As I contemplate that day that is the hub, the Ogygia of summer that separates all of the season that came prior to that day from the following day from which the final voyages of the season are launched, I remembered what I had written last year after the local July 4th festivities:

 I do it because I am minting memories. We take this hot summer day and put it beneath the steel press of patriotism, stamping upon it the indelible impression of our flag and national identity; we remember the blood and treasure spilled to obtain and to secure the liberty and inalienable rights upon which this nation was founded; we honor not only the founding fathers, but those still living among us who have served to secure the freedoms for which so many have given the last full measure of devotion. There is plenty of time for pleasurable pursuits, but short is the time to honor those who have offered more than mere lip service to liberty...

It still has meaning for me. I don't expect that there will be free hamburgers or a wondrous fly-by, but those who served will still march. We will still salute them. 

***

The sequel to Justice in Season is coming along. I borrowed an idea--to put it in the least reprehensible light, or engaged in a little literary larceny, to speak more accurately--from Shakespeare. In Hamlet, the Bard presents a play-within-a-play; that's the purloined provision--not the same play, just the idea for a play as a means of subtly communicating an idea to an audience, or a part thereof. Just a few more chapters for an important plot complication, and I'll be ready to blast toward the exciting conclusion.

Speaking of exciting conclusions. I recently completed Louis L'Amour's Passin' Through, and Guns of The Timberlands. I enjoyed both of these tremendously. I don't remember what caused me to read Passin' Through, but Rachel K's review of GoTT got me interested in reading GoTT. 

PT is told from the first person point of view. After writing Smoke (mostly) from the first person point of view, I relished a good read of L'Amour using that view. GoTT uses the third person narrative, allowing the reader insight into what the various characters are doing and thinking. I find the first person view more intense with the ability to draw me into the story like Apollo's hand in "Who Mourns for Adonis?" seizing the Enterprise.

GoTT actually strongly reminded me of The Mountain Valley War--which I discussed a few weeks ago. GoTT involves Clay Bell protecting his range land from a greedy baron bent on stripping the land for a quick profit. Eventually, six-guns and bare knuckles settle the dispute with an eloquence that mere words were unable to achieve. Both books use the same formula with a slightly different twist. Of those two, I preferred GoTT.

PT actually kept me wondering.  It's about a cowboy who needs to lie low after proving that he was no easy mark for a pistolero with connections. He finds himself at a ranch occupied by two women. They're interesting. There is some dispute as to the actual ownership of the ranch. Plenty of bullets fly, and several men irrigate the soil with their corpuscles before the conclusion. I found the mystery intriguing and entertaining, if not difficult to unravel. I also liked the horse with the death's head brand.

The protagonists in both books face difficult odds against opponents with connections and clout. They solve problems not only with physical skill, but with mental prowess as well. Both feature romances that end in the expected way, even though the characters have little if any time for romancing--they fall in love quicker than Kirk on an away mission. They're both good reads, but I savored PT just a little bit more.

As long as I'm mixing TOS references and Westerns, I better include this:

Speaking of book covers, I've redone the cover to Justice in Season. I'm not certain that I'm pleased with it. The background may be too busy. I needed to change it as the old cover didn't fit the Kindle cover dimensions; it looked odd, out of place, and amateurish (now it only suffers from the latter distinction, or maybe still all three but just in a different way). Here's the new cover:

Yes, I used the same template that I used for Smoke. If you like something, keep it--or as I say, glom* onto it and never let it go. I also made a similar cover for the sequel, Justice Resurgent. I may decide to change it before I'm done writing the sequel, so I won't post the preview of that one yet.

I finished two Louis L'Amour books recently. The Broken Gun, and The Mountain Valley War. Rather than a straight review, I'll do a little compare and contrast. TBG is a shorter, quicker read. TMVW is longer (yes, that's redundant). I chose TMVW based on the fact that it is set in Idaho. Unfortunately, it didn't seem uniquely Idaho enough to me. Aside from some place names, it might've been Utah or Nevada, but that's a minor complaint.

TBG isn't really a western; it is set in Arizona in the 1960's. A writer, whose life experience is much like L'Amour's, is lured to a remote ranch by folks who don't care for what his research might reveal about the legal title to their ranch. It has a bit of a noir flavor. By the end of the book, I was hearing the protagonist speak in the voice of Humphrey Bogart.

TMVW uses a classic western morality tale template: An evil land baron (or "King," in this case) attempts to persuade the legitimate small farmers and ranchers to sell out cheaply; his methods include cutting off their supplies, and late night visits to deliver house warming gifts of lead and fire. One of those small farmers is a man going by an alias to hide the fact that he is an all-around western renaissance man, being extremely talented with his fists as well as his Colts. He wants to settle down, perhaps with the woman who followed him from Texas and who runs a gambling palace. Our hero's sense of justice and future plans don't mesh well with the land-grabbers new planning and zoning code--what with that new comprehensive plan zoning him into a new zip code or restricting him to a three by six plot in the dirt-view estates. Naturally, the hero manages to make heroic journeys, win heroic fights, and dispense heroic justice and mercy.

I preferred TBG. Both stories boasted heroes who performed difficult feats to outwit and outfight their enemies. In TMVW the hero had lots of help, although he was often left to succeed by dint** of his own fists and pistols. The writer in TBG didn't have any open allies, but he acquired some key aid to help him triumph. Both also featured shooting, horses, fighting, murder, and climbing--not necessarily in that order.

Next time I hope to use more pictures like this:

from the movie Fallen Angel. The film is loaded with great black and white shots--in fact, they all are, black and white that is. The story isn't bad, and the acting is pretty good. I'll probably do a reframe with the pictures since I won't remember the story well enough to do a recap and review. Which reminds me that I need to do another Combat! episode soon.


*That's for you--you know who I mean. It's from the Scottish "glaum," in case you're interested. It originally meant "to steal" or "to seize." It also has come to mean "to adhere to" or "to grab." Its first known use was in 1907.

**Also for you--you still know who I mean--because I know you'll ask. The phrase "by dint of" means "by means or use of." Dint comes from the Old English "Dynt" and was first used in writing sometime before the 12th century.

I spent part of last week at a professional training conference. It was good stuff. I met some people from around the state, and passed on a few of my self-promotional cards. A couple folks seemed genuinely interested in my books. I'm pleased with the recent sales of Smoke, but the sales are not nearly what they should be (if I judge based upon how fun it was to write the book).

I did find time alone in my hotel room after the daily sessions to re-engage in writing Justice Resurgent, the sequel to my first novel Justice in Season. I also did some more research on a particular stagecoach robbery that will figure prominently (a fictionalized version of the event) in the story. This week, I've enjoyed writing that part of the story. The focus has temporarily shifted away from the men and women striving for law and order to highlight the activities of the villains. The book is just over half-way complete. I expect a lot of action in the remaining chapters.

***

Mowing the vast expanse of grass (or the great swath of emerald sward--I'm pretty sure that I learned the word "sward" from reading Burroughs) chez-moi constitutes a weekly summer ritual. It's a big job. It beats going to the dentist, but not by much--except for the opportunity it gives me to listen to great literature. Last year, over the course of a few weeks, I enjoyed completing the audio version of Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities.

I've recently been listening to The Classic Tales podcasts. A couple weeks ago I learned that Louisa May Alcott wrote some short stories that she called stories of "blood and thunder" (if I remember the sobriquet correctly) before writing her famous novels and children's stories. One of these horror stories was "The Mummy's Curse." Although predictable, it wasn't bad. Most recently, upon seeing the title to a particular podcast, I immediately got an idea about how to resolve, or not resolve, actually, an issue that I've anticipated in the sequel to Finding Jack--The Orb; the sequel will be Finding Jack--Book Two--The Rod.

I had to look up a word today. That's not a bad thing. It's just a word that I should've known. I came across it in Louis L'Amour's The Mountain Valley War. That's ironic because I once told my son that he needed to read some science fiction or something besides of Louis L'Amour westerns in order to improve his vocabulary. I'm sure vocabulary is just one of the many things that that author could teach me.

***

Saturday was also a deferred maintenance reconciliation day. That's reconciliation by way of penance and blood sacrifice. I had been hearing my brakes moan like a wounded walrus in heat for some months. When the noise first started, I thought that it was coming from the car or truck next to me at the stop. Eventually I noticed a pattern: I was hearing the same sounds, more and more frequently, and no other cars were nearby. Of course, I had to spend another month thinking that I needed to do something about it; I kept forgetting; and with the motorcycle friendly weather, I was often spared the sound of those moaning reminders that diligence delayed isn't diligence at all.

The highlight of the repair job, besides the oppressive heat and the fact that I was already fatigued from the grueling three hour mow experience in said heat, wasn't the smearing of my hemoglobin across the brake assembly--a necessary, but involuntary act aimed at appeasing the automotive deities--which I did while uttering the requisite litany--but the fact that my wife came out to assist me with the task. It could be that she yearns to see me engaged in something more manly than riding the lawnmower or tapping at a keyboard; or it could be that she's a nice person and wanted to give me help if I needed it.

She may have been surprised by the blood sacrifice. Not that she hasn't seen it before in various iterations. She just didn't understand that it was a requirement every. single. time. The old brake pads having died valiantly in duty, I consigned them to the automotive parts and accessories Valhalla, and installed the new recruits in their place.

***

Finally, a secretary at the office is reading Smoke. I bug her frequently about her reading progress. When she gave me an update this week, a line from that chapter came to mind: "Chivalry is not dead...and it didn't get any sleep either." I don't often remember specific lines that I've written, but that one stuck in my head based on the circumstances to which it applied.

I didn't get to a review of The Broken Gun. Maybe I'll do a double review of The Broken Gun, and The Mountain Valley War sometime soon.

PS (Why do I write "PS?" It's not like I'm doing a letter here--but this did come after I had finished the rest of the post, thus making it a post post scriptum) - While reviewing this for posting yesterday, my old wrestling coach and friend called to say hi and to express some other nice sentiments. What a perfect end to a busy day. It pays unexpected emotional dividends to have associated with nice people.