Hi everyone:
Well, after shoveling snow a week or so ago, it is a totally nice day – sunny, warm, the snow is gone, and the major league season is underway. The Cubs’ record is two wins and three losses as this is being written. But … it is early yet and we’ll keep our fingers crossed.
For the past few years, I’ve traded emails during the baseball season with a high school classmate who also follows the Cubbies. Pat Vincent Dusek and I hardly knew each other in school. Our paths connected at a class reunion when Pat shared a table with Nita and me. It was a delight to meet someone equally as addicted. Pat lives near Chicago so she can occasionally see them up close and personal. The Cubs most recent World Series Championship was in 2016 – that was a great cause for celebration (and emails). Before that the last one was in 1908. That’s right: one hundred eight years in between. Hopefully, Pat and I won’t have that long to wait for the next one …
And now for something far less important: a bit of writing news – though admittedly, there’s not a lot to report. As noted in earlier newsletters, there are query letters out on both a military history manuscript and a fiction work (first ever for me). There’s been a little feedback on the fiction story – one publishing company has routed it higher in the organizational channel for additional consideration.
In the publishing world it seems that this part of the writing process unfolds very slowly. That’s a bit frustrating for those who come from backgrounds where things typically are decided rather quickly. The state of the current world is that most of us who attempt to do some writing will have to adjust to the additional delays. COVID forced numerous companies out of business and caused reductions in staff sizes to many, many more. So … as I mentioned in the March update, the effect has been to slow down the process of evaluating and publishing. The current norm is eight to nine weeks to access the manuscript and from one to three years to publish it.
My notion is to wait until June for any feedback on the current round of query letters. If nothing surfaces by that time, I’ll go out with further queries to different agent prospects and/or smaller publishing companies. We’ll see what happens.
While I wait for word on the manuscripts, I’ve been attempting to catch up on some outside reading. Here are some tidbits in event others might share similar interests:
Tom Clancy Red Winter: A Jack Ryan Novel. It was good to take a break from history for a while and get back to something that I’ve always enjoyed. The book is actually written by someone named Max Cameron. It features Clancy’s character Jack Ryan. This one is set in East Berlin during the Cold War. Ryan attempts to prevent stealth technology from being passed to the Russians after the crash of a USAF F-117 stealth aircraft. Red Winter was clearly written by someone other than Tom Clancy and, for me at least, didn’t have quite the pizzazz his stuff does. But, it’s a good book and I enjoyed the break.
Nero: Matricide, Music, and Murder in Imperial Rome. I found this one among the new releases while Nita and I were browsing through the library. Wow. Life in Rome’s upper class in the 40-60AD period must have been a combination of Peyton Place; Murder, Inc.; and The Godfather. Assassination was almost a cottage industry – experts in poison were especially in demand – as emperors went to great lengths to rid themselves of potential contenders. (And it seemed there were always some of those.) Nero killed his mother, one of his wives, and several others who, with varying degrees of proof and suspicion, he saw as opponents or potential adversaries. And yet, ironically, the authors believe that he was fairly well regarded by the Roman populace. The government regularly distributed food handouts to the 200,000 or so citizens at the lowest end of the poverty scale. (The city also had 400,000 slaves among its one million people.) The regime also sponsored 50 or more days of games and festivities each year to keep the populace entertained. All this was going on while some extraordinary architectural feats were being accomplished. Nero built a residence called the ‘Golden House’ (Domus Aurea) near the Forum that must have been bigger than the Havelock suburb of Lincoln and more grandiose than the plushest residences of the world’s current set of billionaires – surfaces gilded with gold, a rotating dining room, a massive lake, and much more.
The authors contend that the “Nero fiddled while Rome burned” accusation is not valid. Large fires were rather routine in the congested city and while the major one associated with Nero’s reign was huge (it burned for nine days; 10 out of city’s 14 major districts were destroyed or badly damaged) his work in putting things back together was generally well received. Still, someone had to be blamed for starting the devastation and the Christian community was a ready target. Nero did not play the fiddle (the violin hadn’t been invented yet). He did play a lyre-like instrument. The authors state that he saw himself has an actor and musician and probably would have preferred that life over that as emperor – a role which involved duties and responsibilities he was less than enthusiastic about.
Despite all the internal machinations, the empire continued to grow, eventually extending to Great Britain, encompassing much of Western Europe, stretching east to Armenia, and reaching well into North Africa. My first overseas assignment was to Morocco and one of the highlights of that tour was spending a day at Volubilis, the remnants of an incredible Roman city that is now a World Heritage Site.
Soldier: Great Stories of War and Peace. This is a new work edited by Max Hastings, a British writer and military historian. It contains 350 short stories (some are very short, not much more than a paragraph) that provide examples of courage, heroism, tragedy, and humor that have encompassed soldiers’ lives, famous as well as humble, from Greek and Roman times through recent conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.
One story that Hastings includes relates to James Whistler, the famed American artist. Whistler was a cadet at West Point whose demise occurred when he failed a chemistry exam. According to the story, his instructor asked Whistler to discuss silicon. Whistler began his reply by saying “Silicon is a gas.” He didn’t last much longer. Later, he was quoted as saying, “If silicon was a gas, I might have been a general.”
Another less than serious story that I liked very much concerned Winston Churchill and General Sir Bernard Montgomery, a man known for his arrogance but not for his hospitality. (Churchill once characterized Montgomery thusly: “In defeat: indomitable; in victory: insufferable.”) The story that Hastings choses to use concerns Churchill’s reply to a questioner in the House of Commons who complained that Montgomery had invited General Wilhelm von Thoma, the defeated German commander of the Afrika Korps, to dinner in his desert Caravan. “Poor von Thoma,” Churchill replied gravely, “I too have dined with Montgomery.”
Before getting to the puns, there’s a bit of rhyme I found in a crossword puzzle a day or so ago that I thought I should make use of before I lose track of it. The author wasn’t noted but I suspect it may be Ogden Nash.
To keep nuptials knitted
To top off your loving cup
If you are at fault admit it
And if you’re right shut up.
There’s a lot of wisdom in those four lines – I wish I had seen them years earlier.
And now, that seldomly acclaimed and highly disabused feature: TRULY AWFUL PUNS.
What do you get when you cross a bell with a humming bird?
A humdinger.
A square, a triangle, and a hexagon walk into a bar. The bartender says, “Looks like you boys could use a round.”
I know, really bad – but the death threats have actually subsided lately.
Have a great spring.
Tom
Well, after shoveling snow a week or so ago, it is a totally nice day – sunny, warm, the snow is gone, and the major league season is underway. The Cubs’ record is two wins and three losses as this is being written. But … it is early yet and we’ll keep our fingers crossed.
For the past few years, I’ve traded emails during the baseball season with a high school classmate who also follows the Cubbies. Pat Vincent Dusek and I hardly knew each other in school. Our paths connected at a class reunion when Pat shared a table with Nita and me. It was a delight to meet someone equally as addicted. Pat lives near Chicago so she can occasionally see them up close and personal. The Cubs most recent World Series Championship was in 2016 – that was a great cause for celebration (and emails). Before that the last one was in 1908. That’s right: one hundred eight years in between. Hopefully, Pat and I won’t have that long to wait for the next one …
And now for something far less important: a bit of writing news – though admittedly, there’s not a lot to report. As noted in earlier newsletters, there are query letters out on both a military history manuscript and a fiction work (first ever for me). There’s been a little feedback on the fiction story – one publishing company has routed it higher in the organizational channel for additional consideration.
In the publishing world it seems that this part of the writing process unfolds very slowly. That’s a bit frustrating for those who come from backgrounds where things typically are decided rather quickly. The state of the current world is that most of us who attempt to do some writing will have to adjust to the additional delays. COVID forced numerous companies out of business and caused reductions in staff sizes to many, many more. So … as I mentioned in the March update, the effect has been to slow down the process of evaluating and publishing. The current norm is eight to nine weeks to access the manuscript and from one to three years to publish it.
My notion is to wait until June for any feedback on the current round of query letters. If nothing surfaces by that time, I’ll go out with further queries to different agent prospects and/or smaller publishing companies. We’ll see what happens.
While I wait for word on the manuscripts, I’ve been attempting to catch up on some outside reading. Here are some tidbits in event others might share similar interests:
Tom Clancy Red Winter: A Jack Ryan Novel. It was good to take a break from history for a while and get back to something that I’ve always enjoyed. The book is actually written by someone named Max Cameron. It features Clancy’s character Jack Ryan. This one is set in East Berlin during the Cold War. Ryan attempts to prevent stealth technology from being passed to the Russians after the crash of a USAF F-117 stealth aircraft. Red Winter was clearly written by someone other than Tom Clancy and, for me at least, didn’t have quite the pizzazz his stuff does. But, it’s a good book and I enjoyed the break.
Nero: Matricide, Music, and Murder in Imperial Rome. I found this one among the new releases while Nita and I were browsing through the library. Wow. Life in Rome’s upper class in the 40-60AD period must have been a combination of Peyton Place; Murder, Inc.; and The Godfather. Assassination was almost a cottage industry – experts in poison were especially in demand – as emperors went to great lengths to rid themselves of potential contenders. (And it seemed there were always some of those.) Nero killed his mother, one of his wives, and several others who, with varying degrees of proof and suspicion, he saw as opponents or potential adversaries. And yet, ironically, the authors believe that he was fairly well regarded by the Roman populace. The government regularly distributed food handouts to the 200,000 or so citizens at the lowest end of the poverty scale. (The city also had 400,000 slaves among its one million people.) The regime also sponsored 50 or more days of games and festivities each year to keep the populace entertained. All this was going on while some extraordinary architectural feats were being accomplished. Nero built a residence called the ‘Golden House’ (Domus Aurea) near the Forum that must have been bigger than the Havelock suburb of Lincoln and more grandiose than the plushest residences of the world’s current set of billionaires – surfaces gilded with gold, a rotating dining room, a massive lake, and much more.
The authors contend that the “Nero fiddled while Rome burned” accusation is not valid. Large fires were rather routine in the congested city and while the major one associated with Nero’s reign was huge (it burned for nine days; 10 out of city’s 14 major districts were destroyed or badly damaged) his work in putting things back together was generally well received. Still, someone had to be blamed for starting the devastation and the Christian community was a ready target. Nero did not play the fiddle (the violin hadn’t been invented yet). He did play a lyre-like instrument. The authors state that he saw himself has an actor and musician and probably would have preferred that life over that as emperor – a role which involved duties and responsibilities he was less than enthusiastic about.
Despite all the internal machinations, the empire continued to grow, eventually extending to Great Britain, encompassing much of Western Europe, stretching east to Armenia, and reaching well into North Africa. My first overseas assignment was to Morocco and one of the highlights of that tour was spending a day at Volubilis, the remnants of an incredible Roman city that is now a World Heritage Site.
Soldier: Great Stories of War and Peace. This is a new work edited by Max Hastings, a British writer and military historian. It contains 350 short stories (some are very short, not much more than a paragraph) that provide examples of courage, heroism, tragedy, and humor that have encompassed soldiers’ lives, famous as well as humble, from Greek and Roman times through recent conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.
One story that Hastings includes relates to James Whistler, the famed American artist. Whistler was a cadet at West Point whose demise occurred when he failed a chemistry exam. According to the story, his instructor asked Whistler to discuss silicon. Whistler began his reply by saying “Silicon is a gas.” He didn’t last much longer. Later, he was quoted as saying, “If silicon was a gas, I might have been a general.”
Another less than serious story that I liked very much concerned Winston Churchill and General Sir Bernard Montgomery, a man known for his arrogance but not for his hospitality. (Churchill once characterized Montgomery thusly: “In defeat: indomitable; in victory: insufferable.”) The story that Hastings choses to use concerns Churchill’s reply to a questioner in the House of Commons who complained that Montgomery had invited General Wilhelm von Thoma, the defeated German commander of the Afrika Korps, to dinner in his desert Caravan. “Poor von Thoma,” Churchill replied gravely, “I too have dined with Montgomery.”
Before getting to the puns, there’s a bit of rhyme I found in a crossword puzzle a day or so ago that I thought I should make use of before I lose track of it. The author wasn’t noted but I suspect it may be Ogden Nash.
To keep nuptials knitted
To top off your loving cup
If you are at fault admit it
And if you’re right shut up.
There’s a lot of wisdom in those four lines – I wish I had seen them years earlier.
And now, that seldomly acclaimed and highly disabused feature: TRULY AWFUL PUNS.
What do you get when you cross a bell with a humming bird?
A humdinger.
A square, a triangle, and a hexagon walk into a bar. The bartender says, “Looks like you boys could use a round.”
I know, really bad – but the death threats have actually subsided lately.
Have a great spring.
Tom
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