Challenging The Media Monster

Recently I've been running into complaints from traditional thriller/suspense editors in New York. They insist that I'm mixing genres too much, especially for their sales teams. I have no answer except that, in all literature, innovation should always be the name of the game. For me, real literature comes into being when an author stops trying to write for a formula market, and instead writes in a unique voice that merges genres into a larger free expression. I deeply value, perhaps even worship, the spontaneous inflow of free creative passion that helps generate literature rather than genre/formula fiction.

I'm currently working on a sixth novel, MAHEE SPEAKS, which is expanding into something I never anticipated - the inclusion of a voice of a 70-year-old character whom we discover is the uncle of Jack Hadley. I've carried for many years a number of remarkable stories emerging from the life of one of my own cousins, the true black sheep of the family who therefore had loads of high-time adventures that none of the rest of us dared explore ... it's possible that this new male voice, which carries on a no-holds-barred dialog with Mahee in Afghanistan where she's roughly imprisoned, will prove of equal length and impact to Mahee's confessions and revelations in this book - and it's also possible the book will be titled THE GREAT GUFFAW ... stay tuned.

Meanwhile my non-fiction involvement with WizeWell, my "mindful at work" corporation, has come to an end - I wanted to be of help to the majority of Americans stuck in stressful corporate jobs - but after 4 years working with companies like Microsoft and Plantronics, I've now given up that intent. The reality seems to be that the corporate institution worldwide is indeed a slave of its primary owners-stockholders - the 10% that's greedily holding onto over 90% of the world's wealth. That 10% that rules the corporate boardrooms has recently made it clear to me that it does not want to free up its employees to be more mindful and fulfilled and properly compensated for the super-stress work they are forced to perform. I know I sound a bit harsh - but this is my read on the truth of the matter. It's time for some new sort of mindful revolution.

And so - I'm returning to the 5 novels that I've written during this period - and am finally going to apply myself to marketing them and letting the world at least know they exist. They are all openly challenging the prevailing corporate mentality that's driving tech to be a tool that controls the populace rather than liberates them - and if we don't wake up I do feel we're in serious trouble, culminating in a terrible demise of our world culture. I don't want this to happen, I love humanity - and thus these books.

Also - I'm just now launching a non-fiction program, book and app called Mindfully High to help people using grass to do so mindfully and safely and inspirationally. I'm personally coming out of the cannabis closet and admitting that I highly value cannabis as an insight stimulant in my life, most often in the evenings. As a therapist I've developed a unique approach to getting high mindfully and responsibly, that I hope is of interest and value. You can install the MindfullyHigh App for free.