I bought House of Flame and Shadow by Sarah J. Maas...

Bravely, I picked through the prologue and am now on page 18 of the first chapter of this 800 page mega novel. Maas seems to be a disciple of classic fantasy, just like Brandon Sanderson and David Eddings. While Brandon afforded his reader breaks to take things in, Maas seldom did and I found relaxation only by the final 2 pages of the prologue. Eddings on the other hand was slow to expound even his most basic concepts.

I was also hard-pressed reading HoFaS, to find anything to latch onto emotionally -it seemed to be there then was taken away / sidelined for a page or half, only to be replaced again with some more meat added on. I do think SJ would have benefited from either exploiting ALL her complications in conversation, or creating a more complicated narrative. In this case she chain smokes each character, each line they say.

Do I want to carry on with HoFaS? Yes. We see eye-to-eye on many things. I like fallen angels and power armor, and the magic vs. technology she implies. I like the main character and am eager to find out more about her.

Nothing probably will change SJ until she hits 70 so readers will have to put up with her style if they want her story. I know I will.

For some reason, altho I do adore dystopia and some graphic violence, the book starts off dark, almost depressing, and that is one hump to get over (no pun intended). For those who love fantasy, you may well be getting 800 fukkin' pages worth of it. And there has to be payoff somewhere in there. More later...

...

[the following is by request of the mind group for my opinion on books in general] 

The way I see it, and I have read a few fantasy novels which were well-written in the sense that they were not extreme, but gentle on the mind, never boring --is that there are limits to what is possible to write and what is not nice to read.

By and large authors have to compromise and write something off center their plot, maybe cut out the parts that tho logical, would offend someone reading as reading is like joining 2 minds in friendship, trust.

The literature art form is very YOU. A viewer can judge an artist's talent no problems, but a reader can more easily conjure the wrong image a writer creates between her and her fans. There, a writer has to be careful, more so than even a musician.

The qualities of a would-be writer are 3:

1. Patience, Perfection, and Protection (I will explain) 
2. Quietness, Queerness, Questions 
3. Reflection, Recollection, Robustness

Patience is not writing lots about little -it's about writing little about lots. It is knowing that writing little makes not a book yet still write that way.

Perfection is not revising many times, but getting it 100% to your liking the first word off.

Protection does not mean hiding behind metaphors or sanitizing your prose. It means taking care that the reader is satisfied and happy no matter what part he is reading.

After a person has these qualities, it's time to see if you have quietness: a desire to stop and rest with the reader, Queerness -anything to say or style of saying it that interests. Questions -things you discover or relate in your text. An author should be genuinely curious.

Finally the 3 Rs: a writer is a reflector, and a recollector. Compare what you dredge up from life and watching others live. A robust personality is also what it takes to tell a story well. A good author is brave, unshakeable, ready to expose the established follies of our time, otherwise to support them if they were so necessary.

...

[again, by request, what are the best ways to narrate your story / book?]

There are just 4 tricks of the trade (which I use anyway),

1. Delay / Rush (I will explain)
2. Whisper
3. Raised pitch
4. Irony

When you come across certain passages that imply waiting, don't be afraid to insert some delay and when there is a lot to say, maybe a little rush is needed.

Whisper if the script seems conspiratorial, or if there is intimacy suggested. You may find it helps other things like telling somebody something unpleasant.

Raise your pitch to indicate say, a block quote or to introduce a symbol or a question.

Irony is something I use often too. How do you sound ironic -it's up to you. Perhaps it can be a mixture of the above?  

A little Mathematics for the uninitiated…

The battle of good versus evil is a 3:2 problem. 1 to 1.5 which means that good has 1/3 a chance more to succeed than evil. 3+2 = 6. As such, any deal with evil, must be initiated by good and Good must give up a third. What is this third?

1. money -evil must hold lots of liquid assets but good holds the fixed assets / commodities, gold etc.
2. sex -evil must hold eligible wives and husbands but good holds the most emotionally compatible
3. entertainment -evil must be allowed ‘fun’ while good people acquire wisdom, learn to sacrifice

Good must possess 2 things from evil

1. good must take the heart of evil -they must make evil partly amenable to good behavior
2. good must take the souls of evil away from the Devil. I will write more on this later

Then all is balanced,  more later…

 

...

 

Almost midnight this Monday. I had my Arip jab at psych clinic. Made dinner for the folks -a simple pasta dish. Settled down to code Proto (my programming language) and got pretty far along. On the way, I picked up AI help on RISCOS's SWI interface to the kernel. Perhaps Proto will indeed be capable of rapidly developing drivers or compatibility with other OSes, maybe even help along a new kernel.

 

Bought NF Afrina's ambitious first novel, Not Here to Stay off Shopee for 45RM. Will arrive in 2 days time. Meanwhile, tomorrow we're to make final payment for and close down our UniFi account at the old house. CNY is just 3 weeks away. I have about 300RM spare to spend.

 

Talked about being a good person versus an evil person but as usual some did not believe me and turned to the Liew witches again. The Bible is accurate. How much preaching is there to do then?

 

Running 2 computers (with big displays) side by side is cool. In earlier days it would be lotsa fun but right now, under oppression, it's not much of a big  deal. I have 2 sets of keyboard and mouse. Feel sometimes like Al Gore in his mansion with 4 monitors front and back, maybe 2 Mac Pros. Ex VP is a good example. I should make this bedroom into an office nerve center.

 

Worked out and am feeling fresh. Last night I fell asleep before exercising but I did do a run at the park that day.

…

Past midnight, I’m working on my novel, TN. Showered, took my meds, worked out. Brush soon. Sleep circa 2am. Approaching 1:30am. Feeling a bit sleepy and attacked. Not sure I want to head out tomorrow but could use a long walk. Loosing inspiration for writing. Will carry on tomorrow.

 

...

 

There was a fiber outage in Petaling Jaya yesterday It felt so uncomfortable being away from my social networks / blogs. Did a lot of talking in mindspace as the telepathy was getting out of hand.

We have everything under control now. Except that the Liew witchy 6 are still malignant and desperate. I suggested giving them something to hold on to -some pleasure but we don't all agree on that yet.

 

Heading out for a walk and some lunch soon as Mom is ready. Couldn't be earlier as I had to do my routine.

We gave the Liew witches and their unrepentant helpers mild pneumonia by driving cold wind through their body core. Somehow they have to stay warm and do good things from now on. These small group of adepts cannot run the world any longer.

…

Diabetes is caused by love of food. I don’t mean to say that good food is out if you’re diabetic. Just don’t occupy your mind with thoughts of yumminess.

Hypertension is really caused by emotional congestion. Not able to reconcile what you did with how you feel about yourself. Just realize you are not God, everyone makes mistakes so seek forgiveness and improve your self control.

Inflamation causes many ills such as joint degradation, artery clogging, stroke, and cancer. The source of inflamation is people hating you with a vengeance. Cultivate humbleness and again show people you are doing good, that the rumors about you are false or exaggerated.

The Gold Jacket read by me (first part)

Me reading from the first scene of my magnum opus: the gold jacket on Substack. I don’t really know if I could have done a better job intonating it. There are many people in my mouth, trying to talk along. IDK why!

If you have the time drop in and listen. It’s only 3 minutes. If there are requests, I could do more stories like this, for free.

But there are some pressing matters to touch on today. The world is on the brink of war and an economic collapse. There are 5 things to watch for:

1. Gold will hit 800RM /gram soon and as that happens, currencies worldwide will crash.
2. The US will then occupy Greenland, having the best weapons and forces.
3. The US will cause Arabia and many Moslem nations to fail due to oil revenues
4. AI will determine via meritocracy, a person’s freedoms and rights (to own stuff etc.)
5. There will be no more Internet as we know it

There are further things which are less certain:

1. Alien contact tries to establish a new empire, and breed into our genetics
2. Threats posed by Christians, spirit-filled and earnest are annihilated, except for the very wisest and useful, most die
3. There will be a standoff between Jesus and his Saints and the Antichrist and his followers -yes in the holy land itself, it must occur
4. People all over the world are sinning, believing that no one can save the earth, let’s have fun and take revenge too
5. Revelations is playing out even now. I will explain

There are a trinity or triangle of end times motivators. It is no secret but one people are using to make money and delay punishment from God. If you do not do the ‘system’, you are paid back for every mistake, pushed out of financial gain, even liquidated.

The trinity of in-working error is: superior race (serpent seed); corrupted religion (false teachings); politics (electing an Antichrist now and then, here and there). It shows in our popular culture and governance. More later…

 

Drank a coffee and worked out. Feeling energized. Want to talk more on the err triangle.

 

Race can be divided into 2: seed of God and seed of the Serpent. The mixing of seed results in inferior / superior races. Superior by means of cleverness and beauty, not by morals and godliness. Inferior of course, means a race is an evolutionary dead end, having expressed its genetic traits fully in servitude to surrounding races.

 

Religion is corrupted by touching the things of God where the Lord did say that nobody must enter the holy of holies without a blood offering. To be too close to God, even His symbols causes corruption of our spirit (somehow).

 

Politics is confusing. Every voter counts but the majority decides. To sum up politics in one phrase: Take from Peter to pay Paul. Poor Paul, Poorer Peter. Jesus lives!

Imagine what damage our  leaders can do from behind a curtain of legitimacy of the above sort. It happens everywhere, every so often.

 

I will add more theory here in later days... 

…

There were a few bones of contention between me, Jesus, and the evil mind denizens and their usual prey. In such days, men wish for death but death comes not. And this is just the beginning of pure suffering. Such as it were, nobody could stand this suffering, nor be balanced enough to dole it out.

There are a few changes to the mindspace, circa 3 for the moment.

1. Bad people control nothing but go everywhere they want
2. Good people must absorb suffering but maintain control in general and specifically
3. Do not destroy or kill one another in mindspace and if you destroy children, babies, and pure domesticated animals, there will be reprisals.

...

Helped sweep the shoebox. Was attacked a bit before we regained control of mindspace. Things will be more peaceful and concrete steps towards prophecy will be possible on the outside.

Making sure steps towards coding my language. I will be generating RISC Lua code which can access the Wimp and ToolBox. Crazily enough, the  compiler is in Python3.

My Siglos has arrived in Malaysia! Probably receive it by mid week. Can’t wait. Am starting to promote my KDP books. Maybe one or two may be bestsellers.

...

There was a request to see into where my books would end up. Especially 'iS'. To the best of my intuition, iS is republished in America, where it gains a cult following as it's overall a good book and more than enough food for thought. The 'success' some witches saw may pertain to my spiritual books like EOSotB and the Church Chart I made, also the concept of theomorphosis and 666. I suspect iS may be a cover for what God has planned for me.

Leaning more into the book (iS), there are 3 cool things that happen:

1. Geniuses gave it the thumbs up -it became known for starting a viral emotional analysis movement, a mathematical one.
2. Many Asians and Westerners shared love after sharing this book -it brought peace to their hearts.
3.  There was talk about the way we harness technology -computers, cars, weapons, etc.

It was nominated for an award(s) but never won anything nor did it bring me much money. I was asked to speak on it once or twice and that earned me a name as a philosopher-mathematician tho I never wrote another book like it.

The cover of the second edition is much better and a lot of typos were fixed. It sold decent and steady and made back the cost of printing. 'K Yap' became daily searched online and in book databases. I think on average, 10 people bought the eBook every day, and several paperbacks were sold daily as well. This was a constant thing. I made 50RM a day which supported me well. What I didn't use daily, I gave to charity -which was most of the money as I don't spend that much.

...

British mind forces were unable to stay in our Christian believers group even after we simplified the Gospel for everyone to understand. We were forced to freeze them out as they were attacking secretly and undermining prominent Asians / Christians from their country and abroad.

Seems prophecy is back on track. The Middle East is the focus and additional powers were released by the faithful and the Godhead, dimension merger with another Universe's King of kings. Together with over 20 joining dimensions, perhaps we will see starts falling like figs shaken very son. Sounds crazy?

Have made strides to finish Proto by tonight. I think it will be easy as I'm using arrays to shuffle tokens around and dynamically form up the appropriate Lua statements. You can  tell I am a novice programmer who takes days to do a task of half an hour.

Nobody reacted to my message yesterday. I wonder why? Perhaps it is a matter of life or death.

Prophecy just in that the Scythian allegiance may from up within 9 days -by the full moon. Also around  that time, I receive my Persian Siglos and maybe some money from selling my short stories. Think someone read 'Rose' -my story-poem, and I made a few shekels.  

By request: how I approach writing sci-fi / fantasy…

This is a list of things to add to. But today, we will learn basics of which there are 5, 3 are very important and foundational.

1. You cannot write a story -just any story. It has to be a feeling -not just any feeling. It has to be a desire -not just any desire. It has to be a concept -not any one concept. It has to be a paradigm [typical example, a pattern or model]. You cannot write just any paradigm but one that you have experienced. Then you can write any story with any feeling, any desire, any concept.
2. You cannot write without nuance. Not a draft goes by without nuance. It is nuance that keeps a flame alive -that drives you -it is perfection of a beauty you have captured that pushes and evolves a tale. Do not leave out nuance but let it grow and take the reins of your writing, even if you intend to write quickly, stop when you encounter opportunity / surfacing of nuance. Treasure it.
3. You cannot write a character as a character you have developed, has a personality, an arc. You cannot write an arc without experiencing an arc, a personality you never met or tasted, likewise a character you do not understand / know / support / revile / want to honor with a place in your nuances and in the paradigm.

Now there are 2 more we will touch on in brief and they are the reasons people may pay for your book and not someone elses’

1. You cannot stand out from the crowd without advertisement. I have walked into so many bookstores where a novelist’s work is just another spine in a shelf, not even a display stand or cover show. But an almost unmarked door. Why would you enter? The best advertisement is not BookTok or GoodReads, nor a Library. I remember reading about Google in Time Magazine. That was when I started surfing the web with ease. I would not have found Google amongst the millions of web pages out there. How did Google get a spot in Time Magazine? It did the extraordinary.
2. You cannot rely on gimmick or publicity. Rather it is placement. Be aware, and write for that placement chance. It only takes one placement in the right spot to trigger an avelanche. What do I mean write for placement? Give the intellectuals something to drop their jaws. Intellectuals lead the masses to read. Do not write a good enough tale. Do not write a different take. Do not be ‘individual’ but be instead curious about the world without and within, even within yourself as the author. 

To be complete, writing isn’t a past time, a revenue generator, a talent you exercise for accolades. If you want to be a writer because it’s cool and profitable you will never be a good writer.

Want to be a story-teller and you will tell other people’s stories -copy their ideas -polish their drafts.

Want to love your characters, your world, and you will turn into a stage playwright.

Wanting to be a novelist is to appreciate the printed page. The power of the printed page. Just like a swordsman, a fisherman have their nets and weapons. The writer is someone who fills pages, pages bound into a book, between covers designed by an artist. If you do not want and like to do this, you have no career as a novelist. Maybe you will be a diarist, a journaler, an essasyist, a flash writer of prose poems. Why you are writing that novel is because you love novels and all that go with it.

I smell books before I read them. I caress the covers in case they’re foiled and embossed. I weigh paperbacks in my hands and read the blurb on the back, then I turn to the first page, the second, the third and I look at the price -it lingers a while on my mind. Perhaps I would have to eat at home and walk to college that whole week -then I buy it. I read it on my bed until I can’t read anymore for tired eyes and throbbing head. 

...

By request, I was also asked how generally people are kept safe under telepathic threats. This is my idea and also Gabriel's idea, of which we agreed on 5 points, later maybe 7 more.

1. By logic (God's logic) people cannot have telepathy and be sinful at the same time. There is no way to be telepathic and even 'good' before the Lord. You may not live in one another thinking nothing of it. Therefore hedge against telepathic threats vehemently, and be as good as you can. Push everyone away, and draw near your family -just family who love you.
2. By logic (God's logic) people cannot be told and made to do things they don't want or love to do. Even God cannot do this. You must not give orders in the mind to those who hate you. You can only order around those who NEED and LOVE you.
3. Love is not the answer altho in God's Kingdom, action before desire is practiced. Love will soon wax cold so you must try your best to be sexy and attractive, especially men and women who are important. The more people 'love' you, the more safe you are.
4. By logic (God's logic) you may not seek security in PERSUASION. By this we mean do not be a false prophet and a false teacher (even false witnessing is bad). Instead, seek security in the fact that the Lord's prophecy is unfolding -in his elect -be their friend.
5.  If you have an evil person using / abusing you, by our (man's) logic, you should destroy them, whereas by our (God's) logic, you should forgive them. But the imperfect nature of this world, some do and some do not forgive, means you should teach about the gospel this evil person lacks. It is called spreading the news about the evil and making sure it does not root. Never let evil root in your minds and hearts. Pray, and my (God's) servants will cast it from you as you teach and learn not to attract that sort of temptation.

...

 

There are circa 6 ways people 'get over' things. There is the short way (3 points) and the long way (6 points). The hard way goes first, since I am still with all of you.

1. What you don't first consume will consume you
2. What you fear separates your mind from your soul. I will explain
3. The things you have done weigh on you thru your conscience. It must be reduced

Firstly, when dealing with feeling bad, people normally 'let it happen'. I encourage you to encircle it and conquer it. Say you mouthed off and everyone was offended and you feel suicidal(!) so you have to see the situation clearly (from all angles) and therefore be comforted in the knowledge that it is complete -your mess is understood not a rot in your heart.

Secondly, fear is a common result of evil-doing. 'I don't feel safe' -as I commonly hear, 'I can't trust my prey'. It is the result of fear that awareness and foundation (where foundation is like our deeper, arranged, systematic learnings) conflict and sometimes voices emerge (schizophrenia). So realize this, and keep yourself from fear as Jesus said, 'let not your hearts be troubled'.

Finally, the sum of your doubts -the things you can't assimilate for whatever reason (hangups, dementia, religious taboo) press on something called 'conscience'. And it is important always to have a light conscience. Conscience is like the ease of breath -a little heart that pumps emotions. It is here that we rely on an axiom: if it can't be fixed, it doesn't matter -not to me / I will pray for a higher power to handle it / I will read self-help / I will change -for God I will change. But realizing conscience for what it is is enough to stop burdening it for it leads to all ills and diseases -that beacon of distress and discomfort.

 

Were one to be gentle, then there are 6 small ways to a healthier mind:

1. I like to buy stuff. Owning useful / nice things helps a lot 
2. Thinking of / planning your future and what it holds
3. Doing something useful / charitable to society
4. Having hope in your heart, even small
5. Acquiring holy things / holy friends
6. Keeping a journal / vlog

I will explain: we are creatures of comfort. Be thankful for your possessions, clothes, relationships. We are social creatures. Upkeep it all.

We are creations (evolved or not) and we have a future, being sentient. We have a future whether we like it or not. We must plan -it makes us happy.

Third point is self-explanatory -increase your props among your peers (who may be kids).

Hope is a healer. It drives away woe. One of the first things evil enters is 'lost hope'.

Holy things, sometimes just symbolically or metaphorically, help lots. They signify an intent to change and accept the divine. I like them as well.

Finally, researchers have found bloggers and vloggers are all round healthier and happier. Communicate to the world. Let them know your ups and downs.