A TIME TO PLOT, A TIME TO WRITE.

My formula is simple, come up with a good plot and start writing. It's that simple. I don't agonize over lengthy outlines, genre conflicts, or even if I think people are going to read it or not. I believe that a writer has to be free of all the outside manias and phobias thrown up to slow a writer down. When I sit down to write I don't worry about how many will I sell, what if people don't like it, or what if I offend someone.That's all speed bump trash thrown out by the nay-Sayers that surround authors; the ones that feed off our words and would have us believe that we can't go it alone and must have their expertise to guide our careers. If a writer is serious about writing, then he leaves all that outside minutia at the cave entrance. Write the story that you want to write, bring in characters that well defined and strong enough to carry their own weight  along the story line. Be inventive, blow your mind away with each paragraph, get tingles running a goose bump marathon up and down your body. Create excitement, if you can excite yourself, then your reader will pick up on that and be excited too. Live your story in your mind, never pull back and question what your characters have done or said. Let your creations set the pace and the plot...it's amazing how they all want to live the closer you get to the last page.

THE BEGGERS CUP

The Beggars Cup©

Mike Pettit

We have begged a thousand years on this very spot.

Not one cubit left, not one cubit right.

This squat is ours, day and night.

 We have survived summer’s heat, winters cold.

My rim is chipped, my luster gone, My Master old.

 A crack down one side, a sliver missing on the other,

He with grey dirty hair, dirty feet,

always hungry, begging food to eat.

 Time means nothing, one minute a dab of rice, the next a copper.

The waiting, that’s the rub, that’s the bother

 Masters teeth are ground small from dust and sand, crooked yellow with wisdom, from lack of neither food, nor love from his fellow man

 Milky cataract eyes, unseeing from seeing too much.

 We are believed diseased, alive with vermin, that no one will touch.

Toss a coin, throw a yam, please Sire, help a poor beggar,

 mercy for an old man.

 We are never seen, never heard, a thousand feet we see each day.

No one looks down, as they pass our way, nothing offered, nothing to say.

Be gone, be on your way.

 A slippered foot, a coin of brass, a booted heel, let it pass,

a foot bare look out, competition working our corner,

treading our path.

 A stone is tossed, my rim is chipped, Master snatches it up, tastes, and spits.

A tear falls, a husk of rice catches the sorrow, an offering from ourselves, not much, but I savor it in my cup, perhaps our only meal on the morrow.

10 STEP PROGRAM TO BEING A SUCCESFUL THRILLER AUTHOR

MIKE PETTIT'S 10 STEP PROGRAM TO BECOMING A SUCCESSFUL THRILLER AUTHOR,

1. LET YOUR IMAGINATION RUN WILD.
2. BE YOUR MAIN CHARACTER.
3. LIVE YOUR STORY.
4. WRITE FOR YOURSELF.
5. DO NOT SECOND GUESS WHAT YOU WRITE.
6 DO NOT LET OTHERS TELL YOU WHAT TO WRITE OR SAY.
7. HAVE NO BOUNDARIES, ALL IS FAIR.
8. THRILL, MYSTIFY, CONJURE, SURPRISE, SCARE.
9. BE MENTALLY EXHAUSTED AT THE END OF THE

WRITING DAY.

10 NEVER STOP WRITING.PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT.

THE DRUMS OF WAR

DRUMS OF WAR
MIKE PETTIT

Oh Mothers, Oh Daughters…

Hold for now the tears of pain and sorrow.

There will be time enough for those tomorrow.

Don’t heal, don’t weep, don’t pray for those that sleep.

Oh, Hero Sons, Oh Hero Brothers, prepare for battle and greatness.

Fall upon our enemies, seek out his weakness.

Pound the Drums of War, beat thy shields of wrath.

Chant your war songs, scream your battle cries.

Your rage will clear a bloody path.

Vengeance reflects from our eyes. Prepare, oh heroes to fight and die.

Our enemy will tremble before our might,

He will run and hide, and melt away in the night.

No place to hide, No place to die,

No hallowed ground, for his ashes to lie.

Oh, Beloved America, Oh how we stand free.

Our Forefathers see how strong we are,

And know we are still loyal to thee.

We will march in triumph across the land,

 Our enemies will wonder at our strength and endurance,

And plead for a merciful hand.

Only then, Oh Mothers and Daughters should you weep,

And pray for those that sleep.

The War Drum bangs out a triumphant beat,

 Then proudly put away in a shroud of glory,

 To fight again, another day.

A SELF-MADE AUTHOR

My time being an "Author" has been a series of ups and downs, highs and lows, successes and disappointments. I love to write and have five books "Published". That is not my issue. My concern is the way authors are perceived, ranked, accepted and or rejected by the "Industry. It didn't take long for me to realize that a new guy trying to break into a crowded field was almost impossible. The first line of defense one hits is the "AGENT" wall. Some obscure person in an agency decides an authors future by either tossing your baby into a pile of "Read Later" manuscripts, send out a flat rejection, cold and impersonal, or take a quick read of your query and then toss it. My experience with over seventy query letters has been zero for seventy at-bats. At first I thought it was my writing, that I was a miserable writer and should seriously consider that Walmart greeter job, or join the ranks of homeless. I dug my heels in, and took on the "Industry"...The world of "Publishing". I came to realize it wasn't my writing, but the people in the industry who guarded their place in the food chain like a fat man guards his Oreos. Terms like. "Not quite ready yet.", Not Commercial ", "Mainstream"...not viable...sorry... booked up for the next fifty years.... go away, ad infinitum.
Never one to be shunned by my fellow brothers and sisters, I went to P.O.D., Print on Demand. The problem with POD is that there is no demand unless you create the demand yourself. A POD is like a boat, you keep throwing money into it and in the end it still sinks. Five grand later, I decided to do what all capitalists do, I took my writing destiny into my own hands...I "Self Published". Oh sure, the middle man is still there collecting his portion, but it's minimal, and well earned. Now all my sales and marketing effort is in my hands, sink or swim, it's on my shoulders...and I love the challenge.
The new world order is on my side, thanks to the Internet, Amazon, Smashwords, Blogs, Face Book, Twitter...the new age of publishing has been born, and made available to all of the excellent writers who have been shunned by the mainstream publishing world. It's a new day for the authors, and the readers. The days of twenty and thirty dollar books is gone, the Buck Ninety-Nine and Two Buck read is available. The mighty are starting to crumble, the arrogant humbled, new names and faces  are popping up, a whole new dictionary of terms is being created daily.
The Industry is slow to turn their ship, their rudders stuck in the past. Meanwhile, the Self Published are gaining strength and attention from the reading public, and are welcomed. Ours is the only industry in the world where prices are going down, demand going up. It's a great day to  be a self made author.

THRILLER WRITING vs POLICE PROCEDURAL WRITING

My Suspense Thrillers take crime to the extreme in the murder sequences. I study real CSI data , review photos of  murder scenes, and have actually accompanied local Homicide Detectives to murder scenes as research. My focus in writing thrillers is the build up to the murder or crime, rather than what goes on afterwards at the scene. The story building up to the crime is what makes for a good read, the forensics afterwards is a very disciplined step by step recreation of the crime that is best left to experts. I think this is what separates a Police Procedural novel from a Thriller. The thriller builds the anticipation of the crime, and the procedural reconstructs the crime . Two totally different types of  writing thought processes

My point is that Thriller writing , while not as difficult to write as a Police Procedural, is more fun..We get to trash the place, the Police Procedural has to clean it up.

HARD TIMES SET FOR AUGUST RELEASE

Mike Pettit announced today that HARD TIMES, the sixth in the John Locke Suspense Thriller Series will be released in August 2011. The Thriller takes John Locke down into the seamy world of the twenty billion dollar porn industry where money and drugs are the rewards for those that survive and make it to the top. A prominent Hollywood producer's daughter is killed in a snuff film and Locke is pulled down into the human sewer of peep shows, back alley film studio's, and men that will kill for the thrill of it. Beautiful women seeking fame, only to be trapped  in a world of dilussion, death, drugs, and brutal murder, leaves Locke thirsting for revenge and payback

This is my response to The Writers Digest at having lost the 2011 Poetry contest.

A Poet's Lament       

The Ides have past, the knife of rejection protrudes from my heart, my soul cries out for reason, my wail of grief goes unanswered, my sorrow runs deeper than the Styx, my life at it's end. Oh woe is this poet, not some mindless scribe, but words from the heart, and yet..and yet, I suffer the Ides, as Caesar suffered Brutus....

Oh, my sorrow runs deep, my tears of rejection are like burning embers in my eyes, My hand hath betrayed me, my tongue a lie, my uttering burnt offerings, my future no less than the malmsy butt. my life a copper lost in the ashes of Rome. Take no pity for this scribe, he hath succumbed to indifference and mediocrity.

Art Hansl Books: Recently Captain Honor,Commander of an aircraft ca...

Art Hansl Books: Recently Captain Honor,Commander of an aircraft ca...: "Recently Captain Honor,Commander of an aircraft carrier, was fired from his command for showing raunchy films to his crew in order to provid..."

...YOU CAN'T HANDLE THE TRUTH

When I have writers block and can't seem to think of what to write next, I take a quick peek at my latest sales of my earlier novels, and that usually perks me up and the words flow from my finger tips. But, my sales are down, my fan base has maxed out at an even dozen, my web page is passed over, my blog sits idle, even my "Music to Write Thrillers To, You Tube channel is playing to an empty audience. Oh, woe is me. I sat feeling sorry for myself, thinking of my failure as an author, just when I was almost healed from my terrible experience at the Circus School in Sarasota, and my short lived gig as an actor with a local community group.... they changed rehearsal night, and never told me.
Well, I can handle the truth, I tell my self. The problem is not my writing, but my marketing effort. So I fired my agent, canceled my publishing contract and I'm taking matters into my own hands. I was a fool to think I could get full shelf price for my novels up against the BIG Guys that hog the shelves. So I am going ALL ebooks. I'm going after the guys that are willing to pump out a couple of bucks for a damn good read. I'm going where I can be a big fish in a big pond, where my peers are, where the industry is going, where a guy can make a enough to buy a six-pak every now and then and not worry about the electricity being cut off, maybe pay some back alimony.  So, watch out Amazon, look out Kindle...Iron Mike Pettit is coming out with a shoe shine and a smile. Willy Loman, eat your heart out.