Finished: Lee Child's 'A Wanted Man'

You can't go wrong with a Jack Reacher novel. It's as simple as that. This is the 17th novel in the series.

Even one of the lesser ones, like I consider this one, is better than most other books. Kind of like the old saying that a bad day of fishing is still better than a good day at work.

I also enjoyed the short story added at the end called "Deep Down" which takes us back to Jack Reacher in the Army. Pretty cool. You see more authors doing that, adding little extra's and P.S.s, like  a certain author of the novel "Runaway Trane" did as well.

According to Goodreads:

All Reacher wanted was a ride to Virginia. All he did was stick out his thumb. But he soon discovers he has hitched more than a ride. He has tied himself to a massive conspiracy that makes him a threat— to both sides at once.

Goodreads readers give it 3.96 out of 5. Amazon a 4 of 5. The Haugenometer hits it at a 6+.

And remember Reacher's rule: When in doubt, turn left.

Link-o-Ragnarama

If you are a fan of The Vikings television series on History Channel, you know that King Ragnar has infuriated many of his pagan followers by recently getting baptized into Christianity.

Well, here's the opposite happening now in Iceland.

The degree of religiosity among the (pagan) church’s denizens, however, is a matter of debate. “I don’t believe anyone believes in a one-eyed man who is riding about on a horse with eight feet,” Hilmar Orn Hilmarsson, a high priest of the Norse god religious church, Asatruarfelagio, told Reuters. “We see the stories as poetic metaphors and a manifestation of the forces of nature and human psychology.”

** The AP says, playwright Tom Stoppard said he will accept PEN's highest award next month in New York to help put a spotlight on a "frightening time" for free expression.

** So if you combine Air Force veteran, Playboy model and goofs walking on the U.S. flag, you'll get this story.

** Because I'm a murder mystery, crime lit, mass murderer aficionado, I found this little tidbit interesting and troubling.

The Justice Department and FBI have formally acknowledged that nearly every examiner in an elite FBI forensic unit gave flawed testimony in almost all trials in which they offered evidence against criminal defendants over more than a two-decade period before 2000.

** Stumbled across this website and think I'm going to like it. A lot.

Dallas Mildenhall used obscure science to crack cases all over the world. Then a murder took place in his own backyard.

** Odds are your kid is going to be okay.

Kids are dying less often. They’re getting hit by cars less often. And they’re going missing less frequently, too. The likelihood of any of these scenarios is both historically low and infinitesimally small.

** So, writer Frederic Morton has died at age 90. Morton wrote 12 books including "The Rothschilds" and "A Nervous Splendor," both of them National Book Award finalists. Here's his brief, but interesting, Wiki page.

** Baseball fans, check it out: Fastballs, fastballs, fastballs.

** And, yeah, this will knock your socks off.

** And, just so you know you're not alone, thinking you're the only loser who reads this goofy blog, it went over 1,000 views in the last 30 days. That's a new record. Yeah, Drudge isn't trembling, but sometimes it's comforting to know there are others who suffer from your same malady. A misery loves company kid of thing. Carry on.

Get smashed

If you are an avid reader of the e-book variety, one of the cooler websites out there is smashwords.com. It's filled with books from independent authors, many of whom have gone on to be best-sellers, as well as other shlubs like me.

There's no registration cost, tons of variety and you don't get those annoying emails filling up your mailbox every week. So far they have over 350,000 books published, with over 50,000 of them free.

They run the gamut from “how to” books on business to compilations of poetry to vampire erotica and regular old mysteries and romance. The talent level runs the gamut as well, just like at Amazon, with some authors better than others.

As for me, I use it for business and pleasure. I distribute my e-book versions there because of its ease of use, and the fact that they then convert my books and distribute them to Barnes & Noble, Apple, Sony and several other book sites and libraries. So in addition to being available for sale on Smashwords, they are made available everywhere else, except Amazon, though you can download it to a Kindle at Smashwords. It distributes in all formats, even just to read on your laptop. Pretty slick, and it's worked well for my needs. Another feature I like is that the author sets the price and gets a much-higher royalty than at the big stores.

I’ve sold hundreds of books there, with almost 4,000 downloads of my e-books and free short stories. So Stephen King and John Grisham aren’t losing sleep about ol’ Haugen cutting into their business, but it’s also not like I threw a party and nobody showed up. Also, that’s just on Smashwords and doesn’t include Amazon and Kindle and direct sales to drunks at the Hermosa Bar.

The site was started by a dude named Mark Coker in 2008. I got on board in 2011. It's well worth checking out and it has a default "safe search" if you don't want to be caught looking at book covers of werewolves in thong bikinis and such. (You don't have that problem with my books ... yet.) And if you want to be able to look at the more risque romance novels, you can turn the safe-search option off, or so I hear. Check it out.

From Wiki:

Coker, a former Silicon Valley publicist, started Smashwords in 2008 with the lofty goal of using technology to democratize publishing - allowing writers to appeal directly to readers without having to deal with gatekeepers such as agents and editors.

In keeping with this mission, Smashwords applies no editorial screening. The only e-books Coker refuses to distribute are ones that contain plagiarism, illegal content or incitement to racism, homophobia or violence.

Meet the band

Here's the cast of characters you'll get to know a whole lot better if you read my new novel Runaway Train:

Bobby Trane - A talented boxer in his youth, he's a fan of paperback Westerns and a devout preacher. But after 10 years serving congregations in Montana, Father Bobby grows frustrated with their inattention and his inability to see any tangible results of his preaching. So he leaves, wants to meet the sinners on their turf and minister to people who might never step foot in a church.

Momma Badlow - Vivian is the queen bee of a Satanic cult that would like to make Buffalo Gap their compound. She's accused of burning churches, welfare fraud, killing dogs and makes a living selling drugs.

B.B. Badlow - Vivian's adult son is addicted to teeth whitening, but that's his only virtue.

Jupiter Badlow - Vivian's beautiful, but nasty, adult daughter is so unBadlow-like in appearance that it's suspected she was stolen at birth. She has "more curves than the Norbeck Scenic Highway" but unfortunately "she was about as well traveled upon."

Tracy Jordan - She moved to Buffalo Gap with her husband and bought the local bar with high hopes of hosting wedding receptions, dances and a nice bar. But then the town went to hell and her teacher husband is doing time for manslaughter after killing a kid in a traffic accident after one beer too many after school.

Mudflap McGee - Semi-retired from a local outlaw motorcycle gang, his home often hosts his brothers. He's old, still chiseled from his year's lifting weights in prison, and drinks enough to help Tracy make her house payment. He's questionable.

Ed Flair - A local rancher, he gets off on the wrong foot with Bobby. He's had a tough go of it, losing his wife to cancer and his daughter gone missing for a year. He suspects kidnapping. Some rain would help his mood too.

Faye Flair - Ed's missing daughter is being held captive with two other girls, cooking meth in an underground bunker for somebody somewhere. She's the glue holding the girls together.

Stanley - Only the greatest dog in the world, with an eerie resemblance to my dog. He's Faye's dog and still waits every day at the end of the driveway for the school bus that never stops anymore. He's hobbled by a blow he took defending her, barely eats, but is nursed back to health by Bobby, and does a mean Lassie impersonation.

Fathers Tyler and Simon - Two priests of opposite personalities, they are on the secret POWA team assigned by the Bishop to find Bobby, the Priest Out Wandering Around. Both coming off tough assignments, one in Iraq, the other on a reservation, they use the POWA duties to wind down; but trying to find Bobby is like trying to find a needle in a haystack. But they try, from the oil fields to the Sturgis Rally. He's not helping them unwind.

All these folks interact with some other doozies, and I think you'll enjoy them all.

The paperback version is available now. You can buy it here. You know you want to.

BREAKING NEWS: 'Runaway Trane' available today!

Here ya go, just birthed my fourth novel, Runaway Trane, and it's available now in paperback at Amazon.

The book is 370 pages, but don't let the length scare you because it contains two novels. More bang for your 13 bucks and change! As I can't seem to do anything the normal way, let me explain. The newbie, Runaway Trane, is about 39,000 words (170 pages). It is followed by Zoo Falls, about 41,000 words (190 pages), which had only been available in e-book form the last couple years. Some of my friends in the timber industry here complained that it wasn't in the dead-tree format, so I included it in this book; because I always try to make the customer happy, especially when they are bigger and hairier than me. (As proof I'm not the only goofball to do things this way, I'm currently reading a paperback "Three Famous Short Novels" by William Faulkner. If it's good enough for Bill, it's good enough for me.

So as of today, Runaway Trane is available only in paperback form and only at Amazon. I will let you know as it becomes available in other outlets.

As for the e-book format, that will be available for pre-order very soon and you will be able to do that at the Apple Store, Barnes & Noble, Kobo and Smashwords sites for every type of hand-held device you may possibly own. It's good to pre-order and you won't be billed until it downloads on May 9. Why May 9, you ask? Because it's National Train Day, of course! (Even though they spell it wrong).

So here's a bit about Runaway Trane. It won't make you any smarter, but it will make you smile. Buy it now!

Bobby Trane surprises his Montana church one Sunday by not showing up. That's usually not a big deal, except when you're the priest. 

Tired of blank faces, know-it-alls, complainers and cell phones ringing during his sermons, Bobby follows the lead of a mysterious letter he receives and takes off to save the world and meet the sinners on their turf. He is guided to the tiny South Dakota town of Buffalo Gap where sinning is aplenty. With a den of drug-dealing Satanists on one side of town, an outlaw motorcycle gang on the other side, and a pretty, young bar owner trying to make ends meet in the middle, Bobby falls hot on the trail of a local ranch girl who's been missing for almost a year. 

Meanwhile Bobby's boss dispatches the church's secret POWA team that specializes in finding Priests Out Wandering Around. Fathers Tyler and Simon venture into the most sinful places they guess Bobby may have gone. From the oil fields of North Dakota to the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally they encounter all kinds of sinners and saviors, but none named Bobby Trane. The POWA duo's search mission turns into a rescue mission as they try to find Bobby before the town (and Bobby) go up in smoke.

While Bobby talks a tough parable, he also packs a mean punch -- just ask the local drug dealers. He vows not to leave Buffalo Gap until the missing girl is reunited with her father and the town with no churches or dogs finally has at least one of each.

Get it here. 

The back story on the front cover

I've been intrigued for some time about the value of book covers, especially as I was noodling ideas for my own.

I asked all my book-reading friends and few, if any, ever bought a book because of it's cover. Sure, you might pass on one if it was totally unprofessional, done in crayon, or smeared with fish blood. We have our standards.

But most buy their books based on recommendations from friends, a snappy summary on the back cover or inside jacket, or they buy one because it's the latest effort by one of their favorite authors.

What I've been wanting to do for a long time is to make book covers look like old album covers or CDs. They seem to have fewer rules, especially my man Prince. He's as unconventional as they come and inventive in his covers and even in the distribution of his music.

So one day a few years back I ran across an album by the Black Keys and it was so cool and weird and dumb that I said to myself: "Self, you need to steal this idea for your next book cover." So I did, as you'll see.

Of course, I had my doubts about going against conventional wisdom. As the title of my soon-to-be-released book is "Runaway Trane" (a play of words off the main character's name, Bobby Trane), I scrolled through image catalogs of trains, railroad road tracks, cabooses, train crossing signs, nice scenic photos of trains rolling through the countryside, smoke stacks belching CO2 next to pretty trees, pretty much anything train related. I saved a couple possibilities, kept coming back to them and kept belching at them myself and decided to stick with my first gut feeling. That gut feeling being the album-cover take-off.

I ran it by a couple people, with mixed results. Decided adults are boring, I ran it by the cool kids. I showed it to my 17-year-old boy. He started to laugh, but then stifled it as it dawned on him that it might not be the reaction I was looking for. But it WAS. So that cemented my decision, sent it to my designer, and she fiddled with it, even though it was so simplistic it probably was something she learned in kindergarten Photoshop class.

Then last week Harper Lee released the cover of her much ballyhooed new novel. And guess what it it is: A train traveling down railroad tracks by a big oak tree. Not that anyone would've ever confused Harper Lee with Mark Haugen, but I did think it would look pretty stupid if I came out two weeks later with a train on the tracks going past a tree. "Real clever, Haugen," I could hear all three of my fans saying.

So I sent a note to graphic designer Hayley, told her about the Harper Lee cover, and said how glad I was we didn't go with the serious, adult, industry-standard cover I'd briefly considered.

 And she replied: "Your cover is going to be clean, RED and fabulous, Mark." So there ya go. Hope you agree, or at least laugh:

Finished: Koontz's 'Saint Odd'

This was the seventh and last of Dean Koontz's Odd Thomas series. Reading the novel, while knowing that, was like reading a person's obituary.

The trouble with series is that the author usually has to restate things from previous books, assuming there's always some goofball out there who starts with the most recent book instead of starting at the beginning of the series.

Koontz does a great job of managing that background while introducing clever new characters. He is my favorite living author, showcasing a versatility you don't see in many of the most prolific writers. I've always thought it's tougher to write an original novel now than it was 100 years ago, and tougher next year than last year, simply because the plots have been taken, the mysteries have been solved, and there are only so many ways to kill a person or make them interesting. But Koontz does.

I gave it a 7-plus on the Haugenometer. Goodreaders gave it a high 4.13 of 5, and Amazonians a 4.4 of 5. So I was even low by their standards, where you don't see many 4s.

And Odd always has great lines appropriate to our day:

"Everything barbarians do is nothing, no matter how loudly they insist it's something."

"I never knew if I was drawn to eccentric people or if they were drawn to me."

"Free will. The thing that makes life worth living in spite of all the anguish it brings."

Link Omanda

For some reason, a post I did a couple years ago about the "lying eyes" of Amanda Knox gets more hits than anything else every week on this dopey little website. Lots more. Like ten times more.

So I'm more than happy to see another link-baiting possibility with this story on a new book coming out about the whole spectacle. Just to be clear, this post includes Amanda Knox, sex, rape, murder, Italy, and just for click insurance, even though it doesn't: Kim Kardashian.

There were even rumors that a student serial killer was on the loose. Like any story that lures the press, Ms. Kercher’s murder at face value was enough to rally the troops. 

Then, everything changed with the arrest of Ms. Kercher’s American roommate Amanda Knox. From the moment Ms. Knox was arrested, along with her Italian boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito, the media scrum turned into a full blown circus, fed by what, at times, seemed like the audible sound of website clicks as we, the press, fleshed out the new version of the story.

Of all the strange twists in this saga, one of the oddest to me is her current employer. Amanda Knox has been deemed guilty of rape and murder and sentenced to 28 years in prison. She refuses to return to Italy to serve the time (I get that; I wouldn't either). So what is she qualified to do for employment in the U.S.? Oh, yeah, let's hire her as a journalist. Yep, she's working for a Seattle newspaper. Must be part of their Hire a Convicted Felon on the Run Program.

UPDATE: I wrote this post last night and then lo and behold today came the news that Knox was acquitted by Italy's high court. Go figure. I go back and forth on her guilt or innocence and probably, from what I've followed, wouldn't have been able to vote to convict. But I still have my doubts about her innocence and probably wouldn't hire her at my newspaper or want her rooming with my daughter.

Here are some other stories I better link to before they get whacked by breaking news:

*** Don't let facts get in the way of an agenda. U of M prof calls BS on cow book.

My experience shows me that the real truth is that dairy farmers care deeply about their cows. The care of cows is very good and gets better all the time. The milk produced is the safest, most regulated and inspected and wholesome food we consume.

*** Why the war on cancer hasn't been won. Good story.

"The war on cancer will not be won in one dramatic battle, it will be a series of skirmishes."

*** Don't buy any ripe bananas. The end is near.

Physicists predict the universe is primed for a “cosmological collapse” that will cause the universe to stop expanding at its current rate and ultimately collapse in on itself to wipe away all known matter.

*** Reading is hard. Calling people racist is easy.

Unfortunately what gets missed in the fun game of “You’re a racist for disagreeing with me!” is a discussion about how much people should be forced to subsidize the lives of others, whether entitlement programs that disincentivize labor are healthy for individuals or society, whether the explosive growth of disability rolls can be sustained and so on and so forth.

*** Cover design unveiled for Harper Lee's new novel. It's a tree. A moody tree. And we all go: "ooh, ahh."

*** Ellen Conford, an award-winning children's writer, has died.

*** The most anticipated books of Spring 2015, besides Runaway Trane.

Deep thoughts from a shallow pool

The subhead to this fine blog "There's the right way, the wrong way, and the Haugen way" is from my father, who was primarily an English teacher, among other classes.

When a student would try to stump him or argue with him about the correct usage of a word or phrase or anything, and it seemed Dad might be on the losing end of the battle, he would spout that phrase and add: "In this classroom, it's the Haugen way."

It's pretty much served as the mantra of my life. I saw it phrased differently in a Donald Westlake novel I read recently where a character said: "Break other people's rules if you want, but never break your own."

I mention that because over the course of the last 10-15 years I've been able to do my own writing without obnoxious, bossy editors referring to stylebooks and dictionaries and correct usage. I can resort to the Haugen way.

In publishing books, like my new one coming out soon, it's the same way. You can read countless articles about how long or short chapters should be, how long or short a novel should be, how many characters you should introduce, how the story arc should go, etc. A recent one I saw said if you are writing a murder mystery, you need to have a dead body within the first 30 pages. Another said 100.

If it's a writer I respect, I read their suggestions. If it's some blogger or agent or other person "in the biz" I pass. I stick with the Haugen way. When it comes to length of chapters or book, I go back to something I heard long ago regarding newspaper reporting and how long the story should be (in the days before USA Today bastardized the business) and that's: Start at the beginning and end when you're done. Seems logical.

Finished: 'The Comedy is Finished'

I finished Donald Westlake's aptly-named novel The Comedy is Finished. It's aptly named because it was the final novel he wrote before passing away.

It was not your typical Westlake novel. It was great, but different. He usually offers some slapstick humor, odd characters and clever twists. He's usually light-hearted. This was darker. It had a lot more sex and much more bloody murder. When it comes to sex and murder in a mystery, count me in. I'll be at the front of the parade waving the baton. But it was out of the norm for The Don, as I and other friends call him.

This was also a thinker. When I finished the book, I turned off the television and pondered the ending in silence. It was that good.

The other thing about this book that made it stand out in my mind is the cover. I think I'll write another post about this, but I've been thinking about book covers lately. I decided I've never purchased a book because of it's cover. I've bought them because of recommendations from friend, because they're by a certain author, or I've heard mention of them in other media.

But this one, I bought because of the cover! Technically, I was looking through 20 Westlake books, trying to decide which one to buy and this cover caught my eye, because, well who doesn't like a gal in sunglasses? So I bought it. You should too.

I'm giving it a 7-plus on the Haugenometer. Amazon gave it a lower 3.2 out of 5 (and I'll grant that the middle part was a little dry, but I also think some of that lower rating is because it's not what Westlake fans were expecting). Goodreads gives it a 3.54 out of 5.

Goodreads summarizes:

The year is 1977, and America is finally getting over the nightmares of Watergate and Vietnam and the national hangover that was the 1960s. But not everyone is ready to let it go. 

Not aging comedian Koo Davis, friend to generals and presidents and veteran of countless USO tours to buck up American troops in the field. And not the five remaining members of the self-proclaimed People's Revolutionary Army, who've decided that kidnapping Koo Davis would be the perfect way to bring their cause back to life...

Sunday 81-degree-link-o

For those of you who like short link-o-ramas:

*** Never read this dude, but know some who have and sounds like he rocked it.

Fantasy author Terry Pratchett, whose Discworld series delighted fans with liberal doses of imaginative storytelling and off-beat humor, has died at age 66.

*** The twisted history of your fave board game: Monopoly.

An interview with Mary Pilon about her new book, ‘The Monopolists,’ which uncovers the real story about how Monopoly became the game it is today.

*** Disney makes $1 billion bet on a magic wristband.

If you want to imagine how the world will look in just a few years, once our cell phones become the keepers of both our money and identity, skip Silicon Valley and book a ticket to Orlando. Go to Disney World. Then, reserve a meal at a restaurant called Be Our Guest, using the Disney World app to order your food in advance.

My fave characters ...

I was thinking of whom my favorite pulp characters are and found it's mighty tough to start ranking them in order. Of the top 20 I put together, they all have their strengths. If they were fish, there's not a one of them I would throw back if they landed in my boat. Then again, with my fishing prowess, I never would have caught them in the first place.

My top 20 fictional action characters from a recurring series are ... envelope please:

Jack Reacher - Veteran (Lee Child)

Odd Thomas - Fry cook (Dean Koontz)

Virgil Flowers - Minnesota Bureau of Apprehension (John Sandford)

Gabriel Allon - Mossad (Daniel Silva)

Bob Lee Swagger - Former Marine (Stephen Hunter)

Matthew Scudder - PI (Lawrence Block)

John Dortmunder - Thief (Donald Westlake)

Lucas Davenport - Minnesota Bureau of Apprehension (John Sandford)

Alex Hawke - MI6 (Ted Bell)

Serge Storms - Homicidal maniac (Tim Dorsey)

Alex Cross - Psychologist (James Patterson)

Stephanie Plum - Bail bondsman (Janet Evanovich)

Evan Tanner - Adventurer (Lawrence Block)

Deucalion - Monster (Dean Koontz)

Spenser - Detective (Robert B. Parker)

Alex Delaware - Child psychologist (Jonathan Kellerman)

Bernie Rhodenbarr - Burglar (Lawrence Block)

Parker - Thief (Richard Stark/Donald Westlake)

Mitch Rapp - CIA (Vince Flynn)

Jack Ryan - CIA (Tom Clancy)

   Honorable mention:
Keller - Hitman (Lawrence Block)
Peter Decker - Detective (Faye Kellerman)
Jesse Stone - Police chief (Robert B. Parker)

Finished: Ted Bell's 'Warriors'

Took me a while to finish this almost-500-pager, but all was good with Alex Hawke and his Warriors.

Dashing counterspy Alex Hawke must rescue a kidnapped American scientist as the United States and China move dangerously close to all-out nuclear war in this adrenaline-fueled thriller in the New York Times bestselling series that combines the hallmarks of Clive Cussler, Tom Clancy, Ian Fleming, and Daniel Silva.

The Amazonians give it a 3.9 out of 5. Goodreads about matches that with a 3.87. The Haugenometer puts it at a relatively high 7-.

The one thing that stuck out to me more in this novel than in other Hawke novels is how stereotypical Bell's characters are. Sure, you have Hawke being the rich Brit and Stokely the big, tough black guy; and Fancha, his hot rap pop diva; but then there's Froggy the Frenchman, Chief Rainman the Native American, and Brock the CIA guy and the Chinese Ninja's. There's not a stereotype that gets challenged. Oh, well, sometimes the characters don't need to surprise you if the plot does.

I realize I'm not glowing over this novel despite giving it a good rating. I really did enjoy the book, it's just that the character thing bugged me a bit. They were good, just not interesting in and off themselves.

Quote I liked about Hawke: "It's said he was good at war. Maybe it was because he was so inordinately fond of peace." Seems I've heard something along those lines before, but can't place it.

And the book also spurred me to do some reading about Seneca, the first century philosopher. Pretty interesting stuff if you're into the whole Caligula, Claudius, Nero thing.

And it also spurred me to order Truman Capote's true-crime book, In Cold Blood. Stay tuned for that one.

Friday's Link-O-Rama

I found these interesting and see no reason why you won't:

*** Don't take political correctness lying down.

So there I am, never smoked in my life, just minding my own business trying to get treated for the flu, and the Smoke Nazi is pontificating to me about my father’s perhaps suboptimal health choices when he gave up cigarettes in 1962, two years before the Surgeon General’s Report about it, when I was seven. Hence the dilemma that always arises in these situations: do you let this stuff slide or call the guy on it?

*** An interesting theory on: Were Those Really the Gold Old Days? Why 'New' Old Art is More Popular Than New New Art.

I suspect that for all its seeming popularity — as measured by such indexes as museum attendance — there is a continuing and pervasive unease with modern art among the public at large, a sinking feeling that no matter how much time they spend looking, reading or listening, they’ll never quite get the hang of it. As a result, they feel a powerful longing for “new” work by artists of the past.

*** This is pretty funny, especially if you hate meetings. I can't remember who said it, but I agree, that any meeting longer than 20 minutes is a waste of time. Might have to try some of these: 10 Tricks to Appear Smarter in Meetings.

*** As a former bowling columnist (don't laugh), I only wish this had happened during my tenure. Boston-area amateur bowler Hakim Emmanuel notches 27th perfect 900 series on record. Impressive.

*** Somebody actually FOIA'd Scott Walker's communication with God. People are funny.

*** Joe Theismann's letter to his younger self. Good stuff from the Notre Dame grad.

*** Check out charming and unusual bookstores from around the galaxy.

*** Kid Rock has a new album out. So all is well in the world.

*** The photo shoot that broke up Van Halen.

A McCutchens McUpdate

I tweeted on this last week and I assume everybody follows every link I tweet. If not, I provided the link again.

This guy has a different take on Andrew McCutchens' essay about how difficult it is for young black baseball players to get noticed. And makes some good points.

This is the crux of McCutchen's argument. That there is no other option other than expensive travel teams. That you can't get noticed, you can't get anywhere without these traveling teams. That's simply not true. Frankly, it's silly.

The guy (who doesn't blog with a name so I call him "the guy") says players don't have to be on expensive travelling teams to get noticed. Basically, strike batters out or hit the ball and you'll get noticed.

Do you know what gets you noticed? An extraordinary amount of God given talent and hard work. There's no other way. There's no magical shortcut. Talent. Hard work.

Some Sunday school rambling ...

My grade-school years were spent in LeMars, Iowa, where my dad was guidance counselor and coach at the public high school. Our family attended St. John's Lutheran Church. Dad was head of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes chapter at school, where the thrill of my young life was when star quarterback for the Bulldogs, DeeJay Donlin, and his girlfriend Kay Cobb took me to the annual banquet and I sat next to them at the head table. DeeJay, now a pastor, went on to set records at Augustana College and made it to the final cut day for the Minnesota Vikings, before losing out to a guy named Tommy Kramer. I loved our time in LeMars.

I knew there was another school in town, a Catholic school called LeMars Gehlen, but never gave it much thought as a grade-schooler. I just knew it existed and that was about it. There was no bigger booster of the public high school in town than my dad. There was also probably no bigger fan of the Lutheran Church than my dad. So if there was one guy who could've taken the opportunity to bash the private, Catholic school in town, it could have been my dad. But he never did. I never heard an ill word spoken about LeMars Gehlen.

Fast forward 40 years now and I'm Catholic, have graduated two daughters from the local Catholic school here in Rapid City (having transferred from the equally-awesome Brandon Valley Public Schools 10 years ago) and have a son with one year left at St. Thomas More.

Given my upbringing, the most shocking thing I've encountered this past decade is the straight-up animus some people have toward that school and private schools in general. I chalk most of it up to jealousy, some of it to ignorance, and on rarer occasions to bigotry. None of those three things are particularly good character traits in my book. But now I just get a kick out of drawing it out of people. Yeah, I like to instigate a little. It's enlightening.

At school football or baseball games I don't like to sit in the stands (mostly due to a bad back), so you'll often find me wandering around. Usually I end up talking to parents and fans of the opposing team in the concession area or along the baselines. It's almost always good conversations where if the Catholic school thing comes up I correct misconceptions or add to them, depending on my mood. "They recruited my kid in second grade," I've said, jokingly, but always leaving that bit of doubt for the listener to ponder on his own.

I've found that some people who claim to care most about education often really care most about public school education (of which I'm a fan as well). Because boy when you get them going on private schools or home-schoolers it gets their blood pressure up and you often find they aren't such fans of those types of education. I don't get that kind of thinking.

I don't get that at all, and for that I'd like to thank my public-school-teaching Lutheran father who was just a fan of good education no matter how you got it. Thanks Dad for raising me without that other garbage.

Don't take liberty with George's facts

I borrowed my oldest daughter my copy of George Washington's Secret Six, which I enjoyed. She's a political science and history grad, has given tours for the U.S. Capitol as a Senate intern; worked as a House intern, was an interpretor for the inaugural season of the Founding Fathers Museum near Rapid City; and is now a staffer for a U.S. Senator. So she's into that stuff!

But she returned the book last week unfinished. Apparently she got to the part where the author said George Washington signed the Declaration of Independence and she was so disgusted with the inaccuracy she couldn't continue reading. In her world, you do not mess with the Declaration of Independence.

I guess historical fiction is not her cup of tea.

She seemed a lot more excited about the biography I bought her of her favorite Founding Father, the youngest signer of TDOE - Edward Rutledge. We'll see how that goes.

Release the hounds!

I want to be a houndsman. Does it take more than just owning a hound? Because, in the technical "hound" category, I have this one named "Huckleberry." He has issues.

Regardless, here's a cool story about a new way they are counting mountain lions in the Black Hills.

In the month before the season, GF&P employees release hounds to tree mountain lions; they then used a dart gun to shoot a special dart into the lion’s rump that takes a small sample for flesh. 

... 

When biologists radio collared lions, Kanta said, it took at least four people. The lion needed to be anesthetized, which can lead to an unintentional death of the animal. And the lion had to be handled, which can potentially be dangerous.

“Now we can run with just the houndsman if need be,” he said.

Contents of Al Capone's vault finally revealed

There's a great deal of satisfaction and trepidation when I box up all the notepads, post-its, index cards, edited manuscripts and scribbles from the latest writing project. That means I've finally stuck a fork in it and am kicking it out the door.

The next step is the cover, and I'm hoping to have the arguing over the cover design done soon before somebody gets hurt. My posse seems to really like the book, but thinks I'm getting a little weird with the cover. Oh well, sometimes crazy is all you've got. And, when in doubt, I ask myself: What would Prince do?

Stay tuned.

Thursday Link-oh-Rama

Some things worth reading, not sure why.

*** And in the nonfiction "Be Careful What You Wish For" section there's this.

*** Powdered alcohol, eh? There's just some things, like cell phone cameras, and Palcohol, that I'm glad weren't around in my youth.

Mark Phillips, owner of the Arizona-based company, said on Palcohol's website that he created the product to avoid lugging liquor bottles on hiking trips. The 1-ounce powder packets can be stirred into water to make one shot of vodka or rum, or a serving of one of four different cocktails, the website says.

*** Sometimes, like in this article, the comments are better than the actual story. People are so angry now-a-days.

*** Yeah, I think Jesse Ventura is kind of a goofball and I admit to taking Chris Kyle's side of the bar-fight story until I read this. And I changed my mind.

*** Rush Limbaugh has some nice words on the passing of his COS Kit Carson.

*** So they figured out how to unboil an egg, and apparently it's important.

*** Here's the latest from my boys Sons of Bill: Big Unknown.