Hugs Therapy Virtual Tour 2010

It’s my pleasure to welcome award-winning author and editor Marvin Wilson, also known as The Old Silly, to Thoughts in Progress today as he makes a stop on his Hugs Therapy Virtual Tour 2010.

Marvin’s book, BEWARE THE DEVIL’S HUG, has just been released. He has stopped by here today to answer some questions for me about his book and his writing.

Mason: Why should I read your book?

Marvin: Whether you are a lover of suspense/thrillers, mystery and intrigue, spiritual/inspirational, political/social/economic/religious commentary, or romance novels, or any or all of the above, BEWARE THE DEVIL'S HUG will deliver a thought-provoking, enlightening, inspirational and highly entertaining read for you.

Mason: Do you write about what you know, or about what you want to know?

Marvin: Both. And I think both are important to any fiction writer. Even with my rather extensive life experience to draw on, I “know” quite a few different ‘walks’ of life, having been a young Hippie rock and roller, a radical political activist, an interracially married man, a Zen student and then Buddhist lay-minister, a carpenter, a small business owner, a network marketer, a salesman, sales and success coach, a skilled trades instructor, a lost and broken down, homeless crack-head, and now a spiritualist Christian with a burgeoning writing career, to mention a few of the more significant ‘turning points’ in my life’s sojourn, I of course have—even with all that—only scratched the surface of all the possibilities here on this planet while in the mortal body. By the way, was that one of the longest sentences you’ve ever read? Sure felt like it, teehee.

But back to your question. I write about what I know, yes, but there is still so much I don’t know, and want to be able to write about, that I do lots of research when writing my novels. I have never yet been to England or the Middle East, for instance, yet a significant portion of Hugs takes place in those countries. I had to bone up on locations, weather conditions, landmarks, architecture, speech mannerisms, Islamic sayings and prayers, Muslim religious rituals, and get into the mindset of the terrorist, just to mention a few areas of research. And speaking of terrorists, people should know they do not consider themselves as terrorists at all, but rather freedom fighters and justice deliverers for their God, Allah. The reader will know I am referring to the Al-Qaeda in the book, but I used the fictional substitute name for the organization of Hrya-Al-Mqātlwn—which is the English characterization of the Arabic phrase meaning, ‘Freedom Fighters’.

Mason: Who is your best/worst critic?

Marvin: My editors. For my last novel, Owen Fiddler, I used Peggy Ullman Bell, a great gal, sharp as a tack, and a very good friend—when not acting as my editor. When she has her editor’s cap on, I need to put my thick skin on. She really lets me have it if she thinks I am writing even a baby’s lick below my fullest and best capacity. And the same goes for Deb Harris, chief editor for All Things That Matter Press, who did the edits for Hugs. When I got her first edits back, I had to wonder if she even liked the book at all! She did, of course, she loved it, considered it of such high potential that she refused to let it be published in anything less than its absolute best form. After three back-and-forth edits and revisions—yes, three—she finally said it was ready to publish and a fine book to be proud of.

Mason: Who is your favorite comedian and why?

Marvin: Sorry, I have to go with two: Rodney Dangerfield, and George Carlin. Dangerfield because he is the most hilarious, self-effacing, classic down-on-my-luck standup of all time, my opinion, and Carlin because of his witty, sarcastic, politically/socially/economically/religiously scathing commentary, all wrapped up in a knee-slapping yet deeply thought-provoking comic routine.

Mason: If your four main characters exchanged Christmas gifts, who would give what to who?

Marvin: That would be Iam (The Old Man), Destiny (a.k.a., ‘Cocoa’ at the beginning of the book), Christian, and Ali. Hmm … good question. Okay, here we go.

The Old Man would give Destiny a $100 gift certificate to a bookstore, where she would buy all romance novels. Even though he detests novels of any kind, he would humor her silly indulgence and be happy for her happiness. He would give Christian a copy of the Qur’an, written in original Arabic, so Christian would have to work at it, study and stretch, but eventually get the true, original and un-translated meaning of the scriptures. He would give Ali a copy of the Bible, written in the original Hebrew, for the same reasons.

Destiny would give The Old Man a new suit to wear, then get so turned on by how handsome and sexy he looks to her all dressed up she would insist on taking him to bed. Now. She would give Christian a gift certificate to a nice gourmet restaurant for dinner for two, so that he and her best friend, Angel—Christian’s fiancé—could both have a good time together. And for Ali? She would give him a finely crafted prayer mat.

Christian would give The Old Man and Destiny an all expenses paid, week-long trip to Disneyworld, where Iam would give young Destiny all she could handle keeping up with him wanting to try every ride and experience all things therein in rapid, here and now manner. Christian would pay Ali’s way to a Zen retreat, wanting him to experience for himself how meditation can deepen anyone’s spiritual path, no matter what religious name it goes under. Ali would take him up on it.

Ali, although a Muslim, would honor his Christian friends’ holiday, and give the following: to The Old Man he would give his sacred, handcrafted by himself as a young man, prayer beads—knowing Iam would treasure them as the special spiritual heirloom they represented to Ali and his family; Destiny would receive Christian’s last two best-selling novels—she hasn’t even read them yet, and she needs to expand her literary experience beyond just drippy romances; and Christian? He would give Christian a belated Christmas gift, promising to take a week off in mid-summer for them to travel somewhere together and spend some time alone in camaraderie, nurturing further their deep friendship and love for each other.

Marvin, thanks for stopping by today on your tour. I especially like the Christmas exchange gifts, interesting.

Now be sure to check out Marvin’s blog at The Old Silly’s Free Spirit Blog where you‘ll find contests, prizes and giveaways. In addition, tomorrow Marvin will be stopping at Tossing It Out where he will be talking with Arlee Bird. Be sure to stop by.

Here’s a bit of background on Marvin. He has a widely varied and rich life experience background - from Hippie Rock and Roll musician, to nightclub entertainer, to Zen Buddhist minister, to carpenter, to small business owner, to network marketer, to sales and sales training, to skilled trades instructor and adult education teacher, to public speaker and motivational coach, to now in his chosen “golden years” career, a writer and multi-published author with the self-proclaimed, “audacity to write novels”.

Wilson describes his spiritual path as one who is a non-religious, dogma-free, maverick spiritualist Christian, with a strong bent toward Zen, Taoism, and the Law of Attraction, and who believes in the Oneness of all creation and all paths leading to re-awakening to the One. He is a family man with three grown children and six grandchildren, and works with his son and oldest daughter in their organic compost and vegetable farming business when not writing, traveling, and marketing his books.

Marvin writes primarily in the spiritual/inspirational genre, but likes to pen “cross-over” novels that appeal to a wide variety of readers. His books are uplifting, sometimes weighty, oftentimes humorous, abidingly thought-provoking, meant to instill and create passion and emotion, more than occasionally provocative to the point of controversial, and always “tell it like it is”, real world, no punches pulled writing. He likes to deliver spiritual messages in a non-preachy, often irreverent, sometimes sexy and ribald way, through the medium of an entertaining story.

Here’s a brief blurb about BEWARE THE DEVIL’S HUG: What if a homeless, smelly, ugly, unkempt old man had a hug so powerful it could cure cancer? Cause a prostitute to stop hooking and seek true love? Shake the demons of addiction free from a junkie? Make a Christian want to hug and love a Muslim and visa versa? But rare is the beneficiary of his divine embrace – nobody wants to come near him out of fear.

Now a book trailer of BEWARE THE DEVIL’S HUG

Guest Blogger, Marvin D. Wilson

Please, join me in welcoming author Marvin Wilson, better known to many bloggers as The Old Silly, to Thoughts in Progress today as the special guest blogger.

Marvin is the author of three published books, I Romanced the Stone (Memoirs of a Recovering Hippie), Owen Fiddler, and Between the Storm and the Rainbow.

Marvin has joined us here today to talk about “Freedom through Discipline.” Marvin, if you will. …

I was able to go to college on a music scholarship. My father was a poor Christian minister, and had I not been born with the gift of music, the advantage of higher education would have been denied me. Thanks to my God-given talents, I was able to go. I was a music major with a thespian minor at Central Michigan University.  

At age eighteen, I thought I knew everything. I had talent, intelligence, youthful bold confidence and a brash attitude, and a social/political/religious view of our world (this was the late 1960s, mind you) that was one of ‘I know everything.’ And anyone who disagreed with me (especially my parents and any authority figures in the older generation, those despicable leaders of the hypocritical oppressive ‘Orwellian - big brother’ government of the times), were dead wrong.

I was a ‘Free Spirit,’ venturing forth into a brave new world that me and my Hippie friends were forging with our new lifestyle, our drugs, sex and rock and roll religion of freedom.

In my first year at college, I met Professor Stephen Hobson. He was my choir director and my private lesson voice coach. He looked to me to be in his late sixties. He was (well, he seemed to me at the time) stodgy and stiff, and a strict disciplinarian. He demanded of me a level of self-discipline and rigorous diurnal practice regimen that I was completely without the ability to understand, let alone adhere to.
One little flutter in-between voice registers, any tiny slippage in tonal and/or pitch control when singing my assigned lessons in his torture chambers he called a ‘practice room’ every Wednesday, and he would stop playing his piano accompaniment. He would look at me with this ‘you know as well as I that that was not good enough’ expression and demand that I try it again. Over and over … until I got it perfect. Perfect according to his obnoxious elitist opinion.

I couldn't stand that man. He was asking way too much of me, and for no good reason. I did not see the need for such a tyrannical imposition of discipline on me and my life, my singing, my anything. I was writing songs about freedom and liberty, gigging at night in my rock and roll band, getting over to thunderous applause at the hands of my Hippie peers, why did I need discipline?

I was a one-of-a-kind talent; my uninhibited, serendipitous, wild and natural style was destined to become the standard for future generations. Professors in decades to come would teach their students how to emulate me!

Ah, but those of you with any substantial life experience can guess the rest of the story. I never ‘made it’ as a big impact famous rock and roller. I eventually wound up playing for modest money in little disco bars, playing live jukebox cover tunes for young people to get drunk to and screw each other. But I had learned something along the way.

I learned that in order to become ‘free’ with anything, any pursuit, any hobby, any career, any craft, any aspiration of great accomplishment, you had to go through the discipline first. I never made it as a big name musician, but I did learn how to play my instrument. To this day, I am free when I pick up a guitar. I can express emotions, elevate my consciousness, get all heaven-bound and glorified, and anyone around me will experience the same thing I am feeling.

It's a miracle I can produce, at any time, in any place, on any guitar of reasonable quality. But it took a long, strenuous time of discipline to reach that plateau. Years and years of overcoming sore fingertips and blistered split open calluses, learning the scales, studying the modes, practicing the positions, emulating the recordings artists, getting so familiar with the neck I owned it as an extensions of my hand.

Towards the end of my bar-playing nightclub career, Professor Stephen Hobson came out to see my band. I had called him, letting him know we were playing in his town that week. Even so, I was surprised to see him in the audience—remember, this is a classical musician, a prim and proper professor, a patron of the fine arts, someone who goes to operas and symphony performances. For him to go to a dance club and listen to a top forty band was rather impressive.

And you know what? He was impressed with our performance. I went and sat at the table with him and his wife after the second set and he was beaming. He had wonderful accolades to bestow upon my ensemble and me, complimenting the vocals, the arrangements, our use of dynamics, and our overall command of our instruments. It was then that I told him what I had wanted to say for several years.

I told him that I finally understood what discipline meant, what its value was. I knew, I told him, that undertaking the arduous discipline of any given art or craft was the necessary and only way to get free within that art or craft. I expressed to him that I finally appreciated what he had been trying to get through to my thick headstrong skull all those years ago. I knew I had been a special student to him, he had a great amount of belief in my talent, and I also knew I had been a disappointment to him, because he never ‘got through to me’ when I was under his tutelage. I apologized to him for that shortcoming and assured him that his teaching had stuck with me all these years and had now been realized in my life and practice.

The now retired Professor Stephen Hobson's eighty-year-old eyes filled up. He said, and I quote, "Then my life, my career, has been worth it!" We hugged. Long and sincere. That was the last time I ever saw him. He died a couple years later. I will never forget Professor Stephen Hobson and what he taught me about applying discipline to my life in order to get beyond boundaries and break free.

It applies to relationships and marriage, to any career, to any sport, to any hobby, to any life pursuit whatsoever. If you want to eventually be free, you must initially go through the discipline. It may sound like an oxymoron, "Freedom through Discipline," it did to me as a young Hippie, but it makes perfect sense to me now. God bless and keep you, Professor Stephen Hobson. Your legacy, your teaching, lives on.

Marvin, thank you so much for sharing this wonderful story with us. Sometimes it is hard for us to understand that we do need discipline in our lives to strive and succeed.

For those who haven’t meet Marvin before, let me share some of his background with you. Marvin is a family man, married for 34 years, with three adult children and six grandchildren. He has been around the block of life several times, through the ups and downs, and has survived in good enough spirits to desire to write about life, to write about living life on purpose. Marvin is a self-described “non-religious, dogma-free, Maverick spiritualist Christian.” He writes books that deliver spiritual and inspirational messages in an engaging, thought provoking, often times humorous, more than often irreverent, sometimes sexy and even ribald way, through the spinning of an entertaining tale.

In addition, Marvin is an editor with All Things That Matter Press and does freelance editing as well. He is a prolific blogger, posting daily on his internationally popular blog at The Old Silly’s Free Spirit Blog. Marvin’s novel, Owen Fiddler, received the prestigious AVATAR award for excellence in spiritual books. He also has had articles published in multiple Ezines, and has been interviewed on hundreds of blogs, radio and TV shows, both over the internet and on the airwaves. He can also be found on Facebook and Twitter.

Here's a book trailer for Owen Fiddler, please enjoy