"Isn't that a Daisy?" R.H. Morter (RhetHypo)

The Introduction

This is an interview styled program. I will be showcasing the good people on Minds - the creators and the bright lights. This will NOT be a podcast, but a well written BLOG to promote the brightest channels on Minds. These interviews are a positive reflection to showcase and promote the goodness of people and an open endorsement of the creators, authors, and artists on Minds.

This is the fifth of twelve interview style episodes called "Isn't that a Daisy?" This phrase originated from the film "Tombstone" and is quoted from the character Doc Holliday that was played by Val Kilmer. The term 'daisy' was often used towards anyone that provoked challenge towards him. Whether he was playing cards or battling in a gun fight it was a common term used during the 1870's and used several times in the movie.

A daisy is a plain, but pretty flower. The phrase itself meant 'marvelous' or the 'cream of the crop'. These interviews will showcase the 'cream of the crop' and the most marvelous channels on Minds.

Special Guest: R.H. Morter (Rhetorical Hypothetical) 

The world of Minds holds many daisies. Brilliant creators, artists, and writers. This month I am showcasing a very talented and experienced writer. You may know him on Minds as @RhetoricalHypothetical . He is a writer of code and books in several genres, so let me introduce you to this Daisy. You should subscribe to his channel.

When I first started creating these “Isn’t that a Daisy” interviews, RhetHypo was at the top of my list for guests because I have always thought he was a fascinating person. When I first arrived @rhetoricalhypothetical was one of the first channels that I subscribed too and in turn subscribed to me. We have a lot in common. 

RhetHypo is an intellectual and a deep philosopher that shares his innermost views concerning politics, religion, and life. He tends to engage in, and not shy away from controversial conversations or debate, so be warned he is no pushover. He is a person that self-analyzes and seeks personal improvement as a creator and as a person. I think that is what sets him apart from other publishers on Minds because he is interested in sharing knowledge and self-development. 

(For example: he recently created this art ^^^ above and is interested in your feedback – positive or negative. Just place your opinion in the Comment section of this Blog.) 

There are many indie writers on Minds and RhetHypo is one of those writers. He is a notable and an experienced author, although he is humble in his accomplishments. Like other authors, he is very critical about his own writing, and he is always trying to improve his skills. He also treasures the act of writing and creating, and he can think of no better career than earning a paycheck from publishing and selling his literary works. 

The beautiful truth about this Daisy is that RhetHypo does not just write books. He also writes code, he programs videogames, and he creates his own art. He is like a jack-of-all trades, that wants to master anything he sets his mind upon. This is an admirable trait. 

RhetHypo also enjoys reading and sometimes he will critique the books he reads. I asked RhetHypo to read my book because I wanted his feedback, and I wanted to hear his critique even if that meant a negative review. As an author, I want to grow and improve, so I welcome constructive criticism. I did not expect it, but he answered my request and I received a detailed assessment. I am in his debt because he provided me an exceptional overview of my book and the analysis I requested. 

Questions & Answers: R.H. Morter (RhetHypo)

What is an interview without Q & A? With every “Isn’t that a Daisy” interview I ask specific questions, so I can allow the guest a chance to express themselves in their own way and have the freedom to answer what they choose. 

Q) You are a writer, reader, and a critic. Some of your criticism has been perceived as harsh or even malicious. In your defense, what is your true purpose in critiquing other authors and their books?

A) “I don’t see this as needing a defense. My purpose has always been transparent; if there are things I didn’t like about a book, especially an indie book, I would either make a public review stating my opinions or even contact the author directly to give feedback. I always explained why I had the opinions I did, and would expand upon them at length if asked for further clarification. I only later came to the conclusion that this is usually a waste of time for indie authors, as not only does most indie fiction have too many egregious errors to make a concise account of them in a reasonable span of time, but the authors themselves are often amateur in the worst sense of the word, in that they don’t wish to improve, they want to be told they are good enough just the way they are.

If someone were to critique one of my works in the same fashion that I have critiqued other books in the past, I would immediately be defensive, as that is the very natural reaction to someone talking about a very personal project that someone worked on for a long time. However, if they put in the time to read one of my books, I would still thank them and take any feedback into serious consideration. I’m so serious about this that I have an open offer with friends and family where, if they read one of my books, I will pay for dinner so they can tell me what they thought of it. Even my books, which aren’t excessively long by design, are still a significant time investment to read, and I’m always looking for ways to improve them to make that investment more worthwhile.

I’m honest and completely transparent in what I think of books because that is how I would like people to treat my books, as I think it is the fastest way to improve. The only thing that’s changed is my overall willingness to give indie authors a chance by reading their books in the first place, much less a full critical analysis.”

Q) Look back to your earlier days as a writer. What was the first story you ever wrote? How old were you when you wrote it?

A) “The first story I ever wrote was probably in middle school, maybe high school. Early teens, I guess. I’m glad I still don’t have it; it was portal fiction (similar to Narnia) of the cringiest kind. My first somewhat competent story was started on the side in college, though it still took quite a few years until I was motivated enough to publish it. That was the first book in the Gatekeepers series.”

Q) Are some of your writings too mature? What age group is your target audience? (I understand this may vary between series)

A) “Most of my writing is pretty family friendly, in my opinion. The only exception would be The Bleeding Heart and Supercide, both of which have a good amount of actual swearing and allusions to adult concepts. Off the top of my head, I guess Gatekeepers also references alcohol to some extent in the second and third books, but I don’t know how mature I would consider that. It also has a fair amount of fake swearing, where I created some new terms as stand ins for swear words, but I don’t see that as mature oriented at all. So, I guess even though I don’t give as much thought to target audience as I should if I’m looking to monetize, my books would generally be teen to young adult. I try to categorize them appropriately when publishing them.”

Q) We all have a background. Can you share a bit about your background? How has your past affected your writing?

A) Well, that’s a rather open-ended question. I’ve been a professional software developer for years now, so I tend to have a lot more focus on the structure and consistency of imaginary systems within my book, be that magic or technology. I come from a Christian background, so I guess that contributes to my lack of “religion bad, science good” in my books.

Q) Where are you from - originally (State or nation)? Has your place of origin ever influenced your writing?

A) I might be willing to answer this question more thoroughly, but I also don’t think the answer is very interesting. I’m from the US, have traveled a bit but honestly not that much. Beyond being an American, I don’t think my place of origin affects my writing all that much.

Q) What brought you to Minds? How long have you been on Minds? What other Social Media platforms do you use? (List your social media links here - I will imbed them in the Blog)

A) “Aw, geez. Honestly, I barely even use Minds nowadays, and as part of my Bridgit side project, I have a lot of dormant accounts scattered about. Been recently trolling around on Twitter, but mostly for random conversation rather than what I should be doing, which is book promotion. I’ve just put my marketing on pause for the most part, along with most of my writing beyond my Rift Rangers series, while I attempt to improve my cover work.

Minds: RhetHypo (https://www.minds.com/RhetHypo /)

Twitter: RhetHypo (https://twitter.com/RhetHypo)

Parler: RhetHypo (https://parler.com/RhetHypo)

Reddit: RhetHypo (https://www.reddit.com/user/RhetHypo)

Gettr: RhetHypo (https://app.gettr.com/user/rhethypo)

*Itch.io: https://rhethypo.itch.io/

Personal Website: https://www.rhethypo.com/

(*This is less of a social media and more an easy way to develop/publish browser-based games that I’ve also been experimenting with lately, but I thought I would include it anyways.)

I still at least check in on Minds regularly, so that’s probably the best place to get in touch with me.

As for what brought me to Minds, I was first introduced to it via a video made by a Dave Cullen, also known as Computing Forever. I thought the anti-censorship stance was admirable and the boost functionality potentially useful for advertising my books when they were published. I’ve since changed my mind on how useful boosting is for advertising in comparison to standard ads, but I also don’t plan to abandon the platform. I’ve been here for a little over four years with varying levels of activity, and it feels like my social media home, despite how small my presence honestly is. Especially since I think a large chunk of my subscribers are inactive accounts.”

Q) R.H. Morter is a pseudonym as is Rhetorical Hypothetical. Why do you use a pseudonym? Where or how did you get the idea for the name?

A) “Pseudonyms are just generally useful for privacy on the internet. Unless there is some compelling reason to not use one, I would generally recommend everyone not post under their real name. Even before the age of the internet, it was common practice for authors to use pen names to separate private identities from public personas.

Rhetorical Hypothetical, which later evolved into RhetHypo because that’s a mouthful, is just a name I thought encapsulated my personality. I imagine and present a lot of hypotheticals, and combative rhetoric that includes the occasional rhetorical question is pretty common for me. I think out loud and can be a tad argumentative when I disagree, basically.

R. H. Morter is just the RhetHypo initials, plus a word I thought would make the name sound like a standard pen name. Like George R. R. Martin, C. S. Lewis, or J. K. Rowling. If you ask someone who they think R. H. Morter is, odds are they would say some author, due to the structure. That’s by design.”

Q) You create your own book covers. How do you create these covers? Do you freelance your art or create images for other people?

A) “In the past, I’ve used stock images from sites like Pixabay and taught myself rudimentary image editing in Gimp. I’m not that good at it, but I have figured out how to make covers that are consistent with Amazon requirements. Most of my covers are just a few images, either a background and something like a silhouette or just a single background. I’ve paid for a single cover to be made before on Fiverr, and while it was fine, it didn’t justify the cost in sales on its own, so I don’t plan on doing that again until I have a better way to capitalize on the investment.

In the meantime, I’ve been trying my own hand at art. Even the ability to make rough, placeholder art beyond geometric shapes is useful in both cover design and game development, so my hope is this will open up more opportunities. At this point in time, my artistic abilities are not remotely good enough for other people to use, much less purchase, though I probably could help if a person is stuck on how to format existing images into a cover that Amazon self-publishing would accept.”

Q) Which authors are your inspirations? Who are your favorite authors and how have they helped shape your writing?

A) “I read all of C. S. Lewis’ Chronicles of Narnia as a kid, and to this day I think they were some really solid writings. The story was well paced and the conflict felt real and grounded, and though the Christian themes were heavy, the story was always centered on its own mythos. As an adult I’ve also gained an appreciation for other authors like Ayn Rand and Isaac Asimov, but I would say C. S. Lewis was my introduction to fantasy, and a heavy inspiration for how I go about building fictional worlds.”

Q) Why do you write books and stories? Do you write anything else (poetry, songs, etc)? Is writing just a hobby, an income, or do you write for some other reason?

A) “I write code, but not poetry or songs. I might be able to write poetry if I really tried, but I’m just not particularly interested in it. And I wish I could write songs, to the point that I’ve looked into learning music theory on a cursory level, but I don’t think I have any talent for it.

Writing books is just a hobby for me, but it’s one that I really can’t avoid doing. I enjoy writing, and if I come up with an idea I want to explore, I can’t bring myself to just ignore it. I have a psychological need for this creative outlet, and I only pursue it as a potential method of primary income because then I could rationalize spending all day working on what I inherently enjoy. I also enjoy the challenges of writing code, but the type of code one writes in a more traditional developer role doesn’t fulfill the same need for abstract problem solving and creative thinking that writing a story does. And at this point, I’m not limiting myself to just books, I’m looking at both illustration and game development just to see how far I can go and what I can eventually create.”

Q) What is your advice to aspiring authors?

A) “If you want to be an author, start writing. Now. Right now. Write. Now. You will learn very quickly if you enjoy the process, something that reading about writing or talking about writing or watching videos about writing can’t teach you.

I don’t want to make too many sweeping claims because there are different types of authors. If you are already determined to be an author already, don’t let me stop you. For those still on the fence, I would say if you don’t have a strong vision for a story, if you aren’t able to be alone with your thoughts for the entire day while getting work done, and especially if you find the act of writing itself to be incredibly tedious, I would say being an author is not for you. It is a very solitary, very time intensive activity, where your end product is going to be heavily scrutinized and picked apart, if it’s ever read by anyone at all.

If you don’t enjoy that process to some degree, you probably won’t enjoy your end product, either. And I believe people can really feel your attitude through your writing, in a way that is less possible with more informal text communication. Word choice for character interactions and plot developments are inherently more visceral. But now I’m using words like visceral, so I should probably stop my little speech there.” 

Thank You, RhetHypo!

Thank you @RhetoricalHypothetical for taking the time to answer my questions, and making an appearance on my humble blog. I pray that you will get the break and recognition you deserve, so that one day you can earn an income doing what you love. You’re a Daisy, my friend.

For my readers: Thank you for taking the time to learn more about this great channel. Subscribe to @RhetoricalHypothetical. You're a daisy if you do.