What did Kim Kardashian do right?

A few weeks back there was a tragic local story here in New York about a Staten Island teenager who threw herself in front of a subway train.  It was her way of escaping the cauldron of hate, derision and character assassination that ensued after this young girl made a bad decision.  She participated in a sex tape.   Hold it, wait, actually given today’s relative morality and the age of sexting, hooking up and other sleazy “social activities” that are now common place in our elementary, junior and high schools and communities, how could she have known it was bad.

Kim Kardashian made a sex tape and it was a brilliant career move.  She is universally loved by all the “cool” kids.  Why couldn’t this Staten Island teen find even a tenth of that adulation?

In my book, The Hammer of God, a young girl, damaged by our culture’s confusing signals of morality and acceptability, attempts suicide the same way, but in her case, someone instinctively reacted and saved her from the on rushing train.  But it’s only temporary, as her self-image is solely dependant on the acceptance of males. This eventually leads to her demise after having been used by many different kind of men, from her professors, to fellow students, to even a terrorist. Each man, asserting his societal given right, and rationalization to her, which somehow always inexplicably ended in her giving them sex.

Neat huh? I mean how our society has made youth and beauty the standard by which young women judge themselves,  mostly and harshly, by other young women.  You see how genius it is that somehow men-kind has convinced them (and their mothers) that  attracting a man sexually can help you define your esteem.

Okay, but lets get back to the body parts and blood splattered tracks in Staten Island.  Her friends turned on her, her school ridiculed her, the video was passed around the homerooms for the momentary visceral thrill.  All at the expense of this young girl’s esteem.  A crushing peer pressure which had she lived long enough, some  “sensitive” male would have convinced her could be eased by sexual attention to that very male!

And yet, she did nothing different than Kim!  However, there is a double standard, it resided in her.  I guess Kim could laugh off the names and ridicule that came her way from some quarters by focusing on the cool accolades coming from the Hollywood-schooled throngs who know Rodeo Drive but couldn’t identify Tottenville on a large map with big type.  But our desperate little girl wasn’t a skinny blonde, wasn’t rich, didn’t have a sliding moral scale of “pop” culture and a heritage of “what – evvv-er.” So something inside, some self-conscious, ate away at her and darkened every option until all that was left was self destruction.

She’s dead. God rest her soul and comfort her family, who must be going through unimaginable pain and anguish.  But Hollywood, the media and fashion industry roll happily along, perpetuating the greatest scam MAN has ever perpetrated on WOMAN.  The objectifying of females and diminishing standards of morality (read: our society saying to little girls, Shhhh, That’s okay, shhhh see it’s art, it’s beauty, it’s fashion, it’s what’s expected, Shhhh, it’s just sex, it’s cool, it’s how you become popular, you want to be popular don’t you?)

Just ask Kim Kardashian.

Marginal Notes on Benghazi

On page 130 of my novel, The Hammer of God, the Ambassador to Egypt is kidnapped. This becomes the center issue of a dramatic debate, which is, I am sure, as old as terror and as fresh as yesterday:  Do you negotiate with terrorists?

As I was writing the scenes that take place in the Oval Office, the words got heated between the Secretary of State and the President. Both entrenched in their diametrically opposed positions, with the President not wanting to accede to the kidnapping and thereby instantly create an open season on US Ambassadors worldwide, while the Sec State wanted some back channel trade to release a mastermind terrorist that America was holding – in a super-max in the middle of the country.  To help me keep the beats of this ethical dilemma straight, I made a note: “The President is saving all future Ambassadors, the Sec State is trying to save the current one.”  This sub-textual motivation helped me keep the arguments between my characters aligned.

Yesterday, I was cleaning my desk, and found my notes from the blog I wrote, “Benghazi and Impotence”. Posted on September 15, 2012, when I ran across something that, even though I had seen, had no meaning on Sept. 15th but I believe does today.  I will attempt to retype it as I wrote it in marginal chicken-scratch of my early 2010 draft of my novel (pictured below).

The writing process: Plot twists and chicken-scratch.

“DS inside plot SS .  Take Amb, trade Sheik, back ch.  B&R disobey ‘unmolest’. Start real FF w/Friendlies.” Bring back CS to unc? Does JeA have GF?”

Okay, so that’s how I really write (misspellings and all) and it even took me a minute to decipher what I jotted down two years ago, here’s the handy-dandy index:

DS inside Plot SS – The kidnapping of the Ambassador was a plot hatched within the Diplomatic Security Service at the Direction of the Sec State. The plan was to force to force a back channel, out-of-the-news prisoner exchange of the Ambassador for a terrorist mastermind Sheik who was caught and held in America.

Continue reading “Marginal Notes on Benghazi” →

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Pirates: The Sequel- Send in the Marines!

I’m pregnant.

I’m in the last trimester of the birthing of The God Particle. And even though this is not a biological condition, I still can’t see my toes.

I suppose that’s better addressed by diet…

The principle opening action and much of the theme of one of the plots of the book concerns Somali pirates who have gone high tech. (It’s only fiction… ‘til it happens.) A large part of the storyline is focused on defining and then effectively combating this new piracy.

Pirates were the biggest problem the world faced two hundred years ago. Thomas Jefferson, in his 1801 State of the Union speech, assured America that everything was fine, that we were at peace everywhere in the world — save the Barbary Coast.

He was referring to the fact that the Barbary Coast pirates, who had, up until 1801, been happy to receive a stipend of $25,000 a year to NOT board and plunder American flagged ships, had upped the ante. They had gone high tech, too — better boats, faster boats, and they felt that, because they could flex more of a threat, that the price for protection against that threat should also go up.

Jefferson was having none of it. So, he calmly told the American people in the State of the Union address that the unrealistic demands of the pirates had left him but one answer. He create the Marines, he put them on boats, and said, “Go kill those guys.”

…to the shores of Tripoli

It’s embedded in the Marine Corp hymn, but it’s also testimony to the fact that one of the greatest fighting forces on earth, that played a huge role in defeating the Empire of Japan, and has been a top echelon military fighting force, had its birth in the eradication of pirates.

I could use a few Marines to help me find the a-hole who’s figured out how to pirate my book, and I would imagine, the work of even bigger authors. ‘

Semper Fi!

The Marketplace of Not-So-Free Ideas!

Readers and fans often ask, “How do you get your ideas?”

Well, at the risk of being thrown out of the Thriller Writer’s Guild, (we take an oath not to reveal the secrets of our craft), I will let you into the rat’s nest of mis-wired synapses that are my brain.

The Internet being a wonderful thing, I often listen to a small radio station out of New Hampshire.  In the old days, it’s A.M. signal probably didn’t make it to Vermont on a windy night, but with wi-fi, I get it in New York better than those folks on the west side of the medium sized New England town.  

The station has about 5 sponsors.  Within an hour, you’ll hear the same 5 spots twice. Plus a whole lot of ‘Free’ Public Service Spots (a sure indicator that they are filling unsold time.)

Then something political happened last week.  One presidential candidate suddenly surged ahead in the poles.  And now the local plumber who’s spot featured his kid saying, “My Dad’s the best ‘Pulumber’” is gone and non-stop, wall to wall, political ads, attack my ear buds.  

Pop quiz!  What’s the biggest Political Action Committee in America? Hint, it has 3 letters and it starts with an N.  (Insert Jeopardy countdown theme music here for 10 seconds.) If you said NRA (National Rifle Association) you are wrong.  Try this one, NAB! The National Association of Broadcasters.  If you doubt their clout, research how many times Presidents, from both parties, make sure they speak at the annual NAB conventions, usually held in Vegas in the spring.  Why? Money!  

This election year the estimates of how much will be spent are up to at least a billion and probably twice that much.  Did you ever stop to think where all that money goes? The lion share, by far, goes to TV and Radio time purchases.  This is true for every election year, but really a Broadcaster’s payday in a Presidential election year!

Okay, so where’s the plot?  What idea has this obscure and not too interesting fact sparked?

We would all be surprised at just how small, relative to the U.S. population, the sample size of “national polls” are. To a lesser degree, on a percentage basis, state-wide polls may be somewhat larger but usually still not more than a few hundred.

So it could come down to 30 people who might say, ‘I like the challenger’ where before 30 others have said ‘I like the incumbent.’  In a sample size of 300, that means the challenger just shot ahead by 10% in that state.   Campaigns usually freak-out at anything over the margin of error (3-5% nominally) So what happens? Millions in ad dollars flow in to the “battle ground state”.  Which may not have been a battleground before, but now that there is a big separation in the polls, it’s now considered in play!

That being the mechanics of the scheme, my plot goes like this, most of the polling is done by colleges and/or professional polling services, many pollsters are part time and most interviews are done by phone.

In the plot, I’d focus on the owner of my little A.M. station, which is just barely making enough ad revenue to pay commissions to their salespeople and squeaking by on the electric bill to power the transmitter.  I’d give him a son in college. Guess what, he’s a poli-sci major, and guess what-what? He’s got a part time job for $12 dollars an hour being a pollster.  He makes 50 calls a day.  One day he skips the calls and just checks off the challenger on about 30 forms. Boom! The polls change, the campaigns freak. Millions of campaign dollars now flow in to New Hampshire’s TV and Radio… and DAD!

It’s the perfect crime, there are no regulations or laws regulating polls so nothing is illegal here.  Junior’s little 12 bucks an hour job is leveraged to $300,000 in new income to the station.  

In the book, I’d probably make the father the owner of a group of stations across the state, maybe 10, so we are talking 3 million here.  And I’d have the son get into a fight with his dad and threaten to go public with his dirty deed. When the son shows up dead. When the political windfall is revealed, suspicion falls on the father and a big court case ensues. The above NAB/Elections ‘corruption’ is stumbled on and brought in by the Prosecutor.  All of a sudden, high-priced, superstar, New York lawyers descend on this little town. They are being paid tons representing the big networks, who are protecting hundreds of millions in political ad revenue. Spoiler alert!  In the end, the killer is found to be the owner of 5 TV stations in the state, protecting his $15,000,000.00 additional income.

Okay so maybe it’s a subplot, set against a larger story, but hey, it’s an idea born out of an observation from everyday life.

In The Eighth Day, I have the greatest rigging of a Presidential Election ever.  And, it to, is also a subplot that dove tails into the main plot in a big way!  

Don’t forget to vote Nov 6th!

Pirates of the Carribean vs. Royalty

Tom AvitabileI do most of my writing on a beach in Puerto Rico, so my books are essentially born in the Caribbean. And, just like a few hundred years ago, there are pirates out there. I was just informed that my book is now available for pirating. Yo, ho, ho, and a bottle of bites!

I don’t know whether to be honored or infuriated. As it stands now, in epublishing, if the wind blows right and the month ends in an “R”, I think I make thirteen cents on a book. Some clever person has spent hours of their time to figure out how to pilfer my ebook, along with my thirteen cent ‘royalty’.

Historical note: The Royalty of the day, the Kings and Queens of England, Spain, Portugal and France sent armadas to eradicate the pirates of that era.

I guess these days, having your royalty pirated is just like having a Hollywood stalker or being investigated for income tax. In certain social circles, it might be considered chic. I tend to think it’s really stupid and really dumb.

A few years back, I submitted a commercial to the RIAA. It was touchy, but I wanted it to be edgy. It was essentially Paul McCartney and his wife walking down the street, when a fan comes up and says, “Oh my God! You’re Paul McCartney!” He then pulls out a knife, and he says, “I love what you do. Give me your watch. I love your music! Your ring. I love the Beatles! Her ring. …and when you went out on your own, and when you had that beard, it was great! Uh, the wallet please?” And the tagline of the commercial was, “When you illegally download their music, it’s the same thing.”  It then ended with the crook saying, “I love you, man!” to Paul, as he snatches his wife’s necklace.

I wonder if I can get Sir Paul to speak with the Queen about raising an armada?

When you shouldn’t write…

I get a lot of people inside government, the scientific community and law enforcement agencies who “tell” me things off the record. You know, “You didn’t hear this from me but…”

Well, last week I got a tip on something, I’ll call it “Installation X,” a really good piece of reality that would make a beautiful plot point and revelation. For me revelation is as important as a tight story. I use “fiction” in my books to plant a few seeds on things that governments and media soft pedal or aggressively ignore into obliteration.

So I get this information that I could center my entire 4th book on. A juicy, real, almost unbelievable fact that I can fictionalize. Except, last week I got a note that asked I forget what I was told. The reason? Apparently, it’s hotter than even the person who shared it with me thought it was.

Professional dilemma: respect my source or go for it? Well, I decided to not only respect my source but also join into the spirit of our national secrets, which is mainly to keep them secret. So I took a deep breath and moved on. This happened with my first book, when I deduced, based on available technology, a technological process that could protect the President. I “made it up” and wrote it into my story. Then a person who was a protector of POTUS asked me to “not go there.” Fair enough. I broomed it for the sake of Presidential security and my acquaintance, and the folks he works with, lives. Easy decision… then.

Two days ago, I met a guy who tells me almost the whole “Installation X” story! Now this guy is a new source. I could go with his version of the events and situation since he so far has not asked me to forget it. (He may not be as in the loop as my original source.) But that would just be a way around what I said I wouldn’t do to my original source and my own feeling of obligation to the men an women who risk their lives carrying out our nation’s security that has to be done in secret.

So no. I am still not going to go near this thing. I will however scour the Internet, go to the library and see if any of this can be open sourced. Meaning if it’s already out there and thus I won’t be jeopardizing a source or my country. Although I hope it’s not.