Perception Tainted By Delusion

Anyone who knows me knows that I follow the situation with North Korea pretty closely. I do it because I am constantly amazed at how the Kim Jong-Un government persists on being a good example of perception tainted by delusion. North Korea has no money, is low on food, and has what can best be described as a rudimentary military. Yet, Kim Jong-Un insists on trying to get attention on the world stage by pushing his country closer and close to war with South Korea and the United States.

I would imagine, although I do not know for sure, that North Korea feels that China would assist if hostilities ever broke out on the Korean peninsula. But I also have to believe that China's current economic crisis and the fact that Kim Jong-Un has basically brought this trouble on himself would make China prefer to sit any conflict out. Without China, North Korea is essentially helpless, but yet that is not the way Kim Jong-Un sees things.

He has a large military with a significant number of troops, but I look at the North Korean army in the same way that I looked at the Iraqi army. Each army was a collection of a lot of people who were not properly trained, malnourished, and ill-equipped to fight a war. A ground assault against North Korea would probably last the few weeks that it took the U.S. military to get into Iraq and topple Saddam Hussein's government.

In this instance, the lead force attacking North Korea would be South Korea. The Korean War is the war that never ends and, unfortunately, it looks like any ending to this conflict would come at a great cost to the North Korean people. This is a population that is brainwashed into thinking that the United States is just waiting to attack and that Kim Jong-Un is the greatest leader in the world. It is a perception tainted by delusion.

As Kim Jong-Un moves his country closer to a conflict it simply cannot win, I have to wonder how much of Kim's perception is tainted by delusion as well. I would think that, if there is real intelligence to gain on the United States and South Korea, that Kim Jong-Un has access to some of it. But yet he insists on threatening the United States and taking pot shots at South Korea.

I feel sorry for the people of North Korea because there is no way this can end well for them. They are already starving and now they may have to put up with having their homes destroyed and their lives disrupted thanks to the delusions of their leader. In the end, Kim Jong-Un is just another person who proves that perceptions tainted by delusions can not only be wrong, they can be really dangerous as well.

Caleb Devin Book 2 - Trying Out The Interview Format

The entire Caleb Devin Chronicles started out with an idea to have an official interview transcript that involved an interview with a real space alien. I figured that there was an interview with a vampire, so why not a space alien? I just kind of took the idea from there and introduced our bad guy in Book 1. From there I released the interview transcript in Book 2.

After the release of Book 1, I started to realize that using an interview transcript format would be a risk because someone reported Book 1 to Amazon because I did not indent my paragraphs. I am fully prepared for another complaint about the format of Book 2, but I do put a warning in the description for Book 2 that it is not a typical book with all indented paragraphs.

Before I started writing Book 2, I actually did a ton of research on what is included in interview transcripts and what they look like. I learned that each company does transcripts differently, but there was a popular format they all used. Some companies include the material that was edited out of the interview in their transcripts, and some leave the edited material out. To give myself a chance at keeping some of the plot line of the overall story hidden, I decided to leave out edited material in my transcript.

I like the way Book 2 came out and I think it sets up the rest of the series very well. I tried to refrain from revealing too much of the story line in the narrative that follows the interview transcript, but I admit that I wound up putting in way more than I had intended. Still, the overall result was pretty good and I hope the audience likes it.

I am not sure when Book 3 will be coming out, but I can tell you that I have several aspects of the Caleb Devin Chronicles that I want to explore in depth in upcoming installments. I wish I could have just let this one follow its path naturally, but I kind of cheated and mapped the whole thing out right to the end. I hope everyone likes it and I hope you take the time to read books 1 and 2 and leave me some feedback.

Next up are a few projects that include a book with my dear friend Kevin McCarthy that I have been looking forward to starting for two years. Kev and I are both extremely excited about this project and I only hope that I can do it justice.

Thanks for your support and I hope to hear from you soon!