Short courses at the Social Justice Warriors Online College

Social Justice College

We're cheap and we're easy! *

You too can...

A) Feel better about yourself.

B) Be morally superior to others.

C) Build your online reputation  (and potential employment opportunities) as someone who really cares and is passionate about reform.

The upside is you barely have to do anything! All you have to do is a write a couple of online posts, spit out a couple of rants, share a few articles and that's it! You don't actually have to do any real work. You don't have to become a volunteer. You don't have to donate to any charity. In fact, you can do sweet fuck all. At the very most, you will have to go and join a protest. It's another way of doing sweet F.A. and you'll get some great selfies and hashtags out of it!

Busy people

Just like you, we're really busy. For heaven's sake, who's got time to do anything of substantial value that takes time and money? We have full time jobs. We work really hard. There's meeting up with friends for coffee to be done. Go out on dinner dates. Binge the latest series on Netflix. Scroll through hours and days worth of pointless Instagram and Facebook posts and do some online shopping for crap you don't need, imported from slave labour camps in China. No doubt you'll have holidays to plan too! That shit takes time!

All it takes to become a real online Warrior is well, nothing much at all. Come and join the online college and we will teach you how to become a Social Justice Warrior in under 10 minutes! Because that's all there is to it. In fact, now that you've read this post, you've practically graduated! Congratulations! Go forth and keep up the good fight. Remember, it's not a fight unless other people see it, so get out there and start ranting.

Hashtags

Here are some ready made hashtags. 

Just copy and paste. Even less work for you!

# save the planet, free the refugees, free the turtles, ban plastic, more power for women, no coal seam gas, white men suck, raise the pension, say no to poverty, bring down the government, black lives matter, white is shite, end the rape culture, trump is naughty, destroy the patriarchy, capitalism is bad, marxism is the new black, communism is looking better by the day etc.

* (written in late 2019)

More Satire

Satire, cutting edge commentary and a thrilling ride, read the full debut novel. ORDER HERE

Famous After Death - Henry David Thoreau

Famous After Death

Henry was born in 1817 in the United States and died at just 44 from bronchitis after having contracted TB 25 years earlier.

Why was he famous after he died? And what for?

In many ways, he was not of his time. He was a vegetarian and enjoyed nature, not just hiking amongst it, which he often did, but also canoeing. He took many of his philosophies from nature. He isolated himself from the world, which you can read about below. 

He was inspired by the natural world, and also rallied against the injustices of the human realm. 

Aged 38

The Slave Revolt

He was very much a man for political change and spoke out against injustice. He wrote many essays against slavery and often went into battle for various causes such as the case of Captain John Brown. Like Thoreau, Brown was an abolitionist. He and a group of others raided an armory on a farm with the intention of arming slaves. The revolt lasted 36 hours. They were caught. Thoreau gave a pubic speech in his defense, and the cause in general and later wrote the essay A Plea for Captain John Brown. It didn't change matters. Brown was hung. And yet the move towards the Civil War had begun.

Thoreau was also a poet and a transcendentalist, writing about nature and man's place in it. He believed in limited government and individualism. Some saw him as an anarchist. No doubt he was a polemic figure.

"That government is best which governs not at all."   ... "... and when men are prepared for it, that will be the kind of government which they will have."

1861, The year before his death

Thoreau worked as a tutor and in his family's pencil factory, trying to get his writings published. His most famous work is Walden, A Life in the Woods, a book about simple living. He had built himself a small house in the forest near Walden Pond. He stayed for over two years, a type of experiment and wrote this book. You may know the famous quote which is within its pages, " I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life,... see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived."

Replica of the house, and Thoreau in Walden

The Respectable Folks

The respectable folks,—
Where dwell they?
They whisper in the oaks,
And they sigh in the hay;
Summer and winter, night and day,
Out on the meadow, there dwell they.
They never die,
Nor snivel, nor cry,
Nor ask our pity

The respectable folks,—
Where dwell they?
They whisper in the oaks,
And they sigh in the hay;
Summer and winter, night and day,
Out on the meadow, there dwell they.
They never die,
Nor snivel, nor cry,

Nor ask our pity

With a wet eye.

A sound estate they ever mend,
To every asker readily lend;
To the ocean wealth,
To the meadow health,
To Time his length,
To the rocks strength,
To the stars light,
To the weary night,
To the busy day,
To the idle play;
And so their good cheer never ends,
For all are their debtors, and all their friends.

Like many writers and other significant figures in the arts, Thoreau's work grew in stature after his time, with much of his work published following his death in 1862. Some of his friends published his poetry and essays, with one writing a biography in 1873, thus sowing the seeds of legend. Though not as well known today as in the late 19th and early 20th century's, he is still an important figure whose attitudes and philosophies hold just as much sway now as they did then. A man of his time and yet also eternal.

Previous entries in Famous After Death

De

(Don't wait 'til he's dead). ;)  Debut Novel Out Now - Amazon & MyStore

Corona Virus - Life in the First Wave - A Video March/April 2020

Corona Virus - Life in the First Wave

We're all Corona Experts now, but in the beginning it was certainly strange.

This is how it was for me.

(Video below)

Look closely for the Sloth...

An empty playground is a bizarre sight

The Balcony Bar

The Balcony Bar - reverse angle

Corona Days

The 14-year road to publication

 

The Journey Begins

First things first. Lone Wolf World isn't my first novel. 

The first novel I wrote was Borders of Bordavia, a children’s fantasy. It was finished late in 2005. I immediately began looking for a publisher or agent. Thus began the journey. Meanwhile, I kept writing. Over the next seven years I wrote an additional six novels. (all were re-drafted many times over the years).

However, none of my novels, in a variety of genres and age ranges, were ever accepted by a traditional publisher. This despite having had many stories and poetry published in numerous countries. Despite having been nominated for the US Pushcart Prize in 2014. I’ve had short films screened in film festivals. Not major festivals but still something significant for an author. I’ve had short plays produced too. Some I directed. And dozens of artistic short videos from my poetry. And literally hundreds of other videos that I've created.

Hundreds of rejections

I’ve had hundreds of rejections  if not over a thousand. I used to document every place I ever emailed or sent work to. I would also note if they replied or not. As the years went by and email became the preference for publishers and agents, the amount of replies became less and less. Soon, many just closed their doors to submissions, including agents. 

The ones that were open,  you never heard back from. You never knew if they had even looked at it or not. (I eventually doubted that they did).

Writing a novel in 2010. (I handwrite everything, then type it up). 

I stopped documenting after approximately 600 rejections/non answers. I lost track. As we know, the digital age has seen the decline of the traditional publishing model. And the rise of independent authors who can now sell their own books online with sexy looking websites.

I said I would give it a decade to get published. I gave it 14 years. I believe I’m further away now than ever before. I went via Atrilla Press and decided to do it Frank Sinatra style, My Way. 

Rejection Depression

There’s a lot more to it of course. But rest assured, there were countless times when I fell into a dark depression over the amount of rejections I was getting. Especially when I was getting work published and excellent feedback. I just couldn't understand it. I’d even managed to find a small independent press, Ginninderra Press who eventually published four small books. I just couldn’t get anybody else to look at the novels, let alone read them. And let me say, that every single one of those rejections stung. I am not tough. I’m sensitive. I think a good writer has to be. If you're interested in emotions that is. There would be months where I did not send out work, or even write, as I was too down and defeated to go on.

The pen is mightier than the sword. (In more positive days.)

Go your own way

So here I am today, publishing through Atrilla and doing most of the leg work myself. I can't compete with the big boys. I won't get the media and advertising but it’s about getting the work out there. It deserves to be read. And if it doesn’t find many people, so be it. Better to keep putting it out there than have the cover not to my liking or content removed because I don't have the final say. Or be dropped after one book because it didn’t sell enough. 

It’s about making it available now. For you and whomever may come next. I personally believe that they have too much merit to never be read. Now I just want to leave something behind for my daughter to be proud of when she grows up. I know I’m proud of those books. I also want to honour that teenage boy in the country who used to stay in his room and pound away on an old second hand typewriter. He had big dreams. It’s for him.

Lone Wolf World is out now through my website, Atrilla Books, or Amazon US. or UK

Gleebooks and Better Read than Dead in Sydney also have it. You are the outlet to the World. Without you, this book will go nowhere. Please share. 

For the people of Victoria and those still in Lockdown

 

Cocooned

 

Isolation

Is the term they use

Dressed up

To sell it as a positive

Which it is, of course

Yet being alone

Has never felt so lonely

As it's legally binding

With no end in sight.

 

Allowed out for essential services

Food and exercise

Like in a prison yard

Then it's back to the space Within

The echo chamber

Of our silence.

 

It can be peaceful

There are moments of calm

And simplicity

Mostly there's an oppressive air

A churning invisible machine

Crushing the spirit.

 

For me

There's the added dimension

Of having lost all work

With no financial assistance

Secured.

 

The government implements the schemes

And I can't speak for all

Yet the wheels turn too slow

To offer salvation.

 

The not knowing is the worst

While the bank balance bleeds.

 

Everyone has their story

Of this time

Yet we share the bleakness

Of the situation

The fear of tomorrow

All our planned tomorrows

Shattered

And are saturated

By the emptiness

Of today.

 

For many

It will be too much.

For many

Life was already

A tussle with despair

A rage against the elements

Where do they turn now?

Where do any of us turn?

When we’re all in the same hole

Some deeper than others.

 

So we sit and wait

And try to dredge up

A little bit of hope

Generate a smile

Fake it if need be

And laugh at the craziness

Of it all

Even if that laughter is hollow

And put all our faith

In tomorrow.

 

Our Unknown Tomorrow.

2020

I wrote this in Sydney in our first Lockdown. Only read it again recently and thought of those poor folk doing it tough going through it still. (Most of my family and friends live in Melbourne and regional Victoria).

More Poetry. 

Lone Wolf World - New Trailer!

 

This is the 'Thriller' version. It's more like a movie trailer. It's to build some interest but it doesn't reflect the novel as a whole, only parts of it. So I'm going to make a different trailer. Until then, enjoy and please share. I do rely on word of mouth. I am paying for small Facebook and Amazon ads but I can't compete with the big publishers. Think of the book as Jack fighting the Giant. Give the kid a hand. 

Purchase directly from  me or from Amazon US or UK. 

Cheers.

Have a good week. Say hi if you feel like it. 

Peace

Anthony