Author Archives

Roy Griffis

I’ve written short stories, plays, poetry, novels, and screenplays. I’m a member of the Writer’s Guild and a former US Coast Guard Rescue Swimmer, as well as an occasional contributor to PJ Media and other conservative websites. My novel The Big Bang, Volume One of the Lonesome George Chronicles was published January 20, 2015 by Liberty Island Media. The sequel “Bring the Fire” will be published in early 2017. There are three volumes of my “By the Hands of Men” series available (“The Old World,” “Into the Flames” and “The Wrath of a Righteous Man“). A co-creator of the satiric strip “Truesbury,” I also write and perform political satire with The Right-Wing Riot as “The Prince of Whitebread.” I live in Southern California with my wife and family.

Click below for some nice things folks have said about my and my various creative endeavors:

According to Taki Magazine, I’m “this enviably talented bastard” (which is, in fact, one of the nicest things anyone’s said about me this century).

PJMedia promoted my Right-Wing Riot project as one of the leaders of the New Counter-Culture (“it’s groovy, man, as long as you pay for it yourself”).

And of my novel The Big Bang, Volume One of the Lonesome George Chronicles, a few kind words have been spilled, too. Rich Lowry, at the National Review, called it “A wild romp through a post-apocalyptic America unimaginably awful but also highly contemporary. Buckle your seat belts–and prepare to resist.” Ben Shapiro, NYT best-selling author, said it was “Clever, witty, tense, and a thoroughly enjoyable read!”

There’s more, here and there, but my folks raised me not to brag too much.

What You Believe Can Kill You… Or at Least, Kill Your Soul…

Last Thursday (June 6, 2018) was the 74^thanniversary of World War II’s , the Allied invasion of Europe that began the final, inexorable push to get the Nazi foot off the neck of… well, the World.

Google (one of the most valuable companies in the world) decided not to feature a remembrance of that day on the splash page of their search engine. Apparently, it wasn’t important enough to note. On Sunday, June 10, 2018, this was featured on their splash page….

Paging Jordan Peterson, Your Two-Minute Hate is Ready

Or: In The Future We’ll All Be Emmanuel Goldstein for 15 Minutes

The latest target of the current authorized Two Minute Hate is Jordan Peterson, a Canadian academic (professor of psychology) and practicing clinical psychologist. One might ask “What has this rather geeky sounding Canuck, with his kind of Don Knotts on ‘roids affect, done to arouse the righteous wrath of the Left?”

Interview: Lonesome George Author Roy M. Griffis Reveals His Writing Roots

Griff discusses his career with Talk 4 Radio.

On Making Caviar from Bull Crap: 4 Book Recommendations for Ben Rhodes

There was once an aspiring writer named Ben Rhodes, “in the second year of the M.F.A. program at N.Y.U., writing short stories about losers in garden apartments and imagining that soon he would be published in literary magazines, acquire an agent and produce a novel by the time he turned 26.” This wunderkind ended up as the deputy national security adviser for strategic communications, using his creative gifts to the service of communicating/selling Barack Obama’s vision to the world, among his accomplishments “Rhodes strategized and ran the successful Iran-deal messaging campaign, helped negotiate the opening of American relations with Cuba after a hiatus of more than 50 years and has been a co-writer of all of Obama’s major foreign-policy speeches.”

That is what used to be known as running in fast company. But all good things have to end, and Mr. Rhodes is in need of a new gig. Since it’s possible that term of public service dulled his creative abilities, here’s a handy list of books that might help him rediscover his mojo, and to follow his true calling.

When Dad Dies in Disgrace

Like a lot of people my age, I was first introduced to Bill Cosby on vinyl LPs. My father shared his love of Cosby’s comedy with me, and he delighted in watching me discover some of Cosby’s classic bits like “The Chicken Heart that Ate New York City” and his sketches about a dubious Noah trying to understand what God is saying to him. “What’s a cubit?”

For me, Cosby was part of my awakening to, well, the stupidity of racism: watching him on Johnny Carson in the early ’70s when I lived in Tampa, Florida (then struggling with the forced integration of their schools), and hearing my new friends laughing at Cosby’s jokes while they said to one another “That n—–’s funny as hell.” While I could only stare at them and wonder Why would anyone call this smart, decent guy that word?

From My Cold, Dead, Facts

Or Why I’m Joining the NRA

As a veteran who once held a security clearance (along with marksmen and expert ribbons in certain firearms), a tax-payer for over 40 years, and a guy who’s only seen the inside of a jail cell while doing research, I find Dandy David Hogg unqualified to lecture me on responsible gun-ownership…

Don’t Play Those Funky Politics, Black Boy

Wherein Mr. West’s Brethren School Him on his Proper Place

When I was but a lad in Nebraska, one-hit wonders released their epic paean to the seductive joys of finding one’s groove and getting down wid it.

Since our only exposure to the song was courtesy of the blown-out speakers of the AM radio in my Dad’s ’54 Chevy truck, the most we nascent deplorables could make out was the bouncy beat and the repeated admonition “Play that funky music, white boy.”

Talk about words to live by. It wasn’t until I was older (with access to better sound systems) that I began to appreciate the crazy joy in the music. But speaking of crazy and music, we have Kanye West, a fellow with no shortage of confidence and very debatable musical ability.

A Man, Measured

The newest installment in an ongoing series of essays on culture

Having a birthday this week lead me to some reflection. Not on myself, of course, since I’m already too hip for the room. But I’d just seen the very decent 12 Strong the weekend before and I’d been contemplating why this enjoyable story of duty, heroism, and general smack-down of some very real, very bad guys had performed rather poorly at the box office after receiving the traditional golden shower from a lot of film critics.

To ask the question is to answer it: because it’s an enjoyable story of duty, heroism, and a general smack-down of some very real, very bad guys.

Imagining a Good Message Movie

Hint: First, make a good film

This year’s Oscar-winning The Shape of Water applied this “building a story using only good-think legos” method and managed to squeeze a lot of them into one drippy film. Trouser Trout and the Hot Mute Chick –– working title –– was able to hit the trifecta of (allegedly) timeless tropes: saintly black woman is heroic, bad guy is a Bible-quoting sexual abuser who loves torture, and the saintly gay character is the quiet moral guide and center of the film. But wait, there’s more! Bonus points for the communist spy character who turns out to have a heart of gold.

An Exhilarating Alternate History Awaits You in Griff’s Lonesome George Chronicles

Volumes 1 and 2 are now available.

Click here to pick up The Big Bang and here for its sequel Bringing the Fire. Learn more about author Roy M. “Griff” Griffis here at his website.