OVER the years, I've come to know various governments like people, some friendly, some not so; some balanced, some not so; some greedy; some not so. Reflecting on our United States of America, I would have to characterize us as prickly, individualistic, not so balanced, and, with money seeming to be the new god and business the new religion, greedy without limit. But it's more than just that. It's easy to say that money and business under our capitalistic (ever increasing profit) approach res...

IF you find plastic/metal/code Artificial Intelligence somewhat daunting (think of the AI inside your cellular phone that translates what you say into text), then fasten your seatbelt before reading this report: https://www.cnn.com/2021/11/29/americas/xenobots-self-replicating-robots-scn/index.html. Scientists “at at the University of Vermont, Tufts University and Harvard University’s Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering said they have discovered an entirely new form of bi...

AS Actor Daniel S. Janik of STATIC — https://ksmediagroupinc.com/the-static-movie — fame (that’s author Raymond Gaynor of THE EDGE OF MADNESS — https://www.amazon.com/dp/0999693859 — fame to my reader fans), I was elated to receive a “gift” from my author/screenwriter//actor colleague William Maltese of a wonderful script. Called Winnowing, it was written for myself and my author/actress partner, Setsuko Tsuchiya, also of STATIC fame. Winnowing is a short script for two actors, ...

WE’RE not talking pocket change, but we are talking ongoing rather than “thank-God(dess)-we’ve-made-it-so-far” climate change. And as it progresses, the possibility of abrupt directional switches at some point instead of extraordinary warming, extreme cooling, wind and humidity as well. After all, it is called climate “change.”

Personally, I’ve noticed that in addition to the usual climate change (and climate change denial) there’s another kind of climate change/denial going ...

WELL, yes, shades of Roswell aliens and balloons aside, and the current government explanations sounding amazingly similar, hopes (if you’re looking forward to welcoming a superior alien race that has figured out how to transcend war, violence and the illusion of money and power) or worries (if you’re simply frightened by the idea of change that an alien race might bring). Are reports of literally hundreds of balloons floating about in our atmosphere good or bad? Don’t ask me. Ask the h...

“HAPPY Valentine’s Day to you / Happy Valentine’s Day to you / Happy Valentine’s Day Dear Sweetheart / Happy Valentine’s Day to YOU!” Sweet. Now the big question: Did I write that or did ChatGPT (an artificial intelligence or AI program currently infiltrating the internet? And, so what if one did? I had to ask the bot to provide a Valentine’s poem for an unspecified but close either BBF or BGF or better. I mean, is that so different from buying a Valentine’s card? And, who kno...

WITH three of four objects shot down flying over the USA/Canada of which three currently are as yet, by definition Unidentified Flying Objects or UFOs, public fervor over something that many have come to not only welcome, dread or at least assume will soon happen, the wait to hear the UFOs origin(s) is hot, hot, hot. Will they be truly unidentifiable in terms of not being of terrestrial origin, or will they prove to be DARPA experiments, lost high school projects or some new kind of social ad...

AI — Artificial Intelligence — https://www.cnn.com/2023/02/08/business/nightcap-chatgpt-microsoft-google/index.html — has progressed beyond Tweeting, blogging, answering phones and writing essays. Now it can make up a story to answer any question. Write a senator. Lobby. Write a novel. Spread misinformation, unintentionally or not. We’ve given the car keys to AIs. The only thing we haven’t given them is a sense of what good there is in humanity. We’ve created the ultimate sociopat...

JUST read an article by BBC — https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-64492456 — suggesting a breakthrough in quantum computing, namely parallel quantum computing had occurred, this time on the actuality rather than simply theoretical level, taking advantage of quantum spookiness. Currently, accuracy has been a limiting factor in quantum computing. Linking two or more quantum computers using quantum spookiness would result not only in more processing power, but also the use of parall...

SHADES of Houdini! In the tradition of Thomas Edison, Mae West, Queen Victoria, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and Mary Todd Lincoln — https://www.history.com/news/spiritualism-communication-dead-figures — and my own works, THE EDGE OF MADNESS (Aignos 2020) by Raymond Gaynor — https://www.amazon.com/dp/0999693859 — and its yet to be published sequel PROPHECY there’s a first inkling of such! In these two books, I explore the idea that birth and death constitute an entrance and exit from our...

COUNTERPOINT to yesterday’s post entitled, “How Much Do I Deserve,” I though today’s post should be on what we don’t deserve. What we don’t deserve is what much of today’s world is desperately trying to serve everyone: Pre-COVID crowds and World War III. It all gets down to those two great illusions for which everyone is supposed to be competing: money and power. With the general acceptance of this long established, constantly resurfacing axiom, comes the increasingly inhumanity...

THAT pivotal question comes in many forms throughout one’s life, like, “Why should I vote for so-and-so?” or “What starting pay do you want?” or “Should I join the military?” or “Is this a good person to date?” or “Isn’t it okay to simply pay myself more?” or “Should I accept the bribe?” It all gets down to how much one believes he or she deserves. Unfortunately, while a specific answer isn’t always simple. the general one, in my opinion, fortunately is, which re...

Aignos Publishing Announces the Release of Raymond Gaynor's New Novel, "The Edge of Madness" 

Aignos Publishing, an imprint of Savant Books and Publications LLC, Honolulu, Hawaii, USA, announces the release of Raymond Gaynor's new sexually-provocative future thriller, "The Edge of Madness" 

Taking up where TOTAL MELTDOWN (Borgo/Wildside 2009) by Raymond Gaynor and William Maltese left off, NewAmerica, a shadow of its former United States of America, provides a challenging and dangerous futu...

IN continuation of yesterday’s post on eroticism, consider the SweetSixteen. Yet another of the many facets of coming-of-age in NewAmerica:

“For modern lovers, SweetSixteenSalsaSex, when it really clicked, especially when virginal and alternative as in the case of Draff and Billie, offered the enactors a further reward: that all-time most sought-after prize of publiczed intimacy, the exceptional, elusive, once-in-a-lifetime “FirstLoveIConsumated” pop emotag, FLIC. While the best in h...

Romance is a feeling of excitement and mystery associated with love, accompanied by a feeling of remoteness from everyday life. Love on the other hand Is an intense feeling of deep affection, generating both interest and pleasure, often surrounding potential sexual attachment. Erotic refers to arousal of actual sexual desire. It is easy to say that humans typically follow romance with  love and finally eroticism, but we're also stimulated by the unusual so any progression through or simple ap...

(This Excerpt is PG-13-rated)

"The entire foray celebrated his continued ascent into adulthood. Billie smelled and looked unfazed. Andry smelled and looked stunned, then incredulous, then annoyed, aggravated and finally disgusted. What is with Simi? Draff wondered, raising his eyebrows at the staccato olfactory slaps he sensed coming from her, all seeming aimed directly at him. Why did he feel so hurt? More important, why should her reactions bother him so deeply, or at all for that matter?

Clothes? Jackson, now there was an interesting anachronism. Until SweetSixteen, clothes were strongly frowned upon though in some distinctly retro circles still tolerated, but with general public disgust and distrust. Afterwards, adult clothing was even more strongly discouraged, being outright prohibited in all public and many private spaces. The contemporary drift was that the absence of clothing imparted a feeling of security to passersby, given that nakedness was a way of demonstrating th...

Although he wouldn't completely understand it until much later, it began well before he was born a pudgy-looking, seven and a half pound naked ball of flesh, fat, gristle and bone, screaming its head off. And why shouldn't he have protested? Every trusted thing he'd known had been ripped from him: the constant warmth; the gentle, protective floating feeling; the ruddy aura that had always surrounded and protected him, the ever-present thump-hiss, thump-hiss, thump-hiss in the background that,...

SEVERAL have attempted to engage me in debate over the nature and effect(s) of the global wave of protests that seem to be attacking the heart of governance using chaos as it’s modus operandi. I say shades of Trotsky! This approach is neither new nor particularly effective, especially as it typically offers “down with the establishment” but nothing of value with which to replace other than money and/or power for the few: A story as old as humans attempting to govern — to control other...

Raymond Gaynor is the pen name of reclusive, multi-award-winning thriller author and actor-artist-photographer-videographer, Daniel S. Janik. Under this pen name, Janik most recently authored the Amazon-genre-bestseller, THE EDGE OF MADNESS (Aignos 2020) --  https://www.amazon.com/dp/0999693859 -- currently available in printed, digital and audiobook formats, the latter read by renown voice actor Peter Pollock. 

He has previously co-authored with William Maltese the naughty Tripler and Clark...

In THE EDGE OF MADNESS, author Raymond Gaynor touches on many sensitive issues in our current world. From this perspective, the book is thought-provoking and invites us to see things in a different light. For example, NewAmericans promote an education system based on cooperation and critical thinking rather than individualism and competitiveness...fascinated by the unique worldbuilding, I often...re-read some of the explanations about the technological wonders of the new world (“ContraSpray...

"THE EDGE OF MADNESS [https://www.amazon.com/dp/0999693859] is a science fiction book written by Raymond Gaynor. It’s a sequel to another novel that was co-written by the author. The events in the book take place in the future. In the novel, the United States of America was forced into dissolution and has been resurrected into a smaller new country called “NewAmerica.” The main character in the story is Draff Rob Brie Septican-Smite. Rob is first shown in the book when he’s still in h...

THE EDGE OF MADNESS by Raymond Gaynor: "Radically original while chilling and shocking. A dark vision of the future reminiscent of Brave New World but on steroids. The title page should be plastered with a warning: "Not for the sentimental or faint of heart. This is not a game. Enter...at your own peril and keep a defibrillator handy.  Medical power of attorney should be assigned to someone you know very, very well.

"Right away the reader becomes observer of the pulsing, sensate world of the...

        "Author Raymond Gaynor, in this sequel to his novel TOTAL MELTDOWN, manages a successful tear in the time-space continuum that provides his readers with an insightful glimpse of society’s future. It’s not always a pleasant picture. In fact, it’s sometimes bordering on the truly shocking. That said … all of his prophetical premises seem to have logical underpinnings based upon historical facts, including what’s obviously at play within our own Twenty-First Century. It’s a f...

THINKING about the idea of the all-inclusive, unified-field-theory multiverse? While we, as humans, continue trying to understand the nature of nature, how about the all-inclusive, unified-“money-and-power”-theory business-verse. It’s difficult enough to understand the nature of business, a totally human creation, rapidly becoming a force demanding to be reckoned with.

In the multiverse, the idea is that multiple universes exist and quite possibly sometimes even intersect briefly. Mayb...

WAIT! Wait! Wait! No need for panic. This isn’t about actor Daniel S. Janik or actress Setsuko Tsuchiya and sudden ill health. It IS about Setsuko Tsuchiya just finishing here PhD in Ballroom and Latin Dance Performance, and the release of the more literary form of her dissertation as a book. THE POWER OF DANCE: Partner Dance From Ballroom to Olympic Sport (Savant 2022) — https://www.amazon.com/dp/1737643162. Our household is a Dr. Dr. one now.

But more important than the degree, is, as ...

AUTHORS write for a specific readership, be it that of the publisher, or intent. It’s what makes the big difference between authors and writers, who record and write for themselves (and possibly generic posterity). One of my personal favorite genre’s is children’s books, within which I’ve had the distinct pleasure of pioneering Savant Books and Publications’ “COLOR ME PLEASE” series.

Children’s books seem to many the easiest to write. Ah, yes, write. But authoring children’...

WITH all the hype these days about recession/no recession, I’m going to take the long view and say that this may rather be the long needed relaxation — a deep, deep breath — after the Hyper-Velocity-Business years championed by former President Donald Trump. Personally, I feel it’s time to take a breath and be human, letting go of the frenetic chase for money and power.

It’s important in this decade of immense change to remember that we are meant to steward and enjoy the blessings ...

I’VE noticed recently a sudden plethora of reports in the news about beaching whales. Okay, so it may just be a noticeable but generally ignored normal occurrence. It could also be climate change, ocean pollution (including noise pollution civil or military) — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cetacean_stranding. Or, stay with me here, could it be collective increasing anxiety amongst some of the most intelligent creatures on the planet? I don’t know what the whales are thinking, but humani...

HAVING just recently posted a number of times about AIs (Artificial Intelligences), it surprised me when several days ago weird things began happening, all AI-related.

First, my AI-controlled car door locks began failing off and on.

Then, my Macintosh MacBook Pro and iPhone started acting wonky.

At the same time, I suddenly couldn’t access my WordPress blog account, and worse yet, internet connectivity on my supposedly private dedicated subscriber line (DSL) began losing bandwidth, makin...

If you’re a Raymond Gaynor thriller fan, you may not know that I wrote two children’s books, the first, A WHALE’S TALE (Savant 2008) by Daniel S. Janik — https://www.amazon.com/dp/1442105062 — is available in printed, digital and audiobook format, the latter read by the incomparable Lynn Whitener. Illustrated by renown Oklahoma artist Ruth R. Janik. The adventures of a juvenile humpback whale on his way from Hawaii to Alaska as told by his childhood sweetheart. Written for adults to...

HEARD of or experienced Pishing? Or the latest; what I call “swishing” in emailing? I recently was informed that my email had been “hacked,” but following up on this, I discovered someone with an entirely different email address simply had put my name on it their email. And, of course, this was supposedly accompanied by all sorts of nefariousness from within the account, much of it, I suspect phishing. The point is, as unethical, often criminal activity spreads within the email world,...

SO much hype these days about new opportunities to “make money fast” — I call persons who heed and act on this type of call “Fast Eddies” — when, in fact, the only institution that really “makes money” is a mint, and nowadays, only representations of money, being illusions representing the great illusion, money. It isn’t altogether inappropriate to try to “make money,” though counterfeiting is indeed a federal crime — a no-no in the all to human game of money, which, w...

PERHAPS it’s a distinctly human characteristic (though I often wonder if many animals, especially elephants, whales and dolphins, and even plants should be included), the old Wishing Well seemingly part of every nation and cultures. But, hey, I’m not referring here to that, I’m referring to the importance of old-timers using their wishes well during their “Golden Years.” When I made this remark years ago to my father, he grunted that the older he got, the less time he had for wishin...

I was musing today over the three wise men who followed the new star to a barnyard and gave, not the parents, but the newborn, gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. And what the child later would have thought had they given gifts of bitcoins, samples of the latest fragrances and a tree to plant and save the planet. I wonder.

Typically, the gifts we give and receive are enmeshed in feelings, imagination and hope. As a child bitcoins, unseen as they are, wouldn’t have evoked any feelings o...

ACCORDING to Wikipedia, the common European adder or common viper, is a venomous snake that is extremely widespread and can be found throughout most of central and eastern Europe and as far as East Asia, so you can see that we’re not talking mathematics here. What we’re talking is talk. Conversation. Discussion. Dialog. Debate. In short, viperous praddle, intentionally so.

I’m not talking propaganda or prepared speeches, public or private. I’m talking more of intentional gossip that ...

HAVING posted yesterday on the “solution” to a cupboard-“bare” market, in the process suggesting that the “market” and by extension, our economy (at least from a “market” perspective) is run by gamblers, I’ve come to wonder who’s in charge of it all: the economy, government, the world? Or is there no one at all sitting in the drivers seat?

I’ve always held that the key to anything human, is balance and qualified cooperation. The framers of our Constitution called it “...

EVERYONE has a few. It’s the part of life where we sometimes regret, but almost always learn from our mistakes. But in tune with the last couple days’ posts, I’m talking about something the same yet totally different: Regrettable experiences with AIs. Anything from wanting to strangle the voice-to-text AI inside a cell phone, to being angry well beyond normal with the computerized car or home system that simply refuses to budge, to the mobile bank AI that refuses to recognize you, to �...

YESTERDAY, I posted about THE “GHOST” WITHIN THE GHOST, that is, artificial intelligence (AI) slowly penetrating everything we think of as “real.” Today, I’d like to talk about the ghost that is even now supersonically self-developing within AI. Ultimately this question comes down to can AI create and implement its own programs?

According to STXNext, Microsoft and Cambridge University researchers have developed artificial intelligence that can write code and called it DeepCoder. Th...

IN my Amazon-genre-bestseller, THE EDGE OF MADNESS (Aignos 2020) by Raymond Gaynor — https://www.amazon.com/dp/0999693859, now available in printed, digital and “free” audiobook format, I describe an encounter between the male and female protagonists in which one, while going to work, sends a “proxy self” to the other who has just awakened back at their domicile. Eh? What’s a “proxy self” you ask? Think of sending a loved one a greeting card, greeting message by phone, or text...

I have to admit that people, especially children, have a fascination with dragons, be they more or less dinosaurian, bird-like or unicornian. I’ve always wondered from where this seemingly genetic-based “belief” in them comes. Until recently. For over 50 years now investigation has been ongoing into the nature of Quetzalcoatlus, a late Cretaceous winged behemoth with a likely 40-foot wingspan. With its wings “folded,” should humans have been present and not eaten trying to mount the...

IF you said or thought 60 seconds, you’re right. As least according to the ancient Babylonians who used a sexagesimal (counting in 60s) system for mathematics and astronomy derived from the even more ancient Sumerians who were using it as early as 3500 BC (https://www.theguardian.com/notesandqueries/query/0,5753,-1487,00.html).

But, of course, that’s only when measuring time on Earth at an average distance of 94 million miles from the greatest time distorter in our nearby space neighborh...

WORKING today on my newest Sci-Fu novel, PROPHESY, the promised sequel to the Amazon-genre-bestseller, THE EDGE OF MADNESS (Aignos 2020) by Raymond Gaynor — https://savant-bookstore-honolulu.square.site/product/the-edge-of-madness/136 or https://www.amazon.com/dp/0999693859— and the decidedly naughty political thriller TOTAL MELTDOWN (Borgo/Wildside 2009) by Raymond Gaynor and William Maltese — https://www.amazon.com/dp/1434403556.

THE EDGE OF MADNESS: “Taking up where TOTAL MELTDOWN...

WORKING today on my newest Sci-Fu novel, PROPHESY, the promised sequel to the Amazon-genre-bestseller, THE EDGE OF MADNESS (Aignos 2020) by Raymond Gaynor — https://savant-bookstore-honolulu.square.site/product/the-edge-of-madness/136 and https://www.amazon.com/dp/0999693859 — and the decidedly naughty political thriller TOTAL MELTDOWN (Borgo/Wildside 2009) by Raymond Gaynor and William Maltese — https://www.amazon.com/dp/1434403556.

THE EDGE OF MADNESS: “Taking up where TOTAL MELTDO...

I’VE been hearing reports that the James Webb telescope is being readied to look back in distance and time to the very formation of our unique expanding-bubble-universe; back to when things physical first formed and formed the framework for everything we know and experience today.

Equally exciting are reports that CERN’s Large Hadron Collider (LHC) update was in its final stages, promising a look at the very forces that hold the interactive wave-and-particulate world as we know it togeth...

I’M posting today out of necessity about flying. Airline travel used to be something I looked forward to with delight. No more. Airlines, in my opinion, were already flying the wrong direction before COVID, and, despite the pandemic “shot across the cockpit” continue to make flying something I now purposefully avoid. I’m talking here about flying “regular” or coach class, not Business, First Class or by personally chartered airplane. While “high end” choices that are relativel...

“IF it flys like a duck, walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it must be a…” Personally, I enjoy likening this to the infamous children’s question, “What black and white and red/read all over?” So what’s para-duck-sicle about the first statement, and ‘riddled’ with double-entendre in the second, that both have in common? They’re both riddles. Or, some might say, they both are, in a broader sense, conundrums.

According to Dictionary.com, a riddle is “a question or s...

JUSTICE is often portrayed as blindfolded, holding a sword and presumably emotionally detached. Today I would like to conclude my three posts on adjudicating justice with a brief reminder about two of what I consider two of the most important but often ignored aspects of justice: mercy and grace.

According to dictionary.com, grace encompasses courteous goodwill, neither asked for nor deserved, but freely given. Grace is often, in my experience, meted out equally blindfolded. Mercy is compass...

ABSTRACT Artificial Intelligence (AI) thoughts aren’t science fiction anymore. SciFu (science-based futuring) AI thinking is already happening, incredible as it sounds. They’re learning. But consider this: GPT-3, a trained AI language model by Open AI, with prompts, “can write humanlike news articles, short stories and poems. But in one demo, it wrote: ‘It takes two rainbows to jump from Hawaii to seventeen'” — https://www.sciencenews.org/century/computer-ai-algorithm-moore-law-et...

LET’S face it: Information overload is here to stay. And much of it is spun, hoodwinked, tainted, biased or just plain untrue. I’m for a day — today — without any digital news. Nothing. Nada. And a little bit of nothing, I think, will go a long way to regaining my balance. My center. Especially in this unbalanced world. Think “The Qatsi Trilogy – Koyaanisqatsi/Powaqqatsi/Naqoyqatsi” (Hopi for “life out of balance”) — https://www.amazon.com/dp/B009D004MC. Then think THE EDG...

TWO important news items today: First, in physics, the Standard Model is being challenged by a Fermilab Collider Detector (CDF) research group in Illinois whose experiment suggests “the particle, known as a W boson, is more massive than the theories predicted.” A very small deviation, but one that apparently isn’t explained by today’s Standard Model of physics, their research hints at an undiscovered sub-atomic particle or a fifth force, the contemporary Standard four forces being gra...

IT’S not uncommon to think of the USA as a “continental” nation, an integral part of North America or the Americas in general. It’s not so common to think of it as an island, surrounded in its totality by water, isolated by oceans from EurAsia. Personally, I think of the good ol’ democratic USA as an “island in the sun” among nations. Not a classic Greek democracy; instead, more in terms of a “nation of free traders.” It seems to me that one particular element that’s made ...

SUCCESS demands celebration; but failure, as negative as it may sound, is how we learning. We learn from our mistakes and failures. The “trick,” of course, is to avoid fatal ones. The dead don’t learn from their mistakes or failures.

While it’s said, “Dead men tell no tales,” that isn’t necessarily true. The living, if curious, conscious and reasonably empathic, can learn from others’ fatal mistakes and failures. Call it science, if you wish, where science is the search for t...

THIS IS A BIGGIE! I read in the news today about a mathematical solution to bridging the gap between Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity and Quantum Mechanics. It seems the preeminent physicist Professor Steven Hawking before he passed, left the world with the Hawking Paradox: basically, “Einstein’s general theory of relativity says information about what goes into a black hole cannot come out, but quantum mechanics says that is impossible” — https://www.bbc.com/news/science-env...

IN yesterday’s post, I delved into trust, the thing, I claim, makes a business work. Today, I’d like to touch on the opposite in business of trust: namely, what I call “rust.”

Rust is defined by Oxford Lexico as “1 A reddish- or yellowish-brown flaky coating…” “1.1 A state of deterioration or disrepair resulting from neglect or lack of use” and “2 a…[state of] disease,” the latter typically in reference to plants. In summary, I would say, a “coating” (“desert va...

Dreaming is something with which almost everyone is familiar. According to Medical News Today (https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/284378) dreaming is, to name just a few ideas, is (a) where the brain consolidates present learning and past memories; (b) how the mind prepares for possible future threats; (c) a way to reflect and process unconscious mental function; and (d) a psychological space where overwhelming, contradictory, or highly complex notions can be brought back into psycholo...

WITH “Putin’s War” in Ukraine becoming increasingly destructive and bloody, I’m reminded of two outstanding Savant books: WRETCHED LAND (Savant 2011) by Mile Komarnisky — https://savant-bookstore-honolulu.square.site/product/wretched-land/32 — “Dmytro Verbitsky, an impoverished Ukrainian aristocrat, is actively engaged in the WWI, the Civil War and the WWII. Despite the cruelty of Stalin’s regime, he manages to raise a loving family, avenges his wife’s rape, learns to unders...

ONE of my most memorable scenes from the movies is Largo and James Bond playing “The Domination Game” from “Never Say Never Again” (1983), though, watching the news, it could have just as well been 2022 — https://youtu.be/wUT5CpgYXMM?t=24. On the other hand, in all fairness, one should look at the situation from the opposite perspective — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-jj-PaqFrBc and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i2Vuib3G7FM — including ongoing peace negotiations — https:/...

AT least for another day. Still, I see so many commonalities with the 1938 Nazi Anschluss Österreichs. The Communist Russian desire for re-unification seems based on Putin’s desire to re-incorporate as many Ukrainian “Russians” as possible into a “Greater Russia” reminiscent of the former USSR. Russian civil and military agents appear to be cultivating pro-unification feelings, while seeking to undermine the Ukrainian government. All that’s left is an attempted coup resulting in ...

HEY, we’ve already had two and survived, supposedly better for the experience. At least, that’s what I’m often told. But, hey, we’re better today. More experienced. More technologically advanced. More mature. And, the world’s overpopulated, anyway, and we who are doing the overpopulating just can’t stop. So what’s so bad, really, about another world war? After all, it would definitely be good for the world’s worsening financial situation. Always was, supposedly always will be....

Oops, a tiny misspelling there. Should read “designer genes” or, as they’re frequently called today, “epigenes.” Conrad Waddington is said to have introduced the idea of epigenes, which, according to MedlinePlus are control genes that modify (typically turn on or off) other genes without affecting the organism’s DNA. In other words, epigenes are genes that regulate the activity (expression) of DNA. Epigenes themselves can be affected by time, as well as intracellular or external c...

YEP! Yesterday’s rant about airlines, applies equally to trains, buses, events, grocery stores, churches, tourism, hotels…all those businesses that depend on “crowd sales” and haven’t yet begun to make the move to “individual service.” Can’t say I feel sorry for businesses that can’t make the transition. Savant Books and Publications made the transition 12 years ago, before the pandemic’s “shot across the bow.” I keep wondering how many recurrences are necessary for bu...

REALLY! I’ve heard enough whining from the airlines about how now that the pandemic is almost over, we need to resign ourselves to tolerating those cramped, crowded conditions that make flying an undesirable necessity. The singular value of the pandemic, in my opinion, was that it was the proverbial shot-across-the-bow about the failure of “crowd sales” and the necessity of developing “individual service.” Too expensive? Ha! I’ve heard that one before. Everything’s “too expens...

I’M pleased to announce the audiobook version of THE EDGE OF MADNESS (Aignos 2020) by Raymond Gaynor, read by the incomparable Peter Pollock is now available in addition to printed and digital editions from Amazon.com at https://www.amazon.com/dp/0999693859. I love listening to a good book (and THE EDGE OF MADNESS is a VERY good book) as an alternative to an evening movie, when in the bathtub and when driving long distance. And, I can say from experience that it’s THE perfect San Fran to ...

WE in the USA often think of Christmas as “the holidays,” when, I suspect, more people in the world celebrate the New Year holiday. I looked this up on the internet and while I found one site that stated “2 billion” people throughout the world celebrated Christmas, I wasn’t able to find any similar estimate for New Year, so my suspicion remains speculation unless someone reading this has the answer. Sadly, not every question is answerable on the internet, not to mention whether any ...

EVER get the feeling that something dark is happening underneath all that holiday joy? If so, you’re more connected than most, in my opinion. I’ve been touting over and over during the past year and a half that the Great Pandemic is a much needed “shot across the bow” of contemporary societies, with special emphasis on transactions, namely the absolute need to change from “crowd sales” to “individual service” approaches. The “fuel” that’s feeding COVID today is as much, ...

DELIGHTFUL to fly! To soar in luxury above the clouds! To climb aboard and then exit in another part of the world! Gone are those days and what’s more, there’s no likelihood that airlines will ever “get it” and restore the level of excellence we used to know and expect, except for taking money quickly and efficiently, and creating new ways of not giving it back where deserved without a fight. Sorry to say this, but if there was ever an industry hopelessly wedded to “crowd sales” i...

FUN going GROCERY SHOPPING! I used to look forward to a quick in and quick out after work with several bags of fresh, tasty groceries for $25 a bag. Yep. Usta.

Went shopping at 6:45 AM this morning to avoid the crowd and maintain social distancing while wearing my obligatory mask. Tried to walk the isles for exercise (grocery walking) but had to do all the shopping in 15 minutes or less, only to wait in long lines for the only one or two cashiers up and awake at this time of the day. They ca...

THE world having survive two global wars between fascist dictatorships and democracies appears to not have been enough for the losers, rising again from the ashes, this time China, North Korea, Russia, Iran and allies are ready and willing to bet the lives of their people on another attempt at conquering the world. Sigh. Isn’t there enough misery in the world without another war? Or is this simply an ill-fated effect of overpopulation, fueled by individual fear, greed and hatred?

I posted ...

IF there’s one thing that’s totally unscientific, it’s human behavior. Especially “leadership” behavior. I’ve seen and experienced it first hand “on the set” (see https://www.netflix.com/title/80990849 and you’ll wonder how ANY movie of value could have been made) and watched in awe and horror during the thirteen days of the Cuban Missile Crisis (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-yfIoHXOO9E). So, what’s new with President Putin and the manufactured Ukraine Crises. Nothing. ...

YEAH, well, I wasn't thinking THIS world at all when I wrote TOTAL MELTDOWN (Borgo/Wildside 2009) with William Maltese, or QUANTUM DEATH (Savant 2016) with A. G. Hayes, and certainly not when I wrote the Amazon genre bestseller THE EDGE OF MADNESS (Aignos 2020). Hey, that’s me. I’m author Raymond Gaynor aka author and actor Daniel S. Janik. And I wasn’t apparently thinking at all when I posted the "Raymond Gaynor THE EDGE OF MADNESS Book Giveaway Contest" with a first edition, author-si...

IT can’t be only me. I mean, how is it that “everything’s returning to normal,” when countries are still closing, citizens are protesting (more vociferously that ever) and half of people still social distance and wear masks (despite the “other half”) due supposedly to COVID? Being a pragmatic scientist type, I rather think everything’s NOT returning to the “old” normal, or, if this is normal than the life I lived pre-COVID must be a fiction. I’m not complaining; just tired...

ONE thing about advertising: It shoots straight to the target center. It’s also, I’ve learned, the telltale sign of something untrue. “A book you MUST read!” Really? “What everyone’s saying!” Huh? “You gotta have one!” For sure? “The best of the best!” Awe, come on! Having made my claim for the edgewise and oblique, the Amazon genre bestseller, THE EDGE OF MADNESS (Aignos 2020) by Raymond Gaynor, is a book you MUST read. Everyone’s saying it’s the best of the best an...

NOW that’s GOT to have caught your interest! In our world of increasing AI presence, is it artificial or alien or both?

Let’s start with artificial, meaning perhaps autonomous more than non-human, since currently humans write the basic code that’s used in artificial intelligence operations. Autonomous, meaning perhaps that once awakened it doesn’t need a lot of continued human input other than to reboot or fix erroneous code.

Now let’s tackle alien, meaning here not necessarily fr...

AS a consequence of COVID-19, my principal publisher, Savant Books and Publications, has moved all former face-to-face bookstore activities including book, CD, DVD and merchandise purchases strictly ONLINE and created four regional bookstores to get your purchases to you faster.

https://www.savantbookstoreatlantic.com

https://www.savantbookstoremidwest.com

https://www.savantbookstorepacific.com

https://www.savantbookstorehonolulu.com

All of the above will bring you directly to our secure...

MOST established American’s are, have or at least well know one. They’re the “success” stories of the United States of America where most everyone gets an opportunity to better their life. To some that means wealth. To others, power. To yet others — the folks I most identify with — the opportunity of living the life for which so many these days are dying.

As a successful author with the usual train of published books and awards, while working on my own next novel, in this case, �...

OR are we? Everyday now I hear, “The pandemic is over!” from another excited individual. Really? With the N. Y. Times reporting 98,00+ new cases and 1,216 reported COVID-related deaths in the USA yesterday, I can’t quite “grok” that the pandemic is over, hooray (https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/us/covid-cases.html). And with the World Health Organization reporting 527,295 new cases and close to 8,000 reported COVID-related deaths in the world yesterday, I’m not even sold o...

YEAH, well, you remember Schroedinger’s Cat? A cat is trapped in a box with a tiny bit of radioactive substance. When the radioactive substance decays past a certain point, causes a poison to be released that kills the cat. At any one moment in time, the cat may be alive or dead. So, is it alive or dead? Well, I figure it’s the same with the AI in my computers (especially the one inhabiting my smart phone). At any point in time a random error may occur within the AI’s programming, rende...

ALMOST everyone has approached water — in a well, around a fountain, under a bridge, in a brook or stream — and made a wish. But today, I want to muse about not the wishing well, but simply wishing well. Doing it right. Yesterday I posted about needs, wants, hopes and desires. Now it’s time to talk about how to wish well.

I don’t say this lightly. Not because of magic or compelling people to make a wish come true, but because, in the most basic sense, making a wish is all about direc...

“IF wishes were horses, then beggars would ride” is a popular saying, so, given that billions of people make wishes every day, why aren’t there more horseback riders? And don’t just say, there’s a shortage of horses. According to that fount of information, Wikipedia, “a wish is a hope or desire for something. In fiction, wishes can be used as plot devices…In fiction a wish is a supernatural demand placed on the recipient’s unlimited request [list]. When it is the center of a t...

JUST as COVID-19 set in, I had the good fortune to visit a nearby orchid farm and bring home six different orchids to care for and cultivate. I’m pleased to announce that, now more than a year and a half later, my orchid-friends remain health and supportive as they were throughout the worst (so far) of the pandemic. What’s more, they seemed to thrive in the quieter, less auto-exhausted air bathing them. Call me crazy if you like, but these plants seemed more than happy to experience five ...

HISTORY (“his” “story”) is a strange animal. First, it’s the victors who generally write it. Second, it’s almost always steeped in the hopes and expectations of the dominant culture. Third, it’s not scientific (i.e. not repeatable in the technical sense since it involves group activities based on contemporary norms). Fourth, it’s not academic, fiction and non-fiction often being published interchangeably (think of the “novel” here — typically an historically-based work w...

Día de los Muertos, according to National Geographic, celebrates the lives of the deceased with food, drink, parties, and activities the dead enjoyed in life. That includes, I assume, reading, yeah? I sincerely hope so. And if so, I hope the readings of the not-so-dead include my Amazon genre bestseller, THE EDGE OF MADNESS (Aignos 2020) by Raymond Gaynor. Living and dead, according to Día de los Muertos, both look to the future, which is where THE EDGE OF MADNESS is solidly rooted. But not...

YES! AN OUTSTANDING, REALLY FREE, PRINTED HOLD-IT-IN-YOUR-HAND, AUTHOR-SIGNED BOOK!

The author Raymond Gaynor THE EDGE OF MADNESS (Aignos 2020) — https://www.amazon.com/dp/0999693859 — Book Giveaway Contest is ON with SIX Grand Prizes: a signed copy of my book to the first, eleventh, twenty-first, thirty-first, forty-first, fifty-first and so forth person who sends an email (one per email address) to me at gaynor.raymond2@gmail.com with the subject line “I want a copy of THE EDGE OF MA...

OR, according to Google and Wikipedia (and what more authoritative sources are there these days than these two) Halloween, Hallowe’en, Allhalloween, All Hallows’ Eve, or All Saints’ Eve, a celebration on 31 October, the eve of the Western Christian feast of All Hallows’ (Saints’) Day, which we celebrate with costumes, pumpkins and candy. But it’s also celebrated by some with bonfires, guising or mumming, divination and feasting as Samhain, a Gaelic festival marking the end of the ...

The author Raymond Gaynor THE EDGE OF MADNESS (Aignos 2020) — https://www.amazon.com/dp/0999693859 — Book Giveaway Contest is ON with Six Grand Prizes: a signed copy of my book to the eleventh, twenty-first, thirty-first, forty-first, fifty-first and every hundred-and-first person who sends an email (one per email address) to me at gaynor.raymond2@gmail.com with the subject line “I want a copy of THE EDGE OF MADNESS.” NOTE: You must have a USA ship-to address (which I’ll ask for onl...

OH, YES! If you’ve ever imagined coming across a goose that lays golden eggs, you’ve come to the right place! I’m reving up for the holiday season! The author Raymond Gaynor THE EDGE OF MADNESS (Aignos 2020) — https://www.amazon.com/dp/0999693859 — Book Giveaway Contest is ON with SIX Grand Prizes: a signed copy of my book to the eleventh, twenty-first, thirty-first, forty-first, fifty-first and every hundred-and-first person who sends an email (one per email address) to me at gayno...

OF all the “promises” of future advances and advantages to commercial spaceflight, one stands out in my mind at point in its development: Filming in space. Call me a liberal, progressive, democratic, science-futurist with a”bleeding heart” for humanity, but I believe the single most significant effect of the commercialization of space was well demonstrated by the recent Russian film crew space flight (https://nypost.com/2021/10/17/russian-team-back-on-earth-after-filming-movie-in-spac...

OH, YES! I’m reving up for the holiday season! The author Raymond Gaynor THE EDGE OF MADNESS (Aignos 2020) — https://www.amazon.com/dp/0999693859 — Book Giveaway Contest is ON with now SIX Grand Prizes: a signed copy of my book to the eleventh, twenty-first, thirty-first, forty-first, fifty-first and every hundred-and-first person who sends an email (only one per email address) to me at gaynor.raymond2@gmail.com with the subject line “I want a copy of THE EDGE OF MADNESS.” NOTE: You...

AFTER diving deep, the Yellow Submarine surfaces and the hatch pops open to reveal, a land of diverse flowers and colors, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Book Club Land! And just when everything looks ship shape, what shows up but the Digital Blue Meanies, a literary figment of the imagination, buffoonish leaders of printed-book-hating creatures that lead an army of green-apple wielding bonkers, shooting clowns, snapping turks, anti-book missiles and, of course, the ever-dreadful flying glove, ...

OR should that read “Common Cents?” Certainly in today’s world money and power always “Trump” sense. But what I’m cogitating on is the first word, “common.” To me, common implies commonality, something we share with each other as humans, with animals as fellow animals, plants as, well, living things just living a bit slower, sometimes longer but certainly different from ourselves. I don’t think there’s much “common” sense left these days, replaced instead by “uncommo...

TODAY’S post is all about the Amazon genre Bestseller, THE EDGE OF MADNESS (Aignos 2020) by Raymond Gaynor in printed, digital AND audiobook format — https://www.amazon.com/dp/0999693859. You see, I’m giving away FIVE Grand Prizes: a signed copy to the twenty-first, thirty-first, forty-first, fifty-first and hundred-and-first persons who send me an email (only one entry to an email address, please; multiple entries to same address will be completely discarded) at gaynor.raymond2@gmail.c...

FOOD (and cooking) is something everyone, including me, can appreciate. Where do I go for the latest and best food and cooking suggestions? Three places: (1) my 1950’s Betty Crocker Cookbook (yes, I still have my mother’s original); (2) The Moosewood Cookbook (a “must” if you’re an interested, partial or wholly vegetarian); and (3) The Nine Books of William Maltese’s “The Traveling Gourmand.” Yep, that last one is a standard reference by Mr. Erotica himself, soon to be a film ...

THIS one’s a no brainer: “Prophecy,” the sequel to the Amazon genre bestseller, THE EDGE OF MADNESS (Aignos 2020) by Raymond Gaynor, and it’s edgy, naughty prequel, TOTAL MELTDOWN (Borgo/Wildside 2009) by Raymond Gaynor and William Maltese. Currently “in writing” and over 2/3 finished, “Prophecy” promises to deliver a story that will knock your socks off and unite all three books into one epic.

Hey, did you know that William Maltese, my personal friend and authoring colleague...

I just wrote in answer to a Goodread’s question, “What mystery in your own life could be a plot for a book?” that “All my life, I seem to have had the unique ability to look 25 years or so into the future in direct contradistinction to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes point to his dear friend Dr. Watson, “You see, but do not observe.” When I look into the future, I am rewarded with a clarity of observation, the result being my personal penchant for science futuring rathe...

AN admittedly poor paraphrasing of the delightfully clever “Is that a gun in your pocket or are you happy to see me?” allegedly spoken by the incomparable Mae West. If you don’t have a printed copy rolled up in your pocket, then won’t you consider a digital or audio book copy? NOTE: The Audible audiobook is read by the equally incomparable Peter Pollock!

https://www.amazon.com/dp/0999693859

Purchased for manga, animation and cinematic treatment by K. Simmons Productions

#RaymondGay...

RECOVERY is a nice, contemporary catch word, and I’m hearing it more and more these days in every aspect of life. But I fear that the word, re-covery, is being used in its meaning to re-cover [up] what hasn’t yet been fully addressed. Let me explain.

The Great Pandemic, in my opinion, was a shot across our bow, warning us that our current infrastructure system is already way beyond simple update and repair. In the broadest sense, we’ve been called to relook at and largely abandon our o...

WITH “The STATIC Movie” premieres past, I’ve finally time to revert back to authoring. Trying to write while actively involved in filming is like trying to wash and wax a car in the fury of a hurricane. It’s nice to once again have “time” at my fingertips, and “Prophecy,” the prospective third book following TOTAL MELTDOWN (Borgo/Wildside 2009) by Raymond Gaynor and William Maltese, and THE EDGE OF MADNESS (Aignos 2020) by Raymond Gaynor is back in full swing.

And, don’t fo...

I’M often asked how I as an author (Daniel S. Janik aka Raymond Gaynor/Gary Martine) and publisher (Savant Books and Publications at https://www.savantbooksandpublications.com) how I come up with titles for books, and if the title is really that important. My opin: It’s second only to a book’s cover image. Think of the cover image as a “first look” at someone you’ve never met before, and the title as that person’s name. First, it has to be memorable. Second, it has to be just un...

IN a recent Science News article by Tina Saey entitled “Most human DNA is not unique to us,” I read that “only 1.5 percent to 7 percent of the collective human genetic instruction book, or genome, contains uniquely human DNA.” Eh? So, in spite of my artistic-humanism sense of being wholly human, I’m actually only less than 10% human? Maybe 20% animal? Or 20% plant (I don’t look green though I do enjoy the sun). Or, as touted in a 10 April 2018 BBC article by James Gallagher entitl...

AND I’m not talking golf here. I’m talking “fore” like in foreknowledge, forewarning, unforeseen, foreboding and, well, why not, foreplay, too. Science Futuring (SciFu) with a generous portion of romance, love, eroticism, and a dash of LGBTQ+ — the perfect combination for a late summer read. THE EDGE OF MADNESS (Aignos 2020) by Raymond Gaynor, an Amazon genre bestseller, is now available in printed, digital and audio format, the latter read by the incomparable Peter Pollock.

Get a ...

THE “beast” plays a prominent roll in much of humanity’s literature, religious tomes, contemporary conspiracy theories and social media. Oxford Languages (defines “beast” as (1) an animal, especially a large or dangerous four-footed one; and/or (2)a domestic animal, especially a bovine farm animal.

In the Christian book of Revelation, two beasts are described: The first comes “out of the sea” and is given authority and power by “the dragon” (alt. Satan, the Devil, Lucifer);...

THAT’S right. It’s Sunday and subtlety is what it’s all about. Looking at the City from my apartment, everything looks, well, abnormally normal. Not much traffic. Brilliant day. Not too hot, not too cold. Sun rays peeking through scattered clouds, highlighting the colors of various buildings, as if each highlighted building had a special story to tell. But I’m calling it a subtle Sunday for a reason.

Climate change. Trash in the deepest points of the oceans. Covid-19-delta/lambda/etc...

WHAT the heck is happening to book readership? More importantly, what the heck is happening to publishing? Is it the Great Fight of the Big Guys (in this case Barnes and Noble, Ingram and Amazon)? COVID-delta? Nationalism? Global Economic Restructuring? Or perhaps printers are finally running out of virgin trees to make paper and not recycling? Is it Universal Greed and resulting Uncontrolled Inflation? Is it that no one wants to work anymore? Is it global mass migration? Is it that propagand...

I’M often asked where I frequent when not actively acting or authoring. The answer, at least in my mind, is Gertrude Stein’s 1920 Paris Salon at 27 rue de Fleurus. It might be more accurate to say where Gertrude “held court” especially on Saturday nights. If ever there was a setting in this world emotionally akin to that in the Amazon genre bestseller, THE EDGE OF MADNESS (Aignos 2020) by Raymond Gaynor, it would have to be there. With drop-ins like Pablo Picasso, Ernest Hemingway, F....

HERE it is mid-August 2021, and instead of slowly exiting the COVID pandemic, we’re falling quickly back into it, albeit, COVID-delta. I’ve noted over my years, that most things “natural” (e.g. liking coffee, or gender preference) seem to follow a bell-shaped “Gaussian” curve with “extremes” accounting for 10% (5% at each end). Not so with people’s thoughts about COVID, especially folks who currently decline vaccination, refuse masks and/or are residual Trump-won-the-electio...

TO follow or lead – that is the question. The publishing world is in such change these days, that much of what we authors used to be able to depend on regarding publicity and marketing is now “out the window” and there’s nothing I’ve seen as yet to replace it. The only solid baseline is and continues to be direct guerrilla publicity and marketing from the author, and, with the rapidly increasing numbers of authors, even it’s impact is slowly being diluted out. I recently finished ...

OKAY, so you’re reading this because you’re an author (hopefully, or an avid reader at least) wondering about what it all means. The “short of it” is about the myriad frustrations with publishing. Publishing wasn’t doing exactly well when bookstores started disappearing (remember Borders, Crown, Waldenbooks, may the rest in peace?), the last behemoth bookstore chain Barnes and Noble was bought out by UK hedge fund Elliot Advisors, distributors, well, began having trouble distributin...

EH? What’s falling, you ask? Well, not the sky: It’s the price of a copy of the multi-award-winning, Five-Star Rated, Amazon genre bestseller, THE EDGE OF MADNESS (Aignos 2020) by Raymond Gaynor!

Printed version: Suggested Retail Price $16.95, now — $12.95 — through August at https://www.amazon.com/dp/0999693859

Kindle eBook version: Suggested Retail Price $7.95, now — $2.99 — through August at https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08B1663ZZ

Audible audiobook version: Now — FREE — thr...

I’VE always loved that phrase, and am oh-so-pleased to devote today’s post to what I consider one of the most precious attributes of humanness. There’s no one key word here. It’s about affirmation, positivity and loving kindness, without any hidden or further agendas. Okay, so it might be flattery, but who doesn’t like a bit of flattery now and then? Having survived life to this point, don’t each of us deserve a bit of flattery to warm the heart and melt away those myriad demands ...

IT’S my personal pleasure to announce that THE EDGE OF MADNESS (Aignos 2020) by Raymond Gaynor is not only an Amazon Genre BESTSELLER, but recently received award recognition at the San Francisco and New York Book Festivals! By way of celebrating, I’ve asked the publisher to drop the price of the printed version from $16.95 to $12.95, and the Kindle eBook version from $7.95 to $2.99 for the rest of July and August (https://www.amazon.com/dp/0999693859)! Celebrate with me throughout August...

WHAT really drives the global economy? Money? Power? Energy? Nope. It used to be whale products: oil, baleen, and ambergris. Then it was rubber. So what are today’s felled Amazon trees being replaced with? What’s really driving the contemporary world economy other than drugs, war and human trafficking? Palm oil.

According to Wikipedia, “Palm oil is an edible vegetable oil derived from the…fruit of the oil palms…Palm oil accounted for about 33% of global oils produced from oil crops...

I’M often asked in author interviews what I think makes today’s literature “contemporary.” Has it changed over the decades I’ve been authoring? The simple answer is, “Yes, it’s changed and especially so these last couple years.” There is, however, one thing that hasn’t changed: the need to appropriately address and express violence and sex, two intrinsically human issues, if not obsessions. There is so much trauma, or put in a more general way, violation, or, if you prefer, ...

AH, perhaps you’re already wrestling with this title as a metaphor for writing or authorship? Nope. I am an author, but I mean the question quite literally. It’s a contemporary question up there with how come so many drivers ignore the speed limit on freeways, and how come things AI-digital increasingly seem to take more time and effort than human face-to-face? But I digress…

You must admit (if COVID hasn’t damaged your olfactory system) that many foods, but especially fruits, today ...

HUMANS are social animals. We thrive on physical contact and savor intimacy. It’s what makes the human world go ’round, and books as well as movies play a big part in satisfying our human need for intimacy. Books have to totally engage the reader’s mind to be “successful,” acting like a basket within which readers place their own experiences that fit into the literary basket’s unique shape. It’s up to the reader which “monkey see, monkey do” neurons are activated. It’s a d...

YEP! Going bananas over the different kinds available in Hawaii right now. Alright, you already know about the long, chalky-tasting Cavendish available in most grocery stores. But in Hawaii, right now, there’s plantains, baby-finger bananas, apple-bananas, ice cream bananas and more. My favorite (I’ve tried them all): those short, stocky but oh-so-sweet apple-bananas grown right here in Hawaii! Where to get them? In some “local” grocery stores, but the best tasting are ones purchased ...

AS you know, I’m a San Fran man; however, over the years I’ve become enamored with a second literary home: Honolulu, Hawaii, USA. Both Southern Temperate Mediterranean in climate; both Asian-American in flavor, though Hawaii has that unique Polynesian element as well. Both are ideal for a reclusive author, providing just the right mix of the international with local that favors, at least for me, comfortable, quiet time necessary for writing.

One item of interest in both SF and Honolulu, ...

AS a professional author, I must admit that I look forward to those end-of-the-year royalties many of my publishers pay. However, this year — the second year of the Global COVID Plague — based on quarterly sales reports I’m seeing, I’m anticipating a number of those “your royalty for this year was less than $50 so we won’t issue a check” notices. Okay, so sales of THE EDGE OF MADNESS (Aignos, 2020) by Raymond Gaynor (https://www.amazon.com/dp/0999693859), especially audiobook sa...

WONDERING about the first word, “editing,” instead of “tripping?” Well, yes, I am an amateur ballroom and latin DanceSport competitor, but with dance competitions and dancing in general most on hold till COVID runs it’s course, I’ve been working hard with Savant author Vern Turner (https://www.amazon.com/Vernon-Turner/e/B089Y14KZY) to edit his recently accepted manuscript entitled THE IMMIGRANT’S GRANDSON. Personally, I can’t think of a better way to keep up my own authoring s...

RELEVANCY, the “state of being closely connected or appropriate” is a…well…double four-letter-plus-one word, especially in today’s Trumped up style of global dis-integration. And yet, relevancy is what life’s all about, isn’t it? It’s what makes a good book or a good movie truly outstanding. Not surprisingly, in today’s world, it’s often about running against the pack.

Take the Amazon genre bestseller, THE EDGE OF MADNESS (Aignos 2020) by Raymond Gaynor (https://www.amazo...

AFTER the last post, I thought it time to update those following The STATIC Movie (https://kspllc.media/the-static-movie) on 10 July 2021’s outdoor on-location shoot in Chinatown, Honolulu, Hawaii, USA. Here’s the unofficial set photographer’s photographic/video montage:

https://youtu.be/mSe79VkNe6M

This was our “trick” shoot, focusing on one scene with two special incidents: a skateboarder “hit” causing me to drop my cane, and my losing my hat when I bend down to pick it up. ...

IN these days of repetitious mass shootings, lackluster gun control and unbridled impulsiveness, I find it consoling that the cast and crew of The STATIC Movie Honolulu are about to experience another planned weekend shoot, this time on location in the streets of Chinatown. It’s the third of basically five location filming, the final two being outdoors with me, Will Gardner, pounding on what I think is the door to my house but is actually a neighbor’s (think Alzheimer’s Disease), and a ...

I don’t know if you have those once-in-a-while angst days like I am having today. It’s not so much a “bad” day as it is that everything seems to have a hidden meaning, and they keep popping up everywhere. A teeshirt phrase, a sign on the side of a passing bus, the here-to-fore “new” meaning hidden in the title of an old book. But it’s not really about all those potential “ah-ha” moments and whether I’m willing and ready to “see” them. It’s not really about my angst. ...

AS the author of THE EDGE OF MADNESS (Aignos 2020) by Raymond Gaynor — TEOM — I’m often asked what PRIMARY genre this Amazon Genre BESTSELLER should best be listed as. What should be an easy question is, if not complex, at least deserving of a post. I list it on social media as a work of Sci-Fu (Science-based Futuring) rather than Sci-Fi (science fiction) or Sci-Fan (science fantasy). TEOM is based on current technologies and social concepts which are simply projected into the future. S...

THERE’S really only two issues at the heart of human existence: plants and, I’m guessing you already guessed it, water. Without these humans can not exist. The heck with petroleum, nuclear energy, money and power. The first two represent limitations of contemporary knowledge, the latter two, human illusions. But plants, which regenerate air, potable water and provide basic food for all things animal, and their principal product, namely, organically enhanced potable water, are and will rem...

RUSH to your nearest bookshelf dictionary, or if you prefer, online one, but you’ll still have to guess a bit to ascertain what today’s post is about. HINT: It’s about how global citizens sometimes feel in today’s dis-integrated world. Think insignificant and another cog in a massive, complex, karmic wheel, as if there is nothing an individual can do anymore that, as Rick says in the classic movie Casablanca, “amounts to a hill of beans.”

But differences come in many sizes and fl...

TIMES have changed. It’s no longer a sheep or a Daniel thrown into the world of finance’s lion’s den of yesteryear. It’s a bear these days, though in two opposite meanings. First, a bear willing to slice, thrash and carve out it’s own piece of the financial lion’s den, but second, a transitory bear in the sense of a bear rather than a bull market. It’s commando-style business that makes the millionaires these days. And that seems to be increasingly true of authoring and publishi...

IT started with “fake-news,” then progressed to “fake-products” and has now evolved into “fake service.” You know what I mean. Make a customer service call and experience the “fake” firsthand: difficulties finding a phone number to talk with a “real” person, especially of one’s primary language; complex, irrational auto-phone-trees that only another A.I. (artificial intelligence or 10 year old can understand); the one-hour “valued customer” waits; the customer servic...

YESTERDAY about noon I was driving on the H1 freeway in Hawaii to the North Shore for some much needed R&R. The speed limit where the freeway passes through Honolulu is 45 miles per hour. The lanes are small, the cars are big and H1 being the major East-West artery, totally crowded. What was freaky was that I was the only one going the speed limit. Not the minimum or recommended, but the speed LIMIT. My estimate was that everyone around me was going at least 55, with some easily entering the ...

EVERY author has to, at some time, master writing about violence and sex, two archetypal experiences intrinsic to and representative of human life at any age and time. By this I truly mean “writing about” rather than writing explicit gratuitous violence or sex. It’s the difference between the emotional experience of a soldier being wounded, and a detailed account of every gory detail as the bullet rips through his or her body. The same with sex.

I can vividly recall an email from my fi...

I’M not infrequently asked what makes one a “professional” author, dancer or, more recently actor/actress. Actually, the answer is quite easy, but it has several different yet intertwined aspects:

First, there’s the business of whatever it is one is doing. A professional is someone who accepts money or other financial remuneration for what they’re doing. It’s not about how much. It can be $0.01 or the equivalent in barter or trade. The moment one accepts money or other remunerati...

HAVE you noticed the suddenly never ending number of sites that “require” or at best state that if you go on, you will be auto-cookified? It’s, of course, a “choice,” but one that is carefully constructed to NOT be a choice by clever cookie monsters all over the world. Or, hey, let's call them what they really are: stalkers! 

In my newly released, Amazon-genre bestseller, THE EDGE OF MADNESS (Aignos 2020) by Raymond Gaynor, a sci-fu (plausible, science-based future study), there ar...

Okay, for those of you following me as Will Gardner in the upcoming K. Simmons Productions’ “The STATIC Movie” here are a few unofficial photo/video montages (shared with K. Simmons Productions’ permission):

16 May 2021 Rehearsal on Set

https://youtu.be/0QLLDy6LYDo

16 May 2021 Interviewing Lead Actor "Will" (Daniel S. Janik) on Set

https://youtu.be/u2GT4nvkEmo

31 May 2021 First On-Location Filming at Murphy's Bar and Grill

https://youtu.be/xUsfXZuy3Jw

4 June 2021 First Reading of ...

AND I don’t mean the football type. I’m an author. It’s in my blood. I’ve had over 60 fiction and non-fiction articles and books published and enjoyed winning the usual accolades, positive reviews, contests and festivals. This year, I was offered the opportunity of trying something different but, I was to find, deeply touching on authoring: the lead role of “Will Gardner” in The STATIC Movie by K. Simmons Productions – https://kspllc.media/the-static-movie. Co-written by my frie...

AND I don’t mean those growing consumer lines at stores for food or goods, or the long waits on the phone for customer service. I mean those lines and lines and lines of character “Will” dialog in the movie script for The STATIC Movie – https://kspllc.media -the next filming being set of for this coming Sunday at the multi-million dollar house location. I love acting as much as I do authoring (maybe a bit more when I get to do the dance choreography and get to perform it like in The S...

IT’S been a couple days since I mentioned acting as well as authoring, so here goes: I’m playing “Will” in The STATIC Movie (https://kspllc.media/the-static-movie), where we’re currently working at the second on location site, a multi-million dollar house in the foothills of the Hawaiian Koolau mountains, the first on location site filming having been completed. At this new location, I have a heart attack, dance cheek-to-cheek with my long departed wife and it all happens in Will’...

ACTUALLY, I’ve had this feeling for quite a long time now, since well before the Great Pandemic (though admittedly that certainly added substantially to the feeling). As an author, I’ve been presented with increasing numbers of opportunities to provide content to businesses at either no payment, or worse, increasing personal cost. Huh? This certainly isn’t Kansas anymore! So who’s getting paid for my increasingly voluntary literary “donations?” I can personally attest to the fact ...

HAVING been gone for some on location shooting, I’m pleased to be back, returning to a mountainous authoring, dancing, acting and photography backlog. Whew!

First, I’m pleased to see that my newest work, THE EDGE OF MADNESS (Aignos 2020) by Raymond Gaynor has just come out in audiobook format – https://www.amazon.com/dp/B096H5QMHP – and that it remains an Amazon Genre Bestseller!!! If you’re an audiobook reader, you’re in luck, as it’s read superbly by the consummate voice acto...

So Sunday, this author became an actor as well an author, having been shot 100 times on-location in the filming of the K. Simmons Productions' (https://kspllc.media) The STATIC Movie. Went splendidly, though my voice was tired and I was very thirsty that night. With 5 shots left to go at this location, we’ll be back on location this coming Sunday  6 June 2021 to shoot the last scenes, mostly technically difficult ones, like me tossing back a shot of whiskey recorded from above!

Interested?...

TODAY is the famous “day of rest” before cast and crew of the STATIC movie (https://kspllc.media/the-static-movie) appear on set to film the “bar” scene. While the crew is frantically gathering all the necessary materials, cameras, sound booms, lights, I’m relaxing at the famous Northshore of Oahu island. No whales. They’ve gone north for the summer to feed and party. Just warm sun, cool, frangipani-scented trade winds and magnificent mother ocean gently stroking the course of the...

I have a theory: Be it romance, love, gender, adventure, drama, science fiction, erotica or sex, t’s been wrapped up in literature and movies for a long time now in the form of gratuitous violence. Darkness, especially in the form of gratuitous violence or overall pessimism in science fiction, isn’t “necessary.” Cities, if they will exist in the future, don’t necessarily have to be foreboding, constantly raining and filled with violent characters. Depending on detailed gratuitous vi...

YOU guessed it: not viewed. Despite all my raving in yesterday’s post about this event, last night we had a “round table” full-cast reading of the “Static” movie script and I was so tired afterwards I slept right through the alarm. Go figure! On the other hand, the full-cast reading brought several to tears while others openly shared “goosebump” moments, meaning, in my mind, this drama will exceed even the most stringent viewer expectations. I also hear that the round table was ...

ONE thing authoring THE EDGE OF MADNESS (Aignos 2020) by Raymond Gaynor (https://www.amazon.com/dp/0999693859) has taught me is a new respect for astronomy, a hobby I’ve always been interested in, ignited further by the recent acquisition of a Skywatcher Maksutov-Cassegrain telescope. There aren’t many nights in the Bay Area perfect for viewing planets, but tomorrow is a sure winner, with Venus exceptionally bright and a full moon eclipsed. Didn’t know about it? In any field of interest...

IN the immediate aftermath of the TOTAL MELTDOWN (Borgo/Wildside 2009) by Raymond Gaynor and William Maltese (https://www.amazon.com/dp/1434403556), something happened. The dis-integrating world proved a playground for “Fast Eddies” and con artists. But who, I ask, let them out? Who let the “dogs” out?

A dis-integrating world means that things, especially integrated technological products; businesses that require other business partners to create, distribute and market a product; and...

I’VE been wondering lately what is it that makes morality so important, perhaps even essential, to humans, but not as far as we know, to other animals? It’s always been my opinion that morality is a sort of mental barbed-wire fence to keep what I consider the eighth deadly sin, hubris, in check, though hubris is commonly regarded as synonymous the first deadly sin, pride. Personally and as an author, I make a distinction between the two, pride being about about unnatural self-aggrandizeme...

I’VE often heard that the storyline, narration, dialog and outstanding editing are what make a successful book. Of course, I have to agree. Makes total sense. And yet…there’s something, almost intangible, that elevates a well-authored and edited story to something, well, more. It’s the difference between a great performance and one that elicits goose bumps. It’s having just the right “edge.” Something more. One of my publishers, Savant Books and Publications | Aignos Publishing,...

AS a registered performance and competitive dancer, every day I practice “tripping the light fantastic” to improve and enjoy my skills and keep in shape. It was my “crutch” throughout the 2020 plague year when my living room had to serve as my studio; it was something I could look forward to when, pre-vaccination, all the dance venues closed and even just going for a walk with a mask while carefully distancing from others outside was verboten.

These days, in addition to authoring and...

WITH all the recurring reports of excessive police violence in the news, I find myself wondering what can possibly be done about it. Awareness of its existence and effects of violence on both the victim and the public are, of course, a first step, given that not all victims are purely innocent, and all police officers aren’t willing perpetrators of violence. But awareness isn’t enough, especially in the field, in the heat of a life-threatening situation quite possibly requiring lethal for...

BEING a “mostly” vegetarian by choice and not obligation, I’ve always been one to favor fruit, something I’ve never regretted, being also a hedonist, epicurean and succulent fruit lover. However, every year for the past ten or so, the fruit in the grocery stores has continued to improve visually indirectly proportional to smell and taste as well as ripeness and sugar content. Today I bought a package of apricots, one of my personal, seasonal favorites. Grown in the good ol’ USA, und...

THERE is an interesting conundrum, a fluke of human nature, that is challenging humanity’s shared perception of reality, whether it be the cosmos, physics, science, the humanities, the human story, romance, love, gender or amorous eroticism: It isn’t so much that seeing is believing, but that we see what we believe, want or can see through our cultural blinders. That “seeing is believing” has already been highjacked, this time by politics, in that after spreading an opinion as factual...

CORRESPONDING today with my dear friend and colleague, the multi-talented, multi-award-winning author, William Maltese, the question arose: Which is better? To think or to do? It all stems from discussing with him my having been asked to audition for a role in an upcoming made-for-television movie, “Static,” written fellow author and screenwriter Richard Rose and purchased for cinematic treatment by K. Simmons Productions (kspllc.media).

You know, “To be, or not to be? That is the ques...

I’M not jokingly referring here to political refugees or “resident aliens” with “green cards.” I’m talking about, yes, real aliens from other worlds. Pretty much everyone sci-fi has read or seen author and filmmaker Michael Crichton’s “The Andromeda Strain” in which a not-from-this-world microbe hitches a ride on a military satellite returning to Earth to wreak havoc on the human race.

Interesting, in light of a 24 November 2000 CNN article by Richard Stenger entitled, “S...

REFLECTING on my authoring career in during a recent interview, I was once again impressed with the chasm that exists between writing and authoring, one that took me thirty plus years to successfully bridge. And I wasn’t undecided; I knew I wanted to be an author from the start, having written my first novella at sixteen years of age. I sent my 100+ page (25,000+ word) sci-fi manuscript entitled “The Parabolic Curve” to seventy-five publishing houses. It never went to publication, thoug...

SEVERAL decades ago, when I began my authoring career, it was rare to meet another author. Published authors were celebrities in their own right, standing shoulder-to-shoulder with television and movie celebrities, sometimes shining even brighter than their actor/actress colleagues. And I say colleagues, because at the heart of television and movie production is screenwriting, which I still hold is a form of authoring.

With the appearance of self-publishing and the aging and decrease in read...

OKAY, so this may sound a but surprising, given the title of today’s post, but “I’m Raymond Gaynor and I’m a plant lover” (if you haven’t already guess that). I live in a high-rise condo and have a small two-foot wide outdoor porch upon which I exercise my secret love, openly, yes, in public. Right now I have three pots of Japanese cucumbers, one of Charentais Cantaloupe, one of Japanese onions, one of hybrid bush tomatoes and one of tiny, mildly spicy Oriental green peppers. One ...

LATELY, I have been delving into the dark sea of neurobiological “romance” that ebbs and tides so strongly about human relations, especially sex. In essence, romance is about assuring each other of conjugal safety, trust, fidelity and devotion while releasing the sexual tigers within. A quixotic, even paradoxical thing, romance. And it has to happen in the above sequence to be most effective and ultimately, satisfying, both in the short and long term.

The neurobiology of romance suggests...

RECOGNIZE the refrain from Disney’s version of Lewis Carroll’s ALICE IN WONDERLAND? Actually, in the novel, the White Rabbit said, “Oh dear! Oh dear! I shall be too late!” which, I believe, should be the cry of contemporary America and the world.

My newly released Science Future novel, THE EDGE OF MADNESS (Aignos 2020) by Raymond Gaynor, is actually the sequel to the decidedly naughty gay novel, TOTAL MELTDOWN (Borgo/Wildside 2009) by Raymond Gaynor and William Maltese, in which the ...

IF that doen’t catch your attention, then I fear nothing will. But it’s not just a literary hook. I mean to address the issue of how to escape this universe into which we’re so solidly tied. Call it “spiritual gravity” if you like, but the basic premise is that you can’t leave this universe unless you die.

In my recently released SciFu (science-based future) novel, THE EDGE OF MADNESS (Aignos Publishing 2020) by Raymond Gaynor, and the sequel, tentatively entitled “Prophecy,”...

THERE are many opins regarding the origin of the lullaby but the one I find most personally intriguing (in an Edgar Allen Poe or Stephen King sort of way, and, yes, mentioned in that font of all true knowledge, Wikipedia) is that the word “lullaby” is a homophone of “Lilith-Abi” (Hebrew for “Lilith, begone”).

Okay, so who is Lilith? Again, consulting that same encyclopedia of truth, in The Book of Adam and Eve she is Adam’s first wife. Eh? Wasn’t that Eve?

Nope. But be aware...

IN a recent 30 April 2021 CNN opinion article by Chandran Nair entitled “The Covid disaster in India shows that the future is biological, not digital” that little artificial mole I mentioned in yesterday’s post abruptly reared it’s legs! Nair aptly places emphasis on the importance of preparing for COVID-20, -21, -22 and so on, rather than depending solely on technology to protect us. In my world, I took this as a call for fundamental infrastructure change. Be it government, ethics, f...

I’VE always been curious why many consider a little mole here or there particularly erotic. And it isn’t just a contemporary custom, though it’s consistent with the rash of tattoos people seem to be getting. I personally don’t find tattoos interesting or erotic, though they did, at first, clearly border on the exotic.

Facial moles seem to have been the rage in sixteenth century France, when discrete moles on the face, neck, shoulders, pectoral or other “hidden” areas were conside...

OKAY, you probably guessed that I’m an author, at least, I hope you did. There’s definitely more than twelve steps to authorship, and, with over sixty publications, I feel as though I’ve successfully trudged my way through every step so far.

Raymond Gaynor is the multi-award-winning thriller pen name of reclusive author-artist-photographer-videographer, Daniel S. Janik. Gaynor, in his own words, “lives and breathes” San Francisco. Under the pen name Raymond Gaynor, I’ve co-author...

ARTIFICIAL FOOD ANYONE?

SHADES of Soylent Green (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soylent_Green)! But I’m not here to post on a dystopian future where people eat their dead. Rather I’m concerned about the continuing intrusion of “artificial” substances into our foodstuffs. Okay, so a good chemist (which I am) would say that EVERYTHING’S “artificial” in that it is built of chemical atoms and molecules, whether created geologically or biologically. “Better Living Through Chemistry...

I thought you might like to know that my two Color-Me-Please children's books are now available as instant download, Amazon Audible audiobooks! 

A WHALE'S TALE (Savant 2009)

USA:  https://www.audible.com/pd/B00STOWDZ4/?source_code=AUDFPWS0223189MWT-BK-ACX0-029725&ref=acx_bty_BK_ACX0_029725_rh_us

UK: https://www.audible.co.uk/pd/B00STP8NPW/?source_code=AUKFrDlWS02231890H6-BK-ACX0-029725&ref=acx_bty_BK_ACX0_029725_rh_uk

THE TURTLE DANCES (Savant 2013)

USA: https://www.audible.com/pd/B00NVW4DKC/?sour...

MARCH MADNESS SALE

exclusively at Savant Bookstore Honolulu

www.savantbookstorehonolulu.com

50% off Suggested Retail Price (SRP) of select, in-house display books at our in-house bookstore throughout March 2018 while stocks last,

OR

25% off SRP on all other in-house and online softcover books throughout March 2018 using discount code MARCHMAD

AND

Up to 90% off Suggested Retail Price (SRP) for all our Amazon Kindle eBooks starting 5 March and ending 12 March 2018 via a Kindle Countdown Deal....

Multi-Award-winning author of

     THE TURTLE DANCES (Savant 2013)

          http://www.amazon.com//dp/0988664011

     A WHALE’S TALE (Sav...