. Although not at all dark, gloomy or disheartening as that great original novel; nonetheless, and in contrast, this sometimes darkly humorous, tongue-in-cheek, whimsical, ironic, even flippant novel, based on observations of real life cases, captures the essence of this current crisis.
This fraud has caused the largest illegal transfer of funds in U.S. history, by taking money from the pockets of the average American, and transferring it into the pockets of the wealthiest bankers and security brokers in this country. Not since the great depression has there been such pervasive and deep loss in asset value. This is the most sinister fraud to have ever been perpetrated on the American public, and a crime, which has permeated all aspects of our economy, one that continues to affect us all.
Although primarily designed as a murder/mystery to entertain and not preach, it also illuminates and educates. This story focuses and exposes the absurdity of the cynical, hypocritical, and ineffective aspects of the vetting process established in this country, which is utilized to substantiate the suitability and quality of investments offered to the American public. This state sanctioned process operates under an indefensible self-serving structure that ultimately is used to influence the financial decisions of the unsuspecting investing public.
PLOT
A lone man; an internal auditor, discovers the massive fraud during a routine review. His relentless inquiries and persistent questioning ultimately lead him to unearth mysterious and unresolved murders; some committed to hide the original crimes of fraud, others of a more personal nature, involving the oldest of motives--revenge, while still others are attributable to the unexplained insane compulsions of a serial killer.
Hired for a simple project; requiring a mere three-week audit of the Chandler bank’s internal controls over mortgage securities and foreclosures. Little did Castillo suspect that a routine review, described to him as “Needing only your rubber-stamping of the process,” would result in the exposure of a major worldwide financial scandal. This was to be an investigation, which would disclose billions of dollars in fraudulent financial transactions, dirty dealings, and insalubrious financial business relationships, fraught with a multitude of conflicting interests.
While unraveling the myriad of layers in cover-up schemes, and untangling a “Can-of-worms" in illicit transactions used to conceal the fraud; Castillo discovers that these schemes were not only used to conceal the fraud, but were also used to conceal mysterious murders. These crimes would ultimately implicate members of an elite group of unscrupulous men at the highest echelons of international financial power. This would be a case of intrigue, suspense, scandal and investigations of yet unresolved crimes of murder, that would challenge Castillo’s skills; not only those of his chosen profession, but also those of his avocation… solving mysteries.
__________________
BLOCK 18
CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT STRUCTURAL TRAITS—
IS IN MY NATURE SAID THE SCORPION TO THE FROG
• A summary of the character's storyline
• Character traits what type, yes type cast here
• The character's name to go with his nature or the opposite for fun
• The character's motivation (what drives him to action)
• The character's goal (what does he/she want out of life and every situation )
• The character's conflict (what prevents him/her from reaching this goal)
THINK WHO WHEN WHERE WHY WHAT HOW
a) ) HISTORY
What’s his story-- his experience in life
b) PHYSICAL -looks
c) EMOTIONAL how he feels
d MIND SET how he thinks his goals
e) RELATIONSHIPS-Who to and how
does he relates
f ) MOTIVATION- what drives him
He can be simple or complex a star graph of a characters traits can become a fractal with many sub traits the combination of inter actions an be extensive or just two individuals see red fractal depiction of three complex characters in one interchange or scene (the red multi pointed graph)
FOR A COMPLEX CHARACTER
Flesh-out in specific detail as many characteristic traits as you can think are applicable and pertinent to the story
Attitude
Goals
Conflicts
PROGRESSION OF SIMPLE TO COMPLEX “FRACTAL” CHARACTER
COMPLEX CHARACTERS
INTERACTIONS SUPERIMPOSED TO FORM A SCENE TO A SUB-PLOT OR THE MAIN PLOT
BLOCK 19 PLOT AND SUPERIMPOSED SUBPLOTS WITHIN
Scene Analysis Defines Goal, Conflict, and Dilemma
Begin each scene with something that raises a question, catches the interest, or shows prelude to action forthcoming alludes to the unknown the foreboding. Scenes are part of the subplots that propel the plot. Every scene should advance the story plot and let the readers get to know the characters better. It should have a goal, a conflict, and a dilemma. Opening each scene with a hook and ending each scene with a dilemma will keep the reader hanging onto each page, anxious to find out what happens next. This is what successful novel writers do.
SUB-PLOTS WITHIN PLOT & SUB-PLOTS WITHIN PLOT WITH CHARACTERS
Plot story graph line of 5 interactive scenes with 3 characters showing rising suspense conflict/ dilemma leading to a climax which may or may not reach a goal and finally resolution, also depicted are subplots within main plot
You should have written something for every circle and every point on a fractal.
EXAMPLE:
1. One Main Plot
2. Ten sub plots
3. Three character descriptions are listed below, if there are different characters in every scene then you need symbols for as many as there are characters. And traits for each fractal point.
Note slope of rising tension and suspense
SCENE DEVELOPMENT
Ideas and thoughts you developed as to charter traits and their interactions or action of one (his thoughts during in a soliloquy) form a scene. One or more scenes per chapter, one or more chapters, an act, one or more acts a book. All drive one or more subplots and the main plot, all have inherent conflicts, rising suspense, reaching a climax, with a downwards resolution later. . The scenes are like the blocks of a house. One builds on another until the entire house has been erected.
Each scene must advance the plot. A scene analysis should ask the question:
• Does the scene advance/propel the plot and deepen understanding and begs for more action to ensue and un-rabble the mystery, like pealing the layers of an onion or a “petimento” removing old layers of paint to disclose the original panting below
SCENE EXAMPLE: 3 characters, part of one chapter , conflict of beliefs , presumptuousness, exposure of false pride, value on things verses value of virtues.
Only in his mind did Britain continue to be a powerful empire. Neville always complained about America imitating Britain by trying to build an empire. Ed reminded him of what one of his fellow citizens, the Archbishop of Canterbury, had said to Colin Powell while at large a conference. The Archbishop In a loud condemning tone, said to Mr. Powell, “Aren’t your plans for Iraq nothing but an example of empire building by George Bush.” Powell answered by saying, "Over the years, the United States has sent many of its fine young men and women into great peril to fight for freedom beyond our borders. The only amount of land we have ever asked for in return is enough to bury those that did not return." That shut him right up.
To Ed it seemed like the current atmosphere that promoted the excessive use of over refined euphemisms, (with the express purpose of minimizing or eliminating offensive terms that would assail the sensibilities of selected groups), had served to rob men of their more vigorous qualities, such as veracity. Sapping their moral strength and replacing it with the weakness of political correctness, a sort of “Effemination of America” that was supposed to make us more civilized, more genteel, but had instead given rise and had helped to foster and nurture this type of spineless, sneaky individual--- the Neville’s and Madoff’s of our society.
Neville was a master of minutia with a firm grip of the obvious, a schemer, and a plotter, a true Machiavellian disciple. The only human thing about Neville was that he liked to care for his tropical fish and never allowed any one near them. He did not even hire one of the many companies in Florida that take care of large home and business aquariums. These fish tanks are difficult to maintain clean; the salt-water ones are a particular challenge. Once Manny tried to get close to look at the fish, Neville got extremely angry and told him to move away because the fish were very sensitive to intrusion and would go into shock and die. They had never heard of such a thing, and could not find any experts to confirm this.
He bragged of British culture and Shakespeare’s contribution to literature; Ed said to him that Shakespeare was a plagiarist who had stolen the story of Othello from Giovanni Batista’s “Un Capitano Moro” A Moorish Captain, written in 1565 while Shakespeare wrote his version in 1603.
He bragged about English culture, but failed to mention that when Spain was a cultural mecca of learning, the English were savages painting their faces blue and living in huts made of sod, they had no alphabet and no written language. The queen is the queen only because her ancestors beheaded the opposition. An adulterer, who wanted a quickie Tijuana like divorce, founded the Church of England, because the Pope had refused to give him that divorce. This I am sure was not the only or even the principal reason for establishing a separate and independent church. A more compelling reason for any autocratic ruler would be the removal of the pope’s authority and interference over his country’s economical and political affairs. Although the Spanish, as well as other Europeans, enslaved, tortured and drove the indigenous population of the Caribbean Indians to near extinction, it is also true that considerable efforts by padre De Las Casas and others were taken to protect the Indians. Ed told Neville that all those English movies that portrayed Spaniards as the killers of the poor Indians, simply ignored that in Spanish ruled countries, the indigenous population today is a large percentage of the total population and it is integrated very much so in the total. While in the English ruled countries like America, the native population has been disseminated to the point of extinction. In these countries, they had been confined to reservations, which were the equivalent of Jewish concentration camps and ghettos, comprised of the most undesirable lands. And God help the poor Native American, if anything of value, like gold or oil, where to be found on these lands. The only lucky ones are those running casinos.
While the prissy Englishmen shunned the native women, the Spaniards married them.
There is a saying that there are three principal innovations of the Spaniards: the Beret, which is neither a hat nor a cap, the Alpargata (a type of espadrille) which is neither a shoe nor a sandal, and the Mulata, which is neither black nor white.
Neville’s tastes ran expensive; he wore New & Lingwood Russian Calf Shoes, preferred by graduates of Eaton (the school he claimed he graduated from, but could provide no records to substantiate his claim) the shoes are really made of reindeer leather, which has been cured in baths of rye, oat flour and yeast, and then hand-finished and soaked, in wood liquor. The leather is then hand-curried while still wet and then soaked in seal oil and birch tan oil, which gives it a distinctive scent. They go for around $1,550 a pair. He knew little about them other that than they were British and worn by those who had attended Eaton. As far as the skill and quality of the material that went into making these shoes, he was ignorant on all counts; he just wanted to impress his audience and cared nothing about them.
Shitty Coffee
Ed had brought Manny along while he met with Neville. Neville was nouveau riche and ignorant about the items he bought, he often bought the most expensive items in the world with the sole purpose of showing off, even though he knew little about what he had purchased. Status, prestige, power, and pomp were probably inscriptions on his coat of arms. He would brag, with immense pride “I only drink the best coffee in the world, Kopi Luwak Coffee,” as he drank his cup.
Ed: Hate to burst your bubble, but you do realize that’s shitty coffee.
Neville: What the hell do you mean! This is the rarest and most unusual coffee in the world; I will have you know!
Ed: What I mean is that this coffee, the coffee you are drinking right now, the coffee passing your lips this instant, came from a cat’s ass. That’s why it is so rare (or should I say rear) and unusual. The source for the coffee you are drinking is a bean that has been eaten by the Luwak or civet cat, a close relative to the skunk, with which it shares the ability to excrete a noxious odor from scent glands near its anus. The same anus, by the way, the coffee beans of the coffee you drink pass through. Once eaten, the beans go through the animal’s digestive path, eventually passing in the animals droppings. Farmers then collect the droppings. The coffee is then cleaned, (as much as you can clean something that has just come out of the ass of a cat). That’s the straight poop on your coffee, Neville.
Neville was furious, “He was angrier than a white shopkeeper’s dialogue in a Spike Lee movie.” …” Get out and take that other Cuban hood with you!” He shouted.
Manny made things worse by saying, “Now is that nice, and I just finished standing up for the British. They were just saying at my favorite local bar how the English were not fit to eat with pigs ….and I said you certainly were. Oh and by the way, Lord Admiral Horatio Nelson was gay …at his deathbed during the smoke filled battle he said to his second in command “Kiss me Neville, kiss me hardy.”
Neville now in a rage, said, “He did not, he said, ‘Kiss me Hardy.’ And they were just close friends you idiot.”
Manny: Same difference… oh yes, and his nickname was horn blower, he must have gotten that nickname for some reason. Where there’s smoke there’s fire… in the eyes.
Neville: Get out…get out right now!
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SEE BELOW FOR COMPLEX VILLAIN DESCRIPTION:
THE PARTNER– BP, THE BRITISH PRICK
Lanky and tall, with angular creepy facial features, he had a long bulbous nose, more of a proboscis than a nose. He had a skinny long neck with defined sinewy neck tendons and a protruding boxy Adam’s apple that seem to bob in his neck. He looked like an aging Ichabod Crane, the schoolteacher in the Legend of Sleepy Hollow. He had a weak chin to complement his similarly weak character. His skin was sallow, pale, clammy, and bumpy as a prickly pear. His fingers were long, bony, and wiry. His gangling frame and gawky manner caused him to ambulate with the ungainly awkward gate of an aging giraffe. His yellow, crooked, chipped, and cavity riddled teeth where what one would expect from the British socialized dentistry system.
His chain smoking had aged him beyond his actual years, leaving deep-seated wrinkles in his face, as though he had been overly exposed to the Florida sun. His arched eyebrows, made him look like a demon, had he had a goatee and horns he could win the Halloween prize for best devil at any party. He wore round wired rim glasses over his beady little eyes. His bespectacled face gave the appearance of a mad-scientist. He had huge ears, the kind seen on old farmers; he looked more like an old wino or bum than a senior partner. He reeked of stale cigarettes and alcohol. The whisky bottle, which he kept in a file drawer, was no secret. He once made a big stink at the airport because they would not allow him to bring his half-open bottle onboard. He grew up in a working neighborhood of Liverpool. All his life he tried to distance himself from whence he came. He worked hard at developing a patrician bearing to no avail, and although he wore the most expensive designer suits he could buy, they did little to enhance his appearance and nothing to improve his manners, proving once again that “You just can’t make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear.”
He was one of those limey snobs who believed, while looking down his nose, that any other life style was as he put it “going native” and beneath him. He was vain, insecure, ambitious, and overly anxious for recognition. The only reason he was hired and made partner was that he was married to one of the partner’s daughters. She was the daughter of Rhodri Howell the third. Howell had traced his ancestry to Rhodri the great king of Wales. He in turn, was one of those misguided American anglophiles that is easily impressed by any British accent, the type that tends to confuse, and still believes that if you speak with a British accent, any one of them, you’re more intelligent and sophisticated than the rest. Ed always thought that if you got a dull documentary, slapped a famous British voice to it ….Voila! You’d have a hit.
He had an effeminate manner about him; his mannerisms were those of an aging bitchy queen, even his name was somewhat like the British version of a “Boy named Sue.” Ed always seemed to forget his name, a mental block of some kind. He remembered it by thinking it was one of those slightly ambiguous androgynous English names or by using a mnemonic devise and associating it with something else … was it Lauren, Leslie, Marion, Nigel… sounded like vanilla, that’s it; it would always come to him…Neville. He had a cold and sneaky personality, if anyone could be qualified as reptilian in looks and nature, Neville was it. He thought of himself as being clever, in reality he was more cunning and furtive than clever, his favorite ploy was that of omission—“the sin of the coward.” He favored omitting critical facts to confuse and achieve his goals. He tried to give the perception of confidence and self-assurance; he accomplished this, mainly, by not speaking and acting as if he understood everything and knew everything. Ed however could notice that he was uneasy, guarding, or hiding something from his past, a deep dark secret no doubt. His outward persona and composure would scream out “I’m rich, powerful and in control” and a “Don’t you even think of crossing me” attitude. However, to Ed, Neville’s manner and demeanor would only remind him of the man in that poem, Richard Cory, a fake, and a fraud, who outwardly exuded confidence and success while inwardly he was nothing but a fearful coward, an imposter, who eventually blew his brains out.
In British culture the backhanded compliment is considered to be a genteel or polite way of expressing disdain; Neville had elevated it to an art form. His insecurity led to a defensive attitude that he would always turn into passive aggression. He was the type of insecure man that when introduced to a subordinate would immediately make a subtle, indiscernible, almost covert, derogatory comment, one purposely designed to belittle, condescend and cut the individuals confidence; it was always made sufficiently ambiguous and evasive enough so as not to make it obvious to, or defendable by the recipient. Although intended to be furtive and imperceptible, thereby fooling the listener, Neville really didn’t care if it did or not, as long as the slight and the insult was delivered. This was his “shot across the bow,” delineating the piss line of his authority. Neville had the means; inherent in his very being, you would also find in him the acrimony and the inclination to ruin careers--as he often did. He was an abuser who reveled in his hubris, “the pride that blinds,” experiencing great pleasure and gratification from the shaming and humiliating of his victims. He would have made a perfect literary critic, publisher, editor or agent… (If he had decided not to sign-you-up as a client) in contrast, if you wielded great power, and exerted authority, he would kiss your ass from here to eternity. The vagaries of his actions, attitude, and demeanor, fluctuated wildly, and were totally dependent on whether you could further his ambitions.
His position of power at the firm and his extreme arrogance blinded him, and caused him to overestimate his competence and capabilities. He knew little about, or paid attention to, the old admonition that “Pride goes before the fall.”
Neville had a deep, pervasive, and enduring hatred of any lifestyle different from his own, he was particularly enraged by the Latin culture of Miami; why he chose to live there was a mystery. He was often away from his office in Miami, defending his absenteeism on the grounds that the climate in South Florida was not apposite to his “English constitution.”
He was socially inept, aloof and removed from his family, friends, and his staff; every cell in his head and in his whole being devoted to making money. His most enduring trait was that of independent, individualistic, selfish greed.
Neville would complain that his height had prevented him from having a career as an RAF pilot; he claimed that he was disqualified because he could not fit in the cockpit… So he said. Ed thought that there’s got to be more to it than that; Ed questioned his judgment, his imagination, his guts, and his loyalty, hell! He questioned everything about the man that constituted and made up what one would consider attributes of an honorable man. Ed thought for sure the RAF did too...Neville was well qualified for his role in life, and his profession fit him well. He bragged how he had been a big dog in the company British Petroleum; everyone started calling him BP behind his back--short for British Prick.
Ed would say,” You know, in this world; I can think of only two men I personally met that I can say were truly evil, and that was El Che and Castro. However, I have met an awful lot of little prick weasels in this world; too many in fact, Neville was one of these. This is a guy that would as soon betray you and throw you to the wolves as easily as blowing his nose and discarding a tissue. (Ann Frank would have survived only minutes on the streets of Amsterdam, had Neville been her neighbor). He was the antithesis of the swashbuckling English hero, no Earl Flynn, no David Niven, nor James Bond type here. ______________________
BLOCK 21
PLAGIARIZE OR HOMMAGE THAT IS THE (LEGAL) QUESTION
I call it Un-plagiarize when you use the idea and either use the opposite or write it so it is unrecognizable , but not just cut and paste the writing, that would be intellectually dishonest, and illegal.
There is a fine line and the skilful plagiarist can turn a mundane prior example of writing into a work of art , Shakespeare for one was a noted and skillful plagiarist.
Use the idea but not the same words, is my advice. You cannot copyright an idea.
SUMMARY STEPS
1. Write down your idea for a story
2. Write down any and all thoughts
3. Define plot and subplots retrofit ideas into plot and subplots
4. Develop characters that use your ideas to create scenes
5. Drive the plot-Develop scenes with the characters or create new characters to fit the scene
6. Capture research from internet and your notes unto a word document don’t be afraid to borrow ides. But don’t plagiarize.
7. List chapters cut and past relevant ideas now developed into scenes into appropriate chapters , several chapters form an act several acts a book/
8. FRR Flesh out, revise, rewrite
9. Logic Edit
10. Proof read
11. Edit for mechanics
12. Test flight
13. FRR
14. Test flight
15. FRR
