No, I’m probably not going to take this course. It’s not something I want to do at this time, but I will be taking part in some of its prompts from time to time. Truth is I’m still a new blogger but I’m not new to blogging. I’m new to blogging at this rate, in this form and with this much interaction which has been extremely cool (yaass). I’ve been at this address since August, but I have done some blogging before going back two years so I’m not that green. When I saw the “Introduce Yourself” prompt though I considered diving in. Not necessarily because of the course itself, but because I think it’s a great way to re-establish my goals for this blog and to strengthen my relationship with my readers, especially those of you just coming aboard.
I know Pearls Before Swine is an awkward enough title, so let me briefly explain what it means and how it relates to this blog and me as an individual. For a more in depth explanation however please visit my about page here:
Pearls Before Swine is first the title of a book series I began a year ago. The story surrounds the discovery of forbidden magical diamonds and their connection to the alleged rape of Ja’mella Jones, a famous hair stylist on the West side of Chicago. This project was the initial inspiration for this blog.
The Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth
Pearls Before Swine is also a phrase taken out of Matthew Chapter 7 verse 6 of the bible which obviously indicates that I am a bible believer. I am not a Christian, but I believe in the bible from Genesis to Revelation and it is the foundation to which my life is built. While I do not consider myself religious in nature it hasn’t stopped people from referring to me as such which is annoying, but I don’t sweat it. I know a lot of people are not used to disassociating the bible from religion, to understand that it is not a religious book, but that it is a history book, an instruction manual for all of mankind. In short, I am a spiritual centered individual and you will often see me reference this spirituality in my writing. Don’t expect me to preach to you though, I believe more in the actual putting to practice of the bible than the quoting of scripture. I believe the physical is important because we live on the physical, but I also believe the spiritual is important because it is higher than the physical.
Symbolically Speaking
I chose Pearls Before Swine as the title to this blog because I love to write symbolically, objectively, and metaphorically; being able to compare objects or use them as symbols to stand-in for a much more complex, and generally more abstract idea. Experimenting with the creativity that embodies this form of writing is most exciting. I notice that one of the most interesting ways that people learn is by way of symbols because it appeals to the subconscious, and I enjoy incorporating this into my writing. It is the reason for both the title and subtitle of this blog. Pearls Before Swine and Truth is Stranger than Fiction encompasses my style of writing, my inspiration, my poetry, my mission, and my foundation.
Why Blog?
I still keep notebooks and the notepad on my phone stays full. While I don’t share all of my thoughts with the world I’m always writing. Though I don’t publish a post, I’m still writing in some way. Over time I’ve kept my poetry and short stories within the private confines of my mind. It was a personal, regional thing that belonged to just me. As time progressed however I would go on to publish my first book of poetry and begin attending Open Mic Nights. Public speaking took those things that were once personal and brought them to the mainstream. As such it has helped me to come to terms with my own voice and how it is needed in the world. It helped me to see that not only did I need to share these words but the power of words when they are combined with voice, tone, and emotion. As someone once said, “a poet knows they will never trade the written word for the spoken word”. Who said it? I don’t know, read it somewhere.
While some poems are written to be read on paper, some are also written to be spoken. I’ll be the first to tell you that feedback is as essential to the art as putting it into practice. Blogging is kind of like an internship, a way to work at what you love and receive the same kind of attention and open dialogue as you would if you wrote for a magazine. Believe it or not blogging is not a small deal; it does actually help to put experience under your belt. It is the reason some have elevated to celebrity status simply through the impact their blogs had on others. I’m not trying to do the celebrity thing, but the point is that it helps. It is networking and community management. So I do appreciate the feedback whether it’s in the form of encouragement or constructive criticism. Introducing my writing to the world stage by way of books and Spoken Word has helped nurture my writing and speaking in ways I could not have done alone. From this perspective, I blog because I think blogging can help nurture writers the same as debates can help develop the skills of an aspiring attorney.
My mission then for the existence of this blog is to spread truth by way of the spoken and written word, to provoke thought among the limited ways we tend to think and feel, and to inspire others the same as others have inspired me.
This is a question I ask myself often. I must admit it didn’t turn out to be what I initially intended it to be, but that’s a good thing. Personally I think it’s important to be reminded of the answer to this question every now and again. It doesn’t just help me to stay focused on my objectives, but it can also help to produce post ideas. I know that the primary challenge to blogging is to come up with ideas to surround a post. The funny thing about this though is that many of you already have a lifetime worth of post right there in your head. The challenge then is not to consider what to write about, but to dig into your purpose for writing in the first place and connect that with the moment at hand. There’s this exercise I like to do when I’m stumped on what to publish each day. The exercise is that I pretty much just sit around! It looks like I’m staring out in space sure, but there’s a lot actually going on here. I’m digging into the moment. I stop and think about what is happening right now. It may just be the hum of a heater, the ticking of a clock, the whispered conversations of others or the constant stream of updates from CNN. Silently and attentively all of these seemingly unrelated happenings can easily culminate in a nice short story, a poem, or a random list of whatever.
I’m not sure what direction this blogging thing could go. I would like to add more short stories, more poetry and more insight into the Self-Publishing world for sure. I also plan to continue with the daily quotes that concludes each days posts. Speaking of which, quotes were not part of my initial purpose for this blog. The quote thing actually came from how I usually interact on Facebook under my personal account, where I post lots of inspirational quotes. I decided later to add them here because there is more room to expound, plus I don’t like Facebook like that. As I polished my goals and plans for this blogging thing, I decided that since I like happy people, why not implement something for that purpose. So I think quotes are important to keep up with the inspiration aspect of my purpose.
Quotes from other authors, writers, and poets are such a refreshing part of the motivation a lot of people need to keep going. Reading other people’s work is also one of the best ways to learn a new skill. And let us not forget about Recipe Sundays! For a little over a month now I’ve been posting delicious recipes to this blog every Sunday which was definitely not part of the plan. How exactly did this begin? To start, I just happen to love recipes. I’m actually not much of a cook (my husband’s the chef around here) so recipes helps motivate me to cook and to find the easiest, yet most delicious ways to do so. The Sunday part is simply because I’m usually at home on Sundays. Because of my already hectic every day schedule, Sundays have become my day to do it all, cook, clean, and anything else left lingering around during the week. I didn’t create a category for Recipe Sundays because I wasn’t sure if I could stay consistent with it, but maybe that is something I will implement to make it easier to find.
In the end, my hope is to produce quality posts that are not just words to publish for the sake of publishing, but words of substance, of flesh and of bone. Words that don’t just capture your attention but come frequently; complete with all the hunger and thirst that is needed to stick around. I suppose my hope for this blog is that I can transform it into the living, breathing personification of all the symbolism that embodies Pearls Before Swine. We’ll see where it takes us.
The best thing about pictures is capturing a single moment. By stopping time in its tracks you freeze not just that moment but also the emotion stamped into it. Not only do you remember what you felt but you also experience that feeling again. Every glance is a blast back to one moment; the second movement was blessed with stillness; light, color, and atoms all bonded together and locked tight into the single shape of laughter, joy, sadness, or a relaxed coolness; giving you the permission to hold time in the palms of your hands, and the miracle of revisiting yesterday if only to feel what you felt again.
This picture was taken almost three years ago, and the history behind it always makes me laugh. Hubby and I had just boarded the Carnival Conquest for a trip to Jamaica, Cozumel, and the Cayman Islands. I wasn’t smiling so hard because of excitement necessarily, but because I was actually not just smiling, I was laughing. These people were worse than paparazzi (not like I live the lifestyle to know what that feels like but I imagine it was something like this). They practically pushed us in front of the camera. Imagine walking down the street… (no, gliding is more like it) yea, gliding down the street encased in your own thoughts. You are somewhere between right now and yesterday and tomorrow; basking in the joy of this moment. Imagining what this week away from the world would be like. At the same time your accounting for the items you carry with you: tickets, card, purse, luggage….smile! Just like that someone snaps a picture, somehow simultaneously pushing you both in front of the camera. A burst of pending excitement is no longer concealed to your inward parts, but is about to give birth to an eruption of butterflies once protected in your stomach and are now visible in the creases of your face. But you’ve got to hold it all together with a pose that won’t look like you’re really rolling on the floor laughing, and will make the most gorgeous couple headlines at the same time.
Passin‘ is not a self-published book, but I would like to use it as an example. I actually borrowed it from the library and intend on returning it soon. Not that it wasn’t a good read, but I wouldn’t purchase it. Here’s why: I enjoy a book that makes my mind play it out in my head like a movie. I want to see the characters develop as real breathing people, I want them to have real issues and problems, and I want to see the story in action, and let’s just say this movie’s a little slow. Not that this book didn’t have all of that, it’s just slow getting to the point I perceived to be the main event (the meeting of the man). So it’s an alright read; I wouldn’t give it 5 stars, though. More like 3 stars. I really am enjoying the read, it’s just that I’m a bit disappointed by what the book description told me and how the story is unfolding (yea, still reading it, I’ll probably move up to 4 stars by the time it’s over, who knows lol). The story is an interesting tale of a young woman passing in the new millennium (2007). Racial passing occurs when a person classified as a member of one racial group is also accepted as a member of a different racial group by passing as that different racial group. (Did I confuse anyone?) So a black woman pretending to be white is an example of passing to keep it simple. But what made me check out the book is this excerpt from the description:
“When a successful African-American businessman thinks Shanika is the white woman of his dreams, her world spins out of control. With her future on the line, she’ll have to go beyond skin-deep to discover what’s really worth reaching for–and the person she truly wants to be.”
I know I know, how woman of me, but who doesn’t love, love? Anywho, it’s not a bad story so far, but what’s disappointing is my assumption that the meat of the story would surround this event. But halfway through the book, there’s no mention of this African American man. The story is pretty much just about Shanika’s, I’m sorry Nicole’s, struggles with “racial” (I don’t really believe in a race but for the sake of clarity) identity and her inner conflictions about living a lie (and her hatred of self…my 2 cents). In fact, we don’t meet Mr. Right until close to the end of the book. I’m probably just being picky, but I really did borrow the book to specifically see how this relationship was going to evolve. I’m not finished with the book so I may be doing a part 2 of this same post about how I judged a book by its descriptive cover, but we’ll cross that bridge when we get there.
The point is that this inspired a post about how important book descriptions are to books, especially self-published books. We have talked about book cover designs, a little bit of editing, and even common sense reasons to self-publish. Now let us talk about the content of the book, starting with the description.
When a reader decides to buy a book, one of the first things that strike them is the book cover, the sample, and of course they’ve got to read those reviews. But another important element that plays a role in the buying experience is the book synopsis, summary, or description. If you think this is something I pulled out of my hat, just visit your nearest library or bookstore. You’ll see people scrolling through aisles and turning over the backs of books. Some of them flip through the pages and may even begin to read the first paragraph just to see if it grabs their attention.
The good thing is that if the description of your book has little to nothing to do with what the book is actually about, no one will know until after they buy the book and after they read it. The bad thing is that if they give a bad review, they’ll be your first and only customer. The truth is that book descriptions play a big role in book buying, and as I always say, it’s a good idea to produce your books the way you buy them. If a striking book cover makes you go for the bait then you should also have a book cover design that is also striking. Likewise, if reading the synopsis of a book is what makes you buy, then as an author you want to make sure your book description is also just as fantastic. “If your book description doesn’t grab them and make them feel ‘the need – the need to read’ then you’ve just lost a customer….” (Mark Edwards).
(For the record, Karen’s description was pretty good and achieved the desired effect, it made me pick it up and check it out which means I would have probably picked it up and bought it, so that’s not my complaint since I’m sure her book sells are doing better than mine. My complaint is just about the accuracy of her description of what’s actually in the book, but I digress).
A good summary will give readers just enough information about your book to get them excited about reading the whole thing. For this reason, it should be clear, brief, and simply breathtaking.
Below are 7 ways to improve on book descriptions by Mark Edwards as featured on the blog Catherine Caffeinated
(there are actually 11 but these are the ones I thought worth excerpting far as importance is concerned, 7 is a perfect number after all…isn’t it?):
1. Make it clear. Your potential reader needs to know with a quick skim read what kind of book this is, what it’s about and what the story is. The story is the most important element here – if you’ve written an erotic romance that will give Fifty Shades a run for its money, make sure people know that. Though remember, it’s the relationship at the heart of Fifty Shades that made it such a smash. You need to get that across in a very lucid way.
2. The first line is the most important. If you don’t get the first line right, they won’t read on (this applies to the book itself too). Your first line needs to encapsulate the whole book. It needs to draw people in, hit them where it feels good and make the hairs on the back of their neck stand up. Not easy – but worth spending time on.
3. Don’t be boring. The moment your potential reader feels bored, they’re gone, clicking on to the next book on the also-bought bar. Every line has to be compelling and move the story on. Just like your book, in fact.
4. Make them laugh, cry, cower. It’s all about emotions. How is your book going to make people feel? Is it heartbreaking or hilarious? Chilling or hotter than Angelina Jolie sunbathing in Death Valley? Again, look at the words most used in your genre. They are clichés for a reason. They work.
5. Use testimonials. If you have some quotes from well-known writers or experts, use them. These are generally best in a block rather than scattered through the text. If you’ve got a quote from your Auntie Maureen, you might as well use that too. Just don’t reference her as your auntie.
6. Make your characters live. As well as the story, it’s vital to get a good sense of your characters across – and, most importantly, their big problem. What terrible dilemma do they have to resolve? What personal demon do they need to conquer? You need characters and problems people will identify with – but they have to be big problems. Having a broken dishwasher just isn’t exciting enough.
7. Make the reader desperate to know what happens. You have to end your description with a cliffhanger. You need to lead the reader to the point where they are so curious that, were they a cat, it would kill them. Make sure you don’t give too much away. Be intriguing. Make them feel like Anastasia when Christian tells her he’s about to show her something really new and exciting. Make them go ‘Holy crap!’”
My, how this year has passed; a lot has changed, and a lot has come and gone. I’ve ended a blog and began one. All in all the experience has been worth both the good and bad. What are experiences for anyway if we can’t learn from them? Today I just want to speak briefly on blogging goals. I know I know who am I right? Why does this small blog of barely 300 followers write like she’s got 30,000? Who am I to give advice with all these splinters in my eyes? Well I’m glad you asked; I’m no one actually. Just another writer thriving on nothing but a bowl full of passion; I do not desire you to know my name or pity my story, I just wanna right, is that alright? I think so.
Have Fun
So here we are. Since we’ve come to the end of the year, I just want to spew a couple of words of inspiration for all the new bloggers who will be joining us next year as well as old bloggers who are still struggling to drive their blogs in the direction intended for them. I don’t know what your goals are but the word today is Goal. What we really want to do is have both a Primary Goal and Sub Goals. There are two parts to the Primary Goal. The first part is just to have fun. Remember that this is your blog after all and your happiness will determine the level of passion you put into your posts. Do not over think this blogging thing, just blog and have fun doing it. And that my friends, having fun, is what keeps me writing. I do not desire a spot next to the red carpet. Yes, it will be nice to kiss the sky and tread on the clouds below me but there’s a time for that and it is not now. Right now I’m just taking it a step at a time and enjoying the moment, being ecstatic about the little things like those who join this blog, who like this blog, who interacts with this blog, and who view this blog. That’s why I can give advice and share poetry and write stories because I actually enjoy what I’m doing so I have no fear that I have not reached the level of “professionalism” some may deem necessary.
Primary Goal
The next part of your Primary Goal is to actually have one, the objective for your entire blogging presence, the thing that brought you here. For some of you, maybe it’s just an outlet, for others perhaps it is business oriented but no matter the reason there must be one. The funny thing is though, you really just have to know what you want to do next. You don’t have to over-complicate it, just outline what you want to do next. It doesn’t matter the kind of information you seek to push, whether you are a descriptive writer, or a poet, whether you are here to persuade or to inform, no matter the reason remember that you are interacting with people. Do not let the massive World Wide Web fool you into thinking you’ve become a microchip inside a computer, and that you are not made up of flesh and bone. You are a person, and as such you are interacting with people. For this reason it doesn’t matter that you are just here to spread truth or push agendas or religious doctrine or whatever it is. Even so you must still realize that blogging is an online platform from which you are interacting and networking with others. Remember that no one likes to be preached to. You must use this opportunity to instead inform in ways that will attract people. Do not get so far on the high horse that you cannot relate to those of us still on the ground. It’s ok to laugh and to share some of your life experiences, your joys, your woes, or the new puppy you got yesterday and at the same time tie it into whatever message you have to give to the people. Never compromise your identity, never change who you are, and never let others change who you are, but in the midst of simply having fun make sure you keep the primary goal at the forefront and tie it into your blog identity.
Sub Goals
I also think it’s important to have Sub Goals. Sub Goals are like Sub Titles; those small messages under the bigger message. They are those short term goals you wish to achieve to ultimately achieve that primary goal. For example: If your Primary Goal is to drive book sells, maybe your Sub Goal is to publish at least two short stories a day. What this will do for your blog is help to begin an organization of it so that you have something to offer to the people. You may want to include those features your Blogging 101 just talked about. I have something called Recipe Sunday for example. It is not a name I actually created a category for, but it is a feature I include on my blog every Sunday under the Audience Participation tab. In this feature, I feature recipes for various foods and snacks that can help those of us who are not chefs to better whip up some delicious meals. I love recipes and using them when I cook so this also gives you a taste of who I am as a person so your not talking to fingers on a keyboard with no hands attached. Does this mean I want to become a chef now? Does it mean I have compromised my identity as a servant? Does it mean I no longer want to write poetry? Of course not. It’s just another avenue to which I can engage and interact with my audience. This helps me to build because I will then get subscriptions from those people who are into food, who do like to cook, and who are actually chefs while simultaneously putting my message into a physical manifestation of being. It’s not just about telling people stuff, it’s about showing them and organizing your posts can help you to be that example and organization starts with Sub Goals. Decide on how many posts you want to publish a day depending on your schedule. Keep it fun so if that’s one post a week so let it be. The plan is not to stress out about it. Stressing out about it means worrying which means no writing for you and that’s not what we want. What we want is for your message or goal or whatever to get out there so no pulling your hair out. Just think carefully about how often you want to post and stick to that schedule as closely as you can. Then decide on what kind of special feature to include. This can be something as elaborate as a picture or as fancy as a list, your blog, your prerogative. Then put everything in its own folder, we call these categories in the blogosphere, so put everything in a category. This is just the basics though because you want to also scan the community a little bit too. The best way to drive traffic to your blog is be what you want others to be. If you want someone to treat you with respect do the same for them. So get on out of the corner and walk around the neighborhood. Participate in blogging challenges, follow some blogs, comment on some blogs, and like some blog posts. Incorporate this into your schedule as well; give the people some variety, something to look forward to. So you may decide: I will publish one post a day, like 5 blog post by someone else, and follow 10. That’s a schedule and sticking to this schedule as closely as possible will help to increase traffic to your blog and increase the chances of you accomplishing your goal. Like I said, if you think your too good to get involved because the content on your blog is so great then keep doing what your doing and bringing your goal to nothingness. If I have a computer I cannot use why do I have it? If I have something that cannot produce fruit, why do I have it? If you created a blog to reach people, why are you still blogging if you don’t want to reach people? The truth is that your content may just be great, in fact, it may be salvation itself, but even when you’re spreading the truth you still have to be able to reach people. You can’t just throw a ball into the air and hope that someone catches it; you have to get out there and be the change you want to see in others.
Complaining Announcements
The last thing I want to speak briefly about is complaining announcements. I’m not talking about a blog post of you complaining, that’s your thing and if you want to complain be my guest, that’s your business. What I am talking about is this: If for whatever reason you could not publish the one post you dedicated yourself to, don’t announce it. No one cares until you announce it. You have a life, we get it, we understand. If I spit a piece you’ve never heard before and I mess up the poem no one will know unless I make it known that I have erred. So relax people. You don’t have to come back and apologize for not writing yesterday. Instead, take that energy and write twice as much today to catch up. If your goal was one post published a day and you missed a day, publish two posts the next day. The content can actually be about what held you up, was it your sons’ baseball game? Did he win? Was there a fat guy whose head was too big for you to see the fields? How was this experience? Tell us about that instead. Hold yourself accountable for staying true to the schedule so that you can achieve those little goals. It is not big steps that get us to the finish line faster, it’s the energy and dedication we put into those tiny steps we take every day. Remember: slow is smooth, and smooth is fast.
In “A Child is Born” a great photographic look on life inside the womb, Lennart Nilson and Lars Hamberger begin their work with love: “Love is an incredibly strong, enduring force and has been since time immemorial. The pattern is recognized in every culture in our world: two people are mutually attracted and feel the irresistible urge to unite.”
Love is a very powerful verb. It overcomes all things; it endures all things. Every culture around the world and every people can understand the language of love. If I traveled to Germany and saw a man having trouble standing up straight I will be moved to assist him, along with other bystanders who will immediately drop their current endeavors to assist this man—this is the language of love. We do not need to speak the German tongue to know that he needs help. This is the power of love. Sometimes love will cause one person to separate from another, not because they hate them, but because they love themselves too much to allow another person to continuously cross them because just as love is beautiful, love is also discipline. Even in war, the army that loves is always the army that wins because love overcomes hate. It possesses a very strong and immovable purity. If a man fights for a cause he truly loves, that cause is better able to grow because of his love for it. For this reason we should not think that discipline is not love. Sometimes love will require you to do away with those things you enjoy doing because it’s wrong or is just not healthy for you. After all, you cannot love anyone else if you do not love yourself first.
The world teaches us that anything (to which it promotes) truth or no truth, must be accepted as truth or else that rejection is void of love. Just because I don’t agree with you does not mean I don’t love you. It does not mean I won’t offer you the same love that is due everyone else. But if asked I’m going to tell you the truth, and I’m going to do it without judgment because “it is rain that grows flowers, not thunder” (Rumi). At the same time, when it get to the point where we can no longer walk together, this will not mean that I don’t love you, though that’s what the world teaches. If I cut you off it does not mean that I hate you, it’s just that I will not allow myself to be disrespected, nor will I conform to the contours of lies for the sake of peace, because I love myself too much to be willingly led astray. It is only logical, that when two people can no longer agree, the two must separate, but they can still love each other in the process. As a result, if there’s anything you need that I have, I will give it if given the chance because that’s love. I don’t have to agree with you, but I can forgive you of all your transgressions against me, and if you need the shirt off my back I will give it to you because that’s love. If you look around you however, you will see that this understanding is absent in the world. Too many people are filled with pride. They walk around holding onto grudges as if they themselves have the power to save and to condemn. Men have grown cold and the thought of his heart is only evil continually.
Have you ever wondered why children are so precious? Do you ever wonder why they speak to everyone? Why they want to hug and cling onto everyone they see? In this world we have to shield them from that, touching and speaking to everyone, because people have become so defiled with hatred. The reason however, children touch and feel is because they have a genuine love for others. It is only when we age that we lose some of that virtue and we become just as cold and hateful as the world around us. The world does not know love. The world does not teach love. The world does not love. Instead, in many ways the world has robbed us of love; like a child who loses his innocence, we have lost track of how to love. It is our life source yet it is missing from our lives. It is the umbilical cord that connects us to our creator and to the rest of mankind. It is both essential and necessary for mankind to surround itself with love. It is the air we breathe and without it we suffocate. In fact, mankind today is suffocating and have been for a long time; suffering silently because it does not have love. Man searches for it, but he is unable to find it. From the moment we emerge from our mother’s wombs we are looking for love. Many of us search for it, yearn for it, and even act out because we do not have it. We know it mostly by way of its relation to relationships. This is just one of the primary ways to which we seek to find it, in the embrace of another person; because mankind was made in the image of love, so in each other is where we often seek it.
If as a result mankind cannot love, then the very thing that makes us human has failed us because we do not know love, cannot find love, and cannot exhibit love. It is a love that is so important to have that it is required before we can ever attempt to define what it means to be human, for humanity itself requires it. That’s why some people just wake up and decide to murder an entire family. They are so imbalanced that they explode, go crazy, and become deranged; they lose track of their humanity, and all because they do not know love.
When mankind loses the ability to love or to be loved by someone else, mankind is no longer human. That’s the power of love, and it is the answer to every question.
I hope you’re not the kind of person to believe everything you watch on the news. At the same time, I hope you’re not the kind of person who thinks everything is a coincidence with no connection to your world. I really hope that you’re not the kind of person who lives in a box, where only certain things are capable of fitting. Everything else is, well, too far-fetched. It is too far removed from your four corners, too much on the crazy side, too fictitious. But as the subtitle states, truth is indeed stranger than fiction.
With the new season of The Walking Dead kicking off, I know that many of you anticipate being entertained. I know that you anxiously await your weekly fix. You wish nothing but to yell at Rick’s decisions. As for The Strain, your hoping the Stragoy hasn’t really gotten away. And with Halloween just around the corner, TWD is right on time. But in all seriousness these are not just TV shows. If you pay attention, very similar events are happening right here in your back yard. Unless of course you live under a rock, in which case you can stop reading now.
Otherwise, let’s start with the synopsis of each show:
The Walking Dead
Waking up in an empty hospital after weeks in a coma, County Sheriff Rick Grimes finds himself utterly alone. The world as he knows it is gone, ravaged by a zombie epidemic. The Walking Dead tells the story of the weeks and months that follow after the apocalypse. Based on Robert Kirkman’s hugely successful and popular comic book series, AMC’s The Walking Dead is an epic, edge-of-your-seat drama where personal struggles are magnified against a backdrop of moment-to-moment survival. A survivalist story at its core, the series explores how the living are changed by the overwhelming realization that those who survive can be far more dangerous than the mindless walkers roaming the earth. They themselves have become the walking dead.
The Strain
A Boeing 767 arrives at JFK and is on its way across the tarmac, when it suddenly stops dead. All window shades are pulled down. All lights are out. All communication channels have gone quiet. Crews on the ground are lost for answers, but an alert goes out to the CDC. Dr. Ephraim “Eph” Goodweather, head of their Canary project, a rapid-response team that investigates biological threats, gets the call and boards the plane. What he finds makes his blood run cold. In a pawnshop in Spanish Harlem, a former professor and survivor of the Holocaust named Abraham Setrakian knows something is happening. And he knows the time has come, that a war is brewing. So begins a battle of mammoth proportions as the vampiric virus that has infected New York begins to spill out into the streets. Eph, who is joined by Setrakian and a motley crew of fighters, must now find a way to stop the contagion and save his city – a city that includes his wife and son – before it is too late.
In both TV shows, the CDC (Centers For Disease Control) has knowledge of a zombie like virus that eventually ensues and becomes an enemy of mankind, turning them into Zombies (or Vampires). The process usually begins with a virus that produces flu-like symptoms, such as fevers, ending in death with the eventual reanimation of the corpse.
“Are you prepared for the impending zombie invasion?”
The Centers for Disease Control posed this question back in 2011 as part of an emergency preparedness program:
“There are all kinds of emergencies out there that we can prepare for,” the posting reads. “Take a zombie apocalypse for example. That’s right, I said z-o-m-b-i-e a-p-o-c-a-l-y-p-s-e. You may laugh now, but when it happens you’ll be happy you read this, and hey, maybe you’ll even learn a thing or two about how to prepare for a real emergency.”
The post, written by Assistant Surgeon General Ali Khan, instructs readers how to prepare for “flesh-eating zombies” much like how they appeared in Hollywood hits like “Night of the Living Dead” and video games like Resident Evil. Perhaps surprisingly, the same steps you’d take in preparation for an onslaught of ravenous monsters are similar to those suggested in advance of a hurricane or pandemic.
While the tone is friendly, and suggests “Zombie Apocalypse” is used as a gimmick to tap into an audience already obsessed with them on TV, it would however become one of many warnings put out by The CDC over the span of a few years. The following year, 2012, The CDC and Homeland Security brought the Zombie Apocalypse back to life:
“The Homeland Security Department warned citizens on Thursday that the “zombies are coming,” and urged them to be ready for a walking-dead apocalypse, The Associated Press reported.The zombie “warning” is part of a public health campaign calling for citizens to be ready for disaster — to know to stock up on food, batteries and water, and to keep extra changes of clothes and medication on hand.”
Again, the tone is humorous and the article warns that Zombie Apocalypse is actually used as part of an emergency preparedness program to help people to be ready for any disaster. It is understood to be a metaphor for emergency preparedness while capitalizing on AMC’s The Walking Dead. But, is this true? I would certainly think so, however I also believe there is much more taking place than CDC warnings of a Zombie Apocalypse. There has also been Zombie-Like activity running alongside these warnings:
Naked Man Chews Other Guy’s Face, Shot Dead by Cops
In May of 2012, a Miami man chewed another man’s face off:
“In a grisly attack that resembled something out of a horror movie, a naked man was discovered in downtown Miami on Saturday, May 26, in the process of chewing off the face of another man. The attacker, who had already devoured the victim’s eyes, nose and ears, growled at a police officer, who shot him several times after numerous orders to desist. The victim was left fighting for his life, with 75% of his face missing. “The guy was like tearing him to pieces with his mouth, so I told him, ‘Get off!’ ” the cyclist, Larry Vega, told Miami’s WSVN 7 News. “The guy just kept eating the other guy away, like ripping his skin.”
Two Zombie Attacks in Texas In Two Days, Zombie Plague Spreads
“On Saturday June 22, 2013 a man who’s friends said he was high on synthetic pot went wild and crazy. He stripped off his clothes and ran around the house on his all fours like an animal growling and screaming. At one point one of his friends locked the back glass screen door when the man went outside and the man screamed and then leaped through the locked screen door through the glass in the upper part of the door. He cut his chest and legs badly and was bleeding badly. He was scooping up his own blood with his hands and pushing it into his own mouth eating it. His friends terrier dog came into the kitchen and the screaming man beat the dog down with his fists and then tore it apart and ate it hair and all. Before the police and paramedics arrived on the scene the man had consumed most of the little terrier dog.”
Strangely enough, this exact scenario was played out for you on the world stage when an episode of The Strain depicted a man, overtaken by the Zombie virus, had eaten parts of his dog.
Second Zombie Attack Sunday June 23 , 2013, Houston Texas
“Police were called to a house on the south side of Houston Texas early on Sunday morning and they found a scene right out of a horror movie. The first officers on the scene said that Otty Sanchez a Mexican Female and a citizen of Mexico was setting on the couch with her throat slashed and bad cuts to her hands and arms. She was screaming and when they finally figured it out she was saying she had killed and eaten part of her 18 month old little boy. A search of the bedroom confirmed this. Police were also able to figure out that the knife wounds on the woman were self inflicted and that some of them were really bad knife wounds.”
But this is just another coincidence. Maybe The CDC is using the Zombie Apocalypse as a metaphor for emergency preparedness. Or maybe not:
Face Eating Attack In China: ‘Dong,’ Drunken Bus Driver, Allegedly Bites Woman ‘Du’s’ Nose, Lips
A woman has been hospitalized in China after a drunken bus driver allegedly attacked her and began gnawing on her face.
The woman, identified as “Du,” was driving near a bus station in Wenzhou on Tuesday when a man ran into the street, blocking her car. The man, a bus driver identified as “Dong,” allegedly climbed onto the hood of Du’s car and began hitting the windshield, according to the Malaysia Chronicle.
Du got out of the car, and allegedly Dong tackled her to the ground, where he began chewing on her face, according to Shanghai Daily. Witnesses say they attempted to pull Dong off of her, but were unable to do so.
Lollapalooza reveller bitten in ‘zombie like’ attack by stranger at Arctic Monkeys gig
“A man has been bitten in a ‘zombie like’ attack during an Arctic Monkeys gig. Ben Lenet was bitten in what police claim is a vicious and unprovoked attack on the first night of the annual Chicago music festival Lollapalooza, which drew crowds of 100,000 people. The music fan is now receiving treatment to ward off infection and HIV. In scenes similar to those on The Walking Dead, Lenet and his friends were watching the band as they were attacked as a group by the ‘zombie’ in question. In efforts to restrain the attacker, who had started choking a member of their group, Lenet put his arm on the man only for him to bite back. He turns around and clamps his teeth into my left forearm,” he told the Chicago Tribune. “He’s fully clamped, he’s coming at me. He’s ripping at me, he was trying to bite through my arm.” The 29-year-old has taken to Reddit to detail the attack and try and root out the assailant in order to try and stop any further attacks saying “I don’t want him to do this to anyone else.”
The Virus
In the TV series The Walking Dead, the characters live in a world overrun by zombies—specifically, zombies caused by a mysterious virus that has apparently infected everyone in the population. The living carries the virus, but when someone dies—whether quickly after being bitten by a “walker”, a human or more slowly due to natural causes—the result is the same: After death, everyone is reanimated as a bloodthirsty zombie.That’s because, as is revealed, the virus is airborne.
The principle that all living people are already infected with the zombie virus was introduced in Season 2 during an adventure to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, where the only remaining CDC scientist—Edwin Jenner—informed Rick of this fact. To date, this revelation has been the central plot point in every Zombie movie / TV show since then in terms of Public Health. “Coincidentally”, The CDC is always at the forefront of combating a virus that starts by giving people flu-like symptoms before turning them into Zombies. We can go over and over again with article after article, news report after news report of people exhibiting Zombie-Like behavior in the real world. Even if you choose not to believe it, it is a fact that people are going around eating other people in strangely similar ways to the Zombies we see on TV, usually beginning from a Virus.
Ebola and The Strain
One of the most obvious examples of fiction and its depiction of real life is the current Ebola virus and the TV show that “conveniently” just ended, The Strain. As previously recounted The Strain, according to FX, tells the story of Dr. Ephraim Goodweather, the head of the Center for Disease Control Canary Team in New York City. He and his team are called upon to investigate a mysterious viral outbreak with hallmarks of an ancient and evil strain of vampirism. The people fall into a deep sleep, like they’re dead, and wake up as a new creature.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), The Ebola virus causes an acute, serious illness which is often fatal if untreated. According to WHO, the Ebola virus disease (EVD) first appeared in 1976 in 2 simultaneous outbreaks, one in Nzara, Sudan, and the other in Yambuku, Democratic Republic of Congo. The latter occurred in a village near the Ebola River, from which the disease takes its name. It is a virus that gives people flu-like symptoms before killing them.
On September 24th, Monrovia, Liberia-based newspaper The New Dawn published an article regarding an unusual occurrence in Nimba County. According to the local news source, two deceased victims of Ebola had mysteriously come back to life just prior to their burials. The strange and sudden resurrection of two Ebola patients had naturally frightened local residents. The story has since then been debunked as false, however, is it really? Have any of us ever actually been over to Liberia since this happened? How do we know it’s false? Oh, I get it, it’s not American Certified. It comes from another country so surely it’s not real.
I began this article by expressing my hope that you are not someone who believes everything you see on the news. Likewise, I equally hope you are not living under a rock. There are many more people with this virus than they’re telling you there are and it is much more serious in Africa than they show you it is. In The Strain, the disease restructures the genetic make-up into that of a new creature; in other words it changes the genetic code. For this reason, the bodies cannot be buried the same way regular bodies are buried, they have to be burned and the head must be severed from the body because it is the strain disease that carries the virus. Likewise, Ebola patients cannot be buried normally, their bodies must be burned:
Ebola bodies must be cremated rather than buried, says Liberia government
“The bodies of Ebola victims must be cremated rather than buried, the government of Liberia has ordered.Hundreds of troops were sent to the capital Monrovia as fears rose over the killer virus being spread through touching the bodies – the local tradition at funerals.Fights broke out between health workers and residents trying to bury another 20 victims yesterday. A further 17 bodies have been found dumped on the streets.“
It is very possible that Ebola carries the Zombie-Like Virus and this is why the bodies must be cremated so that the bodies are not reanimated.
The Media
Of course the media is going to make every story attract a lot more attention for the sake of ratings, after all, this is a business. But that’s just surface information I’m sure we’re all familiar with by now. 9/11 has been proven to have deficiencies in relation to the motive behind it, the alleged “terroristattack” thing, but that doesn’t mean the deaths are fake. It doesn’t mean people did not lose their lives and that it didn’t have a dramatic effect on the life you live today. It just means the purpose behind their deaths is different than what is shown on the television as to why they died. Just because we know the TV shows and News broadcasts seek ratings doesn’t mean we shouldn’t pay close attention to what’s going on around us. I’m sure CNN profited off the Trayvon Martin Case (I’m sure his parents and Al Sharpton did as well), but that doesn’t mean a young man did not die. Nothing is actually irrelevant in this world. Sure, there are lots of distractions yes, but it is not irrelevant in the full scope of things.
Finally, the Ebola Virus looks strangely similar to The Strain virus. Or maybe this is just yet another major coincidence, I’m crazy, and the CDC’s issuing of Zombie-Apocalypse Preparedness tactics has absolutely nothing to do with the CDC’s overwhelming presence in almost every Zombie movie / TV show around today.
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Flashback: CDC warned Americans in 2011 about brain-eating corpses and said ‘If you’re ready for a Zombie Apocalypse, you’re ready for any emergency’
CDC spent staff time organizing a ‘Zombie Preparedness’ website and creating a graphic novella
‘That’s right,’ a CDC website read. ‘I said z-o-m-b-i-e a-p-o-c-a-l-y-p-s-e. You may laugh now, but when it happens you’ll be happy you read this’
Tom Frieden, the embattled CDC director, helmed the agency in 2011 when the campaign went – ahem – viral
Frieden is the subject of several resignation demands since his agency fumbled the first three Ebola cases diagnosed on U.S. soil
The PBS Blog 