 I'm nominating the Masquerade Crew themselves for The Mask Award! They are an increasingly helpful and supportive site for the community of indie writers and should not go unnoticed! I've learned a lot from the Masq Crew and appreciate all their efforts toward making it easier for writers to get a toe-hold in this industry. Long live the Masq Crew! Follow instructions at their blog link below for your own nominations.http://masqueradecrew.blogspot.com/2012/05/mask-awards-best-blogs-for-writers.html
 The Mask Awards: The Best Blogs for Writers (via The Masquerade Crew) One of my biggest goals with this site is to connect with the right kind of people, and in case of the Internet, the right kind of blogs. I've been lucky a couple of times, stumbling into someone or a service that has greatly impacted what we do here. I want to share some of those with you, so I am…
Many people have asked me what it is, exactly, that we mean to do - we poets, writers and journalists who scramble up words with deliberate dictions and sometimes loaded obscurity (personally, I try in my work to be clear). I can only say that to me it is a calling. It is a compulsion. It is a formidable responsibility. It is an incurable disease.
Driven to lie low in sacred cow pastures, we wait for a first whiff of "something's not right here", then race maniacally through the streets raving and tearing our hair, screaming foul play. Who in their right mind would consciously choose such a vulnerable profession? Truth be told, most of us have no choice. It descends uninvited, like a pox - destiny's cockamamie idea of a good joke!
We've been here through time, the world over, harnessing our energies for holocausts to come, always poised to become red-faced with howling at perceived injustice and abuse of raw power whenever and wherever it occurs.
The fact of the matter is that, however it may really seem, we are not builders of the world, but its explainers. We are keepers of the collective sanity, in our ironically imprudent way. Striving to crush the vain idols of greed and intolerance with our sadly inadequate feet of clay, none of us is immune to falling prey to those same false gods. It is an hourly struggle to not only examine the ills of society, but to police our own deepest motives as well.
This is not to say that all we do is look for blatant negatives. Among us are powerful creators who weave the tender and the magnificent into incredible poetry and stories that wholly transport us to another plane of existence. There is much in the world that is beautiful, positive and inspiring…and even more for which we should simply be thankful. Certain of us neglect these aspects more than we'd like in an effort to speak for the otherized, forgotten and voiceless.
It is a fact that in writing about hopelessness from our lofty, secure havens, not many of us would be willing to relinquish that security to become one with the hopeless…but maybe that is what progress is all about. Whoever is lucky enough to get out of the muck first reaches a hand to others still struggling in it. At least that is the ideal.
For all that is wonderful about humanity, there are many of us who serve in the capacity of exposing life's not so pretty underbelly in an effort to awaken and enlighten those who deny or don't know of its existence. It is increasingly easy in our high-tech lives to become smug and complacent - blind to those problems that do not tangibly affect our own orbits and concerns. The fact is that we are intricately connected to every facet of this planet and its inhabitants in ways that may not be immediately apparent. I would say yes, we are our brothers' keepers; and if this species is to continue to flourish, we must give respect and acceptance to each member and rejoice in our glorious diversity.
At times in our history, even in the present day, writers have come close to being an endangered species… having been exiled, imprisoned, executed and greatly maligned. But, will we go the way of dying herds, massacred by intolerant, mumbling prigs? I think not. We may be plowed under, buried, or our ashes flung to the winds, but we will inevitably sprout again the unkillable weed of our discontent from the rotting field of misused power - fueled by the sweet, soft rain of all that is good. For all the manic highs and lows, the agony, joy, the sheer frustration and isolation a writer's life brings, we are powerless to find the heart to do anything else. It is, after all, a labor of love.
--Jo VonBargen 2012
__
(For the tearful US vet viewed on PBS
and all his fellow wounded)
I came up over the rise
said the vet, to find myself face
to face with death,
a German soldier
pointing his rifle straight
at my chest; I had no chance
to raise mine
we stood there awhile, youth
to youth, desire to
desire, tandemly clothed in
drab weeds of war, intent
on a mission planned out by
strangers, safe
and sound in a room
full of maps far, far away from
this once verdant
meadow, this river
of blood
I saw in his eyes not man,
not monster, but an unwelcome
glimpse of forever; he saw
in mine a quivering
flame, unready, unwilling
to be snuffed to that
darkness ahead of my time
in that frozen moment, he
summoned a courage far
beyond killing for
country or cause
his eyes
slowly softened, freeing
the breath I’d held as
my last, and, shaking his
head, he dropped to
the ground the cold, hard
steel, leaning upon it
as if it were now a cane
said he in a soft, wistful voice,
"for you, the war is over"
I live every hour, each
undeserved minute,
burdened with knowing
for absolute certain I’d never
have been that brave
or that kind
--Jo VonBargen 2011
God bless our troops, from all wars, everywhere.
Especially those still suffering,
reliving the horror.
 AMAZON PRODUCT DESCRIPTION
A tightly crafted legal thriller written by an attorney who knows the law.
A national coalition known as the Christian Militants attempts to overthrow the United States government and all hell breaks loose. As the rebellion threatens to divide the nation, two unlikely leaders arise in the opposing camps. Will they save the Union, usher in the Kingdom of God or plunge the United States into all-out civil war?
***********************************************
The first thing that caught my eye in this novel was the panoply of character names: Ert Roberts, Leadoff Pickens, Quanah Parker Brown, etc. I found myself giggling knowingly. (Quanah Parker's mother was first buried right up the road.) As a resident of East Texas and frequenter of town squares, fiddlin' contests, and Walmart, I would have guessed from where this author hailed even without a byline. I don't know what possesses mothers in this area to name their babies as such; one guesses it is to separate them from the garden variety Bubba Jays. Texas has no dearth of colorful characters, and East Texas has them in spades. No need to make this stuff up. No sirreee. I say this with all due respect (NO, I am not writing this to "Dueling Banjoes"); my own roots go all the way to the backwoods of Tennessee, and there's no way of knowing if the family tree even forked, let alone branched.
On a "seriouser" note, Stephen Woodfin has delivered a BOMB of a novel here. Why would this surprise me? He claims to be an attorney. Nah. Number one, any lawyer joke I ever heard doesn't come near fitting his depth of character. Number two, no practice would hire someone who could out-write most masters of the literary canon, for fear of being overshadowed. That said, however, no one would believe I was once the general manager for an English Rose company, either. Good writers should give up the eating habit. If he is indeed an attorney, he needs to quit and devote more time to cranking out these profound novels. Woodfin, your country needs you.
Always a fan of apocalyptic anything, I was taken with the immediacy of a breathless, first-page plunge into the action of this story, thanks to character Ithurial Finis. See what I mean about names? (Ithuriel - "discovery of God" - is one of the 3 deputy sarim (princes) of the holy sefiroth serving under the ethnarchy of the angel Sephuriron in 16th century literature) How appropriate! The author regularly weaves classic references like this into all his writing, revealing the striking underpinning of vast knowledge and education. Be assured that anything he pens is a wealth of learnedness that continually intrigues the careful reader. No yawns holding a Woodfin book!
Don't be daunted by the huge number of chapters herein; the story moves along at breathless speed, each chapter more dire than the last. One almost needs an oxygen tank. I won't go into the brilliance of plot, the exquisiteness of language, or any of those things others have already said. It's all there; it's all perfectly there. Ultimately the purpose of reading, for me, is to learn and to feel something of the author's spirit and worldview during the act of creation. I learned. I deeply felt. I'm still free-falling toward a vastly changed home turf, out of that rose-colored glider from which Stephen Woodfin so ably and purposefully shoved me.
The unsettling thing about Next Best Hope is its possibility. At any moment, with the slightest impetus, these events could unfold as written in the real world - this existence where polarization has taken root like an unkillable weed, each of us caught up in our own little orbits of ambition, rampant consumerism and self-fulfillment to the degree that we haven't taken seriously the burgeoning, low roar emanating from the neighborhood tea parties of God's self-appointed elite. One need only look at the rest of the world to see how that turns out. Have we failed to absorb the disturbingly high body count numbers of those who have been murdered in the name of one god or another? Do we really believe that power and greed don't also occupy church pews and pulpits? We ignore these things at our own peril.
I submit that the public should read this author's fiction en masse, not just for the thrill, which it definitely will be, but for a strong dose of HOW it might be. A distasteful potion? For sure. Will it be good for us? Without question. And speaking of questions, we simply have to ask: is Stephen Woodfin the H. G. Wells or George Orwell of our time? If he's still a practicing lawyer in ten years, we'll know.
--Jo VonBargen 2012
 Knockout! A Passionate Police Romance
Amazon Product Description:
A #1 Kindle Best Seller in Romantic Suspense, Romantic Adventure and Women Sleuths
Interpol cop, Anna Leyton, spirals down into a hopeless vortex of sexual and emotional passion as she fights to keep her professional cool. Who is deceiving who in this fast moving ride across continents? What motivates her art loving prize-bull of a lover Freddie La Salle? The power of love and trust stands against greed and crime as conflicting forces grapple for that knockout punch.
*********************************************
This book is HOT. It is HOT because it is so, so incredibly intelligent!
The language. The LANGUAGE!! Emma Calin's work is amusing, diverse and insightful, with razor-sharp dialogue to sweep you along. She's brash, bold, witty, emotionally intelligent, and perhaps most importantly, she's smart. She uses words to imperceptibly cast an invisible net over your brain and heart to capture and pull you in. The delicious, descriptive language and imagery can only come from a fine poet at her best.
In a romance novel you expect to see flailing arms, legs and thinly veiled private parts, with all the accompanying pawings, slobberings, steam risings and quasi-porn-film dialog. Much too easy. In this novel, sex is treated so tenderly, lovingly and naturally, the term "romance novel" seems too limiting. This is a high quality suspense novel interwoven with an intriguing love story! It is quite intelligently treated and utterly unpredictable.
Now don't get me wrong. The sensuality here made me feel things in places I didn't know I still had places. #oh!hellotherelibido This is the magic of it. To me, the blatant over-use of raw sex and pornish dialog is always a turn-off...very comical, in fact...and thoroughly unenjoyable.
Anna Leyton is as human as an author can make her. A real woman with authentic feelings, foibles, doubts and fears. A woman with courage, with a strong moral code, a woman capable of giving and receiving great love. In fact, all of the characters in this story are completely fleshed out and quite believable.
The author does a great job of fore-and-aft-shadowing and pacing, keeping the reader completely engrossed and unwilling to set it aside, even to eat. I highly recommend you read it, not only for the entertainment, but for the lasting impact this author will have on your mind. You will want to seek out everything she writes. She is a shining example of the quintessential sassy, smart and educated woman we all so dearly admire. And you will remember Anna Leyton.
--Jo VonBargen 2012
 Amazon Product Description:
The story of Gerald and Kathleen, a helicopter crew chief and a U.S. Army Nurse, who meet in Vietnam after Gerald is seriously wounded. Gerald is transferred to Brooke Army Hospital near San Antonio, for rehabilitation. Kathleen is transferred to Brooke because she has served three tours in Vietnam and is on the point of total burn out.
Gerald recovers, leaves the Army, and tries to return to civilian life. Kathleen leaves the Army, opting to stay in San Antonio, working at St. Mary's Hospital.
For twenty years they experience the aftermath of war, something we now call PTSD. Finally they begin separately traveling the roads they hope will take them home.
*********************
Once again, Bert Carson's writing has grabbed me by the gut, slung me into a world I couldn't know, and left me gasping at his soulful, creative brilliance. Such a well crafted story leaves one with the feeling that, even though fiction, this author has lived this stuff; he has birthed these characters from his own harrowing war experiences and brought them to credible life here.
Bert is a natural-born raconteur....on any subject. Ask anyone who knows him. If he'd been born in West Africa, he would have been the highly revered griot, traveling from village to village relating the stories and lore of the times, never ever missing a detail, a fact or a beat.
Like all of his writing, this novel has a wonderful redemptive quality. Even when he's taking you down through the dark, harrowing valleys of human experience, you can rest assured he will get you to the other side renewed, refreshed and ready to climb with hope and vigor up to the mountain top, where the light of the universe has transformed him and thereby, you.
No one who hasn't been through war really knows much about PTSD * (see below); it's a term tossed around so often these days the reality of it sort of gets overlooked. In 'Maddog & Miss Kitty', the author has given us one of the best pieces of writing I've ever seen which is both entrancing, entertaining, and educational. He weaves the reality of this condition into the story so cleverly, you don't even know you're learning something, and indeed, one is left with a new, deeper empathy for those who have served in our military. I knew of these things before, but I didn't really know them til I read this amazing story.
The four short stories after the end of the novel are a lovely bonus, beautifully written, and continue his underlying theme. Thoroughly enjoyable!
Bert Carson, as I've said before, has an amazing intellect which shines through all his work, and a wonderful humility and soulfulness which touches us deeply. This novel will stick with you, I promise. I strongly urge you to read it.
*Trauma and PTSD
The essential psychological effect of trauma is a shattering of innocence - utter disillusionment: it means a loss of faith that there is any safety, predictability, or meaning in the world, or any safe place to hide. These events are often unable to be processed by the mind and body as other experiences are, and due to their overwhelming and shocking nature, they are not integrated or digested. The trauma might then have continued effects, haunting the survivor and preventing normal life from continuing until the person receives help.
Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a condition created by exposure to a psychologically distressing event outside the range of usual human experience, one which would be markedly distressing to almost anyone, and which causes intense fear, terror, and helplessness. The trauma is an assault to the person’s biology and psyche. The event may have happened recently or a long time ago, leaving that person with lingering conditions such as hyper-arousal, re-experiencing, or avoidance (numbing down).
Trauma, like unresolved grief, can cause overwhelming feelings, depression, agitation and anxiety, mistrust of others, difficulty in relationships, shame, guilt, despair or a sense of meaninglessness, and helplessness and hopelessness. Returning to one's previous family, social or work life is impossible for some, and psychotherapy provides a safe place for trauma survivors to tell their story, feel less isolated, and tolerate knowing what happened.
Psychologists help patients make connections between feelings and symptoms occurring in the present and aspects of the traumatic event(s). Through treatment, survivors begin to make sense of what happened and how it affected them, understand themselves and the world again in light of it, and ultimately restore relationships and connections in their lives.
--Jo VonBargen 2012
Amazon Product Description:
The story of Gerald and Kathleen, a helicopter crew chief and a U.S. Army Nurse, who meet in Vietnam after Gerald is seriously wounded. Gerald is transferred to Brooke Army Hospital near San Antonio, for rehabilitation. Kathleen is transferred to Brooke because she has served three tours in Vietnam and is on the point of total burn out.
Gerald recovers, leaves the Army, and tries to return to civilian life. Kathleen leaves the Army, opting to stay in San Antonio, working at St. Mary's Hospital.
For twenty years they experience the aftermath of war, something we now call PTSD. Finally they begin separately traveling the roads they hope will take them home.
*********************
Once again, Bert Carson's writing has grabbed me by the gut, slung me into a world I couldn't know, and left me gasping at his soulful, creative brilliance. Such a well crafted story leaves one with the feeling that, even though fiction, this author has lived this stuff; he has birthed these characters from his own harrowing war experiences and brought them to credible life here.
Bert is a natural-born raconteur....on any subject. Ask anyone who knows him. If he'd been born in West Africa, he would have been the highly revered griot, traveling from village to village relating the stories and lore of the times, never ever missing a detail, a fact or a beat.
Like all of his writing, this novel has a wonderful redemptive quality. Even when he's taking you down through the dark, harrowing valleys of human experience, you can rest assured he will get you to the other side renewed, refreshed and ready to climb with hope and vigor up to the mountain top, where the light of the universe has transformed him and thereby, you.
No one who hasn't been through war really knows much about PTSD * (see below); it's a term tossed around so often these days the reality of it sort of gets overlooked. In 'Maddog & Miss Kitty', the author has given us one of the best pieces of writing I've ever seen which is both entrancing, entertaining, and educational. He weaves the reality of this condition into the story so cleverly, you don't even know you're learning something, and indeed, one is left with a new, deeper empathy for those who have served in our military. I knew of these things before, but I didn't really know them til I read this amazing story.
The four short stories after the end of the novel are a lovely bonus, beautifully written, and continue his underlying theme. Thoroughly enjoyable!
Bert Carson, as I've said before, has an amazing intellect which shines through all his work, and a wonderful humility and soulfulness which touches us deeply. This novel will stick with you, I promise. I strongly urge you to read it.
*Trauma and PTSD
The essential psychological effect of trauma is a shattering of innocence - utter disillusionment: it means a loss of faith that there is any safety, predictability, or meaning in the world, or any safe place to hide. These events are often unable to be processed by the mind and body as other experiences are, and due to their overwhelming and shocking nature, they are not integrated or digested. The trauma might then have continued effects, haunting the survivor and preventing normal life from continuing until the person receives help.
Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a condition created by exposure to a psychologically distressing event outside the range of usual human experience, one which would be markedly distressing to almost anyone, and which causes intense fear, terror, and helplessness. The trauma is an assault to the person’s biology and psyche. The event may have happened recently or a long time ago, leaving that person with lingering conditions such as hyper-arousal, re-experiencing, or avoidance (numbing down).
Trauma, like unresolved grief, can cause overwhelming feelings, depression, agitation and anxiety, mistrust of others, difficulty in relationships, shame, guilt, despair or a sense of meaninglessness, and helplessness and hopelessness. Returning to one's previous family, social or work life is impossible for some, and psychotherapy provides a safe place for trauma survivors to tell their story, feel less isolated, and tolerate knowing what happened.
Psychologists help patients make connections between feelings and symptoms occurring in the present and aspects of the traumatic event(s). Through treatment, survivors begin to make sense of what happened and how it affected them, understand themselves and the world again in light of it, and ultimately restore relationships and connections in their lives.
--Jo VonBargen 2012
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