End of the World... A Guest Post By: M.E. Purfield

 Horsemen of the Apocalypse, by Albrecht Dürer

The world ended when time broke into the year 2000. No. The horsemen didn’t trample by, armed with disease and pestilence. The Earth didn’t crack open. The polar icecaps didn’t drown us out. Computers didn't blow up. Instead controlling religions weakened and followers started thinking for themselves, homosexuals started gaining civil rights, and controlling corporations and politicians started losing power.
The biggest change would have to be the insane digital explosion. Through the use of digital technology people were able to express their voices. I don’t know about you, but for my poor little artistic butt I find this to be great. Now everyone can express themselves or communicate through digital media. And it’s cheap and easy to use.
Distribute a book, a song, a movie, or an idea. It can be long or short. If you don’t have a lot of money, then go to the fans or people to raise it. If the final product sparks with an audience, you will be heard. True, you can’t make everyone happy. But as a creator of free thought, you don’t have to. Leave it to the Board of Directors to make everyone happy. They know what’s best.
Self-expression does have a dark side. You will run into opposition. Nameless/faceless people with strange names and avatars will try to debase you, call you a fool and worthless. They will say you have no right to bypass the systems at large. How can you open a restaurant when you never had someone outside your family call you a cook? How can you be a nanny for the first time when you never had kids? How can you act like a politician for the people when you're just a paperboy?
That’s okay.
We’ve all been to grade school. We know why a bully picks on a kid. They feel like shit. They fear. But they are not jealous. Why should they be jealous of you? You took the hard road to create something from deep down inside yourself and now you have a joker like him calling you a fool. It’s better and easier and more impressive to attack someone for stating an opinion different from the status quo. This bully will never be condemned for rocking the boat or ruining the economy. He's protecting the old system, keeping it alive. He speaks in line with the majority of the world. He will be happy because he's like everyone else.
So in the end, you are a loser who will ruin the world.
Why?
Right. For being yourself. So stop it. Do not rock the boat. Do not try to enlighten the world. Do not try to connect with others. I assure you, there's no one like you. And most of all do not undermine the board of directors who are doing such a good job at giving the world what they want.
But maybe you won't listen to my warning. Maybe you’ll tell me to F off. You’re going to do what you want to do. You might tell me that life is short and that you don’t want to live making other people’s dreams come true. Maybe you don’t want acceptance from the board of directors.
Listen, sweet cake. They will call you crazy. But maybe…just maybe it’s crazy to believe in yourself.
So yeah. The world has ended. How will you help rebuild it? Should we make it the way it was so it can end again? Or should we take a risk and be fearless and try something new?
Breaking  Fellini By:  M. E. Purfield Sixteen-year-old Joni Corso loves to play rock guitar, but being in a local cover band just doesn't excite her anymore. She wants to perform originals and join the scene in New York City were Blondie, Patti Smith, and The Ramones found fame.
Able to convince her mother to spend some time with her estranged father in Manhattan, Joni jumps at the opportunity to redefine herself and join a band. Amidst a whirlwind of classic rock, drugs, urban recession, and drag queens, Joni meets Phaedra a homeless girl with a mission to destroy rock idols and the mainstream. Joni joins her band No! and starts plays the kind of music she's been craving. The kind of music that out punks Punk.
But Dad sees her as something else: a famous rock guitarist with a band on the Top 40 charts, something Joni doesn’t want to be anymore. Now she has to decide which musician she can live with being and for who or risk losing her new life and father she just found.
You can find Breaking Fellini :  http://www.amazon.com/Breaking-Fellini-ebook/dp/B005RZTF8Q/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1320958852&sr=8-2  or  http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/93528