Declan Finn author's blog: "The World of Declan Finn, author"

If you're new here, you might be wondering what all of this is about -- in addition to being the author of the novel A Pius Man, I am also a writer for Examiner.com, and their Catholic column for New York.

This was a busy, busy month.

A sticky situation: artificial insemination and the Catholic church..... Yes, I went there.

Catholics and sex -- The New York Times wouldn't know the Catholic position on sex if it jumped up and bit them on the ass.

Review: John Ringo's Princess of Wands (with free books). -- If you've been reading this blog for a while, you know that I've done the review of Ringo's novel here.  If you take a look for it, you might be surprised to find it happens to be somewhere else now. :)

Catholics and republicans.  During one Republican debate, Catholic charities came up.  Which made me scratch my head -- in the words of James Carville, shouldn't the motto of this election be "It's the economy, stupid"?

Exorcism and the catholic church.  Catholic church seeks exorcists. Inquire within.

Catholic pedophiles  This is actually a series.  When an organization that targets pederast priests targeted Joe Paterno and company, I raised a brow, shrugged, and went to work.  You might recognize the series from last Lent.  Well, I decided to go there.  Again.

This was just strange

The columns include.

Well, that was a fun year, huh?  In fact, 2011 was so fun, let's just do it over again, and skip 2012, so we can wake up and election season will be over.

Oh well, can't have everything.

December was a bit of a mixed bag, and the year wasn't all bad. With luck, 2012 will be better. Apparently, after my rampage through Stumbleupon.com, making my November blog traffic spike through the roof, I retained nearly a thousand new visitors, who knew?

Then again, I had some aid in this from a strange and unexpected source -- actually, about three or four different times.

To start with, my tale Coyote Christmas, a Story by Twitter, was a strange success, viewed by over a hundred readers in the first month, and that's without having to post it all over the internet.  Even Coyote Christmas: the full story, written in standard prose, took in a goodly number of readers.  Who knows, I might have stolen someone's title without knowing it -- that would explain why I had a lot of readers looking for "the author of Coyote Christmas" in search terms.

You can never underestimate the power of a good death trap.

I had some nice music blogs, mostly because of a recent discovery on my part: Lindsey Stirling, and her epic violin. Seriously, this woman was awesome.  Not to mention that her Celtic Christmas was beautiful. And her rendition of Silent Night, it worked ... so, yes, I was probably saved by Christmas, and tripping over Madam Stirling.

Though there was one good thing in 2011 I wouldn't change at all, my new Self Defense column (which you can see reviewed for all of 2011 right here). And my Catholic column -- which is even newer.

I've had an interesting little month. Because I have a new job....
In fact, my first column was one of my first articles from this past Lent.  Catholic cannibals: Explaining the eucharist. Yes, Catholics are cannibals. Live with it. :)

And there were a few other articles that readers of this blog might know. 
Mr. Phelps, David Koresh called, he wants to chat;... 
Fred Phelps, you are disavowed. 
“You're going to Hell.... Not.” I'm Catholic, not Dante 
Japan, and the Christian vlogger - 2011 Catholic... 

If you ever wanted to know when I'd simply post an entire year in review, the answer is: the last possible minute.

But, this is close enough, I think.

Let's start with some articles I had yet to post, starting with my Occupy Wall Street Retrospective.

And, because 'tis the season to be hostile, I included Christmas Shopping Safety, in addition to my Black Friday Survivor's Guide.

Now, there were two very interesting pieces on self defense recently: a McDonald's cook was assaulted, and he struck back with force that seemed disproportionate.  However, the verdict may surprise you.  The story is here.   Theverdict is here.

Remember when I mentioned Krav Maga on this site?  It's going on tour.

Also, there was a kids test at my Krav Place.

And yes, there was a 2011 Year In Review. Part one: When you need to defend yourself, you do it without reservation ... until you need to stop; because, let's face it, it would be annoying to have to defend yourself, and then be arrested for it. Something you should already have an idea of, and yet probably don't know how to do it well. How to avoid a fight through attitude, and a study in Krav Maga, a review of Krav Defense in Bethpage, NY, how to escape an arm grab, defending against chokes from the front... And Evaluating a self defense class. 

Top ten points to attack an aggressor. When you absolutely must attack, this is where you strike. And if you are mugged.

Part two was something else again.

I covered a real life incident that explores the rules of engagement for defending yourself in New York; pens as lethal weapons; the top ten weapons you carry on you every day.  Some people are natural born targets, mainly because they don't pay attention. Meeting people from online in real life, part one and part two;Self defense and Child Obesity; after someone tried to blow up Norway, it was time to focus some attention there for a while; How to Spot a Suicide Bomber in 12 steps. A checklist of behaviors stolen from the Israelis. They know these things.  An analysis of the rape charges filed against a French bureaucrat in New York, and comes up with a conclusion. And that conclusion is that there should be pain.  Also, in New York, a little boy was killed, and dismembered. The real danger would be bringing back an old practice that did no good the first time around.  The week that everyone tried to blow stuff up; dealing with a stalker ex; How to survive a bar fight in five easy steps; hunting in the Urban Wild when you are the prey.

And that covered most of the summer.

Part 3 was a Krav Maga seminar, Women's self defense, and Barbara Sheehan tests the limits of self defense.

Part 4: Rayon McIntosh, Occupy Wall Street, and surviving Christmas.

Well, another month shot to hell.  :)

Anyway, this has been an interesting little month. This was the month I discovered Stumbleupon.com.... and I posted links to almost every single blog entry.

So, all of that adds up to this month having over 13,255 hits on the blog.  It's been a good month.  Even if I had to rewrite the top ten blog list. I may still yet have to.

Anyway...

There is a Story By Twitter coming up soon on the blog, and probably next Monday.  If you have a twitter account, find join my twitter feed (you can find a link in the right hand side). Otherwise, you may not get it for a while.

I've written characters of mine who take surveys, starting with Egyptian cop Hashim Abasi ... who has a list of enemies on his mouse pad.

And, if you ever missed a video we've done thus far, well, you can't: here are the complete Videos of A Pius Man.  Not to mention that there's also a video going around the net that makes me think I have to seriously up my A-game: a live action recreation of a video game fight from the epic game Arkham city.

Our music blogs have had: Dragonforce's Heart of a Dragon, Final Fantasy's One Winged Angel, and Mozart. We also had Tom Smith's Cooking for 93 ... a little something for Thanksgiving.  There was also the classic science fiction summary in song Rocket Ride, by Tom Smith, as well as some Dragonforce's Where Dragons Rule.  We also had some Two steps from Hell, and the greatest beer that any bar has ever had for sale: it's Three-oh-seven Ale.

I've also had the most FAQ that any author has ever had to deal with: "Where do you get your ideas from?"  Here's an answer.

There was also some issues with Google.  Feh.

And, finally, there was a self defense review: with kill shots, Occupiers, and ... something else, I'm sure.

See you Monday

I started off this month with my last -- as in final -- article on Occupy Wall Street. I've had it with these people.  Not to mention that I wrote the article the day before the OWS were told that, no, squatting is illegal, and we're taking your tents away. Thank you.  If you ever wanted to know the problems that local business had with Occupy Wall Street,just click here.

If you ever wanted to scare off attackers, or at least make yourself look like a target that would give them trouble, you might want to try here.  You even get a song with it.

I've mentioned more than once that, well, accidents happen.  When you're attacked, and you must defend yourself, someone could die.  You should avoid it whenever possible, but sometimes, well, accidents can happen.  My friend Carlos helped me out with this one.

And, after I stole more than a few good lines and articles from this book, I decided to do a little review of The Special Forces Guide to Unarmed Combat.  It's surprisingly useful.

And, just for fun, I did a nice little article on how to Survive Black Friday

This is the month where everything went very, very strange.  And, that was apparently a good thing.  This is officially the month with the most page views ever. Who knew?

I started out with something that pissed me off: DC Comics turning Starfire and Catwoman, two of their stronger female protagonists, into sluts, to put it charitably.  They were so totally reduced to sex objects, I wanted to throw rocks.

So I threw angry language at them instead.

Ironically, in one month, it has become the most read post on this entire blog, beating out Disasters to Marvel at, which is a year old.

Also, I decided to get back to creative writing, creating more surveys that my characters have filled out.  You know, the older online essays that used to be sort of fun.  I had one for the German spy Manana Shushurin, and another for the Secret Service agent and nerd, Wilhelmina Goldberg, as well as the lethal weapon, Irish Interpol Agent Maureen McGrail.

I didn't have all that many music blogs this month.  I threw up some John Williams marches, and Tom Smith taking his revenge on technology and Rob Granito

A false report on gay marriage in the military made me start an irate blog .... then I wanted a better footnote, discovered that the story I based my indignation on was bogus, and I was stuck with a blog I had to rewrite, very, very fast.

I put in another blog on writing. This time it was a matter of "how to exposition like crazy" -- when you have to dump a graduate paper's worth of information into one novel.

Also, I had a little conversation on how to write for disaster.  It's mostly how to write characters who are supposed to be terrified, when you yourself have never been quitethat scared -- and, making certain that your character's fear is appropriate both to the situation, and the person.

And, there was my self-defense review for the month -- with my  my self defense columns for October. It had to do a lot with Occupy Wall Street, self defense for women, and self defense against the zombie apocalypse .... I'm serious about the zombie apocalypse part.

Catholic conspiracies 3.  This was almost a replacement for It was inspired after I saw a lot of idiots try to pin Occupy Wall Street on "crypto-Jewish Jesuit fascists founded by the Illuminati."

I want my Vatican ninjas

This has been a really weird month for me, truly. And how is that difference from any other month, you ask?

 To start with, most of my self defense review materials turned out to be comedies.

Taking this month in chronological order will probably make the most sense.

To start with, I discovered a new Women's self defense, every Sunday.in Manhattan.  It's Krav Maga for women -- which is actually more advanced than going for straight, plain-old Krav Maga, believe it or not. It has to be for some of the techniques to be effective.

And then, of course, there was the little incident of Barbara Sheehan, battered women: which is always a problem.  In New York, you can't kill anyone and get away with it. That includes if you kill someone in self defense. Even if a jury let's you go, the New York District Attorney's office will find some way to throw you in jail, without remorse.

But, then again, the odds of that happening are more likely when you consider that Barbara Sheehan shot her husband with his own gun while he was shaving, after she just came back from her next door neighbors. Click the link to read more.

After that, things got a little weird. Yesterday, I covered the latest in Catholic Conspiracies, with Occupy Wall Street.  I also did several articles about them kicking around.  I not only did articles about protection from them, and how dangerous they may or may not be (answer: mostly harmless) but how they can protect themselves -- both from each other (ie: how NOT to have your $5K laptop stolen), and their own stupidity (eg: DON'T ATTACK THE POLICE!!!!!).

I also discovered that the same people who brought you last month's self defense seminar has a new one: knife and stick defenses.

And last, but not least .....

Okay, I have to deal with a lot of strange stuff in New York. That's because it's New York.  Nothing here is really "normal" here.

And then there's the CDC creating the Zombie Preparedness kit ... and the comic book for it.

I can't make this stuff up.

Ah, another month shot to Hell.

So, where are we?  Ah, yes, it's been a very strange little month.  Since I've cut back on the daily ... and weekly ... output, it's been interesting.  I don't even though I've gotten around to posting a music blog in a while.

So start with, we opened the month with a new concept from August: Characters answering Surveys.  In this case, I used Scott Murphy.

Then I looked into how terror can also be a form of communication: sometimes, the most intimidating characters are the ones you least expect. And, sometimes, they're just in your face.

Then there was how to torture characters: with some JMS, and some Jim Butcher.  Muwhahahahaha!!!!!

Yes, I've been having too much fun around here.

Can you tell?

Speaking of which, there was also my Impossible Odds blog, focusing on million to one odds.

Anyway, there was also another Self Defense review.  In this case, I covered how I spent my 9-11; mostly it was learning how to save a life.... no, I'm not joking.  How to save someone from chokes, and guns, and knives.  I also covered the latest in bulletproof clothing, and how to spot a concealed weapon, and such ...

Oh, and I also looked back on September 11, 2001.

Also: DC Comics rebooted their universe, and I'm not that happy about it.Though I'm told I'm dead wrong.

I did a review of The Expendables..... The Pain! The Pain!

And, there was Talk like a Pirate Day, where I got to be lazy ... in other words, I had nothing for that day, and I was saved by the realization it was September 19th.

And, finally, we had the return of Karina Fabian, discussing her new book Mind Over Mind. She gave us Ten Reasons to Love Science Fiction, an interview, and my review of the novel.

Anyway, I thought this was a good, fun little month.