I get myself into a bit trouble all over the place - online and offline - cause I got this speech impediment problem called a reduced filter which allows crazy thoughts from my head to just slip right outta my mouth. Well, sometimes it's not ideal to express out loud certain thoughts you are having inside your little fantasy world - in my case, the Maxtopia.

So it's kinda tricky-dicky, right? See, I can pretty much write anything I want in a story and that's cool 'cause that's all fabrication, and it's the character(s) opinions, not the author's. That's right, the characters aren't the author. Okay, they kind of are the author since the author does create them . . . for the love of the flying cat god do not give me that stale argument about 'my characters take on a life of their own and I don't tell them what to do - 'cause that's just writerly romanticism. I love my characters, even the bad ones, but I know they're always under my thumb. They're like actors and actresses that I hired and I'm the director. They jump when I say jump and they strip when I say strip. Fortunately they don't have contracts so they can't refuse anything I tell them to do. I say, "You gotta get in a shower scene and realize something alien is growing out of your anus" and they gotta say, "Hand me the Ivory soap."

Oh, and swearing in fiction? That's a debate I grew tired of having years ago back in my critique group. There's an audience out their for anything - read enough and you'd know that, and wouldn't bother arguing with people 'cause you'd just read on the side of the fence you prefer and let the other side be. Enough of this Hatfield and McCoy bullshit, okay? My writing ain't clean by a long shot, but even if I took out all the potty language it would still be considered filthy under most people's standards due to the graphic nature of the content. I'll beat this nail on the head some more in the future, but for now just a quick tap-tap with the mallet: I was raised in the south (USA) and like most folk there I got respect and manners whipped into me at a young age, from parents, grandparents, and Pentecostal Sunday school teachers. I walked the straight and narrow.

But then shit happened to me. Bad shit. Toughened me up in that School Of Hard Knocks, and I got jaded. I got dragged into some dark places, too, mostly personal Hells.

So when I write I write raw, no holds barred, balls to the wall 'cause for me it's all or nothing; I don't like to use rose-colored shades and hand out puppies and kitty cats (although puppies and kitty cats are fucking cool!)

There's that crowd out there that weigh in on this ad nauseam debate with something like: good writers can write without relying on four-letter words.

Yeah, that's true. There's also good writers who can make an art out of four-letter words. To each their own, different strokes for different folks - and that's the greatest beauty of this world is everyone can choose what they prefer and not have to be like everyone else.

To the readers out there and potential fans: I'm known amongst many of my peers to frequently go off on rantng tangents like the one above, and that these are most often stream of conscious with no filtering. They are meant purely for entertainment and oddity. I could do like most other writers do and talk non-stop about how to write and how to get published or interview other writers that no one but other authors will care to read about - even then, those authors don't really care but just go through the motions of social expected niceties; because let's all face it, most of us lack the insight to achieve self-awareness.

But that's a massive bore! Why not make my blog a party in the cellar for the crazy kids who like to play with homebrewed Ouija boards while watching '80s slasher flicks while we all wear zombie make-up and drink like our livers are made of iron.

(As a precautionary statement: Please drink responsibly - and by that I mean get the 30 beers instead of 18 so you don't have to drive back to the station drunk at 7 in the evening.)

Okay then, I guess I'm all done now.