Books to enjoy: Romance .... Romance? WTF?

If you've even looked at the back of novels by long time novelists, like David Morrell, you will notice that there are a lot of other authors who give him blurbs for his novels. I have noticed that a lot of authors who write books I enjoy, tend to read other authors whose books I enjoy.

Authors tend to cluster like that for at least the last century. Tolkien was a friend of CS Lewis. Chesterton, Dorothy Lee Sayers, Ronald Knox, Agatha Christie, and Baroness Orczy were all connected....or well networked, if you want to put it another way. If you have no idea who I'm talking about, Amazon.com will be helpful.

So, if the author's book collection tells a lot about what he writes, then—without going into footnotes—what is the background for A Pius Man?

In general terms, anything that isn't nailed down.

What do I read that I would recommend to other people? Well, I can do a simple breakdown by genre.....

Today, I will do ....

Romance.

Romance?

Yes, you heard me. Romance. I'm a bit of a Romantic sap at heart

Yes, I read some romance, but these usually come with thriller elements.

Catherine Coulter-- her FBI series is quite entertaining. At least for the first six or seven books. The Cove is possibly the best constructed mystery out of the bunch, and it opens with a fifty page long chase through several states. It works surprisingly well.

Stupid artwork
Stupid Title
Good book

Sherrilyn Kenyon-- Imagine vampires mixed with Greek mythology so much that they're not really vampires-- and all of the books have really stupid titles that have nothing to do with the rest of the book. I was only suckered into reading these when the rest of my family insisted on buying the whole collection.  After that, I discovered that, while they are marketed to the romance crowd, most of them work as what is known as "Urban Fantasy."  If you can get past the stupid titles and the overdrawn covers.

 If you're a fan of Greek mythology, interweaving new mythology and modern action thrillers, read Kenyon's “Dark-Hunter” series. Preferably in publication order, otherwise you can get very lost, very fast. The romance elements are there, that's her primary classification. And don't be put off by the titles or the covers, most of which are embarrassing to look at. But if I had any shame, I would probably be in a different line of work.

Andrew Greeley-- An Irish Chicago Catholic priest who writes romance novels. Some people tend to have brain-freeze at that point, so take a moment if you need to.

If you can, read any book of his BEFORE 2000. After that point, well, his books start to suck. They almost always have a fairly solid mystery, but there's always a romance-- however, avoid the books "Cardinal Sins" and "Love Song" (Early books, awful books.). The Search for Maggie Ward was surprisingly epic, as was Irish Gold, and he has an entire Beatitude series of locked room murder mysteries. And he has three books of an Angel trilogy which are EXCELLENT.

And ... that's it.

I'm certain that most readers did not expect a very long list of novels here

Then again, I looked at the end of Terminator 2 and saw it as the touching story between a boy and his dog ... if dog translates into "robotic killing machine from the future."

So, I'm a touch weird.

GOD H8TS JAPAN; Twitting with Phelps & Co.

Subtitle: Evil Religions 1: Shinto.



I mentioned a while back that I would consider possibly doing a series on Evil Religions, and that I would save this for later.  But I had to get this one off of my chest.  You see, if you've followed my twitter (Apiusmannovel) lately, you will have noticed that I've been having a battle of wits with the Phelps clan. 



Yes, Phelps, of Westboro.  I've mentioned them once ... or three times ....



However, my eyes have been open.  All of that stuff about Japan they've been saying?  It's been right.  God took Japan by the shoulders and shook it like a rag doll.



Why?



Because of Shinto.



Yes, Shinto is the most evil religion out there.



As Jim Butcher has noted, Shinto is a nature religion—everything in nature, Shinto says, has a spirit, a kami in Japanese. You respect the kami of a mountain, because it will crush you like a bug! With the kami of a pebble, it's a pebble, who cares?



But Shinto has spawned the worst evil ever known to mankind.



Worse than Imperial Japan.



Worse than the Bataan death march.



Because, in the 20th century, someone decided that they were going to take all of the worse elements of Shinto, and merge it with all of the most violent, horrific aspects of pro-Wrestling.



The result....



POKEMON!



We have to get them all .... and kill them!



This proves it!



All religions are eeeeevvvvviiilllll, AND MUST BE DESTROYED!!!



SHINTO DELENDA EST!



MUAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAA.



…..



…...



…..



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Happy April Fool's Day, from A Pius Man.



Yeah, it was a little obvious, wasn't it?



A real Evil Religion blog series will start after Easter ... maybe.



Oh, for those of you following my duel with the Phelps Klan, I sent them my original article on phelps.  Their response:

 MargieJPhelps @APiusManNovel Too many boring words Zzzzzzzzzz @jabezphelps

When I suggested that I had been writing for grammar school, and I should have written for the inbred, their reply:

jabezphelps @APiusManNovel @margiejphelps Or maybe you could stop being #boring and get your own sign and you cry out against this nation.

So I sent them Ann Coulter's article on the Westboro Baptist Church. I figure the venom would penetrate no matter what.

I didn't want to give the game away, but the title of todays blog: Tweeting with Twits.
 
Do you think I used enough small words for them this time?

And, yes, having a battle of wits with the Phelps people is like they brought a knife to an artilery duel.

Mr Phelps, You Are Disavowed…

[This blog is rated PG, for mild intemperate language.]

I do not feel the need to disavow every single stupid thing a Christian group has ever done. For one thing, I'm Catholic, so most Christian sects, denominations, etc, have already disavowed me. So when other folks in other Christian groups do something stupid, I generally don't care.

Like, for example, when a creationist museum that has what appears to be a Garden of Eden setting … with a Velociraptor off to the side.

Thankfully, I can usually say, “Yeah, that's stupid,” and move on. Because it is stupid: even ignoring that human beings and dinosaurs were separated by about a few BILLION years of development, you'd think that the museum designer would have picked a dinosaur that was more friendly in appearance, and what wasn't the primary adversary of one of the top grossing films of all time.

So, with idiocies like that, I don't care. It's not my church, not my problem.

And then there's Fred Phelps.... who may or may not have appeared in one of our stories.

Mr. Phelps, who bears no relationship to Jim Phelps of the Mission: Impossible TV series, is not unknown to constant readers of this blog, or fellow writer/blogger Rebekah of Masks. He is a failed Kansas Democratic Party nominee. He is a failed lawyer (disbarred in 1977).  He is 81 years old, and has been banned from enterting the United Kingdom, and sent a letter to Saddam Hussein, praising him for his religious tolerance.  And he is an all around failed human being.

Most recently, Phelps runs a marginal little Baptist church in the back end of Westboro, Kansas. They run websites called “God Hates the World,” and even “God hates Sweden.”

Obviously, this guy has too much time on his hands if he could work himself into a lather about Sweden.

Phelps and company host a lot of protests. His most recent protest was at … the funeral of Elizabeth Edwards.

Constant readers know that I am no fan of politics, politicians, or even people connected with them. I have no particular affection or disdain for the late Mrs. John Edwards. When her husband had illicit offspring, she attacked anyone and everyone who discussed it, even though it was later revealed she knew all about it, even as she called everyone else a liar. While this does not put her into my nominee for sainthood, the woman's dead, get over it.

However, reasons for Mr. Phelps protesting her funeral are … odd. Part of his stated reasons for the protest include: “Elizabeth Edwards & her faithless husband, John, lightly esteemed what they had. They coveted things that were not theirs – and presumptuously thought they could control God.”

Um, what? I can tell more lawyer jokes that start with “John Edwards” than I know what to do with, but, seriously?  What drugs are you on, sir?

While I would usually just paint Mr. Phelps with the stupid brush, and say “this is not the Christian you're looking for, move along,” I have had an atheist friend of mine use Phelps as an example of why all religion is for weak-minded fools bewitched by old religious mind tricks (Yes, I put more than one Star Wars reference into an overwritten sentence. I'm a nerd).  So, Mr. Phelps has earned some special attention.   And it's not the first time on this blog (see Item 9)

Why does he deserve it? Because Mr. Phelps is not a Christian. He actually belongs to no organized religion that I have ever heard of. After all, he wants to spread “God's hate.” While God is somewhat cranky in the Torah, it's mostly a matter of “Screw With My People, I Will End You.” Hate is never stressed as a key component of any modern faith I know of; the others were wiped out centuries ago.

However, Mr. Phelps does remind me of something else. Looking over his history, he does nothing but organize protests. Protests at military funerals, random high schools, celebrity deaths, the San Francisco office of Twitter … the list goes on. And on. His band of bozos spend their time proclaiming that God hates gays. And that God Hates Jews. And God Hates Catholics. And God Hates the military. And God Hates…

Well, “God hates” everyone who isn't Mr. Phelps and his little band of twits.

“God” even “hates” comic book readers. Phelps and his band of fruit loops protested San Diego's Comic Con because “comic books encourage idolatry.” 


Riiiiiight.

I suspect that if there's a headline media story, Phelps will chase it, and park his people in front of it, lodging a protest, because God suddenly “hates” everyone involved. But only after it becomes front page news.  

Obviously, if you take any attention away from Mr. Phelps, God hates you.

When you consider that a Christian is defined as someone who follows the principles of Jesus Christ, Mr. Phelps is not a Christian. At no point did Christ mention anything about “God hates [this large body of people].” In fact, He generally preferred using examples of social outcasts who acted as better models of proper behavior than the high priests. There's a good reason why the Catholic Church has never declared that any individual person has gone to Hell—the Vatican condemns certain behaviors, not certain people.  It has never tried to take on the moral authority assumed by Dante.

So, let's see. Mr. Phelps has a small, insular body of people who clearly demonstrate an attitude that it is “us” versus “them.” In this case, “them” is “the world.” Also, Phelps is using the Gospel according to …. Phelps. Not to mention that Phelps is very interested in having the cameras on him at all times. It seems that the most dangerous place in America to be is between Freddy Phelps a microphone.

A narcissist with delusions of godhood … there's a term for that, isn't there?  Let me think about that a moment. Wait, it's coming to me … it's coming to me … Yes, I have it.

I think the term I want is “cult leader.”

Yes, “cult leader” and “attention-seeking media whore” sum him up rather neatly, I think.

And while there should be prayers (from actual people of faith) that Mr. Phelps become something other than what he is – maybe an atheist like Daniel Dennett -- I doubt it will happen. In fact, I await the day that Mr. Phelps and company break out a shipment of Kool-Aid, and give the rest of us some well-deserved peace and quiet.

On the other hand, Mr. Phelps is good for something. He has been put on the hit list of the Anti-Defamation League, gay rights groups, and Ann Coulter  …  I bet you'd never see those three all on the same side, did you?