C.G.’s Comments (group member since Dec 21, 2011)

C.G.’s comments from the Q&A with C.G. Masi group.

Folks have asked me what the target audience is for the Red McKenna stories. The main target audience is educated adult males and females in their late teens and early twenties, but there seem to be fans in other demographic groups as well.

People in the main demographic target group are at an interesting stage of their lives. They've pretty much completed their formal education, but are learning the lessons of life at a rapid clip.

For example, we talk about corporate management issues a lot, which is something young adults, especially, need to understand. Whether they are building their careers, or building their own small businesses, seeing how others face the issues involved in running a business can help them make sense of what happens in their work lives.

Of major importance to people in this demographic group is sexuality. So, we delve deeply into a range of questions, such as: "With whom do I want to have sex? Why? How? How do I decide what's okay, and what's not?" The styles we explore run from heterosexual through the spectrum to homosexual, and from celibacy through to nymphomania.

The role of technology in society is another theme people in the target demographic must deal with. Everyone from the technogeek to the Luddite is forced to deal with the role of technology in society. Red's mentor and lover, Doc, faces the issue from the inside, as a developer of advanced technology for various customers. He tries to promote positive uses for technology, but often has to deal with negative aspects.

An example of technology's positive use is development of Worm-class robots intended to locate victims of natural disasters, such as building collapses. On the other side, he has to deal with negative aspects when his advanced-design high-speed motoryacht is stolen and used to smuggle drugs.

The issues explored in the series, however, are also of interest to people outside the target demographic group. Older readers, for example, are living in a world where they have to learn to deal with technology that they never heard of before, and among people whose lifestyles were completely taboo when they were growing up.

What I try to do is treat these subjects with sensitivity, humor, and as much wisdom as I can muster.

In the end, I hope readers of all ages, and from all walks of life can find something of interest.

I'll bet I'm no better qualified to write about lifestyle and workstyle issues than you are, or anyone else wandering around the streets. I have, however, had a life for over sixty years, and been working for longer than that. (You're welcome to speculate about what that statement might mean!) I think that qualifies me for SOMETHING!

The Red McKenna series delves into a lot of topics that fall under the Lifestyle and Workstyle rubrics, so it's appropriate to include a discussion topic about them. I'm not going to add much in this particular post, however, because most of what I'd like to say about such topics I've already said in the books.

What I'd like to do in this topic is to hear from you. Comments? Questions?

Something like: "I'm an out-of-work gay, lesbian transexual, but I'm confused. Why can't I find a date?"

Post 'em here, and we'll at least give you a response. You might not like the response. It might be totally bogus and unuseful. But, we'll give it to you, anyway.

This discussion topic is about my favorite series of books: The Red McKenna Series. It's probably my favorite because I wrote (am writing?) them. There's one hard copy volume (Red) in print now, and four ebook-only volumes, which you can download from my website at http://cgmasi.com.

The series follows the adventures of a six-foot, three-inch redhead who has a crack-athlete's body and a mathematical-genius mind. She also has -- to steal a line from the movie "Working Girl" -- a "mind for business, and a body for sin."

That's one of the great lines of all time!

Anyway, the first volume opens with Red (aka Judith McKenna) sitting by the side of the road in her broken-down car wondering why her life is such a pile of shit.

Things start to get better when she meets what turns out to be her soul mate, Doc. Doc is a Zen-master biker with apparently unlimited resources.

Together, they solve mystery after mystery (starting with "Who th' heck is this guy, Doc?") using their combined brains, and the technical resources of Doc's company.

If you want more details, read the books.

Structurally, the first two ebooks are a rewrite of about two-thirds of the hard copy volume, with mostly minor alterations. The third ebook is a major rewrite of the third part of the hard copy version, with a major plot revision that includes a whole new murder mystery.

The fourth ebook takes place two years later, when Red's girlfriend (yeah, Red's bi) gets captured by pirates, and she goes after them for revenge. Almost a year later, the pirates are all dead, and the two women's lives are again in the crapper. Once again, it's Doc who has to pull them back out.

Well, in true Zen-master fashion, he just points out that they already know how to pull themselves out.

Major themes through the series include sexuality (Red's bisexual with a monogamous streak, if you can figure that one out.), spirituality, topics in math and science, technology, corporate management techniques, and managing interpersonal relationships.

All the stories are what folks now seem to be calling "literary novels." That is, they cross genres. Nobody can figure out what kind of novel they are because they combine elements of several.

Hopefully, you'll find them to be a good read.

Let's talk about the creative process. My wife (the Redheaded Lady) can tell you that when I'm not creating, I get pretty weird pretty fast.

When I AM creating, however, I'm pretty happy. So, I create stuff whenever I can.

Like now.

And, it doesn't make a helluva difference what I'm creating. Give me a medium (lump of clay, pencil, paintbrush, old plastic scraps, anything will do), and I'll create two- or three-dimensional art. Give me a word processor, and I'll write something. Stand around and I'll tell you a story.

That seems to be a general theme among creative people. Let them create, and they're fine. Make them stop, and they'll go crazy.

That is the start of the creative process.

Where it goes from there is up to the individual. For me, I just look at what happens to be around me at the time, pick it up, and play with it. It takes no time at all before I'm on the road to creating something. What it is, is a crapshoot.

A NOTE ABOUT WRITER'S BLOCK: I've heard about it, but I don't really know what it is, or how it feels.

As a journalist, writer's block is not an option. There's always a deadline, and it's always close. So, if you don't know what to write, you write ANYTHING, just to get started. After that, everything just flows. Later, if it turns out to be stupid or not to the point, that's what editing is for.

Speaking of editing, I once had a reporter writing for a magazine I was Chief Editor on. Well, I was in that situation almost daily over about twenty-five years, but this story is about a particular one of those times.

Anyway, this guy had been hammering away at the keyboard for a couple of days, after spending much longer than that gathering information about his assigned topic. Then, he turned in his copy.

I read it, and understood every word, and every sentence, and even every paragraph. I just couldn't figure out what the heck he was trying to tell me.

I handed the hard-copy printout back to him, and said: "John, go back and draw up an outline of this article."

"I don't write outlines, anymore," he countered. He'd been in the game for -- a long time -- so this was not an unreasonable statement. Veteran writers don't typically create an actual, physical outline. They do it in their heads.

"It shows," I replied. "Go back and make an outline, and you'll see what I mean."

He came back to me about four hours later with a beautifully written article, and said: "I see what you meant. That first draft was just a jumble of facts and ideas, with no story line."

THAT'S what editing is for.

The other day, someone in an art class I'm taking (Yes, I still take art lessons. I've been drawing for some sixty-odd years, but I recently found someone who's better at faces and hands than me, so I'm working with him to get better.) mentioned that "Somebody said art is the process of correcting mistakes."

I agreed. But, I'll extend that statement to the process of creating anything.

Welcome to my Q&A group. The idea here is to have fun talking about whatever you want to talk about.

Notice that I don't do rules.

This topic is for folks who want other group members to know a little about them. So, please add a comment here saying whatever you want other people to know about you, then join in one of the other topical discussions. You can even start your own!

If you want to know about me, visit my website at http://cgmasi.com. It's a "work" website, with links to my bookstore, where you can link to print publishers selling my books, download PDF copies of titles that are available only electronically, and learn about my work as a technology journalist.

In a nutshell, I'm a crazy old fart who has, over the past six decades, kucked around with just about everything at one time or another, and made money off quite a few. I have advanced degrees in science (astrophysics) and in business, and have less formally studied a lot of other fields, from archeology to zoology.

And, I like to shoot my mouth off about all of them.

See you on the flip side!