Good news, bad news

First the bad news. Obviously, I haven't been very good about updating the blog the last couple weeks. Pathetic, actually. 

The good news though: That means I've been doing something else. Productive, actually.

 I've been writing in fits and spurts the past year on my next book and when I get on one of those spurts I don't write much else. Last week, I finished the first draft. It's done, start to finish. But it's still rough. There are portions where I've typed "insert details here." So now, I'm rewriting, proofreading and inserting "details here."

Once the rough draft is sanded down a little, I will send it out to my posse for their thoughts and editing. I think they are all out on parole now, so they should have better access to sharp objects like pens. Last time I cringed having to ask Agent #3: "How did you sneek that highlighter past the guards?"

This rag-tag group of advisors is my secret weapon. They are my Navy Seals and I'm the Def Sec. Their qualifications, besides all being able to consume mass quantities of alcohol, include being able to read the written word, sometimes also in mass quantities, and the ability to tell me to go jump in a lake (or words to that effect) and oftentimes taking great glee in pointing out my errors, omissions and idiocy.

So I just wanted to give you a heads up that I'm still on the green side of the sod. Later this week I'll tell you a little more about my next "juicy" novel.

Was doing some reading the other night about 19th century Brits, Lord Macaulay and Southey, and some interesting criticisms the former had of the latter:

"He does not seem to know what an argument is. He never uses arguments himself. He never troubles himself to answer the arguments of his opponents. It has never occurred to him, that a man ought to be able to give some better account of the way in which he has arrived at his opinions than merely that it is his will and pleasure to hold them. It has never occurred to him that there is a difference between assertion and demonstration, that a rumor does not always prove a fact, that a single fact, when proved, is hardly foundation enough for a theory, that two contradictory propositions cannot be undeniable truths, that to beg the question is not the way to settle it, or that when an objection is raised, it ought to be met with something more convincing than ‘scoundrel’ and ‘blockhead.’"

Those old boys sure knew how to call each other jerks without calling each other jerks.