Tag: Popular Culture

My Writing Room

Posted in Blog, Books I've Reviewed, WritingLeave a comment

Jimmie A. Kepler here, greetings from the blast furnace called north Texas and the Dallas-Fort Worth area. The temperature reached 109 degrees on my front porch today. That’s hot!

This morning I went to Starbucks for my morning writing. I love the early morning right before the sun comes up. There is a peacefulness found there not found elsewhere. Starbucks is where I do about third of my writing. I do over half of my writing at home. I thought today I would show you   my modest home office. It is a combination bedroom/office. It is the bedroom where I sleep each night.

I’ve created a three-minute and fifty-one second video tour of my home office. I hope you have as much fun seeing the video as I had making it.

My home office, by Jimmie A. Kepler …

Exciting and Sad

Posted in Blog, WritingLeave a comment

Bewildering StoriesI live in the Dallas Fort Worth metropolitan area of north Texas. The area includes 12 counties, over 9,000 square miles (larger than the states of Rhode Island and Connecticut combined), with just fewer than 7,000,000 million people, it is the fourth largest metro area in the USA. Only the New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago metro areas are larger. It’s big!

The blast furnace has returned to north Texas. After a week of overnight lows in the lower 60s I awoke to 77 degrees at 5 AM. Ugh, that is hot. Heat is on the schedule the rest if the month. It is August, so we should have highs around 100 and low temperatures around 80.

The last week has been exciting and sad. Let us look at the sad first. Another of my high school classmates passed away. Her name was Deborah. She went in for routine surgery on August 13. There were complications. She died on August 15. She was a sweetie. She loved her children and grandchildren. Her funeral was Monday August 19.

On Sunday evening I found out my friend Christy (Judy) had passed away from pneumonia. I had only known her eight years. I met her through Yahoo 360 and then became friends through Multiply. She was only a couple of years older than me. When I worked in Los Angeles last summer she was a great help. She told me which places to see, visit (like the bookstores), and I even made my way out to Simi Valley.

The exciting is I had a short story come out this week in Bewildering Stories. While it has been over thirty years since I had my first writing sale, I still get excited seeing my by-line and reading my articles and stories. You can check it out by clicking HERE.

Review: Girls Like Us: Carole King, Joni Mitchell, Carly Simon – And the Journey of a Generation

Posted in Blog, Books I've Reviewed, Writing2 Comments

Tonight I watched a new installment of PBS’ My Music series. Founding Supremes singer Mary Wilson served as the host of the program showcasing many classic female singers and girl groups of the 1960s. It showcased seventeen of the singers/groups. Watching it reminded me of the book “Girls Like Us: Carole King, Joni Mitchell, Carly Simon – And the Journey of a Generation” by Sheila Weller that I read a couple of years ago. Here is a review of the book I wrote in August 2011.

The contents of “Girls Like Us: Carole King, Joni Mitchell, Carly Simon–And the Journey of a Generation” by Sheila Weller will be very recognizable to us who came of age in the 1960s and 1970s. Sheila Weller tells us that King, Simon, and Mitchell pushes back the barriers for women specifically, “one song at a time.”

The enigmatic one remains Carole King, whom Weller just can’t shed light on in any significant way. King’s life was amazing then it stopped being of any interest at all. We learn and hear again and again how she wrote all those Brill Building masterpieces before she was 21. We learn how she broke down under the strain of a troubled marriage to a husband and lyricist, Gerry Goffin whom she at married when she was 17 and pregnant by him. We see how she comes through the divorce with an LP, Tapestry, that everyone loved and bought. After that her life is bad men in abundance. They were attracted to her wealth. King once estimated that every time she divorced a man, it cost her a million dollars. Weller gives us all the facts. One still has to wonder why King did this to herself.

Carly Simon, on the other hand seems nearly normal as normal can be for someone of the upper, upper middle class. Though perceptibly spoiled and protected by wealth, Simon doesn’t seem spoiled. Her reactions are always understandable and sympathetic. This includes her meeting and marrying the drug-zombie James Taylor.

Joni Mitchell isn’t sympathetic. She has the integrated persona of the genius totally in love with herself and obsessed with her own reflection, so she’s great in a special way. The author makes fun of Mitchell’s vanity and enormous self-esteem. Weller still lets us know that, in her estimation at any rate, Mitchell actually is amazing.

Weller is interested in the ways women deal with each other. It’s nearly a biography of five people, not just three, as there is so much about James Taylor you will never need to read another word about him if you have this book on your shelf. There is also plenty of material about Judy Collins. Girls Like Us: Carole King, Joni Mitchell, Carly Simon–And the Journey of a Generation is a book that convinces us forcefully in its larger arguments and dazzles with its wide-ranging portraits of artistic life in the 50s, 60s and 70s.

Hello, I’m a Writer and Poet

Posted in Blog, Books I've Reviewed, WritingLeave a comment
Poetry & Prose Magazine February 2011
Poetry & Prose Magazine February 2011

I’m Jimmie A. Kepler. I write poetry, nonfiction, science-fiction, historical fiction, and book reviews. You’ll find my blogs and websites are: Speaking of … , Kepler’s Book Reviews, Kepler’s Military History Book Reviews, Kepler’s Military History, and Jimmie A. Kepler – Writer & Poet. You can find a list of my publications and poems at Jimmie’s publications and poems.

I have completed a Christian historical fiction novel, “Honor and Jealousy in Texas.” I support my writing and reading habit by working a day job. I work as a solutions support analyst for a Fortune 500 privately held company. I belong to the Wholehearted Writing group in Dallas.

Reading, poetry and writing are my passions. I grew up in a career United States Air Force family. In my youth, I worked in a grocery store, warehouse, folk-rock band as a rhythm guitar player, a vendor at a major league baseball stadium, and for a milk distributor. I graduated college with a Bachelor of Arts degree in history with minors in English and military science.

I served as a commissioned officer in the United States Army on active duty for three years and then five years in the United States Army Reserves. I graduated from the Infantry Officer Basic Course and Airborne School. I am honorably discharged as a Captain, United States Army Reserves.

Coming off active duty I went to graduate school full-time completing Master of Religious Education/Master of Arts degree. During graduate school, I worked as a custodian, day laborer, painter, preschool teacher, and as a route auditor for a soft drink distributor. For 16 years, I worked as a director of education and private school principal. I earned a doctor of education degree in educational administration.

I have been freelance writing over 30 years selling his first article in 1981. I have sold nonfiction magazine and trade journal articles including getting three cover articles. I also have short stories and poems published. I wrote a weekly column for over sixteen years as well over 150 books reviews in the military history genre for several publishers. I have written a historical fiction novel, “Honor and Jealousy in Texas” and am an active member of Wholehearted Writing in Dallas.

In the late 1990s, I went back to college studying computer science completing the core curriculum for the associate of applied sciences in computer systems. I earned CompTIA A+, i-Net+ and Network+ computer certifications as well as induction in for Phi Theta Kappa for academic excellence. While born in Texas, I have lived in Ohio, Illinois, South Carolina, Arizona, New Hampshire, Kansas, Georgia, Louisiana, California, Washington, and Texas. I am married, have three grown children and one grandchild.

The Muse, Transformational Grammar, and Writing

Posted in Blog, WritingLeave a comment
Example of Transformational Grammar
Example of Transformational Grammar

Have you ever had a muse, or a muse-like experience where you felt so passionate, or “taken over” by a creative spirit or compulsion to express and create? This is more than just “in the zone” … it’s almost as if someone or something takes over and writes for you.

Four examples of a muse in my life are shared below.

One – I was taking a senior level English course with the ominous title “Transformational Grammar and Advanced Creative Writing”. The course was exactly as the title … a writing class that made sure you dissected the grammar. Remember diagramming sentences? This was far more interesting as it dismembered each sentence to parts of speech, syllables, suffixes/prefixes and even lower in structure. You could get credit for the class as a senior level English or Linguistics course. The professor was my first muse. She believed in and encouraged my writing. She was the first to point out the value of reading regularly, journaling, and submitting what you wrote. She helped get me published the first time in a university publication and then a historical article in a military magazine. She told me I should embrace a bohemian lifestyle and write full-time. She turned me on to Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, Joan Baez, Sylvia Plath, Allen Ginsberg, William S. Burroughs, and Jack Kerouac.

Two – I was motivated to the point of being driven – me driven, can you imagine? Anyway, I wanted to get into a doctoral program and needed to start getting published in my chosen discipline – religious education. I went to the right conferences, met the right people, and paid the price. This wasn’t a once and done thing. It was getting one then two then three then four then five then six a year published. Sheer vanity … I wrote some very good articles like “What I Learned when a Church Member Died”, an article about preaching my first funeral and the shortcomings of the religious education curriculum to prepare the associate minister in this critical area is an example.

Three – Nancy Karen Vandiver Garrison … I know her from high school. We also went to the same university. We did prose interpretation and literary criticism together in University Interscholastic League competition way back 45 years ago. Thanks to social media and email we converse almost every day for years and still do, as recently as in the last few seconds. She holds me accountable to keep on writing and never give up. More than anything, she encourages me to not give up or listen to the rejections. She also says what’s next when I get an acceptance. She is a darn good poet and supporter of the arts. Plus, we both love The Monkees!

Four – In 1992, I wrote 275 pages in one night for a nonfiction book I was working on. The damn broke, and it just flowed. I was on prescriptions that powered my writing. I was taking Seldane. Remember it? It  wasthe first non-sedating antihistamine. It was later taken off the market in 1998. It fueled me as it is about 80% amphetamine. It taken with Celebrex we now know were causes of my first TIA (commonly known as a mini-stroke) as per the cardiologist and neurologist. I have had some 50 to 75 page experiences in writing that happen the same way without drugs to energize me. Sometimes the poems bounce around in my head and won’t quit talking until I relocate them to paper. It can be very surreal. I’ve had several magazine articles I wrote that I have sold to publications like Children’s Leadership and Preschool Leadership that just flowed almost perfectly.

I find the muse magically appears when I put my behind in the chair and write.

Background on Muses: The Muses, the personification of knowledge and the arts, especially literature, dance and music, are the nine daughters of Zeus and Mnemosyne (memory personified). Hesiod’s account and description of the Muses was the one generally followed by the writers of antiquity. It was not until Roman times that the following functions were assigned to them, and even then there was some variation in both their names and their attributes:
• Calliope -epic poetry;
• Clio -history;
• Euterpe -flutes and lyric poetry;
• Thalia -comedy and pastoral poetry;
• Melpomene -tragedy;
• Terpsichore -dance;
• Erato -love poetry;
• Polyhymnia -sacred poetry;
• Urania -astronomy.

Devotional: Overcoming Habits

Posted in WritingLeave a comment

temptationHave you ever struggled overcoming habits in your life? I know I have. The current battle is with weight and proper eating habits. I am on a mission to reduce my weight, lower my blood pressure and cholesterol as well as triglycerides. It is a huge challenge.

I realize I cannot do this in my own strength. I coincide support groups help. Weight Watchers worked as long as I attended. In the end it is going to take me making healthy choices and saying no the wrong choices.

The Bible has two verses that speak to me in this area. They are Romans 12:1-2. We read: Romans 12:1-2 (ESV) 1 I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. 2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

We see the Apostle Paul appealing to us. The appeal is by the mercies of God. He is asking us as an act of worship to present our bodies as a living sacrifice to God.

This has me thinking of 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 (KJV): 19 What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? 20 For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.

Healthy eating and taking care of my body should be important because it is the temple of the Holy Ghost (Spirit) which lives in me as a Believer. It tells me to glorify Christ with my body. This transitions back to Romans 12:2 which again says: Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

The memorization of Scripture is the only way I know to overcome so great a temptation as we face. Even Jesus quoted Scripture when confronted with the temptations of the Satan.

Join me in memorizing God’s Word to help with the temptations we face.

Creative Commons License
“Have you ever struggled overcoming habits in your life?” by Jimmie A. Kepler is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.

Sunday, IKEA, and Oz

Posted in Blog, Writing1 Comment

IKEA, Frisco, TexasToday is Sunday, July 7, 2013.

Speaking of Sunday … here is my weekly weight loss update. I have dropped from 200 pounds to 196 pounds in the last week. Walking 10,000 steps in a day several day during the week helped. 10,000 steps is about 4 miles. I also stopped all M&M, Kit Kat and Snickers consumption at work and home. I dramatically reduced the number of soft drinks I consume. I replaced the majority with coffee or decaf drinks. The problem with this is the aspartame has caused me joint pain.

Speaking of pain … today my wife and I attended a new Bible fellowship class at church. Almost all from our old class are attending this class. Change is still painful. The Bible teacher was excellent. The class was a little noisy and rowdy before the lesson.

Speaking of rowdy … No one was rowdy when I visited IKEA in Frisco, Texas this afternoon. The familiar blue and yellow colors of the giant IKEA store greet me from a half-mile away. Drawing nearer to the store the traffic equivalent of a rock concert at the American Airlines Center requires negotiation. A trip to IKEA is worth the effort. Whether it is the hike in from the remote parking spot you are happy to find or just snaking your way through two levels of merchandise, it is an adventure for your senses that also includes fulfilling your daily exercise needs. A full palette of colorful merchandise is waiting to be mixed and matched. Today I heard over a dozen languages being spoken by the patrons. English was not the most common tongue spoken. Your senses are popping from the experience. IKEA is a place of ideas. Demonstration rooms display designs demanding application in your home. People use tape measures to see if the dream transforms from store to their available space. I’m not sure I will ever grow tired of visiting the IKEA store. The store and their helpful associates facilitate ideas into reality. I wrote this to tell Karen Garrison what it was like. This picture is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license. The IKEA store in Frisco, TX, USA. Author: Rainchill. It seems everyone had IKEA as part of their weekend plans.

Speaking of weekend plans … I saw the movie “Oz: The Great and Powerful”. Oz the Great and Powerful is set in the year 1905, 20 years before the events of the original Wizard of Oz novel. The film features several artistic allusions and technical parallels to the books and the 1939 film.

The film’s opening sequence is presented in black-and-white, fading into color when the protagonist arrives in Oz; additionally, the aspect ratio gradually widens from 4:3 Academy ratio to 2.35:1 widescreen, and the audio transitions from monaural to surround sound. As in the 1939 film, Glinda travels in giant bubbles, and the Emerald City is actually emerald; in the novel, characters wear tinted glasses to make it appear so. The iconic green look of the Wicked Witch of the West is closer to her look in the classic film, as the Witch is a short, one-eyed crone in the novel. The Wicked Witches are portrayed as sisters, an idea which originated in the 1939 film. Several actors who play Oz characters make cameos in the Kansas segments, such as Frank, Oscar’s assistant whom he refers to as his ‘trained monkey’ (Frank’s “Oz” counterpart is the winged monkey Finley) and a young girl in a wheelchair who serves as the Kansas counterpart to China Girl (in Kansas Oscar was unable to make the wheelchair-bound young girl walk and he gets a chance to do so when he repairs China Girl’s broken legs). Another character, Annie (Michelle Williams), informs Oscar that she has been proposed to by a John Gale, presumably hinting at Dorothy Gale’s parental lineage.

Other referenced characters include the Scarecrow, who is built by the townspeople as a scare tactic; the Tin Woodman, whose creator is introduced as the Master Tinker; and the Cowardly Lion, who is frightened away by Oscar after attacking Finley. Similarly, various other races of Oz are depicted besides the Munchkins; the Quadlings, the china doll inhabitants of Dainty China Country, and and the Winkies (who went unnamed in the classic film). Similarly, Glinda – at least during her temporary banishment – is referred to by her title in the novel (the Good Witch of the South), unlike the 1939 film, where her character’s title is “The Good Witch of the North” (due to her character being merged with The Good Witch of the North). Theodora’s tears leave scars on her face, reflecting her weakness to water (which would cause her eventual downfall against Dorothy the savior of Oz). Also, Oz is presented as a real place as it is in the novel, and not a dream as the 1939 film presents, though this could be seen as a reinterpretation of what the previous film implied, rather than faithfulness to the novel. Source on “OZ”: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oz_the_Great_and_Powerful

Poem: Dead on the Floor

Posted in Blog, Poetry1 Comment

Dead on the Floor

“Tricky Dick” was the U.S. President
In America, a first-class stamp cost just six cents
Richard Nixon froze both the prices and our pay
We still loved going to concerts to see our favorite bands play
The Vietnam War was on the evening news for all to see
Marcus Welby, M.D. was the number one show on United States TV
Over in London, Jimi Hendrix over dosed
On Monika Dannemann’s sleeping pills two weeks before.
And in Los Angeles, John Cook found Janis Joplin dead on the floor.

Jimmie A. Kepler
© 2011

Originally published in “Writing After Fifty”

Originally published in “Writing After Fifty”

I Am a Writer

Posted in Blog, Writing1 Comment

I belong to the Dallas Writing Practice Group. A recent assignment was to write why “I am a writer”. Here’s what I wrote …

I’m a writer because I enjoy writing.

I get my ideas from the world around me as well as the fantasies within me.

I try to write for a regular period each day.

I believe in using adjectives and adverbs frugally.

I structure my work-in-progress by writing according to how the story seems to be telling itself instead of writing to a prepared plot outline though I know my major plot points.

I realize writing self-discipline by making myself work whether I’m in the mood or not.

I handle the difficult, ‘writer’s block’ or ‘dry’ times by working on something else to keep good writing habits.

I attempt to make my work as good as it can be by editing, rewriting and polishing.

In seeking an agent or publisher I research the market thoroughly and learn how to make a professional submission. I also read books by writer’s the potential agent represent or by the publisher where I believe I’m a good fit.

I receive rejection slips with a twinge, and then move to the next submission. It’s not personal.

I see myself in the future finding satisfaction in writing novels and narrative nonfiction my readers enjoy.

I want to write because I have characters and stories bursting to come to life. I have voices in my head that need to escape to paper or keyboard.

If you a writer how would you explain why you are a writer?

The True Story of Catch – 22: The Real Men and Missions of Joseph Heller’s 340th Bomb Group in World War II

Posted in Books I've ReviewedLeave a comment

Did Joseph Heller commit a disservice to the members of the 340th Bomb Group when he wrote Catch-22? Did author  Patricia Chapman Meder write an apologetic defending the real four officers some feel Joesph Heller blindsided when he made them into Catch-22’s four heavy hitters?

“The True Story of Catch – 22: The Real Men and Missions of Joseph Heller’s 340th Bomb Group in World War II” is a combination of both plus I feel some admiration for Joseph Heller making those men infamous.

There is a reason the original Catch-22 is found in the fiction not nonfiction section of bookstores. Joseph Heller didn’t write a memoir of his service during World War II. He wrote a satirical and somewhat historical novel.

Patricia Chapman Meder uses rare and unpublished photos to bring our actual heroes to life through use of first person narrative.

There is a third part in her book that is actually the book’s heart. She takes twelve men of the 340th and relates twelve true tales.

Fans of Catch-22 will enjoy the book. It makes good use of diaries, logs, and photos to bring the people to life. For those unfamiliar with Catch-22 the book will make you curious enough to pickup Heller’s book.

“The True Story of Catch – 22: The Real Men and Missions of Joseph Heller’s 340th Bomb Group in World War II” would make a nice companion volume or commentary for the serious student of the original work. It would make a nice inclusion in university or community libraries as a resource for Joseph Heller’s book.

I recommend “The True Story of Catch – 22: The Real Men and Missions of Joseph Heller’s 340th Bomb Group in World War II” by Patricia Chapman Meder. The publisher is Casemate Publishing.

Read and reviewed by Jimmie A. Kepler.