Where to start? A good place, I think, would be mentioning
that I've served and observed the best and worst humanity has to offer for
close to thirty years now. I spend most
of my days in a place that could be described as Jerry Springer's World, but that
wouldn't be entirely accurate. While
many of the people I work with, whether customer or fellow employee, could make
up several really controversial episodes for Mr. Springer, I don't think those
oddball people deserve to be the focus.
They are a visible, not to be ignored, minority, but they aren't
representative of the majority of people I have known.
A friend of mine notices everyone
that walks into his field of vision. He has to.
He has a dangerous job, and never knows when someone or something out of
the past might come back and bite him.
Consequently, he is hyper-alert to every freak, or strange person that
walks by. I focus on people for a
different reason, although it's roots are similar to my friend's. My job is people-oriented. I think that focus has benefited my writing.
I have witnessed quite a few people
reactions in stressful situations. These
situations could be anything from the spur
of the moment to something long term.
So many people lie. Sometimes
it's just to themselves. Far too often,
though, people choose to lie or cheat for convenience's sake. Whether it is ego, or the simple self
protective urge, or God knows what, they decide that fiction is the route to
take.
There's a revelation in there
somewhere. Hopefully, most writers are
using the artful lie (fiction) to tell an entertaining story, while out in the
real world, people are using it to conceal anything from theft to cheating in
all its forms, and to even murder.
In the Dead Tide novels, I have
endeavored to portray people at their best and worst, set against an
apocalyptic backdrop in which it is hard to tell which monster is worse: the
living or undead person. People aren't
simple. So many of us have so many
issues affecting how we live, or try to live, and it is hard to predict how
each person will react in a life or death situation. There are a lot of people walking around out
there with little to no reason to live, and nothing to love. Does this make them good or bad? Does it guarantee that they will always react
selfishly or murderously? Some people
have to hit rock bottom before they rise up and become the person they always
should have been. This journey we are
all on may end at any moment. The only
real guarantee we have in this world is that everything, eventually will come
to an end. That might be a gift.
I think the image of the undead
consumer is apt. They at least are
upfront and honest about what they want.
You can trust them to react in a predictable fashion. Not so with a living, breathing, conniving
human, and maybe not even so with a virtuous, heroic person. In the world of Dead Tide, Dead Tide Rising,
and the nearly finished third book, I attempt to give you an unblinking,
unflinching look at humanities monsters, it's heroes, and more accurately, all
those who fall somewhere in-between.
Humanity is flawed, but many of us recognize, and have the ability to
rise above, or fail and fall, due to those flaws. Also, sheer laziness might drag down more
people than circumstances.
Guess I've rambled a bit. Let's sum up with this: I've dabbled with
blogging here and there over the years, and wrote a lot to blow off steam
caused by work or personal life stress.
I escaped into and away from madness, so to speak, by using my writing
as a refuge. Then, and now, if I could
take people away from their own problems, and entertain them, then my writing is
a success, whether I reach full-time writing status or not. Hope to do continue to write (and entertain)
for many years to come.
Stephen A. North 9:23 PM, Saturday, 8/10/2013
Stephen A. North is the author of Dead Tide and Dead Tide Rising, available now from Permuted Press.
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