I've been a huge music fan all my life, probably a bit too much so. Even today I maintain a YouTube Music subscription, which, according to YouTube Music, gives me access to over 100 million songs.
And then there's my personal collection purchased throughout the years, first on 45's, then LP albums, and finally CD's. I don't recall the last album I bought, but I do remember the first 45. "Cathy's Clown", 1960, $1.02 with tax. A dozen or so years ago, I digitized all the analog LP's along with my 400+ CD's. All 78 GB of it now on my NAS (Network-Attached Server). I can listen to it wherever and whenever I wish. I still have two storage boxes containing around 200 or so 45's. Do I listen enough to justify having bought it all in multiple formats, the equipment to play it, particularly in light of having the YTM subscription? No. But I do so enough not to regret it or to cancel the subscription. Music is my "time machine" connection to, as the Beatles sang, "people and things that went before". A sort of theme song for my interest in the multiverse. What connects you?
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One of my pleasures is discovering new things having to do with parallel universes, increasingly referred to as multiverse. (Yes, I know: "Bill, for God's sake, get a life!)
Some of you may think my multiverse ramblings are about something relatively new. They are not. But I didn't know how not new they were until recently. Hugh Everett, and his 1950's Many Worlds Interpretation theory, is often cited as one of the early champions of the existence of a multiverse. I have read much of that multiple times understanding very little of it. Early in the 19th century, French novelist, Honoré de Balzac, knowingly or not, placed the characters in his novels in situations we might refer to today as the multiverse. And not just once or twice. "Balzac’s La Comédie Humaine, written over a century earlier, already contained the seeds of multiverse storytelling. Comprising nearly 100 novels and short stories, it features thousands of characters who reappear across different works, creating a shared universe that allows for complex narrative interconnections." Harsh Trivedi, Associate Teacher, University of Sheffield, PhD 19th century French literature. Now that I understand. The characters in The Unlived Lives of Raymond Quinn encounter each other in whatever storylines I chose to place them in. The French philosopher, Alain likely would have agreed with that, maybe even, Balzac himself. "The French philosopher Alain wrote that Balzac’s literary universe can sometimes feel like a “crossroads where characters from La Comédie Humaine meet, greet each other, and pass”. This creates a sense of disjointedness, due to its lack of strict chronological order, allowing readers to enter Balzac’s universe from any of the nearly 100 novels or short stories." Harsh Trivedi, Associate Teacher, University of Sheffield, PhD 19th century French literature. However, Balzac may not have liked the word "disjointedness". I'm ok with it. Raymond's story, and the sequel I'm working on now, are meant to feel disjointed at times. As I prefer to think of it, as though I've placed readers in a word "maze", forcing them to not just read words, but to also interpret their meaning. Readers will occasionally end up in word maze "dead ends". If they wish to exit the maze having understood the story they must reread brief parts to find a new "thought path" to follow. I had to be very careful writing Raymond's story to ensure I did not create a word maze with no exit. I have to be even more careful writing the sequel, because of occasional references to Raymond's story. Balzac did that, I'm hoping I have, and will again with two sequels. I've spent the last month in downtown Seattle, the location where Raymond Quinn's story begins and ends. Arguably the entire story takes place in Seattle since Raymond has been dead for over 46 years. He and all the places he goes are in the multiverse.
On the pier in downtown Seattle waterfront is Ye Olde Curiosity Shop, a store that has existed in various forms since 1899. Ye Olde houses a collection of kitschy stuff designed to attract and appeal to tourists. It does this quite well having been in business for over 125 years. I was first introduced to it as a 12-year-old kid on vacation with my parents during a brief visit to Seattle before we caught the ferry to Vancouver BC. The next time I was there, and multiple times since, first happened eight years later as a soldier just back from Vietnam, assigned to a self-propelled howitzer unit stationed at army base Ft. Lewis, just south of Tacoma. In there, both visits, and every time since, was the fellow you see pictured in this post. Sylvester. There's an interesting accounting of how Sylvester ended up on display in this glass box. You can read it here if you like. I was there this past Sunday, Sylvester was too. I looked at him thinking how little he's changed, how much I've changed in the 64 years since we first met. I wondered, is his soul is somewhere in the multiverse? If so, and mine is or one day will be, maybe we're connected. Physically we aren't, never were, couldn't be, but when it comes to our souls... A few weeks ago, I quoted an excerpt from a poem by Laurence Binyon, "For The Fallen". It has a place here as well. "They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old: Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn. At the going down of the sun and in the morning, we will remember them." Sylvester is much older than me, however, age has not wearied him a single day. Now me on the other hand... 😑 The image in this post is a portion of what came up when I searched "tired author". I did so because, at the time, I was one and likely will be again in a few hours.
I'm about 11,000 words into the sequel for "The Unlived Lives of Raymond Quinn". Eleven thousand hard fought, hard to come by, pre countless edits words of what will ultimately be fifty to sixty thousand total when done. Each day I try to write around two to three thousand more that are even remotely acceptable before I begin the rewrites. The process usually goes like this. I get up at 5 AM, work out for an hour, shave, shower, dress, and have breakfast. At that point, I feel good to great (it varies when you're 76.) Then it's back to the computer for six to eight hours of writing, which begins by rereading half to all of the last chapter written the day before. (That varies as well depending on how much or little of it I find acceptable the next day.) Somewhere around hour five or six, I begin to feel fatigue. How can that be, you ask? "This isn't roofing or brick laying! You're only typing." I wondered about that too, and have a theory, one backed up by many. There is much to keep track of writing fiction. Details about the characters, their interactions with each other, the story lines I intend for them, etc. None of that is settled in the beginning. I've created a decision tree I use as a guide or outline for the story, but often need to change things as I progress. And that's where the fatigue comes from. If you write fiction, you have two paths you can take. One, create your story outline, stick to it, write, and finish it. No second guessing, no variations. Or two, do as I do and start with a plan, accepting that you will willingly modify any to all of it as you go. When you do you must also rethink everything to that point, some to much of which will require update as a result. I don't know how good your story will be if you follow the first option, but I do know you will be much less tired, finishing much sooner than you will if you follow the second option. My second job after college was as an analyst in Rockwell International's anti-submarine warfare division. One day in 1976, co-worker/friend, Paul, and I were talking about things not related to work. I don't recall how we got on whatever topic caused him to name-drop "Lamont Cranston", but he did, and I had no idea who or what that was about. Paul was shocked I didn't, and went on to explain the following (for those of you who also don't know.)
Lamont Cranston was the alter ego of "The Shadow"; a serial radio show first on the air in 1930. I don't recall if I had even heard of The Shadow, but I do know I had never actually heard the show on the radio. And that's not because I wasn't listening to the radio, I was beginning in the mid '50's. Just not serial radio programs. I was all about R&R on Southern California radio stations KFWB, KRLA, and KHJ "Boss Radio". Paul had a vague recollection of that, but nothing more. So why were we at such cross purposes when it came to radio entertainment? Paul was six years older than me, enough to have listened to radio before TV came along. Me being six years younger than Paul meant I came of age with TV as my primary form of entertainment. No "The Shadow", or any other of the many serial radio shows so popular prior to TV. And that includes one my all-time favorite TV shows, "Gunsmoke", which first appeared on TV in 1955 after a successful run as a serial radio show. I didn't even know it existed until hearing it on SiriusXM decades later. The more Paul and I discussed how different our entertainment experiences were, the more we realized that when it came to entertainment early in our lives, we were from different universes. Raymond Quinn would relate to that. We don't live very long before losing a family member, a friend, even a pet, we will never forget. How we feel when this happens when we are young versus as we grow older, differs only in the intensity of what we remember about them.
Looking back, I now know that my struggle to make sense of their passings was far more difficult for me then than it is today. Why is that? I now understand, I didn't lose them, they were never mine to lose. The timeline of their mortal lives were simply different than mine. That isn't what I wanted, but as a common summary of a biblical proverb says . . . "Men plan, God decides." Laurence Binyon's poem, "For the Fallen", includes the following stanza. "They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old: Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn. At the going down of the sun and in the morning, we will remember them." I take comfort in that enough to now believe that is, in part, what compelled me to write Raymond's story. If you've never seen the '50's Topper TV sitcom or any of the three Topper movies, this may not mean much to you. The premise is this.
George and Marion Kerby are killed, become ghosts, haunting stuck-in-his-ways, Cosmo Topper. I watched the first movie, 1937's "Topper", as recent as yesterday on TCM. Well done with special effects ahead of the time. But I've never thought much more about the concept until now. George and Marion can communicate with anyone they wish while choosing to limit themselves primarily to Topper. In that way, they and Topper are bridging the gap between the living and the dead. Raymond Quinn did so too with those he would have known in alternative lives he would have lived had he made different choices. We all have memories of friends, family, and acquaintances no longer mortals. And whether or not we realize it, we all have relationships with people we would have known had we made different choices. It doesn't take much, just a little imagination, to connect on some level with both. How could I not read an article (or attempt to read since I am not a physicist, a computer scientist, or anything remotely close to either) with a title such as that?
The title of this post comes from a December 10 article in Techcrunch regarding Google's latest quantum computer chip, Willow. It quotes from an article written by Hartmut Neven, Founder and Lead, Google Quantum AI, entitled, "Meet Willow, our state-of-the-art quantum chip". Given what Dr. Neven had to say, an understated title if there ever was one. Is Willow fast? According to Neven, yes, you could say it is fast. "Willow’s performance on this benchmark is astonishing: It performed a computation in under five minutes that would take one of today’s fastest supercomputers 1025 or 10 septillion years. If you want to write it out, it’s 10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 years. This mind-boggling number exceeds known timescales in physics and vastly exceeds the age of the universe. It lends credence to the notion that quantum computation occurs in many parallel universes, in line with the idea that we live in a multiverse, a prediction first made by David Deutsch." When it comes to proving/disproving the existence of universes parallel to the one in which we live, the debate continues. However, that wasn't and isn't my concern. The Unlived Lives of Raymond Quinn, and soon to be sequels, asks the reader to imagine what their infinite lives in the multiverse might be like. Think about yours. ![]() "There's something about old cars that bring you back to a place and time when things were just better." Mark Towle, Owner Gotham Garage Should the theory of parallel universes be disproven, there are other ways to transport to earlier places and times, unlived lives included. One of the better ones is old cars. My first was a then (1966) thirteen-year-old Studebaker Commander. Cost, $300, just under $3,000 in today's money. I loved that car! I pushed it more than drove it. I couldn't afford the gas and insurance, not to mention major repairs, of which it needed many. But it was mine, I loved it, I'll never forget it. It took me on dates to drive-ins, with friends to the beach, to interviews for jobs I rarely got for money I needed to keep it. My car looked everything and nothing like this one. In my opinion, a design way ahead of its time in 1953, 1966, and beautiful even today. Nothing like this one because of everything my car needed, very little of which I could afford. And one day, less than a year after buying it, I faced reality and sold it to a man who told me he would take good care of it. And he did too, returning less than a year later to show me what he had done. Engine rebuilt, interior, which was in good shape when I had it, refreshed, new tires, brakes, and shocks. No more pushing. Everything I wished I could have done for it. There is much more about 1966 I don't recall than there is that I do. However, there's little about that Studebaker that does not come rushing back to me whenever I think about our way too brief time together. I'm living the life I chose, no regrets, occasionally in mine and my first car's lived and unlived lives. Online book reviews, particularly those on Amazon, the undisputed giant of book marketing, are indispensable. But the tsunami of fake reviews could change all that.
So what is Amazon doing to correct the problem? First consider what the US Federal Trade Commission has done. This past August, the FTC announced a new policy meant to identify and punish those publishing fake reviews. I hope it works, but it will come down to how effective is law enforcement. Amazon knows this is a problem they must address as well, which I assume they believe they are doing with a recent revision to their review policy. The following is the lead statement of that policy, you can review it all by clicking on the link. "How We Keep Reviews Trustworthy and Useful To ensure only genuine customers post reviews, we have submission requirements. Only customers who have spent at least $50 on Amazon in the last 12 months can submit ratings and reviews." That will help by only allowing reviews from those who have bought something on Amazon. But how it prevents those who buy anything other than the book or product they wish to review is beyond me. The Situation in Australia A woman living in Australia bought The Unlived Lives of Raymond Quinn from Amazon Australia. She contacted me, to say she enjoyed it, tried to review it, and was prevented from doing so because she was less than two dollars Australian from the fifty dollar minimum requirement. So she bought a second copy to be used as a gift, and tried again to leave a review, and again was prevented from doing so. She called Amazon and was told she had two accounts in her name, neither of which had the amount required to enable her to leave a review. In total, the two exceeded the fifty dollar minimum, separately they did not. She requested that since both accounts were in her name, they be combined. Amazon refused siting "policy" as the reason. I benefit from an additional book sale, but the value of that woman's review would have been much greater. She's not happy, I'm not happy. Amazon, are you sure you don't want to take another look at your entire fake review policy? |
AuthorIn addition to writing, William Matthies' accomplishments include earning a lifetime ban from Catalina Island at 13, viewing Earth from 80,000 feet during a Mach 2.5 flight in a supersonic Russian aircraft, and remaining an absolute beginner after “playing” guitar for more than three decades. Archives
February 2025
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