In The Spotlight

You may have noticed over the last couple of months, my blog has included a small blurb from the Rave Reviews Book Club - the current Featured Selection and the weekly Spotlight Author. This week, I am honored to have been named the Spotlight Author! As a part of that, several bloggers have hosted me on their blog - a great opportunity to expand the reach of my books. Below is the short blog I wrote for those who hosted me. I thought I’d re-post and share it here.

My name is Bruce A. Borders, author of criminal fiction books. I guess you could call me a professional dreamer - or a schemer. Either one fits.

As a young boy, books always fascinated me. The stories they told were so captivating, so spellbinding. The further I got into a book, the more absorbed I became - and the more questions I had. I wanted to know the what, where, who, and when, of the entire story. But the question that most intrigued me was the “how.” I found it utterly fascinating how everything connected, how seemingly impossible situations were resolved, and especially how things always worked out. With the right explanation, even the strangest puzzle can make sense.

Eventually, I progressed to devising my own conundrums - and then solving them. Things like how to rob a bank, how to gain access to a high-security building or escape from one, or how to get away with murder. This was all hypothetical of course. I never actually wanted to do any of these things. The thrill was in figuring out how they could be done.

Obviously, none of the adults in my life were impressed by my newfound interest. Everyone seemed to agree this “daydreaming” would serve no useful purpose in life. One teacher even told me my pastime was dangerous and unhealthy; that anyone with this sort of mentality would probably end up being a criminal and doing time in prison.

For some people, his prediction could have been right; I can see how it could happen. And, I suppose I could have used his words of warning as an excuse to follow a crooked road to a life of crime. But, I didn’t. Instead, I became a writer.

Rave Reviews Book Club

Featured Selection

Daydream's Daughter, Nightmare's Friend

by Nonnie Jules

Bruce A. Borders

Bruce A. Borders is the author of more than a dozen books. Inside Room 913, Over My Dead Body, The Journey, Miscarriage Of Justice, and other titles, are available as ebooks on Apple I-Pad®, Amazon Kindle®, Barnes & Noble Nook® and Sony Reader®, Kobo, Diesel Books, and Smashwords. His books are also available in paperback at most online retailers or at www.bruceabordersbooks.weebly.com. The popular Wynn Garrett Series Books are now available on Barnes And Noble® at http://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/?series_id=867526 Bruce also serves as the Vice President of Rave Reviews Book Club http://ravereviewsbynonniejules.wordpress.com

Murder - Part II

Last week’s blog about how I almost bought a house where there had been a triple homicide, got me to thinking. A dangerous activity, I know.

I realized that I have lived within a block or so of a lot of homicides. Several, in fact. And no, I didn’t commit them! More than half were suicides and the others were all solved, as far as I know.

As I started counting them up, I was a bit surprised. There have been nine. This seems like a rather inordinate amount for my short forty-six years. Even more so, when you consider that the first one didn’t happen until I was fifteen. So, that’s an average of about one every three and a half years.

It would seem that perhaps I have lived in a bad neighborhood! But, I’ve lived in numerous neighborhoods, in multiple states, during this time. Maybe it’s just that my neighbors don’t like me. Although, I can’t imagine that would drive them to suicide or murder. I may not be the perfect neighbor but I’m fairly sure I’m not that bad.

Then I hit on another theory. I’m a writer. I like to write crime stories. Could it be that my neighbors were all trying to help out by providing me with plots and scenarios to write about? Book fodder; is that what it was?

But then, I must admit, it seems highly unlikely all these people would go to such great lengths just to help a writer. However, it is certainly odd that I started writing around age fifteen - right when the first one occurred!

So, now I suppose I need to get busy immortalizing these individuals in book form. I’ll write the books, sell a few, other people can read and maybe enjoy them; everyone’s happy! As the old saying goes, if you look hard enough, you can find the good in anything!

Told you it could be dangerous when I start thinking!

Okay, just to clear things up. I don’t actually think the murders and suicides had anything to do with me. Nothing whatsoever. Most of the people didn’t even know me. They didn’t do it because of me, or for me. My presence had no bearing on anyone else’s fate. Of that, I’m sure.

Pretty sure.

But just in case, it may be wise not to move in beside me!

Bruce A. Borders is the author of more than a dozen books. Inside Room 913, Over My Dead Body, The Journey, and Miscarriage Of Justice, and other titles, are available as ebooks on Apple I-Pad®, Amazon Kindle®, Barnes & Noble Nook® and Sony Reader®, Kobo, Diesel Books, and Smashwords. His books are also available in paperback at most online retailers or at www.bruceabordersbooks.weebly.com. The popular Wynn Garrett Series Books are now available on Barnes And Noble® at http://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/?series_id=867526 See Bruce’s Smashwords Profile at www.smashwords.com/profile/view/BruceABorders?ref=BruceABorders  #BruceABorders

Time Warp

Last Saturday night (Sunday morning for anyone who wants to get technical) was my favorite night of the year - the time change in the fall. Not that I like the shorter days that follow but right at first, the time change is great. Most people see the night as an opportunity to get more sleep. Not me. Sleep is highly over-rated.

See, I’m a busy guy, working my regular job, taking care of things at home, and writing. The writing is more than a full time job in itself. So, I really look forward to having an extra hour - at home. It’s delightful to be sitting at the computer, watching the time, waiting for the clock go from 1:59 to 1:00. A gift of time is one of the best there is. And I don’t want to spend it sleeping - that is too unproductive. I have things to do!

I often wonder though, just how much extra work I actually get done. With all the anticipation, paying more attention to the clock than to working, probably not much.        And then afterwards, continually looking at the time for the next hour, things don’t really improve. All these distractions make it difficult to concentrate. Could it be that instead of gaining an hour, I actually lose two? Maybe.

Still, it seems like I have extra time. And in fact, a 25-hour day is indeed longer than any other. (Unless you’re traveling across multiple time zones in a westerly direction, really fast). I’m just not sure I get any more accomplished in that 25-hour day than in a normal one. But, it makes me happy to think I’m going to. And it’s still my favorite night of the year.

Of course, six months from now, I’ll be depressed. When the time changes back. That’s my least favorite night of the year. Somehow, it’s not quite as much fun seeing the clock skip an hour. A 23-hour day means less time to work. I have to stay up an extra hour just to break even. But then, sleep is highly over-rated.

Bruce A. Borders is the author of more than a dozen books. Inside Room 913, Over My Dead Body, The Journey, and Miscarriage Of Justice, and other titles, are available as ebooks on Apple I-Pad®, Amazon Kindle®, Barnes & Noble Nook® and Sony Reader®, Kobo, Diesel Books, and Smashwords. His books are also available in paperback at most online retailers or at www.bruceabordersbooks.weebly.com. The popular Wynn Garrett Series Books are now available on Barnes And Noble® at http://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/?series_id=867526 See Bruce’s Smashwords Profile at www.smashwords.com/profile/view/BruceABorders?ref=BruceABorders  #BruceABorders

Smash words Author Interview with Bruce A. Borders

Have you read the Smashwords Author Interview with Bruce A. Borders yet? You can find it here;
https://www.smashwords.com/interview/BruceABorders

The Fine Art Of Plagiarism

I should preface this blog with a disclaimer. As a writer, I’m not a fan of plagiarism. I don’t want other people plagiarizing my work and neither do I wish to plagiarize another author. In fact, I’m quite certain that plagiarism is ultimately more work than coming up with something new and the results are usually not favorable. There is really no art to plagiarism, except if you happen to be a cynical kid in school and not afraid to risk getting into trouble. That’s where my story comes in.

I was in the fifth grade and given a writing assignment - an open writing assignment. I could write about any subject I chose as long as it was original and at least 500 words. We’d just discussed plagiarism in class and due to my devious nature I decided to show off what I’d learned - in my own satirical way.

I began the short essay with a definition of plagiarism (that the teacher had given us) and stressed that it was never a good idea, for a variety of reasons, which I listed. These reasons had also been given to us by the teacher. Then, I moved on to citing some examples. I copied, word for word, a lengthy paragraph from the encyclopedia and commented that to use the paragraph, claiming it as my own, would be a classic case of plagiarism. Furthermore, I pointed out that even to rearrange the words and sentences and then present them in the new order (which I did) would still qualify as plagiarizing another author. In both examples I was careful to point out that I hadn’t written the material.

I then re-wrote the paragraph in my own words and stated that this would be an acceptable method of research and reporting. Ending the paper with a recap of the dangers, pitfalls, and possible consequences of plagiarism, I said such a practice was never okay and should be avoided by all writers.

Out of over 500 words, I’d written no more than a handful of my own. I turned in the paper - and much to my surprise, got an A! Either my teacher was really dense and missed the fact that I hadn’t included much original content at all, or she’d seen the irony of what I’d done. Or perhaps she was glad to see I’d been paying attention. Maybe she appreciated all the thought and hard work that I’d put in to make my point. It did take a lot of work - and time. It would have definitely been easier, and faster, to just write about something else. But, it’s hard to argue with a good grade!

Bruce A. Borders, author and songwriter, has over 500 songs and more than a dozen books. Over My Dead Body, The Journey, and Miscarriage Of Justice, his latest books, are available on Apple I-Pad®, Amazon Kindle®, Barnes & Noble Nook® and Sony Reader®, Kobo, Diesel Books, and Smashwords. Now also available in print at many online retailers or at www.bruceabordersbooks.weebly.com.

See Bruce’s Amazon Author Page at www.amazon.com/author/bruceaborders or view his Smashwords Profile at www.smashwords.com/profile/view/BruceABorders

A Picture's Worth A Thousand Words

I apologize in advance for the length of this post. Go ahead, you can still read it; it’s actually not that long. You may even find a bit of irony and humor in it. Maybe.

It’s been said (by some supposedly wise person), that a picture is worth a thousand words. But that’s just a saying and it’s not really true. Sometimes, what may seem like wit and wisdom is nothing more than mere words. Sure, those words may sound nice and cause a person to think, but they can’t always be taken literally. This I know. What follows is a short story of how I know this.

Back in school, high school to be specific, I once turned in a very vibrant and colorful picture for a seven hundred fifty word essay assignment - and figured I had it covered. Lucky for me, my teacher had a sense of humor. Instead of giving me an “F” as he probably should have done, he handed the picture back the next morning and said, “That’s cute. Try again.” But, he was smiling!

I had written an essay, as I was supposed to, and I gave it to him. And even though it had technically been turned in late, he didn’t mark my grade down because of it. And that left me a little disappointed. I’d really expected him to mark me down and was even prepared for it. In fact, I’d written another essay based on Einstein’s Theory of Relativity. This second essay served to “prove” my point that since time is indeed relative, nothing can ever be said to be late. After all, if there is no fixed time standard what could possibly be used to establish the basis for the concept of late?

I think my teacher may have known me too well. He hadn’t marked down my grade precisely because he probably knew what was coming given my history of behavior on such things. Any time I took a test and happened to get an answer wrong, almost any answer, I would argue the point. More often than not, I was able to persuade him that my answer, while perhaps not the best answer and maybe not the answer he was looking for, was at least partially correct. Sometimes I convinced him that my answer was one hundred percent correct! Those were the moments I reveled in! Usually, whether my answers were completely right or only partially right, my test scores were amended, due to my willingness to press the issue. Yet, this time, he had robbed me of the opportunity! I’d written the second essay for nothing, though I really couldn’t complain.

Now for the downside. Although I hadn’t received points off of my grade for turning in a late assignment, the teacher did mark me down for going over the limit on words - an arbitrarily assigned limit as I discovered. (It had been presented as having only a minimum limit. Who knew there was also a maximum word count for an essay)? As it turned out, the minimum was also the maximum, seven hundred fifty words, period! Of course, being me, I did argue the point. I said there had to be some allowance given. No one could write something that long and have it come out with an exact word count.

Still smiling, my teacher agreed. Normally, he said, he did allow a certain amount of leeway. But, he then added, that leeway didn’t extend to more than double the minimum word count requirement. Yeah, apparently, I’d gotten a little carried away with my fifteen hundred plus words. (But hey, I’d always wanted to be a writer - that was just practice). Evidently, back then I had a tendency to talk, or write, too much. Still do, as my wife would be quick to tell you. But, I have an excuse. I have all these pictures in my mind and as I understand it, each one is worth a thousand words, so...

Okay, in all fairness to my teacher, I know why he marked me down for my excessive writing on the essay; at least I think I do. And it has nothing to do with pictures. I’m pretty sure it was his way of telling me that I needed to learn how to edit; to cut the unnecessary words, phrases and sentences, or even delete entire paragraphs at times; to eliminate the excess, re-write and condense. As you can see, I still haven’t quite mastered that.

For anyone who may be wondering, yes, I am aware that the phrase in question was not meant to be a literal equivalency, but is simply poetic prose. It’s a unique way of saying that rather than to try telling someone something, especially something totally unfamiliar to them, it’s far easier to convey the message with a picture. But, is that picture really worth a thousand words? Who knows? Depends on the picture - and the words, I suppose. Obviously, the more vivid the details of the picture, the more words it would then take to describe it.

In light of the theme of this post, I considered including a photo, either of my school or perhaps of me writing. However, I decided against it since I really didn’t have one that seemed appropriate. All the photographs of my school were not exactly spectacular - hardly worth a dozen words at best. And as far as I know, there are no pictures to be found of me writing. Sure, I could have taken one, but I’m a little older now than I was at the time of this story. That would have looked a bit odd.

But, if a picture truly is worth a thousand words - well, this post contains exactly one thousand words. Feel free to draw your own picture! (Right after you’re done counting the words to see if I’m right, of course! And in case you do, the blurb below is not included.)

Bruce A. Borders, author and songwriter has over 500 songs and more than a dozen books. Over My Dead Body, The Journey, and Miscarriage Of Justice, his latest books, are available on Apple I-Pad®, Amazon Kindle®, Barnes & Noble Nook® and Sony Reader®, Kobo, Diesel Books, and Smashwords. For more information, visit www.bruceaborders.com. See Bruce’s Amazon Author Page at www.amazon.com/author/bruceaborders or view his Smashwords Profile at www.smashwords.com/profile/view/BruceABorders

Doing My Research

It’s no secret that writers have to do research – lots of research. No one could possibly have all the facts and figures just rolling around in their head waiting for the right moment to be written down – at least it’s not that way for me.

That’s why the Internet is so great and makes writing less complicated and faster than it used to be. Once, research entailed spending hours at the library, sifting through volumes of material. It was definitely a lot of work. Now, the same amount of research can be accomplished in a matter of minutes – online. However, there is a small caveat to this – just because it happens to be on the Internet, doesn’t make it true. But, that just means there are a few rules to follow, things like, use only reputable sites, verify any information with multiple sources, and don’t run with a story until you the information is accurate. (I can think of several well-known reporters who would have done well to take this advice).

So, now the time saved is lost due to double and triple checking everything. Ironic isn’t it, that we never seem to be able to actually get more time. Still the research process is much easier, and far more comfortable. I’d much rather spend my research time relaxing in my easy-chair in my own house than to endure the hassle of sitting in the uncomfortable chairs at the library.

But then, there are all the warnings about spending too much time on the Internet to consider. Somebody’s always telling us what detrimental health effects it can have, no exercise, eye strain, a sore back, carpal-tunnel syndrome, poor blood circulation, etc. They make it sound bad.

So, what’s the point of all this? The point of this blog? Nothing really – except, well, it’s nice to be a writer. I have an excuse. If I happen to spend an excessive amount of time on the Internet – just remember, I’m doing “research.”

Bruce A. Borders, author and songwriter has over 500 songs and more than a dozen books. Over My Dead Body, The Journey, and Miscarriage Of Justice, his latest books, are available on Apple I-Pad®, Amazon Kindle®, Barnes & Noble Nook® and Sony Reader®, Kobo, Diesel Books, and Smashwords. For more information, visit http://www.bruceaborders.com/. See Bruce’s Amazon Author Page at www.amazon.com/author/bruceaborders or view his Smashwords Profile at www.smashwords.com/profile/view/BruceABorders

The Lazy Workaholic

In the past, I’ve been accused of being a workaholic, but the truth is I’m sort of a lazy person. I don’t want to do any more work than necessary, because that consumes time that could be spent doing something else. There simply isn’t enough time to do everything that needs doing - at least not all at once. On any given day, I have no less than a million things waiting, competing for my time. Okay, I may have exaggerated slightly, but that is how it seems. All of these things are in cahoots - their sole objective being to keep me from what I really want to do, which is to write. Write songs, write books, articles, poems or just about anything, oh, and now blogs – my latest venture.

Everything under the sun tries to hinder my efforts. There are bills to pay, car repairs, computer and phone issues to take care of, dogs that are sick, a house to maintain, lawn care, errands to run, problems at the bank, problems at the store, and a hundred other chores, and of course my regular “day job.”

Some of these things are associated with writing and seem to be legitimate: research, re-writing, typing, and proofreading, web-design, and promotional endeavors, (for articles and books). Then there is the long list of things specific to writing songs: recording, mixing, and uploading multiple files to various outlets and forums. Add to that the endless forms to fill out and file; copyrights, registrations, submissions, performance rights forms, digital rights forms – I think you get the picture. It is an ongoing, full time job just to keep up on all of the legalities of writing.

The point is all of this extracurricular activity takes time. Time I could spend, well, writing. So, in order to maximize my writing time, I look for the easiest, quickest, and most efficient method to get things done – like I said I’m lazy. I’m always searching for a new way to save time on just about anything – as long as it works, because I absolutely despise doing things over. That is a total waste, limiting the time I could have used to do other things like, well, write.

When I finally do get down to the writing, I become so immersed in my project that the rest of the world fades into obscurity. I have to make a to-do list to ensure that things necessary to survival actually get done, and even then, sometimes they don’t. Just ask my wife, who puts up with my idiosyncrasies of neglecting important tasks and reminds me when I need to eat or maybe fix a broken sink so we can have running water. She’d probably be more inclined to dismiss the whole workaholic characterization, going instead with lazy. And that’s okay. I am lazy. I have to be, or I’d never get any work done.

Bruce A. Borders, author and songwriter has over 500 songs and 9 books. Over My Dead Body, his latest ebook, is available on Apple I-Pad®, Amazon Kindle®, Barnes & Noble Nook® and Sony Reader®. For more information, visit http://www.bruceaborders.com or http://overmydeadbody.jimdo.com/.