“Q” AND WHAT I DIDN’T S“A”Y

I would contest that the second challenging part of creating an online persona is simply getting started. Creating an image that is not only professional, but that seamlessly correlates to the particular brand you’re attempting market. However, the most challenging part of creating an online persona, by far, is doing it yourself without the skill and expertise of a trained and qualified managing agent and/or publicity firm to back your untested efforts as we creatives, more often than not, are incapable of realizing that this persona is a key part of a business model.

In contemplating the aforementioned and given the many author interviews I've been asked to take part in, I often reflect on the many incidences where I've wanted to honestly answer an interviewers question. So, without further delay, here is part [one] of a series I call: “Q” AND WHAT I DIDN’T S“A”Y.

Q: So, Mr. Kuykendall, how do you prepare for a strong writing session?

A: I masturbate, clean up, and then eat some Twizzlers. I love them damn things.

Pragmatic author A.K. Kuykendall has a passion for writing conspiracy, espionage, horror, and suspense literature that blend the concepts of fact and fiction. For more information on his projects, visit https://www.thewriterofbooks.com/list-of-works/ or, to email the author directly for Q&A on this post, write to info@thewriterofbooks.com.

THE FUTURE OF HOLLYWOOD IS LEGION M

Our children Kal-El (13 years old) and Jor-El (12 years old), using their savings, are proud new co-owners of the first fan-OWNED media company: LEGION M. Collectively they own exactly 120 shares. Your mother and I are truly proud of you two for not only making our lives worth living but that you, instinctively, have the gift of foresight. The word foresight is made of two parts: fore, which means "before," and sight, which means "to perceive." People often perceive things with their eyes: this is vision, or sight. But vision can also describe what someone thinks will happen in the future — and foresight is planning for things before they happen.

You guys have always been forward thinkers just like your crazy ass daddy. You’re clearly smarter than we are because the life your mother and I have managed to build for you is so comfortable that I bet you're telling yourselves daily, “hell, we got ourselves a pot to piss in. Shit, we got a lot of pots to piss in. We can throw caution to the wind. We have the luxury of tossing our money around to see what sticks. We can afford it.” You see, smarter.

Again, congratulations guys. However, the mortgage payment is due soon and we could have used that money. I’m just saying. Kidding (?)

Pragmatic author A.K. Kuykendall has a passion for writing conspiracy, espionage, horror, and suspense literature that blend the concepts of fact and fiction. For more information on his projects, visit https://www.thewriterofbooks.com/list-of-works/ or, to email the author directly for Q&A on this post, write to info@thewriterofbooks.com.

ITS GOT THE WHOLE WORLD IN ITS HANDS (BOTH A MESSAGE AND AN UNENDING ROLL CALL FROM LUCIFER ITSELF)

The following piece was inspired by the utter sadness on display within the image below. If you are not moved by the man sprawled on the pavement, then you are, no doubt, a wilted flower; the very same people in the image both walking about and those who're seated at those tables eating good and sipping their spirits.

Time is tick, tick, ticking away. How many souls will I capture today? Will they be a challenge or will they be given? Only time will tell as the clock keeps tick, tick, ticking. Your god has arrived with enough hatred for y’all, with enough evil for the big and small, so come one, come all. I will shred your souls and place them in my satchel, call you a settler and make you my peddler. Come one, come all, come stand behind your god. I will lead you into the darkness of Earth's end. Come one, come all, my wilted flowers, come claim your title, speak out and cheer it. Come one, come all, let’s have a ball, my wilted flowers . . . Sweet, Unconquerable Spirits.

If you are not moved by the man sprawled on the pavement, then IT has already placed your name in ITS satchel, called you a settler and made you ITS peddler. You are one among ITS legion of unconquerable spirits, in Hell; entirely blind to the fact that the man sprawled on that pavement WAS your pathway to Heaven.

Pragmatic author A.K. Kuykendall has a passion for writing conspiracy, espionage, horror, and suspense literature that blend the concepts of fact and fiction. For more information on his projects, visit https://www.thewriterofbooks.com/list-of-works/ or, to email the author directly for Q&A on this post, write to info@thewriterofbooks.com.

THE CONFESSIONAL (A SHORT STORY OF BIBLICAL PROPORTIONS)

The Vatican owns $35 billion in assets yet they can't seem to solve child poverty. When it comes to their priests' sexual exploitation of children, however, they happen to be pretty damn proficient at using their vast holdings to pay off victims of their irreverent deeds.

The Catholic Church recently paid $213 million to 4,445 children sexually abused by pedophile priests in Australia, but (and this is not hyperbole) this is far from a one-off...

[Los Angeles, July 14, 2007: $660 million. 508 victims received an average of $780,000 each. Perpetrators included 221 priests, brothers, lay teachers and other diocesan church employees.]

[San Diego, Sept. 7, 2007: $198.1 million. 144 victims received an average of $825,000 each. Perpetrators included 48 priests and one lay coordinator of altar boys.]

[Oregon Province of the Jesuits, March 25, 2011: $166.1 million. 500 victims received an average of $199,000 each. Perpetrators were not identified.]

[Orange, CA, Dec. 2, 2004. $100 million. 91 victims received an average of $659,000 each. Perpetrators included 31 priests, 10 lay people, two nuns and one brother.]

[Boston, Sept. 9, 2003. $84.25 million. 552 victims received an average of $92,000 each. Perpetrators included 140 priests and two others.]

[Covington, KY. Jan. 9, 2009. $79.082 million. 243 victims received an average of $254,000 each. Perpetrators included 35 priests.]

[Wilmington, DE. Feb. 2, 2011. $77.425 million. 150 victims received an average of $310,000 each. Perpetrators were not identified.]

[Portland, Ore. April 17, 2007. $71.45 million. 169 victims received an average of $342,000 each. Unclear, although diocesan bankruptcy filings list 11 priests as perpetrators.]

[Los Angeles, Dec. 1, 2006. $60 million. 45 victims received an average of $800,000 each. Perpetrators included seven priests.]

[Oakland, CA. Aug. 5, 2005. $56 million. 56 victims received an average of $600,000 each. Unclear, although court records name two priests.]

The Roman Catholic Church is synonymous with child sexual abuse. I owe nobody an apology for saying this because it is the truth. Cases of child sexual abuse and subsequent cover-ups committed during the 20th and 21st centuries by Catholic priests, nuns, and members of the Roman Catholic Order have led to numerous allegations, investigations, trials, and convictions. And with billions continually being paid by the church to settle damning claims around the world- I just knew I had to shame each and every one of these pedophile priests and their perfervid crime enablers in the only way I know how to do it—speaking truth to power through the art of unhindered storytelling. After all, fiction uniquely teaches us about our own stories and seeks to inform, unlike any other medium due to the fact that fiction is often closer to the truth than what surrounds us on a daily basis.

The story I’ve written may be a hard-hitting and uncomfortably probing tale, but it’s minuscule in comparison to the real horrors experienced by those that have suffered at the hands of these men and women of God- boys and girls, some as young as 3 years old, with the majority between the ages of 11 and 14.

The Confessional (a short story with a peerless message) is an execrable horror parable that will take the reader on a surreal journey into the warped psychosis of a pedophile priest and into the spiritual battle a child, nonetheless, is left to confront alone.

Pragmatic author A.K. Kuykendall has a passion for writing conspiracy, espionage, horror, and suspense literature that blend the concepts of fact and fiction. For more information on his projects, visit https://www.thewriterofbooks.com/list-of-works/ or, to email the author directly for Q&A on this post, write to info@thewriterofbooks.com.