All the Secrets of the Universe and Some Really Important Stuff Too!
For lo! the days are hastening on,
By prophet-bards foretold,
When with the ever-circling years,
Comes round the age of gold;
When Peace shall over all the earth
Its ancient splendors fling
And the whole world send back the song
Which now the angels sing.
Edmund Sears
It came upon the midnight clear,
That glorious song of old,
From Angels bending near the earth
To touch their harps of gold;
“Peace on the earth, good will to man
From Heaven’s all gracious King.”
The world in solemn stillness lay
To hear the angels sing.
Edmund Sears
So, Saturday and Sunday I was heading to and returning from the White Mountains of Northern New Hampshire. This has turned into an annual pilgrimage to commune with “the boys.” I called it a meeting of the He-Man Woman Haters’ Club but really, it’s just an excuse to hang out with friends and shoot the breeze about life and getting old. So, what’s wrong with that. To continue a tradition (started last year) we watched a classic comedy from the bad old days. This year it was “Planes, Trains and Automobiles” (1987). I had forgotten some of the minor characters and the absurdity of some of the episodes but it was just as funny today as it was almost forty years ago. Remarkable. They actually knew how to make a relatable comedy back then. Who knew?
Most of the festivities consisted of us eating and drinking good stuff, listening to music from our heyday and throwing wood on an outdoor fire to keep from freezing to death. Oh, and the boys drank a bunch of bourbon and smoked some (what I assume were) good cigars. Being an abstemious bore I only enjoyed this aspect vicariously. But they observed due moderation and therefore could still communicate in intelligible English even at the end of the celebration. Kudos!
And the festivities included music by our two troubadours debuting a song in voice and guitar accompaniment that celebrated our long association and its origins in the legendary “coffee walk” from out of the mists of time. And its various incarnations over the years including the present-day Wednesday Zoom call. Wonderfully entertaining.
And then we segued into a sing-along by the group on favorites in the folk and country genres. Even I, a man with absolutely zero singing ability, had to join in during the verses that I knew from Gordon Lightfoot’s “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.”
“The legend lives on from the Chippewa on down
Of the big lake they call Gitche Gumee
Superior, they said, never gives up her dead
When the gales of November come early”
And every once in a while, there would be a conversation where we’d talk about current events and political considerations. And one of them was early Sunday morning before most of the crew woke up. It started with a story from one of the guys about a relative of his that had serious TDS (Trump Derangement Syndrome) and the futility of trying to “discuss” facts or anything else in these situations.
And I gave my stock answer. I said Trump is far from the perfect politician or president but he attempts to accomplish the things he says he wants to do. And those are the things that other Republicans say they want to do but never, even try. He’s the real deal. He exposed the liars like JEB! Bush and all the rest of the RINOs.
And my friend said his favorite aspect of Trump’s reign of terror was how he took “Little Marco” and turned him around and showed him he could succeed by actually giving the voters what they asked for instead of what the donors want.
And I said my favorite part was DOGE. Closing down the Corporation for Public Broadcasting is still the sweetest moment of the whole second term. And all the demolition done at USAID is music to my ears.
So, as you can see, it was a very worthwhile gathering. Now back to work.
Death is a stage in human progress, to be passed as we would pass from childhood to youth, or from youth to manhood, and with the same consciousness of an everlasting nature.
Edmund Sears
She must know all the needs of a rational being
Be skilled to keep counsel, to comfort, to coax;
And, above all else, be accomplished at seeing
My jokes.
Owen Seaman
Someone who saw my promotion posts on X left a comment showing interest in reading the book so I asked him to share his thoughts on the story if he got a copy. So far, he’s read the first three chapters and I find his candid thoughts very interesting.
“Hi! I am currently in the middle of chapter 3. Feel free to take my opinions with a grain of salt, by the way.
The first two scenes were excellent. I felt completely drawn into the action, and it was easy to visualize. This is Jeffrey Haskell level of quality, which is a high bar.
Once they get on the plane, however, it feels like an information dump, and the dialog becomes stilted. There are a couple of reasons for this. None of the revelations about Connor have been foreshadowed, so they feel as if they were drawn out of thin air. You don’t have to foreshadow everything, but it helps if you foreshadow something so that the reader feels connected to the exposition.
More important, there is very little feeling behind the information dump. Connor considers himself in debt to Bogey, but the rescue was incidental to Bogey’s job. There was nothing personal about it. As a result, it doesn’t seem worth a potentially $10 million gift.
The third chapter has a more serious problem. We are learning a lot about Connor’s business, but we have no idea why. To pull a reader in, you need to have some idea of what the reader is hoping to see and give a sense we are moving in that direction. Reading chapter 3, all I feel is I want the action to begin again. There is no compelling reason for me to pay attention to Connor’s business plan, since I have no idea how it fits into the story.
In any case, I thought I should give you my impressions while they are still fresh in my mind. I am hoping the action starts again soon, as you are very good at that.”
So, what I’m hearing is that the information dumps are an impediment to enjoying the story as an action story. What I’m taking away is that stories in the various action genres have a short window between the kinetic parts of the story. Now that is interesting because it means the author has to balance providing background information with keeping the reader’s interest. For me that’s tricky. With a science fiction story bringing the audience into the technical details of the “world” are sort of important. But the reviewer has made his point. If I put him to sleep or even lose his interest in the world-building then he’s not going to finish the book. Now I did start the book with two scenes he really liked but both of those scenes are remote in time from the “present” action (one is years before and one is a year or so after the triggering event of the main plot). So, in a way I paying for some of my sins against continuity.
Well, now I’m really interested in his ideas about Chapter 4. It’s got action but it’s of a singularly depressing type.