Supereptitious Saturday

sur·rep·ti·tious
/sərəpˈtiSHəs/
Adjective:   
Kept secret, esp. because it would not be approved of.



You know the old saying...big brother is watching.  That's the topic of today's blog...secrets.

How well do you keep a secret?

I've kept many things secret for decades. "Escape from Second Eden" was based on true events thinly veiled fictitious character changes to protect the innocent and the guilty.  Of course, a percentage of this novel is pure fiction.

It took thirty years before I let the light into my closet of horrors from my childhood. When I first approached my father about writing about what happened in Ceylon he simply told me to write it as fiction. When you work in clandestine services a lot of things are kept secret. Half truth, innuendo, and sometimes blatant lies are the result. So how honest are you? How honest should you be? How much can you talk about? These are every important questions.

When my little sister read the initial copy of Escape from Second Eden, she cried. She remember each and every incident no matter how young she was at the time. She said she had never talked about it because she didn't know what we could or couldn't say. She like me stuffed it all deep inside until it poisoned the soul because of the repression. I spent years in therapy for traumatic stress syndrome because of past incidents and present. There is catharsis in writing. It brings the boogie man front and center out into the open, and then evaporates in the light.

As an author I pull from all sorts of areas to spark ideas, hours of research, and then just plain out creative juices to write an intriguing story. One that makes you wonder...did it really happen? Could it really happen? Wait a minute, I can relate to that. I know that feeling.  These are all things readers have said to me about what I have written.

I have heard the conspiracy theories on online search engines being monitored. Somewhere there is a huge telecommunications computer geared for keywords. It makes me wonder. I know the internet is not private...look at what you can google today compared to ten years ago...just about everything. It sure saves time for writers doing research. I remember the old days of having to go to the library or the bookstore to find information. Today's it's just a couple taps on the keyboard and voila! you have it.

This made me think of what I have actually researched on the internet in the past few months...

Survival guides
Survival supplies (food and other stuff)
Self-sufficiency
Weapons of all types nuclear down to hand guns and ammo (how to make them and use them)
Maps
Paranormal activity
Solar power (Everything)
Espionage (past and current)
Foreign languages such as Russian and Chinese
Zombies
CDC
Child abuse
Candies
Bullying
Tea Parties
Occupy Wall Street
Dying with Dignity (Right to Die laws)
Legislatures of various states
Missile silos (layouts and designs)
Murder scenes
Assassinations
Martial Arts
Hand-to-hand combat
Medical information (all types including surgeries and treatments)

Not to mention videos I've streamed. It was all done in research for this or that novel. Innocent right? Maybe not when you look at the list and put it all together. Muaaaahhhh!

Now, if there is a BIG BROTHER watching...I'm in deep trouble.

Keep writing and loving the Lord.