Exertions, Anxieties, Kindness and More

Vernon Glenn where he writes, with a friend.

As many of you know, I am hard at it working on the third book in my Eddie Terrell Trilogy. Pushing past 70,000 words with plenty of room to run, I am also working up against a self-imposed ready to go first manuscript deadline of January 31, 2022. (Surely COVID will have deep receded by then, right?...) I am not yet feeling the burn of hurry up hurry up urgency but it’s out there and I am beginning to sense the need to pick up the pace so I am.

Yesterday I was very focused and worked my way through over 2,000 words and as I did, I realized how comfortable I was with the push and how powerful the EXERTIONS of the writing were and it called forth strong remembrances of past trial and game preparations and game situations. At the end of the afternoon, I was truly tired, both intellectually and physically. I am very lucky in that I do not suffer writer’s block (only periodic procrastination) and am able to think and write with good imagination and output.

(A good friend teasing me recently asked, “What are you doing? Trying to write ‘Great Literature’?”

I replied, “Hell no! That would be nonsense and well above my pay-grade and for me, a foolhardy, unobtainable attempt. But I am writing to entertain, to tell a good story, to create something that compels most readers (You can’t please them all) to keep turning the page.”)

And it does occur to me that no matter what any writer’s aspirations might be, you have to put in the work and do so with devotion and serious, intentional effort. Writing for the consumption of others is hard work, is arduous and taxing. And too, it is no place to be half-assed. You have to put on your ‘Big Boy’ pants and get after it. There is no substitute. And when you are done for that hour or morning or afternoon or day or whenever, if you aren’t feeling at least a bit worn out, then I respectfully submit, you need to give thought and analysis to your work ethic.

Your technique may be to make notes and jot down ideas and then start to link them up. Or you may write a big chunk of your story in your head and then sit down and just write it out. Whatever works for you but if you are going to write, please don’t be shy. Jump right on in.

And if you don’t feel like doing such a thing, maybe that is telling you something too… 

All segments of the national press are breathlessly reporting these days about the multi-trillion dollar spending bills that currently seem virtually deadlocked. There certainly is an urgency in their reportage. And yet, I sense no positive, affirming groundswell about all this within the public at large; it’s more like a mild curiosity as to what these idiots, frauds and parvenus on Capitol Hill are going to do next. Most folks I run into are skeptical about the whole mash up. Yet the press is very anxious. The reporters basically shriek their stories out as they broadly gesticulate. I think the public has just about had enough. They have what I call ‘Governmental Ennui’. Something akin to battle fatigue. We’ve gone from the narcissistic drama of Trump to the so very scripted  ‘what time is it and where am I’ of Biden.

I think people are basically disgusted with the whole shebang. Now, I do know that many, many people are upset about the massive jam up on the southern border, the botched and bungling Afghan withdrawal, the sloppy mixed messages on Covid and the rise of inflation. And now this drunken sailor spend-a-thon with no set of assembly instructions included.

A pox on all their houses.

If I were the POTUS and Company, I think I’d be anxious, very anxious…

And now, we interrupt this brief blog to talk about a few books.

I just finished a  crime oriented trilogy set in post-World War Two Tokyo and environs.

Tokyo Year Zero, Occupied City and Tokyo Redux authored by David Peace`

Each has an intriguing story of mysterious crimes with the backdrop of devastated Japan and Tokyo looming large.

For me, all three started strong and then petered out with too much repetition, too much mysticism and too much volume for than that which was warranted.

They all got fine, big-time reviews.

My take - don’t waste your money.

And here is one I loved-

Hero of Two Worlds by Mike Duncan

This is a fascinating and compelling biography of the Marquis de Lafayette and the times of his life.

It is so much more than his coming to the nascent, aborning United States and giving George Washington a hand.

He was involved in everything, sometimes in prison, sometimes in the middle of the French Revolution, always in the pursuit of liberty and freedom.

He truly was a devoted son of both France and the United States.

I listened to it on Audible. It was well read by the author. There is more than a little sly and snarky humor here as well.

It’s scope and content are enormous and includes quite a broad history lesson as well.

I highly recommend this book as well.

I’m reading Somerset Maugham’s Of Human Bondage right now. Interesting and Intriguing but thick and heavy with depiction and character development. I’ve gotten use to its pace. We will see…

Lastly, I asked my bartender last night for a suggestion, a topic for this current blog. She is a kind and thoughtful gal and she paused for a moment before she offered her thought. And then she said,

“I think Acts of Kindness would be good. After all, isn’t that what we all ought to be about.

I told her I couldn’t disagree but at the same time, I posed a couple of situations to her that popped instantly in my head.

By the way, I’m one of these people who try to do at least one nice thing-large or small or in between- every day without anyone knowing about it. Obviously, I don’t always succeed…and you thought I was just a crusty old bastard…

I’m currently listening to The Last 100 Days by John Toland. It’s about the last four months of World War Two in the west and is very anecdotal and chock a block full of all the little stories that make up the fabric of a good and bigger read.

Early on, Toland is describing the forced marches out of the Nazi death camps where as the Russians approached, the poorly clothed and fed POWs were pushed out into brutal snow and ice and cold and marched east. Many simply could not make it and fell out of line and collapsed into the deep snow. Many begged their guards to shoot them as they knew they were going to die, soon going to freeze to death. Many times, the guards obliged them.

Is that sort of thing an Act of Kindness?

And here’s another for consideration. Some years ago, one of my dearest friends, at one time a superb athlete, wrestler, boxer, marathoner and strong as an ox and fleet of foot, suddenly and without explanation began to lose weight and a lot of it. It was alarming to him and we were all very worried. For months, his doctors were mystified for a while but then diagnosed him with the horrible, ravenously debilitating no way out disease of ALS, Lou Gehrig’s Disease. As most of you know, there is no cure and one becomes trapped in their own body as all systems shut down, more and more each day. He asked for pills to plan his end. He got them. One evening, as he was being called to come to dinner, he did not respond. His family said he died of a heat attack. We miss him every day.

Was helping him manage the end of his life an Act of Kindness?

 Now,  I must get back to SLIM AND NONE, the last volume in the Eddie Terrell Trilogy. More is a few weeks. And I will admit that I have finally ‘found’ OZARK and am watching it is great chunks. In the meantime, y’all stay safe and keep reading a writing-even if it’s just a little bit here and there. It’s good for your soul. I promise.

All my best,

Vernon