Looking into the Cabinet...

....That's actually a line from 'Shelter' by the 80's hair metal band Cinderella. Very underrated by the way but that's a subject for another post. Frankly I have no idea what 'To look into the cabinet it takes more than a key' is supposed to mean.

Anywho I've noted before that once again I'm writing about furious cabinet sessions and the like. I've sworn that one day I'll write a novel that doesn't have exploding tanks (hasn't happened yet) but it might be more interesting if I wrote a novel that doesn't have cabinet meetings.

Actually Castro's Folly doesn't have many, that's for sure. It was originally conceived as ground level view of things, and it is for the most part. We see Cubans on the ground in Nicaragua and Africa, South African tankers, Contra commanders, Honduran Army captains, and the like

I dunno, I just think a cabinet meeting is a good way to show what's happening and move the action along.

Another problem of redundancy is the combat itself. There are only so many ways to describe an exploding T-72. Doesn't the reader say to himself , 'Oh look, another turret spiraling into the air...' Maybe the reader doesn't. Its not like I said, 'What more X-wings! Goddamn it!' when I saw Return of the Jedi the first time.

In fact, back in the 80's and 90's, before the internet and Amazon or even Borders, I'd scower the book shelves looking for mil-sci fi. The 20 such novels I had read wasn't enough. I needed twenty one.

So maybe my readers need more furious cabinet sessions where President Bush is torn between the Hawkes like Kristol and Wolfowitz and the doves like Baker, where Maggie Thatcher is berating her poor subordinates, where the Politburo sees events slipping out of their control.

Enjoy!