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Superannuated, My Ass
According to my dictionary, it is to be obsolete, old-fashioned or outdated. None of this applies to me and yet it does. Because this particular culture says so. This culture has an implicit statement to make about age and purpose. There are manifest and subtle latent cut-offs for people. In fact we have perfected retirement in its various manifestations. Careers are made for those creating pensions and benefits; retirement homes are an extraordinary business. You can fill in the rest. At a certain age you automatically become old or of “retirement age.” The whole construct of retirement is a product of…
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Tell It All The Tyranny of Mormonism, Mrs. T.B.H. Stenhouse
Recently I read Fawn Brodie’s biography of the charismatic charlatan and all around creep, Joseph Smith, founder of the cult religion, Mormonism. The book came out in the early seventies and is a bit stodgy; however, it is backed up with solid historical matter, for Brodie was a historian of some note, a Pulitzer Prize winner. Jane who is an apostate Mormon (which means she is psychologically free), to use their jargon, cued me into the book. What I came away with are some generalization about Smith and the abominations he created from his so-called “revelations.” As an atheist I just…
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Query Letter for The i Tetralogy (Updated)
Dear Editor: I am querying you as to a possible review of The i Tetralogy. The i Tetralogy is a fictionalized account of the devastating effects of the Holocaust. The culmination of four decades of reflection and introspection, my therapeutic work with Holocaust survivors, and my own experience as an American Jew — the tetralogy captures the internal destruction of this epochal event, providing a powerful perspective into the lives of its victims and perpetrators, as well as the legacy it has left behind. As to the tetralogy: assaying the monumental impact of the Holocaust, the tetralogy elucidates a truth…
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Query Letter for Gruffworld
Although the book was not accepted for publication, I believe the query got me read. The credits at the end are omitted. If I were to try to get it reviewed on a blog or ezine, I might very well use the same language, with adjustments here and there and a bit of fine tuning to compensate for time that has passed. Dear . . .: When Millea Kenin, editor of Owlflight, published “Covenant,” the first chapter in my fantasy novel, GRUFFWORLD, she wrote: “I like the description of an exotic being’s life-style — in a way, it combines the…