Veterans' Day 2014

My consistency at blogging has been terrible.  I admit it.  Things that need my attention get in the way and by the time it’s over I don’t really feel like blogging. 

It might be the introvert in me.  Oh, I can play the extrovert, but I’m one of those who has learned certain skills in the last 20 years that have helped me be more sociable and less the guy standing with his back to the corner of the room praying for the shindig to end.

But today isn’t about me.  It makes it easier.

I want to tell you about David Collinsworth.

When he was drafted in June of 1944 the Second World War was at its height.  The Western Allies were landing in Normandy and liberated Rome.  Soviet forces had ended the 900-day siege of Leningrad just months earlier and had nearly pushed Nazi forces out of Soviet territories. The Imperial Japanese forces had been dislodged from numerous island strongholds in the Pacific and the fight for Saipan was just getting underway.

The tide of the war had turned but the end had not yet arrived.

He left behind his family on their large cotton farm in Claiborne Parish, Louisiana.  After receiving the most-basic of instruction at Camp Robinson, Arkansas, and completing training maneuvers somewhere in the U.S., David sailed from Norfolk, Virginia to Marseilles, France on January 1, 1945 arriving January 7^th.  As a replacement, he was shuffled through replacement depots, moving steadily forward until he was assigned to Easy Company, 2^nd Battalion, 15^th Infantry Regiment of the 3^rd U.S. Infantry Division on January 17, 1945. 

At that time, the 3^rd ID had been pulled off the line to rest and refit in advance of Operation: Grandslam, the American attack on the northern shoulder of the Colmar Pocket.

Now, you’ve heard of the Battle of the Bulge and how cold it was with all that heavy snow and the misery of the guys who fought through it.  The Colmar Pocket was a mini-Bulge in Alsace-Loarraine (southeastern France) that stuck out from the Rhine River.  The American Seventh Army (of which the 3^rd ID was a part) was tasked with driving east around and behind the large historic city of Colmar to the Rhine River and meet up with the advancing Free French forces from the south and capture as much of the German XIX Army as possible. 

Beginning January 22, that’s what started.  At first Easy Company was in reserve during some of the more intense actions to pierce German lines.  But when they did advance, David’s first sight was a gruesome one.  American GI’s taken prisoner by a Waffen-SS unit operating with the XIX Army were shot execution style while tied to trees in the woods north of Reidwihr. 

The weather was miserable as well.  Audie Murphy, who was in command of Baker Company, 15^th at this time, described in his autobiography To Hell and Back how his hair froze to the side of a shellhole overnight after his helmet slipped.  When he sat up, it ripped a chunk of his hair out by the roots.  Temperatures were consistently dropping into the single digits or below during the day as the American forces pushed east and turned south behind Colmar.

On January 25, Easy Company, in rubber boats, crossed the Colmar Canal and seized a bridgehead on the other side to allow 1^st Battalion to pass through and “push the ball” forward. 

But for David, the war ended on the night of January 30 – February 1, 1945.  Second Battalion, 15^th Infantry (now suffering attrition losses due to frostbite, trench foot, and combat casualties) number barely over 200 effectives.  This skeleton battalion – Easy, Fox, George and How Companies – was tasked with seizing the bridge over the Rhine-Rhone Canal due east of  Durrenentzen.   To get there, the Dogfaces of 2^nd Battalion – David still among them – pushed through the local forest until they came right up on the canal. 

It was heavily defended by emplaced German machineguns and panzers. 

The best way to capture a bridge is at both ends and that’s what the battalion commander decided to do. 

Easy Company was tasked with crossing the Rhine-Rhone Canal under fire and seize the far end.  David, and the handful of men he was with, descended into the icy waters of the canal.  He would later say that all he remembered was getting and getting out.  He couldn’t recall anything in between. 

It must’ve been terrifying.  Twenty-two  years old, weighed down by nearly 60 pounds of gear and a 10 pound rifle, David Collinsworth swam the fifty or so feet of the Rhine-Rhone Canal to the other side.  He climbed out alive, not caring that he was soaking west from water that was near freezing in temperature. 

With his platoon and squad mates, David seized the far end of the bridge...

Machinegun rounds from a German MG ripped through him.  A grenade went off near him.  Somehow, in the confusion, he found himself in the path of a German Tiger Tank.  I don’t know who got him to safety, but I figure someone did. 

As David lay bleeding from multiple wounds, the battle raged on until American artillery, armor, and air support drove the Germans back. 

He was rushed to an aid station where he nearly died.  In a field hospital the majority of the German shrapnel was removed from his body.  He would be in military hosptial until July, 1945 when he was released from the hospital at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio.

He was alive, though.  But part of him died on those snowy fields around Colmar.

For the next fifty years he would be plagued by memories and dreams; waking up screaming in the middle of the night as he tried to claw his way up a wall until he was awakened to the safety of his bedroom.  He spoke about the war only three times.  If something came on TV about WWII, he would quietly excuse himself from the room.  You never brought it up around him. 

David died fifty years to the month after release from Ft. Sam Houston.

Hundreds of thousands of other men like David came home with part of their souls left on far away battlefields.  Hundreds of thousands more never left those battlefields.  In spite of the wounds and a lifetime of permanent impairment from them, David was one of the lucky ones. 

David Collinsworth was my grandfather.

Working Toward the Long-Term Dream

We all have dreams.

For me, one of the longest standing dreams I’ve had is to write a novel about American submarine sailors in the Pacific Theatre of WWII.  It stems from the first short story I ever submitted for the Young Authors Contest.  (That story placed First at Parish and Second at State.)  The two main characters of that story have stayed with me since I was 14 and I’ve been trying for over 20 years to craft something that they would be set into.

Last Fall I started heavily reading and researching the lifestyles, patrol routines, and the various duties of submariners during WWII.  My collection of research materials have included books by skippers, officers, and enlisted men as well as patrol reports, schematics, and Admiral Charles “Uncle Charlie” Lockwood’s autobiographical account of his time as Commander Submarines, Southwest Pacific and, later, Commander Submarines, Pacific.  The collection is extensive.

Previous ideas I’d had for writing about this time with those characters started gelling into something bigger and more expansive.  By the time my thought processes were over the result was a plan to write a series of novels, one for each year of America’s involvement in WWII, following characters through the “Silent Service” as they lived and fought. 

What I had desired to be a one novel concept had grown into something epic in nature.  Characters I had carried with me for 20 years were now joined by new characters in a wider world to be explored. 

And not all of them will survive.  It’s war and war means losses. 

And none of them will be unchanged by war’s end. 

So, the project was born and in November I started writing; ripped out 50 pages of the first volume of the work and then had to put it down because, well, “Life is what gets in the way of what you want to do.” 

But nothing is forgotten.  New projects may arise and more stories may be born, but something this close to my heart is never, never forgotten.

And so the wheel has come back around.  I’m looking back at this extensive project, the first volume of which won’t be ready for at least a year, maybe two, because while I’ve written 50 pages, the characters are still early in the war (December 1941 to be precise). 

I don’t want it unwieldy, so I’m trying to figure out how shape it so that it’s “reader friendly.” 

But the dream lives and it will eventually come to fruition.  

Can This Cold Go Away? I Want To Write Now.

“Creation is an act of sheer will.” – John Hammond (Sir Richard Attenborough) in Jurassic Park

When you’re sick and the illness lethargy sets in, it takes more of that “sheer will” to write or do anything for that matter.  When I’m sick, I either curl up in bed with a book or on the loveseat and watch movies or TV while I guzzle down orange juice and pop decongestants like candy. 

But writing...

My mind won’t stop which means all these thoughts, and all these characters, and all these changing plot-points continue to swirl around in my head like debris around a tornado.  But without the energy, without that “sheer will,” I don’t have the want-to enough to grab them and set them in order. 

Writing this right now is taking a quite a bit of work. 

But the creative process never stops.  That much I can guarantee you. 

I’ve been working on the second Mike Guidry novel lately and I have to confess: if what I’m writing is boring me, I know it’ll bore my readers. 

So I go back and re-evaluate what I’ve written and start asking myself, “Why does it bore me?”  It could be the cold-related lethargy talking, but I don’t think so.  My main character is in a position where he’s not actively running down the main problem.  He’s stuck in a place where things are going to happen to him and that doesn’t make for interesting reading, especially in private detective fiction.  So, I have to re-work it so he’s the active agent and not a passive recipient. 

This is something I learned reading a wonderful blog about writing screenplays, but the principle has broader application across the whole spectrum of story-telling.  Carson Reeves at “Script Shadow” was using Raiders of the Lost Ark to demonstrate the elements that made it such a fantastic movie and one of those elements was “The Power of the Active Protagonist.” (http://scriptshadow.blogspot.com/2011/03/10-screenwriting-tips-you-can-learn.html)

Indiana Jones doesn’t wait for things to happen.  Thing may develop around him necessitating changes to his plans, but he’s always actively going after the main goal: The Ark of the Covenant.  Along the way Nepalese thugs, shadowy Gestapo agents, goose-stepping Nazi soldiers, and an opportunistic, self-serving archaeologist all try to prevent him from getting to the prize.  But he never stops actively striving to reach it.  Indiana Jones makes things happen, even if the antagonists force him to change tactics or adjust his plans.  But he’s always on the go; always fighting; always searching for a way to get what he wants.  And that (besides being the likeable hero) is one of the things that makes Raiders so much fun as a story.

And that brings me back to my current work.  Mike has to make things happen and in the first novel of the series he was doing just that.  But now, with the current storyline he’s in, I need him to force a shift from being passive to being active; from waiting to doing. 

So, until I have the energy to make a more concerted effort at writing (once this bloody cold with it’s bloody awful lethargy) is gone, I’m “marking time” and making notes.

Of Writers, Actors and Character Creation

The events that transpired on this day 13 years ago are some that are embedded deeply in my memory.  But, as I write about the past, the present presents a disturbing picture as ISIS continues to out-strip Al Qaeda in recruitment as it promises to re-establishment an Islamic caliphate in the Levantine region, which would necessitate the elimination not only of the murderous Assad regime in Syria,  the overthrow of moderate regimes in Iraq and Jordan, but also the genocidal destruction of the only democratic nation in the Middle East: Israel. 

Thirteen years out from 9/11/01 and the world is still as dangerous as it was on that day.

Tonight is the final dress rehearsal for a production of Into the Woods that I’m taking part in.  It’s been a long two weeks as all the tech, lights, costumes, and props have been brought into the mix.   Needless to say, but I’m ready for “hell week” (as it’s known in theatre) to come to an end and we can get this thing going.

However, one of the things that acting does is it allows me to do two things: develop and play a character and also to meet other people.  In the first instance, I’m playing a character who is nothing short of a lackey and a coward.  It’s fun to be able to play someone so uncomplicated but I have played deeper roles, most recently Sir Francis Chesney in a production of Charley’s Aunt, the 19^th Century romantic farce by Brandon Thomas.  Sir Francis has been one of my favorite roles to date. 

But, in the cast I have met a kindred soul; another writer.  At this moment, as I am writing this, we have the “writing center” (as she calls it), set up: our laptops back-to-back across the table from each other.  I’m blogging and she’s transcribing from handwritten form to typewritten. 

Talking with or listening to other writers discuss how they work is fascinating as well as informative.  My cast-mate spends her free time at work scribbling down her story (young adult fiction) between tasks.  Last week I went with my wife to a book signing by Louise Penny, the author of the Inspector Gamache series.  Mrs. Penny was quite a delight to listen to during the Q&A she held before the signing.  But, for her, two things stood out to me as I find I do them often.  Not only does Mrs. Penny keep her eyes and ears open to literature and worthwhile quotes, but she has also borrowed aspects of people she knows to create characters for her stories.  I am dreadfully guilty of the latter.  Like my mother, I’m a people watcher and an amateur student of psychology both of which come in very helpful for creating interesting and believable characters for the novels I write. 

And that comes back around to acting.  My cast-mate not only enjoys the challenge that acting (especially musicals) brings, but she also enjoys the chance to create a unique character and develop that skill so necessary to the craft of writing.  

ISIS, Bullies, and Bloody Noses

            I’m worked over this, so that’s why I blog about it.

            Have you ever heard this?  At Reykjavik in 1972, during Game 1, Bobby Fischer tells Boris Spassky, “I don’t have a strategy to deal with you.”

            You haven’t?  Me neither because it never happened.  Every grandmaster has some strategy in mind for beating his opponent before the opening move is played.

            Yet, President Obama has told ISIS (or ISIL; I prefer ISIS for interesting reasons), during the middle-game, “I don’t have a strategy for dealing with you.”  Not subtly nor  through a mouthpiece, but directly and openly in front of cameras.

            So what did ISIS do?
            They have beheaded American journalist Steven Sotloff, successfully carryinng out a threat they made at the end of the video of the beheading of James Foley. 

            When I was in high school, I was a member of a Boy Scout troop.  Ideally, a BSA troop should not have a pecking order (outside Senior Patrol Leaders, Patrol Leaders, etc.) but they often do.  This one not only had a pecking order, but a bully at the top of the food chain.  My first day there, this kid challenged me to a “friendly” arm wrestling match.  After it was over – ending in a draw – I found out I was the only one he hadn’t beaten. 

            I knew at that moment I had a target on my back.

            A few weeks later, during a campout, this bully followed me and a fellow patrol member around.  As he did, he repeated kept throwing a football into the back of my friend’s head.

            I got to the point where I’d had a enough.  Picking up the football, I threw it into a nearby cemetery.  The bully ordered me to go get it.  I refused.  What happened next was a good ol’ fashioned donnybrook that ended with me forcing the bully to capitulated while only sustaining a black eye in the process.  (I put him in a head and threatened to bite his head if he didn’t stop.  He squealed like a little girl and I found it quite satisfying.)

            He never bothered me or anyone else again.

            You can’t let bullies have the run of the yard or else they’ll run you over.  I learned that a long time ago and it’s a lesson a I haven’t forgotten in the 21 years since it happened. 

            I also learned, playing various sports and games, that you never telegraph weakness to your opponent or he’ll eat you up.

            These are things I learned in high school, in my formative years that our middle-aged adult President hasn’t seemed to grasp. 

            ISIS is a bully and bullies only understand violence.  That’s why when you break their nose or black their eye or best them at fisticuffs they stop screwing around with you and leave you alone.

            But ISIS will never stop doing what it’s doing.  For them it’s not about the exercise of raw power to intimidate people and getting their jollies from that.  They are driven by a malignant religious ideology that will ensure they fight to the last man in much the same fashion Japanese soldiers fought to the bitter end in WWII.  (It should be noted that I don’t believe all Muslims hold to a “malignant religious ideology” in much the same way I don’t think all Christians are Baptists, or Catholics, or abortion clinic bombers.)

            And if you’re wondering why I prefer ISIS?  Because that was the name of a pagan goddess of Ancient Egypt. 
            Consider it a subtle insult.

All My Rowdy Friends...

            I love football season.

            Let me say that again.

            I LOVE football season.

            It’s one of the very few times of the year I look forward to.  The others are the end of tourist season (which is what today is; YAY!) and winter.  I’m one of those people who prefer the cold and beautiful desolation of bare trees to the summer months. 

            But football season...

            Nothing gets the blood pumping like sitting on the edge of your seat, anxiously awaiting the snap to see if your team can push the ball down the field that one last measure to get the first down or the touchdown or to put it into field goal range for a game-winning kick. 

            I used to be a rabid baseball fan in high school.  My high school in west Louisiana was so small that we weren’t able to have a football team.  Not that I regret loving baseball; I was equipment manager and, later, bookkeeper for the team during three and a half of my four years in high school.  I grew up watch WGN rooting for the Cubs and booing the Atlanta Braves (though I definitely admired their pitching staff in the 90’s with Greg Maddux, John Smoltz, and Tom Glavine). 

            When I married my wife, I married into a family steeped in LSU football.  It was a big tradition to watch the LSU-Arkansas game on the Friday after Thanksgiving with extended family and cringe at every blown play by the Tigers.  My late father-in-law had not only been in Tiger Band at one point, but he had been Mike the Tiger for 2 years in the early 80’s. 

            To borrow the line from Hank, Jr., LSU Football was “a family tradition.”

            It’s not that I didn’t watch football growing up.  In Louisiana you generally support the Saints.  But the New Orleans team of the 1980’s was so notoriously bad that fashionable wear at the Super Dome included a paper bag from Schwegmann’s with two eye-holes cut out so the wearer could comfortably view the game in the safety of anonymity. 

            Living in west Louisiana, you have another option: the Dallas Cowboys.  When I was growing up, very early on mind you, the Cowboys were headed by the venerable and legendary Tom Landry.  Names like Danny White and Tony Dorsett were easily recognized by their fans.  Interestingly enough, I was a fan of both teams when I was 5 years old.  After the Cowboys ungraciously sacked Landry in 1989, I turned away from them and never looked back.

            But I wasn’t into college football at all growing up. 

            Then I met my wife...

            And it’s never been the same since.

            I love LSU and dream of going to Tiger Stadium one day to lose what’s left of my already damaged hearing as I cheer on Purple and Gold against one of their SEC West rivals.

            So needless to say, this past Saturday’s game was salve to lack-of-sports ache and was made even more wonderful by the comeback victory LSU pulled out by putting up 21 unanswered points over just under two quarters.  (I think my heart aged about ten years thanks to that game.) 

            But I learned something fascinating out of that game:  LSU is the only FBS team in the NCAA with a winning record when behind in the 4^th Quarter: 22-21 under Les Miles. 

            I’d prefer the Tigers post points over all four quarters, but if you’re behind and want to win, better to have the coach in your corner that has a winning record when behind late in the game.

Taking Opportunity by the Hair

Ten-minute break at rehearsal. 

I don’t sing...sing well, that is...but I’m good enough to backup others and so I’ve got a minor, albeit fun, role in a production of Into the Woods.  In the last couple of weeks I’ve joined with another cast member to create the two-person peanut gallery.  Cracking jokes about everything from lines, to music, to everything.  We’ve become convinced that Stephen Sondheim must’ve been on speed or some kind of upper when he wrote the music for this show.  Of course we’re just having a laugh at our inability to wrap our mouths around the songs which are really, really fast and full of tongue-tangling lines.

But there is a good line full of truth in the show:  “Opportunity is not a lengthy visitor.” 

The ancient Greeks depicted Kairos, which is sometimes translated as “time, period, or season,” as bald save for one lock of hair near his forehead.  He was always on toe-tips in any statue because he was running (and sometimes with winged feed) at a sprint because his presence is fleeting and so to make the most of it, you must grab his lock of hair as quickly as possible or else he may never come around again.  He’s here and then he’s not.

The Romans, understanding this as well as having their personification of opportunity (Occasio/Tempus), bequeathed to us the phrases carpe diem and tempus fugit.  While the first one everyone associates with seizing opportunity, the second not so much.  As Tempus was the Roman counterpart of Kairos, and Kairos was always depicted as running it creates a double meaning since “Tempus flies.” 

But, I digress.  Opportunity is short-lived.  Take it.  Sometimes you do have to “go into the woods” to get what you dream of most.  “Though it’s fearful, though it’s deep, though it’s dark, though you may encounter wolves...if you know you’re wish, you can have your wish, but can’t just wish, no to get your wish you have to go into the woods.”  

Amazon and Second-Class Customers

Been running in circles chasing Amazon this week about an issue.  Finally got a reply from them today and it’s filled with such faulty and insulting logic I don’t know where to begin. 

The very first review posted by one of my first customers happened to be from my mother-in-law.  She’d never read the book.  I never asked her to post the review.  Only thing I want is honest reviews from readers who can tell me if I’m headed in the right direction with my writing.  In this case, she gave one.  It was 4-stars and included “I couldn’t put it down,” a line used by one of my beta-readers a few months ago when I pulled the manuscript out of mothballs and needed insight. 

Well, Amazon pulled my MIL’s review and never could give me or her a straight answer.  So, I poked the bear again and got a reply:

“Subject: A Message from Amazon Review Moderation

“Hello,

“After receiving your response, we have reviewed your account and re-evaluated the Customer Review removed from your book, "The Promise."

“Unfortunately, we cannot post the review to the Amazon website because you know the reviewer.

“We encourage your friends and family to share their enthusiasm for your books using our Customer Discussions feature. To find Customer Discussions, go to the book's product detail page, scroll down past Customer Reviews, and click on the Start a Discussion button. Anyone who visits Amazon can read a discussion.”

My reply to their reply is as follows with the text of their reply interspersed and addressed point by point:

“Please allow me to address the logic employed by your review moderator, the text of which I will attach and address point by point.  It is circular, faulty, and only serves to stifle author readership.

“Subject: A Message from Amazon Review Moderation

“Hello,

“After receiving your response, we have reviewed your account and re-evaluated the Customer Review removed from your book, "The Promise."

“Unfortunately, we cannot post the review to the Amazon website because you know the reviewer.”

“I’ve just self-published my first novel.  I don’t have the big press releases, the massive staff, and the endless resources of all the major publishing house in New York who dominate the book world and are trying to maintain their oligarchy over it.  The only people who are going to buy my book right are likely going to be people I know or have known.  In this case, one of them is my mother-in-law, who had never read my book until she purchased it during the first days of its release.  Yes, she purchased it.  I didn’t give it to her; that would have violated the terms of my KDP Select agreement. 

“Now, I ask people for honest reviews.  Lying to me not only upsets me, it will never make me a better writer.  Even my wife is a harsh critic when needs be, but I take everything in the spirit it’s said and run with it.  Janet Smith said exactly what a good friend and beta reader (whom she has never met) said, almost word for word:  “I couldn’t put it down.”  That’s music to an author’s ears!  And Amazon wants to keep me stifled?  Wants to stifle the honest reviews of it’s customers?  Because that is exactly what has happened: she bought the book and then she honestly reviewed it.  I didn’t ask her to say anything.  Never even asked her to review it.  Janet Smith is a customer, my customer and your customer, who, through lawful purchase of a novel she had never read, has earned the courtesy of having her review posted.  If Amazon can’t see that that is exactly what has happened, then you’re “blinder than a Tiberian bat.” 

“We encourage your friends and family to share their enthusiasm for your books using our Customer Discussions feature. To find Customer Discussions, go to the book's product detail page, scroll down past Customer Reviews, and click on the Start a Discussion button. Anyone who visits Amazon can read a discussion.

“So, here’s where faulty, circular logic comes in.  Janet Smith cannot post a review but she rave about it to the top of her lungs in a discussion at the bottom?  Why not just let her post the honest review of a book she’s purchased and read?  Hell, she could just post the exact same words in your “Discussion Feature” without clicking the little stars.  And what has she done then if she does that?  Posted a review.  Not an “official” review, mind you, but a “review” nonetheless. 

“This is treating one of my customers – who is one of your customers – as a second-class customer only because she happens to know me personally since I married her daughter.  That’s right: you’ve relegated her to second-class status.  She’s not “pure” enough to post an honest, unbiased review (which she did; it got 4 stars; biased would’ve been 5).  But she can do the exact same thing without all the bells and whistles in a area reserved at the bottom of the page where no one reads? 

“Does Amazon wish to suppress the honest opinions of my fledgling readership?  Are honest reader/reviewers of my book, if they just happen to know me, second-class customers to Amazon?  Because if you say they’re not, but then treat them like you’ve treated Janet Smith, then your actions are speaking far louder than your words.  You are segregating one class of reader away from making a review in favor of others based on a set of assumptions because anyone in their right mind knows telepathic reading of another person’s mind is limited to speculative fiction.

“No author in the world who is just starting out can survive under these conditions if they wish to take their chances by publishing strictly through Amazon KDP.  Is Amazon actually protecting the turf of the Big Six Publishing Houses by stifling beginner’s readership voices all the while pretending to support the self-publishing pioneers?  Is that how Amazon really wants to be seen? 

“Your logic in this matter is not only terribly faulty, but it’s so full of horse manure I could plant roses in it and watch them bloom next spring.

“And, may I add, your review guidelines are buried so deep in the site, I bet don’t see but about 2 hits a month.  The numbers for that page will probably be double that this month because I’ve had to hunt for them.  And when I say “hunt,” I mean traipse through the brambles and the briars of the piney woods kind of hunting.  If you want people to know the guidelines, put them where they can be easily seen by everyone.  I had to click five separate links from the Amazon main page to find them.  They’re not easily found. 

“I am politely asking Amazon to reconsider their position on this matter.  Not only because it looks bad, and it's faulty, but it's just wrong-headed in this case.”

To adapt a line from a good movie:  “Here endeth the ranting.”

Facts Versus Hollywood: Space Vacuum and Bullets

You watch sci-fi movies and you see characters face the possibility of death from getting stuck outside the spaceship/space station or have a rupture in their space suit that causes all the air from their pack to bleed in the vacuum of space.  Tension ramps up; we fear for them; we know that if they don’t do something soon, they’ll pop like an overblown balloon!

Umm...wrong.

That’s where the science and the fiction deviate. 

Watching movies and television conditions us to expect certain possible outcomes which, in truth, are myths wrongly perpetuated by Hollywood because someone, somewhere back along the creative line, assumed something and it wasn’t accurate.

Two of the most commonly held misconceptions are that if someone were trapped in the vacuum of space they’d rupture open; and that when someone is shot they go backwards from the impact of the round hitting them.

When it comes to people suffering a gruesome death in the vacuum of space, let scientists tell the tale.  It’s actually far more gruesome than anything Hollywood had conceived.  According to the good folks over at I F***ing Love Science, a series of catastrophic events would ravage your body before you croaked.  The loss of external pressure around your body would lower the boiling point of bodily fluids, like blood and cerebrospinal fluid, such that bubbles would start forming (similar to “the bends”).  Because of these bubbles, the pain would be intense.  Then you’d swell up, likely to twice the normal size, but because of skin’s elastic properties, you won’t rupture.  But you’ll wish you had. 

As for oxygen in the this vacuum, forget trying to hold your breath.  All you would do is cause your lungs to rupture from the increased pressure inside them trying to race to those areas of lower pressure.  Not a pretty way to go.  And even if you expelled as much air as possible from your lungs to prevent such a catastrophic organ failure, you probably won’t have more than 15 seconds or so of consciousness; death would follow in about one to two minutes. 

In that one to two minutes span, should be picked up before you die, your body will be bombarded by radiation galore – X-Rays, gamma rays, and ultraviolet – to such an extent that cancer is inevitable.

The good writer at IFLS recaps it this way:  “In sum- you’d swell up, burn, mutate, pass out and your lungs might explode. Lovely.”

Yeah.

As for the other matter – what happens when a person is struck by a bullet – we have videographic evidence for that; no need for speculation.  Video footage of the D-Day Landings in the 1^st Infantry Division sector of Omaha Beach show the moment one American soldier pays the ultimate price.  There is no great flailing of the arms; no falling backwards and sprawling out; nothing dramatic.  He just falls in mid-stride and crumples to the ground.  It’s quick and over with.  (At the 39:04 minute mark in this video, watch the soldier furthest left: www.youtube.com/watch?v=FN4dxsvOc_k.)

So there are two Hollywood-created myths that don’t quite “gee haw” with reality.

http://www.iflscience.com/space/what-would-happen-your-body-space-without-spacesuit
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FN4dxsvOc_k

Missing Confederate Gold: Myth or Fact?

I was asked the other day, “Where did the story about lost Confederate gold get started?”

Good question. 

We’re talking about something that has reached mytho-legendary status in the U.S.  It’s been used in movies (Sahara, National Treasure: Book of Secrets, Timecop, and the classic The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly); literature (Margaret Mitchell’s Gone With the Wind and it’s MGM movie adaptation); and, interestingly enough, two foreign comic books series (Tex from Italy and the Franco-Belgian Blueberry).  The idea that Confederate gold took flight at the end of the Civil War from the invading Yankees has become so inextricably linked with that time.

But as with any legend, there is or are some kernels of fact.

In 1862, with the Union naval flotilla approaching New Orleans, banks in the city, at the advice of the Confederate government, began dispersing their gold and silver specie to safe locations.  The Bank of Louisiana dispatched some three million dollars worth of gold and silver to Columbus, Georgia where they were put into the charge of W.H. Young, President of the Bank of Columbus. 

On the 11^th of October, 1862, General P.G.T. Beauregard, in command of Confederate troops in South Carolina, was directed by the Confederate Secretary of War to seize the specie and deliver it to a Confederate depository in Savannah.  Beauregard executed the questionable orders and completed his task, depriving Louisiana depositors of their money.  The exact whereabouts of the gold and silver from the Bank of Louisiana is unknown but most likely was used (illegally) by the Confederate Government to pay war expenses. 

Another, and more enticing possibility, comes at the end of the war, when chaos was the order of the day.  In April, 1865, after the Petersburg defenses fell and Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia retreated down the Appomattox River, the Confederate Government and what remained in the coffers of the Confederate Treasure and the independent banks in Richmond, was sent into flight south along a similar route as that taken by Jefferson Davis and entourage.  As this “treasure” made its way through the beleaguered South away from the Yankees, some of it was used to pay those soldiers it encountered:  $39,000 here in North Carolina; $108,000 there in the Savannah River area; another $40,000 there in Augusta, Georgia. 

Of the remaining Confederate funds left, $86,000 was entrusted to a Confederate office who was to take the money and entrust it into Confederate accounts abroad, presumably for the continuation of the Southern fight for independence.  That was May 4, 1865.  What became of that money has never been known.  Other funds that left Richmond included a large amount from the Richmond banks, which was captured May 10, 1865 by the 4^th Michigan Cavalry only to be stolen on May 25, 1865 by a group of men outside the Chennault Plantation in Danburg, Georgia.  Of nearly $250,000 taken in that impromptu raid, just under half of it – $111,000 – was recovered.  The rest vanished.

A few Confederate officers, most notably Generals John B. Magruder and Joseph Shelby, did make it to Mexico after the Civil War where they would remain for a short time before returning to the United States.  It would not impossible to imagine a few more having done the same, since 600 men from Shelby’s command followed him across the Rio Grande.  (Shelby’s unit, nicknamed “The Undefeated,” inspired the 1969 John Wayne – Rock Hudson movie of the same name.) 

It would not be difficult to imagine that maybe, just maybe, some of that gold worked its way south toward or into Mexico and disappeared.  Not too hard, really. 

American History is filled with such interesting little facts.

http://southernsentinel.wordpress.com/the-lost-confederate-treasure/

http://books.google.com/books?id=0mdKAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA23&dq=%22When+New+Orleans+was+about+to+be+evacuated%22&hl=en&sa=X&ei=TN8rUvL3LYH68gS5-YGoBQ&ved=0CC0Q6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=%22When%20New%20Orleans%20was%20about%20to%20be%20evacuated%22&f=false

http://www.history.com/news/history-lists/6-soldiers-who-refused-to-surrender

Take Time to Stop and Smell the Roses

Life this past week has been incredibly hectic.  Between final rehearsals for Shakespeare’s The Tempest and the final edits needed to make The Promise ready for publication, I haven’t really had a chance to look around at life much.  Oh, bad news penetrates the bubble and you hear about the Israeli-Hamas conflict as well as more fallout from the very public shoot down of MH17 over the skies of Donetsk in Ukraine.  But not much more outside those things within the bubble – cast members, family and the book.

But when something pierces that bubble that is beautiful and good in nature, I like to take time to look at it.

Fifteen years ago, NASA Shuttle Orbiter Columbia let loose the Chandra X-Ray Observatory, an orbital observational platform capable of detecting x-rays 100 times better than any other telescope at the time.  “It’s five year mission” was to observe and record x-ray hotspots such as novae, galaxy clusters, nebulae...you name it.  Because of the valuable data this magnificent tool has been sending back, NASA has extended its service life and tomorrow begins the 16^th year of Chandra. 

When x-ray images from Chandra are combined with the visible spectrum images of Hubble (another brilliant piece of work that needed corrective lenses, like yours truly); the infrared images from the Spitzer Space Telescope; and the gamma ray shots from Compton Gamma Ray Observatory, unrivalled mosaic images are made that bring the beauty of deep space down to earth.  We can see things that prehistoric and ancient man only dreamed of when he first peered into the blackness of night to take account of the stars above and name them and their constellations. 

How absolutely wonderful we live in a time when technology allows us to view the wonders of the universe that are thousands upon thousands of light years away.  We are peering into the history of the universe around us to such an extent that now scientists have pinpointed what they believe are some of the earliest galaxies to have formed after the Big Bang – 13.1 billion years into the past and 700 million years after “there was light.” 

So, take a little time to stop and “smell the roses” today.  Soak in the beauty of Chandra and Friends and remember that there is far more going on around us than what happens in the bubbles of our lives.

http://www.iflscience.com/space/chandra-x-ray-observatory-turns-15

http://www.space.com/23306-ancient-galaxy-farthest-ever-seen.html

ThrillWriting for Writers

One of the difficulties writers have when creating characters who are LEOs (law enforcement officers), be they patrol officers or detectives, is understanding the both the mindset of these men as well as the procedures that they employ in their line of work.  I’ve been fortunate, while working as security guard, to have met several and watched them first-hand while they work.  But, that by no means make me (or any other writer, except those who have worked as LEOs) expert on them.

To fill the gaps in the knowledge base that is so critical to understanding their line work, writers often turn to books, blogs, or interviews with police and detectives in order to gain an insight into these things.  As I write the first Mike Guidry novels, I’ve had to find some of these resources and I am grateful that they are out there. 

One of the best, “ThrillWriting,” is published by Fiona Quinn, who describes herself as “[having] degrees out the yin-yang,” and is author of the Lynx thriller series featuring Lexi Sobadao.  In it, she features interviews with LEOs at all levels about the intricacies of their job as well as provides voluminous information about criminal mindset; securing crime scenes; processing of evidence; and the legal ins-and-outs that affect criminal investigations. 

The major sections of the “ThrillWriting” are dedicated to thriller writing techniques; expert witnesses; applied psychology; and, quite importantly, “Saving Your Heroine,” all those little things that are important to creatively getting your main character out of the pickles you can write them into.  Readably presented, Fiona Quinn has created a resource where she has gathered in one place all those things that thriller and mystery writers will find useful.  I highly recommend it for the wealth of information it contains.

http://thrillwriting.blogspot.com/

Gain and Loss

This past week Melissa and I suffered what can only be termed “a loss.”  I use the word “loss” because to us that is what it is.  I’ll try to explain.

We have been sponsoring children through Compassion, International for over a decade now.  The first little boy we sponsored was from Mexico and his details, along with his picture, got our attention right away.  His father was in prison.  He was living with his mother.  The clothes he wore in his picture (at the time he was 4 going on 5) were obvious hand-me downs: big, baggy t-shirt; baggy, belted jeans; and over-sized, pink tennis shoes that had clearly belonged to an older sister.  We picked him up right away.

Over the years, though letters back and forth (written by my wife though with a little input now and then from me), we got to know Salvador.  He was a typical little boy who grew up over time into a typical teenage boy.  Sharp and self-assured, his dream as to play professional soccer like his hero, Cristiano Ronaldo of Real Madrid.   He played on the team at his project and they even advanced to the big tournament in Mexico City.  He ate, slept, and breathed everything soccer. 

But our understanding of who he was grew exponentially when we visited him and his family at their home in a town east of Mexico City.  Growing up I had known people who were poor.  Salvador and his family – his mother, two older sisters and one younger brother – were beyond poor.  They lived in two-room outbuilding at a relative’s house.  In one room they had a TV and beds, all arranged to make maximum use of the small space.  The other room was a dining room/kitchen/living room space.  Altogether, the total space couldn’t have been more than 250 square feet.  Behind their home was a canal, channeled between levees, that would make the Love Canal of the 1970’s look swimmable.

But in spite of this, he and his family lived.  He and his brother “raced” toy cars one chalk-drawn tracks.  They would play soccer with one of his sisters using a balled up piece of paper trash for the soccer ball.  Goals were marked by stones or bricks in the middle of the street.  They would go for walks.  Reading was another past time they engaged in.  This family had each other in much the same way that the Cratchets of A Christmas Carol had each other. 

So, when we visited them, and brought them gifts (including a 2010 World Cup style soccer ball, which was a huge hit), it had a great impact on them.  We were the special guests in their home.  The two boys were thoroughly enthralled by Angry Birds on my iPod.  We played a pick-up game of two-on-two soccer in the street that reminded me of the many pick-up games of American football in the street in front of my grandmother’s house.  Melissa raced cars with the boys.  And we talked at length with all of them. 

The highlight of the trip for all of us was a restaurant outing.  Melissa and I dropped what seemed like a fortune to them on food and desserts for all us.  Laughter at the table of 10 people brought smiles to the faces of the wait staff who were there.  We were just about the only business they had at the time.  The two boys ate so much sweets that I commented to their mom that they were going to be on another planet.  She laughed.  One of the girls loved the cherries on her cheesecake so much that she playfully snicked one from her mom. 

All in all it was an extraordinary day. 

Melissa and I learned so much about them and carried away so much that we planned to go back.

In the interim between then and the time we planned to go Salvador’s mom got ill.  Cancer.  She was receiving treatment and then one day she disappeared from his information.  Salvador didn’t say anything but we suspected.  For a year he never said anything about it and then he admitted his mother had died.  He just didn’t want to talk about it.  It felt like a losing a family member to us.

We planned to go back to Mexico this coming October, primarily to check in with Salvador and see how things were going.  That was until Monday of last week.

The church that operated the Compassion Project which Salvador attended quit running the project.  They just got tired of dealing with it. 

I cannot tell you how angry I was; how hurt I was; how greatly saddened I was.

And not just for myself and our loss but all the kids and all the other sponsors who were losing kids so abruptly.  No contact; a final letter could be sent; and then silence.  We will have no idea what becomes of Salvador unless he reaches out to us via the Internet.

The purpose of this is two-fold:  To write about it and get it out.  But also to encourage anyone who reads this to consider sponsoring a children through Compassion or World Vision.  And if you do, it will leave a lasting marking upon you.  Make no mistake.  It will.  And if you can, make the time to go visit your child.  It will mean so much more to them and you than could ever be imagined.  It is well worth the time and money invested.  I won’t say how many children we sponsor or how much it costs, just know that we sponsor several and for the past four years or so it accounted for a little over 10% of our income.  We didn’t attend church regularly because of Melissa’s med school and residency, so that was our tithe. 

But take the time to consider sponsoring a child through Compassion.  Look at the ones who have hearts by their names.  They’ve been waiting more than six months for a sponsor.  And consider even older children.  The little ones go quick at times because cute sells.  An early teenager is just at that age where a kind word from a caring person can nudge the path of their life noticeably. 

Believe me.  You’ll be glad you did and you’ll never be the same after you do.

http://www.compassion.com/

http://www.worldvision.org/

Playing the Nostalgia Card

I own a Remington portable typewriter that was manufactured sometime in the 1920’s.  I picked it up for about $25 bucks at an antique mall years ago as a prop for a production of Shadowlands.  It’s in beautiful, working condition but the ribbon needs regular replacement.  As an historical re-enactor, I’ve thought about doing a WWII-era war correspondent impression since I do have the typewriter and the knack for writing.

Just opening it up gives me a waft of the smell of grease and ink that remains capped underneath the cover.  Putting the keys into position and then tapping away on them to produce a letter or document creates a stir of nostalgia for the way writing was done back in the early 20^th Century.  There is something satisfying to hear the “whack” of the key and see the inky, imprinted letter on the paper that you just don’t get when you type on a modern computer, laptop, or tablet.  There are times when I can type fast enough and hard enough that I can create some serious noise but nothing like the sound that comes with that grand old typing machine.

To that end, I present to you the Qwerkywriter.  It’s a tablet compatible, 84-key keyboard that designed to look and act like an old typewriter keyboard.  While you don’t get the key striking the paper, you do get the mechanical sound of the keys as they are pressed and it’s a sound that warms this writer’s heart.  If I had a tablet, I’d be buying a Qwerkywriter keyboard right now. 

Something deep inside us longs for the days when things were simpler or different.  This nice invention plays to that sense of nostalgia quite well.

To read more about the Qwerkywriter and see a video of it in operation, click the link below.

http://gizmodo.com/this-vintage-typewriter-is-actually-a-keyboard-for-your-1599446847/+alissawalker

The Cowboy Mystique

I grew up on westerns.  I absorbed the ethos that is exuded by 20^th Century depictions of the American cowboy:  hard working; hard drinking; tough as rawhide; independent.  And yet under that sun-baked, leathery exterior, cowboys were poetic and moving in their own right.  Growing up in the country you learn what beats at the heart of a cowboy’s life: honor; integrity; courage; country; and, most importantly, family.  That’s what makes the cowboys so intriguing a character in American folklore.  That is not to say that they are simple.  By no means.  They are as complex a character as you’ll come across in all your travels.  Their passions often conflict with their character to create some of the most interesting men you’ll ever know.

With that in mind, I've decided to list out five of my favorite cinematic cowboys in particular order.

Gus McCrae (Lonesome Dove):  Robert Duvall’s character was, without a doubt, the prime example of the passions of the American cowboy best portrayed on film.  He embodied that independence and adventurous, go-get-‘em attitude that shaped the American west, which is why he conflicted often with the down-to-earth, pragmatic Puritan work ethic of Woodrow Call.  Between them the whole mini-series explores the nature of the American cowboy and how it shaped that ethos we've come to know.

Wil Andersen (The Cowboys):  Hardscrabble, tough, and at times unforgiving, John Wayne’s character embodied not only the cowboy but the very environment that made cowboys as he rode herd on a group of kids who ran his cattle while all the grown-ups were off of a fool’s errand panning for gold in Montana.  Part of the film shows him shaping and molding the boys into the men that they will become by the end of the movie; men who plan to “finish the job” in spite of rustlers led by Bruce Dern.

Josey Wales (The Outlaw Josey Wales):  Clint Eastwood’s Reconstruction Era classic follows as an ex-Missouri Raider and Quantrill Rider as he looks to escape the violent past, which began with the murder of his family at the hands of Kansas Redlegs.  After all the killing and fighting, Josey wants to find some sliver of peace so he heads south to Texas.  He’s rough and ready for anything, but he wants no part of killing anymore.  His sense of honor and courage is best shown in his confrontation and subsequent peace with Comanche Chief Ten Bears. 

Dan Evans (3:10 to Yuma):  A small-rancher, Van Heflin’s character is a devoted family man who believes that the only way the American frontier can be tamed is through devotion to what was right.  For him, that was honor, courage, and the belief that no man was above the law, no matter how frightening that man was.  To that end, Evans puts his money where his mouth is and escorts notorious outlaw Ben Wade (one of Glenn Ford’s most incredible performances) to the railhead at Contention City to put him on the eponymous train.  This puts Evans at odds with his wife; with stage line own Butterfield; and even with his own fears.  The outcome is both inspiring and surprising at the same time.

Steve Judd (Ride the High Country):  Joel McCrae’s aging, ex-lawman takes a job to escort a shipment of gold down from the Sierra Nevadas.  He enlists the help of old friend Gil Westrum (Randolph Scott) who winds up challenging the integrity of Judd at every turn.  Along with a young man named Heck Longtree, the three of them get up the mountain and get more than they bargained for.  When they rescue a young woman from her abusive father only to have to rescue her from her abusive would-be husband and in-laws, the four head down the mountain.  Judd, who has resisted the intrigues of Westrum, confronts his old friend later when Gil tries to make off with the gold.  Judd never wavers and even, in the end, brings his wayward friend back to the straight-and-narrow in what is one of the most elegiac and beautiful westerns ever made.

Choices, Choices, Choices

In all my time thinking about how to get a book published, I never knew there were so many movie parts then went into the whole process.  For me, the biggest hurdle to overcome hasn’t been the dearth of information but the voluminous mountain of it that is out there. 

The ways to get your book published are far more than “two roads diverged,” but more like “two roads diverged”...and started splitting off into back trails, rabbit trails, and pig trails the like of which you had no clue existed in “the yellow wood.”  The first option you face is traditional- or self-publishing.  And then after that it’s print vs. e-publishing.  If you want to go for print and have the sheer satisfaction of that book sitting on your shelf with your name on it, then more power to you as you look at print-on-demand (POD) options; cover design (DIY or farm it out for cost?); editorial revision (which costs “beaucoup” money, as they say where I grew up) and what kind of editorial revision.  I had no idea there were more than just the simple correct-that-error editorial revision.  And then there’s how to get your book into the hands of publisher: cold query or agent?  Which is better?  Do you need an agent?  Ugh.

But if you want to e-publish, then costs do go down (unless you get editorial services) because you’re not looking at printing costs.  Oh, there are some things you still need and there are sites out there that offer package deals that put your book together and include cover art; formatting the e-book and creating a navigable Table of Contents; and farming it out to the different e-book sellers (“For a price, Ugarte;  For a price.”) 

It’s not just the sheer number of options and routes that one can take to get their little volume into the hands of the reader that can swamp your little boat quickly, but the other things you don’t realize are lurking out there.  Did you know that if you plan to publish a very few books you can create your own publishing house by buying an ISBN (International Standard Book Number) and obtaining your own bar codes.  Again, “For a price.”

So as you see...

I’m swamped in options.  But I’m slowly whittling down my options and making choices because it’s high-time that I get this done. 

God bless CNET for providing the following articles for a poor beginner like me.

http://www.cnet.com/news/self-publishing-a-book-25-things-you-need-to-know/

http://www.cnet.com/how-to/how-to-self-publish-an-ebook/

http://www.cnet.com/how-to/convert-ms-word-docs-to-e-books-for-free/

So, now that I know, anyone else crazy ambitious enough to attempt this has some tools in their tool box.