Michael Mehas - Stolen Boy December 2008 Newsletter

December 17, 2008

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IPPY Gold Medal for Fiction

National Finalist for
Best Fiction

Best Book of the Year in Fiction

Best Fiction Novel

Honorable Mention
Best Fiction

QUOTE OF THE DAY

"You can't wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club."

-- Jack London, novelist

EDITOR'S NOTE

Hello Everyone, T'is that magical time of the year again when a sense of humor and forgiveness can go a very long way. Right now, this very second, we might remember to forgive all for everything, put all our attention into whatever task is at hand, and remember how lucky we really are. It's a great time of the year to show appreciation for all that is to everyone we come into contact with. Smiles to strangers can mean so much when one remembers the pain and suffering others experience at this time of the year.

It's also a great time to share a laugh or three, as my former Hollywood High School English teacher Harry Major does each year in his Christmas letter. He's been sending it out forever, snail male wise, and I keep thinking Harry will one day break into the Now and get himself a computer. Harry's an amazing man who at 77 claims to have progressed along the various phases of life, as we all do, "from Spring Chicken to Summer Swan to Autumn Turkey to Winter Buzzard." Harry sees no doctors and takes no meds, and attributes it all to having conducted his life with two basic principles in mind: a sense of humor and a lack of taste.

Being of the lawyer/writer variety, I have found myself mastering one of those traits. As I work on bringing a sense of humor to the surface, I'll share with you some of Harry's "Curious People" and "Odd Events" from this year's Christmas letter:

Surveillance cameras caught Catherine Delgado, 35, mounting a midnight raid on Uncle Bobby's Fudge Kitchen in Maryland. Delgado was later found in a state of fudge-smeared delirium, her pockets bulging with bricks of raw chocolate. "She saw the Rocky Road, and it was all over," commented policeman Hal Dalton.

David Barash, an evolutionary biologist, says that women face a basic dilemma: if they seek a husband who is energetic, ambitious, personable, and loving, the odds of infidelity are very high. Alas, strong and capable men who attract you will attract others; they are apt to be thoroughbreds who horse around. Men who don't cheat are apt to be bores and losers. Dr. Barash says that probably the only reliable monogamous critter in existence is a parasitic worm that inhabits the intestines of fish, not an inspiring role model.

The Heart Attack Grill in Tempe, Arizona, has a true Wild West philosophy. It introduced the "Quadruple Bypass Burger," featuring two pounds of beef, four layers of cheese, twelve slices of bacon, and 8,000 calories. Persons still undernourished can order the "Flatliner Fries" that are cooked in lard.

A Nevada bordello offered as incentive a fifty-dollar gas voucher to all clients who purchased $200.00 in services. The vouchers sold out in a week.

An inflatable piece of canine excrement the size of a house (created by U.S. artist Paul McCarthy) came loose from its moorings at a Swiss museum and knocked down a power line. Ah, the impressive power of art!

The British Wildlife Recording Society gives awards for the best recordings of natural sounds. Recent winners include a Roman snail eating lettuce and a dung beetle at work and at play. Clearly the most popular work this year, however, involved a hedgehog barking to warn off other hedgehogs as he sipped a bowl of milk.

George IV's mistress was one Lady Conyngham. He liked to take snuff off her generous bosom. At dinner parties her husband and others pretended not to notice as his majesty sniffed and snorted hither and yon like a thirsty hedgehog over the lady's lacteal ramparts.

Science continues to dazzle us with revelations from new studies. One proving conclusively that overweight people eat too much. The other, equally provocative, is a Belgian study which tells us that seeing a girl in a bikini so confuses some men that their judgment is impaired, leading them to spend money foolishly on alcohol, food, gambling, and girls in bikinis.

A San Francisco community group launched an initiative to re-name the Oceanside Wastewater Treatment Facility as the George W. Bush Sewage Plant. Organizers said the name would provide the President with an "appropriate and fitting legacy." Voters rejected the idea.

And, last, but not least...

Ventura, California, was jolted by some off-the-wall journalism. Students at a local high school put out a special Valentine's Day issue of the school paper. It ignored the usual euphemism about hearts and flowers in favor of biological candor. So when the principal opened his copy, he found himself staring at female anatomy -- and not of the uptown bosom variety, either. It was all downtown.

TRANSFORMATIONAL THIRD THURSDAYS
Thursday, December 18th, 7:00 to 8:30 p.m.

Just a reminder that the last Transformational Third Thursday, our monthly consciousness workshop and discussion group based on the teachings of Eckhart Tolle, will be meeting this Thursday, December 18th, from 7 to 8:30 p.m. at Ventura's literary watering hole, Bank of Books, located at 748 E. Main St., Ventura. Come and help us bring in the New Year by changing the world for the better as we change ourselves into something much more powerful than we might ever have imagined possible.

Tolle's books, The Power of Now and A New Earth, and my book, Stolen Boy can be found on the shelves at Bank of Books. In celebration of transformation and the holidays, Clarey Rudd, owner of Bank of Books, has agreed to offer a 20% discount on all three books. For further information about the series, call 805.643-3154.

STOLENBOY.COM

I also want to invite you to visit our Weblog at www.StolenBoy.com. We've got some really neat stuff on the amazing Tyler Edmonds, the then 13 year old who was convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison; who has since won his freedom from the Mississippi Supreme Court, been acquitted of all charges, and is now a very free nineteen-year-old man.

Tyler Edmonds in California.

Also, shed a tear or two with us and learn about the shaky case against New York's fourteen-year-old sacrificial lamb, Joseph Giacona III. See if you believe the most populated state in the nation is giving this kid liberty or justice, or just taking his life away.

Fourteen-year-old Joseph Giacona III.

THE LAST WORD

As we all know through life's experiences or by watching the news on TV, there's a lot of people out there who are struggling. We run into them on the streets and at work. They inhabit the houses on the streets we live in, and they live on the streets we drive down. Many of those who are so lost are so young, with seemingly little to work with. Their support systems and family structures have broken down along their slide into societal despair. I ran into one of these kids a while back, brash and outrageous, his ego and emotions totally out of control. So much so that I couldn't continue listening to the nonsense he espoused, so I stopped communicating with him. It saved us both a lot of wasted time.

Months later, we ran into each other again in, of all places, MySpace.com. He was struggling badly, and, at the time, I did not realize he was also suicidal. But, for whatever reasons, we connected. Eventually, I got him down to one of our Third Thursdays sessions (he said he'd always wanted to write), and I met his mother, and we all talked. I learned of his suicidal tendencies, and I continued to support this young man through his climb from the depths of life, as much as he would allow me to help support him. I recently invited him to our last Transformational Third Thursdays' session this Thursday, and he sent me a lengthy email in response. It touched me very much, and I'd like to share some of it with you:

...I consider you a good friend for reaching out to me and showing me light, love how to be happy and go for it! I feel my dreams coming true...One way or another after I get my life on track I know that my goals and dreams will follow suit so to speak. You have helped me understand how to accept my blessings and not block them. I hope to take up writing classes from you again after I get rehab finished.

I am completing a good program through a church that is respected by the courts so I can get my record of misdemeanors expunged and be more employable. After this 8 month program I will be getting a Public Defender and putting myself on calendar to go to court and show that i have been rehabilitated to a certain extent. I will also be saving money this way, and after my 8 month rehab..., I can work with the system (not fight it) so they can get me out of the unemployable paradox...

Just so you know I look up to you and I thank you for looking out for me and everything you've done and being so kind to my Mom. She really wants to see me succeed in life at my dreams or whatever i want to do. She is an angel. A ball of love that is unstoppable, she is like a juggernaut of love as you know...

You told me there are writers who talk about writing and writers who write. I want to be the latter. I want to do as I say not say and never do. So I am never going to give up and I am getting off of all drugs. Period. I am interested in myself construction so much lately that self destruction is no longer an option. I hope somehow I could ask you of your assistance and guidance in the future, as soon as I can drive myself to your classes and what not...

I am reading Stolen Boy finally and it is AMAZING and CAPTIVATING! I love it! I hope you don't mind, but I am going to place you in my Tops today. I love you my friend in a genuine and sincere way. Thank you...

I will be singing and strumming my guitar with my crew, a bass player, a drummer, and a lead guitarist. I hope to have a camera crew there too so we can film it if you can go and I will send you clips one day. It's the best feeling because I get really into it, I mean waaaaay into it and start dancing around while i sing and play guitar and when I jump up and down crowds of kids jump up and down with me. It's such an electric feeling of good energy and unity it hard to describe how fun it is. It's like being completely connected to the universe. Well once again I wonder how you are and hope all is going "sublime" for you!

Your student & friend...

Peace, Love, and Blessings to all of you this Holiday Season,

Michael Mehas autograph