What I won't write about...

I've disagreed with the importance of sex in stories. Is it necessary to share that characters have sex to the extent that the reader gets a glimpse of what actually transpired? The only purpose in that is for titillation, not for revelation. That and I don't plan on having a need for sex to be integral in any of my stories. It's a messy addition that really only adds...mess. The only exception I can think of is a romance novel...but then again romance is more relationship than physical and if there's too much heavy petting and not enough conversating (yeah not really a word, but it worked for context and, yes, rhyming)...well...it teeters on a boring precipice.

And for the most part I think it's added in a desperation to save a boring story line. Excitement garnered through arousal is best done in private not in public...for one by another. Romance novels are not my interest. Never will be.

This brings me to my reason for adding a post about it. I got on the conversation with workmates about my novel and the topic of sex popped up. Popped-up probably happened during that conversation, which is why I don't care for such discussions. I don't want to be the reason someone else gets that excited. They asked if there was sex because my character is sixteen. I said no. That sparked a discussion on how one did this and that when he was sixteen because he was so full of sexual need (I don't want to say that word).

I didn't and don't care. Jeremiah Jericho is sixteen. If someone who's NOT sixteen reads it and gears up for some sort of sexual moment...that'll be disturbing. If you're the same age, that's disturbing as well, but not as much as if you're twenty-something and wondering when he'll have sex. What kind of person is infatuated with when someone else is going to have sex? Are they going to ask to watch once they find out it'll happen?

Unless one is interested in having sex in front of others (which is essentially what Jeremiah Jericho would have to do), one wouldn't bother since they're under watch most of every second. Once you introduce sex in that context, it changes the story dynamic to something that I don't want. The focus becomes more when will the next time be than the actual story. Just like girls and women are far more than talking about boys and men, so I believe (and have lived) boys and men are more than their over exaggeration about their adventures with women. They're all women. Girls are what you don't like when you're in kindergarten.

"But sex is natural." So is crapping and peeing. I don't go into grave detail with either. Would you read a book that (and wasn't mentioned on the back cover it was even going to, nor is it part of the theme of the story) went into detail about each time the character went to the restroom? So why would I write about sex when sex isn't a theme or an important part of my story?

If you want something sexual, don't read my book. Or any of them. I'm not going to be that kind of writer.

Hello

I am wondering what I'm doing with a blog. What am I the writer of a novel that's not published writing a blog for? Also, not to mention the fact that I am someone who is in dire need of a pocket editor to sift through my mess to fix it pretty. Mainly because I'm a terrible grammar person. Yes. Just like I'm a terrible speller. And no that's not nearly as important for a writer to grasp perfectly as people think.

Yes. I know that it's good to understand grammar and spelling. I understand that I am not great at it. I am not stating that I refuse to learn or refuse to bother doing it right and grammar is useless. What I'm stating is that I make mistakes and do so accidentally. I say that because people like to point out my mistakes as if making them means I shouldn't be a writer. That's like stating an illegible scientist is too muddled in the mind to understand what they're illegiblely writing. Just because a scientist writes fives that look like S's or S's that look likes fives, doesn't mean they don't know what they're going on about. Just because a doctor smokes doesn't mean they don't get what health damage they're doing to themselves. They're able to state what's wrong with their words, not with their actions. Their actions on their health doesn't mean they don't know what they're talking about. They can still understand that it's wrong, say it's wrong and yet still do the wrong thing knowingly.

I think I made a clearly muddy point.

I titled my blog after my novel. My screen name is my pen name. I know what that means. I'm not delusional to think that Googling J_Jammer doesn't bring up a whole slew of things that people will find questionable. It doesn't bother me. My method to my Salvador Dali madness is mine. Whether or not it's gotten doesn't much matter.

I have finished my novel Jeremiah Jericho: Allowance. I have been editing it a while. I feel there is something missing and I've whittled it down to a few things that I'm going back over and inserting. One of them was a new villain. Another is giving Christopher free famous phrases to latch onto for a nice little surprise for Jeremiah at the end.

I have started the second in the series, Jeremiah Jericho: Forty-Two. I wrote a few things a year ago. I edited it and fixed up a few bleh points. I'm now writing new material for it. I have mapped out where I want the story to go in a nice bit of pencil. I really can't wait to write the end. I really love the end. When I read Hunger Games: Catching Fire I was excited to read the cliffhanger ending. I loved it. Ever single word.

The reason I loved it so much was because people always state that it's not a good idea to write a cliffhanger in your book. She did it. I am going to do it. I don't care if you're not supposed to do it. If it works, it works. I'm going to make it work.

My inspiration for writhing Jeremiah Jericho is from the following books:

1. Catch-22 – Joseph Heller
2. 1984 – George Orewell
3. The Princess Bride – William Goldman
4. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy – Douglas Adams
5. Animal Farm – George Orewell

These books are a huge influence on my writing. Some were before I read them. Figure that out.

I saw Salvador Dali's artwork for $19 (with a coupon) in Florida and I enjoyed it. I've seen some of his work before, but never have I delved into it. Not that I have soaked it in, I think that Jeremiah Jericho taps into that dream realm that Salvador Dali created with his defiant view on art. Though I don't paint or draw, his stance on art made me laugh because he did everything someone wasn't supposed to do and he did it because he saw things differently. I didn't like everything I saw by him, but I did love his reason for doing it.

Another influence before I knew who he was...fully.

Write your dreams. Dream your words. And may your soul inspire the ages.