Escape the Mundane ~ Explore the Magical With Roulf Burrell's Debut Novel

Escaping Perilous Times

Many authors have a tagline. Mine says, “Escape the Mundane. Explore the Magical.” And people who read often do so to avoid their daily routine. They may crave an adventure, a mystery to solve, or a romance to enjoy. While nothing replaces traveling adventures or romances, a book is far cheaper than actual travel. It’s also less dangerous than real adventure or illicit romances, especially during turbulent seasons.

Successful fiction writers in all genres keep this in mind as they write. Many don’t realize the need to escape escalates during hard times. Or that this provides a golden opportunity for authors of all styles -- none more so than fantasy. You can’t escape much further than that.

In 1937, J. R. R. Tolkien released the Hobbit. Remember, the world’s markets had crashed and depressions were ongoing. Political tensions were mounting in Europe, a residual from the 1st World War, extreme reparations payments thrust on Germany, and depressed economies world-wide. So why not write about a mountain hall filled with gold, gold a Dragon had taken away from a bunch of greedy dwarves who wouldn't split it? Now the dwarves take it back, but have they learned to share? Five armies converge to battle it out. You wonder if Tolkien was prescient regarding the near future. Or did he just know his history, while understanding cause and effect?

And in 1938, C. S. Lewis released "Out of the Silent Planet." He finished the next two books of the Space Trilogy during World War II. Imagine taking one of those German V-2 rockets to Mars (which he calls Malacandra) or Venus, as in his second book, Perelandra. Here the garden paradise still exists, awaiting the inhabitants' choice; follow the creator's rules or rebel, as Earth had.

The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe was published in 1950. Remember, World War II had consumed 1/4 of England’s entire national wealth and English society hadn’t recovered as fast as America. In 1948, England was being forced to ration bread to its citizens, much less luxury items! Who wouldn’t want a closet escape into a magic land full of Turkish delight? But Lewis's character, Edmund, reminds us easy gratification isn't always best.

During tough times, our need is not just escape - we need hope for better things. If the J. R. R. Tolkien’s hobbit, Bilbo, can broker peace between dwarves and elves, and Aslan can overthrow the evil queen and redeem Edmund, then we can survive Covid or global warming, or the disaster de jour on the front page of the paper. When two hurting people find love, don't we all find hope?

Current issues are always emotionally loaded and disputed—that will never change. Stories allow people to bypass the powder keg to see how others solve their problems. For a few hours, our greatest challenge (or fear) is a dragon, instead of a virus. And you can shoot arrows at dragons—without a government permit or starting a nasty debate! (Of course the miffed lizard may roast you if you miss.)

In my own Dragon Mist world, Banshees have broken the bell while fussing and feuding with their lone male. So castle leadership decides that male has to replace the bell until it's fixed. Not a treat for anyone's ears. (But within this patchwork solution, can we find opportunities?)

The castle’s cooling system (frost giants and their icy breath) won’t allow the castle's heating system (fire sprites tossing fireballs) to move into the basement cave. A scheming leprechaun wants a new costume to disguise the fact he has acquired no gold for his rainbow pot. A fussy fairy queen commands her cannons to shoot exploding acorns at the gremlins, who copy and mock her every turn. (Detect any parallels regarding these dilemmas with today’s news?)

Those nasty Gremlins have also shut down the carpenter’s shop, so the woodwright can’t work. The blacksmith, a half-ogress named Draleen, has a fine workshop—gremlins aren’t crazy enough to tackle an ogre—so she can work all day. But she won’t. Not until the castle leaders find her a suitable man to marry. She’s certainly not fixing any bell, thank you!

So when a local village boy finds he’s an orphan, and the sheriff intends to collect him to sell to the next caravan to pay family debts, it just seems to be more trouble. Can Dragon Mist's dilemmas offer some hidden chance for the lad? This is a story about friendships, hope, and how we may hold part of an answer our neighbors need.

Can the trouble we see today offer authors the opportunity to reach out and help those around us? When the world comes apart, people often will stop and listen. They relish stepping out of their troubled life and into a favorite story, trading out their own shoes for our hero’s, if only for a couple of hours.

Now it's our job to take them some place worth going. As writers, we offer them the relief of escape. But like Lewis and Tolkien, we can do more. We can give the other fellow a chance to see old truths in a fresh way. And if they catch that, we all find a little hope.

Leave a comment below and L.A. will randomly choose a winner for an e-copy of Riddley Bundleforth & the Banshee Bell!

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Check out Roulf Burrell’s debut novel at Amazon!

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Mental Can Openers & Writer's Hash ~ Roulf Burrell

Particle Plot Production

There is nothing miraculous about past book or movie plots, though it seems magical when we read or watch them. Sometimes plots are copied with cosmetic elements changed. Zorro is just James Bond with cosmetic changes. Instead of a tux, you use a mask and black cape and the Walther PPK is replaced by a Spanish rapier. Instead of an Aston Martin, use a black stallion named Tornado. The cold war required spy training, so substitute the war for Mexican Independence and fencing practice fencing.

But I want something original, you say?  Unfortunately, most of us can’t sit in a chair with our fists clenched, eyes squeezed shut, making such a plot pop into our head. How do the best authors give us something unique? I answer that with a particle accelerator. The best-known accelerator is the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) in Switzerland. The LHC forces elemental particles to collide into one another. The result is undiscovered particles.

So let's do this with plots. All plots combine common elements in uncommon ways. The Harry Potter series took many common elements. Boarding school life, school sports events, train rides, detention after class, teachers we don't like; none of these were original. Rowling collided them with the element of magic. Instead of dodge ball and polo, she makes the balls and players fly, swapping horses for broomsticks. Voila—Quidditch. After writing 100 lines on paper for detention, the lines magically scratch themselves onto the back of your hand. Ouch!

Let’s try ramming a few elements of our own to see what we get. In three columns, make a list of occupations, motivations, and settings.  

With people’s occupations, think of the more unusual ones you’ve heard about.

Now make a list of common motivations for human behavior. These motivations will suggest some background in the main character lending itself towards that need.  Someone greedy, say, might have been poor growing up. Someone looking for romance might have been lonely or hurt. They can be general or more specific.

Finally, list settings, making some common and some unusual. These will change as needed. As examples, see my entries below.

Profession	Motivation	Setting
Zoo maintenance worker	Greed	Abandoned factory
Independent gold miner	Romance	Mount St. Helens
Basketball team coach	Pride	Antarctic weather station
Recently fired TV chef	Revenge	St. Paul's cathedral
Catholic priest	Growth	Dying Kansas town
Retired librarian	Fear of death	Mediterranean yacht

I can assure you, these have been written about. Each one by itself is commonplace and would not provide a story. But as we force each element into the one across from it, a story may suggest itself.

A zoo worker steals valuable animals, hiding them in an abandoned factory. Perhaps the animals turn on the keeper, as we see a visceral lesson that our possessions can destroy us.

A gold miner, hoping to find exposed gold after the Mount Saint Helen eruption, finds romance instead. A retired librarian (collision with another unusual character) likes to hike and learn new things. Will our lady miner find she must choose between hunting gold or a quiet life with a bookworm?

Or collide that gold miner and romance with a yacht in the Mediterranean. Is she now a diver for lost treasure?  Could our librarian’s access to limited archives and his ability to research find a missing clue? Could we set this during a looming World War I naval battle? As we collide between different rows in the columns, the possibilities broaden.

A TV chef, whose career is waning, hopes for a rebirth when he/she volunteers to cook for a term at an Antarctic weather station. Filmed during the long dark months, he/she reconnects with cooking artistry and people sharing a common meal when confined.  Does our chef turn down the next TV offer?

Thanks to a nationally advertised, interdenominational challenge, an atheist basketball coach has one month to create a winning team from the ordained members of St. Paul's Cathedral. (If St. Paul's has no ordained members, then switch it to Westminister Abby.) For the coach, pride is at stake. Or it could be revenge on the opposing coach. While team St. Paul’s might learn valuable lessons working as a team, what might the coach learn from them?

A Catholic priest diagnosed with aggressive cancer faces his fear of death. He leaves his mark by converting an abandoned factory into a youth center. What challenges would he face? How much of the factory could be left intact to provide obstacle courses, a work-out center, industrial training for welding or cutting, etc.? How could you parallel his death with the dying neighborhood he's trying to help? As the abandoned factory finds a new life, will he?

Have fun colliding your own elements. Remember, it takes a little practice, but you only need one success to launch you on to that next story, contest, or query letter.

~Roulf Burrell

Find Roulf:

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Mental Can Openers & Writer's Hash ~ Roulf Burrell

Literature’s Run for the Roses - Part 2

Last time: A sleepless night, themes and JPEGS floating on the inner sides of my eyes, pillars of book sales by day and web subscribers by night...

Next morning, assuring myself the site didn’t construct itself, I made a hard left turn into the practical.  Actually, I check out Candee Fick‘s The Author Toolbox where she explains one of the first steps after arriving at the dashboard is to pick a theme.  This is a template that sets the look and feel to the site. To follow her real estate example, it‘s like choosing a floor plan and style for your house. Ranch or Victorian? Bungalow or Colonial? 

But how do you know what various templates will look like? For visuals, most of the themes will give you a sneak peek. And many of the themes will tell you what use they had in mind at the start: business, artist, writer, sales. Just be cautious. While some themes are free, many themes cost you money. Some charge a one-time, lifetime use fee, others a lower, yearly rental fee. As the Grail knight warned Indiana Jones who was about to choose Christ’s cup, “Choose wisely.”

If you’re a visual learner check out YouTube. I have spent hours that would total days watching videos showing me the procedural steps to website construction.  I pause them, match my screens to theirs, open a Google screen up to find definitions I don‘t understand, then build my site with them — up to a point.

Here again, you must realize most videos will eventually push a theme or plug-in.  That makes them money. See, some themes are free, but many others are premium themes, costing money for additional support and options. YouTube videos often steer you towards these themes. But once they enter the details of setting up that theme, the help they offer is more limited. The number of videos dealing with free themes declines and the chance of some designer using my free writing theme spirals towards the theoretical. 

So why do I (and others) press on through this jungle? Having control is part of the answer. With a level of control comes a level of security. But at a more elementary level, I want the mental challenge of learning a new area. My prior forays into the computer sciences provided the background that now allows me to plod through today‘s web technology, no matter how many naps it requires. It’s reasonable to expect that a fundamental understanding of websites and their design will enable future learning as technology progresses.

Besides, it’s handy for science fiction novels when you have to make the ludicrous sound scientific. 

“The lepton compression rate on the CDN converter module is losing its spin momentum to the quantum flux curvature cloud, Captain. At this rate, our resolution-hold on this space-time domain will fail in 6 minutes.” Spock stared calmly into the visor of his science console.

“Where in the six bands of Orion’s belt did a flux cloud come from, Mr. Spock?” Years of experience held the tension in Kirk‘s voice to tolerable levels. He knew his bridge officers drew their confidence from him

“Unknown Captain,” Spock responded. “But if the UkeTubian widget doesn‘t lossy off the proton’s extraneous energy from the engines, the GDPR core will lose graphite cohesion and rupture.”

So, having shepherded a difficult and somewhat extended birth, my thoroughbred website is in its paddock. I continue the process of keeping it licensed, updated, optimized, secured and hot-linked. Once I place my Dragon Mist story in the saddle and the starting gates spring open, I, along with approximately 1 million other aspiring authors every year, can make my Run for those Roses, as fast as I can.

~Brad

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Mental Can Openers & Writer's Hash ~ Roulf Burrell

Horses, Roses and Websites Galore~Part 1

Building your own website is like owning a thoroughbred racehorse. After you put in the time to learn about horses, feed, and groom, train the fiery beast, then muck out the stall, you’re too tired to ride, so you put it away in the barn.

Now I’m talking about the WordPress.org system that allows you full control over the various elements. Other options such as SiteBuilder, Wix, GoDaddy or Squarespace promise to streamline the process. They accomplish this, in part, by limiting your choices, but if your needs are less complex and you can comfortably live within their parameters; they are a competitive choice, though usually not a lot cheaper.

The first thing you will encounter with the Wordpress system is a tangle of technical terms worthy of any electronic jungle. Examples include: “domain name”, “cloud hosting”, “dashboard”, “widgets”, “plug-ins”, “themes”, “parent & child”, “tags and slugs”, to name a few. When instructions tell me to go to the dashboard, it does me little good to go sit in the car in my garage waiting for increased book sales. 

Once I find the dashboard, the acronyms attack. SEOs, CDNs, API, GDPR, JPEG, URL, HTTP, and HTML are a few.  Each one of these has a definition that sometimes requires more defining. For example, once I determine JPEG is a file extension for a lossy graphics file (and provided I know what a file extension is), other computer enthusiasts grant me a nod of affirmation; but, I still have not “lossied“ the headache.  

Another Google search reveals that Lossy graphics is a data compression system that gives up some image data to improve transfer speed, size, and storage needs for the remaining data. So now that I know what JPEG is and means, I also want to understand its effect and impact on my website. For instance, I might need to convert photos using a different compression system to work with my website or consider what type of photos load the fastest or look the best. 

While we are traipsing joyously through this lexicon minefield, we must exercise care we don’t incidentally sign up for premium services we don‘t need. And until I comprehend the terms, as well as the website’s method of implementation, I don’t know what I need. Apparently, my domain and name, while formidable, doesn’t stop themes, widgets, and plug-ins from presenting themselves in pop-ups, all promising to solve my woes for a few more dollars. Declining these, turning them off, or selecting the free option, can feel like staking vampires in a churchyard, only to watch them rise again during the evening service.

I’ve bought a host site, secured the right to use WordPress, chosen a domain name, and the system has dumped me into a screen called a dashboard. What do I do now? Speak to it using my new definitions? Wave my hands over it while muttering the three Latin phrases I know?  Personally, I had another coffee, lay down and had trouble sleeping, so I prayed for the site to construct itself as a magnificent testimony to God. Failing that, I awaited divine instructions to appear on the inside of my eyelids, an old test preparation technique of mine from college.

Stay tuned next time to see if the Baffling Burrell can overcome impossible odds, complete his website and qualify his fantasy nag-novel for entry into Literature’s Run for the Roses. 

~Brad

Find Brad:
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Mental Can Openers & Writer's Hash ~ Help!

Help!  I’ve Fallen into a Drawing and Can’t Picture a Way Out

"I have got to create more products."

An artist-bronzing friend of mine made this statement to me when I inquired as to the health of his sculpture business. He replied he needed to make more statues. I asked him what the holdup was, expecting to hear about issues with clay or metal or the foundry.

Instead, he lamented that all his time vanished tending business concerns, including shipping, marketing, advertising, website design, tax laws, and the like. As screaming bells went off in my head, I told him it was too bad he wasn't a writer. We writers are a natural combination of Hemmingway, FedEx, Tony Robbins, Steve Jobs, and H&R Block – NOT.  Unfortunately, in my case, I forgot to throw in Rembrandt or da Vinci.

The writer’s key platform today is the “website.” Named, I assumed, because of the vast array of crisscrossing computer lines linking various sites. I now suspect they adopted the sobriquet, "web" because tech illiterate hosts jump into this matrix and then can’t escape. They writhe helpless, like the first victim who establishes the deadly stakes for the other houseguests, trapped in a B-rate, Vincent Price movie.  I can't shake that feeling when I struggle around in my web.  Are there amused, eight-limbed, jewel-eyed, byte-spiders, the kind who “hot-link it over dark arrays to suck the cloud dry of juicy credit data,” “LoL”-ing me? The ways of webs, learn you should, young Padawan!

All this computing and marketing adds up to a learning "curve" that looks like something Wiley E. Coyote would fall off of chasing the Road Runner.  But that cliff can be conquered with the help of knowledgeable friends, YouTube videos, and a competent writers group (mine rivals the Inklings by the way.)  For the fantasy genre, add a portable Prozac IV drip, a Pez dispensing Pepsid AC like a Gatling gun, and Rogaine for the suddenly missing hair.

What friends and videos can’t provide is talent you do not have. Visuals and graphics to illustrate a fantasy website are not commonplace. One does not pop down to the park to snap a banshee loitering about or a UFO disembarking an invasion force.  Much of what's offered insists, quite justifiably, on remuneration. The artistic hand, imagination, and software manipulation tools and skills are a profession in and of themselves.

My sculpting abilities peaked in a seventh-grade art class. While other kids made heads or pots, I rolled the clay out flat, and then cut six sides for a cool Dracula coffin. When my fingers put it together, it looked better suited to bury a slouching hunch-shoulder of Notre Dame. My use of colors was more refined – coffin black.   

But drawing?  I tried one of those Bob Ross TV courses. Clearing my brush, I slapped it across the tripod leg like Bob did – it slapped me back!  Then my "happy little tree" Bob said I could put anywhere, grabbed the paintbrush hairs and instantly hardened.  I failed to notice as my palette knife attacked a plugged tube of forest green that then bled across the autumn orange into my sky blue.  I was terrified the EPA would show up with a warrant.  “Joy of Painting” filed for damages and the cable company inexplicably removed my access.  Eh -- art world’s loss.

Now, I'm left dependent on a high school graduate in graphics who just married her boyfriend. In a feat of selflessness unrivaled in Clan Leach’s history, I urged her not to spend all of her honeymoon time at the Bleeding Moose Lodge & One Hour/Every Hour Wedding Chapel working on my project.  Spend a few minutes with the groom, I said.  I’m paying for that generosity now. 

Yes, Ridley Bundleforth and the Banshee's Bell, my forthcoming novel, remains jacket-less. And with cold weather coming, too. Where am I going to find another starving graphic artist, unmarried with no prospects, shivering in some grotto, with a frozen mouse and a cracked I-pad?  One with the angelic flare of a digital Raphael, the imagination of a Jules Verne, but the business acumen of a Ralph Kramden?

No, like my artistic friend, I’m caught between needing to create product and trying to develop a deeply latent artistic talent for drawing banshees and bells.  So far, I’d have better luck trying to win “America’s Got Talent,” singing Sinatra’s, “Fly Me to the Moon” through a knotted soda straw.  So it's back to my trusty 64 shades – Crayola don't let me down. Now if I can only find an image with color by numbers...?

~Roulf Burrell

Mental Can Openers & Writer's Hash ~ Lessons From A Balloon

Brad Leach, oops, Roulf Burrell (his announced pen name from his prior post) is back today with a thought-provoking post. Read on.

      When our children were young, my wife and I occasionally took them out to the Red Robin restaurant to eat.  The kids loved the TV in the floor, the large mascot “bird” that went around giving hugs to little ones, and the ice cream shakes.  Mom loved the break from cooking.  I wondered why they added the word “Red” to the name Robin - is there any other color robins come in?  Would “Orange Robin” work for marketing?  Is “Red Robin” actually a tautology, like a freshwater “bone fish”?  Would we have been better off eating there?

     As we were leaving, my youngest daughter (who also happens to be my oldest daughter since I have only one), asked for a balloon.  Of course, the staff was happy to oblige.  So she picked out a nice red one that seemed to be busy doing push-ups off the drop-tiled ceiling with the help of a nearby paddle fan while jostling other balloons that tried to crowd around to watch.  I was considering the social structure of balloons in groups, which I’m sure some university has taken tax dollars to study.  What do you call a balloon group, a clutch, a bundle, a stretch?  Anyway, this obvious “Alpha” balloon was pulled down and slip-noosed to my daughter’s wrist.

     Now one problem with any small child having a balloon is the dirigibles' fragile nature.  Balloons, especially helium balloons, are mercurial and prone to wander if they don’t choose to vanish entirely.  I personally think they fancy themselves as one of the “noble gases.” They find nitrogen and oxygen plebeian and feel they should always be above them.  My wife simply says it’s because they are full of themselves.  Regardless, they have a short life when clutched in the hands of any young child who almost always manifests a primal urge to jerk on the ribbon.

     My four-year old’s balloon slipped her wrist in moments and was rising faster than a Taylor Swift love song on the teenage pop charts.  Tears followed.  How can a little girl become so attached to a red spheroid so fast when it took her months to bond with me?  They were strangers a minute ago!  Do I lack the charisma of a common balloon?... I withdraw the question.  Anyway, as the “Helium Houdini” escaped into the ether, and wanting to avoid a scene, I nonchalantly complimented my daughter on her generosity and willingness to share.  Confused, she looked at me for an explanation. 

     I explained that the balloon was heading up towards heaven, going as fast as it can.  That when Jesus was down here as a little boy, they didn’t have Red Robins and helium balloons, so He never had a balloon to play with.  “But now you shared your balloon with Him.  See, it’s going up into the clouds; up into heaven. I think He’s very pleased that you are willing to let your balloon go up and see him. To play and tell Him all about you.”  We said a little prayer and watched the balloon until it was out of sight.

  I think of that incident when I hear another author has sent off his or her story.  They’ve filled a package with all the life they can breathe into it, tied it with a ribbon, then let it go.  A story is like that balloon, if you will, and we all watch to see if it rises – or bursts.  As it floats out of the author’s sight, I know hopes and prayers go with it.  And sometimes, a few tears.  A Christian writer hopes to share something of themselves with others.  They hope their story creates some noble moment, rising to great heights.  Most of all, they release it to Jesus, watching it rise on childlike faith.  Hoping it tells Jesus all about them; that it pleases Him.

~Brad, now writing as Roulf