I hate reading a lot of stereotyped, sweeping generalizations about any one group of people. There are always the few who caused the stereotype to come into being, and there are always more people grouped together under one label who just don't fit all the negative (or positive) expectations. Like "gypsy" meaning mystical nomad or the ol' "White Me Can't Jump" trope.
From what I hear, a lot of the negative views of Appalachia exist because a large number of people still live up to (down to) the stereotypes.
On the same morning (Monday) I was toggling from one screen to another. A post about Viginians (more than 20,000) marching to the Richmond in support of their right to bear arms; Twitter abuzz with misinformation about them; a local writing honestly about the pros and the cons, without passing judgment (thank you Rhonda), and at the same time, fiction full of guns and mercenaries on my mind. I had been reading, writing about, and Army veteran, outdoorsman, craft-beer brewer, and author Ken Lizzi. And so two apparently unrelated themes fused in my mind and became another weird Steemit post I wouldn't want my daughter to read.
Would you disarm this man?
If yes, can you articulate why?
Ken Lizzi is an author my daughters would never read,
and I normally won't touch military fiction or battle scenes myself, but--but--but--we live in a world where weaponry and warfare, much as we hate it, are not going away any time soon. It's like 
I wish nobody had guns. Correction: I wish nobody needed guns.
I'm grateful to those who know how to use guns and will do when called upon to oppose evil. This is a big and messy topic, so let's skip ahead to the great stories about warriors and the people who write these tales.
Back to Ken Lizzi
The ring of authenticity in his prose, his characters, his battle scenes, is not just some gift from The Muse. He's been there, done that. He'll go back and do it again just to refresh his memory. His writing is #real.
Some days you just need to punish innocent steel plates and sheets of paper. And as a writer, it is good to remind yourself of the sounds, smells, and feel of firearms. You think, 'I really ought to go back and revise that scene, get in at least a mention of the noise.”
Home on the Range
What made me think of this apparently random connection to armed civilians down south? This post from
... my old hometown in Southwest Virginia has organized a militia.
... The Bubba Army was “raised on shotgun.” Those guys and gals know how to acquire weapons, how to shoot them, and how to modify them. .... gun-hating liberals won’t stand a chance. People will die, folks.
Like Rhonda, I'm not blogging about #guncontrol here. I'm telling the world about authors who "get it." Authors who've been there, winced and cringed at that, and employ words to get real in fiction.
Rhonda is a stellar author, hard-hitting, telling the truth in the guise of fiction. Her novel [High Kill] is free for a limited time on Amazon. (Yes, she uses a pen name.) High Kill by Diane Ryan
High Kill shows a part of America that nobody wants to see, but see it we must. It's been a long time since journalist Diane Sawyer reported on this part of the country.
As
Those who are oblivious to the social decay in our region may be appalled by my portrayal of modern Appalachian culture. Very few plot points in this novel are pure fabrication.... behind every twist and turn in this story is truth...
Click below for my full-length review of High Kill:
Authenticity. Gut-wrenching, blood-sweat-and-tears, barely coming out of it alive, but living to tell of it.
These are the authors I read and love. [1]
Guns and Heroes, Americans and Bubbas:
My mission is to remind the world that good men and quintessential Americans still exist--armed, or not armed. Read any Ken Lizzi novel, and each hero manifests the decency and sense of ethics our Founding Fathers promoted. Revolutionary armies (with mercenaries and militias) fought with their lives to uphold these values. I'm not a flag-waving zealot or blood-red patriot, but I'm an optimist and firm believer in freedom. Millions of good people have died to protect it - Our liberties we prize, and our rights we will maintain.
I blogged about Ken's books a few days ago, so instead of repeating myself here, I'll invite you to look here:
Hollywood needs to give us Ken Lizzi movies
Read more about this author (and his weekly blog!) at kenlizzi.net
If Ken Lizzi has a quest it is to help infuse a pulp sensibility into 21st Century fiction. He is a writer determined to provide literature a shot of two-fisted fabulism. Blame Robert E. Howard. Blame Raymond Chandler. Blame Fritz Leiber. The list goes on; there is plenty of blame to go around. Ken isn’t one to judge a book by its cover, but a depiction of a sword, a ray-gun, or a dragon on the front of a yellowing, dog-eared, musty-smelling used paperback guarantees it a fair hearing. Maybe a stint in the military helped the mission. Maybe his day job as a lawyer for a comic book company assisted. Maybe his years exploring Appendix N helped (it hasn’t helped his bank account nor left much space on his bookshelves.) The jury is still out on whether or not the homebrewing was of any use.
This is the kind of author #Pulp-Rev celebrates.
- Good vs Evil
- Good Guys Win
- Good people do the right thing
- Good people die fighting for justice, but that's the price of freedom.
And this brings me back to :
The Power of a Bullet
What I see happening in America is people trying to replace the power of a vote with the power of a bullet. Yes, generations of bad choices have sent the U.S. spiraling down a drain of self-sabotage that may be impossible now to recover from. But do we really think we’re going to shoot our way out of this? Seriously?
This is one woman's perspective, but she's lived there, "been there," but as guns go, she hasn't "done that." She moved to Europe instead. Common sense is not lacking here, even if you may think her tone is unduly alarmist:
People in America are angry. The great democracy has failed so many of them and the values of our forefathers no longer stand. There is tremendous internal conflict and drama sells newspapers, so there is zero motivation for major media to be socially, ethically, or morally responsible for ameliorating any of it. Elevating current tensions to a fever pitch is definitely on the itinerary...
One thing I haven’t heard widely discussed in media or in everyday conversation is the imbalance of firearm distribution in the U.S. Those against the right to bear arms are probably not armed. Those who stand with the N.R.A. and support the Second Amendment are most likely armed to the teeth. In the first wave of domestic conflict, if shots are fired....
Highly Recommended Reading, Folks!
Read the whole post post.
(How did I miss it, a month ago? I need notifications. Or bots that alert me to what's new from authors I follow on various social media. Steemit is not as user-friendly as Twitter and Facebook.)
Our Liberties We Prize, Rights We Maintain Drink Coaster from zazzle.com
How many novels since "Reunion", and still counting?
[1] Amazon, please note that I'm not violating your Friends and Family policy when I discover a book -- via Amazon, in most cases, and usually via Kindle -- and proceed to become an avid fan of the author. Ebooks are part of the same culture that gave us social media. I can't stalk Dostoevsky or Jane Austen on Twitter, but I can follow @KenLizzi and @DianeRyanRK there, and if they "Follow Back" or respond to my tweets, should you, Amazon, penalize these authors--and your own share of their book sales--by purging every review I ever posted over a ten-year period? (Update: my "privilege" of posting book reviews has been restored, but the purged reviews have not been. If I happened to copy a review over to Goodreads, I can try re-posting it at Amazon, but it's hit or miss whether the reviews get accepted--even though I'm not friends or family; I'm an honest fan of these authors!
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https://www.steemhousepublishing.com/