Monday and we have Little

We are primed to have a great week with The New American Order. We'll finish a scene where Al Haig ambitiously listens to the president's inauguration address, and another where Rumsfeld listens with disappointment. We have one town where they need to open up housing to refugees and another scene where they run out squatters. We'll have a foreign leader listening as well. Maybe the guy who runs Pakistan, to set up all the Indo-Pak trouble. We'll see

The New American Order will be 20,000 words at the end of the week and the first chapter will be completed. We're hoping for a 25,000 word at the end of the month, and 50,000 words by 1 June. 

In The New American Order the largest metro areas are Chatanooga, Evansville/Owensboro/Henderson on the Ohio, Bethlehem/Allentown/Eastern in Southeastern Pennsylvania. Fun fact, the governor of Pennsylvania is running the state out of Happy Valley. Sorry, SEC fans. Casper, Gillette and North Platte, Nebraska are the new centers of the Mountain West.

Monday Metal or not. Two clips from Dave Grohl of Nirvana and the Foo Fighters talking about music. Here's the first about American Idol, fuck yeah. Here's the second on young musicians and the modern music industry. Fuck yeah again. 'I don't want to sing like someone else I want to sing like me,' Grohl says. Quite right. Grohl is one of the last real rockstars and doing an admirable job of keeping that spirit alive. 

I'm probably segueing that into writing about writing this week.

Saturday Updates

This is post 4895.

We didn't get as much done as we wanted this week with The New American Order. Though we did make some progress. The brain keeps wanting to write vignettes, when the plan was to write a longer short story based around each year from 1977 through 1981(with a vignette on either end). We've already got a couple of vignettes dealing with housing issues, those empty and those occupied by squatters. An interesting problem. 

We know there will be a chapter dealing with warlords and independent whack jobs. We've already written the intro to that. For that matter the chapter seems to work written with a standard technothriller format. Meeting with Admiral Chambers, scene showing helicopter troops training, military assets moving into place...etc etc. Just go with it. What works, works.

We know there will be a dedicated foreign chapter, but we're still not sure what the subject will be. The Israelis? The South Africans?* We have an Australian scene with lots of Commonwealth talk. We like the concept. Maybe HMAS Melbourne goes to Africa for some reason.

We finished reading through World War 1990: The Weser. Honestly that last readthrough felt like self-abuse. We have done to The Weser all the things we can do to The Weser. We have handed the MS over to people. These are the beta-readers.

*The dedicated foreign part in The Great Salvation of 1976 is Greater Ulan Ude. 

Will Opposes Grooming, but Supports Indie Publishing

The Republicans should drag out the Ketanji Brown Jackson hearings and call as witnesses all the pedophiles to whom she gave lenient sentences. Then the GOP should call Judge Jackson back to defend her sentencing. Doing so reinforces the GOP's anti-grooming narrative, set so brilliantly by Governor Ron DeSantis. Really MAGA nation, you see DeSantis slicing and dicing Disney and the media like a Cossack marauding through a Jewish village on the River Bug and you want to go back to Trump?

What Will's Reading: Titans. Publishers Chris Kennedy (who published Those in Peril, which has our own Palmerston's Iron Clads) and William Alan Webb have written a book describing the Indie publishing industry for science fiction, fantasy and horror authors. Lots of facts, details, and experiences from a bevy of writers. We mainlined Titans last night, nodded along, said, 'yep' and 'uh-huh' and 'that happened to me' or 'I did that'. This book confirms much of what we knew and suspected. Titans is a manual and a rally cry against trad publishing - those poor saps. 

We read Titans and thought, 'We're a well established Indie author' but wondered how we could expand. We're redoubling our social media efforts. New Twitter account. We've thought about running some ads but aren't sure where. In other words, we're stuck. One obvs answer is to write Esersito Italliano, which would break us into the Italian market. Not this summer. Our strongest market remains D-Day + Australia. To our knowledge we have never sold a book in the Netherlands. Huh. Wait, no, we just checked and we sold one...World War 1990: ANZACs. Huh again.

No, the ju-ju lies with World War 1990: Battle of the GIUK Gap. We upped our research game with The Weser and are going to have to up it again with GIUK Gap. We'll write at least one Soviet submarine trying to sneak through the Gap, General Lebed and the 106th Guards Airborne Division, we'll probably bring back our Sovietski Backfire bomber pilots. A very Soviet-centric novel. You know, since we can't collude with Inforos anymore.

The Great Nuclear War of 1975 is doing great. Of course it is. We are among the best there is at what we do. This morning it's #18 on Amazon's alternate history category. Yesterday it cracked the top 10. Which is nice. On the third nuke book front, it looks like Admiral Larry Chambers will be in command of the anti-warlord task force. The task force won't attack the Black Panthers first, as the Casper suits are worried about going after a black warlord before a white one. I dunno, too current year? This chapter will be completed by May Day. 

Will's Good Idea for the Week of 3/27/22

This is the email we sent our KGB handler yesterday: 'I write in hopes of preserving peace for all mankind. Would you please tell Putin that Joe has a dementia addled pudding brain. What Joe vomits forth are not the coherent, well thought out words of a man in possession of his faculties. Joe always was a loudmouthed,  know nothing braggart. The senility makes him more so now. Please tell Putin to disregard Joe's talk of 'regime change'.  

Allah Pundit at Hot Air writes aptly and eloquently* about Joe's unbelievably colossal fuck up. What a powerful rhetorical weapon Joe has handed Vladimir. As Allah points out, Putin can now frame the war in Ukraine as a defensive war against Western encroachment. This blog has written time and again that NATO flirting with Ukraine was always a terrible, no good, lousy idea. Now Putin can point to Ukraine and say, 'See!' If you think 81 million people really voted for this fuckhead, then can I interest you in some Arkansas real-estate investment opportunities?

Will got bored:

I hadn't opened Axis and Allies Pacific in literally 20 years. I thought I'd thrown it out a few years ago and was on the verge of ordering another when I checked the basement shelf. There she was. I opened her up and found the pieces just where I sorted them in March of 2002. 

I played a round or four yesterday afternoon. As Japan, I whacked Pearl Harbor and then fought out a Greater East Asian strategy. By turn four it was clear America's economic might was too much to overcome. They had a fleet of four carriers and two battleships moving through the central Pacific with an invasion force. I really should have gobbled up as much of Indonesia and South Asia as I could have for the economic points. Good fun.

Sales of The Great Nuclear War of 1975 remain acceptable, and The Great Salvation of 1976 is nearly completed. We're working on, or at least thinking about, novel number three right now. We've also considered novel number four. What if Israel consolidates control over the Middle East, pops off a few more nukes, drives out the West Bank People, and establishes Eretz Israel? In the process they piss off France. Let's say they go and bomb Saddam's nuclear reactor and kill some French scientists in the process. Could we not have the Franco/Israeli war? Think of the possibilities. 

We have a storyline. Nuclear war, followed by aftermath followed by recovery with a future history taking things to 2025. We're doing that. Do we want to maintain a universe where we play around with ideas and possibilities? Maybe. This leads to existential questions which we'll wright about this week.

*Yes, we agree with Ace's assessment of the man, for Ace is always right. Nevertheless, Allah has important insights. 

Reviews, Leppards and Crabs

Def Leppard's Adrenalize was a pastiche of sounds, from early 90's pop to early 80's hard rock. Eventually they got back to that Hysteria sound of power chords, guitar licks and what we've always called 'Wall of D' vocals. We give you White Lightening:

Oh, there we go. There it is. If you're a Def Leppard fan, you waited four songs for White Lightening.  White Lightening is about Steve Clark's alcoholism and death. A trainlike bass drives the verse to a great bridge. There's an intense chorus followed by a long, multipart guitar solo. Whie Lightening goes right to the Def Leppard fan's brain. A perfect song for a serious subject. 

As of this writing, The Great Nuclear War of 1975 has 30 ratings averaging 4 + stars. Here's the two latest reviews:

Which is nice. Which was the point. Heh, the retired air force guy didn't notice I used Air Force MPs rather than the proper SPs. High praise though. High praise for sure. The Great Nuclear War of 1975 works because it's bleak, as the other above reviewer says, bleak AF. The story gets even bleaker after the little Malvines submarine adventure, with people freezing, starving or beating each other to death. [Malvines! Why you cheeky....Ed]. Readers will notice we took the teen summer camp fantasy trope (which we kinda used in To Survive the Earth) and made it a nightmare. 

Herein lies the risk for The Great Salvation of 1976. There's lots of cabinet meetings about problems we think are interesting, reconstruction, elections, etc etc. There's still plenty of vignettes but these are more hopeful. They feel kind of like the scene in Independence Day in which all the fighter pilots from various nations are gathered in the desert. Which was totally cool. We're almost done with the print readthrough. The ending feels a bit short. 68,000 words. We'll rap things up in April.

This blog has men on the ground all over Canada. Yellow Knife, Moose Jaw, White Horse, Cambridge Bay (Ok, Edmonton, Vancouver, and Quebec). One of them informed us that the communist NDP made a deal with the Libs for Justin to stay in power till 2025. Our man is skeptical the deal last that long, but still. You asked for Justin. You voted for Justin. Canada, you deserve Justin Trudeau. 

What Will's Watching, Black Crab: This Guardian review is spot on, 'There’s a civil war on in Sweden, and yet no one seems to know why. It’s gonna be a bad one, as imagined by the sporadically tense and consistently pointless Netflix thriller Black Crab, which sends the country into a state of dystopian devastation only five short years removed from the present.' Black Crab must sound more menacing in the original Swedish. At times the cinematography is beautiful, but overall Black Crab does not reach the heights to which it aspires. 2/4 

Trump Won, Hunter's Laptop is Real, and other True Things

To be honest we'd like to do the Saturday update today. Lots to report. But it's Friday. So, here's a normal Friday post. The Friday Flag will be below. We may do a Thursday Downer later today as we had an epiphany this week; even though today is Friday.

This blog remains stunned by the media/big tech combined suppression of Hunter's 'laptop from hell'. We are even more stunned at the New York Times' admission yesterday.  Well of course Hunter Biden's laptop is real. And let's recall all the current and former intel guys that insisted the laptop was classic Russia disinfo. And that's why we don't take seriously anything these people say about Russia. No fate is too bad for the organizations that suppressed the story. No fate.

This blog admits to preferring DeSantis over Trump. Here's why. We wanted to see President Trump grow in exile. That doesn't mean we want a kinder, gentler Trump. No. We wanted to see Trump up his game, sharpen his skills, streamline his stump speech. Trump hasn't done any of that. The man has taken off a few pounds. Which is good. We don't mean to be too critical, Trump did win.

Whoa! It was just yesterday that we realized Soviet T/72 and T/80s have three, not four crewman and use an autoloader. We're going over our Apache gunship book and notes. Cyclic not cyclical. Someone pointed out a mistake in The Great Nuclear War of 1975. We should have written Air Force Security Police, not Air Force MPs. Oh well. 

Sooner or later 75 will get some serious grognarding. 'Why everyone knows that according to SIOP 65-9 the US Navy was too...' Plans are nice. Anyone wanna talk about the way the US government acted on 9/11? No one knew what the hell they were doing till Bush said, 'No, I'm going to go back to the White House.' Remember how the Secret Service packed W away to Omaha for a few hours? They probably wanted W to sleep in NORAD or something. JFC. Plans...we laugh. We laugh in the most mocking way possible.

St. Patrick's Day marks the return of Will's flag display. Usually we pick up a few new flags over the winter, but haven't this year. Let's see if we can get an MCRN flag or something. Yesterday we put up our Israeli flag, given to us by a dear friend waaaay back in the mid-90s. 

Saturday Updates

This is post 4864.

We had two sessions with the machines this week and two walks. Our body feels fatigued. The weather was nice this week. We allowed ourselves a cigar and beer. Which was nice. That was out third cigar this year. Let's stay on this pace. 

The things.

Book sales are an art, not a science.

Sales of The Great Nuclear War of 1975 got off to a good start on the release day and have increased by small increments every day since. We feel confident saying 75 is not a flop. But it remains to be seen if 75 will do as well as the typical World War 1990 novel. We've checked and 75 has not yet hit the daily sales number that Battle of the Three Seas hit. We don't think the algorithm has really kicked in yet. Readers posting 75 on their social media would spur sales along. Seven ratings now on Goodreads, so we know 75 doesn't suck. Exit question: is it worth shelling out a few hundred bucks on magazine advertisements? 

Book sales usually drop about 20% off their peek each month, that's cumulative.

We've hammered away at The Weser all week with great success. The text is getting as perfect as we can get it. The constant hammering has opened up a few cracks for us to make the novel even better. The British part needs an opening explainer scene from Corps HQ. Actually, that should probably be from SACEUR. This has been a great editing process so far. 

No one really knows how the Amazon sales algorithm works, not entirely. What we do know is mysterious and complex. 

The Weser presents a few unique challenges. We have four different tanks which means four tank crews and four men per. We have various division and corps commanders in their TAC CPs. This means we have a lot of staffers, aids, comms officers. Their handing Danger-6 the radio receiver, raising Echo-6, calling in TAC AIR etc etc. It all must needs be kept straight. And summer 2021 Will didn't necessarily care that this would be a gigantic pain in the ass for late winter 2022 Will. Summer 2021 Will is kind of a jerk.

By the time we're finished, World War 1990: The Weser will be 70,000 words. We remain on track to turn The Weser over to the editor in April. [In April? That's a little vague. Didn't you say 1 April?-Ed] We shrug as indifferently as possible. We may want/need more time, not because editing is going badly, but because editing is going so well.

We've got the juju (and books) to write Battle of the GIUK Gap this summer, but from a purely sales perspective, wouldn't Esercito Italiano make more sense? Italy remains an unrealized market. 

Analyses, both Writing and Ukraine

We are seeing excellent results at the gym with 15 minute sessions on the treadmill, rowing machine, stair machine, rope pulley, bike. Honestly it's probably a little much. While we do hobble around afterwards our heart rate remains steady, about 150 bpm. Four years ago our heart rate pushed 200 bpm. [Yikes-Ed] Weight loss remains elusive, but on mornings like this we can actually feel the muscle building. 

Sales of The Great Nuclear War of 1975 remain steady and solid and increase each day. Rankings remain kinda meh. Readers have posted four ratings at Goodreads for an average of 4.25/5 stars. We are comfortable saying things are going well. We think we're out of the danger zone. What we mean is, 75 probably won't flop.

We are hard at work on World War 1990: The Weser. The effort is slow and steady and producing results. We needed to add a few Apache scenes and we have added a few Apache scenes. We're pleased. By the time we are finished at the end of the month, The Weser will be 70,000 words. We are on schedule for an April submission to the editor. Exit Question: can one have two scenes with flag waving 'Come on 54!' histrionics? Might be a little much, no? 

Another Georgia Poll shows Governor Brian Kemp beating Trump endorsed David Purdue in the state GOP primary. Good. Kemp won his last election. He will come into this election tested and sharp. In contrast Stacey Abrams has had her expansive posterior kissed for the last four years and thinks she's the rightful governor of Georgia. Abrams will be unprepared, out of shape, doughy, flabby...We love Kemp's chances.

Rob Lee has some excellent footage and commentary on the war in Ukraine. This blog once more insists that the war isn't going as well for the Ukes as the media thinks, nor is it going as bad for the Ruskis as the media thinks. Whomever one sides with, one should not trust the media narrative. [Whom do you side with?-Ed] We side with truth and reality based analysis of the facts on the ground. [And what is your analysis?]. Analysis follows:

-Russian shock and awe failed

-Russian intel failed 

-Russian tactics are horrible 

-The Ukrainians surpassed our expectations

-The Ukrainians have made good use of NATO provided weapons

-Russian Logistics failed 

The Ukes and the Ruskis are talking right now. We ask again, if Zelensky agrees to a neutral Ukraine, then what was the point of all this?

It has been said that the Ruskis had no Plan B after their attempted knockout blow on Kiev failed. Stroock's Books now believes they did have a plan B, a campaign of slow strangulation. We believe that plan is working, albeit, in a very Russian way. Reminder, Ruskis don't think like you and me. 

Will Pushes the Button

Fine. Here. The Great Nuclear War of 1975 is available. 

There it is. Eighteen months or so after starting a short story to go in Seven Stories, 75 is published. The first of two, possibly three novels. How many? That all depends on you people, the reading public, doesn't it?

We feel nothing but fear and trepidation. You know that scene in MacArthur where the general is sitting on the wing of a cruiser and watching the landing boats take the marines ashore at Inchon - and MacArthur damn near has a panic attack? That. This is like that. Wingate had the same thing as the transports took off at the beginning of Operation Thursday. Peter O'Toole used to yak every night before he went on stage. 

We have nothing but questions. What if 75 doesn't sell? We'll know within days (see the tragic fate of To Survive the Earth). What if 75 sells but people think it sucks? What if 75 sells, people think it sucks, and find all kinds of things wrong? There will typos, they're there, we guarantee. No matter how hard one works typos get through. We await the crits from the nuclear war experts who will grognard 75 to death. 'Why everyone knows according to SIOP-68 the US would retained its secondary strike capability...'

Whatever happens The Great Salvation of 1976 will follow apace. We're too far along. Might as well finish it up, no matter what. Until then:

The Great Nuclear War of 1975

In a Different 1975…

Superpower relations breakdown and a nuclear war all but annihilates the Soviet Union and devastates the United States.

100 million Americans are dead.

After Washington is destroyed, a smalltown judge delivers the oath of office to Vice President Rockefeller.

Surviving American forces on land, sea and in the air await orders from the new president.

Americans across the nation climb out of the rubble looking for a homeland that no longer exists.

In surviving capitals across the globe, governments ponder the implications of a world without the superpowers.

In Britain, a rump cabinet meets in the Cotswolds to plan a way forward without the United States.

Commonwealth Prime Ministers in Canberra, Auckland and Ottawa look to the UK for leadership.

In Buenos Ares, a weak government plots the takeover of the Malvines.

As radiation sweeps down from Siberia, the Chinese government faces unprecedented famine.

In New Delhi, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi wonders how she will feed India.

 

In Rhode Island, one man will start a trek halfway across North America to reunite with his family.

Click here.

Will's Good Idea for the Week of 2/13/22

A light snow this morning.

We got back to the gym yesterday. Just 15 minutes on the treadmill plus some light weightlifting and the rope-pulley. We feel good.

The Great Nuclear War of 1975 proof arrived yesterday. We began reading right away and found only a few typos in the first chapter. The first chapter, the prologue really, read well. We had trouble putting it down. We're enthused. We're just gonna bear down and read the proof till it's done. Which should take a couple of days. It's time for Will to publish. That's our good idea for the week of 2/13/22.

In case The Great Nuclear War of 1975 bombs, we'll have World War 1990: The Weser ready to go for 1 July. Or The Final Storm if it's done. Alert reader(s) will note The Final Storm is the novel that never wants to get done. The Great Salvation of 1976 comes out even if 75 bombs. That's our other good idea.

We probably dismayed a few reader(s) yesterday with idle speculation about splitting World War 1990: The Final Storm in two. It's a thought. The only basis for doing so would be The Battle of the Roki Tunnel. From there we could write about revolts in various other parts of Georgia and the USSR. We had originally planned a lot of Kazakhstan stuff. But we're not feeling any spark, so it's probably not a good idea.

Today is Super Bowl...we're not sure. Is it really a Super Bowl if Tom Brady isn't in it (0-2 against our own Eli Manning and the Giants?) We can't remember a time when we were less enthused about the Super Bowl. Meh. Don't know why.  We'll watch like everyone else, though. We think the Bengals of Cincinatti will win. Again, meh. 

Idle speculation: Putin has privately warned Western governments that they need to get their people out of Ukraine. The Times of Israel report that even Jerusalem is telling its citizens to leave. Note, Putin grew up with a couple of Jewish families and learned piano from an old Jewish woman. He never tolerated antisemitism in the KGB, is more or less friendly towards Israel (while disagreeing on much) and enjoyed cordial relations with Netanyahu. There is something like a million Russian Jews in Israel. Don't underestimate the importance of that connection 

This thing is going down, isn't it? How much of a prick does Putin want to be? If he wants to cause some real mischief he should launch the invasion during the Super Bowl. Heh.

Will's Good Idea for the Week of 11/28/21

The second Stroock Thanksgiving with Mrs. Stroock's sisters is complete. We can put the fancy wedding china away once more. Back in '98 Mrs. Stroock and I thought we'd be a respectable couple and put that stuff on the wedding registry. We got fancy china alright, plenty of it. But we started out in a condo in Northern Virginia and then a rustic farmhouse in the pastoral New Jersey horse country. We had no place to put the china and it remained in boxes till we bought our current home in 2005. Since then, we've used it half a dozen times. We've suggested breaking out the fancy china for skeet shooting, but Mrs. Stroock said no. 

We have sent The Great Nuclear War of 1975 to the editor. January 15? Maybe. February 1 is more like it. March 1 certainly. 

While the editor edits, we're going through the Great Salvation of 1976. Probably one time only this round. This process always feels excruciatingly slow to us, and probably you too. But experience tells us that one should read one's MS and then put it down for a while. Even so, 76 shouldn't be too far behind 75. April 1 is a stretch. May 1 is possible. 

These novels are a huge risk. They're a long, winding, 150,000 word walk through a dystopian hell scape.

We feel like Gregory Peck in MacArthur, standing on the wing, bathed in red light, watching the assault transports head for Inchon and fighting off feelings of dread and trepidation. Of course that worked out. But we experimented with a lot of our nuke ideas in To Survive the Earth, and that book flopped. Maybe we're Gob in Arrested Development, 'I've made a huge mistake.'

The audience is fickle and inflexible. As is their right. So are we. Jerry Pournelle wrote a series of LA crime novels and we couldn't care less about them. No, sir. When we pick up a Jerry Pournelle novel we expect to see CIA mercs kidnapped by aliens and dropped on a medieval planet. 

There's every reason to believe readers will get the William Stroock book alert and think, 'Great, the next World War 1990 blow 'em up is out and...what the actual fuck is this? Nuclear war aftermath...Nelson Rockefeller...Who is this Matt Cooper guy trekking across the continent? What the fuck is this? Who the fuck are these people? Why the fuck do I care? Has Nuttall put out anything new this month?'

We are very good at what we do. Among the best. In fact We've even been nominated for an award. Take that, critics. We have the means to write whatever we want. Watch out for our bodice ripper in 2022, The Jaded Liverpudlian Editor's Revenge [Knobhead-Ed]. 

What we mean, is that regardless of what happens, we will write the third novel in the nuke series. This will be a collection of short stories taking the reader out to 1981, with a final wrap up story going to 2025. Maybe this summer? Maybe in just a few days? Inshallah, we shall all eat lamb in paradise.

Saturday Updates

We have now read through the entire Great Salvation of 1976 manuscript. We need to write the concluding chapter and fill in some bits, but overall, we have a novel. It's been a grueling but great month's work. We have one nuke novel of 75,000 words and another of 70,000 with a planned third. We could get The Great Nuclear War of 1975 out this year if we wanted to. Seventy-Six still needs a lot of work and the plan is for a back to back release. So next year.

Actually, we don't really know how 76 ends. The final chapter is full of political machinations, the meeting of the electoral college, the inauguration at The Greenbrier. We'll need more scenes, but even with additions is that enough?

By June 1st sales for May will equal sales for April. More impressively, sales for this year will equal sales for all of last year. You read that right. Halfway through 2021 we've matched sales for 2020.

Sales for Nederland continue to taper off, but sales for the Israel Strikes books are up. This has little to do with Operation Guardian of the Walls. Basically, we gained a ton of new readers via WW1990 and those readers have discovered the Israel Strikes series. 

Re-reading the above just now, if two technothriller series sell, why not three? What's a new idea we could get into? Hmmmm. [Seriously?-Ed] It's fun to think about it. *

Which brings us to summer plans. We're gonna spend Memorial Day weekend thinking about Israel Strikes. We'll see, but we doubt it. Then we're gonna think about The Final Storm, which stands at 45,000 words. We'll do that in the Autumn (okay, we can do it now if we wanted).

We want to do the summer sneak in.

We hate having open novels, like The Final Storm.

We think we can crank out The Weser real fast.

What to do?

There's no reason why we can't work on getting the nuke novels ready while cranking out a new novel during the next three months.  

We think we've answered our question. And we wrote the first scene yesterday. 

*Not China. Or maybe China? Remember Putin's War? Baaaaa...there's already too much to do. 

We've always liked the heat...

...the Jews are a desert people. It calls to us, we yearn for it. 

Yesterday we sat on the back porch in the 90 degree sun and enjoyed a bear and an Arturo Fuente (short story), our first in a couple weeks. We like baking in this manner. Don't tell us we don't got no Southern Heritage.

We went and did a post at Helen's Page for Israel at War and her Enemies and got ourselves Instalanched again. The post did ok but not nearly as well as the post for The Austrian Painter. 

[Because the second post is for a short history-Ed]

Yes. It's obvious, but it's still nice to see what we know confirmed: the history book will not do as well as the alternate history book. There's only so much you can do. We actually pretty happy with the surge in Israel at War sales. 

We'll be doing another post today.

Mask mandate in New Jersey ends tomorrow and we can't wait. Which is kinda sad. They'll be requiring masks in school next fall even so. We will openly defy any chain store trying to make us wear a mask and dare them to do something about it.* 

We did some decent work on 76 yesterday and feel a lot better about the chapters in question. We realized that we had a chapter dealing with agriculture and politics and we needed to separate out the politics and concentrate more on the ag stuff. We wrote a Matt scene (he's getting close) and made it partially about farming in Indiana. Fields full of workers, short corn stalks, kids used to scare away insects, etc etc. 

Loyal reader Tyler Nelson askes about comprehensive casualty figures in World War 1990. We've listed some. Remember Akhromayev learned the Soviets have taken a million casualties. It's a good question really. We'll be able to talk about this in World War 1990: Election '92.

Remember, 1992 will not be a good year. Europeans are relieved but pissed. The president exhausted and out of it, not up to the task. America is ravaged by recession, much deeper than the real 1992 recession. It's got a veteran crisis, tens of thousands of wounded, men riven with PTSD, homeless vets, listless vets, unemployed vets. They'll attempt a victory parade that will turn into a disaster. This is really gonna be Pat Buchanan's time.

*Already have, actually

Monday not-Metal late entry. Also, bombs away

More sustained bombing last night, the Israelis hit 40 targets, including the Hamas Metro system (schedule E). Bibi says the operation will continue, there's no 'stopwatch' he told an assembly of ambassadors. Hamas targeted Israeli air bases and hit nothing.  This strikes us as desperate, Hamas trying to produce a few images of burning aircraft. Overall Hamas has launched 3700+ rockets. Looks like Hamas' trick d'resistance was an attack on the Tamar gas field rigs. As usual the Israelis figured it out. Do we even have to say it?

[You do-Ed]

The Imams are right, the Jew is clever.

We're going to come out and say Hamas screwed up, big time. They thought a few rocket barrages would make them look like the defenders of the al Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem. Instead it brought on an overwhelming and disproportionate response that has destroyed their technical infrastructure, their massive tunnel system, and their elite naval unit. Hamas thought they could swamp Iron Dome. Hamas was wrong. Israel gave Hamas a whoopin'. 

Hezbollah, Bibi.*

We've been saving Monday Metal, or in this case Monday not-Metal for the Israeli Eurovision entry, Eden Alene, who has advanced out of the first round. Remember, there are a quarter million Ethiopian Jews in Israel. These are direct decedents of Solomon and the Queen of Sheba. 

More and lots of good work on '76 yesterday. Things are really taking form and we're getting a good feel for what must needs be done to make this book printable. We got a good idea we'll talk about on Sunday. We've added scenes making Haig the hero, or a hero of the Korean War. The South Koreans and Japanese are still doing most of the work. 

Actually a lot of making '76 work is simply adding throw away lines in the opening scenes. 'Yep, they're building a jet fuel refinery up in Prudhoe,' and the like. 

*If anyone knows what movie we're referencing....😉

Will's Good Idea for the Week of 5/9/21

Well, it's Mother's Day. We lost ours a few years ago and Mrs. Stroock is still away dealing with family issues. 

We are drowning in a sea of pastels, Hollister sweats, unicorn headbands, and One Direction songs. Three hour roundtrip to our sister's and back yesterday. That's a lot of One Direction. On the bright side Youngest Daughter has discovered Phineas and Pherb, sparking a revival of same in Casa d Stroock.

The Ruski's have a long Victory Day or some such holiday, so there's no collusion from us this week. Take note NSA and whoever's reading our comms. Not kidding, BTW.

[You're paranoid-Ed]

No, there's just people out to get me. 

We don't really have a good idea for this week. But we will be diving back into the '76's Korean War chapter. We're going to try to rework things and squeeze Al Haig in there and shore up his resume. Remember, he defeated Soviet forces in Europe. We'd like to find a way to work in the task force from Operation Frequent Wind, most of which has been at anchor in Subic Bay since the war. Might take some doin'. Maybe we just need to add a chapter introing the task force, showing Haig in Europe, a few other military outposts, etc etc.

Speaking of, over at Mark Steyn's, Rick McGinnis reviews Miracle Mile, and writes a deep meditation on Gen-X, nuclear war and movies: 'But it was a cluster of theatrical and TV movies like Testament, The Day After, WarGames, Red Dawn, Countdown to Looking Glass, Special Bulletin and Threads in 1983 and 1984 that set the tone for the decade. This was when De Jarnatt was writing and re-writing his script, and it shows – the Cold War was at its hottest since the Cuban Missile Crisis then, with Soviet misinterpretation of the Able Archer NATO training exercise in 1983 very nearly setting off a missile exchange. The bomb was all over art films like Andrei Tarkovsky's The Sacrifice (1987) as well as the animated feature When The Wind Blows (1986) and even anime such as Barefoot Gen (1983) and Grave of the Fireflies (1988).' Watch at your own risk, Zoomers, Millennials. 

Another night of riots in Jerusalem. Tomorrow is Jerusalem Day, celebrating the reunification of the city in 1967. This blog doesn't give a good goddamn about the Palestinians, but this is stupid and wrong: 'The driver of this current unrest is a deeply contentious court case regarding the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of East Jerusalem, where a number of Arab families stand to be forcibly evicted from homes they’ve lived in for decades. Right-wing Israeli nationalists argued successfully that the properties were owned by Jews before Jordan conquered the area and resettled the current occupants there, and invoked a 1970 law that allows, for all intents and purposes, only Jewish Israelis to reclaim property that was lost to them during the 1948 Independence War.'

Crossing the George Washington Bridge into the Bronx, NYC. You read that toll right:

Just another reason to stay out. Drop the river crossings, Governor Murphy. 

Let's get Nuclear, Nuclear...I wanna get Nuclear...let's get into Nuclear*

A nice easy hour on the treadmill yesterday. It's getting downright breezy. We spent time thinking about The Final Storm, which is how things get written. Weights the day before. Tomorrow is our weigh in and pic day and will probably post. Off today, we think. Unless we get really bored this afternoon. 

The negotiations in Israel continue. This blog does not see how the anti-Bibi bloc can form a government. The nation remains deadlocked, just the way Bibi wants. Even this blog is getting sick of the man. Can they resurrect Arial Sharon? 

The ideas for the Great Nuclear War of 1975 keep coming. A reader suggested something with the French, which is not a bad idea. There will be a conventional/nuclear war in Europe, managed by NATO commander General Al Haig (you have to be a certain age to appreciate that one). The British developed into a full-on side plot in '75. We can't recall what the French are doing, probably being intransigent as usual. Exit question, did the British and French fire their nukes as well? 

Ok, so far we're writing some setup scenes in The Final Storm. The president on Air Force One, the Vice President arriving at Raven Rock. We think we'll start the action with Task Force 60. A-6's launching off the carriers, missile after missile firing from the fleet, and USS Montana. That's gonna look pretty cool.

We're writing two nuclear related parts in two different novels at once, and it's occurring to us that the grognards will come out for them. 'Why everyone knows that the SIOP called for the president to be transported to NORAD while the Vice President went to Mount Pony...' and so on. There will be plenty of that. Plans are great. They're fun to make. 

In case of nuclear war, the Supreme Court was to be evacuated to someplace in North Carolina, we think. When Justice Earl Warren was told his wife couldn't come he told the planners to buzz off and even refused to participate in drills. We plan, god laughs. For as it is written, we plan, god laughs.

Need we recall the complete Federal breakdown on 9/11, panic, fear, ineptitude?

*With respects to Olivia Newton John.

Saturday Updates

Spring is finally here and we're looking at several days of 50-60 degree weather. We and the Stroocklettes will, repeat will, be spending a lot of time outside. We shaved our winter beard:

It was an experiment that lasted about six hours. We ain't no Tom Selleck.

Well it's time to come clean about something. All this week Mrs. Stroock has been caring for a sick relative in Indiana and will remain there for some time. It's the six of us here at New Jersey Command, me, three girls and two cats. 

There probably won't be anything on Substack for a while. We're working on a piece for the Politburo this weekend. I want my Bibi, my Bibi, my Bibi....

The Vietnam War reading has been slow but interesting. We're looking forward to getting to a book about the Easter Offensive. After that Black April. Then what?

Our QAnon sources have been quiet for the last few days. The cliché is that when the enemy goes quiet then he's preparing something. But in our own experience Q uses chatter as cover. So iff Q is quiet there's probably nothing happening. Qbi Wan did tell us to be patient and reminded us, 'You're ears can deceive you. Don't trust them.'

We ended up not working at all on the '76 chapter yesterday. There's  little we can do to it at this point. The political outcome chapter remains. We added two Ulan Ude scenes and need at least two Matt scenes. That is the last time we'll look at '76 for a while. 

Next week we work on the '75 Falkland's chapter and that ought to be just about it. Don't even ask. We won't consider releasing '75 till '76 is done and probably not till the third volume is down too. At this point 2022 figures to be the year Will Nuked America.

We've begun prepping for World War 1990: The Final Storm. This entails watching Youtube clips of F-111 and Tornado strikes. April.

Sales rose a bit after a few weeks of decline and plateau. Interestingly World War 1990: Arctic Storm is now our number two selling book. That's a great sign as readers will plow through the series. Some of the spike must be happening because people are picking up Nederland as a stand alone novel. 

Will Nukes America

Everyone reading this has seen the requisite nuclear war movies right? 

The Day After
Testament
On the Beach
By Dawns Early Light
Threads*

We believe these are the films that got it right, in so far as we know what the aftermath would look like.

What are we forgetting? Damnation Alley doesn't count. It's a sci-fi movie.

How much of these does one invoke? Actually there will be little background details, things one saw in the background of one of these films that reader's will read in The Great Nuclear War of 1975. We do this all the time. Anyone name an example?

*The British Day After, a horrific nightmare. If one hasn't seen it, don't. Makes The Day After look like a a border skirmish. Also too pessimistic. Populations wouldn't drop to medieval levels.

Fun with Nuke Map

Oahu's a goner:

I'm not sure one person on the island could survive. We're presuming three strikes, 2.2 MTs each. No rubble bounced.

Nukes and Farms and Pipes

Yesterday we wrote a pair of farming scenes in Nuke 1975 and will write a third today. It may be surprising to readers, but this suburban Jersey guy knows nothing about agriculture. Actually our thin strip of suburbia running down NJ-206 is flanked on both sides by thousands of acres of lush farm land.

Anyway, we realized that we are related to people who grew up in farm country. Our cousin gave us tips about when stuff is planted and harvested. He agrees with the state of Kansas' assertion that a bushel of wheat can make 70 loaves of bread. He was more comfortable with 40-50 but said 70 if you had to.

By the way, you could sit us down on a coch with our Kentucky cousins and no one would know we weren't from there, till this Yankee opened his mouth, anyway.

One of our Nuke 1975 farm scenes takes place in Owensboro (pronounced Owensbura) Kentucky.

Okay, okay. If we were going to turn this into a novel, The Battle of Prudhoe Bay, about getting the oil fields there up and running, would be a great 15,000 word chapter. From 1975-1977 it took 70,000 men three years to build the pipeline. We can assume a fraction of it was already up. Could the Feds complete the pipeline in this scenario?