Joel Michael Dorr's Blog

When I decided to write my first novelThose Crazy Notions of Otherwise Intelligent Peoplethere were two realities I hadn’t anticipated.The first experience has been truly gratifying and honestly unexpected. I’m referring to the amazing response and acclaim the novel is receiving from readers and critics. Both are enjoying the story pushingThose Crazy Notionsto an average rating of5 Stars at both Amazon and Goodreads.Stop While You Are Ahead?The positive response to the novel is enough to make this author consider retiring, batting one-for-one or 1000 as they say in baseball. Yes, I’ve been watching the historical World Series, what else am I gonna do - the Lakers are not worth watching yet? I digress.Of course I’m not going to retire from writing, I just got started switching from Screenplay to paperback (or digital print noting all you Kindle lovers.) I still have all of these stories roaming around in my head, and trust me; my brain will explode if I don’t get these thoughts out on paper. Which leads me to my second reality check, which coincidently also makes my head explode: Marketing your own book.Self-Publish and SalesmanshipWhat I have learned is that you can have all the praise in the world, but if no one knows about it, well sales don’t just ring upon their own. I totally relate to the “If you build it, they will come,” mantra from Kevin Costner’s Field of Dreams. I wrote it, looked at the sales numbers daily and we weren’t selling enough to field a baseball team. But the sheer number of books trying to stand out is akin to sighting a new star by looking up into a bright Montana night. Where do you start?Slowly, but surely we’ve gotten more and more readers. Surely I can spot an old high school friend that left a very kind review, but more and more we are getting the word out and finding unknown readers favorably reviewingThose Crazy Notionstoo, which I really appreciate.Upward and Onward to My Next BookI am plugging away on my latest novel,Allison Unbridled,which is a prequel toThose Crazy Notions. Soon I will be getting the pre-order set up—something I learned I was supposed to do withThose Crazy Notions!Gosh, they were right, the writing part is easy, and it’s the selling part that’s hard.So as I finish up on my second Novel,Allison Unbridled,we are having some fun offeringThose Crazy Notionsat discounted prices for the Holiday season. If you haven’t told your friends, family or fellow readers about the book, please do now, as the price is only $ .99 until November 10 and they will love you for the tip. It will also be a really cheap Christmas present, for you budget minded elves

I have learned two very important lessons over the past year witnessing all of this political yammering.First, for the most part, we, Democrats, Republicans, Libertarians and Socialists, are not all that far apart in our fundamental beliefs. Secondly, because we only have two political parties in power to choose from, there is little chance things will change. For real change to happen, people need to start shutting up and listening to the other person and his or her point of view.Basketball or Political Trash Ads?Of course, I’ve come to the conclusion that the two parties, for the most part, don’t want us to listen to each other. If we did, we just might learn something and better understand what the other side is thinking and why. I recently read that $1 billion is estimated to be spent on advertising for the 2016 campaign. $1 billion!!  I could buy an NBA franchise for that much money—well not the Lakers. That’s a lot of $1 and $5 online donations!Political Word Association GameWhen two ‘politically aware’ (and I use this term loosely) voters square off in an impromptu debate, the outcome is scary predictable. It’s like watching a couple pre-programmed robots participating in a word association test. You know, the test where one person says a word and the other responds with the first thing that comes to mind. Both parties blurt out one-sentence responses as if political programmers had hardwired a fistful words into their brains.  Neither one really listens to what the other is saying. No one asks a probing question or even asks questions to better understand their opponent’s position. Here’s the latest  “political word association” game from one of the 24/7 news networks with their pre-programmed robots:Second AmendmentThey want to take all our guns.They want everyone to have guns so more innocent people will get killed.AbortionThey all think it’s ok to kill babiesThey want to tell women what they can and can’t do with their bodiesGlobal WarmingThey don’t believe in scienceThey don’t care about families working in the fossil industryReally, this is the extent of our knowledge on these subjects?Political Beliefs Run Deep, or Do They?I grew up in Wyoming and at a tender age of twenty-two I was introduced to politics with a handshake and a flyer. I ran my older brother’s election campaign for the State House of Representatives and everything I knew about politics came from him.  My brother wasn’t much older than me and we got our butts kicked. But the experience was long-lasting and really taught me about political campaigns and the power of messaging. Shortly thereafter, I moved around spending time in Arizona, Missouri, and Chicago,  and finally settling down in southern California. Along the way, I was introduced to a variety of opinions and points of views from conservative, liberal and some real doozies from the paranoid, Whack-a-doodle Insane Asylum.Temperament and culture is as diverse as the land I’ve traveled. Being raised in the open ranges of Wyoming and Montana, I saw a lot of guns.  But mostly during hunting season on a rack in the back of a pickup cab or locked in a gun case. Seemed pretty logical to me and seemingly, people were on the endangered species list since not a whole lot were getting shot. But as I moved around the country, I began to see guns in public. In one state, a gun hung on the hip of a casual shopper in a grocery store, and it wasn’t even hunting season. Perhaps he felt the need to open carry to protect himself or more likely he was showing what a hard-ass he was. In another state, I was playing basketball in a park not far from the beach. A typical argument erupted over a foul and one player stormed off good riddance he was a jerk. But ten minutes later he came back pointing a gun in the face of the guy he was arguing with over a FOUL. A gun was pulled because of a foul in a GAME. Another hard-ass want-a-be.Respect for Respectful Gun OwnersI have another brother who is a world-class hunter with guns, bow and arrow or a heavy tree branch, if he were forced to use it. If I were in a bar fight, who do you think I would want in my corner? But he and I were forced to engage in deep, heartfelt conversations about a family member who we believe should no longer possess a gun for fear of hurting himself or others. The police and sheriff are legally unable to help us under current laws and if we were to remove or “steal” his weapons, we would be committing a federal crime. Does that make sense? Arrested for trying to do the right thing?My brother and I were forced to talk about the issues so we could make logical, rational decisions. Those conversations were the inspiration for my writing of Ilena, one of the main characters in my novel Those Crazy Notions of Otherwise intelligent People. Ilena is forced to talk about her past and the part gun violence played in forming it. She lacked an ability to move on from the trauma and assumed the worst in everyone.Find Three Things You Have in CommonI recently watched Michael Moore’sTrumpland.  It wasn’t what I expected, but it gave me a different perspective. Not so much about my political beliefs, but more about how we treat our fellow citizens in America because of political influences. It inspired my journey to start mending relationships that have been damaged as a result of drastically opposing views in this political race. My hope is that we take a moment to reflect on what we have in common with other people. Moore, during his monologue, tried to find things that the Trump supporters in the audience and he could agree on. He also spent a few minutes trying to say three things he liked about George W. Bush. He also asked Trump supporters to come up with three nice things to say about Hilary Clinton. Rather than focus on how we are different, perhaps we can focus on where we share common ground?Finding Common GroundI urge everyone to take a look at what we can do to be of service to others.I’m trying to do a minimum of three nice things for others every day. It may be as simple as making coffee for my wife or letting that reckless driver cut into my lane, but it is something. Image if everyone also did three nice things. Perhaps that’s what we should be crowdfunding!Everywhere I’ve traveled in my life I’ve seen one constant: There are people in need of help and there are people willing to lend a hand.

A few weeks ago after two exhausting hours of basketball, a few of my buddies and I sat down  and engaged in some boy’s“locker room”talk.I hadn’t considered what that meant before the latest media microscope on what we ‘men’ talk about after knocking heads in whatever the sport du jour. “C”, who is a policeman, told us about a run-in he had with a man at a convenience store. ”I was scared to death because this guy walked up on me and I had left my gun in the car. It was sitting on the seat next to my bulletproof vest.”The man, who caught him off-guard, was a well-known gang member. C just knew this was not going to end well. But, at that moment, the owner of the convenient store came out and shouted that he was going to call 9-1-1, tell the operator his name and that he was assaulting a policeman.That tilted the odds in C’s favor. All the times he responded to shop owners' pleas for help paid off. As a black man, C faces the challenges of balancing race, community relations and the job duties. Right ruled out over race this time and C lived to patrol another day.This is locker room talk.His story did stir a conversation on race in America, police and Black Lives Matter movement. My eldest son is part of the riot squad for the Seattle police department. I think and worry about him every day. Being one of the most gentle and loving people you will ever meet, I always marveled at his career choice. He loves his job. He loves being of service. It breaks his heart every time he is asked to hold the line while protesters scream insults at him, scream about his hatred of blacks and that all police are corrupt.More locker room talk.My other basketball buddy, Antonio, shared his son’s success in the music industry signing a music contract with one of the labels back east. He beamed with pride over the bright future his talented son would have. We all chimed in recalling the antics of our sons growing up proudly knowing that we had pretty damn good boys.And you know whatwe didn’t talk aboutin our locker room? We didn’t talk about forcing ourselves on women, groping and kissing them when we weren’t invited to.  We didn’t brag about sexual conquest or even what we thought about some of the woman playing with their children on the playground near the courts where we play ball.In writing fiction, I can come up with some fairly memorable, flawed characters. I like to build in redeemable qualities even if they have some rough edges, Hell, Percy Powers, the womanizing main character in my novelThose Crazy Notions of Otherwise Intelligent Peopleisn’t even that kind of guy. It took him months of chasing after the woman of his dreams before he got the courage to put his hands up her dress.  But in this case she encouraged it. In the case of our presidential nominee, he assumed it. Power equals doing what you what, when you want in his world. It is the very thing Ilena, Percy’s love interest, rallies against in helping abused and battered women regain their footing over those men that engage in that kind of locker room talk.It has to stop. And it starts with men modeling respect for women for their sons.The ordinary, respectable men I know, and have known my entire life, do not speak or act like this. So why would we elect a President that jokes about doing such demeaning things to a woman and actually commit the assault?

A few weeks ago, after two exhausting hours of basketball, a few of my buddies and I sat down  and engaged in some boy’s “locker room” talk.



I hadn’t considered what that meant before the latest media microscope on what we ‘men’ talk about after knocking heads in whatever the sport du jour. “C”, who is a policeman, told us about a run-in he had with a man at a convenience store. "I was scared to death because this guy walked up on me and I had left my gun in the car. It was sitting on the seat next to my bulletproof vest. ”The man, who caught him off-guard, was a well-known gang member. C just knew this was not going to end well. But, at that moment, the owner of the convenient store came out and shouted that he was going to call 9-1-1, tell the operator his name and that he was assaulting a policeman. That tilted the odds in C’s favor. All the times he responded to shop owners' pleas for help paid off. As a black man, C faces the challenges of balancing race, community relations and the job duties. Right ruled out over race this time and C lived to patrol another day.

This is locker room talk.

His story did stir a conversation on race in America, police and Black Lives Matter movement. My eldest son is part of the riot squad for the Seattle police department. I think and worry about him every day. Being one of the most gentle and loving people you will ever meet, I always marveled at his career choice. He loves his job. He loves being of service. It breaks his heart every time he is asked to hold the line while protesters scream insults at him, scream about his hatred of blacks and that all police are corrupt.

More locker room talk.

My other basketball buddy, Antonio, shared his son’s success in the music industry signing a music contract with one of the labels back east. He beamed with pride over the bright future his talented son would have. We all chimed in recalling the antics of our sons growing up proudly knowing that we had pretty damn good boys. And you know what we didn’t talk about in our locker room? We didn’t talk about forcing ourselves on women, groping and kissing them when we weren’t invited to.  We didn’t brag about sexual conquest or even what we thought about some of the woman playing with their children on the playground near the courts where we play ball.

In writing fiction, I can come up with some fairly memorable, flawed characters. I like to build in redeemable qualities even if they have some rough edges, Hell, Percy Powers, the womanizing main character in my novel Those Crazy Notions of Otherwise Intelligent People isn't even that kind of guy. It took him months of chasing after the woman of his dreams before he got the courage to put his hands up her dress.  But in this case she encouraged it. In the case of our presidential nominee, he assumed it. Power equals doing what you what, when you want in his world. It is the very thing Ilena, Percy’s love interest, rallies against in helping abused and battered women regain their footing over those men that engage in that kind of locker room talk.

It has to stop.

And it starts with men modeling respect for women for their sons. The ordinary, respectable men I know, and have known my entire life, do not speak or act like this. So why would we elect a President that jokes about doing such demeaning things to a woman and actually commit the assault?

Those Crazy Notions of Otherwise Intelligent People

Time to 'brag' about the latest award 'Those Crazy Notions' received fromIndie Bragan independent book reviewer organization dedicated to discovering talented self-published authors and help them give their work the attention and recognition it deserves.Big thank you to Indie Brag for awarding me with theirMedallion honor, a prestigious addition to my cover that only 10-15% of authors earn. They make it clear that they are not 'reviewers' but rather a consortium of readers who determine whether the submitted book meets its rigorous standards. Learn more aboutIndie Brag.

Launching a brand newWebsite,San Diego Book Reviewalso gives Those Crazy Notions of Otherwise Intelligent People a nice liftoff with a detailed book review and synopsis.As a writer, I always love to read reviews about my book. Your reading audience does a much better of explaining what the book is about than I do--even though I wrote it!Thanks toSan Diego Book Reviewfor their very thorough synopsis.

Sometimes a writer has to let others do the writing. In this case, Kim Heimbuch at San Diego Book Review  gave "Those Crazy Notions of Otherwise Intelligent People" an in depth appraisal.Her analysis of Percy's mixed behavior, which bordered between an "alright guy" to a complete derelict, and his humorous, but cute connection between Percy and Tiger, makes this worthy of being recognized. Hopefully her experience with the novel can convince you, or others, to read about Percy and his slow comeback to reality!In Ms. Heimbuch's own words...How many times have you picked up a book labeled humor or comedy only to find it amiss of any real humor? It’s because comedic fiction is the most difficult type of literature to write and tragicomedy even more difficult. You may have a great sense of humor, always making those around you laugh, but conveying the same humor in writing while solidifying personal tragic events that are inoffensive yet fluid and natural and most of all funny, well that’s a conundrum all its own. Finding modern well-written tragicomedy reminiscent of those written from ancient Greece to Shakespeare is even rarer than your typical humorous fiction, yet Joel Michael Dorr, author of “Those Crazy Notions of Otherwise Intelligent People”, has flawlessly mastered the art and brings to mind a quote by Stephen King.“A tragedy is a tragedy, and at the bottom, all tragedies are stupid. Give me a choice and I'll take A Midsummer Night's Dream over Hamlet every time. Any fool with steady hands and a working set of lungs can build up a house of cards and then blow it down, but it takes a genius to make people laugh.”And make people laugh is exactly what Dorr does with his successful execution of dysphemisms embedded into each of the book’s characters, some drenched more in sarcasm than others, while successfully avoiding gormless personas, breathing a surreal realism into their lives and personal stories as if you truly knew these people.Protagonist playboy Percy Powers is in the prime of his life, but you’d never know it from the funk he’s been in the last year since his unbelievably smokin’ hot wife suddenly up and left him; a true rossy for sure. To add fuel to fire, he can’t seem to keep his foot out of his mouth long enough to breath and is constantly finding himself spiraling through a nonstop Groundhogs Day of womanizing, procrastination, drinking, sarcasm, and a special needs Tiger that lives in his pool house. Yet he somehow always manages to come out on top. As Jonah Hill once famously put it in the film Superbad, “F*ck me Right?”Live radio waits for nobody and when Percy shows up substantially late for the morning show's first day of live webcasting from the studio he finds Paul dying to dish out live on the air the scathing embarrassment he thinks Percy is owed. Percy, however, pulls a fake junior listener evening out promotion from his posterior region to cover his morning-after drunken tardiness and surprisingly, with astounding success.With Tiger, his best friend and confidant with Down syndrome, in tow, Percy arrives to pick up seven-year-old Sammy, the winner of his complete buncombe contest, who was witness to his dad’s murder and subsequently has stopped talking. However, Sammy’s mom Ilena who is one caboose shy of a train wreck herself has no idea what is going on and didn’t enter Sammy into any contest. After bantering ensues, Ilena finally relishes the fact that this might be good for Sammy and agrees to go. What she discovers is a grown man who unabashedly acts like a bantering pubescent teenage boy, but who is also capable of being quite the chivalrous knight.While San Diego is the backdrop for “Those Crazy Notions”, there’s not a lot of environmental buildup as it’s not the real focus of this book and had Dorr spent more time on descriptive detail, the results would have been a substantially deprived connection between the reader and characters. Instead, Dorr delivers simple relevancy to specific locationsModern readers and those familiar with the area will find all of Dorr’s quips easily understood, especially those pertaining to the Military, for example:Oh maan! “What are you doing here?” He asked. “Don’t tell me one of the navy destroyers docked, so you’re down to make some walkin’-around money?”However, antediluvian readers who find they relate more to the unplugged PBS Paul type rather than the avant-garde #yGenStylePercy might find some of the dialogue or situations confusing, difficult to relate to, or even offensive.“Those Crazy Notions of Otherwise Intelligent People” is undeniably worthy to sit upon the New York Times Bestsellers list. It’s one of those books that hooks from the get-go; filled with a cast of characters that you’ll swear you personally know, whether you love them or hate them. The emotion behind each individual's story is raw yet candid, and genuinely masked behind the fitting blend of sarcasm and humor; man’s natural defensive shield. You’ll laugh at the humor, gasp at the raunch, hell, you’ll probably even choke up a time or two whether you admit it or not. Whatever your reaction, you’ll want to add this book to the top your to-be-read pile. And as for Joel Michael Dorr, he most definitely is an author to keep your eye on!And of course, Those Crazy Notions of Otherwise Intelligent People is available in paperback or Kindle on Amazon.

Growing up, I was raised from a small and rural town in Wyoming. It was not at all like the movies, set at the base of a snow capped mountain, with lush pastures and ranches full of plump livestock and sumptuous horses.  Nor was there a winding river near the outskirts of town, where young boys parked their butts on the shore to test their luck as amateur fishermen.Work release programsHowever, what we did have, were jobs. Lots of jobs, especially for those willing to pack up what few belongings they had as well as scraping together enough money to hop on a bus or a train out to the vast plains. Many of these wanderers were the men from my town, some of them even appearing with a woman around their arms. But mostly, they were young or middle aged men, coming to pursue a steady source of income at the oil fields. One summer, while still in my teens, my best friend’s father got us jobs working on an oil rig, which paid us as much money as a union grocery worker makes today. Each rig had a small dressing room, known as the doghouse (God knows why), where the workers changed from street clothes into their dirty oil soaked jeans and coveralls. I vividly recall one man, fresh on a crew, had LA COUNTY JAIL stamped on his underwear in big black stencils, adding to the gloomy atmosphere of the oil fields.Money changes everythingThe town I grew up in, Gillette, because of the oil and coal industries, now boasts one of the most thriving economies in the country. It has a wonderful school district with low student to teacher ratios that would make parents in California drool with envy.  Facilities and healthcare for the elderly are among the best anywhere. Services for women are also available and law enforcement is there to support women at the drop of a hard hat. But this isn’t the town that I spent my childhood in. This is where I found my inspiration to write and pursue being an author.Even during my earlier years as a young boy, I witnessed the surrealness of alcohol and drugs . The victims from the temptation of drinking were often battered women, some even being friends of my family.  Unfortunately, this was something no one ever discussed openly, making it an epidemic around town. I recall seeing a man running from a bar, bolting down main street and then jumping on the hood of a woman’s car in broad daylight. Fearing for her life, the woman shifted the car in reverse, and a moment later, slammed on the brakes while cranking the steering wheel, ala Steve McQueen inBullet, sending the man sailing off of the car. The children in the backseat watched in horror as the man lay in the dirty street, screamed drunkenly for her to stop the damn car.  As she drove off, those who witnessed the ordeal simply went about his or her business as if nothing had happened.You could say I was greatly influenced by what I saw as a young child in Gillette, Wyoming in writing the character Ileana inThose Crazy Notions of Otherwise Intelligent People. Some of it I thank for shaping who I am, but other parts, I wish to forget. The parts I wish to forget, however,  gave me the idea for the character, Ileana, who is dedicated to helping battered women. I like to think of the impact that Ileana could have made if she was around in Wyoming the same time I was a young boy, but if nothing else, hopefully our story will shed some light on a problem that still exist in too many places all over the world.

San Diego Community magazine captures the essence of my family living in the wonderful community of Rancho Penasquitos. For any writer knows...behind every neurotic, spelling-challenged, wannabe wordsmith, there is a support team. Mine is wonderfully captured in the June/July issue of 92129 Magazine with an article showcasing our love of laughter and are willingness to try new things. 

Local Authors Showcased at San Diego's Mysterious Galaxy Bookstore Meet & Greet in JuneI was fortunate to participate in a writer round-up at one of the more popular independent bookstores in San Diego. Bunny and her team at Mysterious Galaxy do a wonderful job supporting independent authors and giving us an opportunity to get a little public-facing time.Please check out my fellow authors and que up your summer reading by checking out their books. Also big thanks to those that came to support