"Wrong or right, they have the might, so wrong or right, they're always right, and that's wrong... right?"

If you've ever seen the musical Camelot, you know that King Arthur spoke the line above as he contemplated some wrong to right, some peril to face, and what use to make of knights. I had never seen the show before. It was a recording of the musical play, not the 1967 movie that also starred Richard Harris--which I've also never seen. I highly recommend this musical. It makes me want to reread The Once and Future King which I haven't read since I was in jr. high school. My wife had seen this film before and even knew most of the songs. Apparently she used to sing a few of them with her sister.

Earlier today, I mentioned Camelot as an introduction to the line with which I opened this post to a room of 14 year old boys; they all wondered what Camelot was. They had never even heard of Camelot. At least they heard of King Arthur--they just didn't know diddly about him, it seemed. (They didn't even know Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade--which forced a detailed explanation of the reference to: "He chose poorly.")

I shall have to watch Camelot again...and again...and again; there's some good stuff in it.

This

on the other hand, was a movie that neither my wife nor I had previously seen. We had pretty low expectations going in and our hopes hovered only slightly higher--mediocrity would have been a win. This film gushes hilarity like ichor from a punctured aorta--and the victim never runs out of blood. We laughed all the way through it. How come I've never seen this? This is the funniest thing I've ever seen Bill Murray do. The car chase alone is a screaming, pants-wetting laugh fest. Murray's performance as a member of a Russian dance troupe delivers an entire series of comedy-club blows to the head that made me feel like an entire nursery of baby harp seals.

Murray plays a Blockbuster Video clerk who goes to the UK to see his brother, a successful banking executive. His brother gets him placed into a live street theater television show for the night. Murray, mistaken for a hit man, unwittingly wades into a swamp of international intrigue, blackmail, and murder. He thinks it's all part of the television show and believes the others involved are actors. Meanwhile, the real hit man has taken Murray's place in the television show and murders an actor in the first scene. Cops, hit men, and assorted  bad guys pursue Murray to the incredible end.

I know that if I watch it again, it won't be as funny; "I'm therefore going [to do it] anyway." --to borrow from James T. in ST3:The Search for Spock.

***

I could say more about the state of the novel but I won't. Although, I am wondering about volunteers to for beta readers of a flintlock fantasy set during the American Revolutionary War. 

Anyone?

This book has been my companion for at least a couple months. The title of the book comes from something Washington said after the war.

Another book about the American War of Independence? Indeed. I acquired both the kindle version and the hard copy. I'm glad I did. Ferling's Almost a Miracle ranks among the best single-volume treatments of the conflict that I've read. The book provides background on the politics, personalities and international ramifications behind the decisions. The options available to the parties are discussed at length in many cases. In some instances, such as Cornwallis' reasons for refusing to leave Yorktown until it was too late, the author provides the statements given at the time, as well as the justifications given with the benefit of hindsight. This is an excellent book. I think I prefer it to another favorite, Leckie's Washington's War, because it does not focus on Washington as much as that work.

I give the book 5 out of 5 stars. Being a treatment of the whole war, many details about specific battles are omitted but I found sufficient information to make the accounts of the battles meaningful. A little less than half of the book consists of notes and bibliography. The writing style is engaging, easy to follow and never boring. The account never bogged down in useless detail or irrelevant quotes. There are many quotes from the people involved which provide great insight into their thoughts and rationale for their actions.

I would have liked more biographical detail about some of the participants. Some great information was included; I hoped for more. Nevertheless, I thoroughly enjoyed the book and will continue to refer back to it often. I did see a couple of single star and two star reviews on Amazon for this book--incomprehensible; I can't believe that they were reading the same book that I read.

***

My reading queue includes Francis Parkman's The Conspiracy of Pontiac and the Indian War after the Conquest of Canada (which I've already started), and The Founder's Revolution by Michael S. Law. On the lighter side, I have Andy Peloquin's Trial of Stone, Ambrose Bierce's Can Such Things Be?, and Frostborn: The Gray Knight by Jonathan Moelle to consume. I have Brandon Sanderson's Oathbringer to tackle but I know it will take a lot of time and monopolize my attention; I'm saving it for something but I don't know what. I also want to the read third book of the Jorgensen's Kusunoki Chronicles: Might of the Barbarians.

More importantly, after an entire week without writing on my work in progress which followed a week in which I fell a couple thousand words short of the goal for the week, I devoted time yesterday to making up the deficit from the previous week. I expect to finish writing the book this week. Because of some changes from the story as outlined and the decision to breakup the story differently than I had originally envisioned, I had to make some decisions about the stopping place while bringing the book to an exciting conclusion. I've figured that out. It should finish out at just over 80K words.

Stories from the stock photo folder.

It's Twilight Zone meets Mayberry. I don't know who put this picture together but it must have a great story to go with it. 

Mirror Universe Spock is performing a mild meld on Barney Fife. Is this also a MU Barney or has has MU Spock engaged in both time travel and universe hopping?  Perhaps he's extracting from the deputy the location of the one bullet he keeps for his revolver. Maybe Spock desires to know why everyone is avoiding Aunt Bea's pickles. On second thought, it looks like Barney is in the engineering section of the Enterprise. Barney has been transported to the MU. He has traded places with Dr. McCoy and drained the universe of color. 

Here's how it looked before the Barney Rift opened.

I don't know if Barney can get back. Kirk and the rest of the crew are doomed -- maybe they all shifted to Mayberry; unless Scotty can construct a starship or transporter from stone knives and Otis' alcohol saturated corpse Federation law is coming to Mayberry.

I like this next picture better.

The thing you need to understand about this picture is that the kid who's wearing his teammate's cleat between his legs never actually jumped.

Finally, my personal favorite, the cover of my slightly humorous noir detective novel Smoke.

I don't know how this picture ended up in my stock photo's folder. That folder is reserved for strange things I find on the internet--like the two pictures above. This book is my favorite of the novels that I have written thus far. I am enjoying writing the work in progress but Smoke is the book that compelled me to stop in the middle of writing Justice Resurgent and write it instead--the story demanded that I write it. I'm not sure whether it was the first person point of view that I used in most of the book, the post-war 1940s setting, the detective story framework, the literary references, or the memorable women characters who play prominently in the story that makes it so memorable for me. Writing, reviewing, and implementing the editing suggestions eventually drains my cup of enthusiasm for a book--except for this book. If I had to go back and read one of my creations again, I would choose this one. If I pick it up and read a few lines, I'm hooked all over again and have to exert some real self control to put it down and walk away.

I have to admit to some disappointment with the cover. I do love it but had hoped for something better. I shot the picture for the cover in my office with high-end photography equipment. "High-end photography equipment" meaning a medium resolution smart phone camera. My daughter and a lady from the theater who was in a play with me at the time came over to the office and we shot some photos. I wanted to include a feminine hand with pink fingernails. The hand was to hold the cigarette with smoky coils ascending. First, I forgot to have the nice lady put on the pink fingernails that I had purchased for the project. Second, the smoke from the cigarette refused to be effectively captured in the photos. Third, the cigarette was a prop cigarette (generously provided by another theater friend) filled with cocao husks or llama droppings or something and smelled like a fire at the garbage dump (that's the prop cigarette that was filled with...and smelled like... My generous friend did not smell like a fire at the garbage dump). Fourth, I was nervous about having two other people help me with it so I rushed through it to keep from wasting their time. All things considered, it turned out pretty well.

There's a link in the upper right hand corner of this blog to look at and/or purchase the book on Amazon should one so desire. Don't kid yourself; you desire.

The novel in progress has passed the 70K word mark. I note that my most recent publication, Justice Resurgent was only 74K words and is the shortest of my books. Justice in Season as originally written was about 95K words but I cut it back to 89K words. Finding Jack-The Orb was over 88K words. Smoke, my favorite work so far, was 95K words. I anticipate reaching the end of the new novel somewhere between 80K and 90K words--it's part of a series so I'm adjusting the break point between books. When I read a book, I don't care so much about word count--unless it's way too long with a lot of slop that should've been eliminated. I only track the word count on my own books to keep my writing goal steady and manageable, and to make sure that I'm publishing something with enough words and pages, i.e., enough story, to be a worthwhile investment for a reader.

Speaking of books: I should review two.

Let me begin with 1632 by Eric Flint. It was available as a free ebook. I had heard about it and had seen it at the used bookstore but that was it. The price in this case was too good to ignore.

This book didn't dawdle in getting to the story. I don't recall a lot of getting to know the characters before the big event from which the story is generated. The city of Grantville, West Virginia and its environs of the year 2000, lands in Thuringia of the year 1632. Not much time is spent anguishing over the how and why of the sudden relocation--which is good; after all, the least interesting part of Gilligan's Island was the 3 hour tour. Luckily, Grantville has some major assets to help its citizens cope with the disease, incessant warfare, and all-around sack of suck that made life in Northern Europe of 1632 filthy, brutal and short.

The strongest part of the book for me concerned the establishment and preservation of American freedom and justice in a time whn the divine right of kings alloyed with might makes right. The Americans have to ante up with the might to preserve their rights and lives. They attempt to extend the same rights to those around them. The politics and warfare of the age are of interest. The Americans eventually have to go "all in" at the gaming tables of kings and roll the iron dice of war with some of the major players of the day. The purple testament gets a new chapter.

Most of the characters are well done. King Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden figures prominently and presents an intriguing figure. Some of the American characters represent certain points of view in the politics of the republic and are given more time or development according to how sympathetic the author seems to be to those points of view. Other interesting characters include a doctor, and a cheerleader who doubles as a sniper. 

The moments in this book when the founding principles of the United States are put on display, argued and defended really shine. Those moments would make it a 5 star book. Unfortunately, there are other moments that eclipse some of those stars. Several of those moments include some profanity that only detracts from the story in my opinion. Another is Gretchen. She's a great character but the author dedicated entirely too much time to the description and admiration of her physical attributes. I had to skip over some of the more explicit descriptions of her and her activities. The story is exciting and fairly fast paced. The battles, large and small, unfold with descriptive vigor and verve.

I rate the book based on its strongest features:  It's not Red Dawn, it's Red, White and Blue Dawn.

 I've worried about reviewing Cthulhu Armageddon by C.T. Phipps for a couple weeks.

The author was kind enough to provide me with a free copy of his book. I also offered to do a review. My thoughts here reflect my honest opinion uncolored by the awesome cover of the book, the author's kindness in providing the free copy, or the fact that I think he would be a fun guy to have in a table top RPG.

I started the book intrigued with the prospect of experiencing a "Post Apocalypse Western" as noted on the cover. That sounded cool to me. The silhouetted figure on the cover looks like a cowboy. I enjoy westerns (I've even written a couple). I expected some six-gun action, a quick draw or two, and some lever-action rifle shootouts with mutants biting the dust by the dozen and horrific creatures soaking up lead like the sandpit at the firing range. One should never judge a book by its cover.

While the cover piqued my interest, the foreword annoyed me. The author used the foreword to introduce himself, set up the world in which the story would take place and to pay some backhanded homage to H.P. Lovecraft. I had two problems with it. First, put the introduction in an Introduction or Author's Note, and use a Prologue to set up the world if necessary--which it shouldn't be. Second, save the virtue signaling; I don't need to know how the author's personal views differ from those of the dead guy from whom he's taking his inspiration.

The first chapter put the story on the road with the virtue signal still flashing. I couldn't see any other point for the descriptions given for those supporting characters--they all died like lemmings leaping into a meat grinder--they were the redshirt casualties before the opening credits (Yes. I'm being redundant, but I like it that way). Inevitably the story picked up and the signal burnt out. The story dug itself out of the hole into which the foreword and first chapter had flung it. The descriptions and actions scenes came alive. I trudged on in hope of finding the western that I had been promised; a cowboy hat doth not a western make. The main character wore a cowboy hat but it never figured into the story or had any apparent purpose.

I finally gave up the trudge. I couldn't find any characters that I cared about or that were even interesting enough to make me stay. I must say that I'm not a big fan of the Cthulhu Mythos; my interest is superficial. I've read some Lovecraft; he's not my favorite. So maybe it was a mistake for me to think that I might like this book. The final straw hit me as I thought about the dialog that I was reading. The conversation didn't flow for me; at best it was just an accumulation of things that the author wanted the characters to say. I never felt like the dialog was taking me anywhere or adding to the story. The occasional humor the dialog may have been intended to produce didn't work in my opinion.

I rate it: Full of the dark hopelessness of Lovecraft but without the understated charm. I do note that the book has 61 reviews at the big river site and 63% of those are 5 star reviews. I stopped just short of halfway through. I think the Mad Max portion of the show was about to start but Elvis and my ability to care had left the building.

We lost a man of steel this week. I attended his funeral yesterday. Don was born in 1930--you can do the math. He was a metal welding wizard. He worked in metal with the ease that the more skilled members of my family work with wood and concrete, or sarcasm. I always thought that he looked like Will Rogers; he also had friendly philosophical thoughts from time to time. He and his wife were friends of my parents and they played cards together when they lived close. I worked with Don one summer back in 1978 or 79. He managed a farm and I did the unskilled labor: moving sprinkler pipe, fixing fence, clearing the broken straw, hauling and stacking hay and a thousand other tasks. I got $4.00/hour which was rather good wages for an under-size high school kid at the time. He never looked over my shoulder but would sometimes let me know how I could improve on a task when he examined it later. 

I remember one time when we were stacking a load of hay. We had to use the hay elevator of the mechanized chain variety. Many people would climb the 20 foot elevator like a ladder to reach the top of the stack prior to activating the elevator. My technique (learned from my father, the undisputed He-Man of the hay bale universe) was to ride the elevator to the top of the stack by placing a foot on one of the paired prongs on the chain which were made to stick into the bales to haul them to the top.

In that instance, I stepped into place while the chain was in neutral and not moving. Don then kicked it into gear. The chain started with a jerk (not me, but the yank or tug type) which knocked me off balance. I slipped and finally fell backward with my Achilles tendon between the two prongs and my heel caught on the uphill side. The elevator was dragging me feet-first to my doom--or at least to potential injury (at the time I was convinced that it was to my certain doom. It was like I was in the desperate clutches of Gollum and we were about to fall over the brink into the molten lava of Mount Doom). After the machine had dragged me for a few uncomfortable feet, he shifted it out of gear so that I could extricate myself. We both laughed about it but his laughter was more genuine than mine. I can't say that I'm a better person for having worked that summer with Don, and I'm sure he was no better off for my association, but I enjoyed our work and our friendship.

***

The Gallows from Warbases Company arrived yesterday. I had to put it together immediately. There were no directions. The large pieces went together easily. The lever assembly was tricky but I eventually deciphered it after staring at the online store picture until my eyes turned into pixels. The trap door mechanism required some thought. I looked for instructions online but didn't find any. I couldn't find any pictures other than the view from the top. 

I figured it out and I include a view from beneath the scaffold for anyone who would find that helpful.

As for the ever pressing need to write, I did it. It was a struggle to get to 65K words for several reasons. First, I remembered with some consternation that the rescue scene that I had written last week included the rescue of most of the distressed characters. I had left one of them dangling on the gibbet (which sounds like a way to serve shrimp or something: The special today includes sauteed prawns dangling on the gibbet. I highly recommend them). So I had to rewrite that scene. Time escaped me. By Saturday, I had two days worth of writing to catch up on. Also, I was distracted by the funeral, the gallows assembly, and hanging new blinds for my wife--the blinds were actually for the windows but my wife had selected them. Nevertheless, being the mighty splitter of infinitives and fearless dangler of participles that I am, I worked through the distractions and completed my goal for the week.

I'm rethinking the way I intended to divide this adventure series. I may opt for more, shorter books than for a trilogy of long books. Four to six books that I could sell at a less expensive rate might be more worthwhile, profitable, and fulfilling--the thrill of completing 4-6 books should be greater than that for completing only 3. I may end these in the 80K word range rather than the 120K range.

Next time: I may do reviews of 1632 by Eric Flint and Cthulhu Armageddon by C.T. Phipps. One of these was a DNF for me but I should set forth my reasons.

Before I get to Solo: A Star Wars Story

Speaking of enterprises of great pith and moment (and that's not meant to be a Star Trek reference), I've hit the 60K word mark on the novel in progress. I still haven't decided upon a title that I like for it. Please feel free to send suggestions for the title of a best selling flintlock fantasy novel to be published this year. I could tell you something about it but that would inhibit your imaginative title suggestions.

I've found that writing dialogue is how I discover my characters. The characters ask questions that I had not previously considered. Answering those questions helps develop depth and motivation. Action scenes are fun to write, but conversation is the fertile soil in which the seed of character is best sown.

***

Aside from the writing, which went extremely well, the week included a game with these figures from Bronze Age Miniatures and the musketeer figures that I've posted earlier. It was Barsoom meets the musketeers. Once again using the ...And All for One rules mentioned before for a simple game that several boys could quickly learn for a fun evening.

They never got tired of trying to kill each other and take off with the loot.

I alluded to a review of Solo: A Star Wars Story. I'll be brief--or not; I'm just rambling here.

 Color me simply disappointed. I thought it not a bad show, better than Last Jedi. When I see a Star Wars film I'm thinking about rewatchability. I'm always asking myself if I'll want to watch this film again. Of the new films, only The Force Awakens has a measurable rewatchability factor for me. As for Solo, I thought Firefly did the train robbery better. Apart from the characters there were elements that recalled scenes from the original New Hope, Empire, and Jedi trilogy that I appreciated. I was glad that Ron Howard paid homage to the three great movies onto which the rest of the mediocre films of the franchise have been scabbed.

For both people who have not seen this film yet: Beware, spoilers follow.

As for the acting, I found the new actors playing the roles of the old heroes entirely believable; I liked them. The special effects obviously soaked up a lot of the budget. The music only reached memorable heights when it went back to the original theme. The story seemed sloppy and unlikely. If I remember correctly, bad guy Dryden never had a pistol. I think the bad guy should have more than a glorified knife for self defense. I was pleased to see Clint Howard with a cameo. Lando's lover-like remorse at the loss of L-3 struck me as a rather ridiculous, but I hate cat videos and space octupi as well so maybe I'm wrong--but I'm not. The security on Kessel, a planet with mines producing extremely valuable fuel mined by slave labor, reached a nadir even lower than that on Endor for the protection of the death star in Jedi. At least there were no Ewoks. Finally, who was surprised when the big bad Cloud Rider took off the helmet to reveal a woman? No one.

Let's begin with the book review and see where it goes from there.

Death's Angels by William King.

I got this book for free and it is still available at that price. I picked it up because my new novel in progress is in the flintlock fantasy genre and also has dragons. I wanted to see what this book did with similar components. This book and my book are nothing alike.

What I liked: King is a very good writer. I never felt that I was reading something that could (as I've noted about many fantasy books) have been written by a fairly talented 5th grader. He can put a story together and his sentence structure and word choice never annoyed me -- except for the occasional use of profanity; that annoyed me (I nearly put it away without finishing). I continue to believe that the best writers don't need to use profanity. I won't say it's a substitute for talent in King's case because he's very talented and that type of language is infrequent. But I digress; this is supposed to be the part where I discuss what I did like. Most of the characters were interesting if somewhat stereotypical. The main character, Rik, is the orphaned thief; there's a big barbarian who suffers from a lack of mental agility, and also a weasel-type named Weasel. I liked those guys even if they weren't terribly unique. I wanted to know more about the Terrarch overlords, the conquerors from space and wielders of magic. King did some interesting things with the variety of dragons; I wanted to know more about them. The story progressed at a rapid pace. Danger hovered in the wings or came straight on with scything claws; it's some exciting reading.

What I didn't like: I just didn't care for the story. The story was well told. I never grew bored with it. The author kept me interested even after it became clear that the baddies were some kind of demons. I'm just not into demons; it's a flavor of fantasy for which I have never acquired a taste. I enjoy a good battle against Sauron or some dark lord and his minions, but grotesque and bug-like hell spawn held at bay or set free by the interpretive dance and chanted lyrics of pasty-faced sorcerers and their slimy apprentices leave me sick and empty in the same manner as did that expired can of creamed corn left in the hot summer sun that I convinced grandma to cook for me when I was a kid--I haven't been able to eat creamed corn since. The lack of flintlock detail and combat description disappointed me. This book really could have been a sword and sorcery piece without significant modification. I was hankering for a helping of musketry fire and bayonet charges and found those particular morsels of the repast too small to appease my desire.

The Verdict: There are 91 reviews on and 90% of those are 4 and 5 stars. A lot of people liked it. I can't say that I really agree with the 3, 2, or 1 star reviews. It didn't appeal to me but that was a matter of taste rather than quality. Your mileage may vary. As for me, I won't be reading further in the series.

***

With regard to my own books, the sales continue. Most of the recent sales have been of Justice Resurgent, but Justice in Season, the first book in the two book series has also sold more copies.

The novel in progress has broken the 55K word mark. I have departed from the story as broadly outlined but characters and events often refuse to be bound by my original concept for them. Once the writing begins they insist on slipping the 12 point Times New Roman bonds which had loosely anchored them to their predefined role in the tale. That's the exciting part. They always take me places beyond what I had originally imagined. I can't wait to find out what happens next. Seriously, I know what happens; I just don't always know how it's going to happen. OK. Sometimes I don't even know what's going to happen; I'm as surprised as anyone.

Finally, I started a French movie, Le Doulos, a week or so ago and got time to finish it yesterday.

The story goes like this:
Confusion. Girl gets beat up. Guy gets shot. Botched burglary. Things get explained. Everyone dies.
That's not a proper review. I'm not a proper reviewer. It might make a nice reframe where I use pictures from the film but build my own unlikely tale around them but I probably won't get to it.