Friday, October 1

Other stuff

I thought (in addition to the political whingeing below) some of you might be interested in the progress of CAINE BLACK KNIFE.

Writing this book has been an interesting process; it's the first time since I starting actually getting paid for this shit that I've been working without a net -- that is, lacking a detailed outline that traces the chain of causation from initiating incident through climax (the technical term is Bond-movie Big Blowoff).

So I'm 60,000 words in, and I discover that there are things (and, in fact, people) Caine actually knew at the beginning of the novel that would have affected how he handles the situation.

So I have spent the last month or so re-conceptualizing the whole fucking thing. Basically, I'm back-creating an outline that will incorporate as much as possible of the work I've already done, changing only where necessary.

The good news is, it's gonna be really, really good. My word on it. The bad news is, now I'm running behind.

As usual.

*sigh*


Politics

Frankly, I am fucking sick of American politics.

I make the comments below in response to Hawkie's interest in my reaction to the forged documents in the 60 MINUTES piece on Our President's failure to fulfill his National Guard obligations.

The only thing I think worth commenting on is the extraordinary effectiveness of the Republican spin-machine, and how a few RNC operatives posing as neutral bloggers could make that whole story become about the documents themselves, rather than about the truth.

The truth is that every allegation about Mr. Bush's Guard service in that story is factual. It all happened, exactly the way 60 MINUTES said it happened. In fact, no one in the Bush Administration or campaign has even so much as disagreed with the facts of the situation, let alone issued anything resembling an official denial. They prefer to allow their backdoor spin machine to muddy the waters.

I'm not going to draw any connections between Mr. Bush's virtual desertion under fire and his brainless "bring it on" swagger today. Whatever connection there may be is subject to interpretation, and anyone who reads this is welcome to their own.

Everyone has a right to be wrong.

Only in today's America is it wrong to be right.