Friday, September 11, 2015

Remembering...

While you're "REMEMBERING" 9/11 today, take a moment as well to remember how our nation reacted to that day, with paranoia, racial hatred, and the most childish kind of temper tantrum. We invaded a country that had nothing to do with it and killed hundreds of thousands all in the name of getting revenge. We tortured thousands of innocent people and we bombed innocents in numerous countries.


Take a moment to remember that because while we cannot change what others do to us we can certainly change how we choose to respond. And that is the lesson we all should learn.

Tuesday, May 05, 2015

Heaven Enough: Finding stories on the PCT without going "Wild".

With the success of Cheryl Strayed's "Wild," authors are finding their inspiration along the Pacific Crest Trail.


Since the 1920's, the idea of the Pacific Crest Trail has inspired people from around the world to achieve more and to be more while connecting to the western crest of the United States and the Earth from which they were born. Before its completion in 1993, the Pacific Crest Trail (or PCT) saw thru-hikers from around the world. Then, in 2012, Cheryl Strayed popularized the PCT with her dynamic memoir, Wild.

Strayed's is not the only story on the PCT, however. There are, in fact, thousands.

Recently, the PCT has also begun inspiring novelists to place their stories amongst the switchbacks and water caches of the trail. One of those writers is Ken La Salle, who placed his romantic tale of lost souls in the first stretches of the trail, giving it the name Heaven Enough. The title refers to a poem left by the wife of the story's protagonist, after she suffers an untimely death. "What would it be like if I had Heaven Enough," it reads. When Matt, now a widower, takes to the trail to leave the ashes of his wife, he is met by a woman just as shattered by life as he. Her name is Heather.

Without the crucial ingredient of the PCT, this might become just another love story. But it is the PCT that tests them, that breaks them down even more, that takes from them everything but who they truly are. That is, after all, the power that the thru-hiking experience provides, a method of stripping away all the nonsense of everyday life. Novels placed in this environment benefit from this power in an environment as uniquely American as the Pacific Crest Trail.

Heaven Enough has been called "a strong narrative of redemption and hope" and "the perfect book to curl up with on a rainy day" by reviewers. One reviewer wrote: In a journey of self-reflection, Ken La Salle asks the one question we never really ask in marriage: do we really know the person we love most? In the heart-wrenching and sometimes comical journey of Matthew (Matt) Murphy, Mr. La Salle shows us through tragedy, anger, remorse, and grief one can find their soul and true purpose in life in the least likely places.

La Salle is an avid hiker and the author of several books including The Wrong Magic (WiDo Publishing, 2014), the forthcoming memoir, Climbing Maya (Kal-Ba Publishing, 2015) and Dynamic Pluralism, a revolution in ethics (Kal-Ba Publishing, 2015). As a lifelong resident of Southern California, he has hiked sections of the PCT and looks forward to undertaking his own thru-hike very soon.

You can find Heaven Enough in ebook and paperback from Limitless Publishing (http://www.limitlesspublishing.net). Ken La Salle can be reached through his website at www.kenlasalle.com.

Tuesday, April 07, 2015

Nestor...


This morning, I learned about the loss of someone I haven’t spoken to since possibly 1983. And yet, this was a person who had at times been my closest friend, my mentor, and the only other person who knew what I was going through.

His name was Nestor Tajalle. He was one year older than me and one grade higher.

When I entered Valley High in 1980, he was already established prominently on Valley’s stage. He had a voice too large for the school’s theater. He possessed a talent too large for the entire school. There was something great about him, even in our little corner of Santa Ana, a magnitude that was undeniable. Yes, he was physically large but that’s not what I’m talking about.

Nestor embodied all the qualities that make theater great. Sure, his performances were huge and his voice clear as some perfect bell but he also possessed a terrific generosity of spirit that I’ll never forget. When I was cast in my first play, in November 1980, I worked right alongside with Nestor. I remember him telling me to remember that nobody else knew anything I didn’t know. They were guessing, too. He would share with me my best qualities, always the ones I was too embarrassed to embrace. When I made a misstep, in theater or in life, he would let me know – always very gently – where I went wrong.

I needed Nestor because I needed someone to believe I could be great, too. As I rose on our school’s stage, Nestor and I found ourselves working together often. And there was no one better. He made me better, and I needed that because I wasn’t all that terrific.

We spent three years performing together, and there is something of those three years that anchors the core of who I became. Those years were invaluable; it just took me 30+ years to understand it. It took Nestor’s death to understand it.

When 1983 came, so did Nestor’s Senior year. His sadness over losing the most plum spot on Valley’s stage took the shape of what I misinterpreted as hubris. I won’t kid you; I thought it was ego. Nestor had an ego nearly as large as my own. He had every right to it. We had both been chronic scene-chewers but when his Senior year came and Nestor took every opportunity to milk every moment out of every performance, I am ashamed to say I thought he was showboating.

And we got into a fight.

And Nestor wasn’t the kind of person to do anything halfway, so our fight got ugly. And this person who meant so much to me, I allowed to pass out of my life because I was too embarrassed to do anything else. I spent more than 30 years in that embarrassment, in that shame. I wish I could tell you that Nestor and I spoke before he died but that was not the case.

When I screw up, I tend to allow my regret to isolate me. I isolate myself. Hell, I screwed up so much at Valley that I still don’t talk to most of the people I knew there. I never dared show my face at a class reunion. Maybe, if I had, I would have met Nestor. Maybe, if I had, we would have realized how silly our distance really was and I would find myself, today, thinking not about the wasted years after that stupid fight. Instead, I would find myself thinking about the friend I had found once again.

One day, perhaps, I’ll find it easier to show my face in a world where I feel so much shame over so many trifling nothings nobody but myself even remembers.

Nestor’s death reminds me that I should. His loss reminds me that I must.

Nestor will always be an inspiration. He will always be the person who believed in me. I am grateful to have that much.

Monday, April 06, 2015

The Ultimate Triple-Feature...


Tonight, I sat down and enjoyed what may be the most original triple-feature of films ever conceived by man. It ran as follows:

  1. The Drawn Together Movie: The Movie!
  2. Before Sunset
  3. The Human Centipede

Drawn Together – comedy. Before Sunset – drama. The Human Centipede – horror cheese. I really believe you can combine these three to make nearly any film out there.

You’re got the inanity of Drawn Together to kick it off. After a few seasons and subsequent cancellation, the creators decided to put out a final “Fuck You” to wrap up the show. It doesn’t get any weirder and funnier than this.

That is followed by the natural romanticism of Richard Linklater’s Before Sunset. This is my favorite romantic film of all time. You just can’t go wrong.

And you wrap up with one of the dumbest of all possible films: The Human Centipede. The Human Centipede shows just how stupid film characters and writers can be and still get paid.

Each film clocked in at about 90 minutes so it didn’t even take too long! Now to go have some fucking nightmares!

Who killed the Nanny State and why we should want it back on this week’s Monday Morning Show...


Wednesday, March 18, 2015

The Most Amazing Book You've Ever Heard In Your Entire Life...

... is NOW AVAILABLE! You can pick it up today on Audible and iTunes.

But, if I were you, I'd get it for FREE by joining Audible today. It is truly like nothing you've heard before.

Click this link to see more!


Take a journey unlike any you've taken before with Illiturature Books. When has a book ever showed you the view from the top of Mount Everest or accompanied you to the moon or picked up lunch? But you'll find all of that and much more in the first title by Illiturature Books: The Most Amazing Book You've Ever Heard in Your Entire Life...just make sure you're worth it.

Take a trip across our known world and beyond! You'll not only experience the highest point on Mt. Everest (nearly), the depths of a live volcano, and even the surface of the moon; you'll also learn a few secrets along the way. You'll discover why ownership isn't as possible as you've been told, why straight lines never are, and why there aren't as many new masterworks from the Renaissance as there probably should be. Discover the pitfalls of aesthetic judgments while somehow also learning the meaning of truth and beauty. And learn how it's not always the lies we are told that cause us problems. Sometimes it's the truth you don't see right in front of you.

Ken La Salle takes his own brand of twisted humor and the shattered remains of what you once thought of as an audiobook to bring you The Most Amazing Book You’ve Ever Heard in Your Entire Life. Enjoy the view.

Tuesday, February 17, 2015

Heaven Enough - available now!

Heaven Enough

Is a poem about longing, about wishing for something more. "What would it be like if I had heaven enough?" it reads.

Matt Murphy reads these words for the first time at his wife's funeral. After a death shrouded with mystery, it is the first time he learns that she wrote poetry. He and Diva were married for nearly twenty years, yet he did not "know" her. A poet and lover of culinary delights, she is struck by a car and killed instantly—randomly—on the wrong side of town.

When her brother, the "monk," appears for the funeral, Matt is set on an unprecedented course. The two find Diva's computer filled with preparations to hike the Pacific Crest Trail. Over 2600 miles from Mexico to Canada...and she was leaving without her husband.

Matt takes it upon himself to hike the trail and sprinkle her ashes along the way. What happens in the first two hours is dumbfounding.

What happens next changes his life forever…


Heaven Enough is available now for the Kindle and in paperback!

Wednesday, February 11, 2015

Waking up and leaving the world of dreams behind...


You ever have a dream that feels incredibly vivid, and you meet someone in that dream with whom you form a very close bond? And the whole dream feels like it lasts a long time, such as a weekend? And once the dream ends you marvel at how great your imagination is and this terrific relationship that your imagination created from scratch…

… until you realize you’ll never see that person again.

Maybe it’s all thanks to this imagination I’ve developed as a writer. I don’t know. But this happened as I woke up this morning and now I find I miss that person terribly – and I really hope I’m not alone in this, that it happens to others as well.

Has this ever happened to you?

Sunday, January 25, 2015

On tomorrow's episode of the Monday Morning Show...

"Anyone who uses a gun is worse than a coward in my book, as is anyone who resorts to violence. They’re terrified that humanity might possibly transcend our childish notion that there’s nothing better than killing. They refuse to face the fact that all this killing brings us no closer towards working together to solve the very real problems that face us – a dying planet, a human family split into competing and downright warring groups, and much worse. All they do is bring pain and death."

Saturday, December 06, 2014

The Wrong Magic launches in just 10 days!...

Good relationships take a certain kind of magic to succeed. But all Alex Petroya seems to have is the wrong magic.

After his wife Stephanie leaves, Alex has one place left to go: the pink house his parents left to him in Cambria, California. After moving in, he discovers a box filled with unfinished stories Stephanie had written during their marriage.

Could finishing them win her back? Alex decides to try but finds writing is harder than it looks. With help from his brother-in-law, Conner, he learns a simple incantation to increase focus. As Alex writes the stories, they come true, creating strange, unnatural events. Then he gets another idea: he will manipulate the stories further to make Stephanie return to him.

With the incantation and the stories, Alex seems to have tapped into a magical combination. But in the end, he finds there is no magic stronger than that of the human heart.

You have just 10 days left to pick up The Wrong Magic in paperback for just $12.70! Click this link to buy a copy - or buy two or three! Christmas is almost here!

And, don't forget, you can download The Wrong Magic for your Kindle! Click this link to pick it up at the special price of just $1.99!

And thank you for your support!

Saturday, November 15, 2014

indian paintbrush - the full-length trailer...

With so much of indian paintbrush coming straight out of my own childhood, it seemed only fitting that I include one of my favorite Thanksgiving stories from so long ago. I hope you enjoy it and pick up a copy in ebook, audiobook, or paperback (coming soon).


Thursday, November 13, 2014

Puppies: Best in Stew... new on Audible...

You may have been asking for a book that combined time travel, political commentary... and puppy killing... sometime when you were really drunk, perhaps.
Well, now it's here! And it's an audiobook!
Pick up a copy from Audible by clicking this link. Or you can find it on iTunes and other online e-tailers!

Wednesday, October 01, 2014

Brown people...

When we see scary people in the middle east, our armed forces carpet bomb them indiscriminately.
When we see scary people in Ferguson, Missouri, our police forces shoot them indiscriminately.
When we see scary kids in hoodies, our Zimmermans murder them.

... and they are all brown...

If you really believe in the commandment, Thou Shall Not Kill... what's the difference between these?

Monday, September 29, 2014

It's the Monday Morning Show for September 29, 2014...

It's the Monday Morning Show for September 29th, 2014! Join me as I talk about young people changing the world and the old people who are trying to stop them. Young people are on the streets in Honk Kong and in Colorado while we're busy wondering if our iPhone's going to bend.



Thursday, September 18, 2014

Facks News reacts to Obama's handling of the Islamic State?...


Just another sign of corporations having too much power…


So, I was out on my morning jog this morning when I passed by a local concrete foundry pumping out tons of toxic smoke. The smoke was so bad, I had to stop jogging because I was coughing so hard. I was coughing so hard, I nearly threw up!

The smell was pretty bad where I lived, a couple of miles away, too.

Vicky suggested I call the AQMD (the Air Quality Management District) to register a complaint, which I did. What I didn’t expect, though, was the lesson I received in just how powerful corporations are in relation to how much they can pollute.

Here’s what I found out.

In order for the AQMD to even speak with the foundry and ask them to please cut down on their smog, they need to have six different homes on the same block all register complaints within the same hour. Then, they have to remain at their home for an AQMD representative to come to their home and verify the smell. This AQMD could take as much as three hours to get there, by which time the wind could shift and the smell could move on.

Can you imagine how difficult that would be to pull off? Six residents from six different homes all have to call at about the same time. Then, they can’t leave their home. They have to wait there – not go to work – and hope everyone else stays put as well. They have to wait for hours, all in the hopes that the wind doesn’t shift!

And this won’t even get them definite action. The foundry could ignore the request. When I asked the AQMD rep what the requirements were for them to take definite action, such as a fine or a court order or anything, she just shook her head and said, “Well, let’s try to get this first. This is hard enough.”

Meanwhile, the foundry owners sit back and laugh at us little people. They’ve made us powerless.

And the sad truth is, so many of us defend our corporate overlords despite all that. And, in the grand scheme of things, this is nothing.

Tuesday, September 02, 2014

I give you the Breakfast Shake!...


I was out driving around this morning and came to the realization that plenty of fast food restaurants give you a breakfast menu but none of them – not a single one (that I know of, at least) offers a Breakfast Shake!

Why is that?

It’s not like they have to resort to something as disgusting or nutritious as putting eggs or sausage in their shake. They don’t even have to resort to putting a frittata in your shake.

Listen: I’ve actually had a Cap’n Crunch Shake at a Carl’s Jr., many moons ago. They have the template. Now, they just need to take it to its next, logical step. Hell, make me a Franken-Berry Shake or a Boo-Berry Shake. Make me a Waffle Shake with real waffle bits and syrup. Make me a Pancake Breakfast Shake with bits of pancake and bacon! It can be done!

It can be done!

It must be done!!!!


… then again, maybe I’m just really in the mood for a shake…

Friday, August 08, 2014

We bomb at midnight... or whenever...

This morning's headlines keep reading - or, at least, I do - that we're bombing Iraq again to help save lives.

Now, you might find this cynical but look at the bright side. We're one of the few nations in history ever to save lives with high explosives, and we're certainly in the minority as far as thinking we can.

You can't solve every problem by throwing money at it, the Republicans have told us all these years but as it turns out you can solve them by throwing bombs... or dropping them. I say, let's solve more of our problems. Bad transmission? Drop a bomb on it! Melting glaciers? Drop a bomb! Heck, I think we should fix Congress right about now. Don't you?

(This rant brought to you by the Peoples Who Ain't Been Bombed Yet For the Bombing of the People not there anymore because we have...)

Saturday, August 02, 2014

Busy at home at work at home together apart together…


I’m sitting at my desk on a muggy, summer afternoon, thinking about my marriage and what a strange place we’re in.

And I thought, What the hell! Let’s write about it!

We have so many friends and people in our families who live “traditional” lives… you know, the marriage, the house, the kids, the crap… I know Vicky likes it because she gets to enjoy it on a “visitor” basis but it’s downright annoying to me. I don’t know why but I’m not that keen on the traditional setup.

Vicky and I don’t have kids and I have grown comfortable like that. Not only is it okay, it’s just fine by me. I don’t think Vicky will ever be completely comfortable and that makes me sad but that’s not how things have worked out and I, personally, am happier going with the flow, accepting what is rather than wishing for what isn’t.

In a way…

You see, as much as many of those we know have gone the traditional route, Vicky and I have surprisingly… not.

We don’t have kids. We’re not really big joiners. We aren’t especially attracted to material objects.

The two of us found what we love long ago and recently – in the past year, at least – things have really begun to take off with what we love. In case I’m being too vague, I’m talking about our jobs.

Yep.

Vicky and I are workaholics.

We both love what we do. Vicky loves running her company’s paralegal team and teaching college courses, etc. etc. etc. I love writing books and recording audiobooks and creating new videos and hosting my podcasts, etc. etc. etc.

I don’t think either of us have ever been so fulfilled in what we do.

… and yet, I’m sitting here at my desk on a muggy, summer afternoon… and I’m considering all of these things… and what does not escape me is the fact that Vicky is about 10-15 miles across town right now, doing her thing.

This strikes me as so weird because there’s no one I love being with more than Vicky. I love taking adventures with her. I love laying in on a weekend morning with her and watching a race. I love going to Target with her to buy Q-tips. I don’t know why this is. I’m just smitten.

And, all the same, we’re spending our days apart. We spend many of our days apart. Because we love what we do.

And we love each other.

I suppose it’s not “traditional.” It may not even be healthy.

But I’m proud of her and she’s proud of me and though I hate when she’s away I love when she comes back. It may sound strange to say we love our lives spent working most of the time without kids and without each other that much… but we do.

And I probably wouldn’t trade it for the world.