Jeffrey Alexander Martin

How many books can you read at the same time? One? Two? Three? At what point do you get confused? Was John is this book . . . or was it that book? Have you even tried it? I was afraid to read multiple novels at the same time, until I fell in love with it. In my past life, before I started writing, I would read multiple non-fiction books and a single fiction book at the same time. This would fluctuate between five and ten books, ten was pushing my limit for working memory, but five was easy. And, it was awesome. I made so many unusual and unique connections. If you're reading a book about how humans imitate each other in almost every way, including their desires (called mimetic desire from the philosopher Rene Girard), and a book about business strategy, and a memoir, your mind will connect them. The human mind is incredibly flexible and can connect any two ideas. This is called relational frame theory. Try it, how are a pig and a chair like each other? Give yourself a li...

I've been experimenting with different ways to make money by writing. It's been a bit of an interesting adventure on its own. I teach English online to kids in China, and some of the parents like the fact that I write, and there is a good business opportunity there, but that's not exactly writing. There's also a good business opportunity in making websites for authors, but that's also indirectly related. There are four opportunities that are directly related to making money with my writing and one has been a bit different than I expected. Amazon is an obvious way to make money by publishing works. I haven't done that yet. I did get a public domain book turned into an ebook and put it on Amazon. The formatting didn't really come off right, and I found one major typo around a year after I put it up. I think I've made several dollars in the last few years off of that endeavor. I will include the link to the book. It's a good book, but I recommend...

What sticks with you after you read a story? Or hear one? Or watch one? Do you remember the plot, or the setting, or the character, or the conflict, or the emotion, or reversals, or revelations? I don't think any of these concepts in themselves work, they don't quite explain it, they don't satisfy me. Scenes and stories; these seem to be the only two words that describe something that is truly memorable. They are both wholes, while every other concept I mentioned is only a partial. The general idea of the story and the specific idea of the scene work hand in hand. I haven't read or watched "Fight Club" in a few years, but I still remember the story and some scenes. Let's see what I remember. A man hates his boring life, hates his horrible job, and has really bad insomnia. He develops a split personality, that he doesn't know about, Tyler Durden. Tyler Durden is everything he wishes that he was. The two personalities start fight clubs and the cl...