Yesterday was a busy day. I started out by handing out dictionaries to 3rd graders as part of the Darien Rotary Club's literacy project. Then I actually had a Rotary meeting, at which I was the guest speaker, presenting on the Rotary Foundation. After a bit of day jobbery, I went to the gym and had a writer's workshop.

The writer's workshop was good, and my revised-for-the-upteenth-time Chapter 1 of One of our Spaceships is Missing received general acclaim and mild tweaking. Go me! We, the writers, also decided to go with a twice-a-month schedule. I'm a bit concerned about actually getting stuff ready on that tight a schedule, but we'll see.

After that, I got to drive home from St. Charles in the fog - a fog that hadn't lifted when I drove in to work today. Now, Daye Jobbe calleth.

1) A new species is arising right before our eyes in North America.

2) An interesting and sad story on the Polish countess who became a spy.

3) In writing, one needs to accept rejection. This editor says why they would have rejected The Martian - which has now become a bestseller and a Major Hollywood Movie.

4) A new review is up on POD People.

5) The myth of the nation of takers in one graph:

Retired US Army Colonel Tom Kratman is writing a column for Everyjoe.com. Although I don't agree with Kratman's politics, he does have a wealth of knowledge on things military (mostly Army) and has written a number of insightful articles. I found especially interesting his various articles on training and the failures of the US Army to do so effectively. This led to two profound thoughts.

Profound Thought #1

Most militaries are like a high school football team that only plays a game once every eight years. What happens is that people who haven't actually played a game (or fought a war) are training other people who haven't actually played a game or fought. This almost inevitably leads to degraded training. Some militaries are better at delaying this degradation then others, but it happens. If, as happened during the 19th and 20th centuries, one throws in rapid technological change, one ends up with lancers on horseback charging tanks.*

Now, for the Army at least, and to a lesser extent the Air Force and Marines, the past decade or so of war has changed that equation somewhat. To paraphrase Churchill, nothing kicks the cobwebs out of training like getting shot at for real. Having said that, Profound Thought #2 kicks in.

Profound Thought #2

As I've mentioned before, this century is rhyming with the 19th. One of the ways that's happening is our military. Much like the Victorian British Army, we're not actually fighting anybody who is a serious military threat. They can be local problems, and some of them (Afghanistan) are the same enemies, but there is no way in hell an Afghan army is ever going to take Washington DC. This leads to a situation where, to some extent, we don't take our enemies seriously.

In 1854, this led to the Charge of the Light Brigade, a military fuck-up of epic proportions, which instead of getting generals shot became a famous poem. In 2015, this leads to a reliance on drones that couldn't fight off a determined cropduster controlled from lightly-secured office buildings. This isn't a good thing - it's just a thing.



* There's actually significant evidence to suggest that at least in Poland this didn't actually happen.

Fortunately, yesterday's evening event ran short, and so I was able to upload a short piece for my writer's workshop. It's the new beginning of Chapter 1, which I think fixes a number of problems. I'll see next week.

Now back to the salt mines...

This week continues to be hectic. I was sick Monday, with some kind of weird 24-hour cold. Symptoms were mild but serious enough for me to take an afternoon. Then yesterday was Rotary and I had to pick my Mom up at the airport in the evening. Then tonight I have a reception at College of DuPage (for advisory committee members) and Thursday I have to stay at work late for a (hopefully minor) project. Oh, and my submission for next week's Writer's Group was due yesterday.

I'm looking forward to Friday.

It's a Monday, and I'm back at work. On Friday night, I had a very enjoyable dinner party at my place for some Rotary friends. Four people killing three bottles of wine enjoyable!

This upcoming week is looking to be busy - I have an evening event every night this week except Friday. Writing progresses, and I find I have nothing particular to discuss.

Blogging has been a bit sporadic due to Daye Jobbe things. Have a couple of links, moving from heavy to light.

A) One of my fellow Hadley Rille authors is wise about women characters.

B) The article above led to a very interesting link Ted Bundy's Success is a Failure of Feminism.

C) On a somewhat lighter note, true size maps. This site allows you to select a US state or country and drag it around the map. As you move relative to the equator, the entity selected gets "bigger" or "smaller" reflecting it's true size relative to other entities. Fascinating.

D) In honor of the reboot of Star Wars, Max Gladstone asks Galactic history or Galactic folk tale?

E) XKCD has thoughts on conspiracy theories. Paging Sad Puppies, Sad Puppies, please pick up the white courtesy phone for an important message.

http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/conspiracy_theories.png

Day after patches applied and one staffer out on comp day. Too busy to blog.

1) Happy Trafalgar day - a very interesting animation at the link.

2) Speaking of navies, the Royal Australian Navy just bought two big through-deck amphibs.

I am the IT director for a midsized, financially stable and growing bank in the Chicago area. I have an opening for an entry-level network support person. We're actively looking, and the official opening is posted here.

We're a small shop (total IT staff, counting me, is four) and I think the pay is competitive for what we're seeking, which is a first-level PC break-fix and installation tech. The job is in Oak Brook, and does involve some driving to other sites in the Chicago area. Mileage is paid, but you need your own wheels. We do various background checks, so if something criminal or credit-related will pop up, I need to know about it up front. We're a Windows shop, running Active Directory. Our mainframe functions are outsourced.

Busy morning equals late posting.

A) Boeing announces metal that's lighter than air.

B) A fun and quick story by a friend of mine.

C) I've not read the report yet, but NASA's plan to go to Mars.

D) Franklin Delano Roosevelt wrote a constitution for Haiti. The locals weren't fond of it.

E) An amusing picture:

I threatened to write a post about what Republican Party's current fascination with Ben Carson and Donald Trump says about the typical party member. Then came the flap over who the Republicans would elect to be Speaker of the House. Then came good Doc Gannon's posting of his relatively mild essay on Monster Hunter Nation, which yielded a roasting in comments and the Doc being branded a liar and a coward (or was it the other way round?) by Vox Day. Then I realized they were all instances of the same problem, to wit: the Republican party and the Sad Puppies 1) lack a grasp of reality and 2) value appearances over substance.

Grasp of Reality

The reality is that, politically, Congress has to increase the debt limit. The argument over not increasing it is like deciding to cut spending by not paying your credit card bill. The reality is that the overwhelming majority of those who can be bothered to vote in the Hugos have tastes in fiction not shared by the typical Sad Puppy. The reality is that as long as the Democrats control the Presidency and have more than 34 votes in the Senate, overturning major policy initiatives (Obamacare) isn't going to happen.

The reality is that marching into a new car dealership demanding to pay no more than $1,000 for a new car is not a way to get a cheap car. It's a way to get (literally) laughed out of the building. The reality is, as Jim Butcher noted, that the current Sad Puppies flap is to real warfare what blowing on a cup of hot tea is to a hurricane.

Appearances over Substance

Much of Trump's appeal is that he's a "successful businessman." Yet the guy managed to bankrupt casinos 4 (four) ((!!!!)) times! There is no reset button in world politics, no equivalent of bankruptcy. Trump's claim to "successful businessman" lies primarily in his playing one on a TV show. Ben Carson is undoubtedly a successful surgeon, but he's been clearly ignorant of politics and never managed anything larger than his medical practice.

The Sad Puppies claim conspiracy in Hugo voting. They point to the shocking phenomenon of popular works winning a popular award, somehow finding in that the appearance of conspiracy. They take affront at works, like Ancillary Justice, that appear to advocate a message, ignoring the fact that, in the book, the people advocating the offending message are the bad guys! As stated elsewhere, saying Ancillary Justice advocates abolishing gender differences is like saying Star Wars advocates choking people.

My schedule for Windycon 42, to be held at the Westin in beautiful Lombard Ill on November 13-15:

Friday 4:00 Publishing in Today’s Market: Junior A: How do you decide if you should self-publish, publish traditionally, or use some hybrid of the two? C. Gerrib (M), L. Erlick, N. Litherland, D. Murphy, N. Silk

Friday 5:30-5:55 Reading: Boardroom

Saturday 11:00 Space Seconds: Junior A: Gherman Titov, the second man to orbit the Earth, Apollo 12, the second mission to land on the moon, STS-2, the second flight of the Space Shuttle Columbia. Everyone remembers and talks about the firsts, but what about the brave men who boldly dared to go where only a couple had gone before? C. Gerrib, B. Higgins (M), J. Liss, J. Plaxco, M. Unger

Sunday Noon Self-Publishing Doesn’t Mean Solo Publishing: Lilac A: Just because a book is self-published doesn’t mean that the author hasn’t had help. From editing to cover art to book design to marketing, self-published authors often look for assistance, especially if when they recognize their own weaknesses. C. Gerrib, L. Erlick (M), D. Murphy, R. Neumeier, D. Sjolander

Sunday 1:00 Does a Good Novel Really Need a Plot? Lilac B: Many readers put plot ahead of all else, but novels include much more to a novel: characterization, themes, setting…Can a novel lack a plot and still be a good novel? T. Akers, W. Boyes, P. Eisenstein, C. Gerrib, C. Moore, K. Swails (M)

Over the Columbus Day weekend, I celebrated by purchasing a GMC Terrain SUV. My 2007 Saturn Vue was getting a bit long in the tooth. So now I've got to re-program the radio, set up IPass, and figure out how the GPS system works.

I was going to write a post detailing what I think the Republican party's fascination with Donald Trump and Ben Carson tells us about them. I may yet, but today, I'll talk about writing.

I'm not one of those "write every day" people, at least in the sense of "hands on keyboards." I've occasionally had bursts where for a couple of weeks I'm basically describing the movie that's running in my head, but that's not common. Usually, I actually write once or twice a week.

Having said that, I do get a lot of writing-program-related-activities done between writing sessions. More accurately, while taking a shower, driving to work, or during other quiet times I think. Which, for the current WIP, One of Our Spaceships is Missing, has generated several thoughts.

1) I moved Chapter 2 to Chapter 1. But this still means the story starts too late. I could (and should) spend at least a chapter describing the actual part where the ship goes missing.

2) The passengers have a bit too easy a time. I've got a line on a way to change that, which will put the story more in line with Dan Well's Hollywood Formula. (Said formula is really Aristotle's three-act play in modern English.)

3) Related to the Hollywood Formula, there's a chapter where I figure out how to accomplish something. I as author needed to understand that bit, but you as reader don't need to see it, as it ruins some suspense down the line. This introduces other problems, as my novel is currently (at 60,000 words) a bit too short for commercial fiction. I just now (as I'm typing this) figured out a solution.

4) The original Chapter 1, now Chapter 2, and soon to be Chapter Whatever, had a lot of throat-clearing and scene-setting that doesn't work. It also has a bit about a "hairy ass" that nobody (except me, damn it!) likes. Exeunt ass, stage left, pursued by authorial tears.

Well, that to-do list ought to keep me of the streets for a while.

Windswept:
I was really impressed with this, Rakunas' debut novel. It's a rollicking action tale set in a semi-dystopian future in which most people are indentured to one of a handful of massive corporations. Thanks to labor organizer and ex-manager Padma Mehta's entertaining narration, what could be a grim future is surprisingly optimistic. This is especially the case since Padma needs to save not only her job, but the entire human-settled universe, by the end of the book. She does so while supporting The Union, the labor organization that makes her life possible. Clear your calendar when you pick this book up - you'll not want to put it down.

Belt Three:

I had to admit that I was a bit reluctant to read Belt Three. The book is set several hundred years after humanity lost a war with aliens - a war in which Earth was destroyed and became asteroid Belt Three. (The other planets were also destroyed and became numbered belts). I'm glad I overcame my reluctance.

The story appears to be that of Gabriel Reinhardt, one of the "names" - members of the 1,000 or so families that escaped Earth. But Gabriel has a secret - one which makes him unusually willing to fight Keldra, a pirate, instead of being ransomed out. Keldra, although funding herself via piracy, actually has a plan of her own, which involves fighting the irresistible aliens. Their interactions in this ruined Solar System are gripping and epic.

Having said that, the book isn't very long - probably 250 printed pages. Even more of a miracle, it's a complete-in-one-volume story. Do yourself a favor and buy "Belt Three."

Links, they go bad if you don't do something with them:

A) One of my writers' group members, Don Hunt, released a new book. Apparently I'm thanked in it, and so I bought it.

B) Harsh realities in the search for survivors of the wreck of the El Faro.

C) From WWII, a scarily-modern manual on how to make sure nothing gets done at work.

D) I'm not sure if this is a gag or legit: Selling irradiated seeds as "atomic gardens."

Thought 1 - It's The Violence

Per Wikipedia, the murder rate in Great Britain is 1 per 100,000 people. Per the CDC, the US murder rate is 5.1 per 100,000 people. From the CDC data, the non-gun murder rate is 1.6 per 100,000. In short, if you waved your magic wand and all the guns in the USA evaporated, and none of the people who would have been killed by guns were harmed, the USA would still have an abnormally high murder rate.

Thought 2 - Income Disparity

Go back to that Wikipedia link and sort it by murder rate. You'll see that we're in the same league as Mauritania, Kenya, Albania or Latvia. Mexico has a murder rate 4 times ours. What do all these spots have in common? Huge income disparities and less-than-trustworthy police. I'll just leave that for your consideration.

Thought 3 - Mass Shootings as Terrorism

This article has an interesting point, to wit: You don’t just show up with a 140-page manifesto and a large stockpile of weapons one day. You work at it for a long time. And you plan not only the violence, but the presentation for the audience, the performance — what they will see from you, what they will hear from you, the reasons why, the message. It’s all very conscious and deliberate.

Thought 4 - "Problem Shooters"

A final interesting thought - there are problem shooters - people who probably shouldn't be given a gun. Yet we have no real mechanism to deny them a weapon. I'll submit that, under one interpretation of what the Founding Fathers wanted, anybody too nutty to be in the militia wouldn't have a gun. Again, I'll just leave that for your consideration.

Thing 1 - Sometimes when sailors go down to the sea in ships, they don't come back.

Comes news that the US-flagged containership El Faro is missing and presumed sunk off of the Bahamas, a victim of hurricane Joachim. 33 sailors were aboard. The last communication from the ship was recieved Thursday October 1, and reported she was dead in the water and had a 15 degree list.

The ship had sailed south from Jacksonville Florida to Puerto Rico, presumably thinking that then-tropical-storm Joachim wouldn't strengthen or would move out. They presumed wrong, and ended up sailing into a storm that was briefly a Category 4 hurricane.

Thing 2 - The movie The Martian

On Saturday, I went to a 4 PM showing of The Martian. It was comfortably full and the 2-D version. The story was beautifully-filmed, had appropriate amounts of tension and humor, and was a very accurate portrayal of the book. I highly recommend seeing it.

Thing 3 - Holst's The Planets

In a bit of scheduling that I don't think was accidental, the College of DuPage's symphony, the New Philharmonic, performed Holst's symphonic suite The Planets. COD spent a ton of money redoing their performing arts center, and to show it off the orchestra played while showing pictures of the planets in question. I caught another matinee, this time the 3 PM Sunday show.

One of the noteworthy things about cruises is that one can order pretty much whatever food you want. However, the individual portion sizes tend to be small. So, consider this a cruise portion of link salad.

A) A detailed analysis of what happened at the Westgate mall in Kenya during the terrorist attack a few years ago. Basically, the terrorists were killed by private citizens and regular police a couple of hours into the attack, and most of next couple of days was the mall being looted by the army.

B) Michigan's M-185, the only US highway where cars are banned.

C) For fans of the TV series Vikings, when the characters talk in their "native" language, they are really speaking Old Norse, Old English or another period-appropriate language.