2016 – Writer, Author, Speaker

Deadlines

[caption id="attachment_231" align="alignleft" width="281"] What do I have due today?[/caption] Deadlines are the lines drawn in the sand, the air, and on calendars. They are imaginary lines past which one should not go, or you'll die. Die of what? Failure? Disappointment? Losing a job? Not answering a need? Shame? Deadlines are a form of communication. "I need this by noon so we can move forward on the project." There should be no room for negotiation in a deadline. There is no room for negotiation in death, is there? So why do people push up against deadlines by crushing the work to...

Birth,Death

Death in the Garden of Eden

Death sat curled up in a large swinging wicker chair in the long shuttered Garden of Eden. The warm breeze smelled of plumeria. A colorful macaw bobbed on a branch of that famous tree. The snake near the tree knew who the beautiful woman was, and recoiled from her, even though she really had no jurisdiction over the animal kingdom. Still the snake stayed his distance. A bright green frog peeked up from under a leaf. The rest of nature’s creatures crowded around in a careless exhalation of extraordinary beauty. Death went there sometimes to think things through. She loved...

Authors and Writing,Deathlist Alphabet,Eternity,Plans

E Is for Eternity

Eternity — it was the last thing I thought about when I died. I was supposedly going someplace (as they say) for a long time. In fact, they say the place you go will be the place you stay for the rest of time. I cannot fathom this any more than many people can fathom living with the same person for all one’s lifetime. But the fathomability of all things varies with each person’s fathom factor, which may change as one ages, or may be one of those things stapled onto your DNA as much as your eye color...

Authors and Writing

Writing As Meditation

[caption id="attachment_281" align="alignleft" width="215"] Rodin's "Thinker"[/caption] I recently re-started meditating and I now believe that writing counts as meditation. Some people might disagree, but I feel that when you are truly on the page, paused waiting for the next word to come, or lingering while your character makes a decision, that moment is indeed a meditation. Cobble those moments together, and the result achieves a similar after-glow to a good meditation session. There’s a quiet that infuses the heart. It’s a peacefulness of knowing you’re in the right place and that you are not anywhere else. That, to me, is...

Death,Hacking

Book Synopsis

Do you want to know when you will die? My book is about a computer hacker who finds a huge database with every single person’s FUTURE death date on it. He sells the dates and gets rich, but other people want to profit from this “deathlist.” This book is part action, part religion, part philosophy, part good vs. evil . . . and mostly true. How else do you explain the crazy times people die? © 2016 Kathryn Atkins

Death

Death Isn’t Just Beautiful — She’s HOT

Deathlist excerpt: She was wearing a black dress with a plunging neckline and an air-light shawl. Her hair sparkled with tiny, exquisite diamonds. They looked real. Her wide, sensuous mouth and perfect teeth smiled at the gray-haired gentleman seated next to her at Table 16. Harold got up from his table and started to go over for a closer look, but she casually turned away, her back denying identification, and all he found when he arrived at Table 16 was a napkin with lipstick stains and the guy who had been sitting next to her face down in his watercress...

Death,Life,Museums

Skulls at the Museum

As we rounded the corner at the bottom of the dark stairs, the person in front of us stopped so quickly we ran into him. He sucked his breath in, and turned to leave, but there was no where for him to go. He was stuck. The skulls grinned with vacant eyes, but we knew they knew we knew they were long dead. But still. Why the grin? Did they think the man was silly? Or was it something else? Death wears a smile because she knows. She knows when and how, although it is not she that decides either...

Birth,Death,Life

Death Is Not Random

Death is not random. It just looks like it. Freak accidents. Chance missteps. Absurd consequences of non-events. Birth is not random. Looks like it but it’s not! How’d you get here, then? Of all the little eggs that don’t get fertilized down there, How…Did… YOU...Come…To…Be? Planning, I tell you, planning. It’s the same on the other end. Your death is as planned as your life. The slots are all there, waiting to be filled. Yours was waiting to be filled by you when your egg and sperm met in a specifically non-random mating of DNAs. It was a carefully planned time....

Bucket Lists,Death,Plans

So Now We Know

We thought we would like knowing. In fact everyone that knew liked knowing at first. But now it's a little weird. It's strange knowing when your sister is going to die. It's simply surreal when people boarding planes are asked if they know. It is difficult to cope now that you know when your spouse will die. Yes you knew they would. But now you when. It's horrifically different. People that know wish they didn't. People that know find ways to pretend they don't after all. Everyone is on edge. Some people plan for it. They stage big going away parties, like they are moving, or retiring....

Death,Fear,Hacking,Life,Plans

What Would You Do If You Knew?

I sometimes wish I knew when I was going to die. I'd make different plans. Maybe I'd travel more, worry less. Why worry? What's to worry about if something can't kill you? Well, I have thought about that. Living in a mangled body would suck. Severing one's fear of death would take one thing off the list. Hah. I don't worry about dying. I know that I will. Now I can know when. Ah, but the biggie is knowing how. Don't know that yet. Maybe that's for later science... hacking the "HOW" code, now that we've cracked the "WHEN" code....