Well, Pilgrim, if you're wondering what all the fuss is about, I'll explain it to you.

 For your reading pleasure, I've attached two excerpts from The Shrinking Zone, which is still available for only 99 cents in ebook, and $9.99 in paperback. Links to all of my books are directly above. You can also find them here.

I selected these two excerpts at random, with the only proviso being that they didn't give away too much of the story, or spoil for future readers the outcome of the scenes from which I took them. As always, the author has generously approved my use of these excepts.

Excerpt one:

Rodrigo waited for Vince to tear out on the four-wheeler before he sent the Jeep hurtling through the sagebrush and the darkness. He rapidly increased his speed, going straight for the space between two sets of headlights. The one on his right must have caught sight of him, for the black SUV veered away and slid to a stop. Rodrigo didn’t slow. The other SUV didn’t stop, but instead turned toward the Jeep. The maneuver sprayed a plume of dirt into the air.

Rodrigo cut hard left, going through the dirt-laden darkness the SUV had vacated. The SUV spun around in pursuit. Everything not locked down in the Jeep bounced, rattled and banged. The jockey box which hadn’t latched properly flopped open when the front end of the Jeep found a badger hole. The box of shells bounced out when the Jeep came down. Bullets spilled from the open box to scatter like frightened mice on the floorboard.

Rodrigo couldn’t spare a hand to shut the jockey box or to...

Excerpt Two:

Outside a few torches appeared in the night. Red eyes gleamed in the torchlight.

Don pushed the two women out the back door. "Go. Ride. Hurry, or you’ll never get out of here.”

...

A torch appeared from the corner of the house. Diana’s M4 spit a single shot. The torch and the exper who held it fell back around the corner.

“Don’t forget these,” Kim said, tossing Don the keys to the Buick.

“Go.” Don slapped the horses as they turned away.

Horses and riders disappeared into the night.

Don moved to the hayshed and peeked around to where he could see the lane. The first set of headlights started to make the turn to come to the front door. A storm of rocks and a piece of rebar struck the F-150.

Another fine review posted on Amazon for The Shrinking Zone last week. I'll share it in my newsletter which you can get here.

In other news, the review and edit of the new short story are complete. I implemented most of the changes my proofreader suggested. I will give the story another once over before I send it off this week.

I begin phase III of my workout program tomorrow. It's not part of some new year's resolution. I started the program in November. As you may suspect, my new year's resolution was, "I aim to misbehave." Which reminds me that I'm in the middle of a Firefly rewatch. I highly recommend it as instructional material on the elements of good story telling. It's also great fun. 

I've gone over the first 20K words of the next book in the Tomahawks and Dragon Fire series, adding and subtracting along the way. Antonio is the brightest light in that part of the story, but Alex and Lucette are getting the next steps in their respective adventures set up. Alex has made a particularly exciting advancement in his use of the essence. I still need to outline, at least in some general way, the next part of the tale for Iago and Atu, as well as for Akram and the other dragon hunters with their new acquaintances Frode and Njal. Lt. Roberts and his new pet are going to be a formidable obstacle for Alex and the patriot soldiers. The Commander is also likely to return to the New World, bringing the death and destruction which attend his presence both on and off the battlefield.

To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,
To the last syllable of recorded time;
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury
Signifying nothing.

Those words are Shakespeare's coming from the mouth of MacBeth. I purloined a few of those words to create something upon the same sad subject but slathered with hope rather than steeped in MacBeth's bitter despair. The occasion in my case was the passing of a close cousin.

Here's my version:

We watched in pain as all his tomorrows slowly faded into yesterdays.
The petty pace of day to day pressed him ever down the wandering path from the womb toward the clay.
His candle now burns elsewhere for his hour has played out upon this stage.
His syllables of sound and fury, reason, lecture, and love come no more to our listening ear.
Yet there is significance in his tale for each of us to discern for the shadows of his candle continue to flicker here.
No man remains an island when family and friends gather round him.
We bid him adieu at that bridge betwixt here and wide eternity, promising to meet there once again.
There the hosts are gathered of family and friends gone on to welcome him home across the bridge.

***

I think it's fitting to move on to the book I've been promising to review. My cousin would approve.

I first remember reading this book in high school. I think I had read it during junior high but didn't really remember it--perhaps I hadn't finished it. I know that I had read Tom Sawyer, but Huckleberry Finn is a much deeper, more substantial work than Tom Sawyer. When I read HF again in college, the professor referred to TS as "a boy's book," a basic adventure story for boys. HF is not only a boy's adventure, its a fascinating look at the life and culture along the Mississippi. It is an indictment of slavery, racism, and prejudice of several kinds. Twain's frequent stabs at religion are also very entertaining.

Huck Finn may be among the most interesting characters ever created in American literature. He has common sense but is burdened--even crippled--by superstition, as well as a conscience so tangled in the culture of slavery and the petty, prickly points of misunderstood religious teachings that he constantly struggles with what he feels is right versus what the culture has told him he must believe is right. The clear winner as the best, kindest, most sympathetic person depicted in the book is Jim.

It has been a few weeks since I finished the book so I don't remember all of my observations. I'm certain there are many learned dissertations upon the symbolism, meaning, and significance of the various characters and events. I'll steer my raft clear of that treacherous current. 

Two interesting, funny, and ultimately repugnant characters are the Duke and the Dauphin. Below is Huck's recounting of Hamlet's soliloquy as given by the Duke:

He told us to give attention. Then he strikes a most noble attitude, with one leg shoved forwards, and his arms stretched away up, and his head tilted back, looking up at the sky; and then he begins to rip and rave and grit his teeth; and after that, all through his speech, he howled, and spread around, and swelled up his chest, and just knocked the spots out of any acting ever I see before. This is the speech — I learned it, easy enough, while he was learning it to the king:

"To be, or not to be; that is the bare bodkin That makes calamity of so long life; For who would fardels bear, till Birnam Wood do come to Dunsinane, But that the fear of something after death Murders the innocent sleep, Great nature’s second course, And makes us rather sling the arrows of outrageous fortune Than fly to others that we know not of. There’s the respect must give us pause: Wake Duncan with thy knocking! I would thou couldst; For who would bear the whips and scorns of time, The oppressor’s wrong, the proud man’s contumely, The law’s delay, and the quietus which his pangs might take, In the dead waste and middle of the night, when churchyards yawn In customary suits of solemn black, But that the undiscovered country from whose bourne no traveler returns, Breathes forth contagion on the world, And thus the native hue of resolution, like the poor cat i’ the adage, Is sicklied o’er with care, And all the clouds that lowered o’er our housetops, With this regard their currents turn awry, And lose the name of action. ’Tis a consummation devoutly to be wished. But soft you, the fair Ophelia: Ope not thy ponderous and marble jaws, But get thee to a nunnery — go!"

Well, the old man he liked that speech, and he mighty soon got it so he could do it first-rate. It seemed like he was just born for it; and when he had his hand in and was excited, it was perfectly lovely the way he would rip and tear and rair up behind when he was getting it off.

It is certainly some entertaining Shakespearean goulash. HF is one of the few books that has actually made me laugh out loud. There is a change of tone in the novel once Jim has been sold out by the pair mentioned above and Tom Sawyer arrives. Huck's recounting of Tom and Huck's rescue of Jim from slavery may be some of the funniest chapters ever written in the English language. That part almost goes on too long, but is so hilarious that I must forgive Twain for his indulgence. 

It was during the production of the recent play that I was finishing my reading of the book, reading between acts of the play. Much to the consternation of a couple of my fellow actors, I burst out laughing. Tom and Huck are attempting to free Jim who has been confined in a shed and chained to the bed. A metal ring attaches Jim's chain to the bed leg. The bed can easily be lifted and the ring removed from the bed leg, but Tom has to make a grand production of the rescue to match the difficulties depicted in novels. Naturally, Huck doesn't see the sense in complicating the matter. I had to laugh aloud when I read this:

"...I wish there was a moat to this cabin. If we get time, the night of the escape, we’ll dig one.” 
I says: 
“What do we want of a moat when we’re going to snake him out from under the cabin?” 
But he never heard me. He had forgot me and everything else. He had his chin in his hand, thinking. Pretty soon he sighs and shakes his head; then sighs again, and says: 
“No, it wouldn’t do — there ain’t necessity enough for it.” 
“For what?” I says. 
“Why, to saw Jim’s leg off,” he says. 
“Good land!” I says; “why, there ain’t NO necessity for it. And what would you want to saw his leg off for, anyway?”
“Well, some of the best authorities has done it. They couldn’t get the chain off, so they just cut their hand off and shoved. And a leg would be better still. But we got to let that go. There ain’t necessity enough in this case; and, besides, Jim’s a nigger, and wouldn’t understand the reasons for it, and how it’s the custom in Europe; so we’ll let it go. But there’s one thing — he can have a rope ladder; we can tear up our sheets and make him a rope ladder easy enough. And we can send it to him in a pie; it’s mostly done that way. And I’ve et worse pies.”


 The sawing Jim's leg off bit made me laugh aloud; "I've et worse pies" nearly made me pass out.

The part about "lettin' on" to be doing something one way for dramatic effect while actually doing it an easier way was the icing on the comedy cake. 

I rate this book as The Great American Novel. Everyone should read this book several times during their lifetime. Anyone who wants to ban this book utterly misses the meaning of the work.

***
In my own writing, chapter 3 of Book 3 is coming along nicely. I think more dragon (as opposed to cowbell) may be the answer to one of my plotting dilemmas. Book 3 will be dedicated to the cousin mentioned above.

These are the first two books in the series. Get them now by clicking the links at the upper left of the blog.

Let me first note that in the Spirit of 1776, I've completed 76K words on Power to Hurt, and I'm offering FREE pdf copies of the first book in the Tomahawks and Dragon Fire Series Threading the Rude Eye. Contact me through the comments and give me your email address to receive your free copy. This offer is good for a limited time. I hope to give away a hundred free copies before Power to Hurt is ready for purchase.

Independence Day marched in again to the sound of trumpets, drums, fireworks, fanfare, and whining. It's the latter that I'll address somewhere below. As for me and my house, we attended the veteran's march in our community. The A-10s roared over at the conclusion (or about fifteen minutes after the conclusion) for the fleeting pleasure of the happy, patriotic throng. Following the Wart hog fly-by, I had to go home to attend to a problem of no small significant. Fortunately, much like the song says, I got by with a little help from my friends--one friend in particular. Catastrophe slunk away in shame at having been averted stumbled to the curtain like an emaciated model wearing more heel than her frail limbs can manage making a retreat from the catwalk. I'm not looking forward to a return visit. All that and I still smoked pork ribs and steak for the celebratory dinner with family--and also wrote a few hundred words on Power to Hurt; I would've written more but the averting of the catastrophe swallowed part of the writing time. The only unfortunate bit of the holiday was the lack of cherry pie. As for lighting fireworks, I recommend the propane torch as the never-fail answer when matches are cheap and the breeze is brisk.

***

One whining incident of which I became aware concerned a tweet or other social media flatulence featuring a quote from Frederick Douglass. Others responded that that quote was taken out of context, etc. I've read the speech before, but it has been some years. I took the opportunity to read it again. 

Here's a link to the speech and I've included some portions here which I believe fairly represent the general tone and point of the speech.


Frederick Douglass' July 4, 1852, Speech


"This, for the purpose of this celebration, is the 4th of July. It is the birthday of your National Independence, and of your political freedom. This, to you, is what the Passover was to the emancipated people of God. It carries your minds back to the day, and to the act of your great deliverance; and to the signs, and to the wonders, associated with that act, and that day."
...

"Pride and patriotism, not less than gratitude, prompt you to celebrate and to hold it in perpetual remembrance. I have said that the Declaration of Independence is the ring-bolt to the chain of your nation’s destiny; so, indeed, I regard it. The principles contained in that instrument are saving principles. Stand by those principles, be true to them on all occasions, in all places, against all foes, and at whatever cost.

From the round top of your ship of state, dark and threatening clouds may be seen. Heavy billows, like mountains in the distance, disclose to the leeward huge forms of flinty rocks! That bolt drawn, that chain broken, and all is lost. Cling to this day — cling to it, and to its principles, with the grasp of a storm-tossed mariner to a spar at midnight."

...

"Fellow-citizens, pardon me, allow me to ask, why am I called upon to speak here to-day? What have I, or those I represent, to do with your national independence? Are the great principles of political freedom and of natural justice, embodied in that Declaration of Independence, extended to us? and am I, therefore, called upon to bring our humble offering to the national altar, and to confess the benefits and express devout gratitude for the blessings resulting from your independence to us?"

...

"What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July? I answer: a day that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim. To him, your celebration is a sham; your boasted liberty, an unholy license; your national greatness, swelling vanity; your sounds of rejoicing are empty and heartless; your denunciations of tyrants, brass fronted impudence; your shouts of liberty and equality, hollow mockery; your prayers and hymns, your sermons and thanksgivings, with all your religious parade, and solemnity, are, to him, mere bombast, fraud, deception, impiety, and hypocrisy — a thin veil to cover up crimes which would disgrace a nation of savages. There is not a nation on the earth guilty of practices, more shocking and bloody, than are the people of these United States, at this very hour."

...

"Fellow-citizens! there is no matter in respect to which, the people of the North have allowed themselves to be so ruinously imposed upon, as that of the pro-slavery character of the Constitution. In that instrument I hold there is neither warrant, license, nor sanction of the hateful thing; but, interpreted as it ought to be interpreted, the Constitution is a GLORIOUS LIBERTY DOCUMENT. Read its preamble, consider its purposes. Is slavery among them? Is it at the gateway? or is it in the temple? It is neither. While I do not intend to argue this question on the present occasion, let me ask, if it be not somewhat singular that, if the Constitution were intended to be, by its framers and adopters, a slave-holding instrument, why neither slavery, slaveholding, nor slave can anywhere be found in it."

...

"Allow me to say, in conclusion, notwithstanding the dark picture I have this day presented of the state of the nation, I do not despair of this country. There are forces in operation, which must inevitably work the downfall of slavery. “The arm of the Lord is not shortened,” and the doom of slavery is certain. I, therefore, leave off where I began, with hope. While drawing encouragement from the Declaration of Independence, the great principles it contains, and the genius of American Institutions, my spirit is also cheered by the obvious tendencies of the age. "

Douglass' speech came, of course, prior to the Civil War (and before Lincoln's Gettysburg Address)  when hundreds of thousands of Americans went to war beneath the star spangled banner for the very purpose of holding the union together on a basis which extended the principles embodied in the Declaration of Independence. Those lives spent in dedication to the proposition that all men are created equal consecrated and hallowed this nation and its founding principles far beyond the power and whining of those with little understanding or appreciation to detract from that sacrifice of the last full measure of devotion. 

I must wonder: Does the blood of patriots yet hold this nation together? Although the principles in the Declaration of Independence remain hallowed beyond detraction, if those principles are not taught in union with the history of the sacrifices in blood and treasure that were required to give the principles substance and effect, the ignorant will reign, the machinery created to empower the principles will be subverted, and the people will morn until the tree of liberty is nourished yet again.

***
Finally, I seriously enjoyed writing on Power to Hurt this week with scenes of combat and carnage among ancient ruins and the first appearance in the series of my unique and fully armed and operational battle station matured fire-breathing dragon. I love it when a plan comes together. Honestly, the plan has been changing regularly--but it's only getting better.