Saturday Updates

We went back to the doctor yesterday. He took a look at our sore knee and said and we quote, 'I don't know.' The doctor said stay off it for another week or 10 days. Damnit. 

Our youngest turned nine yesterday. You know, when she was a year old, we told Mrs. Stroock we wanted another. We were already up to our neck in diapers. Pro-tip for you young fellas. The jump from one to two kids is huge. The jump from two to three kids is small. Three to four? There's a reason lots of couples just keep going. Mrs. Stroock said no, which was fair enough. 

We made an impulse buy this week, a Fender guitar. We're back. 

We are almost done watching Denis Villenueve's Dune and will write about the film all next week. First thought: Magnificent. Which doesn't surprise us. We're not a film guy. In fact we're film a neophyte. We stop for Return of the Jedi. But we love Villenueve's work, Arrival, Blade Runner, Sicario.

[Didn't you love The Phantom Menace when you first saw it and see Rogue-One twice in 18 hours?-Ed]

What are you getting at, love?

[You're not necessarily the most level headed film critic-Ed]

Anyway, on to the things.

We did plenty of good work on The Final Storm this week. We wrote the Australian air strike set up. We'll write the strike next week. There will be plenty of Japanese aircraft up and Commander Samurakami is back as well. After that we must needs write the Italians with the Israelis on the side. We'll probably have those Italian F-104s intercepting Soviet bombers.  Readers will see something out of Task Force 60. And don't forget about 22 SAS Regiment. Seriously, you don't know what their story arc has been leading too? Damn right I stole the idea. Can reader(s) name from whom I stole it? Hey, if a West German teenager can, why not the SAS? Overall The Final Storm is 55,000 words.

We're 2/3rds of the way done with The Great Salvation of 1976. We finished the Korean War readthrough and will be going back over it this week. The beta readers, or beta couple, have 75. The wife is marking the MS up real good. Writer pro-tip. It is an industry secret that women make the best editors. We're not talking about your 24 year old 'editorial assistant'*. We mean your 50ish office manager type. Mrs. Stroock once worked with a woman known around the office as the 'QC Nazi'. Remember, women will go to four different stores to find the right garbage can to match the tope curtain in the guest bedroom shower.** You better believe they can edit the fuck out of your MS.

*Thank you Robert Stacy McCain (Stars and Bars be upon you, sir). 

**True story.