Peter Kazmaier

Za·ne·le
Adjective & Pronoun
enough; used to indicate that one is unwilling to tolerate any more of something undesirable.

This year I have the privilege again of helping out Zanele as they tackle the devastating problem of HIV/AIDS in Zimbabwe. Zanele is an organization that has taken positive steps to help alleviate this monstrous problem. The organization sponsors a feeding program in Masvingo Province and Gwanda District,  and services the needs of orphans – a small but tangible step to help with a gigantic problem.

This Friday at 6:30 pm (May 11, 2012)  Zanele Poverty Relief Effort (ZPRE) is sponsoring a dinner/dance in Vaughan, Ontario (near Toronto) to raise money for this effort. Here are the details.

ZPRE’s Annual Dinner Dance will be held at the West River Event Centre at 6:30 p.m. The West River Event Centre is located at 2839 Rutherford Road, Vaughan, Ontario and the tickets are $75.00 per person. Funds raised will support ZPRE’s programs in Zimbabwe.

As part of the fundraising effort at the event, I will be signing books and selling  The Halcyon Dislocation at the regular price with 50% of the proceeds going to Zanele. There will also be a draw for a signed First Edition copy. So if you are able to help out by attending this dinner and dance I’d be grateful. If you could also buy a book, or donate to the draw, that would be even better.

Thanks for reading,

Peter

http://peterkazmaier.com/

The Sacredness of Questioning Everything by David Dark

My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I had high expectations for this book, since I greatly value the asking of honest questions, however I found the author’s perspective unhelpful. To my mind, the value of questions is that they lead to answers. In other words, an honest person asks questions because he is seeking the truth.

Conviction ought to be proportional to the evidence (both relational and objective) that one has accumulated, but ought always to be subservient to truth. So no matter how strong our convictions, if we come to the conclusion we are wrong, then only a fool would continue with a conviction that has been proven false.

However David Dark seems to extoll the agnostic who acknowledges he really knows nothing except that in his agnosticism he is more knowledgeable than someone with convictions. Changing your mind (repentance) is also highly exalted. Of course, if one is wrong, one should change one’s mind to what is right, but a man who calls the same sweater red on Monday. blue on Tuesday, and green on Thursday is really only demonstrating he doesn’t know what color it is. Rather than patting him on the back for his frequent repentance of perspective, someone ought to help him find out the sweater’s real color.

In summary, I was hoping for a book that urged readers to ask questions that would lead to a stronger, more rational faith. Instead I found myself reading a book that extolled relativism and agnosticism. What is the point of asking questions if you really don’t expect to find any answers and denigrate people who do?

View all my reviews

The Design Inference: Eliminating Chance Through Small Probabilities by William A. Dembski

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Reading this book was a watershed experience for me. Dembski demonstrates that one can use statistics reliably to distinguish regularity, chance, and agency when it comes to asking the question: “Did this process happen by chance or not?” A significant part of the book is filled with statistical theorems used to support and develop the Design Inference methodology. Most of this is beyond my statistical acumen. Still Dembski does such excellent work explaining his concepts and conclusions with understandable examples that it very readable even for those who cannot get much beyond means, distributions and simple combinatorial statistics.

I know many readers will find Dembski’s conclusions unsettling, but I found his argument thorough, lucid, and compelling.

If you are interested in my more detailed review you may wish to check http://peterkazmaier.com/?p=113.

View all my reviews

I had received an unabridged audio book of The Hunger Games last Christmas. I couldn’t listen to it right away since I was in the midst of listening to Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time series. However once I began to listen to The Hunger Games it enthralled me. The movie appeared just as I was finishing my listening and so I had to go and see the movie as well.

CONTENT WARNING – I discuss  the contents of the book and the movie in this blog so if you plan to read the book or see the movie, be aware that I will reveal elements of the plot as I review The Hunger Games.

As of this writing, the initial printing of The Hunger Games has sold more than 800,000 copies (February 11, 2010) and the movie has grossed over $251 million.

The story takes place in the post-apocalytic country of Panem, the remainder of what used to be North America. This country consists of a powerful, wealthy, and technologically advanced region called the Capital in the Rocky mountains, surrounded by 13 districts which provide resources for the Capital. The protagonist, Katniss Everdeen, lives in the poorest district, District 12, located somewhere in the coal mining region of the Appalachians. Although I mentioned 13 districts, one of the districts, District 13 had been completely destroyed during a war between the districts and the Capital some 75 years ago. continue reading…

I had a delightful lunch with a friend recently. He is a scientist of significant repute and I have great respect for his scientific accomplishments. More importantly he combines those achievements with a conviviality, honesty and personal integrity that make him a joy to be around. Our world views are quite different (I think he would characterize himself as an atheist while I am a Christian), but we sometimes have an opportunity to discuss our different perspectives.

He began that phase of our discussion by making a statement to the effect that he couldn’t understand how Christians could be good scientists. Thinking that I would take offense at his remark. he was quick to add that he knew that there were very good scientists who were also Christians, but he was surprised that this was possible.

I have heard this before and after further discussion I think I understand the origin of this apparent paradox or mistaken perception (as it seems to me). An atheist who disbelieves in God or an agnostic who believes there is no credible evidence for God when faced with explaining a natural phenomenon such as a rainbow or the behavior of electrons must turn to natural explanations. That is to say these events are explained by natural laws backed by the laws of random chance. This compulsion then to find a law based or random chance explanation is seen as a great aid in accomplishing science.

As I understand it, from an atheist’s perspective, theists and particularly Christians do not have this impetus. For every event they can justifiably say “God created this or set it up this way” and so they do not have this compulsion to find a natural explanation.

However, speaking from inside the theist world view, although some may think this way, most do not. Knowing that God accomplished everything does not explain how He did it. Theists such as Copernicus, Newton, Mendel, Faraday, Maxwell and Coulson have always felt compelled to answer the “how?” question and they had an expectation that the universe would make sense and explanatory laws would be discovered (like a puzzle that has just enough pieces to make a picture). I think they would have said being a theist helped them in their application of science since a sentient, intelligent God made for an intelligible universe.

C. S. Lewis explained the tension between the supernatural and the natural by using a chess metaphor. If I am playing chess and my opponent, without thinking, places his queen where it can be captured by a knight fork, I can give him his move back as a way of adding to the enjoyment of our game. Allowing him to replay his move is a supernatural event in our chess game since the rules have been set aside for one move. However, if he and I constantly take moves back, move wherever we like, or take pieces off the board at a whim, the whole game will be destroyed. Supernatural events must be rare for the world to make sense. When theists believe that miracles can occur, they must also necessarily believe that they are rare and that the laws of cause and effect must operate almost all of the time for the world to make sense.

I then went on to make a controversial statement of my own. I told my friend that I did not understand how or why atheists would be moral beings. He took umbrage at that, saying that this statement was offensive. Indeed in his experience, atheists were every bit as moral as Christians, perhaps more so. But my puzzlement was the mirror image of his about scientists who were also Christians. Of course there are moral atheists, indeed my friend was one of them. Just as he recognized there were good scientists who were Christians and wondered “how can this be?”, so I recognize there are many atheists who follow high moral principles, and I also ask “how can this be?” continue reading…

The recent media attention directed toward “Pierre Poutine” and the spurious robocall phone calls that were made by an automated call center to confuse voters about polling locations in several ridings including one in Guelph made me reminisce about questionable information I myself have received as a voter. The first one occurred, as I recall, in one of the recent Federal elections. A plain yellow piece of paper, purportedly from the Conservative Party, was urging Conservative voters to vote using the internet. This seemed curious to me. I am a conscientious voter and there had been no information to this effect from Elections Canada on my official voting documentation. Furthermore, unlike internet corporate proxy voting where one receives a password in the mail, my experience with government websites such as Canada Revenue Agency, they go to enormous lengths to keep third parties from logging in on behalf of someone else. I presume for online internet voting (if it should ever be made available) one would have to recite a goodly portion of one’s DNA sequence to get admitted. So I was naturally quite suspicious. A quick search through the Elections Canada site provided no information, so since I was passing by the local ridings association office, I went in to ask about the flyer. A gentleman at the riding association facility had obviously seen this before. There was no internet voting yet, although it was being talked about. No they had not sent it. It was someone trying to inconvenience voters, but they did not know where it came from.

The second one occurred during the last provincial election campaign. I received an automated call, purportedly from the Progressive Conservative Party (or had they deliberately only said Conservative as an out?) boldly and confidently announcing all kinds of outrageous programs and initiatives guaranteed to inflame voters. Now I recall that at the time I had been following the platforms and announcements of the various parties in some detail and I realized that this announcement was not in the Progressive Conservative platform but was indeed the contents of the “hidden agenda” that the other parties claimed the Progressive Conservative would implement if elected.

Now I am quick to add that I have not raised these personal experiences to in any way exonerate or sanction the robocall activity, but rather to indicate that this pattern of misleading voters is more wide spread than we would like to believe.  I think these activities are all deplorable. For democracy to function effectively, the electorate needs accurate, honest information. These misleading and fraudulent information broadcasts do nothing to aid in that endeavor and we all have to live with the choices that are poor.

Thanks for reading,

Peter

In part I of this series on Micro-Publishing, I listed the arguments against self-publishing that I have heard from writers, editors, and publishers. These can be summarized as follows:

1. In Self-Publishing editors, publishing companies, and marketing vendors take advantage of neophyte authors by lauding a bad book idea and then having the author pay them thousands of dollars for services that produce a book that will never sell.
2. If the manuscript were really any good, a conventional royalty publisher would pay to have it published.
3. An individual does not have the infrastructure or the marketing clout to compete with the major publishing houses.
4. Most self-publishers only sell 100-200 copies of their book.
5. Self-publishing is synonymous with low quality work.
6. If you self-publish a book, your brand (name) will be tainted and conventional publishers will not consider your future submissions.

Are these criticisms valid? continue reading…

In the Writer’s Group that I attend we talked about self-publishing at our last meeting before we began to read our most recent creations. There were many thoughts presented for and against self-publishing versus the traditional route of searching for a royalty publisher for your manuscript. This question has been brought into sharp relief as traditional publishers and booksellers continue to suffer. For example Borders’ process toward Chapter 11 protection was recently documented (see the article by Tiffany Cary Borders Liquidation Riles Toronto’s Kobo, National Post, page FP1, July 19, 2011). So what is a neophyte writer to do with this question about whether or not to self-publish?

Let me begin by quoting Robert Sawyer, arguably the most successful Science Fiction writer in Canada.

Sawyer, in his Letter to Beginning Writers, says in his 1oth bullet “Do not self-publish. Seriously. Don’t.”

Beginning with that rather strong censure of Self-Publishing, let me summarize the arguments against self-publishing that I have heard from writers, editors, and publishers:

1. In Self-Publishing editors, publishing companies, and marketing vendors take advantage of neophyte authors by lauding a bad book idea and then having the author pay them thousands of dollars for services that produce a book that will never sell.
2. If the manuscript were really any good, a conventional royalty publisher would pay to have it published.
3. An individual does not have the infrastructure or the marketing clout to compete with the major publishing houses.
4. Most self-publishers only sell 100-200 copies of their book.
5. Self-publishing is synonymous with low quality work.
6. If you self-publish a book, your brand (name) will be tainted and conventional publishers will not consider your future submissions.
   

I think some (perhaps all) of these statements contain an element of truth in them and I will talk about them in more detail later, but is there another side to this story?

continue reading…

The PeterKazmaier.com website received it’s 10,000th visitor on June 24th in response to Bonnie Beldan-Thomson’s interview. My thanks to so many of you that have visited my site and special thanks to those who have left comments. You have all played a major role in helping PeterKazmaier.com achieve this milestone.

A few statistics as of July 13, 2011:

• The first blog entry was posted on January 28, 2006. It was entitled Surviving in a  New World [ http://peterkazmaier.com/?p=7 ].

• There have been 10,366 site visits
• There have been 16,647 page views
• 109 posts
• 241 legitimate comments

If some of you have wondered why it took so long to see your first comment in response to a submission. In that time period where I have received 241 legitimate comments, I have received 86,768 spam comments. Spam comments are generally entries such as “Great blog!” along with a link. These are usually fired off to increase a site’s search priority status with search engines by setting up as many links to other sites as possible.

Thank you for your support,

Peter

K. Dawn Byrd is an author of inspirational romance and romantic suspense. Mistaken Identity, her first young adult romance released on June 15 from Desert Breeze Publishing. Queen of Hearts, a WWII romantic suspense released in April 2010 and was the bestselling book for her publisher during its debut month. Killing Time, a contemporary romantic suspense, will be released August 1, also with Desert Breeze Publishing.

K. Dawn Byrd is an avid blogger and gives away several books per week on her blog at www.kdawnbyrd.blogspot.com, most of which are signed by the authors. She’s also the moderator of the popular Facebook Christian Fiction Gathering group at http://www.facebook.com/#!/group.php?gid=128209963444.

When not reading or writing, K. Dawn Byrd enjoys spending time with her husband of 16 years while walking their dogs beside a gorgeous lake near her home and plotting the next story waiting to be told.

Q & A

KAZMAIER: I don’t read much adolescent Romance and yet as a writer, I have to write realistically about people of all ages. I learned a great deal about modern adolescent social interactions from reading your book. Where did you get your insights that enabled you to construct characters that are true to life?

BYRD: I enjoy reading young adult fiction. This keeps me up to date with the reality of modern day teenage life. My stepdaughter, Brittany, is twenty-one and devours young adult romance. She’s not been out of high school so long that she’s lost touch with that age group. She was a good sounding board while I was writing.

KAZMAIER: Dawn, by all accounts Romance is one of the hottest selling novel markets, particularly in the realm of Christian fiction. Your own novel, from the characterization, is directed toward young adult readers. What are your readers looking for?

BYRD: I believe Christian readers are looking for clean romance that’s entertaining. In addition, Christian readers are looking for manuscripts that glorify God and characters who aren’t perfect and are growing in some aspects of their faith.

KAZMAIER: I was intrigued by the detailed picture you painted of the social interactions of modern adolescents. Communication technology advances play a major role in these interactions. How has technology changed the way modern teenagers relate to one another when compared to previous generations? What changes have most profoundly influenced modern teenagers?

BYRD: I believe texting is an addiction, not only for young adults, but for some adults. I’ve found that it’s an easy way to keep in touch with family members who live out of town and my husband who works out of town during the day even if it’s just to tell him I love him.

KAZMAIER: In one of my favorite lines in the book, “the boy next door” Channing, the love interest of Eden, says:

“I am interested in a girl that’s as beautiful on the inside as she is on the outside.”

How do you think Hollywood would react to that statement?

BYRD: I don’t think that statement would go over too well in Hollywood because the entire industry is based on the physical…model slim beauties who are beautiful to the eye, but some are pretty rotten on the inside. Just turn on the TV or read the Yahoo home page to see what I mean.

KAZMAIER: Two themes that emerged for me from the book were courage and communication. So many of the interpersonal problems encountered could have been avoided if either Channing or Eden had had the courage to speak forthrightly rather than worrying about how the words might affect their important relationships. Do we adults say what we think, especially in conversation with people who matter most to us? Have you gleaned any insights on the importance of courage and communication in interpersonal relationships?

BYRD: I cringe to think of the men and women who really love each other and don’t take a chance, those who are afraid of putting their feelings out there because of past rejection or emotional pain. I believe that love is worth a chance. Life is too short not to let someone know how you feel.

KAZMAIER: Dawn I have very much enjoyed interviewing you today. I wish you every success with Mistaken Identity and your future books. And to my blog visitors, I urge you to find more information about Dawn and Mistaken Identity by using the links below.

Thanks for reading,

Peter

http://peterkazmaier.com/

Links:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=geWeGQ6Ueu4

http://stores.desertbreezepublishing.com/-strse-178/K-Dawn-Byrd-Mistaken/Detail.bok

www.kdawnbyrd.com