Saturday Updates

This is post 4955. Forty-five to go.

Well, it's the weekend and we're a little hungover. A beer and an Arturo Fuente Gran Reserva Short Story will do that to us now. It's annoying. We'd like to hit the gym and mow the lawn, yet here we are complaining like a man on the verge of turning 49. Not till July, really, but whatever. Fifty is right after that. Wow.

We've been asked by some [not many-Ed] I said some, if we're really going to pull the plug at post 5,000. An interesting question.

You see, Putin's war in Ukraine has really upended our routine and putout. Before the war we had three things to do every day, blog, work on a novel, write a column. For reasons we can't really explain, blogging seems futile if we're not working on the column too.  We've sent out a few queries but have heard nothing back. So we just don't have that gig right now. We just liked to tell ourselves we had three things to do.

A decade ago, longer then that now, actually, we worked on military history articles for a few hours and then wrote novels for a few hours. That system really worked. We've published damn near a hundred military history articles since 2003. But we just don't think it's worth our time anymore. We've asked for more money and they've said no. So...

We'll tell you reader(s) one thing, we missed a major writing opportunity by not following the war in Ukraine more closely. Remember this piece on Operation Guardian of the Walls?

The things.

It was a long and frustrating week but we slogged through like we always do. The New American Order's sovereignty chapter refuses to be finished quickly, but it is coming along and we can see where we will be done soon. We hope to have it wrapped by 15 June. Maybe. 40,000 words. 

We have read The Final Storm's, Soviet, Israeli and Latin American intro chapters. Everything needs improving and adding to in the same way. This is actually a good sign. But what do these chapters have to do with the actual plot of the novel? Not as much as they should. A lot of these chapters are about setting up future novels like Esercito Italiano. The Roki Tunnel chapter is still axed. The Final Storm is 63,000 words long. 

Our editor is working on The Weser. We probably need to read it one last time just to add a few details. July. Maybe even 1 July.