Shotgun Blog
This entry from the scattered recesses of my mind will be quick, down and dirty and all over the lot. It is the nature of the beast these days. It’s OK. I’m used to it and can deal. I hope you can glean a little something here and there.
It all makes me muse about my muse and too, much more. You’ll see.
First some Recommended Reads.
These are a sampling of what I’ve pounded through the last month or so.
The Good Life by Waldinger and Schulz: What is the Key to having so much more happiness in your life? One Key. That’s it. I’m not going to tell you. Go get this book and all will be revealed. It is a fine, straightforward and well-written. This is ‘where things stand so far’-this is the current finding of the ONGOING Harvard Study of Adult Development. Started in 1938, the researchers continue to follow up with participants from all over the country and in a myriad of ways of techniques and approaches. I’ll go a little farther-I suggest treat this as a Life As Art textbook (it’s not long, more than manageable, not boring, not pedantic) and mark it up and keep it near so you can just grab it, find a random chunk (once you’ve read the whole thing so you’ll have a full scope of reference) and refresh. Your life will benefit. I promise.
Murder Book by Thomas Perry: Great suspense coiled up with lots of good crime. This guy is good. I had not run across him before but I’ve got his ‘Butchers Boy’ on go next. Appears he’s been prolific so many of you out there may already be familiar. Tight, good writing. Not a jot or tittle wasted.
The Lion and The Fox by Alexander Rose. The true story of how the Confederacy came ‘this close’ to creating a formidable navy from scratch and with a potentially devastating plan to break the Union blockade and force the Yankees to settle. Plenty of fascinating anecdotes in the flow of the history. Interestingly, there are more than a few snarky rips that jar against the narrative. Some big, ‘go get your dictionary’ verbiage too which makes it fun. Nonetheless, this is serious history and helps paint the larger picture.
The Destructionists by Dana Milbank. A thoughtful gift from a friend. From the book jacket-‘The Twenty-Five Year Crack-Up OF The Republican Party’- Plenty of liberal tilt here but the chronology he lays out is daunting. Great, interesting writing though I can disagree with much here. Nonetheless, the questions raised are compelling and make one think. A good book to read as we push up into the next election cycle. Will reinforce one side of the electorate-‘See, I told you so’ and/or will make the other side ‘consider and think’ and or pick some of the crucial pieces out to parse.
Rain of Gold by Victor Villasenor. Another thoughtful gift from a friend. (What better than good books!) This is something different and I’ll say! A truly hidden, vivid gem. The expansive, true tale of two Mexican families during the end of the Mexican Revolution and the days of Prohibition and their struggles and travels up to California. It’s big, fat book filled with great characters rapid fire, sprawling story after story. Dare I say it-It’s a page turner. I dug in hard on it last week and last night at 10 p.m. had 50 pages to go…and basically said, “No Mas, No Mas” and turned off the lights. Of course, in the wheel in my head where the legions of gerbils run and spin and run some more, I was back awake at 1 a.m. and finished the book at 2 and finally slept at 3 after thinking a lot about the words and writing I had the pleasure of reading over the last few days. And there was a component to it that I sensed more strongly than in most books, even the real good ones. There was a lacing, touching sincerity that rose from it over and over again.
So there you go…Now what else do I have before my egg timer goes off…?
We are getting ready (No kidding!) to finally bring you the third and final volume of the Eddie Terell Trilogy. Covid and Mother Nature and lots of Distractions slowed us for about a year but we have pressed
It’s titled Slim and None and it’s coming in late April. Of course, I hope you enjoy it. I think it’s pretty good and of course, as my Daddy taught me long ago, “It’s a damn poor dog that won’t wag his own tail!”
As with the first two books, it was work and it was a challenge and it was fun and I enjoyed creating it. Eddie is The Dude! Now, y’all prepare to see how he does it.
And we think we’ll get a triple play boxed set together for y’all, hopefully just in time for Christmas-A nice gift I respectfully submit-see my Daddy’s admonition above-Wink Wink. Go check out Cooperriverbooks.com in a little while and the info will be there. Or just email me: Vernon@cooperriverbooks.com. I’m around.
I’ve barely started but indeed have started the next book. A different look at a lot of things but hope it’s OK with y’all that Eddie stays in view. He’s been so well-received by so many and has gifted me with so many stories and tales and characters that I cannot leave him by the wayside.
It’s interesting to me how these books have ‘legs’. Last night I got an email from a lady up in Winston-Salem about Friday Calls. She and her husband/family (?) moved to WS a few years ago, and they live in a house that was once owned by one of the central characters in FC. She found my email (above) and asked me questions. She likes the book and I have answered her inquiries and invited more as to whatever suits her. Keep in mind Friday Calls came out in 2018 so to have some ‘staying power’ is rewarding and encouraging.
Just for fun and God knows, I surely don’t care. Did you know I have ADHD? Since I had no idea I did when I was an ‘all over the place’ kid (there was no diagnosis then), I was a mess, albeit a pretty nice one with patient parents. Too, fair to say the structure of boarding school for 4 years (1964-1968) really was a beautiful time for me. It helped me get my ducks in a row and prepared me for so many of the many challenges that lay ahead. Explains why math and science with their precision bedeviled me---often too precise. I learned to hyper focus just fine with the latter and medicine in my years of malpractice work; the former got stuck on dividing by 3 and just floats there in an eternity of stasis.
Over the years, I have embraced it and it is one of my very good ‘friends”. (I realize that many really struggle with it and yes, it is often a big problem for many folks so I’m not trying to be dismissive-I just got lucky-Sometimes ignorance is bliss..). For years now, when necessary and/or appropriate, I can play chess on 4 levels…some call it multi-tasking; I prefer call it ‘You don’t know where I’m going. But I do….Especially helping with cross examination and connecting the dots in so many situations, often a form of ‘higher ordering’.
The tip-off is in the photograph that accompanies this particular blog. Walk into anyone’s office or place of work; if you see orderly stack after stack, this is the everything out in the open lateral file system that is the guardian of the scattered. Nothing (or at least very little) goes into drawers and files to disappear and be forgotten (God Forbid!)
And just a little more now.
Years ago, I was in an amazing car wreck. Thank God no one was killed or badly injured…the very shorthand version is I was a passenger in a car that went airborne after the driver missed a turn at a T- intersection. The car flew like a giant arrow over a large swale nd went through the…And went through the roof of a condominium well below the point of launch. Landed in the center of the living room where the little old lady who lived there had just gone to bed having just finished watching Lawrence Welk. You can imagine the explosion of sound that boomed forth at time of impact. The little old lady, fearful of course, called 911 and asked for a police car as she was worried that someone was trying to break into her house!
In all events and with the passage of 30+ years, the disc in my lower back at L-5/S-1 has just torqued and eroded away so it’s just pretty much bone on bone now. Grinds Not very comfortable and getting worse. So yesterday, I got injected with steroids down there. Have never done that before. So far so good. Am guardedly hopeful. Your faithful correspondent wants to stay strong! Will report.
So, that’s it. Keep reading and writing and stay safe! My very best to all!
Vernon