Kicking Off National LGBT Month with a Story, a Pledge, and a Dragon (And Why I Need Your Help)

Hello Trickyverse,

Thank you for Coming out to a special edition of Writing is Tricky.  Today, October 1, marks the start of the 20^th anniversary of LGBT History Month. Its intent (summed up nicely from Wikipedia) is “to encourage honesty and openness about being LGBT.” 

There are quite a few milestones in LGBT history, but the day that I most enjoy is October 11: National Coming Out Day

This reason this day resonates for me is because it is a day of both recognition and of action. It is a day, where those of us struggling with our sexual orientation/identity are not only reminded that others came before us but also that we are not alone. We are not outcasts. We are not ugly things, grisly things, disgusting things, undeserving of decency, respect, or a basic right to love who we want to love, or even to love ourselves. It’s a day where our community, including our closest friends and allies, step forward to say: You are you, you are human, and you are beautiful but most importantly, you are never alone.

Coming out is not an easy thing. We hear gay jokes, religious-misinformed rhetoric, and some equally shocking things from the mouths of those we feel closest to when they think no one will hear. For me, I sometimes feel like I had it easy. Most of my family supported me, even if most of them didn’t always understand what it meant having a gay cousin, brother, uncle--back when it was new. Just having that support, knowing that I always had a place to go, seeing their courage, gave me (and still gives me) strength.

 

Not everyone has had a family or the support that I have had, but luckily, there are now programs out there that didn’t exist years ago, or at least they didn’t exist in the tiny neck of the woods where this little magician grew up.

I know I just said coming out was not easy.  Scary is a closer word to the feeling. Terrified is closer still. Back then, I worried about my life, my morality, my soul (not to mention fearing retribution with a tire iron for finally being honest about who I was).

Knowing where I grew up and knowing that I would not be here today without the love and support I had (seriously, I despised myself back then) . . .

. . .I will be donating all of my royalties from my novel Only Human, purchased from Amazon (Kindle version or paperback) for the month of October to the Boston Allianceof Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, & Transgender Youth (BAGLY). 

“BAGLY works with LGBTQ youth across Massachusetts—and beyond!  Through leadership development, health promotion & services, social support, events, and the statewide GLBT Youth Group Network, BAGLY is at work in our communities to support LGBTQ youth.”

It is my sincerest hope that this turns into a monetary gift that far surpasses anything I could have given on my own.

Please help and spread the word!

Share this with your friends, family, coworkers . . . anyone who you think might be able to help. Heck buy them a copy!

Tell me about it @mikemehalek so I can share as well. And next month, I hope I have a big number to report.

Thanks and Love,

-Mike

         

                                           

Kindle Edition

         
                                                                                               
                                                                                                Paperback Edition

My book Only Human is out now

Hi everyone,

There is a great new Urban Fantasy that is part action, part romance, part mystery and suspense, and part horror.  It's my novel Only Human.  I hope you take a look, and I hope you enjoy.

I'd love to hear that you think.

-Mike



“Dragons do not cry. They control their emotions. That is what all dragons were taught, but I am now the only one alive to remember this lesson.” 

 

Only Human by Mike Mehalek

Cover Art by Allie Raines
Now for sale at Amazon

What does it mean to be a human? 

Meet Vincent, a most unusual dragon who has been trying to avoid answering that particular question for thousands of years, ever since his kind banished him and forced him to spend the rest of his life as a human. When a new love arrives unexpectedly, Vincent discovers that the only way to find happiness is to revisit his violent past and to confront his uncertain future. Haunting, heart-felt, and sometimes funny, Vincent discovers that even through tragedy, the things we most often try to avoid are those that make us whole.

What others have said

ONLY HUMAN takes you on a journey through Vincent's past lives and loves as he navigates his present incarnation and the darkness that follows him throughout the ages.

-Heidi Ruby Miller, author of Greenshift

There's lots to love about ONLY HUMAN: action, mystery, secrets revealed and redemption. Add to that dragons (who doesn't love dragons?), wicked bad guys and an all-too-human narrator who will win your heart...the strongest element of this book is the love story...This is an epic, timeless story and a small intimate one at the same time. Dip your toe in, I don't think you'll be disappointed. -Jennifer Barnes, editor at Raw Dog Screaming Press
Purchased and enjoying!!...AND I had a dream I was a flying dragon last night! It was awesome! -Amazon Reader
Watch the trailer below

For fun
Who would play the characters in the movie version?

About Me

Mike Mehalek writes fast-paced lyrical books that can be enjoyed with one reading but have enough substance for re-reading. He brings stories to life that demand to be told, regardless of the hopes/dreams/fears/desires of his characters-the Story first-always the Story. 
He'd love for you to visit him at his blog, Writing is Tricky or on Twitter @mikemehalek
If you'd like to join his email list, please email mike.mehalek@gmail.com with like to join in the subject line.

Writing Like a Magician Series Part II: Misdirection

Back in June I started what would hopefully transform into a mini-series on how a writer can employ the techniques of a magician when they are working on a piece of fiction.

The premise for this approach is this: by thinking of crafting a story like a magician thinks about crafting a trick/magic show, then by default, many other essential literary elements flow naturally into the story rather than by deliberate planning.

In my experience when these other elements happen organically rather than by being contrived, the story elements themselves makes more sense in the context of the tale, “feeling” more like a book. 

Admittedly all stories are contrivances--I guess what I’m getting at is that for me my conscious mind and unconscious one communicate better when I employ these techniques.

It could be because any bit of magical chicanery is in reality a story.

Today, I’d like to start a discussion that focuses on Misdirection.

Misdirection has been defined in many ways by numerous people for almost as long as magic has existed.  The way I think about Misdirection goes like this.  It is the way in which a magician is able to shift the attention of the audience from where the audience naturally wants to focus to someplace the magician prefers that attention to be.

In its most basic form--QUICK LOOK BEHIND YOU!--to its most diabolical stratagems, the success (or failure) of any illusion lies in the magician’s ability to mis-direct its audience.  The word “misdirection” itself is a deception as it implies that a magician tries to divert focus away from one area to another with Misdirection, when in fact the true Misdirection may be the magician forcing attention towards whatever area it is that the illusion will take place. (See how sneaky we are).

A simple silk handkerchief serves as a perfect example. This handkerchief is opaque.  It contains no trapdoors, no holes, no mirrors--the threads don’t pull apart for an opening.

A magician who passes the silk out to be examined while stealing a stack of coins from behind his suit lapel is using the silk to divert attention away from the secret move. On the other hand, the magician who uses the silk to covers a stack of coins to conceal the method he will employ to turn the coins into a dove is focusing attention towards the secret move, i.e. using the silk as a cover.  There is even a possibility that if the attention were not centered on the transformation, the secret switch would be detected.

Here is a clip of magician Michael Ammar performing his Coins Through Silk illusion, which employs Misdirection.  Michael uses a silk to focus attention towards and away from the coins at different times in the trick.  Using Misdirection, he will eventually pass the coins through the silk.  Michael’s challenge? Unlike our silk, his is transparent.    

One distinction I’d like to clarify now will become very important to us as we segue our discussion from magic to writing, one point that many non-magicians (and some magicians) neglect and are thus fooled by the magician, and it is this.  Magicians manipulate both time and space when they perform.  In those terms it sounds like wizardry, but this far-fetched-sounding declaration is true.  Misdirection exists as spatial misdirection and time misdirection.  Categorized into these two major types, Misdirection is the most powerful tool in a magician’s (and writer’s) toolbox.

Thus far you have probably imagined this concept as it applies to spatial misdirection, shifting focus from one physical spot to another, so let’s direct your attention--darn you, Tricky, you’re tricky--towards time misdirection.

Time misdirection is the act of altering an audience’s perception of time in order to accomplish an act of tomfoolery (running out of synonyms here).  If you’ve ever experienced a “loss of time” sensation, such as working on a hobby for hours but thinking only minutes have passed, or upon getting home from work realizing you do not remember your drive, then you have experienced time misdirection.  Magicians attempt to create similar experiences, but they have an additional challenge.  Unlike these naturally occurring instances, magicians work to disarm your senses so that you are not conscious of these lapses in time.

There are many ways a magician can do this.  Like a book, every trick has a beginning, middle, and end; and like a book, the beginning, middle, and end is not always the same for the magician (or writer) as it is for the audience (or reader).

During a magic show, for example, the magician may be setting up his next trick, but to the audience it may appear that he is wrapping up his previous one.

I’m reminded of the magician Max Malani who would attend private dinner parties.  After dinner, without leaving the table, he would produce a large block of ice from under a borrowed hat.  To the dinner guests, when Max first asked to borrow the hat, the trick is beginning, but for Max the trick began when he loaded that block of ice.  Where he hid it and how he kept it from melting is a lost secret, but from what I understand of this trick and of Max’s style as a magician, if the conditions weren’t perfect, then the trick never began for the guests, and ended for Max wearing a pair of wet slacks.

My novel Only Human (OH) serves as an example in writing.  I wrote the manuscript of OH out of order.  It started by writing the first and last chapter but evolved to the first sentence and last sentence of a paragraph then the beginning words and ending words of a sentence.  Eventually these ends met and knitted together.  In addition, there are two major storylines in OH.  I wrote one and then the other.  Finally I carved them up and ordered them appropriately.  Obviously, that is not the order the audience would want to read it.

And with that I must end here for now.  This entry is getting a bit cumbersome, and I have fiction writing to do.  In the next installment we will look more closely at how Misdirection* can be used in fiction writing.  I ask that you forgive my pause here, fantabulous blog reader.

I’ve included two anecdotes and videos below for your enjoyment (and to misdirect you away from the fact that this is only half of our discussion and to give you something to think about until the next post is ready).  Know that I appreciate all of your support and patience. I hope this is of some value to you.

*Please note:  As a whole, spatial and time misdirection both exist in all magic tricks, and I generally denote this inseparability in my writing by using a capital M.

Consider the power of time misdirection: I am often asked how David Blaine levitated on his first TV special. I’ve done this myself over the years and have gotten great reactions from people. The method I use is similar to the one featured below.  I must admit that David's TV version looks more impressive (wait 'til you see it!). The reason?  The time misdirection that David employs is more powerful than what I can muster (although I must admit once when I did this, I had a person call me the Devil and refused to talk to me after that--no I am not kidding) 

Or this: I watched David Copperfield perform Portal at a live performance in Pittsburgh.  For his finale, David selected an audience member and teleported  to Hawaii taking this person with him.  While I can only speculate as to some of the methods used, it is clearly accomplished with Misdirection.