tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-326811332024-03-07T06:00:20.450-08:00StorytellerWelcome to my campfire tales, my Circle of FireAmos Kepplerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09653402099981546288noreply@blogger.comBlogger11125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32681133.post-49864391129274911012010-02-17T14:35:00.000-08:002010-02-17T15:54:53.588-08:00The difficulties in describing a complex storyI completed my novel Alarums of Reality last night. Describing it in a few words or even a lot of words is even more difficult than with my other novels. I've made three attempts at writing a back cover text, all woefully incomplete, even combined. Notice how they're all describing different parts of the story?<br /><br />I'll probably go with the first though.<br /><br />Back cover text:<br /><br /><blockquote> The end is the beginning. The beginning is the end…<br /><br />The once so great Caine Manor has become a ruin, one only fit for carrion birds and revenants. No one but daring children and crazed souls dare breach its confines.<br /><br />The proud and shiny Caine Manor is an outstanding example of renovated architecture at the heart of the city.<br /><br />Looking at the building, the house, resembling a castle, hidden in a strange, illuminated mist, squinting your eyes, it’s often hard to tell what’s illusion and what’s real. Reality shifts and burns around the Caine Manor, either ruin or proud house, reaching out with strands of night and fire to the surrounding areas and to existence at large. It is the center, or at least one center, in an ever-shifting world.<br /><br />Is Chloe Webster dead or alive? Is Marion Dexter? Is Marlon Caine? Or David Fallon Somby? Are they perhaps both? Or neither? What is the world? Is it a brick, a hard, impenetrable wall or closer to something akin to mist and shadow? Existence might make sense, to us, to them, but only in glimpses, only in passing, beyond a corner somewhere ahead. They may wonder. They may die clueless. Because they don’t know, don’t know why terror strikes them and makes their heart beat like a sledgehammer in their chest.<br /><br />From a place unbound by time and space alarums of reality are reaching out to touch and ultimately engulf them all.<br /></blockquote><br /><br />Second back cover text:<br /><br /><blockquote> The end is the beginning. The beginning is the end…<br /><br />There is no rhyme, no reason.<br /><br />WHO KILLED CHLOE WEBSTER?<br /><br />WHO KILLED DAVID FALLON SOMBY?<br /><br />These are the questions everybody is asking these days, but no one can answer them.<br /><br />Not the investigative reporter, not the wife that murdered her husband, not the husband that killed his wife, not the old man in the old house and certainly not the two detectives investigating the cases.<br /><br />A lot is mysteriously absent.<br /><br />But that is reality… isn’t it? There will always be pieces of the puzzle missing, absent in any equation, any painting of existence. We can claim otherwise, but when it comes down to it we know that not all the pieces fit the puzzle, know that nothing is as it seems.<br /><br />One witness account to any given event is just that, incomplete, in the great scheme of things. What happened? What truly happened? The truth is only glimpsed by those digging deeper, seeking below the surface, beyond the veil, down there, in the boiling waters…<br /></blockquote><br />Third back cover text:<br /><br /><blockquote> The end is the beginning. The beginning is the end…<br /><br />Chloe Webster is dead, and no one seems to know why…<br /><br />Did the estranged, former husband kill her? Was it the scorned girlfriend of a lover, or an unknown assailant she encountered during her nightly excursions into the unknown and dangerous parts of human existence?<br /><br />Chloe was a seeker, a dabbler in the occult, a frequent participant in such obscure circles.<br /><br />All her life she sought what’s hidden, what rests (or doesn’t rest) below the surface of everyday life, and those claiming knowledge of such things claim that she finally found it, found what she was looking for.<br /><br />She was observed while she moved into the old hotel, the old building by the lake, observed while casting spells and performing occult ceremonies in the dead of night. Witness-accounts place her at dozens of seedy bars and occult stores and events around the world. Her life, also the final seven nights is fairly well documented. There is little controversy over the facts, but lots of it over what’s mysteriously absent. The final, revealing clues elude private and official investigators alike.<br /><br />After years of rabid research she returned to the shores of the lake, on her path to her destiny, to what some calls her predestined fate. Truth, unquestionable and unopposed awaits her in the land and streets by the lake, and the distant and ancient and beyond mysterious Caine Manor…<br /><br /></blockquote>Amos Kepplerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09653402099981546288noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32681133.post-54117892017422434972009-06-29T16:21:00.000-07:002010-02-17T19:07:42.636-08:00The wild man in modern societyOne among many (countless) subjects I write about is the wild man in modern society, especially in my series The Janus Clan. During the course of ten or rather eleven books (including ShadowWalk) we follow Ted and Liz through forty years, from the stumbling of their early life to the point when they reach the pinnacle of their growth, through inhuman hardship and full scale rebellion.<br /><br />Liz and Ted are special, even among their own kin, where special is not a four letter word, but rather something to be savored and celebrated. They have the fire inside, like all human beings, but in their case it's boiling and hissing beyond description, both inside and outside. The modern society, civilization stifle emotion, stifle life itself, taming and destroying everything making life worth living. We see them resist the ruthless Machine slowly killing us all. We witness when the resistance turns into full-blown rebellion.<br /><br /> The two Warrens, Liz and Ted are travelers. Even though they during a few short, hectic, sort of peaceful years resided in the ancestral home in London, they spent most of their lives Journeying across the vast reality of the world… beyond… on their path to a terrifying and remarkable destiny.<br /><br />The Janus Clan - ten (or rather eleven) deep and uncompromising novels about the wild man, about human beings in the modern world, the forty years of traveling, the slow burning fire, as The Phoenix is rising from the ashes.<br /><br />The first book, The Defenseless is ready for printing, and will be out soon.Amos Kepplerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09653402099981546288noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32681133.post-12505051087034329602009-02-09T10:43:00.000-08:002009-02-11T18:00:24.426-08:00The many Keppler novels and projectsQuite a few of them have been realized. Many are still <a href="http://utengrenser.blogspot.com/2007/08/sann-artistisk-frihet.html">waiting</a> to be so or be publiced, or filmed or done.<br /><br />Well over two years ago I promised that my six completed novels would be published soon. It didn't happen. Life just got in the way, you know. I could have published them. It was three years since I had published my novel Shadowwalk, three years then, and i felt ready to publish the next.<br /><br />It didn't happen, and now six years have passed. Time flies, you know. Before you know it another full turn of the seasons is gone.<br /><br />My problem in this context (or one of them) is perhaps that I'm not in a hurry. People hurry too much, in my opinion.<br /><br />But I feel ready now, ready this year. I feel confident that I will succeed in publishing at least one more book, between all my other projects.<br /><br />A possible film project is coming up this summer, though, and that might ruin any other plans...<br /><br />Just a little note here, to note that I'm still here.Amos Kepplerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09653402099981546288noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32681133.post-11878251940907945092007-05-13T16:34:00.000-07:002010-10-28T18:03:29.292-07:00Piracy saves musicThey say piracy kills music, kills movies and so forth, but that is totally false, merely yet another totally false statement from an oppressive society.<br /><br /> If anything piracy saves music and everything, from the powerful music, movie and publishing industry that has pretty much ruined music, ruined movies and publishing in general for as long as they have existed. All creative activity has been forced into narrow chunks of the cavern for so long, now, that people have forgotten what true, controversial art is like and can be.<br /><br /> The music, movies, books and all published by established publishing houses have been a disaster for decades. There were a brief period in the late sixties and early seventies where even they felt they had to release controversial and through-provoking stuff, but that period is long gone. I used to think the eighties were a disaster, but that’s nothing compared to the nineties and zeroes. This is what you stooges, you braindead supporters of the oppressive «anti-piracy» laws help sustain? You should be ashamed of yourselves.<br /><br /> Giving copyright rights to corporations are so wrong, on so many levels that I can hardly begin to address it properly. Personal copyrights should remain. People should have the rights to their own work, but corporations shouldn’t, also because it isn’t their work. Corporations shouldn’t have the rights to bacteria or genetic materials or similar either. It’s all the same insanity, the idea that life can be owned.<br /><br /> Individual copyright to art should remain. Everything else should go.<br /><br /> And even individuals shouldn’t have infinite rights to their own work. When they have, say earned about a million dollars on a record, all their rights in that regard, to that copyrighted property should cease. I don’t think such a demand is excessive at all. On the contrary. It should be implemented on a vast scale. How much is enough? I say.<br /><br /> All encouragement to greed should cease, right now.<br /><br /> Individual artists should always retain the intellectual property rights to their own art. It just shouldn’t include the endless money flow that some of them enjoy.<br /><br /> The massive downloading of various illegal materials has reduced the earnings of the established publishing and production companies, reduced the companies in stature and power. Their total dominance is at an end, and that is such a great thing. They still earn an insane amount of money unfortunately, but their influence is decreasing. Today an underbrush of alternative and individual and smaller creative units are rising all over the world. Anyone can publish and also in part and increasingly so distribute their own material. And that is what is truly bugging the tyrants, the moguls at the top. They’re about to lose control over the information flow, their established right to censor and steer people’s attention. The established publishers still have the existing enormous advertising machine at their disposal, but even that is changing. And desperate as they are, they use their established, but hopefully waning power to force ever more oppressive legislation on the world at large. The propaganda stunt «Piracy is killing music» is an integral part of that.<br /><br /> Reject it. Reject them, tell them to go fuck themselves and ignore their insane ranting, and enjoy the true art, the true fire of life coming from independent artists, people that haven’t sold out, haven’t sold their most precious inner fire and creative well to the corporative power of this ugly world.<br /><br /> <a href="http://storytellerinshadow.blogspot.com/2006/09/true-artistic-freedom.html">True artistic freedom</a> is no longer only a word.Amos Kepplerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09653402099981546288noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32681133.post-44410934597711605692007-04-09T08:30:00.000-07:002007-04-09T08:34:22.891-07:00Incorporate - The Dreamweaver at work<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhexIFvOer74jYcJfcAp5TsbTH8BzzOYUv27sRvlm4hFDCE6HHgmIX0DQcStiwhyMUDkZegXic8-VN2vwVk3dQM_Pmc8c_l_n9Kl6y0ghaPKGYrJqcu6ht7gHsi-fGjQgYZsP81uQ/s1600-h/facemosaic.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhexIFvOer74jYcJfcAp5TsbTH8BzzOYUv27sRvlm4hFDCE6HHgmIX0DQcStiwhyMUDkZegXic8-VN2vwVk3dQM_Pmc8c_l_n9Kl6y0ghaPKGYrJqcu6ht7gHsi-fGjQgYZsP81uQ/s400/facemosaic.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5051451366520673122" border="0" /></a><br /> I incorporate my surroundings in my writing, my art. I see a tree, a street or a situation, and it’s burned into my memory. It stays there, live there, changes there or not, and it’s put on paper, like they would have said in the old days, before all writing all art changed, with the onset of the computer and portable laptop.<br /><br /> When I travel all new places stay with me. And even though I’m fairly good at describing places I’ve never been, too, you would probably know where I’ve been by reading what and how I’ve written about a given place or city. Up until recently I’ve usually written about real places. Now, with new books, like the Afterglow series and Alarums of Reality I’m creating cities and cityscapes in what I experience as a new thing for me. I’m building them, from scratch, taken a piece here, an image, a smell there, and changing them into something new and different. At least I am doing it more consciously than before.<br /><br /> I’m evolving yet again, and it feels good, so good. What any decent artist should worry about is growing stale, festering like a closed-off pond.<br /><br /> Lately I’ve spent a lot of time in what you might consider my hometown and area. I walk through and pass by places almost every day, and even if that’s not a situation I’m comfortable with, I’ve discovered it has its uses. One side of a building is one book, one story, the other a completely different scenario, miles, and even an entire universe away. I dream, like I always do, and I create upon it, into other dreams and nightmares and yearnings and failings and everything.<br /><br /> Even in the midst of desolation there are dreams and rebellion and liberation.Amos Kepplerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09653402099981546288noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32681133.post-1166567695871439512006-12-19T14:23:00.000-08:002006-12-25T07:31:53.444-08:00CompleteI finally completed the first draft of my script for the short film «Confessions of a Midnight Cannibal» yesterday. It’s only thirteen pages, but I have been struggling a bit, quite a bit with it. I don’t know why exactly. Perhaps it’s a bit of new ground for me, even though the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transgressive_art">art of</a> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transgressional_fiction">Transgression</a> has been a favorite of mine for some time (since forever, really).<br /><br />The title says it all, really. We experience in graphic details the cannibal’s preparations, implementation and digestion in his quest for the perfect meal.<br /><br />Our hero is a civilized man, quite the dedicated connoisseur and witty conversationalist, a chef that takes his chores seriously, doing it all himself, the entire process from A to Z. The selection of the meat and various materials, the setting of the table, the works. It’s all his to struggle with and enjoy. I can certainly sympathize with this perfectionist, this maker of meals, even though I don’t share his zeal.<br /><br />Filming will commence this upcoming summer or the next, depending on various factors. It can be made extremely cheap, which was the plan from the start, even though economics continue to be an issue. So is casting, inevitably. We need a large man, with a large cock, and we probably need a special effects man, even though that won’t necessarily be mandatory. And the man with the large cock needs to have a special voice and modulation. That’s crucial, as well. His voice and modulation, that is. The setting is a large advantage. The film can be made anywhere in the world. Flexibility is a must for a small, independent filmmaker, auteur.<br /><br />There are only two roles to cast, the meat eater, and the meat. And the meat has no lines.<br /><br />People having read the script describe it as «deeply disturbing». Very good.<br /><br />Another guy asked what the message was, what message I wanted to convey to my breathless audience. Message? I replied ironically. I can sort of understand his question, since I tend to be a message man. That doesn’t mean I want to send one every second of the day, though. And there is actually a message here, one he strangely failed to see: I want to transgress any sense of normality in what I do, and I want mundane people to choke on their normality. Easy as pie.<br /><br />This is a small piece of a larger story, really, one that will hopefully be made later, one of several movies I have written and intend to write in need of (larger) funding.<br /><br />We’re going to make this enjoyable film, and put it on the Internet for all to watch. Since it will most certainly not be shown in any «decent» theater or festival. It’s an excellent beginning for our string of controversial, very controversial films.<br /><br />The film division of <a href="http://www.midnight-fire.net/mfm">Midnight Fire Media</a> is finally about to take off.Amos Kepplerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09653402099981546288noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32681133.post-1165170415886008952006-12-03T10:18:00.000-08:002006-12-03T10:26:55.900-08:00Project update, early DecemberIt's official. My project is late.<br /><br /> Since publication was supposed to begin in November, that's a dead giveaway. The main reason was technical problems, really, but they have been solved, now. So I'm not really that late yet. I do take my time, like I always do. Everything is pretty much ready to roll. I may wait a while or I may publish tomorrow.<br /><br /> The book after The Defenseless isn't due until February, so I have some time yet. The <a href="http://storytellerinshadow.blogspot.com/2006/09/true-artistic-freedom.html">plan</a> remains intact, and pretty much on schedule.Amos Kepplerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09653402099981546288noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32681133.post-1162143771770743852006-10-29T09:28:00.000-08:002006-10-29T09:42:51.780-08:00Two RiversI took a look at the cover for <a href="http://storytellerinshadow.blogspot.com/2006/09/true-artistic-freedom.html">my upcoming novel The Defenseless</a> recently. I just sat there staring at it, for the first time in over a year (or so). It just fit the story so well.<br /><br /> Oh, what the hell, there has been a long time since I felt any sort of false modesty. The cover is great, sucking you in before you have even opened the book, and I'm looking so much forward to see it on the book.Amos Kepplerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09653402099981546288noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32681133.post-1158344224891394932006-09-15T11:01:00.000-07:002006-09-15T11:18:37.753-07:00Summer of '06It began early<br />Like a slow moving train<br />It ended somewhere<br />In the desert sand<br /><br />Heat rises from<br />From the sizzling city streets<br />Boiling the poor souls<br />Walking and stumbling here<br />Sunlight reaches<br />Even the deepest shadow<br />People glance uneasily<br />At each other<br />Between the coughs<br />And the gasps<br />Never truly looking<br />At themselves<br />In the mirror<br /><br />They glimpse<br />Their indistinct images<br />In the incomplete<br />shop window mirror<br />And dream in a haze<br />Of poison and mirages<br />Of desperate imagination<br /><br />And thus they keep dreaming<br />Their insane dreams<br />While the world<br />Goes from bad to worse<br />Around them<br /><br />Trinkets please these people<br />Mirages please them<br />While they dance<br />Their fake dance<br />Going out of their way<br />To avoid dancing<br />Avoid living<br />As happiness eludes them<br />As life itself<br />Keep slipping away<br /><br />It was the summer of '06<br />Everything happened<br />Everything bad and good<br />Now and then<br /><br />The summer of '06 began early<br />In the unease of people's mind<br />And in the never ending<br />Desert of the world<br />It's still there<br /><br />Amos Keppler 2006-09-15Amos Kepplerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09653402099981546288noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32681133.post-1157495311488701132006-09-05T15:17:00.000-07:002006-09-07T15:43:38.000-07:00True Artistic Freedom<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/560/749/1600/Coverswtoev.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/560/749/400/Coverswtoev.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br />I published my novel «<a href="http://www.midnight-fire.net/sw/thebook.html">ShadowWalk</a>» in March 2003 on my own <a href="http://www.midnight-fire.net/mfm">label,</a> my own publishing company after a desert walk lasting two decades between various established publishers. That was my second. The first was the Norwegian edition of «Dreams belong to the Night».<br /><br />No established publisher would or will ever want to touch my work, at least not without major rearranging, <span style="font-style: italic;">censorship,</span> so I decided to do it myself. I took the advantage of current technology, and did everything, except the actual printing myself. In hindsight I feel almost grateful towards all those greedy and stuck-up publishers…<br /><br />There are basically two major faults with them. They publish either only work they, personally deem to be of artistic merit, or they just want lots and lots of cash. Either approach equally despicable in my eyes.<br /><br />I remember sitting there, with the book in my hands, with both of them, for hours, feeling something very close to awe. I sat there with a real book in my hands, a novel, 300000 words I had written.<br /><br />Many people frown at self-publishing novels. Many bookstores won’t touch them and they even brag about it. They even call them «Vanity projects», «suggesting» that there are basically people with an overblown ego and a lot of money that’s doing it. To me that is clearly yet another tactic put out there by the establishment, including the established publishers.<br /><br />There are both advantages and disadvantages to both self-publishing and doing so through established publishers. One major disadvantage of doing it yourself is that you lack the advantages of a big operation. You need to «waste» a lot of time doing everything the big bucks publishers pay others to do, for one thing. And then there is the obvious thing about distribution, which is or <span style="font-style: italic;">was</span> crucial. If you didn’t get your book into the stores you wouldn’t sell much. But to me, what everything comes down to is <span style="font-style: italic;">this:</span><br /><br />When you do it yourself, on your own, you do everything, and can do everything, exactly like you want. You don’t need to do things you don’t want to do. You accept aid, of course, and advise from people you trust, but ultimately you are making the decisions. I have (briefly) experienced the process the authors go through suffering the meat grinder the established publishers demand you go through. They wanted me, like they want everyone to change three fourths (or rather everything) of the book. And we’re not talking about grammar here, or even wording. We’re talking about the story. They wanted the book, want all books to become <span style="font-style: italic;">their </span>story, their neutered child, not the authors free-spirited wild creature. They are part of the worldwide censorship process, and many self-publishers aren’t. I get very angry when I see the smirk on the big guns’ faces when they state how proud they are to give voice to previously censored work. They do, and they don’t, if you get my drift…<br /><br />So I will dare this outrageous claim: Generally speaking (there are exceptions to any rule) self-published books and art in general beat those being published by a major operation by a vast majority.<br /><br />So I published them on my own, using my own hard-won money, and I lost quite a bit of those money doing so, but I would have done it again in an instant. I sold several hundred books worldwide, mostly on the Internet and in the city of London, and as an added bonus of having <span style="font-style: italic;">low</span> sales I was contacted and could respond personally to my readers, and I learned a lot in the bargain. Big time writers can never have such a personal rapport with their readers.<br /><br />And now, now it’s finally the time to take the next step. The poor artist’s publishing method is finally here in earnest.<br /><br />The Print-On-Demand is here, and I’m here, and I’m ready.<br /><br />The time, the dominion (at least) of the major publishers, books, music, movies and art in general is done. Good riddance!<br /><br />After a long time of picking and choosing I’ve now registered with lulu.com, and the first novel in my new venture, «The Defenseless» is due in November. This date and the others below are not set, but I foresee no major obstacles at this point. Not technically, nor economically. They, the current world, its masters and eager servants will keep attempting to stop me, censor and stop any truly free expression, of course.<br /><br />It takes about ten years for me to complete a book, from start to the final finishing touch. But with The Defenseless it has taken me thirty years.<br /><br />My <a href="http://www.midnight-fire.net/mfm/releases.html">plan</a> (it’s great to have a plan) at this time:<br /><br />Your Own Fate in February.<br />The Slaves in April<br />Night On Earth in June<br />Collected Poems in August<br />Birds Flying in the Dark in October/November<br />Dreams Belong to the Night in February (2008)<br /><br /><br />There you have it, folks, in all modesty (and pretentiousness) seven of the most controversial books ever written (and soon hopefully published).Amos Kepplerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09653402099981546288noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32681133.post-1155519078115279372006-08-13T18:23:00.000-07:002006-08-13T18:31:18.116-07:00The Storyteller<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/560/749/1600/detlillebalet.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/560/749/400/detlillebalet.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /> I’m a Storyteller. It’s the one thing I have always been good at. There will always be storytellers <a href="http://midnightfire.blogspot.com/2006/08/living-in-wild.html">around the campfire,</a> and I will always be there, to tell my stories, and shake up and stir the gathering.<br /><br /> This was one of the earliest things I noticed about myself, my skill of weaving stories. The current world, society, school, <a href="http://midnightfire.blogspot.com/2006/07/tailspin-suicide-run.html">civilization</a> did its best to destroy that fire, like it does all things. But it failed. Even though my ability, my need to create sort of hibernated during early school years of forced learning, it never went away. And it never will.<br /><br /> I know that, now, and I rejoice, because this, among other things, above all else is what I do, what I want to do. I won’t call it a gift, because that implies that someone gave it to me, and no one did. It’s a potential I was born with, and made to grow on my own. After the first tentative steps it flourished. I’ve written millions of words since then, played a lot of music, spoken a lot of words, told many a story.<br /><br /> And I always will.Amos Kepplerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09653402099981546288noreply@blogger.com0