Wither Transnistria

And a good start of the week to the assembled Stroock's Books readership. We're at the coffeeshop, where blessedly, no music is playing. 

We did our cardio routine at the gym on Friday, a five mile walk on Saturday, and lifted weights yesterday. We feel great. 

The Stroock family ordered Indian takeout last night. We saw a Halal sign behind the counter and thought about playing dumb and asking what Halal means. 'Kosher, like the Jews?' Heh. 

The Insitute for the Study of War warns that, 'The pro-Russian breakaway region of Transnistria may call for or organize a referendum on Transnistria’s annexation to Russia at a Transnistrian Congress of Deputies meeting planned for Feb 28.' Transnistria is part of some place called Moldova, in Eastern Europe. The Transnistrian Question [The what?-Ed] is a vital US concern and Lindsey Graham should call for American boots on the ground right away.  

Hostage negotiations between Israel and Hamas continues. Rafah awaits. While the Israelis plan the attack and removal of Gazans from Rafah, the IDF continues operations in central and northern Gaza. This includes battling Hamas holdouts and destroying tunnels.  Meanwhile Hezbollah harasses Israel while the IDF strikes targets deeper and deeper in Lebanon. Today the Israeli air force hit the Beqaa Valley in eastern Lebanon. Defense Minister Gallant says even if there is a ceasefire in Gaza, Israel will continue and intensify operations against Hezbollah. 

Today is the 33rd anniversary of the Battle of 73 Easting, featured in A Line through the Desert. Won't some kind soul purchase a copy?

2004 and More. 20 years ago right now we were writing A Line through the Desert.  Though we're making great progress, we still don't quite know what we're doing. Not till August 2004 will we have a completed MS. Then we'll spend the next six months revising. We revised the shit out of A Line Through the Desert, and pronounced the book completed on 26 February 2005. In 2004 the Battle of 73 Easting was 13 years old and we were 30. Back then 26 February 1991 seemed like a long time ago.

An unknown commenter asks if a War Night story about a boomer sub would be similar to the Titan II missile base story we've written. Yes. Also we wrote a story about a submarine sitting around waiting for orders in To Defend the Earth. Though The Waiting Below (no one seems to have ever gotten the reference) was about a Los Angeles Class attack sub.  

Okay...so what's up for this week? We'll finish the read through of World War 1990: Norway. This includes wrapping up Hauk boat scenes. That's probably all we're working on. Monday and Tuesday are big dad taxi days, so we'll be thinking a lot about what else to write for the anthology, for War Night, for the other nuclear war compilation, and for this summer. Below, our Norway notes:

Writer's Bloc (a periodic foray into writing issues): Yesterday we looked at the list of World War 1990 novels we'd like to write and thought, Jeez, that's a lot of World War 1990 novels. We actually have a sense lately, kind of a weird thing, that we're running out of time. We've had projects in the dock for five, ten years in some instances, and World War 1990 keeps us from getting to them. Remember the Red Dawn Thingy? How about 2543? See? We've been writing for years now with a vague but persistent sense that we just need to get to the next World War 1990 novel and we'll be done. There will always be a next World War 1990 novel.