Get me a re-write!

So I thought World War 1990: Operation Eastern Storm was about wrapped up. I had even subjected the MS to the first round of editing. Its a real torture, mostly for my editor, who hates my guts. The feeling is mutual.

Then I had a revelation and decided Part-II which features the NATO invasion of Czechoslovakia needed to be re-worked with a major element added.

I don't want to give away any plot points, but I figured a sub-plot I was going to use in the beginning of vol III would work in Part II of Eastern Storm. More suspension, tension, stuff like that.

So we write and re-write.

The Supreme Court is not Your Friend Conservatives

Well, the Supreme Court went and saved Obamacare again. I don't know what conservatives are grumbling about. Had the subsidies been struck down there would have been tremendous pressure on Congress to reinstate them. The subsidies would have been a campaign issue and with majorities supporting the subsidies the GOP would have caved.

Now the story is Obamacare, its large deductibles, rising premiums and shortage of care. Wouldn't conservatives rather campaign in that environment?

I hear a lot of conservative bellyaching about no going back from this, about Barry permanently altering America into a center-left-left nation.

Now hold on. Up in Canada Steven Harper has governed for several years, he's abolished the Human Rights Commission, torn up the gun registry, asserted Canadian rights in the Arctic, and supported Israel. That's after a decade of Liberal rule. In Australia Tony Abbot undid the left's carbon scheme and is strenuously fighting illegal asylum seekers. In Britain, the new Tory majority is moving to repeal the Human Rights Act.

Nothing is permanent conservatives. Buck up.

Battlestar Galactica, no not that one

So tonight I was watching the old Battlestar Galactica,  I mean the one form 1978.

I have vague memories of this show as a child. It was one of my favorites and an early influence like Star Wars and later Star Trek. It came on every Sunday at 8:00 followed by CHiPs at 9.

BSG 1978 has all the quirks and flows of 1970s American TV show, and its just a tweak or two away from being real 70's era shlock. Buts its not, barely.

The producers got a lot right. For starters the battlestar is the most military, most imposing spaceship ever on sci-fi TV. The crews uniforms show some creativity. The sets, especially the bridge, look military. The afore mentioned bridge, bathed in red light with radio cross-talk in the background and technicians running to and fro, looks like the CIC of an aircraft carrier. The Colonial Viper is a good looking fighter.

Look, there's plenty wrong with the show, but that's not the point. BSG gave us our first real TV sci-fi  military.

It beats the heck out of Enterprise D.

Stars & Bars Forever

The Confederate battle flag being removed from the South Carolina state house was inevitable, the Charleston shooting was the final bit of drive needed to make the removal happen.

The left looks for heretics, it looks for things to condemn. Last year they tried to bring pressure upon the Washington Redskins. Owner Daniel Snyder, who is in fact evil, told the advocates to bugger off. The NFL once it saw polling data that showed most Americans, including American Indians, couldn't care less about the Redskins name and logo back up Snyder.

So they finally got the Stars & Bars.

Foreigners reading this should understand that the American South was and still is a distinct culture. But its known world wide. When you think of Americans, you probably think of southerners, especially Texas, weather you know it or not. People are nicer down there. They're politer. They're friendlier. They have funny accents. Things are slower down south.

I have a considerable amount of southern blood pulsating through my veins, with one grandmother born in Kentucky and another in Louisiana. I even hold a stake in the old family farm lands in Louisiana and Mississippi, or my family does, bunch of blue-bellied New Yorkers. My LA grandmother always said 'the south will rise again' and 'Lee was a gentlemen and Grant was a drunk'. She also once looked at me, dead serious, after telling me her synagogue held services on Sunday, and said, 'Southerners conform'.

We had an interesting conversation about the Stars and Bars in class yesterday. Everyone thinks it should be taken off state grounds, but also believes individuals should be able to fly it. One black student barely knew what it was (he's Jamaican) the other said it gives her the creeps.

Of course I live in Chindia. What is the left going to do when the swastika comes back?

Mr Worf, Fire

The 25th anniversary of the Star Trek TNG's landmark two-parter was last weekend. The episode, 'Best of Both Worlds' is why I am a writer today.

Now, I didn't see part one when it first aired in 1990, I saw it that September in the lead up to the new season. One evening I was flipping and just happened to see a bunch of people standing around a crater, this was the intro to part one of the episode.

The writers built anticipation, threw in plot twists, and then the massive cliffhanger to part II. What happened next was an all out space battle, probably the first seen on TV since Battlestar Galactica. One saw the Enterprise engaging a Borg cube in open combat, shuttles making attack runs on same, and a Federation boarding party to steal back the previously captured and assimilated Picard.

I was enthralled and captivated. Right after seeing 'Best of Both Worlds' I began writing a novel about aliens attacking earth a few centuries form now.

I've been writing ever since.

Bern Baby Bern!

With apologies to NY Yankees broadcaster John Sterling, Bern baby bern!"

 

Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont has been making some inroads against Hillary Clinton.

My friend William Katz compares his effort to Senator Eugene McCarthy in 1968:

 

Many people like Sanders.  He has an appeal, in large measure because, unlike Clinton, he has a reputation for integrity and has a consistent point of view.  Remember that it was a virtually unknown senator, Eugene McCarthy, who helped bring down a sitting Democratic president, Lyndon Johnson, in 1968. 

 

 I think Bill might have hit on something by comparing Sanders to Senate McCarthy's campaign against Lyndon Johnson. Another example is Howard Dean, another Vermonter. Dean entered the race and changed the dynamic. Because was younger and had been around this type, I understood his liberalism the moment I saw him. That brand of liberalism is about stances, attitudes and opinions. Sanders doesn't really represent it, but the people supporting him do. Martin O'Malley is there man.

 

Now, on to Sanders. He has integrity. I know, I know, what some of you readers are thinking but let me explain. Bill Katz and I know the tradition from which Sanders comes. It doesn't really exist anymore. Sanders is a pre-WWII Jewish socialist.  That socialism's time has passed, but there's well meaning honesty to that ideology.

 

Here's a clip of him confronting some Jew haters at a town hall. The clip is remarkable it shows Sander's thinking on the matter of Israel and the Palestinians and that even though he's a socialist he doesn't hate Israel and understands that Hamas is a terrorist group.

 

The man is never going to be president, but he is interesting, no?

Iranian Visitor

The web-data says I've got a reader in Iran. Ever read my Israeli books? Wanna talk?

Identity

Lot's of talk lately about identity first with Bruce Jenner now with Rachel Dolezal.

I see this every once in a while at RVCC.

First a fascinating crisis. In the last generation America has seen a lot of immigration from Africa. Now those immigrant's children are young adults and themselves face something of an identity crisis. They are black, but they are not the descendants of slaves. The latter of course is an important part of the African American identity. I have seen African students, whose voices patterns are indistinguishable from those of say, me, put on an African American accent like Deion Sanders. The accent got more pronounced when he talked to an African American student.

Interesting no?

A second case: last semester I had a student with a really Irish name. Federal law prevents me from revealing it, but lets just say she might as well have been named Maureen O'Hara. One class she walked in wearing a red T-shirt emblazoned with the Polish flag. I asked what that was all about she told me that while she was Irish, it was the Polish side of the family she identified with. The T-shirt was from a recent family function.

Get a Day Job

Kathy Shaidle says:

"‘I only come up with about ten really great story ideas a year’ says… (female) professional writer

Then you’re probably in the wrong business."

I come up with five or six great ideas a day. The previous post triggered a few good ideas about magazine articles covering South Africa's military, and a vague idea I had for a short story about the Battle of Cuito Cuanavale. That all occurred in the previous 15 minutes.

One of the problems I've encountered is deciding what to write. I have three or four ideas for WWII Pacific novels, an idea for a sequel to To Defend the Earth, an idea for a sequel to A Line Through the Desert, three different alternative history stories...you get the idea.

Ten ideas a year? What is this woman doing?

South Africa Then and Now

My friend William Katz:

Since apartheid ended, South Africa has been treated as some kind of saintly nation.  The land of Mandela.  Can do no wrong.  Guiding star.  It was never true.  South Africa is a hellhole, ranking at the bottom of the list in sexual violence against women and crime overall.  Its foreign policy, presumably enlightened by "moral" leaders like Desmund Tutu, in reality an old, bigoted crank, was to be looked to for guidance.  But South Africa's foreign policy shows contempt for democracy and understanding for dictators. 

Ok, I'll go where many dare not tread.

Apartheid Era South Africa is badly misunderstood.

Younger readers should understand that South Africa was public enemy #1 in the 70s and 80s. Worse than the Soviet Union, worse than Castro's Cuba. Idi Amin and Mobuto Sese Seko could slaughter Africans with impunity, but so long as Apartheid South Africa existed these whack-job leaders had cover.

Usual caveats apply.

I've published a bit on the South African military, that's a subject for another post, and learned a lot in the process.

South Africa's generals insisted that by the late 70's they understood Apartheid had to go. But, and this is a big one, they insisted on getting rid of Apartheid on their terms. The example they talked about was Rhodesia, where the white government all but surrendered to the black revolutionaries lead by Robert Mugabe. There followed a bush war lasting a decade and a half. They end of that war brought a political settlement which led to the release of Nelson Mandela, and new constitution, and Mandela's eventual election.

In 1989 The new South African president, FW De Klerk released Mandela, but the groundwork was lain by PW Botha, who in the 80's was a pariah. He met with Mandela several times. Botha even repealed some of Apartheid's more drastic provisions, including laws against interracial marriage.

Since Mandela the country has slowly fallen apart. This book is a good start to understanding why.

Chindian Delight

I live in Chindia.

Yesterday we were at a pool party where most of the families were from India. As our various kids played and we mingled it was interesting listening to the inside conversation. We got to talking about family.

Like most Americans who've been here for a few generations my family has no contact with relatives overseas. Not that there are many of those. Most of the Stroocks outside of America were killed in the holocaust.

Of course this is not the case with our Indian friends. They had a lot of interesting laments about living here and having family over there. For starters when they visit India our friends need to go for 2-3 weeks. This sucks up all their vacation time. Once in India their relatives lament that they're only staying for a few weeks. Several days are needed just to recover from the jet lag, which is severe. Then there is no time to rest as family takes one around town, the state, and country proudly showing off they're American family. One of the side effects is weight gain. Every home is expected to provide ample meals for visitors. It sounds like a grand tour-smorgasbord.

Which is fine as we looooove Indian food.

There is also cost. A trip for a family of four will run at least $10,000, tickets and shopping. India, they say, is very expensive.

There is also the issue of family pressure. All Indian grandparents need reassuring that their grandchildren are being raised properly. This includes adherence to caste, but also learning the language. Most of the families in attendance yesterday were passing on the native tongue, but a few weren't. This is a source of trouble. Said grandparents can also nag about their grandchildren's loss of Indian identity. Many Indian families here put up Dewali lights. Of course, often they stay up right past Christmas. Many grandparents in India are horrified by Halloween:

'Children dress up in scary costumes, go door to door and demand candy from strangers? This is normal in America?...'

I don't do writer's workshops

From Buzzfeed an interesting what if:

I don’t usually read chick lit, but I didn’t hate reading this draft of your novel, which you’re calling Pride and Prejudice. I really liked the part where Elizabeth and her aunt and uncle went on a road trip, which reminded me of Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales (also about a road trip — check it out!). Anyway, good job. I do have a couple of notes to share, in the spirit of constructive criticism.

This is funny. Of course, like most men I don't read Jane Austin for the same reason I don't read Bridget Jones. I am a heterosexual man.

But that's not really the point.

I took a creative writing class in high school, which was better than sitting through English, and one in college (I got a D). In retrospect I haven't found much use for what I learned in these classes. In both cases, I noticed the teachers had never published anything. Being read is kind of the point of writing, isn't it?

I see, sometimes, people with MAs in creative writing. All I can think is, you know, while you were studying creative writing, you could have been writing. I've never been in a creative writing group, I've never submitted my stuff for 'formal criticism', I've never attended a workshop. Which isn't to say I don't ask people to read my stuff.

Once this year I spoke to the Raritan Valley Writer's Club. I was most impressed. Not one student asked me about writing, or process, or any of that. All they wanted to know is how I sell books. How did I get published? How did I get my stuff edited? They were already confident writers, they wanted to know how to get read.

Which is the point.

Lee Siegal is a Jerk

This Lee Siegal Guy has been taking a lot of grief:

in college and graduate school. Or I could take what I had been led to believe was both the morally and legally reprehensible step of defaulting on my student loans, which was the only way I could survive without wasting my life in a job that had nothing to do with my particular usefulness to society.

So he defaulted on his student loans.

This was back in the 1970s and the interesting thing is that the Department of Education is still after him. Why not just repay the loan?

'Wasting his life' he says. Just who the hell does this twerp think he is.

Lemme tell you something, pal, writer to writer. You ain't that important. What you have to say doesn't matter than much.

He seems to feel the world would miss him. It wouldn't.

'Wasting his life,' doing what? Working? Being a branch manager at a shoe store, and idea he mocks.

Maybe its just because I spent a lot -and I do mean a lot -of time out of work but I leaned the value of having a job. Any job.

 I write. I sell 20-30 copies of my book everyday. I think that's a miracle. A bloody miracle. I'm not under any illusions myself, though. The world wouldn't miss me if I stopped writing.

It wouldn't miss this guy either.

In his piece Siegal asks, 'Am I a deadbeat?'

No, Siegal, you're just a jerk.

The BAOR

Great review on Amazon:

Having served in 1 BR Corp during the 80's and early 90's it was interesting to say the least. The life expectancy of a RCT driver was 7 minutes and to read in the book that the Soviets advance was held along the Weser and most probably along the Minden ridge where I served was very thought provoking. Could we have really held them at bay? I am so glad that I never put the theory to test. Looking forward to the next book.

Playing GMT Games' Third World War I always had a high opinion of the British Army of the Rhine.

Third World War used points to describe combat power and combat proficiency. A British Armoured divisions looked thusly: 8 8 8. That is 8 points for attack and defense and 8 for proficiency. To contrast a Dutch armoured unit rated 6 6 5 while a Soviet Category A Armoured Division rated 11 9 6. What the BAOR lacked in combat power it made up for in training. For the record a mighty American armored division rated 15-14-7.

Looking back, the 8 8 8 score this is probably right. The BAOR had a certain jerry-rigged feel to it. At one point the great General Sir John Hackett took command to find something like half his tanks were not field ready. The entire British military had that problem. Look at pics of HMS Hermes as it sales for the Falklands and you can see rust on the hull.

Making up for certain equipment deficiencies was British military professionalism. Nobody is better at peacetime soldiering that the British. How many colonial and native armies did they raise? Dozens, really.

The reviewer above is thankful he never had to fight the Soviets. I'm thankful he read World War: 1990 and didn't feel the need to point out errors. Maybe he didn't find many.

College PC.

Via my friend William Katz a chilling quote form the incomparable Jerry Seinfeld:

“I don’t play colleges but I hear a lot of people tell me, ‘Don’t go near colleges, they’re so pc.’ My daughter’s 14. My wife says to her, ‘Well, you know, in the next couple of years, I think maybe you’re going to want to hang around the city more on the weekends so you can see boys.’ You know, my daughter says, ‘That’s sexist.’ They just want to use these words. ‘That’s racist. That’s sexist. That’s prejudice.’ They don’t even know what they’re talking about.”

I've taught college for six years now. In all that time I've never censored myself. Not once. Not in class, not on campus. Heck, I held my own pro Israel rally a few years ago. I've even shown up to a few events and made trouble. At the 'Hands up, Don't Shoot' rally a few months ago, I brought up the rear handing out talking points from the New York Post.  Nothing has ever happened to me.

Ok, two days before my Israel rally two different administration offices tried to shut me down. But you know what, I wouldn't let them. I just said no. I even went to the head of facilities, who tried to claim they didn't allow professors to hold political rallies, and pointed out that a few months before he had allowed an Occupy rally in the cafeteria. So my little rally went ahead.

Fight back, that's all I can say.


And that's the key.

The PC left only has power over you if you let them. If they call you a racist, and you immediately begin to stammer and protest your racial sensitivity, you've already lost. Just laugh at them, brush it off. Don't fight on their ground.

Indie Econ 101 Vol I

Via Sarah Hoy, the estimable Chris Nuttall says things which are absolutely 100% percent true. I recognized every item he talked about, publishing costs, editing and editing costs, cover design and costs. Notice a theme? Costs, lots of costs?

I'd add advertising costs. He's suspicious of ad firms plugging one's book. I've had some success with those, but it was an ad deal, not a deal for a firm to plug my book. These were not publicity costs but an agreement to advertise my book in certain places at certain times. That campaign has been successful.

For a while I had driven my opening costs down, editing + publishing (including formatting and cover) but the costs have crept up because I have an editor I love working with. Said editor costs the same as one available via Createspace but works three times as hard on the MS. She's worth it.

My opening costs are about $2,000. With a good book I can make that up in a month to 6 weeks, 8 tops.

To all those publishers who rejected me...

...you were right.

Its hard to sell character driven fiction. A Line Through the Desert, on which I toiled for 3 years, which was rejected dozens of times, and has never really sold.

The same goes for A March Through Hell. Its sold a bit but not nearly as much as the Israel series.

Don't get me wrong, I move plenty of kindle copies a month, A Line Through the Desert has racked up 30+ reviews. But this is a fraction of what my other books sell.

Most of my readers like explosions and tank battles and stressful cabinet meetings. So that's what I write.

Its a bit disappointing. I poured my heart and soul into A Line Through the Desert. Learned a lot about myself in the process. Learned how to write, too. The public thinks its a snoozer. Oh well.

Like I said its a bit disappointing, but only a bit. My books get bought, read, and reviewed, and that makes A Line Through the Desert's failure worthwhile.

The Comfortable Afflicted

I've never really encountered the problem written about by this professor:

Things have changed since I started teaching. The vibe is different. I wish there were a less blunt way to put this, but my students sometimes scare me — particularly the liberal ones.

Not, like, in a person-by-person sense, but students in general. The student-teacher dynamic has been re-envisioned along a line that's simultaneously consumerist and hyper-protective, giving each and every student the ability to claim Grievous Harm in nearly any circumstance, after any affront, and a teacher's formal ability to respond to these claims is limited at best.

Maybe its a community college thing, but I find most of my students couldn't care less about what I think, or their feelings about what I teach.

That said, I have always been aware of the potential for trouble, but I have never censored myself. Just the other day I challenged a student who said alleged victims of rape are sometimes asked what they were wearing. In 1950, certainly, in 2015 I doubt that very much.  I went on to castigate the very notion that in America in 2015 women are treated as second class citizens.

The discussion was interesting, actually.

Again, I think what the above professor is describing is something happening at the fancy schools where students who have been pampered and prepped their whole lives are now demanding that they are never challenged or made to feel uncomfortable.  Most students at Raritan Valley are two busy for that sort of thing, they are coming from or going to jobs, they have kids to watch.

I don't think Raritan Valley students are comfortable and I don't think they're pampered. I like them very much.

Rome!

Teaching about the fall of the Roman Republic yesterday we discussed parallels between Rome and the United States. We decided that the Republic fell because of corruption, the importation of slaves, the accumulation of land and wealth, and the militarization of society.

The class then broke up into small groups and discusses problems facing the U.S. We all agreed there is a huge corruption issue. One student mentioned the recent Denny Hastert scandal. Another talked about police brutality, which I argued falls under corruption. There is over course the matter of our crushing national debt. Most interestingly we discussed illegal immigration which has at least some parallels to the Roman slavery problem.

I asked the class if they thought the United States was going to go the way of Rome. They wanted to know what I thought. I said predictions are worthless and despite all the problems we face the country always seems to survive. But I admit, I'm feeling pessimistic.