Ya Hear Me?

What do you hear right now? Is it the hum of traffic? The murmur of your computer? The chatter coming from people in the other room? The tweeting of birds?

How often do I listen? This is a question that struck me the other day. I work on a farm and a lot of that work is alone or done with loud machinery running. Therefore I like to use an MP3 (yes, those still exist) to listen to things while I work. A lot of the time it feels like I have earphones in my ears over half the day. And yes, audio books and music are important and can be entertaining (more on that a bit later), but for me they seem to take over my life. It's like reading a good book: I just can't wait to get back to it. With an audio book, all I have to do is plug in my earphones and I'm off! It doesn't matter who is around me or what I'm doing, I can listen to that audio book while blocking the rest of the world out.

Sure, it hurts relationships if I listen too much. Sure things get confused because I'm not paying attention to what people say, but at least I'll figure out what happens next!

I've come to this conclusion before. "I'm not listening to others enough! I'm not praying enough!" So out come the earphones and away goes the MP3. I've 'fasted' from my MP3 for weeks before. At first it works: I feel more observant, more worshipful, more 'happy'. Then things start to get ugly. My thoughts start taking over. That's when I turn to my MP3 just to get away from my awful thoughts. And the cycle begins again.

Is that right? Am I just using my MP3 at that point as a block to ignore dealing with evil thoughts? Maybe. But that's not the point. The point is that sometimes listening to others (or even just unplugging) can help. Sure, there's nothing inherently wrong with audio books or music. Audio books are just like books: they can build you up or burn you down. The point is not to stop listening, but to stop listening too much to the wrong things.

There, those are my thoughts. Quite a roundabout way of saying it, but I like long-cuts. Hope you understood what I was trying to say.
And a quick side-note: I got interviewed! Here's a link.

Villainous

Every good book has a villain. Sasha is the villain of The Missing Kitten. Who is she? Here's an abridged excerpt of a conversation between Rambo and Old Corny to explain more:

“Who is she?” I asked. “All I know is her name is Sasha.”

Corny froze. “Sasha, did you say?”

“You know her?” I stepped forward in anticipation.

“She travels around these parts. They told tales about her even when I was young. She’s a murderer, a plotter. She makes plans for animals to destroy others then leaves them to do the dirty work. She’s a criminal consultant, you might say. Though, ‘monster’ is closer to the mark.”

“What would she be doing here?”

“Just passing through, maybe. Though, if she’s here to stay, you can be sure dark days are coming.”

“Like what? What should I be expecting?”
Corny looked straight into my eyes. “Has anything weird been going on lately? Disappearances of items, animals, anything like that which you haven’t been able to explain?”

I thought for a moment. “Seabert hasn’t turned up recently… I’m sure he’s just off on a romp.”

Corny paled. “That’s not good.”

I agreed, turning serious. “What do I do?”

“Find Seabert. Keep close tabs on everyone else. Search the farm for him, get everyone on the job. He must be found. If he’s not around, you can be sure Sasha has something to do with it.”

“If I can’t find him, what should my plan of action be?”

Corny paused. “Let’s hope you don’t have to worry about that.”

I looked him in the eye. “If I can’t find him, if he is wrapped up in Sasha’s plan, what do I do to stop her?”

“If he’s a part of Sasha’s plan and he’s been captured, or kidnapped, or whatever; then, I’m sorry, but I don’t know if anything else can be done. Your best hope is to find him before she does. If you can’t, then reconcile yourself to the fact that he could be lost forever.”

Sound creepy? Sound villainous? That's the hope.
Will Sasha be back in later books? Who knows? Maybe if I'm begged enough.
Again, you can find The Missing Kitten on Amazon. If you've already read it, don't for get to review it on Amazon, on Goodreads, or just tell a friend!
Once again, thanks for coming to my blog and listening to me talk about all sorts of stuff. I hope you have a great day!

Interview

It was my pleasure to meet with Samantha and interview her about her writing habits and styles.


Jesse (J): Thank you for meeting with me, Samantha. We're here to ask you a few questions. (glances at Rambo) Rambo, why are you in a bouncy castle?

Rambo (R): (while bouncing) It makes things more medieval.

J: (shakes his head) This is going to be a long interview.

Samantha (S): Never give this guy sugar...

J: What is your favorite type of story to write?

S: To be honest, I absolutely love Fantasy. Fantasy as a main, with a sprinkling of... Everything else. Ahaha. I also enjoy a good fanfic when I'm up to it.J: Who are your favorite authors?

S: This. Is. So. Hard. Well, let me see here. I absolutely love Louisa May Alcott, Mary Norton, Laura Ingalls Wilder, Lucy Maud Montgomery, Franklin Dixon/Carolyn Keen.J: What are your favorite books?

S: Well, I love Little Women, Little Men, The Borrowers, The Little House series, the Anne Series, Nancy Drew/Hardy Boys, Pilgrim's Progress, Babysitters Club, Passages, etc. So many books, so little time. (sighs)

J: What are some of your favorite books in the genre of literature you like to write most?

S: Well, Passages, definitely. And Borrowers. As far as others, I've not really gotten to read that many fantasy-based books. I do read a lot of fantasy-based fanfic short stories, though. (smiles)

J: Describe your personality.

S: Hmm. I'm never good at these things. Despite what I may appear online, offline I'm very, very shy, and very, very sensitive. I'm pretty quiet, and I mostly like it that way. However, it does get pretty annoying when I want to speak up. (chuckles) I'm introverted. That about sums it up.

J: Are you a panster or a planner?

S: Hmm. I'm actually neutral between those two. It depends on the story, and the inspiration, if that makes sense...

J: What is your favorite pass time (besides writing, of course)?

S: Apart from writing, I absolutely adore music. And art. I'm basically into the arts, which I consider writing, reading, acting, music, crafting, and the like to be under. I also enjoy thinking and debating through writing. I'm not brave enough to do it in person, heh. I also enjoy listening to Adventures in Odyssey, and studying theology.

R: Perhaps we should have a debate blog post!

J: How about... no. Samantha, what is your favorite inspirational device?

S: Hmm. I'm not sure, but I'd probably have to say music. Music helps inspire so much in me. If not music, then it would be current issues, or the Bible.

J: Do you prefer silence when writing, or do you like to listen to music, watch movies, etc.?

S: Again, it depends on what I'm writing. I prefer silence most of the time, but I'll listen to music a lot when writing too.

J: Do you find a recurring theme in any of your writing?

S: Best friends, a sense of magic, perhaps a little romance. That sort of thing. *Nods*

J: Are you published/planning on getting published in the near future? If published, what have you written? If planning on it, what is your current work in progress?

S: I plan on becoming published, but I'm not sure exactly what piece I'm going to do it with. I have a few fantasy pieces I'm working on, but they are nothing special. Actually, they're far from it. More like... Embarrassing. Heh.

J: Well, thank you Samantha for spending time with us today. It was a great pleasure to meet you and I hope you enjoyed this as much as I did.

R: Jesse, my tail is stuck in the drawbridge.


Samantha14 is an up and coming writer. You can read some of her work on her blog. She also moderates an Adventures in Odyssey forum. Check out her stuff, and thank you for joining me here today!

Difficulties of Blogging

Well, I think it's safe to say I'm running out of content. There's only so much I can say about my book(s), random thoughts that pop into my head, or absurd rants by cats (I apologize for letting that happen. I suppose I should have made a cleverer password than 'Rambos#1'. Don't worry, it's changed now.). When I like to post at least once a day, that puts a lot of stress of me to come up with clever stuff to say. Unfortunately, I'm not that clever all the time (I have moments, but only moments).
So I'm going to try something different. I'll still try to post once a day, but I might be making a schedule! Restrictions are difficult, but they can sometimes be helpful. I still need to work on the schedule, though. It's not made up yet, so no need to fear. You'll still have the chaotic blog posts for a short while longer.
What I'm thinking is posting stuff about my books one day a week, maybe short stories or excerpts another day, and maybe (if I beg enough people) guest posts on anything the guest likes. This is still all in flux, so don't hold me to anything.
What else can I talk about...
Well, I've been writing a bit. I've written about 70 some pages of Trapped! Book two in Kitten Mysteries. I hope everyone's going to enjoy it.
Again, I apologize for letting Rambo sneak on here. It won't happen again (unless the audience demands it, or I run out of content.)
I think that's all I have to talk about. 10^4 and all that.

One more thing! I have my first review! If you've read my book, go ahead and give it a review. I won't cry (too much), just give an honest review. Whether on Amazon or Goodreads, or just to a friend, go ahead and review my book if you have the time. Thanks!

Back to Basics

Hello! This is Rambo, hacking Jesse's blog! He's talking too much about smart stuff, like philosophy, theology, and ethics. It's time for me to take over and get you all thinking about what this blog was created for: me.
Now, you'd like some back story on me? Well, I'm a teenager cat (what you humans would call teenager, anyways) and I'm in a story that Jesse 'wrote' called The Missing Kitten (which you can buy on Amazon or Createspace). It's part of a series called Kitten Mysteries (it really should be called Rambo: The Amazing Detective, or something like that). I was born a while back and was raised by Old Corny, the cat who lives in the cornfield next to our farm. Spot and Butch are my siblings, but we're not related. (If you read the books, you would know all this stuff.)
There's a lot more I could tell you, but some stuff has to get revealed in the stories! And some stuff I'm a little fuzzy on myself... Jesse claims to have done some research on this stuff, but I'm not too sure.
Anyway, I hope you enjoyed my hacking Jesse's blog and maybe I'll be back later.
Be sure to buy Jesse's book! I get 4% of the profits and a cat treat per book! I can't wait! :) (Smily faces, who knew?)

Face to Face

This is the first post of things I learned on my missions trip. I learned this while away from the internet for a week, so it might be slightly hallucinatory and make little sense.
What did I learn? There's nothing better than a face to face conversation.
Sure, the internet is nice for keeping up with people and for learning things. However, it is basically useless when it comes to real conversations. Why?
A. It takes too long to respond.
This is obvious, especially with emails. Sure, you can have conversations this way, but it just doesn't feel as connecting as a real conversation. You miss body language, verbal cues, and it takes too long for the other person to respond. There's no one over there to answer your question or comment on your statements until you've already left. This is fixed with chat rooms, but then you still run into another problem.
B. It's hard to explain yourself over written word.
This is especially true when debating someone over the internet. You post a huge novel of a response, then wait for them to respond, and find they've asked a question about the beginning of your speech. You answer that, get sidetracked on that discussion, and never get around to working through the big stuff. This can happen in real life too, but at least then it would save you the time of going through the unused words. And, with written word, you miss body language from the other person. And, over the internet, you sometimes can't tell if a person is asking a genuine question, being sarcastic, or just trying to aggravate you while ignoring what you say.
Now, most of the time, you can't be with your friends all the time. That is what makes the internet great. It keeps people together, and your 'conversations' can go a lot quicker than when we had to wait for letters to come in the mail. Still, a lot of the time I'd rather jump to the internet and do a quick email or Facebook message than actually talk to a person face to face. This keeps up the relationship, but it doesn't really help it grow.
Growing your relationships is something best done face to face.

I'm Back!

Hello Everyone! I've returned from the land of the monsters.
Actually, no. I wasn't in the land of the monsters. I wasn't even taking an internet break to keep my sanity (well, kind of...). I was actually on a Missions Trip to Cherokee, North Carolina. There my Youth Group and another teamed up to shingle a roof and paint the rest of the house. It was quite fun, especially when the weather was in the 90's. (Not the 1990's, I don't have a time travel device... yet).
That's why I haven't been posting. I wasn't missing, I wasn't going on all sorts of book tours, I was working. Now, that's all that's left of this shabby blog post. Maybe I'll have more time to write something exquisite after I get caught up with my farm work.
Talk to ya'll later. (I used "ya'll"! NC must have rubbed off on me.)