Litmocracy Forums

August 10th, 208

2008-08-10T18:09:16Z

Pain.

It’s funny. Everybody hates it. Everybody fears it. Yet it’s the muse of the most successful writers of all time. Extreme pain and extreme pleasure have spawned most of the great works of art throughout history, in fact. This is not to be confused with stress. Stress causes writers block. So how do you purge the real pain when it comes? With words, what else? Don’t waste it.

I propose a nice cathartic exercise in singing the blues. Let’s have some nice pain infused storytelling in the fiction section. Or non-fiction. We’ll be looking for the best pieces to spotlight. In fact, speaking of spotlights and whatnot, Dave has fixed it so you can find unread pieces to read and add to your voting ticket. They’ll be right on the front page when you log in. Just read and vote, can’t get any easier.

Me, I’m numb right now. All is wrong and all is right. I fear everything and expect the worst so I fear nothing. Have some nice gigs coming, particularly the Recher on August 16th (of which Litmocracy is a sponsor) and am awaiting results of the New Mexico trip when my manager Eddie Adams meets with a venture capitalist that is interested in funding both Web and MIA. There’s also interest in Web of Destruction from the same people that had Project Greenlight. I get to hear all of the changes they want to make next weekend. Yay. Butcher my baby, just don’t throw out the bathwater, okay?

Meantime I tread water and wait. Wait. To me it’s the worst most disturbing four letter word there is. Wait. Wait. Wait. I’m pretty certain waiting will be the death of me in the end. Waiting and worrying causes stress and prevents me from writing.

Whatever.

I should have a new book in the works shortly for 2 writers. I’m just waiting for the customer’s details. This will be a ghost write of half a book. I’ll edit it. I’ll let you know as I do what the details are and am currently soliciting more work. All the other work is in motion or filled out.

Oh, and for some good news, our very own Nightshade just got a book published. Chris Melton’s novella, Geared for Gold, has just been released through PublishAmerica and is on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Target retail stores, and Books Unlimited. It was also released in Ireland a few days ago.

Congrats Chris. Write on!

Don

August 1st, 2008

2008-08-01T17:46:40Z

Halo…

Hope all out there in Litmock land are well. I am working on finding some new writing work. I have sent off the script to Doprava (just got it off bro) and have a number of others on a number of projects, but I still need 4 people to do a life story. I have been mad busy with trips to LA and New Mexico, though they were very productive trips, and might have missed contact with some of you. The alien book is filled up, I am awaiting the first segment to be finished by Theresa to pass it on to Bosley and so forth. Meantime, if anything new comes up, I’ll keep you posted. We are hoping that, beyond the book contest, once we get a film mid-production, we can run a very large original script contest, so keep that in mind.

Any site improvement suggestions would be appreciated. Dave just updated the software and would like to give $10 to someone for finding a problem with the update. We long to improve the site and make it easier to use. It’s Litmocracy fer gawd’s sake, help build it!

Have not heard from Prometheus and I hope that he is ok. Drop me a line bro’ and let us know things are OK in that bomb riddled insane part of the universe. If we break out and I get fundage I’m coming to see you. I want to see that mess for myself and prove they don’t hate me because I’m American and I don’t hate them and come back and report about it.

99 is doing fine. We have some nice gigs coming up and hope to get some footage for the MIA trailer. If we do I’ll figure some way to post a link here and on Litmock, and most everything else progresses. I wrote a short piece of journalism in the news section. Check it out!

This is the type of thing we’re looking for. Frankly, we hate the man. Watching Hank Paulson break his arm patting his own back today on the great job the government has done fixing the economy made me sick. [That was on CNBC. Alan Greenspan was a bit more honest a while later. --Dave] Uhm… I’m still paying ridiculous money for gas, still struggle to make it by, still exist weekly and I’m doing better than most. Watching the market being manipulated into false rallies on low volume has been particularly nauseating. These people will cause a crash later this year when there’s volume, and meantime make it “look” like things are good. Whatever. We can play that game too. There’s still a war. The GDP today, if you read the numbers, said trade was all we have working and, HELLO, the global economy is slowing down thanks to war and political chicanery. Yeesh.

I could do this for awhile but I’ll save it for the 99 gigs. Soon enough maybe you all get to see one! That’ll be fun.

Meantime there is this magazine. It is funded and will be print and online,and if it survives it will pay its writers. Good luck to it.

http://WWW.MSMAG.INFO

Submit and tell them Litmocracy sent you.

Good luck,

Don

July 20th, 2008

2008-07-20T23:25:28Z

OLE…

How izzyou all?

I’m about to head to New Mexico to meet with the film commission this week. By the time you get this I should be on my way. The meeting is about both Midnight In America (MIA) and Web of Destruction. Neither Dave nor I are keen on talking directly to the looters, even if they’re state looters, but if they use money to help get these films made, at least it’s not money spent on blowing things up, breathing things that I tend to care very much for. Also, 99 Burning’s gig in Baltimore on the 25th is nearly sold out so I’m kinda hyped about playing that. We’re playing with Carbonstone who are getting back together after a lengthy hiatus. I’ll get some pics! All good stuff that in the long run will benefit Litmocracy and its industrious members.

On a personal note I know we’re making some progress, and not just because of the writing work I’ve dispersed and am gaining, or because of feedback. I know it because Big Brother has begun watching me. I can sense the fear. Smell it. I love the smell of slavemaster fear. It pumps me. I’ve recently been detained and questioned by local authorities on a “mistaken identity” ploy and was asked some silly nothing to do with the ordeal questions I declined to answer. My Internet has been freezing during interactions with Dave routinely. We get a kick out of that since, you know, we have phones. Big Brother is big but none too swift. My phone has been tapped and messed with to boot. It’s OKAY with me. It was Bukowski who said if the authorities don’t feel threatened by you, you’re doing something wrong. Thanks Hank! Plus there’s Thoreau and Morrison and countless others who took a stand and were harassed.

Whatever.

We’ve streamlined the site and will be moving new material to the front page, this way it can be judged or booted or judged and rewarded. that’s the idea. We want to refine this voting system and find great work. The voting system, when tested enough, can be shown to be vastly superior to this ridiculous PR voting system lesser of two evils garbage that has driven this world and this economy into the ground. Voting is important. Earn those brain points and write on!

Speaking of harassment and authorities and all that crap that I hate, we have received word from our good friend Prometheus out in the killing fields of the Mid East:

Sorry I couldn’t write earlier due to the billions of stresses on all sides. A heavy military operation against Taliban has been initiated in my hometown Hangu and I am worried about the safety of my family and relatives who live in the main city (Taliban are concentrated in the suburbs). I published an account of our dog’s escape from home here (http://freebird.instablogs.com/entry/frightened-gubba-flees-home-during-military-operation-in-hangu/).

If someone would like to hire me for content articles on health, nutrition, and parenting etc., I’d like to do it. Also, can you please notify authors and publishers that we are accepting review copies of books for the coming issue of The Audience Review http://www.worldaudience.org/pubs_aud_rev_issues.html. There is a reading fee of $20/$25. Also, we are open to ads of books, magazines, and presses etc. The rate of an ad per issue is $10.

END TRANSMISSION

Keep it up Ernest and I hope you get some interest out of this. Ernest wrote the best review of MIA I’ve seen. It was too well written for my book. Made me feel small and feeble, but it was a fantastic review and he got exactly what I was saying so there’s that.

On the work front, we have interacted with a new magazine out of Baltimore called P.A.I.D™ ~Passionate, Ambitious, Integrity, and Driven for success ~ Magazine, a new quarterly publication featuring young Entrepreneurs, Artisans, and Business-Owners circulated in Washington, DC., New York City, Atlanta, and Chicago. The initial release of P.A.I.D Magazine is October 18, 2008 in Washington, DC., and surrounding metropolitan areas.

P.A.I.D Magazine provides news relative to entrepreneurship, finance, and general business. P.A.I.D’s mission is to promote entrepreneurship and the philosophy that ‘’YOU TOO can control your own destiny through entrepreneurship incorporating passion, ambition, integrity, and drive to the recipe of success.’’

P.A.I.D Magazine will be distributed at Howard and Morgan State University homecoming 2008 and in many small businesses and retail stores in the Washington, DC., and metropolitan areas.

P.A.I.D Magazine would like you to write a story on one of the topics they need in exhange for recognition for yourself and possibly working together as a writer for P.A.I.D Magazine. If you have a prior story written relative to business, entrepreneurship, or the economy that you would like to include in P.A.I.D Magazine, I would greatly appreciate the story and be delighted to send it to them to be included.

Any one interested let me know. Dave has already written an article. A pretty good one I thought. If you’re a fledgling writer you have to build your resume. Something like this can help. Later in the week I believe I’ll have an 80 page Masters thesis, an easy one on doping in the Bike Racing Industry. I’ll break it up into four chunks when we finalize it and will as always edit the final. It will be APA style. Anyone interested let me know and I’ll check your work and let you know of details after I finalize. Most other work has been handed out. I mailed Doprava the script background and have people waiting for their parts of the alien book, and have piece-mealed some other stuff out. I’ll be seeking much more work in the coming weeks. Till next time.

Don

July 15th, 2008

2008-07-15T23:45:07Z

Oi one and all.

Let’s start with some good news. Signups the past few weeks have been good. We are redesigning the site so the front looks like an organic litmag that exposes the best new pieces. That will take some time but we’re on it. We’ll keep you posted and take any and all suggestions into consideration. It’s Litmocracy after all.

I have more work to offer. No one has claimed the script and I need a book ghost written, another one beyond the Alien book. Is a life story and is very interesting. Contact me @ deminizer13 at yahoo dot com for details or post in freelance and I’ll find you.

On a side note, it’s Dave’s Birthday so some harrumphs and toasts in his general direction would be cool. I’m doing both. He’s not old yet, but I for one hope he gets there. [But they do let me drink and drive! --Dave]

We’re working on a book signing to go with 99 Burning’s LA gigs circa October. We’ll keep you posted as this develops. This is likely to be a Web of Destruction kick off party of some form and I’d like to meet any and all Litmock members when we’re out there.

Also, on the Web of Destruction+Midnight In America film front, I am headed to meet with the heads of the New Mexico Film Commission to see how they’re going to help us. Keep you posted there as well. Meantime, Julianyway and TheresaJean are making money working on freelance work from Litmock and having fun doing so. Julia is building a Litmock portfolio which I find awesome. I learned my lesson and began doing so a long time ago, and, well, life is mo’ better.

Well, this has been a positive message from a generally aggravated guy, but watching Senator Bunning call Bernanke a Socialist and question whether or not he woke up in France this morning, then watching Reichmeister Paulson get raked for being a power grubber really made my day more than making money off of the politicians being idiots, which we also did today. All in all, it was a good day. I was going to talk sadly about the damage done to the environment and the oil consumed in the Iraq war as they tell us we need to conserve to save the planet and the economy, but I’ll wait.

For now,
Adios,

Don

July 2nd, 2008

2008-07-03T00:06:53Z

Halloo my firends,

Hope all is well. Litmock things have been good and we’ll get to some of those shortly. First I’d like to share some news from a fellow Litmock member and writing colleague, and it’s not so good. Long time members will recognize PrometheusCaptive as an excellent writer. He’s a published writer that some of our unpublished members could learn from and who some like me would aspire to be like insofar as he lives honestly and openly in the face of tyranny. He lives his values, and friends, that is what Litmocracy is all about. He lives in Pakistan. Let me share his message with you.

This morning I got the news that the army has started its military operation against the Taliban in the Bara area (immediate vicinity of Peshawar), which is a few dozen kilometers away from where I live. We are witnessing gunship helicopters circling the air above us. So the war has moved closer to home for me. We can’t hear any weapons being fired (if they are indeed firing) and hope that the situation gets under control soon. My friend and colleague Wajid told me that armed Taliban were shown on TV, roaming in Saddar (the city’s largest mall) which is in fact in the Cant. area. Yet the army did not do anything - a clear proof that the whole thing implicates the army itself and that the operation is another hoax to show the US and the world that our army is fighting terrorists. This hoax serves to bring in more US aid for fighting terrorism.

Wish me safety!

PrometheusCaptive

I do wish you safety and a whole lot more. I wish you prosperity. I wish to meet you soon over a tall cool boat drink at the MIA or Web premier. I wish none of this was happening to you or anybody else, this madness that has been forced on the world. I wish I was there to help you though I’d be killed quicker than I could spell Peshawar because those people over there are being taught to hate us like we’re being taught to hate them.

I agree with him. This thing is a hoax. This feigned help of foreign nations that despise us. They don’t want us to be there but deal with us to get money we can’t afford to give them to pretend that they are helping us. The feigned reason 12 billion dollars a month is migrating from private enterprise to government operations running a war. Sounds like a good business to be in! Is good to be the King. Is good to rule the monopoly that robs from the rich AND the poor to give to the richest of the rich. This crap is driving this economy into the ground so US citizens can go broke and so you can’t afford a loaf of bread or a tank of gas and so more taxes must be raised as millions of people lose their jobs and their homes. How many millions right now are on unemployment? Over 3 million, with plenty more to come. Bread lines and soup kitchens are starting to get crowded as people run out of unemployment options and we add nearly 400,000 more unemployed weekly. Watch tomorrow’s numbers. Eventually, food will be too expensive to afford to eat and the growing number of unemployed with no homes or options will have little choice but to let the government save them by joining the military. So the military grows. Hmmmm, how convenient. You get food you can’t afford in the military, paid for by the tax dollars stolen from you, which, if you had in the first place, well, you might have been able to afford to eat. A hoax indeed. And you get to tour foreign lands carrying a weapon spreading democracy. Diseases spread. Like socialism. You know, where wealth is distributed. Kind of like via taxation. I have an idea. If those people are so pissed at us because they “covet” what we have, our supposed wealth, why not pay them. If saddam was a threat and they had no hope, we could have offered every citizen of Iraq $25,000 apiece to over throw the government and we’d have saved over 300 billion dollars plus countless lives and an ever growing bitterness. Do the math: estimated costs are at a trillion when we’re done. There are, according to the CIA, or were last year, 27,499,638 people in Iraq. We’ve paid $36,000 per person to devastate that region and fight ourselves into this $4 a gallon of gas economy ripe with stagflation.

How convenient.

Well, Litmocracy is here, and we’re doing what we can. Jobs are created by introducing people with time and ability to people who are motivated and able to pay for their services. We’re going to make money and spread the word and help people stay afloat by teaching them how to work their way through tough times. We told you about the current slide that started after Friday the 13th. If you listened and shorted and invested accordingly you made money. Lots of it. We’ve steered writing jobs to people and we have the book contest in gear. There is more to come as well. In fact, I have a screenplay, 80-90 pages, for $250 about a woman’s life story. It is a Lifetime type script. Those interested and looking for this type of work, post a reason why you should get the job in the freelance section under screenplays. Two people have begun and accepted work on a book and I’m waiting to hear back from two others. If neither responds, the search will continue. Maybe this type of stuff can help PrometheusCaptive and that part of the world in some way. Maybe by educating and thinking and speaking we can put Goldilocks back together again, because like Humpty Dumpty, sadly, my beloved country and its beautiful dollar seems shattered right now.

Let’s start sorting through the pieces and rebuilding! Sorry for the bummer, but I saw a lot of sad people crossing the country and I thought this was important. Next time we’ll have updates and some good news.

Adios,

Don

June 27th, 2008

2008-06-27T11:02:39Z

Ayeeeeeeeeeeee

Halo my friends.

What a week. Hope yours was grand?

So the L.A. trip was awesome, things are progressing at now a rapid pace on Web of Destruction but we’ll hit that next newsletter. 99 Burning will be playing LA shortly too, more news to come. All this thanks to Litmock and hard work. Now let’s get down to this weeks business!

L.A. - Couldn’t have been better, Jon Clark, 99 Burning’s drummer, and I flew out Friday and came back Tuesday. Much accomplished. Found a n-i-c-e producer for Web, more news later, hung out with Dave and talked business. Dave pointed this out in fact, two weeks ago we called Friday the 13th as a turning point in the stock market, and said we’d make money off of its fall. Since that time, as of today, it’s fallen about 800 points. We’ve made money. Also, made contacts that help our publishing and film making interests. Life is good if you make it so! K, enough of that for now.

We continue to tinker and any ideas for site improvement are appreciated. We implemented the freelance section and have this to announce. I tender this offer to 4 helpful and talented writers. I’m asking IWill, Theresa Jean, Julianyway and Writeaway to help me with a book about the Alien Grave Yard. I’ll get with them about the details and Dave will get with them about financial details but in a nutshell, I’m offering to pay them each $100 for 25 ghost written pages. Congratulations and welcome to the exclusive club of professional writer. To the rest of you. DUH. Shame on you. Submit. earn, vote, affect change. More to come.

Don

June 16th

2008-06-17T01:30:13Z

Howdy all,

Been another good week in Litmock world. Dave’s been fixing things, we’ve had more postings and new member increases, been spreading the word and getting ready to work on our first film and old biz, etc. This piece will be completed in two e-mails, as it’s a bit lengthy and the spotlight pieces will be in the second posting.

First order of business: Issue 10 of Literal Translations will be going to print soon. Starting with issue 11, we’re going to decide a theme for each issue, litmocratically. We’d like all of you to help build it. You do by writing and voting, of course, as the pieces are picked for publishing by Litmocracy, but we’d like you all to vote on a theme for this issue. To that end we offer a new category for voting:

Dave says: “‘Issue Themes’ - What should the next issue of Literal Translations be about? Vote through this category and then make your own suggestion.”

So help us build the best quarterly we can and make a few bucks. Brings us to the next point:

Second order of business: The freelance samples section is complete. For those of you looking for work as a writer, looking to make money off of your skill as a wordsmith, post your resume in the appropriate section. We’ll hook you up with work. It’s that simple. It’s a great way to make a living. I love it.

3rd: and I’ll cut this in half on this note. I head to LA for the LA Film Festival to work on Litmocracy’s and Scorched Earth’s first film, Web of Destruction. Fellow Litmocracy brother Dean M. Drinkel will be directing. He’s working in London on it right now just back from Cannes. Dean was runner up for the Ustinov award a few years back and has worked with Clive Barker among others. I’ll be getting some pix of myself and Dave and will do a piece on it when I get back. Meantime this concerns you all, ultimately we want everyone’s help to make one hell of a production company! Finish this soon.

June 9th, 2008

2008-06-09T23:13:36Z

Howdy all ye Litmock fellows.

Hope all is well. It is at Litmocracy. We’ve got some news devloping over the next few months. First, I’m going out to LA the week of June 20th for the LA Film Festival to meet with many people about our first two films, Web of Destruction and Midnight In America. I say Litmocracy’s because they published my first book, MIA and Litmocracy is involved with the second film as well through Smolder Productions and Scorched Earth Films. The whole band, 99 Burning is going as well. Look forward to playing LA.

Second, though all I hear is the woe is me sky is falling economy just crashed into inflation (yes inflation SUCKS), we here at Litmocracy have done very well because we’ve planned for it. In fact, we spotted that the Stock market was being squeezed, or forced up on Friday, and we hedged our up stocks and shorted fat ones. Let’s just say, uhm.... it was a good day. For those who play the market, let me just say I smell another one coming Friday the 13th. Oil is driving everyone batty and the market is past timid. To that end actually we have some news. Litmocracy’s financial arm is expanding. We’ve hedged for the bad economy based on a belief that this government is broken and needs some serious overhaul. Case in point, they stick their nose into something and make it worse. They tried to fix gas prices with mandatory ethanol (really just to appease that fat cat farmers lobby that helped get them into office) and now we have food prices marching higher and higher because of it. BTW, did they fix the gas prices? How’s that going?

Besides publishing and film making (and eventually an awesome tour and radio show) we like to help fix things, not talk about how bad they are. To that end I’ll let Dave tell you about the 10% interest rate we’re offering as well as a few other things. [If you’d like to put your money in something that earns you more interest than the bank, I will borrow anything over $1000 from you and pay you back 110% of it in one year. --Dave]

As for me, I’d like to thank TheresaJean for kicking in and helping. Besides posting she pointed out some voting flaws that occurred when creative writing and non-fiction were separated which are now fixed and is helping with spreading the word about the site. ROCK on TJ.

June 2nd, 2008

2008-06-02T11:42:06Z

How dare you ask. Boohoo. I wish things were better? I wish things were less expensive? I wish things were more like I want them? We offer you the keys. Make money writing. Enjoy interacting. Help fix the place up. How hard is this? To do something to help make the world better, something you enjoy. We have some big announcements coming. We have done some things to make the world better. We just need some help to make it work.

That being said, there’s always somebody out there working it. Doprava caught my attention with Jealousy.

May 25, 2008

2008-05-26T01:45:49Z

My thoughts this week are about fixing up infrastructure of this site. I just took a journey up and down the Eastern seaboard and found it most fascinating. It gave me perspective. Let me just say, if you are familiar with the stock market, I am long America and short politicians. That is a turnaround in my recent thinking. Long America means I saw the great American spirit rise up in the face of adversity, I believe that this country will make it though this economic crisis. I didn’t believe that until recently. Short politicians means I know they are the root cause of America’s problems, and I’m not betting on them anymore. I’m betting everything against them.

That makes me long Litmocracy. I believe it is true freedom at its best and so if it’s not rising to the value I perceive it to be worth, and we’re a long way away from that, then I should pitch in and help make it worth more, make it easier to use and more effective.

That is what I intend to do. best exhibited in this post:

The book contest is seeking the best book out there. By the best author. Period. There is a certain amount of professionalism that goes with getting paid. Input and discussion can help us all become better writers. Help us all get paid. I’m here to tell you that writing can be profitable. Dave Scotese, the site founder, is sending $25 to the winner of our mini book contest drawn from a pre-paid fund paid by 99 Burning. That is why I got to see the Eastern seaboard this week. I had a gig with the band I’m in, 99 Burning. I wouldn’t have had that gig without Litmocracy. I know what good it can do. I am proof of its worthiness. We played with The Vanquished in Newport News, Va. It ruled. The Vanquished are an awesome band, check them out. Hope to play with them many times forward.

Anyway, was fun and I saw the will of the people, millions of them along the 95 corridor. They are working their way through a huge economic crisis, caused by politicians. There was much commerce on a “Holiday” weekend. That is why I am long Americans and short politicians. One body works and makes things better, one does not and makes things worse.

Which are you, a worker who earns his or her way, or one who lives off the fat of another? Should I long you or short you?

Pitch in.

Vote.

Earn.

Help make things better.

Long yourself and nobody will ever win shorting you.

I need four writers to help me ghost write a book about UFO’s.

We’ll be rearranging the site a bit this week and there will be some new categories for samples of your writing that you can use to advertise your skill. Four writers who post their resumes to the Resumé category will be chosen to write a chapter, 15 pages. Each writer will be paid $45.

Long Litmocracy.

Long action.

Long America.

Short anybody that stands in the way of these things.

See you next week.