An advertising executive once told me that you could tell the target demographic
of a television show by the commercials shown during the broadcast.  I have
spent some time notating commercials and it’s amazing what I noticed.  If I
am watching the local news, I see ads for local car dealers, fast food, pizza
and local stores.  Clearly they are aiming for the people who just came
home from work.  When I watch the national news I see ads for investments,
new medicines (with hundreds of side effects), luxury cars and vacation
resorts.  Apparently, the people watching the nightly news are more
affluent, have health problems and need to vacation in order to relieve
stress.  Soap operas and reality television were remarkably similar. 
They both showed ads for cleaning products, medications specifically targeted to
females, processed foods (soup, side dishes, and entrees), makeup, and personal
hygiene products.  Clearly advertisers see the demographic as women and
particularly housewives.  If I watch a football game, on the other hand,
things are very different.  Again I see the ads for investment companies,
life insurance, national truck commercials, erectile dysfunction, high
cholesterol medications, and some medicines where they never really tell you
what they’re for but the person is playing on the beach by the end, pizza, fast
food, bars or restaurants and beer. Apparently only sick men who overindulge in
food and alcohol watch football.  If you watch a mainstream detective or
police show you see jewelry ads, lingerie ads, and sales for national
stores.  This is a tricky one.  Are they aiming at men who are
shopping for the women in their lives?  Or could it be that they are aiming
for women who know their men will never actually buy those things and will need
to buy them for themselves.  I think it’s option number three.  Men
and women are watching the show and the men are being told “Dude, if you REALLY
love her you’ll buy her these things.  And if you do, she is going to be
REALLY GRATEFULL.” The women are being told, “If he didn’t get all your hints
about what to buy you, here’s a refresher even he can understand.”  If you
watch a Discovery Channel show or anything like History you will see retirement
investment adds, “cannot be turned down” life insurance ads,  coin
collector ads, medications for seniors and medical or home invasion alert
commercials.  Apparently advertisers think no one under the age of 50
watches these shows.  At the other end of the spectrum, if you watch a
cartoon or youth program (not Disney…as I said in another blog, they only
advertise about themselves) you see toy ads, candy ads and “As Seen on TV” type
ads.  I could go on but I think you get the point.  Advertisers are
expecting and betting that those demographics are watching those shows. 
They actually create the demographics!  It’s really sad that they think
everyone just fits into a nice neat little bar on a graph.  Clearly I have
watched all of those shows for one reason or another and most of those ads have
nothing to do with me.  Am I alone in feeling odd when they are talking
about products and services I have absolutely no use for?  I am an
individual and feel offended that a small group of marketing executives have
created stereotypes into which we are all supposed to fall.  I think they
missed the mark.

Today I had the honor of visiting Ms. Christine Carroll’s 10th grade English
class at Millard North High School.  The students were bright and
alert.  It amazed me how self-confident they were and the excellent
questions they asked.  One of the students had even read the prologue for
my book and drawn out a picture of one of the characters on the computer. 
She brought it to the class and I was highly impressed.  This girl is going
places!  One of the questions that were posed to me by both classes I
lectured was, “Do you ever have writer’s block?”  I answered that I don’t
in the conventional sense because I always know what I am going to write before
I sit down.  You see, I work out my writing ahead of time in my mind. 
I storyboard it sometimes on paper or in my head so that conversations and
events flow in a logical sequence.  Do I ever get struck?  Sure I
do.  With me, though, the problem is more transitional.  “Ok. 
I’m here in the story.  I need to get to there.  What do I do to fill
that void?  How can I bridge that gap?  Sometimes I do some character
development and other times I like to use comic relief.  Even in an
action/adventure like “Quest for the Red Sapphire” you need to have comic
relief.  Imagine a story with no breaks in the action or suspense. 
You just can’t keep a reader walking the razor’s edge like that for very
long.  It’s exhausting for the reader and it’s hard on the writer. 
There need to be breaks when the reader can breathe easier.  Humor is a
wonderful way to give that break and add a little levity to the serious
storyline.  That’s not to say that you need to write a stand-up routine but
something light and frothy can make it a more enjoyable book for everyone
involved.  Another question I was asked was, “Do I draw on my own
experiences for my writing?”  The answer was “Absolutely yes!”  When
one is creating characters the best place to look for inspiration is from people
or situations we know.  How many singers have written songs about
heartbreak?  Some of them have made their name just by doing that. 
You can bet they experienced those emotions at some point in order to write the
song.  It is no different as a book writer.  It is the experience you
have that inspires you to write.  No matter how imaginative the story is,
there will always be some real life inspiration behind it.  The group today
was alert and intelligent.  I was deeply honored to have the chance to
visit with them.  KEEP ON READING   

Tomorrow I have the honor of visiting Christine Carroll’s 10th grade English
class at Millard North High School and talking to them about my writing. 
It is exciting to exchange ideas with young adults.  I look forward to the
opportunity!

I was out today running errands.  When I returned to my car after one stop
I buckled my seat belt and turned the key in the ignition.  The car started
right up.  Instead of seeing the digital odometer on the display, I saw a
different message.  It was a message I had been dreading but tried to
convince myself I would not see it for a while yet.  It read, “ICEY
CONDITIONS POSSIBLE.  DRIVE CAREFULLY.”  Really?  Already? 
We just had Halloween.  How can it be cold enough for that message to come
on?  Sure enough; I looked at the temperature gauge for outside and it read
28 degrees.  Then a modest little snowflake glanced over my windshield on
the edge of a frigid north wind.  It did not stay long as it must have had
others to tell its blustery news.  I was instantly disheartened. 
Sure, it’s just one snowflake now and one cold afternoon.  But I know what
is coming.  Soon there will be a “dusting” of snow on the driveway in the
morning.  Then you will go out to your car at the end of the day and have
that half-inch of accumulation that has caught on the wiper blades and invited
its friends to join it there.  No big deal, right?  Wrong! Next come
the ice storms when your car and everything around are incased with ice. 
You cannot walk across a parking lot without slipping around.  Workers
start throwing salt on the sidewalks like grass seed on a lawn in the
spring.  You reach your car and find out it is entombed in ice and the
doors are incapable of opening.  (Remote car starters are a lifesaver at
times like this.  If all else fails, you can usually climb in through the
trunk.)  Forget the four wheel or all-wheel drive.  This is ice you
are dealing with and it is uncaring about such things.  All you can do is
pick the route home with the fewest hills and remember your winter driving
lessons.  Snow in and of itself is a wonderful thing.  It is
wonderful, that is, to look at through a window.  Driving in it is the next
phase of winter.  The first accumulations are usually light and easily
driven through.  Soon come the snowstorms when you must go out.  THEN
it is nice to have the four wheel or all-wheel drive.   The roads
never seem to be plowed until you shovel your driveway and then the plow pushes
new snow into the end of it, preventing your coming or going.  And all of
this started with a warning display on the dashboard and one flake of
snow.  It is no wonder Florida was created.

Yesterday I talked about the protagonist (Linvin Grithinshield) in “Quest for
the Red Sapphire” and today I would like to say a few words about the
antagonist.  The book has more than one but they are not all known. 
Two clear and dominant antagonists are Linvin’s cousins, Bander and Rander
Greenlith.  Rander is the brain of the duo.  Bander provides the
muscle.  They detest Linvin for numerous reasons.  The first of those
reasons is that Linvin is only a half-elf and not entirely of the Elf
race.  With a general mistrust and loathing of humans as a whole, Linvin is
an abomination to his cousins.  The major reason they resent Linvin,
however, is because they envy him.  Linvin is bigger and stronger than
either of his fraternal twin cousins.  He is also stronger and far better
educated.  His parents were rich while the twins were raised in
poverty.  Linvin is celebrated as a great warrior, tactician and
leader.  Those qualities are totally absent from the twins’
characters.  Deep down they yearn for all that Linvin is and has but will
not admit such a vice; so they disguise their hatred in racist remarks and
actions.  They are the obvious antagonists.  Then there are the not so
obvious ones.  Linvin’s father is missing under suspicious circumstances
and his mother is poisoned.  It all leads back to artifacts Dirk
Grithinshield (Linvin’s Father) collected for his son’s quest and the fact that
someone else knows of the Red Sapphire and covets its power.  Assassins are
revealed in the book and are identified only in shadow and called by
numbers.  They are the tool of the true antagonist who has not yet been
revealed.  What can be determined about Linvin’s faceless enemy?  The
person has immense power and money.  They hold to no code of honor and will
therefore sink to any level in order to obtain the magical gem first.  The
antagonist is someone who views Linvin as an obstacle in his path rather than an
equal adversary.  How can Linvin fight an enemy he cannot see or
find?  How can he succeed in his quest if the odds are stacked so strongly
against him?  That is the beauty of storytelling.  You must read the
story to find the answers!

It’s been a while since I blogged about my book, “Quest for the Red Sapphire”
and I thought I would mention something for those new to the blog.  A fan
asked me the other day about the main obstacle the protagonist, Linvin
Grithinshield has to overcome.  There are many combative situations in the
book that are challenging for Linvin.  He fights everything from man eating
wolves to a dragon.  The real conflicts he must overcome, however, are his
own shortcomings.  Linvin has been a warrior and general for many
years.  After countless battles and rivers of blood, he is disgusted with
the person he has had to become in order to do his job.  He has
hallucinations about goblin blood clinging to his hands and has nightmares about
fighting for his life.  The last thing he wants to do is take up a quest
into one of the most dangerous places in the world and fight his way
through.  When the idea is proposed he resists until he discovers that
assassins are coming for him.  He will never see them coming and must go on
the quest to avoid the fate of his late parents. Linvin refuses to take a sword
with him because of his apprehension.  It is a decision he will
regret.  Once on the quest it becomes clear that he has another flaw to
overcome.  Linvin had been drilled to train and plan for battle.  His
schooling left him with little tolerance for those unprepared or who question
his leadership.  To be blunt, he has a short fuse for those who cannot see
the big picture or challenge him.  Enter his fraternal twin cousins, Bander
and Rander.  They are constantly getting under his skin and causing
outbursts from Linvin.  There is no question that the duo is annoying and
makes you want to throttle them.  If Linvin is to prove himself worthy of
the Red Sapphire, however, he must overcome these weaknesses and grow as a
person.  The book is a wild ride for the former general.

I watched a program on the 101 greatest inventions of all time.  The I
Phone was number one.  I have no problem with the device but I would
personally have placed air conditioning higher than 13th.   Then
again, what do I know?  It made me think about some of the things about
which I ask myself, “How did I live before I had this?”  Amazingly the
first thing that came to mind was the DVR.  How DID we survive before the
DVR?  We used to use the VCR and have tapes used strictly for taping shows
we couldn’t watch.  Half the time, the show didn’t tape right.  The
other half, it always seemed to start after the start of the show or end before
the end of the show.  It was better than fighting over the remote but still
a flawed system.  Now when my wife wants to watch a show and I want to as
well, we can just DVR one and watch the other.  If we go out to dinner,
there’s no worry about missing our show or the VCR recording it right.  The
DVR catches it.  How about those shows you used to love but now only come
on at 3AM on an oddball channel?  No problem.  While I doze, my DVR is
blissfully recording my show.  When the big game is on and I am working…you
guessed it.  The DVR catches it all in high definition.  While it is
true that it shouldn’t be somewhere on the list around where antibiotics are, I
figure if an I Phone is number one, can’t this be on the list?

This is not an anti-smoking blog.  This is not a pro smoking blog. 
This is a blog about everyone’s individual rights.  I was at a restaurant
last night and noticed someone having to step outside in order to have a
cigarette.  I watched and thought, “Times have changed.”  Remember
when their used to be a “Smoking Section” in restaurants?  It wasn’t that
long ago.  I want to be clear on this.  I do not smoke and I do not
like being around others who are smoking.  With all that said, is it really
fair to ban others completely from smoking just because we don’t like it? 
I know all the studies about second hand smoke and I don’t want it around me or
my family.  There was a time, however when restaurants would have a door to
a patio where smokers could go without having to leave the establishment. 
What happened to that?  It wasn’t hurting any non-smokers.  Smokers
prefer to slowly kill themselves with tobacco.  I personally prefer Doritos
and red meat but, to each their own.  At least they would have a little
dignity instead of sneaking outside and away from the door to smoke.  It’s
almost like someone has declared open season on the smokers and is hunting them
down.  We didn’t hunt down the American Indians of the plains.  We
killed off their food source and forced them onto reservations.  Well, we
are not killing off the smokers.  What we are doing is slowly constraining
where they can smoke to the point that it becomes nearly impossible to smoke
anywhere but at home.  Is that right?  Once again, I prefer not to be
around the smoke but what about the smoker’s rights?  We are banning them
into extinction.  The philosophy is, “If we make it too hard for them to
smoke, they will quit.”  I sincerely believe the majority of smokers want
to quit.  They actually have heard all the thousands of ads too but simply
can’t quit for one reason or another.  I pity them.  Then I think to
myself, “Do I really want all these people to quit smoking?  They pay a
large amount of tax that I do not have to pay.  I don’t want to pay those
taxes.  What would happen if they put a special tax on Doritos and said you
could only eat them in certain places away from others?  That would upset
me greatly.  Part of the reason would be that I like Doritos and part of
the reason is that I feel like that would infringe on my rights.  IF I’m
not hurting anyone else and it is legal, why should my consumption be
regulated?  Why are smoker’s rights any different?  Give them a patio
to go have their cigarette away from me and then let them return without having
to walk by everyone waiting to be seated.  Every law we make is killing
another buffalo.  And that just doesn’t seem right.

 Modern medicine has come a long way.  Back when I was in college I had a
bike accident in which I was thrown over the bike and into the street.  I
broke my clavicle in two places, separated my shoulder and shattered my ball
socket joint.  At the time I was fortunate enough to have a great
orthopedic surgeon.  He set everything right (though the pain was
tremendous) and I rehabilitated it for about six months.  Now it works fine
and only gives me trouble on occasion.  Then I see a professional athlete
today who has a broken collar bone and they say this person will need about
three weeks to recover.  Wow!  I know my injury was more severe but
still, that is amazing.  Then a friend reminded me that they now have bone
growth stimulators and other methods of healing not available 25 years
ago.  That started me thinking.  “If medicine has come that far in the
last 25 years, what would have happened if I had broken my shoulder 25 years
before that?  And what might medicine be able to do 25 years from
now.”  We often look at what medicine has not accomplished like curing the
common cold or finding a cure for AIDS or diabetes.  It is rare that anyone
looks at what has been done.  I had a back surgery in my twenties and it
required a long incision along my spine.  Then I spent 3 months learning
how to walk again in physical therapy.  To this day it still bothers me
from time to time.  I spoke to a fellow with the same procedure a few
months ago and he was up walking around like normal within a few days!  The
incision was very small.  What a difference time can make.  Recently I
went to the doctor with a sinus infection.  He prescribed an
antibiotic.  I can’t tell you how many times I would have died if no one
had ever invented antibiotics.  My three cases of pneumonia alone would
have finished me off.  Doctors often catch our ire for not having all the
answers.  Maybe we should be thankful for the answers they have.  
   

Driving is a very personal thing.  Your driving style says a lot about the
kind of person you are.  Take for example the person who pulls up next to
you at a stop light when you can both clearly see that his lane is going to end
right after the intersection.  He has no blinker on.  That leaves him
with two choices.  Either he is going to floor the gas and cut in front of
me in order to get into my lane in time, or he is going to go until his lane
comes to a close and start edging into my lane.  I live in a city not
surrounded by much else so it is fair to assume that there is at least a 90%
chance that this person knew when they pulled up that their lane was going to
end and therefore planned to cut me off one way or another.  The other 10%
are tourists and young drivers who don’t know the roads yet.  As we sit at
the light and I look at this person, I begin to grow angry.  They are
willing to risk an accident just to get one car length in front of me. 
Will those three seconds they arrive at their destination before me really make
that much difference?  As the hairs on my neck begin to stand up I feel
compelled to race ahead and force them to yield the right of way to me.  As
the red light drones on, I back off my stance and decide people like this do not
learn lessons unless they do get in an accident.  In the end, I am not
willing to place my car, my health or my life in danger just to spite
someone.  But the thought did cross my mind.  As I calm down I see
that there is a line of cars behind him prepared to force their way into my lane
right behind him.  What is it about an automobile that makes people so
irrational?  Then look at the people who run the red left turn
signals.  After the signal turns red there is a 3 second delay before the
next light turns green.  Many times my light turns green and the person is
JUST STARTING their left hand turn!  Come on!  You can’t even make an
argument that the light was yellow.  So I have to sit there with a green
light and watch this manic drive in front of me.  Some people see it
happening and start into the intersection anyway.  I’m ticked but I’m not
ready to die to scare this guy.  Something about the road brings out the
worst in some people.  I’m no angel but I see no need to play with
fire.  Car insurance is expensive enough.