Hello Readers!

A NEW BLOG is now at BUMBLEBEE HOUSE INK

Click there above or here: http://bumblebeehouseink.blogspot.com/

For my summer project of just finding and posting stuff that seems cool to me. You may enjoy the updates as well (I hope). This is a summer project while working on a new novel. 

What you will see:

Little known history

Literature discussion

Photography

Art

Essay

Faith

And I might chime in once in awhile

See you there.

Petro Poroshenko - Hope for Unseen Region

In writing the novel, Unseen, I dove deep into the culture and history of Southeast Ukraine. Studied and lived the life - Soviet apartment, power outage, no hot water, no air conditioning anywhere, and the constant need to 'know someone who knew someone'. One crazy taxi ride after another. I learned of the internal tension of identity...are we Russian or Ukrainian? Unseen is saturated with all this.

But I never dreamed the area of Mariupol and Berdyansk would become common knowledge to so many - so quickly.

This Poroshenko seems to have the ability to unite a Ukraine and carry the reality of a Russian history. They are first cousins...for good or bad. Such is family.

I hope he can.

As always - if you pick up the eBook, it is my promise that the heart of the people of Ukraine will not disappoint - and you will experience a story that is much like a Ukrainian taxi ride. Scary at times...but exhilarating. :-)

For more:

Link to UNSEEN

Note: Amazon has a copy 50% reduced if that is helpful. And the national and international distribution company will conform to that price shortly.

Have a great day!

Reader Mind's Eye: Streets of Berdyansk and Mariupol Ukraine

The current hotspot of Southern Ukraine. Pro-Russians and Pro-Ukrainians.

The protagonist and taxi-driver friend, Dima, of the novel - Unseen, moves back and forth between these two sister port-cities - Berdyansk and Mariupol.

The map I placed at the beginning of Chapter One - may not be as needful to the international reader nowadays ;-)

PUTIN: As a man thinks in his heart, so is he

It was a very hot day that day. I don't know how hot it was because I was in Ukraine and everything was in Celsius. I never learned the temperature there the entire summer. We Americans are pretty set in our ways, big on conformity, but only our own.

That day I was waiting outside a courthouse in a small town. But even though just a village, it had a very long street down the middle of town. This road, Lenin Street, was really just an elongated park with old full trees and mathematically placed park benches. Every town had one of these roads. It is where the Soviets held May Day parades.

My guy in the courthouse was taking forever to get some papers signed and I got bored. Hot and bored. I took a walk up this long park-street just to walk. To do something. On my return to the courthouse I stopped to wait for traffic. A man stepped alongside. He said something to me, not sure what.

"Please excuse me," I replied in Russian, "I don't understand Russian."

He just stared at me.

I realized that what I had said must have sounded crazy. Maybe even offensive. As we walked together towards my taxi he asked where I was from. Then he asked if I liked Obama. The man appeared to me to be ex-military and was fully drunk on Vodka (he admitted to this later). I could tell from his expression and tone that he really did not care for Obama. I was non-committal. He then began to ramble on about the virtues of Putin. Loved his Putin. Gave me a hammer sign to accent the great authority and strength of Putin.

This man and I finally parted ways when it was clear to him that I would not go to the bar with him. I had important business to attend to and my wife was in the back of the taxi, 7 months pregnant and very uncomfortable in the heat (they don't do air-conditioning over there). My taxi driver helped to make all this clear to the man. I am thankful. Had it just been me I probably would have hung out with the guy - and likely have ended up in jail or dead. Because that is mainly what my new friend was all about.

Anyhow, this: many people there identify with Russia such that they even think of Moscow over Kiev. Not everyone, but many. Many sit in this new national identity of being Ukrainian. They understood being Ukrainian culturally...just not nationally. They, their parents, grandparents, and on back lived as Russians. The entire landscape, every building, every holiday, every job...Russian.

It is these young people that have only known Ukraine as not being 'The Ukraine'.

It is all so incredibly deep. The land and history so solidly Russian in Eastern Ukraine. And the young people want to forge a new European identity that is completely foreign to the historical imperatives of the region. The Russian flag is a pretty new color scheme for them as well. It seems so impossible. This change would make the American Revolution seem like a simple shift in address - which it was culturally.

Personally, I hope Ukraine can do this because it is what they want. But what the pains of that separation feel like - I can't even imagine.

Sold a Bill of Goods....

I had fun posting to www.10cities.net this week. I titled the little article 'Sold a Bill of Goods'. But I could have titled it 'My Life in Like 300 Words or Less'. In this article, riddled with bravado and a tad of Sam Adams, I tripped. Tripped? Yeah, in one part I qualified the concept of salvation within the reality of the familial. That strange intrinsic love of family members. Something that cant be contrived - just happens (you know what I mean). So I tripped myself up and may spend the rest of the week, as a hypocrite, trying to regain the feeling of what I know to be true (some folks know what I mean).

Anyhow, I hope the little essay is a fun read.

Check out 'Sold a Bill of Goods' here - www.10cities.net

Have a great week.

Free Book - Feel the News

Hey Readers,

Especially folks who are hearing about Ukraine in the news. If you would like to get a real feel for the landscape and culture - download Unseen for free.

If you would - please also click on the share links there. If think this story delivers...or not...please do a little review if you can on Amazon or your favorite book review spots.

Thanks! Just click the image below and that will take you to the novel - enter the code:

reviewunseen

For a limited time (not too limited)

MLK Day - The Place Where You Live

Been thinking about this day and the impact to our lives today. The amazing thing is that in many cases our children can't even imagine an America of institutionalized racism. How amazing is that?!

In 2010 I wrote a short article for Orion Magazine. It speaks to the Southern American landscape....

Home is a 1936 refurbished ‘family’ off-shoot of the original plantation house.  Our acreage is part of the remains of what was once a 3000-acre family-owned farm going back to 1803.  In this community our house is more connected to the builder’s family name than our own, so etched in the minds of the locals – “oh, you live at the Wilson place,” and “you’re on the hill.” My pride has moved past the offense.

My neighbor cuts miles of trails through the 80 unspoiled acres behind us, has for over 20 years.  It’s not his land but he cares for it and was allowed to build a nice lodge and stone fire-pit for himself there.  It sits upon a giant granite cliff overlooking the life-teeming marsh below.  My part is to visit the little lodge on weekends with my children to swing and rest in the hammock that spans the rustic interior walls.  Once my boss visited from Ireland and was amazed at the way one property would seamlessly roll into the next – “where are the stone walls?” 

Folks here clearly reject the idiom that good fences make good neighbors.  This amiable attitude has been shaped through generations.  My house tells also of their sense of the practical and functional. This morning I passed through the hall of my house where the former wood furnace was centrally placed, once radiating heat in a way that shows an understanding of efficient thermal engineering.  I stepped into boots that are always by the back door. Walking outside, I watched my children making much of fallen branches, black walnuts, and mud.  I wanted to check for deer that rest on pine straw beds in the small forest at the back section of my land.  Arriving there, I looked again at the carved granite stones that were once the foundation of the slave quarters.  This often forces me to better balance the peaceful feel of my community.  The rocks are the foundation to the very worst of human nature.  And that mind-set, like the rocks, is not easily visible but firmly planted and unmoved. 

Have the best Tuesday possible (if you took Monday off)!

What did these guys talk about...

This is the photo that has inspired the latest project. I think it's cool. But I am a guy who saw the TV show 'Friends' and said, "that won't last."

So I'm cautious with my opinions of cool...let me know if I missed the mark again.

In reality I have tied these guys to Baraboo, Wisconsin. Well, indirectly, for the purpose of telling a story. Much of this story is a mystery to me at present. But there will be two stories that work together throughout the novel. One with scenes back in 1910(ish) and another in our present day.

Have the best Monday possible!

Social Climate Change

Well, Climate is kind of a big thing - not sure we can stop it if it wants to change ;-)

There is a real 'cold-snap' in America this week. And my mind has been on Ukraine - some thoughts specific to a working novel.

Got me thinking of a Ukrainian author I really enjoy reading - for a fun read, I recommend Death and a Penguin - Andrei Kurkov.

He recently posted his winter scene in Kiev. There is some hope there for impacting change. Though I suspect it will always be cold in the winter in Kiev.

W

.

The Saddle...

Well, I've walked around that saddle log enough...thinking, researching, avoiding. But you never get very far or fast unless you get back in that saddle. Been there?

Maybe you guys can keep my feet to the fire. (okay, that is the last cliche I'll use...a big no-no in writing ;-)

For the coming year I plan to:
Blog (at least) weekly. And commit to make at least half of them entertaining?
Publish a third eBook - via Bumblebee House Ink.
(and one book every year after)

I certainly owe readers something new - more often than every 4 years. But to be honest, Land Run and Unseen took some 'percolating'.

The next novel title is likely Circus Town - but don't hold me to it. The story will be set primarily in Baraboo, Wisconsin with some excursions into Ukraine (please don't hold me to that either just yet).

It will involve some characters such as:

- An unemployed Ontologist (yes, blog spell-checker, that is a vocation)
- His genius uncle (who drives a camouflage-painted El Camino and sells lightening rods door-to-door.)
- Tesla
- Mark Twain
- A Ukrainian engineer
- And a circus clown named 'Lucky' - who could hold the keys to the future of mankind. (maybe don't hold     me to that just yet either)

Wishing all the best Monday possible!

The Balancing Act....

Disclaimer: I acknowledge that no one has asked me about this.... ;-)

As my third novel is developing I look for patterns. The novels are all so different. But I know they can't be at some skeletal level. My inclinations always play out in a pattern at some point. Not formulaic - don't worry. Just human. As always, please bear with me and follow me through this current narcissistic avoidance of real writing. This thing I call... the Blog Update.

The plot ideas that come to me are so large - or grow large in scope of ideas, time, and geography. I enjoy digging out depth in character development...but in such a way as to complement the story as it progresses. That is the idea at any rate.

Balance, the hope of it and the work of it. The realness of it. It feels to me in the writing of the longer narrative that anything less or more than balance (in these general concepts of character and plot) would be insipid.

For me, character and plot are the context. And the cultural/physical landscape is a prominent feature. The landscape in the way it works to inform the characters lives and is impacted by those same lives...this exchange between the character and his place and time can lead to change in either. Or simply as a character and his reflection in the stream of his world.

I tend to like to bring cultures together subtly and violently. I like them to clash or mix, and to learn.

The best result for me is not writing a good story. Or even an amazing and incredible story. But writing a good-enough story - no more or less. Anything else, for me, is true mediocrity. You see, my hope is to captivate and engage the reader. That the reader always has enough...not too little or too much. Because each reader creates a whole new novel - particular to their experiences and inclinations and imagination. Isn't that cool? My novel Unseen is only one story, especially visually. Your reading of it changes it - makes it new and different in ways I cannot.

The story is incomplete in potential without the engaged creative reader. The paradox, the sublime goal of 'good-enough'.

Are You On Goodreads?

Looks like even if you are not - you can still read UNSEEN here.

UNSEEN

There are two kinds of writer: those th at make you think, and those that make you wonder.
- Brian Aldiss

Well....shooting for a mixture. ;-)

Coincidence? Maybe....

Have you read UNSEEN by Mark Graham? Mark - not Heather and not Jack;-) I had no idea so many Unseen novels would be written by Grahams. 

FRONT PAGE!

OH YEAH! Front Page - FREE Download! Unssen. Grab it and pass it on please. Thanks all! http://www.getfreeebooks.com/

PINTEREST - and Free Novels

HEY! Come by and PIN this when you can. For FREE novel just email bhistaff@bumblebeehouseink.com

(don't have to 'pin' it to receive free novel) 

(ok...back to writing now...;-)

FREE Copy of Unseen - Pass It On

The moment I've been waiting for:

If you have just a moment please 'like' these updates at Google+ here, Pinterest or Facebook, etc. - anywhere convenient to you.

Just email to bhistaff@bumblebeehouseink.com with how you would like the eBook sent to you - KINDLE or ePub.

That's it! That easy.

ALSO - feel free to share the eBook you receive with friends 

AND any Adoptive Families you think might benefit (they can be allowed to sell it to their supporters on their blogs as a gift)!

Thanks to all (future) participants and I hope you enjoy the story....a lot!

More information about the novel can be seen on Amazon, Kobo, and all those kind of places.

Mark

www.bumblebeehouseink.com

PINTEREST BOARD

GOOGLE+

OPEN LETTER For Adoptive Families- A Novel Idea

Hello Adoption Blogger! And any Anti-Human Trafficking Organizations!

Thank you for taking a moment to read about this new fundraising project for adoptive families!

My name is Mark Graham and I have written and published my second novel entitled Unseen. This novel really is my best effort because it is very personal to me in setting and circumstance. Though it is not our story, it carries the inspiration of our time in Ukraineadopting our daughter. I have a dream for it to be a vehicle of ministry for adoptive families. Because of this goal, I have self-published this particular novel and have taken two years with Unseento insure the highest quality result.

                        

The idea is to provide the eBooks (Kindle, Nook, and IPad) to adoptive families or organizations as a fundraiser for them.  This is a product that they can offer on their blogs free when supporters donate to them. Or they can sell it themselves as a fundraiser if they like.

This is truly a captivating and compelling read. Something supporters would readily tell their friends about and point others to the place where they received it. And so on.

I imagine that through the entertainment of this novel, Unseen, readers will get a fresh and real feel of Ukraine. The reader will gain a deeper empathy for the children there (or anywhere) and their parent’s journey to adopt them.

If you are interested, I would love to send you a free copy of Unseen to review in whichever ebook format you prefer. Just email me at bhistaff@bumblebeehouseink.com or mark@bumblebeehouseink.com for your copy or to answer any questions you may have.

Please tell anyone who you think could benefit from this project.

We would love to be a small participant of bringing together as many families as possible.

Thank you again for your time.

Sincerely,

Mark Graham

919-622-8284

www.bumblebeehouseink.com

UNSEEN story synopsis:
Martin and Jenny Johnson chose to do something different with their vacation and traveled to an orphanage in Southern Ukrainewith a team. Once there, the childless couple fell in love with a little girl, Oksana, and made steps to adopt her. But they soon met with mysterious resistance to the adoption and the child went missing for the rest of their time there. Martin remained in Ukraineto pursue Oksana while Jenny worked from America. Days turned to weeks, and then months. With the help of his taxi driver Dima and Dima's friend Sasha, Martin learned more than he expected.  Neither could have imagined the strange twists and turns that would soon arise. Martin would come to find the depths of a father's love he had never known hidden within himself.

VETERAN STORIES

Hope everyone had a great Veterans Day weekend.


Land Run and the new novel both include characters with military history. In Land Run some of the characters have interesting back-stories in WWII and Desert Storm. For the new novel – a Ukrainian character has a back-story of Afghanistan (his Soviet days).

Today I am watching a Weather Channel show that is covering the Coast Guard station in Kodiak Alaska. It’s a lot better than much of my memories of there ;-) But there was something in this show I had forgotten about the military. These guys were running rescue drills in the pool while their Chief yelled at them about this or that. Then the Chief pulls them all aside to describe the mistakes they had made. After that he asked them, “how many mistakes are we allowed to make?”
“Zero, Chief!” they said.
“That’s right! Drop and give me twenty!”


1 in 5 will graduate from that school. Even in basic training we started with 100 and graduated with 36.

No mistakes. That is so impossible. But it really is the mind-set we all had in the field…every day and for every task. And we did make few mistakes.

Even though it is so unrealistic a demand of people…the pure belief in this saves lives and wins battles. In their tasks – there really is little room for mistakes.

I would have to say that this mind-set I had for 5 years informed and impacted my working life, and real life, for the following 20 years. Failure in task never seems to enter in to my thinking. In fact, probably any success that is found in my life – I can mostly give credit, for my part, to my short-sightedness. :-) (but I am working on lightening up nowadays)


There are so many stories, you know. Here is one I love. When I was 10 years old my uncle Bob got in the local paper. This is what happened:

He had spent 4 solid years in the Pacific fighting from island to island. After the war he came back home and became an electrician. Then 30 years later the Pentagon was going over their records and found that they owed him 36 medals. These included multiple purple hearts, two bronze stars, a silver star, and on and on. But included in this package was a bill for $80.

It seems that on whatever island he was on at the time – when he heard that the war was over he walked to the beach and through his M-1 rifle into the ocean. Someone had seen him do it and reported him. So the Pentagon wanted their $80 back for the rifle (I guess the 1945 price?) Crazy stuff.

If you have stories – please add them to comments.

Happy Veterans Day!

OKLAHOMA and UKRAINE

I have had a lot of questions about the settings of both novels.

For Land Run - simply, Oklahoma is home. I grew up there and no matter how long I have lived in North Carolina or anywhere else - I call it home. In these days when it is so easy or necessary to be mobile - I think we all have a place we consider home. For me, Oklahoma is where I discovered a love of reading and writing. I discovered how large man and his problems are. And where I was a private pilot - getting to see how small we all really are in this vast world. It is where I left for the Coast Guard - setting out on the ocean to find how small I am in this world I was. Oklahoma was the environment from which I branched out - only to come back to it with a better understanding and an enhanced respect.

For the new novel Unseen - Our family made 3 trips there over 3 years. The final trip had me living there in an apartment for 2 months. This gave me a good feel for the people and language (I took a year of Russian in college...but I can tell you that doesn't count ;-). It gave me inclination and time to delve into their literature (classics and contemporary) and history as well. And our family fight to bring back a child we hosted in the States gave me a template to develop a compelling story. It is not our family story in any way (well maybe here and there) - there just is no way to make our story believable :-).

Well, that's some insight into the choice of setting. I love to start a story with 'place' in mind first. Not sure where the next novel will be located...please stay tuned.

Next Novel working on it now) - Baraboo Wisconsin AND Ukraine!!

Have a great weekend!

Dog Lessons...

Hi! Just a note about a recent experience and some thoughts.

My neighbor was walking his dog in the woods out back of our place. A very cool dog,Lab-Pointer mix. My neighbor created trails through 80 acres for this purpose. A few days ago on a morning walk the dog, Maggie, chased after some some stray dogs. He thought nothing of it as she always returned home after these ventures. But then a day went by, then two, and then three.

Out here in the country, during hunting season, it seems impossible that she would return. Dogs get stolen regularly, shot, or ran over. He still did all he could do with postings in the area, online, and word of mouth in the community. And many friends of his were praying for him in this.

Late last night I felt compelled to walked to the furthest part of my property and yell for her.  I yelled her name across another neighbor's vast field and the name echoed into the woods beyond. I prayed that God would supernaturally carry these calls as far as they needed to go to reach her. That they be a beacon for her somehow.

As I walked back to my house I thought about this prayer. About belief. Here is this person that even some who do not believe - but understand the concept of him is..big. That should God exist he would be...big. For believers he is known as the Lord of Hosts, Almighty, Alpha and Omega, Lord of Lords, King of Kings. And much more. Big.

But then I looked to my own faith and found how little I had in such a person to simply...return a dog home? I determined with all I could manage to believe him for this simple task. I refused to enter my house until I had settled this with him at least to my satisfaction. 

This morning I woke to a call from my neighbor telling me that a man, a pastor, had found Maggie and was bringing her home. He lived just on the other side of that field I yelled across.

I truly don't know anything or understand anything. I keep coming back to that lesson...you know what I mean?

Have a great weekend.