How To Escape Everyday Realities: Read Novels

     When we read we want to learn, but we also want to be entertained, and sometimes these topics come uncomfortably close to reality. Perhaps that's why many people like to read fantasies and other escapist forms of literature.

     Most writers touch on topics of every day life and turn them into entertainment. While making certain my first novel is available worldwide on separate platforms in digital and print form, I've been planning my fourth novel, and rewriting and editing my second and third ones. I decided to make a list of aspects of life here in New Jersey in late 2012. To write about these everyday issues, it's wise to have a list always at the ready. I will use these values when I write my next novel in November as part of the National Novel Writing Month contest. And they might be useful topics for bloggers and writers to research and write about.

1.    To drive or not to drive - the pros and cons of the auto industry, the results of the federal bailout, and the highway infrastructure

2.   The role of food in weight loss, exercise, restaurants, grocery stores

3.   Shelter: real estate, the moving industry and decorators staging, providing employment for architects, developers and builders, and construction workers, real estate agents and lawyers.

4.   Travel: how, where to stay, amenities in hotels, airlines, railroads - and how they should be cheaper in the US - and local transportation (which should be pristine).

5.    Jobs. Where will they come from? The gradual change over decades from an agrarian to an industrial to a digital economy, and the fact that industries have become leaner, with minimal staff, and more computer technology -- saving as much as possible for corporations.

6.    The shift in world power to the Pacific countries of Asia

7.    Fashion and shopping and the garment industry

8.   The role of personal computers to change the way we communicate - through Skype. The use of computers to surf, to research topics, recipes and phone numbers and maps, to cut down on business travel, blogging for personal expression and as a new form of art.

9.    The role of smartphones as adjuncts to computers, for messaging, tweeting, and as replacements for cameras.

10.  Taxes, the government, politicians. Do we approve of the way we are taxed? Is excessive taxation bringing us down? Do we like the election process? Are officials corrupt?

11.   Religion, personal and structured, organized. American (different denominations) vs. world religions. The effects of secular prohibitions

12.   Immigration. Do we approve how it's being handled? Should anyone be taken aside on police suspicions (without evidence) because of the way they look?

13.   Education of children up through universities. Is it done well? Privately or publicly, pros and cons. The importance of literacy, the basics of science and humanities, the role of the internet.

14.   Gun control - reasons to lessen the influence of guns and their ability to harm citizens.

15.   Government services, public schools and recreation, police force, criminal justice, creation of local laws, permit, tax, public services of trees, animal control, paving roads. The importance of electricity, water, and sewers to modern life.

16.   Insularity of different countries, their differing world views, and the firewalls of national borders psychologically and physically.

17.   Crime, petty, and organized, and how layers of police and the internet are helping find predators and sex traffickers.

18.   The changing publishing industry, of books, periodicals and journals, newspapers, and the internet.

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