For all of my WordPress followers, I have moved from a .wordpress site to my new home: theanonymousnovelist.com !
If you’re still interested in reading my content and keeping up with my life, you can find me there. Thanks! God bless.
Uncategorized
Happy Sunday and welcome back. I hope you enjoyed the weekend as much as I did. There was a lot going on and much of it I’m still processing, but I feed on negative and positive energy alike when it comes to writing.
Today is Memorial Day. Today is a day when we remember those who gave their all for the freedom of this country. Though they may be dead, their spirit lives within us all as free Americans. We live because they died. Today we remember their sacrifice.
What does this day mean to you as a citizen of a free nation? Men and women who served and gave their lives did so without regard for themselves. Looking back, they gave their lives so that others might have a future. We look back not to anchor ourselves in the past, but to push us forward to what’s next. This day is a headstone, a memorial for the ones brave enough to stand up and fight for you before you even existed. Why? Because they believe that all men deserved to live free, with the right to worship how they pleased.
So, as we look back on their sacrifice we should learn and look ahead to the future, because history repeats itself as they say. There may never be another Vietnam War, there will never be another WWII, but there will always be men and women who will recognize their duty as Americans, and with courage step up to defend this nation against all enemies.
For this reason, those who gave their lives will never die to us because their spirit of true patriotism is immortal. Call them heroes if you like, for they were brave and gave their all, but they don’t see themselves as heroes because they did what any country-loving person would. A sacrifice of their life for the lives and freedom of others was a small price to pay for such great gain. We don’t salute them because they died, but because they were willing to die for us. A love so great that it would cause you to die for your fellow man is what the spirit of the United States of America was founded upon. These men and women didn’t care what your politics were, your ethnicity, or your religion. That didn’t factor into their decision. They died for you because they loved you and they loved this country: that was all they needed to know.
On this day the souls of soliders, fallen while standing up for truth,
On this day we recognise that giving their all was a light thing to do,
It wasn’t easy to leave family, the only life they’d ever know,
But gladly did they march to death: freedom to bestow,
On this day we cry in pain, remembering the warriors lost,
On this day we experience liberty their sacrifices bought,
On this day the blood runs red, our heroes to comemorate,
From this day till days come to an end, let us never cease to celebrate.
Someone died for you before you even asked for help. They gave their all to defend and protect you before you were able to defend yourself. For the love of their God, their country, and their fellow man, our soldiers marched, fought, and fell. Freedom was the price for their lives, and their lives, the price of our freedom. Look back, see those who laid down their lives for you and this country, and remember.
As always, thanks for reading.
–the anonymous novelist
I wake up this morning, intending to get up and study God’s Word. But, it’s my day off, so I sleep in. I get up out of bed and attempt to start helping out with odd jobs from mom and school for the boys. But, it’s my day off, so I don’t have a good attitude and my work is shoddy at best. I finish up family projects and decide to work some on my own. But, it’s my day off, so I do just enough to get by.
I hate my days off from my job. My job is to travel the US singing and ministering to people, and days off are generally unproductive at best, if not an utter waste of time and energy. I don’t like day’s where I don’t have to work if I don’t want to, because, let’s face it, no one wants to work if they don’t have to. But, I love working, being busy, being flooded even with so much work I have no time for anything else. I’m a fan of being constantly occupied with and by something. Dead time is simply, dead time to me. So, I’m not a fan of off days.
Every day is approached with some manner of mindset. We have expectations, fears, and excitement about each new day without fail. When we approach a given day with a certain mindset, that becomes our attitude for the entire day. If we start a work day with a mind to work, we will work, we will want to work, and we will be ready for whatever work gets thrown upon us. However, if we aproach a work day with a mind to be lazy, we will avoid work, do whatever it takes to get out of work, and have a bad attitude about the work we have to do.
Sometimes the day determines the mindset, and other times the mindset determines the day. For example: on days when I know we are singing, when we will be ministering, I recognise that as the them e of the day and so I minister all day long with my actions, my words, and my attitude. The theme of that day dictates my mindset. But, if I am predisposed to be impossible to please, regardless of the theme of the day, I will disrupt it and wreck it for everyone with which I come in contact.
These days off can and should be the most productive days of my week. But, somehow they never are. The reason is that I never approach them with the proper mindset, I never come at them willing to work and get things done. Why? Because it’s my day off! I already have an idea in my mind of how the day should go simply because of its name. But, that’s a problem with me and my motivation. If I had started this day right, I wouldn’t be writing this now and would’ve gotten many things accomplished rather than the miniscule amount of work I actually did accomplish today.
This is a painful reminder for me to be more motivated, to approach each day with the proper mindset, and to find a job. Really. If I only had more things to do I wouldn’t complain about never getting anything done. I work when I’m supposed to, when I’m expected to, when I need to, and on occasion when I simply don’t want to do anything else. It’s time I living my days motivated so as not to waste one precious second of my time here on this planet.
As always, thanks for reading.
—the anoynmous novelist
A picture is worth 1,000 words… So they say. But, I think a word is worth 1,000 pictures. Even so, every picture has a message. Every picture says something, even if that something is that you accidentally took a screenshot or picture of the floor: it is saying something. When I look at pictures, I see something different in them. Something real and yet surreal, an inner purpose, as if the image can speak into my soul. What do is see when I look at pictures? 
I see family.
I see joy.
I see endurance.
I see brokenness.
I see life.
I see strength.
I see emptiness.
Life travels at 1,000 pictures a second. If every picture speaks 1,000 words, we wouldn’t hear what any of them were saying. But, I think life is much simpler than that. If we stop for a second to find the word hidden in a picture, we can see the individual beauty of each one. 1,000 words may be expository, but only one word can encapsulate the message within the picture. Words are cheap, images are even more so. But if a word can explain the depth of an image, and that image was created or captured for the depth of one’s emotion to portray, they become invaluable.
God gave us eyes to see, and mouths to speak. When we see His creation testifying of the glory of its Creator, our praise should be all the more. If a picture has power, why not use it. But, don’t cheapen it with a 1,000 word description. What it means to someone else may not be what it means to you. Keep it simple. Tell the message. Let the Creator tell His story.
As always, thanks for reading.
–the anonymous novelist
“This is my story; this is my song: praising my Savior all the day long.”
The power of music over the human mind is emphatically misrepresented and has fallen into obscurity. We have become dulled, desensitized to the effects media has upon the mind. The mind is a labyrinth of many rooms and corridors, filled with all the information we observe in our conscious or subconscious senses. This information can be a benefit or a degradation to our minds, having direct effect upon the way we live our lives.
Desensitization is the greatest evil to befall the church, greater than any other temptation or snare. If Satan can get us to believe that things which we should never do are okay to watch and hear about other people doing, he has won and we have damned ourselves. What is this excuse called desensitization? Put simply, to be desensitized is to have lost all sense; which I think could mean both the loss of mental awareness, and the absence of all common sense. In terms of sense, common or otherwise, it is interesting to note that without sense all of our actions become foolishness.
The song in the video is called “My Story”, but the song isn’t just about the story, the song is the story. The song is a message in and of itself, but also contains a message. Whether you like it or not, every song has a message; sadly, most of them are negative, degrading messages. We often don’t think of things this way, but the principal of being a consumer applies to both the sense of taste and sight. To consume is to take in, most commonly meaning to purchase, but also meaning to physically devour. This principal applies to the sense of sight as much if not more than to the other senses.
The same reasoning that tells us not to drink or smoke, that it is bad for our bodies and our bodies are the temple of the Holy Ghost, should also be applied to watching movies that contain but do not condemn the actions of drinking or smoking. If you don’t partake of it with your sense of taste and smell, why should you partake of it through your sense of sight. I don’t mean accidentally, it’s quite a different matter to notice that someone is doing these things than to enter a theater where you know it will be shown and glorified.
We are to keep our bodies and minds with all vigilance and integrity. If you would not curse your God with your mouth, why would you curse Him with your sight or hearing by seeking out entertainment which does this curse your God. Any curse of any kind is a curse against God. To curse someone is to ask God to bring evil to them. This cannot be asked according to His Word or His will and is a mockery and a curse to His power, His promises, and His name. His power: for it blames Him for an inadequacy of might to create perfect beings, and challenges if His will is perfect and true. His promises: for it flies in the face of His truth to never leave nor forsake, actually asking God to both leave and forsake. His name: for it seeks to undermine His ultimate authority by requesting something against His nature and will, therefore tempting God, (which is also a sin).
The media controls us, it tells its story and we listen, having been desensitized to sin, evil, temptation, and ungodliness. Our senses are the cognizant life of the mind, to betray them to numbness and cause them to become blind is a sin to ourselves. Desensitization is active. It’s something you do, not something that just happens over time. It is a decision you make. Are the stories you watch and listen to about Him? Is your story even about Him? If I should speak, if I should hear, if I should see, let it be the grace that is greater than all my sin.
What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost [which is] in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?
–1 Corinthians 6:19
Ye are not your own. Stop living for yourself. Start living His story.
Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.
–Matthew 22:37
“All thy mind”, means all of your senses and every thought that you think.
Mine eye affecteth mine heart because of all the daughters of my city.
–Lamentations 3:51
Our eyes have a direct line to our hearts. The things we see effect our hearts and our decisions. Guard your hearts. Guard you eyes.
As always, thanks for reading.
–the anonymous novelist
Really, what are we doing? I’ll tell you: we’re doing nothing. Signing petitions, instigating boycotts, standing our ground… It’s all well and good, but it’s like cutting off the circulation to your leg after a snake bite to prevent the poison from spreading. Does it get rid of the poison? No. Does it save your leg? If nothing else is done, no. Does it save your life? It could, but it’s not enough to save you by itself.
We are instinctively responding to the problems. Good. You can always count on a faithful Christian to join the fight; provided there are a lot of people already fighting. Why does it take someone else doing something to get us to fight for Christ? Why do we wait till we are attacked to retaliate? The church building is not a vault to keep things in. It’s not a fortress with massive walls to keep the world at bay. The church is an outpost, a building that signifies claimed land. The ownership of Christ and His kingdom is signified by the church building.
An outpost is where armies kept supplies and went back and forth to on raids. When they had defeated an enemy, they would establish a new outpost in that territory. A new boundary marker for the kingdom.
We are to take the fight to them. Use our outposts to refresh our weapons and provisions and then return to the battle. The reason most Christians sit around on their blessed assurances is because they are afraid of what the world might say or do. There is safety in numbers, so you can count on them when it comes to majority issues. But what are we doing? What are you doing? What am I doingto actively bring the fight to the enemy? Ask yourself: is what I am doing for Christ right now the most I can give Him?
If your answer was yes, you are lying to yourself and God. There is no limit to what you can give to God if you make yourself available and willing to do as He commands. There is no such thing as doing too much for God, too much to save souls, too much to help the hurting, too much to mend a broken world, or too much to glorify the Creator. We can never do enough, so by default we can never do too much.
I heard a good friend of mine say:
“Gates are a defensive measure. So when the Bible says: “The gates of Hell shall not prevail”, it means that we will not withstand our siege.” (Paraphrase) —Jon Leighton
We are in a world war: a war for the conscience of humanity, a treasure hunt for lost morality, and a lawsuit for stolen liberty. We can’t win if we don’t take the offensive. The church was not meant to stay in the church house. The church was meant to go get the lost and bring them to the cross.
Don’t sit still and wait to be attacked, slandered, persecuted, and ridiculed. Stand up and march to victory under the banner of Christ. It’s time we started fighting like we’re going to win.
As always, thanks for reading.
–the anonymous novelist
I don’t have the words… You may expect by now that I would always have something to say. But, I’m at the end of myself. My brain is empty, my body is tired, my mind is weak, in my brokenness and uselessness I can only pray that God speaks through me.
I suppose that should’ve been my intention all along… Right now, I’d like to apologize to you, my readers. I’ve not been faithful to you, I started a blog, I preached messages to you, gave you tips on life, often relaying the words of God Himself, but I have not always written God’s words, I have written mine. This blog has become vanity. Sure, no post has gone without a purpose, but was every post the right things spoken at the right time?
For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.
–Ephesians 6:12
I’m realizing this fact more and more as of late. What service doth it supply my brethren if I tell them of the battle but do not teach them to fight? What doth it aid to instruct the brethren in battle but not expose the enemy for them to fire at? We need to face the fact that we don’t wrestle against Obama or Trump. We don’t restle against flesh and blood, Hillary, Bernie, Cruz, Kasich, ISIS, transgender, homosexuals, laws, governments, nations or kings: no! We need to realize that the enemy is not human.
We wrestle against principalities, powers, rulers of darkness, Satan and his demons, spiritual wickedness in high places. We fight a spiritual battle. It’s not about human rights, it’s about spiritual non-issues. We need to see through the eyes of faith, like spiritual x-ray goggles, to see the spirits at war for the souls of men and women today.
The lie we’ve been fed for centuries is that what we see is all there is. I’d like to suggest that what we see is not the half of all that there is to this life. The spiritual side affects the physical side of life. The wars that wage between Christians and the powers of darkness is one that the world cannot see. Only through fiats can this spiritual realm be glimpsed. The lost don’t even know their danger.
We need to realize what we are fighting against. Then we need to know how to fight it.
Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.
—Ephesians 6:13
We fight the powers of darkness by standing our ground. We are to put on the whole armor of God and stand firm. I love the lyrics of the song that say: “I look at what you’re facing and think maybe after all, the only thing that you’ve been guilty of is standing tall.”.
This is how we are to fight, to stand upon the Word of God unwavering in our beliefs. Never backing down. Having done all, to stand… Well, that’s all I have for you today. Happy Sunday everyone.
As always, thanks for reading.
–the anonymous novelist
Inception, the genesis of a thought.
For those wondering what happened to last week’s Movie Review Monday, well, last week I watched “Inception”, and it required a little more time to analyze.
Disclaimer:
I watched this film through heavy filters, it is drenched in language as all Leonardo DiCaprio films are. If you watch it, which I would advise you don’t, you’ll discover it’s a waste of time and nowhere near as wowing and complex as it was hyped up to be.
Summary:
In a single thought I can sum up the entire movie, which is often called complex and intricate: Inception. This single thought is, “People change people”, the secret of life. Everything in the movie was directly linked to people being responsible for changes in other’s behavior, altering their lives. Those live and the alterations in turn affected the lives of the first people in an unbroken circle of change. The single thought that sums up an entire universe contained in a film: people change people.
Acting:
Just to touch on the acting before we get to the worldview… I discovered why DiCaprio was so long in winning an Oscar. I’m not saying he’s a bad actor… He’s just nothing exceptional. He also doesn’t pull off the troubled, mentally hazardous, whatever he was supposed to be very well. I loved the character of Scarecrow from the Batman trilogy, so Cillian Murphy was one of my favorite actors in this film, where he co-stars alongside another actor from the Batman movies, Joseph Gordon-Levitt. It seems that the roles have been swapped however, and the antagonist of the duo is now Gordon-Levitt instead of Murphy. Another notable performance was that of Michael Cain, also from Batman. Seriously, it’s like the sci-if Batman reunion with DiCaprio filling in for Christian Bale.
Right and Wrong:
the invisible gray line.
The reason the gray line is invisible is primarily because there shouldn’t be one. The grey area seems to be invented for this film. Apparently when toying with space/time and reality in the depths of the human subconscious you loose all sense of right and wrong; and at times even up and down. Which, plot hole, the antigravity sequence inside of the dream couldn’t have existed, for one, the mind doesn’t experience vertigo in the subconscious, thus not while asleep. Secondly, they were only falling with in a dream and were not aware that they were. Reality was the plane they were seated on, the dream beneath was where they were falling, but the second level down wouldn’t experience any of that if the machine worked in the subconscious mind.
The movie was decently thought through, but can be easily exploited from flaws at every level. So, I’ll attempt to refrain from nitpicking. However, as is clearly evident, there is no right and wrong in the film. We see that Dom(DiCaprio), the main character, (yeah, I thought it was Tom at first too), wrongfully deceives the team to go under the dream and withholds the danger of that action. The characters have a sense of right and wrong, but no one and no thing is scene as either right for their actions. The main character is guilty of murder, though he claims it is by accident, and in the end gains international freedom by purchasing it with funds from corrupting an organization. The film is a mess of poorly thought through plots and weak characters.
Worldview:
Deceit and malice pay theft and injustice for immoral and illegal deeds, then deceit and malice buy off government through bribery and blackmail to give theft and injustice freedom and amnesty: in the end we call them both honorable and upstanding. What?… What did I just watch. My initial reaction was exclusively from the story, which I thought was far more simplistic than most movies I’ve watched. My secondary reaction was to the acting, which could’ve been better but was at least par for Hollywood. My final reaction was to the worldview.
I don’t even think Christopher Nolan(Batman family reunion, I’m telling you), had a point or purpose in mind when he created the film. It was impossible to determine his message because of the garbage and confusion surrounding it.
As always, thanks for reading.
—the anonymous novelist
A character analysis of the most brilliant fictional character ever created: Sherlock Holmes.
He is the life work and greatest success of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s writing habit. Conan Doyle devoted all of his writing effort to the creation and development of this genius work. Sherlock is the most intriguing, most alluring, most addictive character in all of classic literature. But what most people fail to realize is that he is only so because of six major things. Indeed, these six things drive and validate his entire existence.
- Ingenious criminal organizations in the underground of Britain.
- His companionship and character balancing element wrapt in the personage of John Watson.
- Britain’s need of a crime solver and her intense, often unrealistic state of constant peril.
- Mycroft Holmes, Sherlock’s older brother and the only man in England who is more intelligent than he.
- An obligation to his country that calls him to jeopardize his freedom and transcend the laws of that country to protect it.
- Irene Adler.
If one of these major component in his character is absent, Sherlock Holmes ceases to exist, or at least ceases to be an interesting character.
Conan Doyle was genius in establishing three characters who were supposedly all more normal than Sherlock, but were regarded as his betters in intelligence: each in their own way. John Watson is the half of Sherlock that is missing from his character as a whole. Sherlock Holmes is not a self-contained character, pieces and elements of Sherlock are built into his peers and partners. Watson is common sense that Holmes cannot have. Watson is perspective Sherlock needs to think from every possible angle.
Mycroft Holmes has devoted his life to a much different calling than Sherlock, giving his mind to numbers and figures rather than names and facts. Mycroft is informed and ingenious, he is the half of Sherlock’s wisdom and intelligence that could not be contained in Sherlock without making him superhuman.
Irene Adler is the one woman on earth, possible the one person on earth that Sherlock can truly respect. If Mycroft beats him, it is in an area that he has devoted little time to, thus the victory is incomplete and his respect is lessened if not completely abolished. If Watson bests him, it is in the simplicity of a fact that he overlooked and therefore Sherlock attributes the victory to his own negligence and time constraints; the respect is absent. For Irene however, who can figure out his schemes as quickly as he can produce them, and still be able to guard against, and even counter them, Sherlock owes a great deal of respect.
Irene is the only person whom Sherlock can truly respect as an equal if not a better. Some might argue that Sherlock respects Moriarty as an equal, but he eventual figures out that they are not equals; that they think so much alike that he can predict every move the man will make. Eventually, when the climax comes and Sherlock ends up besting Moriarty for the last time, we see how little he respects the man.
These three people: Irene Alder, John Watson, and Mycroft Holmes each hold within their characters a piece of Sherlock that makes his character complete. It is for this reason that I have been strongly considering writing an adaptation of Sherlock Holmes, (the story series), to fully capture the essence of this quartet of a character. I know that adaptations have been done to death on this theme, but that emphasizes my statement of how addictive Sherlock can be.
This is a casting call for the main character of a new short story series based upon the character of Sherlock Holmes!
I want to hear your opinions and ideas. Should I keep the name the same or change it? What kind of story should the first one be? Where will this adaptation take place? Hopefully this will begin my fantasy/fiction writing career, and I would like my readers to take part in that. This is an exciting opportunity to make something that is old new again. It’s like salvation for a story.
As always, thanks for reading.
–the anonymous novelist
These two terms are the bane of story writers, poets, and think tanks of all shapes and sizes, backgrounds, and areas of expertise. Concept and storyboard to a writer are the equivalent of heroine and water boarding. Inspiration for a concept can be found at any time and it can take you off on a literary high as you dream up this wonderful story. Concept is addicting. Concept is a writer’s best friend.
…storyboard. Storyboard is the next step after concept. Though storyboard is a term used mainly for videography and filmmaking, it simply means the process of envisioning and writing out in words and sketches the plan of your story. This is the logistics of story writing, the technical side of writing. Often it is the kill stroke for a story. The technicalities tend to kill the initial dream for a concept.
I’m a manic depressive, introverted writer who goes through major mood swings of intensely aggressive writer’s mode and then falls into slumps of acute depression. I’ll have days where I can write 20,000 words of a story, followed by weeks without the will to write.
I understand the laws of writing, I’ve even created some of them. But that which I would I do not, and that which I would not I do. Even in terms of writing I am a sinner: for I willfully disobey the laws to which all writers must adhere.
Concept is a drug but storyboard is the consequences of that drug. Eventually the excitement of the concept will abate when the storyboard bogs down the writer. In writing, just like in everything else, there are consequences for our actions. Too many concepts will overload the conscious mind and the subconscious will be wracked with the technical stress of the storyboard. That’s what leads to the depressive side of things. Manic leads to a sensory overload of ideas, and depressive is brought about by trying to facilitate the logistics for all of them.
Moral of the story: don’t get too excited about the shiny new ideas. The more ideas you grab hold of, the more you are drawn in. Pretty soon, you’re trapped. Your mind is full of ideas, it’s trying desperately to conceptualize them into the story they need to be, but it can’t. You pay the penalty for your carelessness. You let it slip, let your guard down, let go of the wheel. A writer must realize that he only has room in his brain for one good idea, anything else will be too much for him.
Life has consequences, writing has consequences. Ideas must be taken in moderation, one concept at a time can be successfully converted into a story. But too often, too many too much is what we get. Too many concepts, too many storyboards, it leaves you flat on the floor. Don’t just grab at an idea before you fully weigh its cost.
As always, thanks for reading.
–the anonymous novelist
the anonymous novelist 