How far did you walk today? Do you really want to know?

"The average moderately active person takes about 7500 steps a day. Assuming every day the person walks, an eighty year old person who began walking at one year of age, would have taken 216,262,500 steps in their lifetime. An average person, with an average stride, living to this age of 80 will walk about 108,131 miles." -- Answers.com

When we're feeling well, how casually we walk to the kitchen for a cup of coffee or out to the mailbox to see if the mail has arrived. Sometimes people doing housework say they feel like they've walked several hundred miles between dawn and dusk. Sometimes we're walking behind a lawn mower and our yards appear immense or into the high country along the Appalachian Trail where the miles are either short or long depending on the view and our level of fitness.

When we're stuck in line at the DMV or at the polls or at a popular movie, we seem to be taking no steps at all. When we're walking with a friend and having a good conversation, we're seldom aware of the steps. On a long hike, we may get so tired, we can hardly take even one more step.

One of the themes in the novel Dune was the ability of psychics to see the steps--figuratively speaking--a person had taken during his or her lifetime to arrive at the emotional and physical place where they were in life. The steps taken, en route to success or failure, were as clear at footprints left in a desert.

If we could see every step taken, no doubt our houses, yards and offices would appear to be covered with footprints. Our regular routes to and from the bed or the sink or the garage would look like well-worn trails. We would see steps we wanted to erase, either because they went down wrong roads or reminded us of our failures. Other steps would remind us of old friends, satisfying jobs, and pleasant events and we'd look at them fondly.

Perhaps our lives could be charted out like a FAMILY CIRCUS cartoon that showed Billy's rather convoluted paths through the neighborhood that were impacted by spur-of-the moment decisions, animals and other people and random events. I wonder if we would change anything if we could see our steps-taken-to-date like the psychics in Dune or dotted lines Bil Kean's cartoons.

Would such knowledge alter our future or would it make us look at where we are at this moment with greater appreciation? Or, maybe we would feel really tired.

--Malcolm

Malcolm's Book Store

Yes, I know, I'm probably the last author on the planet to set up an online bookstore page on his website. Now I know why it took me so long: eyestrain. I have a good website provider (Homestead) with a very accommodating program (SiteBuilder). But still, 72 dpi isn't friendly for older eyes, especially after staring at boxes, dividers, HTML snippets and grids for several days.

That said, I'll digress from my tail of woe and mention that the page includes listings for the books I've written or contributed to as well as a few favorites from other authors. Links are also available for e-books sold on OmniLit and Smashwords.

Now that the page is live, I can feel virtuous about the fact that I have it, but hopely without becoming overly inflated about the matter. Better late than never.

Malcolm

Changing Seasons

"There is a harmony in autumn, and a luster in its sky, which through the summer is not heard or seen, as if it could not be, as if it had not been!" -- Percy Bysshe Shelley

In September, we celebrate nature's gifts. I will think of this tonight as autumn arrives in Georgia beneath a Harvest Moon.  It's a time of falling leaves, gathered-in apples and squash, and grapes for fine wine. It's a time of crisp afternoons and chilly nights that are finally bringing us a respite from summer's heat. The days of fire and consummation are growing short and we are collecting what we need for the for the germination of winter.

I am an autumn and winter person. My intuition, creativity and energy grow stronger beneath the waning sun. Perhaps my inner eyes perceive the true sun within when my outer eyes are not distracted by the outer sun. Or perhaps, it's simply my attunement to the creative process within real and figurative life, death and rebirth.

When we give thanks, we cannot help of thinking of the giver of the gifts we receive, and think also of giving back through reverence, conservation and good stewardship. Years ago, Rudolf Steiner, the father of biodynamic agriculture, worried that  “What is necessary to keep providing good care to nature has completely fallen into ignorance during the materialism era.”

Each year, I hope that the chaotic wonderment of the changing seasons will draw our attention to what nature requires of us in the name of good care. It is time, I think, to observe nature with a more-spiritual eye and re-think our methods of gardening and farming and participating naturally within the Earth's natural cycles. To the extent that we are successful, we provide equal food for bodies and minds.

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You might also like: Some of a writer's truths are best not told and Book Review: Farming Soul: A Tale of Initiation

And, for the gardener in all of us: Planting Potatoes  ("Growing potatoes is a magical process, and one I suspect that also works deep on the psyche.")


--Malcolm

BOOK SALE: 'Garden of Heaven'

Autographed copies of Garden of Heaven: an Odyssey only $18.50!

Buy the trade paperback now for Christmas gifts at $3.55 less than Amazon's price.

• Offer good in the continental United States.
• Indicate whether you want the book signed OR signed and personalized for a specific indidual.
• Pay via paypal to malcolm@campbelleditorial.com or by check or money order to Malcolm R. Campbell, P.O. Box N, Jefferson, Georgia 30549

"Thought provoking - five stars." -- Midwest Book Review

When nineteen-year-old David Ward climbs the sacred mountain Nináistuko seeking a vision, the golden eagle of earth flings him back onto the prairie and the black horse of dreams shows him the future. Though his eyes are opened, fate hides exactly what he needs to know. The spiritual journey that follows leads him through the mountains of Pakistan, the swamps of North Florida, the beaches of Hawaii, the waters of the South China Sea and the ivy-covered halls of an Illinois college as he attempts to sort out the shattered puzzle of his life.

NPR Wants Just 600 Words

I'm not a fan of short fiction. But when my youngest brother sent me a link to NPR's Three-Minnute Fiction Round Five, I was lured into writing a 600-word story that begins with "Some people swore that the house was haunted" and ends with "Nothing was ever the same again after that."

I haven't sent it in yet. (The deadline is September 26.) I will, though.

I found writing the story a nice change of pace from my complex, multi-layered fiction. It was also a no-pressure task after my we were out of town for another four days helping my wife's father get situated after the sudden death of his wife last week.

The story about a house that may or may not be haunted occupied my thoughts and got me into the habit of writing again.

Maybe you'll be tempted to look at the NPR website and enter something as well.

--Malcolm

We have a winner!

Congratulations to Nancy Loner who won a copy of Garden of Heaven in the GoodReads Giveaway that ended today.  Many thanks to the 702 people who entered the contest.

Garden of Heaven is a magical saga where spirits talk, horses fly, fire restores wounded men and reality appears and reappears in multiple shapes, sizes and dimensions.

My protagonist, David Ward, was first introduced to readers in my 2004 novel The Sun Singer. In Garden of Heaven, we find him back in the Montana mountains where--depending on one's view of the word--his fate and/or his destiny await.

I hope you enjoy the book, Nancy.

--Malcolm

Beneath Sheltering Oaks We Gave Her Back to the Earth

On Friday morning, September 10, 2010, my wife, my wife's father and I carried a post-hole digger, a mattock and a spade beneath the water oaks and pin oaks in an old church cemetery two miles from the Floyd County, Georgia  farm (shown in the photograph) where the family has for years coaxed new life up out of the ground and returned the ashes of my wife's mother to the earth.

The morning was sunny and warm. We worked methodically because the chert soil where the Piedmont meets the Appalachian foothills does not yield easily. We dug in the company of stones bearing familiar names.

In time, a new stone will mark the spot where we worked near the cemetery's edge. In time, we will return to this cemetery again, perhaps in the company of others, but Friday morning, after five days of grieving with family and friends, the solitude beneath the oaks was welcome and well fitting for the moment.

While singing "Amazing Grace," we took turns covering over the grave. We worked slowly because once chert has been broken free of the land, its fine-grained nature encourages it to fly away free upon the slightest breath of wind.

Vampires, MGM, French Toast and Nature's Gifts

Elsewhere in the blogosphere, I haven't just been whistling Dixie. Here's what's happening:

Malcolm's Round Table

Book Review: 'Evenings on Dark Island'

What do the rich and famous, a Florida swamp, an expensive upscale spa, a rat-faced dog, state-of-the-art galas, NASCAR, pot, an inner garden of rare hybrid plants and vampires have in common?

The standard answer is nothing.

But in Evenings on Dark Island authors Rhett DeVane and Larry Rock have turned the highly improbable into a hilarious and tastefully bloody neck biter that’s quite something.

Surf over to the blog to read more!

The Top Ten Reasons why MGM should make “Jock Stewart and the Missing Sea of Fire” into a blockbuster, Oscar-nominated film.

10. Stolen race horses are hot.
9. Donald Sutherland will wow audiences when he brings his pyromaniac persona from “Backdraft” to the fiery preacher Cotton Mouth’s fornication Sunday sermon.
8. MGM needs the money.
7. In the role of Bambi, troubled actress Lindsay Lohan will get her career back.

Surf over to the blog to read more! 

Morning Satirical News

Frankly, I think the French president has gone nuts this summer. Now he's deporting Gypsies. Well, my alter-ego Jock Stewart has something to say about that:

Sakozy: 'Let them eat French toast in their own damn country'

Paris, September 4, 2010--After a summer of making veiled threats against Muslim women, President Nicolas Sarkozy turned his attention on the Gypsies whom he claimed could only be counted on to, "Quand il me prend dans les bras Il me parle tout bas Je vois la vie en rose" (Softly steal roses from our arms while pretending to hug us).

Surf over to the blog to read more!  

Writer's Notebook

Vanilla Heart Publishing has issued a call for submissions for a new Nature's Gifts nature anthology. Prose and poetry about nature are welcome.

For more information, click here.

Have a great Labor Day weekend.

Malcolm

Midwest Book Review comments on 'Garden of Heaven'

Thank you, Midwest Book Review for reading Garden of Heaven: an Odyssey.

Review from the September edition of MBR’s Reviewer’s Bookwatch 

A journey is more than simply traveling. It allows much for introspection. "Garden of Heaven" tells of the travels of David Ward, a young man who is out to piece together his life after the Vietnam war and the failure of love. Traveling throughout the world across many continents, he gains an appreciation through the world in a tale that blends the natural with the mystical. "Garden of Heaven" is a thought provoking novel, recommended.

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The e-book edition of Garden of Heaven, from Vanilla Heart Publishing, is available at OmniLit for $5.99.

Malcolm

Hero's Journey: Slaves to Structure Stifle The Story

One apt criticism of the heropath, or hero's journey, approach to mythology is that the structure (Call to Adventure, Refusal of the Call, Supernatural Aid, Crossing the First Threshold, etc.) does not fit all hero-oriented myths. Readers of Joseph Campbell's The Hero with a Thousand Faces were quick to point out that he illustrated the stages in the journey with multiple myths rather than carrying the structure lock, stock and barrel through one continuing example.

The problem with general theories--and this is something Jung has said--is that they seldom (if ever) describe any precise instance, story or case. While the various spread-sheet-style presentations online showing how well-known books and movies can be broken down into the heropath steps are interesting teaching aids, they become rather destructive when writers try to convert them into recipes.

Making a short story fit lock-and-key into the structure--whether you get it from Campbell, Christopher Vogler (The Writer's Journey: Mythic Structure for Writers), Maureen Murdock (The Heroine's Journey) or an online course--will stifle the material. Writers need to internalize the structure and then forget it, just as a great chef can make magic in the kitchen without getting out his or her grandmother's' copy of The Joy of Cooking just to scramble eggs or grill a hamburger.

It's fair to say, I think, that a heropath short story, play or novel not only doesn't need to include every step and sub-step of the formal structure of the journey, it shouldn't. Furthermore, the steps it does fit, need not be engraved in stone in their presentation. If a writer knows, and is comfortable with, the intent of the heropath, and if a story fits that intent, then allowing the words to flow more or less intuitively will result in a better story than writing the steps on a sheet of paper and filling in the blanks.

Whether one believes words flow from the subconscious mind, a muse, the universe, spiritual guides, or from the part of our brains that knows how to combine imagination and logic into plots and dialogue, we need to step out of the way and let it happen. It won't happen--or it will happen poorly--if our characters are made to march from page to page in time with Campbell's and Vogler's siren songs.

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Malcolm R. Campbell is the author of two heropath novels, The Sun Singer and Garden of Heaven: an Odyssey

Now playing on my Malcolm's Round Table Blog: "Top Ten Reasons why MGM should make “Jock Stewart and the Missing Sea of Fire” into a blockbuster, Oscar-nominated film"