First, a beginning best wish that your summer is off to a great start.
Second, this month’s epistle actually has some writing news to talk about.
Item one: It appears that the military history manuscript I mentioned a couple of months ago (the one that I had received no follow up on after an editor said he liked it and was going to present it to his board of directors) has been selected for publication. At the moment, I’m still waiting for a signed contract to be returned to make it official. There are a couple of items that need to be worked through – some formatting questions, citations for photographs, etc. – but things are looking pretty good. We should know for sure within a couple of weeks. Then – in case you don’t remember the protocol for these occasions – to celebrate the moment, you need to take your significant other out for dinner. If your own significant other is not available, take someone else’s. I’ll let you know. This is important stuff and it needs to be memorialized properly. If all goes well, the book will be published in hardback version next spring.
Item two: The fiction novel, The YouTube Candidate, is now, hopefully, going through its final editing process. I really enjoyed writing the book, but bringing it to this point has been kind of an ordeal – lots of issues with the editing in Great Britain – British spellings, really strange punctuation, comma usages, etc. This is the third or fourth round – and for each one I had hopes that it would be the last. The one before this seemed to go a bit better, so (fingers crossed) maybe this latest effort will be good enough to foist it upon the world.
Item three: There’s a story of mine in the June edition of the iconic Spank the Carp ezine. It’s a science fiction short story – the first one of those that I’ve done – titled “The Chosen One.” Give it a look at www.spankthecarp.com if you are so inclined.
I came rather late as a full-timer to the writing profession. One of the things about it that has been intriguing about it at times (for ‘intriguing’ substitute ‘frustrating,’ ‘puzzling,’ ‘tick a person off-able’ or some other similar words that come to mind– any of them would be appropriate) is the ups and downs associated with stuff getting into print. It is a hit or miss profession. The intervals between publications can be lengthy; e.g., a string of books in 2016, 2017, and a co-authored one in 2019, and then very little except for some short stories and bits of poetry for a long while. As I’ve mentioned, COVID had something to do with that – many publishers went out of business or cut down on staff. At the same time, in the military history world, many companies were gearing up to emphasize World War II material. Coincident with a growing interest in that subject, a series of anniversaries commemorating major events of that era was on the horizon. Publishers were understandably eager to memorialize those occasions.
So, that’s a long way of saying that book-wise it’s been quite a dry spell. That’s why events of these past few weeks have been such a pleasant surprise – three acceptances (homeruns to a baseball fan) all within a period of a few weeks. Life is good. But still, in the words of a commander I once worked for: “it’s best not to get out in front of your headlights on things like this.” There is a lot of wisdom in those words. Indeed, a couple of these things could still come apart. Prayers are welcomed. If there are any voodoo worshipers among the website readers, I would ask that you please spare your flock of sacrificial chickens. (Although maybe a basket of KFC would be okay.)
If things go well, in mid-month Nita and I and the girls will venture out for a couple of weeks in Eastern Europe on the Danube River, going from Budapest, Hungary, to Bucharest, Rumania, with some interesting points in between. The segment of the trip that touches Serbia, Bulgaria, and Rumania are places that we haven’t seen before, so we are looking forward to it very much. Rumania borders Ukraine and Moldova (where a separatist movement – a breakaway state – with ties to Russia is active; Russian troops are stationed there). We are hoping that Putin will keep his pistol in his holster during our visit. If not, neighbors will attend to the cats in all three households 🙂
Now, for this month’s humor cure, here’s a dose of something a little different. It was given to me by a friend from Texas A&M – an Aggie who is routinely the recipient of kidding like this:
MEDICAL TERMINOLOGY FOR AGGIES
Barium ….. What you do when CPR fails
Colic ……. A sheep dog
Dilate ……. To live longer
Fester ……. Quicker
Nitrate …… Lower than the day rate
More to follow next month.
Hope all is well. Best wishes, always.
Tom