You might have notices a few changes to the website. I am slowly transforming it from just a blog and portfolio to a e-commerce site.  While there are more changes to come, you can now directly purchase autographed books directly from me. 

These include Abandoned Wiregrass  and  my fiction titles. 

Hopefully soon I'll have photography prints for sale, too. 

​More to follow...

A civilization must obey two basic rules if it is to survive: have children and pass along to those children the culture that made it successful. Fail either task, and the civilization falls. 

The "birth gap"  is a quantitative measurement we are failing the first rule. Now, when you die, there isn't one child born to carry on. In fact, in Alabama, there is currently a 13% deficit in "carry on-ing."

In recent years many have commented on the impending global population collapse. Perhaps no other journalist has put it in such clear focus as Stephen J. Shaw in his documentary "The Birth Gap - Childless World."  In "Birth Gap" he explores several facets of the industrialized world's impending depopulation.  We're getting older and having far fewer children. Since Shaw is also a data scientist, he gets to the heart of why this is happening and points to the grim mathematical outcomes if the trend isn't reversed. 

The graphic below from the Birth Gap website clearly  illustrates the phenomenon. The redder and blacker the area, the wider the birth gap. Those red and black gaps are beginning to spread across the South, and the Wiregrass, like a pox. 

Alabama's birthrate (as well as that of the rest of the industrialized world) is falling below population sustainment level.  This unabated decline will result in too few workers and  consumers to support a healthy economy and aging majority.  In the post-COVID era, we are just experiencing a taste of that now. Of note, the illegal immigrants living and working in the shadows across the Wiregrass are also experiencing the same birth gap phenomenon as the native born populations. 

 When working on my book "Abandoned Wiregrass" I discovered far more abandoned and derelict houses than I ever thought possible. As I drove around the Alabama's cities and towns, I saw decrepit downtowns and once proud structures slated for demolishing,  There are many reasons for abandoned homes, but I believe there is a correlation between all these abandoned structures and the growing "birth gap".  

If one extrapolates this trends, then it won't just be old derelict dogtrot shacks, like the one pictured here, that will litter the ​landscape. It will be modern homes and businesses, even those being built now, that will become vacant and fall into disrepair. This may be happening now. Simply put, there may be too many homes currently being built than will be needed.

In Abandoned Wiregrass, I think I unwittingly caught the leading edge of this coming wave.  I had over 700 images for Abandoned Wiregrass alone, mostly taken from 2018 thru 2020, and only a fraction were used in the book. If I stopped and took a photo of every abandoned home I ran across in the Wiregrass, I could fill multiple books. They are far more numerous than you can imagine, and the Wiregrass is not a unusual case. Taking photos of abandoned places has even become a sub-genre of photography called urbex (urban exploration).

I don't know where this trend will end, but I know we will probably be better off with more children, not less.  It would be nice to die knowing there was one more child to carry on. 

#urbex #abandonedwiregrass #birthgap #populationdecline #abandoned 

This is my favorite part of spring (or late winter), when its new and raw and can't quite push winter out of the way.  The sky still wants to stay angry, but the earth wants to kiss and make up. I like to take candid shots of their conversations. 

This is Talladega County in Alabama. It's one of the most beautiful counties in my state, and a place I visit often. 

​Enjoy. 

I'm all over the place and absolutely nowhere at the same time. I have no project discipline. I guess what I'm trying to say is I'm unfocused.  

Work on the last Chronicles of Fu Xi novel is progressing slowly. I'm trapped at a crossroads. I've got a lot of story material, so much so I'm constantly tempted to break it into two novels. I don't want to do that. Well, I don't want to break it into two main storyline novels. The Chronicles of Fu Xi (COFX) main series will only be four books.  I might break one off into an independent smaller novel, like I did with The Golden Princess. However, what I really want to do is finish the entire series and move on. I'm at a conjuncture where I have to decide and decide soon.

There is considerable back story that has significant influence on the main story. The back story is a novel unto itself, and an exciting one.  If I break it off into another stand-alone spin-off, like The Golden Princess, it will be another smaller novel that doesn't sell.

So much effort, so little to show for it. If I press on with one enormous novel, it's going to easily reach 250,000 words. It will make for a richer experience, but that's too long.  If I leave this material out, it will lessen the experience, with too much "tell not show" in the book.  I'm incredibly proud of the work I did on The Golden Princess, including the audio book. It just doesn't sell the way I thought it would. Its gotten great reviews, and even award nominations. It just doesn't sell. The main novels sell considerable better, and I thought it would be the other way around. 

So what to do? I think I'm going to break off the back story and press forward with a small, stand alone novel. The main COFX will also press forward and the fourth novel will be smaller and more manageable. I am not going to self-publish the smaller novel. Once I complete the final COFX novel, my self-publishing days are over. I've got that t-shirt, I've lived that experience.  If there is an audience for my work, I'm not finding it through the self-publishing arena.  The plan is to market the smaller novel to the traditional publishers, and I have no illusions about that path.  I'll try to make it accessible, marketable, and all those things publishers and agents want to see, while at the same time holding true to myself and my expanded universe. 

We'll see. 

I've been unable to get out and hit the road for more images. Simply too many other demands right now.  I am taking photos, but they are not for the next photo book. 

Hopefully spring will see things improve. More to follow. 

Now it's off to work to earn a living. 

Last weekend I returned to one of my favorite places on earth - Amelia Island, Florida.

The annual Amelia Island Book Festival, located just north of Jacksonville, Florida, happened last Saturday, 18 February. It had been been six years since I last  attended. This is one of my favorite book festivals, and one of my favorite places. The Atlantic coastline from Savannah, Georgia to St. Augustine, Florida is a playground of great beaches, state parks, and places to see.  I met a lot of great people, including authors and readers. I'd also like to shout out to the Amelia Indie Authors for inviting me to join their group. 

The next day my sister and I hiked the seashore in several state parks located south of Amelia Island. The South Georgia/North Florida Atlantic shoreline is amazing, and I love capturing it with my camera.  I would attend the Amelia Island Book Festival even if I didn't sell one book. I enjoy going there that much. 

Here are a few images from my adventure. 

I am sorry I haven't posted in a while. I've got four extensive blog posts in draft and I'm trying to finish them up. FYI, my next book signing is tentatively 25 March back in my hometown of Enterprise at the Spring Festival at the Monument. Hopefully, I'll see you there. 

I'm talking about one of my novels this week. 

Of all my novels, The Golden Princess stands out as my proudest achievement even though it sells the least. I wanted to talk about it today because it deserves to be read. 

In 2016 I published The Golden Princess, a prequel (and stand-alone) novel in my Chronicles of Fu Xi literary universe. The Golden Princess takes place in distant antiquity, and tells the story of a princess running for her life after her father's throne is usurped. 

I wrote this novel for several reasons: 1)  to bring readers into my greater series 2) to be an easy read (It's short, it's simple. 3) and to attract younger readers and those not necessarily avid readers. 4) to give two characters from my main series more depth and attention.  For these reasons, I also converted it to an audiobook narrated by the great Philip Battley. 

The novel didn't sell as well as I would have liked, even though it met with some critical success. The audiobook fared worse, even though it, too, met with excellent critical success. Now it sits out there on the Amazon and Audible shelves, my literary orphan. I don't push this book like I push the main series.

I should, because I'm very proud of this novel, even through there are a few things I would change about it if I could go back in time.

First, I wouldn't have self-published. I think I could have landed a contract with this one. I wish I would have tried, but at the time I had a company called Underground Book Reviews that specifically covered the indie publishing scene. My plan was for UBR and The Golden Princess to support each other's marketing plan. UBR folded, and the indie publishing scene is massively oversaturated.  Also, the cover doesn't do the novel credit. I freely admit it needs a better cover. It seemed like a good cover at the time for the budget I had.  I'm currently working on that. In fact, I have new covers coming soon for all my novels! 

Pound for pound, this little novel gets the best reviews (on Amazon and Goodreads) of any of my other novels. It's the tightest, most disciplined book I've ever written regarding plot, narrative, and character development. It's not overly complicated, with lots of action that moves quickly. It has some of my favorite characters. It's also ideally written for conversion to a screenplay. That's one reason it makes such an excellent audiobook. 

If you enjoy audiobooks, I invite you to download a copy from Audible. It's slightly over 6 hours long, and Philip Battley nails the reading.  If you prefer eBooks or paperback, click here. 

Give The Golden Princess as try. You won't be disappointed. 

#books #audiobooks #publishing #fantasy #epic #adventure

I hope you enjoyed Adam's work. I want to highlight other local artists and writers in the coming year. If you are a Wiregrass area author, artist or photographer and would like to collaborate or have your work showcased on The Illusion Exotic, please contact me. 

Maybe its time to reevaluate my relationship with this time slayer we call social media. I started seriously writing in my 40s,  just about the time social media became a thing. It still seems like a new thing to me, but its been around for well over a decade now.  It started with a personal account on Facebook, and then it morphed to a few business pages for my writing and my old company Underground Book Reviews. Then I branched to Instagram for photography as well as a few minor apps that have come and gone. As for Twitter, it's been on and off but we are currently seeing each other...but not seriously. I leave apps like Discord and Tiktok  to the next generation. Frankly, there are so many apps that I find it exhausting.

Lately, I find myself asking "Why?" Why do I feel the need to even have one social media account, let alone three or four?  Is my life richer for the experience? Was I better off before? What do I get out of all this time I've spent with my face in an app? 

Well, I enjoy seeing what my friends and relatives are up to.  On second thought, do I really? There is an awful lot of drama on the inter webs, and if someone close to me really needs my help they know my number.

I like being able to contact people. Well, some people. Actually, I have a phone, too. There are also a lot of people I don't want to be contacted by. I also don't enjoy people knowing too much about me. In fact, there is way too much information about be on the interwebs as it is.

I like to post photos and look at friends' photos, but why am I really posting it? Some are for business, but as for the other images, like family events, I could just as easily text those the image to those who actually care to look at them. Maybe I should think twice about posting those photos. Isn't it all really about attention and vanity if am brutally honest with myself? After seeing all these Tiktok videos bleeding over onto Facebook, its becoming apparent our society is taking the definitions of "vanity" and "narcissist" to new levels every day.  

Speaking of vanity, nothing is more vain than being a political blowhard on social media (guilty, guilty, guilty). I don't think anyone really gives a damn what I think about politics, and that's okay.  So why even post it? 

​There is also news on social media, right? Social media is good for posting news stories, and therefore can be educational and informative. True, but we've also learned in the past decade a lot of that news and educational material can be false or heavily skewed. Perhaps I should be more careful when reading and posting. 

It also makes me uncomfortable to think about how much I whip out my phone just to mindlessly doom scroll, like a smoker taking another drag. I know its not healthy, I'm self-conscious of it, but I do it anyway. But if I didn't, how would I be able to look at the latest funny cat meme?

Some days I think the only redeeming element of social media is funny memes and videos. I mean, there is some really funny and insightful stuff out there. Cat memes are truly the only thing I would miss about social media if I were to ever walk away. Is it even possible to walk away?  

It's everywhere. Many non-social media websites and apps have some element of social media built into their user interface. Social media seems to plug into every other aspect of our culture and lives. We're steeped in it like a teabag left too long in the water. It leeches us, and makes us physiologically pale.  It has become impossible to extricate SM from the fabric of our culture. Case in point, as much as I hate to admit it, I will eventually share this blog post on social media.

​Can we really escape it? Should we even escape it? While I estimate I have lost a full year of productive writing because of social media, I also got a photography book deal because of it. Social media is truly a two-edged sword, with great promise and dangers.