Happy Friday, Stroock's Books kibbutzim.
Okay, we finished the World War 1990: Ireland read through.
For the most part we found missing quotes, punctuation, a few typos, a few easts where there should have been wests, etc etc. Our proofer (who note, is not the editor) found the same. We fixed a few items that annoyed us. Why didn't our editor (who note, is not the proofer) find these?
Having read the proof, and made our corrections, and made our proofer's corrections. We are done. We just gonna have to have a little faith in all that research, all that writing, all that editing. The guy who read and re-read the book must have done something right.
As is our wont to say, we are among the very best at what we do. We're a high midlist author in the top 15 or so percent of authors in the English speaking world. After hundreds of ratings to each, most of our novels are 4 + stars. In each of those novels we knew what we were doing. Why wouldn't we know what we're doing here?
We wanted to write a book about an interesting problem, Britain invading Ireland. Instead we wrote a WWIII novel about the Irish Troubles.
The initial chapters deal with the first week after the signing of the armistice that ended World War Three. Actually, the intro shows several Irish characters the night the war breaks out. Readers won't see most of these characters, save the taoiseach (pronounced T-shu), till the end of the book.
Ireland show's some serious domestic political intrigue in the United States, as forces within the administration vie for position. Reminder, President Bush does not want to run for reelection. The administration splits into Quayle and not-Quayle factions, the latter led by James Baker.
After whipping around the globe showing what's happening and setting the stage for Saddam's War and Ecercito Italiano, there follows the IRA attempt on Thatcher and the blowback.
Then we've three chapters on the streets of Derry. We didn't mean to write an IRA, UDA, UDF, UFF, UDR, RUC* novel, but we did. The first two Derry chapters are good. The third is a little short and sudden. That said, how much urban paramilitary combat can a reader endure?
The final two chapter's lay the groundwork for World War 1990: Thatcher's War which as of this writing is 40,000 words.
Alert reader(s) and friends (you people know who you are), know we like WW1990 books to have some differentiation. A World War 1990 novel should be somewhat different than the other World War 1990 novels. Norway all takes place in Norway. Nederland is basically five short stories. Castro's Folly has a unique two part structure and an interlude.
World War 1990: Ireland is a novel different from the other ten novels in the WW1990 series. Ireland is a risk, a risky risk. As Mr. Trump once said on The Apprentice lo those many years ago, take risks. And so we did...we did.
Both the Brits and Irish will hate World War 1990: Ireland. They'll find much to pick apart, the tossers. We shrug.
In recent years we've felt ambivalence when finishing a novel. We feel ambivalence now. We're just tired and sick of the whole thing. We just want to get it done. And get it out. And so we did. And so we will.
We're having ourselves a whisky tonight we can tell you people that for sure.
*These fucking people.
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