The First Post of the Second Month

Good morning once more from Starbucks. We have tried the regular coffee and it has not disappointed us. It sucks. Why are we doing to ourselves? It's not like the staff here is anything to look at. We have no idea how to identify the bearded...person behind the counter. We can go either way on that voice, butch or effeminate. We've no idea. That's one hell of a mullet. There is one young man with a chintzy mustache and a glorious mane of hair. He could totally front a 70's rock band. Let us once more state for the record that the staff here is nothing but courteous and professional. 

Lots of talk this morning in the Israeli press about ceasefires and frameworks, and hostage releases, etc etc. Reports on negotiations are peppered with 'sources say,' and 'a person familiar with negotiations'. Nobody knows. Last night Prime Minister Netanyahu stated, as he does every day, that the war only ends with Hamas' defeat. The regime has trotted out Imperial Messenger Tom Freidman to talk about a grand peace deal. Meanwhile the IDF is dropping leaflets in Gaza warning people to evacuate. Our own sense is that the Israelis are slow walking a deal and will make one when ready. Ask us about the deal when the deal is made. 

We knew the head of this blog's Confederate Contingent was going to say the War Night missile base should be Razorback-1, or some such. Note to foreign reader(s), Razorbacks is the nickname of the local college football club in Arkansas. Southerners will always try to bring things back to college football. Reminder, never trust anyone in the low-down, dirty, no good Southeastern Conference. 

We read through the big Marine counterattack chapter yesterday. This chapter puts the 7th Tanks against 17 Tank Brigade and 11 Independent Brigade. After consultations with some tank guys, we need to make some tweaks. But the chapter is in good shape. That leaves the concluding chapter and the destruction of the Soviet Northern Fleet epilogue. Hey, should the Marine tank company Sgt. in Norway be 'Gunny'?

We could send World War 1990: Norway to editing next week if we really wanted to. We don't really want to. We've reached the point in the process where we feel/hear that nag, but can it be better? [That's me, -Ed]. Oh, we know. Exit question, just how many of the characters in the novel have to be updated in the epilogue. It's partly a Thursday Downer thing. Partly a Yankee February thing. But a thing it is. We approach the MS with great fear and trepidation. 

Okay, we have a full month of sales data since the release of World War 1990: The Final Storm (the blue line). Here's ebook purchases:

That spike is the Amazon algorithm kicking in. Boy did it ever kick in. 

And here's KU reads:

These charts show the top ten books, not all 23. Notice how the backlist rises as KU reads of TFS rises. You know, there are some morons who don't think you should make books available for KU streaming. But that's what the customer wants. Overall we had a good month of sales. Those sales have yet to peak. We rise, like a Phoenix from Arizona, or New Jersey anyway.