Buddha’s Bad Boys is Available Now

I’m very pleased to announce that my new book, an anthology of six short works called BUDDHA’S BAD BOYS, hits shelves in Feb. You can buy it now, in paperback or any eBook format, at Bold Strokes Books http://www.boldstrokesbooks.com/9781626393011e.html 

It will be available at bookstores, Amazon, and other eBook sellers in Mid-Feb.

Blurb: There are many reason why Western men turn to Eastern religion—searching for inner truth, lost love, loneliness, fleeing the law, hopelessness, alcoholism. Some travel halfway around the world in an attempt to overcome their particular dissoluteness, only to realize that improving yourself is like polishing air. What they eventually discover, nevertheless, is one of the Buddha’s most significant lessons: enlightenment comes to those whose singular focus is on helping others less fortunate. 

Six stories, six troubled gay men trudging down the road to enlightenment. What they each find is that last thing in the world they expected.

Hanging in Inlay Lake, Myanmar (Burma)

I’m going through pictures of Inlay Lake, Myanmar, and remembering what turned out to be the highlights of our Burma trip. We hit five major destinations in Myanmar, and Inlay Lake was by far the most interesting and fun.

There are over two hundred towns and villages around and on the lake. Many of the towns, temples, hotels, and restaurants are built on stilts over the water, so the best means—sometimes the only—of transportation are by long boat. Even crops are grown over water in what are called the Floating Garden. 

Tourism is an upcoming mainstay of the economy, but fishing, textiles, cheroot cigars, and farming are the traditional industries.

We all loved our time on the lake, and were sad to leave it only after three days. So much more to see, we will trek back soon.

Above was our hotel, below is one of our favorite restaurants.

My Time In Myanmar (Burma)

We took a trip to Myanmar with Malcolm and Pic, Sandy and Jim and Ben, and Michael and Denis. It was a wonderful time and we all enjoyed ourselves. Our guide, Myu Myu was fantastic, and made sure we not only saw all there was to see, but gave us enough time in each temple, pagoda, and market to insure we saw it all.

In eleven days, we visited Yangon, Golden Rock, Bagan, Mandalay, Inlay Lake, and back to Yangon. Myu Myu kept us moving, and we saw all the major tourist sites. Next trip, we will visit the smaller towns and out of the way sites.

I’m a bit upset I didn’t make posts while we were there and it was still fresh in my mind, but we were constantly on the move. There was simply no time of energy left for any kind of writing.

Herman, however, took a billion pictures so I will use the ones he posted on FB to try and reconstruct what we did and what we saw.

One of the most memorable things that happened was at Inlay Lake. It was not a matter of what was there, it was what wasn’t there. We stayed in cabins built over the water, a long way from shore. The only way to get there was by boat, and after sunset, the boat traffic died down to nothing. I remember noting the quiet before going to bed, but in the middle of the night, I woke to the strangest sensation: a deep silence; a total absence of sound. There was no motors, no electric appliances, no wind rustling leaves, no snoring, only the beating of my heart. I can’t remember ever experiencing such a profound stillness. I listened for what seemed hours, but the silence was unbroken. I was afraid to even move because I didn’t want to disturb something that seemed sacred. I finally nodded off to sleep again, and awoke to the sound of rain pulsing on the roof tiles.

What a shame we all can’t experience that kind of holy silence on a regular basis. I believe people would become more at peace, more loving and forgiving, if they could. 

Writing Tip: Secrets

Secrets are at the heart of many plots. In fact, if you study nearly any romantic comedy, you’ll fine that all the comic situations are built on secrets or lies, usually both. 

I have long believed that a good writer will allow his characters to keep secrets, and the secrets must be revealed before the end. But the question is when and why to reveal them. 

Something that I learned in a screenwriting class is, the best way to disclose a secret is when disclosing is the lesser of two evils. That is: if a character reveals a secret, s/he will lose respect or love or something worse. But, if s/he doesn’t reveal the secret, then something far more devastating will happen. 

So characters reveal secrets only when forced, to prevent something horrible from happening. A writer will do this to heighten the drama. 

Also, by having secrets, the reader knows that the truth will eventually be found out. So by introducing these secrets early on, it keeps the reader in suspense of when the truth will be revealed, and what the fallout will be when that eventually happens. 

Once a character withholds information, then the plot should twist the story so that the longer the character holds his/her secret, the more devastating the results will be when the information is finally exposed. It’s like a harmless little white lie that begins to build on itself, taking on bigger meaning and more damaging consequences until it will have a huge dramatic effect over everyone’s lives. 

Like any literary device, characters keeping secrets is a powerful tool in the writer’s hands.

Trekking through Myanmar (Burma)

I just spent eleven days trekking through Myanmar (Burma) with a group of ten travelers. We had a number of interesting experiences in this lush and beautiful land. Now that I’m back in Thailand where they have relatively speedy Internet access, I’ll post some pictures over the next week or two.

One of the highlights for me was a small training monastery in Heho, near Inlay Lake. This monastery building is over 200 years old, and has been taking in orphans for over a century.

Although this temple houses a half-dozen museum-quality, Shan-style Buddha images, it is the novices that really steal the show. They were friendly and respectful, and as you can see, they carry the beauty that the Shan people all seem to have.