Recently I’ve been binge-watching Brooklyn 99 from the beginning. And I honestly love it so much. If you recall, I once said that I want to live in a world where the government is like West Wing and the news is like Newsroom. Let me add to that, that I’d like to live in a world where the police are all like the ones on Brooklyn 99.

Brooklyn 99 is a really great show. It’s funny, heartfelt, and has a great cast of characters. It’s also incredibly progressive. I would consider it a perfect model for anyone wanting to write a modern story that shows what our society could be.

Screw stereotypes

Stereotypes are blown out of the water on this show. The women detectives are just as tough as the men. The gay captain is the most stoic, non-frilly stick up his ass character I’ve ever seen. The sergeant is a hugely massive man who had to be taken out of the field after his daughters were born because he feared dying and leaving them alone. They’re all real people. They all behave as you’d expect a real person to behave.

Representation matters

With the diverse cast, the show obviously sometimes deals with moral issues that we face. In one episode, the Sargent (played by the amazing Terry Crews) is harassed by a uniformed officer from another precinct, because he’s out walking in the streets of his neighborhood at night. In another episode, Detective Diaz comes out as bisexual to her parents. Captain Holt occasionally brings up the fact that as a black gay man he had to fight to be accepted. These are things that I can’t believe we’re still dealing with in 2018! But since we are still dealing with them, I’m glad to see them dealt with in such great ways.

Funny people are usually endearing

Brooklyn 99 is a comedy. That’s its main goal. And all of the characters are genuinely funny. Gina’s strange, self-centered outlook that somehow manages to manifest in introspection is hilarious. Detective Santiago’s constant type A actions and her adoration of Captain Holt is usually good for a self-deprecating laugh on my part. And really, anything Boyle does is so sad sack wonderful.

We inherently like people who make us laugh, simple as that. The most popular characters in anything are rarely the straight-laced, big muscled hero who saves the day. They’re usually the Xanders, the Chandlers. They’re the funny ones.

A running gag or well-established trope can be used in so many ways

Jake Peralta, one of the main characters, has several repeated phrases. The most popular is probably, “Sure, sure, sure. Cool, cool, cool.” Repeated quickly, and usually with his typical eight years old who just got a pack of pokemon cards grin.

In the episode where Jake is sent to jail for a crime he didn’t commit, he repeats that phrase, “Cool, cool, co-co-cool,” when he hears the verdict. It’s something that he’s said a thousand times, and always with a smile. But at that moment, he looked so afraid, so broken. He obviously didn’t think that this would ever really happen to him. You can see his heartbreak. And that wouldn’t have worked as well if that line hadn’t been so ingrained in the character.

Love is always a great story

The love story between Amy and Jake is a great one. Never once does it feel forced. Never does it become the whole focus of the show. Always is it sweet and endearing? They are strong people on their own and have a healthy relationship together. It’s nice to see an honest, healthy relationship on tv. There’s not enough of that.

But friendship is a better one

Jake and Amy’s love story is great. But even better than that is Jake’s friendship with Gina, who he’s been friends with since they were kids. Or his friendship with Rosa, that began at the police academy. Or his strange friendship with Boyle, who is nearly obsessed with him. The friendships on this show are so real. They’re so real, so wonderfully honest. I love seeing men and women be friends without anything else. I have a lot of male friends, and I know that I sometimes get some backlash from that. People make assumptions when guys and girls are friends. I hate that. It’s good to see more men and women being friends on tv.

Showing real growth from challenges

In the show, several of the characters have gone through life-changing situations. Terry has three children, and it makes him more cautious. Jake is arrested and put in prison for nine months, and it makes him rethink his whole life. It makes him, in the end, a better detective.

It’s wonderful to see the characters change in this way.

If you’re an author, you could do worse than learn the lessons Brooklyn 99 has to teach.

Today is my 32nd birthday. And I’m pretty excited about it. I’ll be going to work, but I’ve literally worked every birthday for all of my adult life. So, it’s all good.

Anyway, the point of posting today is not to tell you about my birthday. It’s actually to give you a present.

Starting Chains is on sale today, for only 99 cents.

Now, it’s going to be on sale for the next two day, but today is the only day it will be just a dollar.

If you haven’t gotten a chance to read Starting Chains yet, today is a great day to grab it. I hope you all get a chance to read it.

On a personal note, to have achieved my life goal by the age of 32 is an incredibly humbling experience. I can’t believe that I’m publishing my third actual book, and a lot of that is thanks to you. So, I hope that you love Starting Chains, because it’s for you.

Thank you.

Once upon a time, I didn’t think very much of myself. If you can believe it, I used to think I was pretty stupid. I listened to the people around me, and if I didn’t agree with them, I thought I must be the one who was wrong. So, I tried to tailor my opinions to theirs.

Obviously, that’s an unhealthy way to live. It also resulted in me listening to some truly horrific music. (Not even going to lie, I used to listen to ICP.) I read books I didn’t like because, well, that’s what other people were reading. I watched tv shows and movies that were terrible and thought that I was to blame. I honestly thought that I didn’t like things because I wasn’t smart enough to like them. That my tastes were, somehow, inferior to those around me.

Fortunately, I’ve grown beyond that self-loathing mentality. I’ve realized a lot of things about my own personal taste as I’ve developed a sense of self-confidence that I lacked in my youth. And, since I’m turning 32 on Thursday, I’d like to share with you some things I’ve learned about personal taste in my 32 years.

You can recognize the quality of something, and still not like it.

I don’t like a lot of things that are widely popular. The Game of Thrones show, for instance, or This is Us. I’m not saying that these things are bad. From what I understand they’re both quality shows. I just don’t enjoy them. They don’t entertain me, though I can see the value in them. That’s fine. Just because I don’t enjoy something doesn’t mean it’s garbage. I’m happy to leave these good, quality things for the people who do value them.

You can recognize that something is complete trash, and still like it.

On the flip side of that, I do like some things that are total garbage. I’m never going to defend Mulan Rouge. Sorry, can’t do it. It’s a bright, colorful, fun, nonsensical story that by all rights should offend me as a writer. I don’t care. I watch the movie, listen to the soundtrack. Even now that I know what that French line means, I still sing it way out loud.

Sometimes trash is good. Sometimes it’s a release. I’ve also wondered in the past whether a deep-fried Oreo would really kill me. So, perspective.

Just because it’s classic, doesn’t mean it’s good.

I like lots of classic things. House on Haunted Hill, for one. The original movie is amazing, Vincent Price was a sex icon that gets no credit. I like a lot of classical music, like old 60’s and 70’s stuff. I like many classic books and movies. I like more classic tv shows than contemporary ones.

That being said, some classic work is bad. I’m sorry, it’s just bad. I’ve never yet read a Nathanial Hawthorn novel and thought, “Wow, I really enjoyed that.” Sorry, not even The Scarlett Letter.

Here’s the thing. I don’t hate these things because I’m not intellectually capable of grasping it. I don’t need to refine my pallet more. I just don’t care for the damn story. I don’t really care when it was written.

You should never apologize for it.

If I haven’t already pissed you off, this might be the one to do it. I don’t like A Wrinkle in Time or any of the books in that series. I have always hated it. In fact, that was the first book I remember forcing myself through even though I hated every single, awful, repugnant page of it. I hated the main character, hated the world she was forced into, hated every character she ran into along the way.

Every other woman in her early thirties just started hissing at me. And you know what, I’m cool with that. I’ve been having that damn book shoved down my throat by my whole generation, and I’m glad the movie bombed! I will not apologize for hating that book.

On the flip side of that coin, I’m sure that there are people out there who hate my favorite book, The Giver. I’m sure they’re sick to death of hearing about what a brilliant work it is. About how it brought a generation to the realization that freedom was worth anything, and everything. That maybe we need to do more than survive this world. Maybe you hate me right now, and you’re glad that my movie bombed. That’s okay. You shouldn’t have to apologize. We don’t have to agree. It would be nice if we were civil towards each other, but we don’t have to agree.

Your tastes will change as you get older.

This one was kind of a surprise. I guess that was kind of egotistical of me, even when I was so down on myself. I thought for sure that I was going to love slasher movies and Family Guy forever. That didn’t happen. I can’t stand Family Guy anymore (Seth McFarland is a purely ornamental man. Gorgeous but very little substance.) And I really can only tolerate so much in the gruesome horror genre anymore.

It’s okay for your tastes to change as you get older and change. It’s also okay for some things to never change. I will always love Animaniacs and Futurama. Also in The Simpsons. They’re all smarter than people give them credit for. And there’s no shame in being a 32-year-old who still watches cartoons.

Stories exist to be enjoyed

A story has one reason to exist, one driving purpose. That is to entertain. It may do many other things. It might teach you something, change your mind, drive you to tears. It might give you comfort and make you feel like you’re not alone in the world. A story might do any number of things. But it’s main job is to entertain. And if it fails to do that, then that failure belongs to the story. Not the reader.

Now, let’s keep all this in mind with your writing.

When you write a story, some people are going to love it. Some people are going to go nuts for it, and show it to all their friends. Some crazy people are going to make that story their favorite thing in the world.

And some people aren’t going to give a damn about your story. For some people, your story will not be their cup of tea. And that’s fine because everyone has different taste.

So don’t take it so hard.

Writers are artists. I’m totally biased, but I believe that writing is the most relevant and lasting form of art. Paint fades, clay breaks, paper decomposes, stone is worn down over time. And while a physical book or magazine might not last long, the story is forever. We’re still telling legends told from far before the birth of Christ. In fact, some might say we’re telling the same stories, just with new names and settings. Betrayal, war, heroes, monsters. And of course, the never-ending stories of love. Love never gets old.

Writing, and all the arts, are crucial to our existence. With storytelling, we can do so much. We can capture a moment in time and history that is completely unique. We can help people going through a difficult time. We can share our lives with thousands of people. We can create whole new worlds, and tell honest truths within them. We can live so many more lives beyond our own. We can use our words to inspire others, to help them see the world in a new way they hadn’t before. At very worst, we can write something clever to distract someone on a shitty day, or while they’re in a waiting room.

I assume that you agree with me about the importance of writing. Even if you’re not a writer yourself, I assume that you’re here because you love a good story. And so, given the weight of writing, all writers must eventually ask themselves a question. It might not be so direct, and you might not even realize that the question is being put to you until you’ve already answered it. But sooner or later, one time or a hundred times, you will have to answer it.

How far will you go for your art?

Will you devote your life to writing, like Natalie Goldberg did? Will you remain single and poor, hopping from house to house in a wild, nomadic, bohemian life that’s never certain and always new?

Will you commit yourself to the craft seriously, spending time not only reading and writing but researching?

Will you give up other habits to make the time to write?

Will you give up unhealthy habits so that your mind doesn’t fail you?

Will you live frugally so that you don’t have to work as much and can devote more time to writing?

Will you spend time everyday writing?

These questions can’t be answered by anyone else but you. Because only you know what’s worth it to sacrifice in the name of your art. You know what you’re capable of, and what is really important to you, even if you’ve gotten really good over time at lying to yourself about it. But it’s important to remember this.

If you talk to the people around you, I’m sure that you’ve got more than a few friends who want to be writers. They want to write, but they don’t get anything on the page. Do you know why? Because they don’t want to sacrifice anything for writing. They want to write, but they don’t need to. So, they won’t.

There’s another side to this. There always is. There are people, there have always been people who sacrifice too much for their art. We know their names because they’re usually spattered on the front page. Sometimes their brains are also splattered all over the walls.

Don’t sacrifice your health for your art. I’m sure that’s something of a theme on this site, but that’s because it’s a good piece of advice. Don’t work yourself to death. Don’t let your art drive you to drink or do drugs.

Don’t sacrifice your loved ones for your writing. Writing will never be more important than your kids or your partner. Don’t work through dinner or bring your writing on vacation with you. Especially if you have kids. They’re only going to be little for a small amount of time. Enjoy it.

So, what do you think? Do you have things in your life that you can sacrifice for your writing? What is more important than your writing, and should be kept? Let us know in the comments below.

Seven pieces of short and flash fiction, showcasing the days of seven very different people. You will find a busy librarian, a lonely man with a guitar and a woman who finds a dream crashing in her brain.

Get it here now for free!

Have you ever seen Coraline? I’m sure you know it’s one of my favorite movies. I even did a full breaking apart post about it. It’s really good.

I also really enjoy Hunger Games, Divergent, Number The Stars, and my favorite book, The Giver. I’m sure you might have noticed a theme. These are all horribly dark books written for young adults.

Like, really really dark! I’ve never read a book for adults that is half as dark as the books people write for kids. I think that’s part of why I keep reading young adult fiction.

But why do we do this? Why do we write these dark, horrible things for young adults who are generally emotionally crazy to start with? I’ve given this some thought, and I realized it’s for one really simple reason.

It sells. It sells like crazy, man.

While I don’t think that you should ever write something because it sells well, I don’t think it’s a bad idea to take a look at why so much of this dark work is selling to young adults. Because there are a lot of good reasons why they do sell well.

Kids are actually smarter than we treat them. By ‘we’ I mean parents and teachers. I’m a parent myself, and I can totally tell you that I do this all the time. I assume that my daughter can’t grasp large things, deep things all the time. I assume that I have to slow down and take a knee to explain the world to her. But I’m wrong. She’s fourteen years old, and she surprises me all the time with her incites. She watches the news with me, you understand. And she gets what’s going on in the world a lot better than some adults I know.

But, because we who are responsible for these little fledgling humans tend to treat them like they’re still nine, they will, of course, gravitate towards the things that treat them like they’re smarter than that. Like a dark fantasy book that isn’t afraid to talk about serious topics.

Dark work can also be distracting when you’re dealing with your own emotions. And, to be fair, teenagers are a huge ball of emotions. Greasy, angry, sad, whiny emotions. Okay, I know I sound flippant, and I’m only half joking. Teenagers have never experienced most of the bad issues in life before. We, as adults, are used to being burned. Kids aren’t, so all pain is new. When all of that pain is too much, a good dark fantasy can be distracting.

But here’s the thing, it’s not just kids that love young adult dark fantasy. As I’ve already pointed out, I love dark fantasy. And I’m happy to tell you why.

• I love dark fantasy characters because they have realistic reactions to life. No one’s ever as happy as a Disney Princess all the damn time. Wednesday Adams is a far more relatable character.
• The dark fantasy is often good at showing the good part of a bad day. Think about Series of Unfortunate Events. Think about the first book, where they show the Baudelaire siblings reading in their room in the evening. It’s a reminder that even in the darkest time, we can make moments of light for ourselves.
• Dark fantasies are unpredictable. In other books, you can generally assume that we’ll have a happy ending. Not so with a dark fantasy. Anyone might die.

I think that these are definitely things that writers can learn about any genre. What do you think? Do you like dark fantasies? If so, why?

Seven pieces of short and flash fiction, showcasing the days of seven very different people. You will find a busy librarian, a lonely man with a guitar and a woman who finds a dream crashing in her brain. And guess what? It’s totally free! Get it here now.

I’ve been writing Paper Beats World for a few years now. I won’t lie to you, I’ve never had millions of followers or views. I had enough, no complaints. But I’m always trying to find new ways to lead people to PBW. Why?

About a month ago I stopped paying attention to Twitter. I still post there, but it’s just a byproduct of what I’m doing on other social media sites. I did this because I did an inventory of my social media followers and realized two things.

A. More people followed me on Twitter than anywhere else.

B. It doesn’t matter a damn bit, because no one who followed me on Twitter clicks back to PBW.

I also saw the site that sent the most people to PBW; Pinterest. So I did what anyone would do. I started focusing more attention on it.

And do you know what happened? My page views took off! I mean, April was one of the most viewed months on PBW ever! So I want to share with you what I’m doing. If you have a blog, maybe these things will help you too.

Let me also say that Pinterest is my favorite social media platform. It’s how I relax, get inspiration and learn new things. If you don’t know how to use it, here’s a link to my post about how Pinterest works. That was a brief overview. What follows is what I’ve started doing since my blog views have started taking off.

Post a couple times a day with other people’s stuff

This one’s easy for me, because I genuinely like being on Pinterest. I scroll through and find things that inspire me, and I share them. Good advice, funny comics. All of that goes on the Paper Beats World board. The business advice goes to the Business Hat board. Info about a new book that looks fascinating goes on my Books board. I try to make sure that something new is on each of those boards every day so that new people follow them.

Create cool looking graphics

Your blog post images mean more than you think. They show up on blog feeds, social media and of course, can be used to make a pin on Pinterest. So, you should make nice graphics a priority. I wrote a blog post here, to help you with the graphics.

Post something every day

Obviously, I don’t post every day. But I do post something of mine on Pinterest every day. I go back a year or two years on the blog and post something from there. That’s actually what I started doing that has made the most difference. One post that I shared, called Cross Training Your Writing, got very little love when I posted it originally. When I reposted it, it got shared. Then it got shared a lot. Last month that one post was read 70 times. Is it break the internet worthy? No, not really. But it’s still a lot more views than I normally get.

So what do you think? Are you using Pinterest to its full advantage? Do you feel like there’s another social media site that isn’t getting enough attention or that you’d like to learn more about? Let us know in the comments below.

Station 86 is shocked when a Khloe assassin begins killing members of the all powerful council. Officer Sennett Montgomery and Councilman Godfrey Anders swear to find the assassin after Godfrey’s wife is falsely accused. But the killer, and the council itself, are not what they seem. Neither, as it turns out, is Sennett’s daughter.

Check it out here

My life has not been an easy one. Yeah, I’m sure you’ve heard that before. Hell, your own life probably isn’t an easy one. We all have our challenges, we all have our burdens. We all have something in our past or our current life that causes us pain.

But we, as writers, are artists. And as such, we have a built-in way to express our pain. We can write, and let all of that out.

Releasing my pain onto the page has been a coping mechanism for most of my life. It’s one that I rely heavily upon. Often I’m not comfortable talking about my emotions. That’s just not the person that I am. I think I must amuse my friends and family. When we’re talking face to face I’m more likely to dissemble bad emotions. I’ll talk about the positives, more so than the negatives. But if we’re chatting online, I’m far more likely to be honest about how I really feel. In the most flowery way possible, usually. I’m not the sort to hide who I am and what I feel. But it’s easier to get it out when I’m not face to face.

When you’re writing from a place of pain, you will write your truest words. Especially when you’re practicing free writing. This is actually strange because pain lies. Or, at least, we are usually really good at lying to ourselves about pain. We mask the pain with anger because it’s easier to feel. We pretend that we’re not really hurting, or that the thing that’s causing our pain is something different from what it really is.

That’s why writing from your pain is helpful because it lets you get past all of the lies. You can be totally honest on the page. And once you get into that, once the honesty is out there, it will really come out.

If you don’t get to that point, you might find that your writing speaks your honesty for you. For instance, there was a long time that I wasn’t talking to my mother. I thought that I was alright with that. I thought that I was going through my life pretty much okay without her.

I was totally wrong about that. Mothers kept coming out in my writing and stories. In my free writing, I kept coming back to this one image of a tree with shallow roots. My writing knew I wasn’t okay, long before I was ready to admit it.

One reason why this sort of writing can be so honest is that we don’t feel like we’re going to share it. We can be honest with the blank page more than we can with literally anyone else. So long as you don’t leave it lying about, it won’t tell anyone anything. You can even destroy it after you’ve spilled your guts if you want. The blank page will never judge you. What it will do is give you a space to ask yourself the questions you know needs to be asked.

Of course, If you do share your writing, it can help others who are feeling what you’re feeling. Knowing that others have gone through what you’re going through it can make you feel less alone. Sharing what you write from your place of pain can help others. And they, in turn, may reach out with their own words of comfort for you.

Are you subscribed to the PBW Update? Here’s why you should be. You’ll get an extra post from me about writing or publishing. You’ll get a round up of the most recent PBW posts. You’ll learn about a new indie writer in every issue. And, you’ll be the first to learn about promotional offers and events for Station 86 and Woven. PBW Update issues come out every other Monday.
Click here to sign up.

Here’s a schedule of the other awesome authors that will be attending.

6:00- Mercedes Prunty

Here is a link to her book.

Here is a link to her Facebook page

6:30- Me

7:00- Author Gibson

Here is a link to his website.

Here’s a link to his Facebook page.

And of course, a link to his Author page on Amazon.

7:30- CJ Warrent

Here’s a link to her author’s page on Amazon

8:00- Richard H. Stephens

Here’s a link to his blog, Facebook page, and author’s page on Amazon.

8:30 Kayla Matt

Here’s a link to her Book Bub page

Here’s a link to her Facebook page

Here is a link to her Goodreads Account

Here is her Amazon page

Click here to join the party

Hey, guys. It’s the last day to get Broken Patterns for free. So I wanted to make sure that you got a chance to read it.

I also wanted to remind you that we’re having a party on Facebook to celebrate the launch of Starting Chains. Please click here to sign up. There will be games, lots of guest authors, and prizes!

Thank you, as always, for all of your support.

Starting Chains is soft lanched, and I’m so pleased by the results so far. I’m so touched and honored by your response so far.

I hope that you all get a chance to get a copy of Broken Patterns while it’s free. And I hope that you all love it.

Thank you, as always, for reading. Stay tuned for so much more.