The writing continues on the third book in fits and starts. I am trying to remind myself that you can’t write a novel waiting for inspiration. Poetry? Yes. Short stories? Sometimes. Novels? No. You have to grind it out, day after day. I hand write in a notebook and then type as a form of editing. A second draft if you will. I have fifty pages or so in my incredibly bad writing. I know its time to start typing if I’m not creating new material. At least get something positive accomplished.
The book this week is 'In the Hour of Victory, The Royal Navy at War in the Time of Nelson'. It is a study of five famous and pivotal naval battles in the late 18th and early 19th century. These were all British victories, and all lead up to the enormous and consequential naval engagement at Trafalgar in 1805. Most of the text is the reports the commanders sent back to the Secretary of the Navy in the minutes, hours and days after the battles. Fascinating stuff, with real insight into not just the warfare but the people, their experiences and expectations. A great book.
Read a very interesting article this week about human alpha males. The author claims that order and morality only became possible when the rest of society killed the violent ones. The author called it “coalitionary proactive aggression.” Hmm. I don’t know that he is wrong but what about the societies that haven’t, and don’t we need those guys sometimes? Still?
This is a cool looking electric pickup from a company call Rivian that, unlike Tesla and some other less known companies, did the grunt work first and is now ready to sell and mass produce this truck. And Amazon just gave them $700 million. Too pricey for me but still.
Here is some prose from Slaughter by Strange Means, book two in the Adventures of Conor and Gray. If you bought one, that would be great. If you wrote a review and posted it on Amazon.com, that would be even better.
Conor felt a sudden emotion; a flood of instinctual pleasure at the thought of killing the man in front of him. His instructors at the Fights had called it “Big Cat Brain” after the wild cats of the northern territories who killed their rivals and their young. They warned against its power. And man could get lost in it and become to easier to kill himself.
Have a great week!