Marc Johnson's Blog

I’ve been building a new website. A fun one centered around one of my hobbies–retro gaming. I’ve been using Wix to build it instead of WordPress. Wow. Is it a world of difference.

Wix is so much easier to use and navigate with. While I like WordPress, I’ve had my issues with it over the years. To use it effectively, you have to know some code. While I know a little, the very basics, even I find it challenging at times. My main issue is that when I want to customize things to get it how I like, I struggle with it. It’s not perfect. I can only get it to good enough. And if I want to change something, it effects everything else.

With Wix, you don’t need to learn any code, although you can code if you want to. I used a template and it’s vastly different from what I started out with and it was a lot easier than WordPress. I love it that much.

Now don’t get me wrong, I do like WordPress. In fact, I like the dashboard of WordPress a lot better. The building of Wixx is smoother but I feel as if once everything is in place, I like WordPress a lot more. WordPress feels easier to update.

If I make the move, I may also change around the site. As much as I enjoy blogging, I’m not sure if I’ll continue it over there. It’s like an echo chamber with the responses or lack thereof. I’m much easier to reach on Facebook or Twitter. Plus, with my new site, I’ll be blogging over there anyway. My new site may just list my books and any upcoming appearances. Not sure if people like my nonsense on here, but if you do, or don’t, let me know.

This isn’t anything I’d do now or soon. It’s just the planning stages, and I’m currently editing FADING. It’s just something I’m thinking about and may not even do. But I would love to know your thoughts on it.

Marc Johnson

I read a lot of so called financial advice. I read a lot more in the early 2000s to get myself started. With this pandemic going on, we’ve truly seen how America is capitalistic and how it only cares about the bottom line, not to mention the systemic racism that comes along with it. Over the years, I’ve noticed a lot of things that I once believed are now wrong. A lot of what the “professionals” say are lies. They’re just there to perpetrate keeping the average American down and dividing the country.

I was once on board with capitalism, but over the past 20 years with three major recessions and seeing the government bail out banks and other companies that are “too big to fail,” I’ve realized I’m not. Not any more.

So here are my Top 3 Financial Lies

1. IF THE COMPANY MAKES MONEY, YOU MAKE MONEY

In a perfect world, if the company you work for makes more money, you’d get a raise, better benefits, better equipment, have more help, not be constantly overworked, etc. Those are all things that should happen when the company has extra cash flow. But none of that actually happens.

In reality companies see that you can do the same amount of work, which is too much, and they can reap the profits from it, so they never hire any one unless they absolute have to. The equipment you use is just good enough. It functions to do the job, most of the time even if it’s years old and in need of repair or new parts. Better and newer equipment would make your work easier and more efficient. Yet all the things I’ve read and seen, people constantly speak that this will happen. It’s logical that this should happen. If the company does better than you should do better. But that’s never the case.

Companies and the people who run them only care about profits especially in America. They don’t really care about you, but every so often they’ll pretend that they do: they’ll order donuts, have a company party or picnic, celebrate your birthday, etc. , but they won’t do the things I talked about earlier. The worst companies won’t even treat you like a person or with respect. Those ones will look down on you, think you’re a child, roll their eyes in contempt. To them, you’re just a cog in the machine that can easily be replaceable no matter how good you are at your job. Don’t believe me? Whoever they replace you with will be cheaper.

So look out for yourself. No one else will.

2. SAVE 6 MONTHS OF INCOME FOR AN EMERGENCY FUND

Having an emergency fund is a good idea. Having a five figure emergency fund is ridiculous. They expect you to have that amount of money because from their perspective, it’s relatively easy to save that amount of money. For most people that’s not realistic. Five figures is a car, a down payment for a house not in the Bay Area, college books for one year, a medical bill.

What is realistic is saving $1000. I find saving at least $20 a month and $20 whenever you get some extra cash tends to build up rather quickly. Before you know it, you’ll reach $1000. And a $1000 is a good number. It’s not too high or too low. It’ll cover a lot of things that normal people have to deal with. Things like a new car part, a major appliance, a new bed, a broken door, shattered windows, water heater, plumbing, and on and on. Whatever it is, $1000 is a good number to cover it. And as much as it sucks to spend, you’ll be able to build it up by the time the next emergency happens. And there’s always a next emergency.

3. GOOD DEBT

I’ve never understood what good debt is. They define good debt as an investment that will grow in value or generate long-term income. That has nothing to do with the amount of debt you have. And they define bad debt as something that quickly loses value and doesn’t generate long-term income. In reality instead of the financial world, debt is something, usually money, that is owed or due. Whether it’s “good” or “bad” debt is immaterial as you still owe it to someone or something else.

Just because something falls under “good” debt doesn’t mean that it will go up or won’t lose any value. All of these talking heads and books seem to perpetrate the myth that things like houses or a college education won’t lose value. Housing bubbles bust and jobs that were once in demand suddenly aren’t. They also say that by having good debt you’ll have a better credit score. That’s true in a roundabout way.You’ll always going to pay more than you borrowed. A lot more based on varying interest rates.

Personally, I’d rather have someone who will always pay me back on time than someone who I can always charge late fees and interests on. Sure, I’ll never make as much money as I will with someone who gets charged all the time, and I know that I’ll “never be broke” as long as they owe me, but I know my money will be good hands. Plus, I can trust them at their word.

Learning finances is a very tough thing to do. Aside from balancing a checkbook, they don’t teach it to you in school. Despite being one of the most important life skills, it’s not something that’s taught probably because they want to keep everyone poor and still struggling. That said, it’s not hard to learn, it just requires an open mind and to change your way of thinking. And while reading books and watching videos can be helpful, there’s still a lot of bullshit to shift through. I know I still have a lot to learn.

Marc Johnson

My books are now available on Google Play. If you want to support me there, be it by downloading them or leaving a review, please do.

DISCLAIMER: This was written before the COVID-19 pandemic. Stay safe everyone!

I love to write. I’m always going to love to write. When I was younger, I pictured myself living in a cabin where I could do nothing but support myself by writing. I’m sure that’s a dream a lot of writers have. Over time, that dream has changed. For a lot of other writers, it hasn’t. They always picture themselves making a living off writing. Most writers never will. And when I realized that, and all the other things going on in my life, combined with my life shifting, I learned that writing, for me, will be a hobby.

I listen to a ton of podcasts, I’ve read countless articles over the years, watch YouTube videos, and even talk to other writers. But the one thing I’ve noticed is no one talks about writing as a hobby. They always talk about how they can write and make a living off of it. I get it. I used to think and feel that way. I mean, who wouldn’t want to do what they love for a living? But I’ve also seen the reverse of it. The thing that no one talks about.

Doing something creative is hard. It’s not physically hard, of course, but it does wear you down mentally. And those years will add up for you a lot sooner than you think. Mental health is finally becoming acceptable and even talked about in society now. While I don’t completely understand it and come from a different era, I’ve seen what it can do to you in the creative side.

Twitch, YouTube, and podcasting is something that people do and love…at first. It’s also something they get completely burned out on because they have to entertain people. They make their millions at first, but then within a couple of years they get burned out. Some can even die from it (https://www.theverge.com/2019/6/27/18759603/desmond-etika-amofah-death-youtube-creator-mental-health) On a smaller personal scale, I’ve known people who’ve worked in the gaming industry. They used to love gaming, but once they worked in it, they stopped gaming for fun. But as soon as they worked in a different industry, they loved it again. I feel like that could be me if I tried to write fiction full time.

Like I said before, I love writing. And I’m always going to write. But I don’t ever want to treat writing as if it was a chore. I don’t ever want to get bored of it. I don’t ever want it to feel like work. While I love writing, it is honestly boring. It’s not exciting at all, and it doesn’t change. It’s great how you’re only bound by your imagination, which is limitless, but the actual work involves your butt in chair in front of a computer. The only thing that varies is the research but everything else is the same.

Marc Johnson

GHOSTING is now in print. You can get it from AMAZON or from me at a show. It’s one of my favorite books I’ve ever written, and it’s very closely tied to my upcoming book, FADING. You don’t need to read GHOSTING to understand or even enjoy FADING, but it would help.

As a stay-at-home programmer living with her loving boyfriend, Mia lives a simple but good life. Like most people, she dreams, but unlike most, she has vivid dreams about her neighbors’ lives. One day, she realizes that they aren’t dreams—what she’s been experiencing is real. Mia’s able to “ghost” into anyone she chooses, take control of their body, and make them do what she wants.

Frustrated by the injustice and abuse she sees around her, Mia begins using her power to try to right the wrongs she sees. Her boyfriend, Amir, does his best to stop her, believing that no one person should have that much power, and that the system—or God—will bring justice to the perpetrators. Mia, on the other hand, has seen too much corruption in her life to believe in such naivety.

However, the best intentions don’t always work out as planned. The power begins to affect Mia in ways she didn’t expect—and turns out to have consequences she never imagined.

Marc Johnson

Storytelling is a hard and multifaceted thing. You want to have an engaging plot, vivid locations, three dimensional characters, and you want your readers to feel. Now it’s not an equal pie chart, but you do want to include all of them. Sadly, today’s storytelling lacks the complete picture of that. I love movies, but they’ve lacked this picture for the last few years. That’s one of the main reasons why they’re bad.

When you watch a franchise, blockbuster movie, which is all there seems to be in the theater these days, you get an incomplete picture. It’s weird because movies today average between 2 and 2 hours and 30 minutes, far from the under 2 hours they used to be. You would think with all the extra time they’d keep the basics in. But I guess they’re using that time for a messy, CGI battle. To understand the story, you have to read a book, watch a TV show exclusive on their streaming network, read a comic, and play a video game. Who wants to do all that except for the hardcore fan? Most people don’t. Yet companies do it because it’s another source of income and they can add more CGI battles for the average viewer.

I feel like this was done first with The Matrix sequels. They required you to do all the extra stuff, but I never felt as if the Wachowskis were trying to squeeze more money out of you. They had so much story to tell that they couldn’t fit it all in the two movies. It wasn’t all bad and I believe one of the things they did right–The Animatrix. That added backstory to the world with minor characters you wouldn’t spend much time with and showed more slices of life. It showed the story from different perspectives thereby creating different yet similar stories. That’s the way to do it.

While The Animatrix answered questions you didn’t quite know you wanted or would find intriguing, when companies do answer questions, they answer the wrong ones. Did anyone want to know Han Solo’s last name? Does anyone care about nameless clones in the Clone Wars or wanted to see the Darth Vader’s backstory? Maybe Vader would have been interesting had it been done well. On the other hand, sometimes companies ask the questions but never give you answers.



In whatever form of storytelling you plan to do, if you craft a complete story no one’s going to be mad at you. They might hate the characters, think the plot is ridiculous, and that it’s very cliched, but they’re not going to hate the basics of what you were trying to tell. They’re not going to feel as if you conned them from money because they didn’t get what they paid for. They’re not going to feel as if you had no idea where you were going and that you were full of shit.

Don’t cheat the audience or yourself.

Marc Johnson

For the past few months, I haven’t had much of a motivation to write. It’s been hard and I’m not entirely sure why either. But as of right now, I feel like my mind is working on overdrive. It’s always like this at least a few times a year. As much as I love this high, I know eventually the low will come. Because of that, I know there’s a few things I need to do right now.

I like to learn as much now while my brain is still turning. The reason for it is because once this high wears off, I’m going to want to put some of what I learned into action.

The way I like to work is I like to set goals and then systematically make steps to get to that goal. If I didn’t do it that way, whatever my goals are it would overwhelm me and stress me out if I think about it. Just complete one small step at a time and eventually I’ll get there. And that’s kind of why I don’t believe in writer’s block.

When that high ends and my mind is normal, or as normal as it can be anyway, then it’s back to the grind. And even if I have my lows or life gets busy then because I already set up a way to work, I don’t lose as much steam. I just keep at it and keep at it until I reach my goal. It’s not until I reach my goal or get close to it then I can finally take a look back. If I just looked ahead, I would freak and and never feel like I’ll never get there. Doing this way also causes things to speed up towards the end. It’s like a race. You start out slow and steady and then when you can see the end in sight, you run faster.

Even though I systematically do things this way, sometimes I do need a little push. I am human, after all. If I get a message saying that someone enjoyed my books, a good review, or that they can’t wait for my next one, that really pushes me especially if I’m having a bad day, or struggling with life. If you think that you don’t need to reach out to your favorite creator because they’re not going to read your comment, think again. It may come at a perfect time, and even if they don’t respond personally, they’ll appreciate it all the same. In a world where it’s easier to reach out to people, say hi.

Marc Johnson

I released CATALYST in 2011. The publishing industry–both traditional and indie–have drastically changed in that time. I learned a lot of things–some good and some bad. But most importantly, I learned three things that I did wrong that will forever stick with me.

3. REVIEWS

Reviews are a tricky thing because all writers need them. I certainly needed them in the beginning and still do (hint, hint), but I didn’t quite know who to go to for them. Or more accurately, I didn’t know who my target audience was.

I thought my audience was meant for people like me–gamers, nerds, geeks, whatever you want to call us. And while it is, I forgot that I had originally first written CAT when I was 13. While both the main character, the story, and themes do get more mature and darker, it does start off skewing towards the younger audience. It took me awhile to realize that THE PASSAGE OF HELLSFIRE was for people who were not necessarily young, but young at heart.

Unfortunately, the world is very bitter and jaded these days. And while I’m not against bad reviews as long as reviewers explain the why and don’t attack the person, that first review I got stung. It was my very first review, it was a negative one, and I was personally attacked. Fun times.

2. MARKETING

I knew from listening to other podcasts and reading articles that you should really only market when you have at least three pieces of work out. I didn’t adhere to that piece of advice, and I’m not entirely sure I why.

I think it was because I was anxious. I had been working on CAT since I was 13. It was time to stop fine tuning it and just let it out into the world. I also thought that I could be different. That in the indie boom that I would be one of the ones that would break through. I don’t know what I was thinking honestly. I knew that it would be some time before I came out with the second book, WHAT ONCE WAS ONE. I just thought it wouldn’t be that long because I had already written WOWO. How much work could that be when you’ve already written a few drafts of the second book? Turns out a lot.

1. COVERS

I’m not a graphic designer, but I do have an eye for what makes a good graphic design. But since I’m not one, I still have much to learn.

I knew what I wanted with my first couple of covers. I wanted something symbolic–an image that would represent the story. And while my cover designers did a good job. With the exception of the WOWO ebook cover, I wasn’t blown away.

I always felt like something was missing, but I couldn’t quite place it nor did I want to spend thousands of dollars trying to figure that out with some of the more expensive people. Unfortunately, I did end up spending thousands or close to it, for all the covers I did get done just to end up changing it. They all add up. I’m not sure how or why, but I found the people I currently work with and they blew me away with what they came up with.

One of the biggest problems I had with my previous designers was that I had to hand hold them too much. I would give them ideas of what I wanted and what the story represented yet they still seemed to struggle with it. They couldn’t seem to get it right and needed more info. Maybe I didn’t do a good job of explaining myself, or maybe they needed more structure. I don’t have that issue with the current team I work with.

Also, I should have just used one designer to do book my ebook and print book. My reasoning was they are different so one cover may not work for the other and vice versa. Or, what I should have realized at the time, is that I could have hired people good enough to do a cover that would look good on both.

I will not lose, for even in defeat, there’s a valuable lesson learned, so it evens it up for me.

Marc Johnson

Thoughts?

In my last post, I said I wasn’t going to do a review of CBS All Access All New The Twilight Zone. I guess I couldn’t help myself. It makes me angry because The Twilight Zone is not only my favorite show of all time, it’s the best show of all time. Let’s break it down where the new one goes wrong.

1. IT’S TOO LONG

There was one bad season of TZ in the 60s, and it was the 4th season. The 4th season didn’t work because it was an hour long. Shows that are an hour long are ensembles. You have a minimum of four characters and two plots running. But in the 60s and in today’s reboot, it doesn’t have any of that. It’s still 45 minutes to 1 hour long with 2 characters and one plot. The pacing drags and any sort of surprise isn’t there because you’re able to see it miles ahead of where it’s going. You wish it would get their faster because you’re bored.

A 20-30 minute episode works best because it’s focused. You usually don’t see the ending coming but it does make sense when it gets there. You don’t have time to be bored and they don’t have time to drag things out.

2. TOO MANY THEMES

Because it’s an hour long show now, they pack too many things in it. Things like themes. Instead of being a tightly packed episode with one prevalent theme, there’s three or four. Since there’s so many, none of them are strong. They’re all diluted. Yes, the classic TZ episodes had more than one theme, but those secondary themes were off shoots of the primary one. Or they were themes you could find if you looked at the episode differently. In the current show, themes are crammed in and they don’t flow from one another and then the previous one is forgotten.

3. KILLS THE MYSTERY

In a shorter format, you don’t explain everything. You don’t explain why a boy has powers, why the world is a dictatorship, why they exile people on their own planet, why there’s a monster on a plane, and so on. You just don’t have time to. Why things are the way they are aren’t important. It’s how people deal with them that’s important and that usually relates to theme. It’s less impactful if you explain the why.

They explain everything here. It’s aliens, they elected the boy, men are bad because they choose to be not because of some rock, etc. Yet even though they explain everything they still don’t explain the reasons as to why characters do the dumbest things.

4. LACK OF VISION

People always complain about the length of the show as the number one thing against it. But I believe this is the lack of vision is main reason why the new show doesn’t work. I was excited for the show because I thought it was going to be Jordan Peele’s vision much like the original was Rod Serling’s vision. I had thought Peele was going to write shows that were based on what he wanted to talk about or experienced.

I was wrong.

Jordan Peele is just a mouthpiece. He has no footprint on this show or if he does, I can’t tell because it’s so minimal. Judging from his movies and sketch comedy show, like every writer, he has something to speak about. He has ideas, stories, and themes from his point of view and his background. You can tell Rod Serling had has fingerprints on the original show. Unfortunately, Jordan Peele does not. I wonder if that will change next season of if he’ll leave because of his lack to do so? Until it has the guidance of one man’s vision, it will always feel like a corporate produced show.

5. WHERE ARE THE WRITERS?

The original Twilight Zone had some of the greatest writers on the show. I can’t name one writer on the current show. From all the marketing and promotion, they’re constantly pushing all the famous actors they’ve signed on board. And while the actors do a good job, they’re just that–actors. Actors get all the credit, but it’s the writers who come up with the dialogue, the ideas, the characters, and the themes. When a writer does his job well, much like a referee, you’ll never know it.

Instead of spending all their time trying to get the big name actors, they need to focus on poaching writers. I would feel far more comfortable if it was “Written by the Person Who Did X” rather than “Starring Blah, Blah, Blah.” Writers are always forgotten because “anyone can write.”

It’s a shame really. I was so looking forward to this new Twilight Zone reiteration. I actually liked the previous ones to varying degrees. They were solid and sometimes good, in their own way. But this new one is terrible. Here’s hoping they get the next one right.

Marc Johnson