Rogue Warrior

PR types want me to stop being so flip when I talk about upcoming releases.

Huh? I thought that was pretty much my job description.

But to be serious: The next installment in the Rogue Warrior series is finished, and is awaiting publication. At last report, the publisher hadn't set the exact date. Well maybe they had, but if so it's a secret, at least from me.

(I'm not being flip! It's true! It's true! But then again, I'm often the last to know.)

A lot of the story is set in India. The title is Domino Theory . . . or at least it was, since sometimes that stuff changes as we get closer to publication. It's a reference to a serious theory Dick lays out in the book.

No double-entendre intended.
Closeted (??)

Headline in today's Post:

Porn Star's Secret Past

What are we going to find out? That she was a nun?
Not an insignificant development

Chinese Supercomputer Wrests Title From U.S.

A Chinese scientific research center has built the fastest supercomputer ever made, replacing the United States as maker of the swiftest machine, and giving China bragging rights as a technology superpower.

Story here.

(Yes, it's largely symbolic. No, it doesn't lessen its significance.)

Reading

Me: What are you reading?
Her: Ugh.
Me: Ugh?
Her: This book. The characters are cliches, the dialogue is absolutely horrible, and the plot is laughable.
Me: Why don't you read something else?
Her: I'm kind of getting into it.
Speaking of war with China . . .



There's a stretch in the part of Red Dragon I'm working on now where these would have been real handy . . .


Now in paperback, at all the best bookstores . . .
Opening day

Wood chopping season opened in earnest over the weekend with red cedar. Still a little green at the core after six months of aging, but the season is young.

The swinging of the axe always raises the important philosophical questions, to wit: What is the proper beer to drink while chopping wood?

I went with Murphy's for opening day. Hard to go wrong with a good stout, even if the afternoon was on the warm side

Next week: Is using a star-shaped splitter cheating?


By request: Townes' version - he looks like he has one foot in the grave already in the video, which makes it all the more haunting, I suppose . . .
The definition of embarassing . . .



Don't you just hate when that happens?
Did I do wrong?


So I'm in the parking garage after the Yankee game Wednesday, and unfortunately chose the wrong lane to park in - a mistake that gained me more than a half-hour of carbon emissions as I waited in line to get out. (They've been changing the patterns in the lot over the past few months, and now they have them perfected - it's almost impossible to get out quickly if you actually spend any time in the Stadium itself. Which I'm sure is why they felt justified in jumping the price to $40.)

Anyway, this guy in a new Mercury Fusion knockoff tries to cut in line. Like he's got a snowball's chance in hell, even though I am in a good mood since the Yanks won.

Out he jumps from his car and gives me this long sob story about having to get out quickly because he has to see his grandfather in the hospital. Now mind you, he's just gotten into his car, which means he hit the bar after the game. That or he got on the train and remembered in Westchester that he had actually driven.

I of course asked where the hospital was. He said on Long Island and even elaborated on the route he was taking.

It was a long and actually amusing sob story, even if it was total bs. In the end, he was so full of bull that I let him in. He was last seen merrily cutting someone else off and heading at a steady snail's pace toward the exit.

Should have I told him that he cut into the wrong line, and that going out that exit would add at least another hour to his trip?

Nah. And I wasn't influenced by the Mets decal on his bumper, either.
I want this instructor . . .



. . . for basically anything I do.
Conversation


Me: N told me this married woman was hitting on him and asked for advice.
Her: N? Married woman?
Me: Her husband was going away.
Her: She asked you for advice?
Me: That's not so hard to believe. He wanted to know what I would do.
Her: What'd you say?
Me: I said it would depend on what she looked like.
Her: You are so paying for lunch.
The pan goes silent . . .



RIP, Freddy.

(Story, here.)
Really, it was a $5 ticket . . .



Sure, the seat was probably in the restroom, but hey . . .
X*0=??

(AP) SEOUL, South Korea (Oct. 16) -- North Korea's media on Saturday threatened "1,000-fold" military buildup as the United States ruled out lifting sanctions to try to coax Pyongyang into resuming talks aimed at its nuclear weapons programs.
Going Rogue . . .


Bunch of questions about Rogue Warrior in the queue. Some answers, in no particular order:

A: Best place to hook up with Dick is at his website: www.dickmarcinko.com

A: Yeah, he does.

A: The next book is coming out . . . well, the publisher hasn't said, at least not to us. Soon, though, because we've just finished writing it. And we're working on one after that, and on and on...

A: Speaking of the next book, yes, it's based on stuff that Dick's involved in.

A: No.

A: No.

A: I can't speak for Dick on that.

A: I don't know any secret cheats to the game, outside of the ones you can find anywhere on the web.

A: Of course.

A: I like her, too.

A: I wasn't involved in writing 'One Perfect Op,' but it's a good story and frankly, if Dick endorses it, that's good enough for me. So yes, highly recommended.

A: No comment.

A: Dick's pretty busy, but you should try through his website (see above).

A: I do.

A: My favorite is the first, though I'm always partial to the one we're working on at whatever moment I'm asked.

A: I'm not sure how much I should give away, but the basic setting is India and the U.S., with more of it in India.

A: Heh. It's your funeral.
That's why they play 9 innings . . .




Pictures are worth a thousand words...

(Sorry, gentlemen.)
Sometimes . . .


. . . the vision just doesn't work.
Missing the point


There have been a spate of articles, largely in the financial press, over the last few days about the mortgage lying crisis, how halting mortgages to get things right is bad for the economy, and how everybody oughta just shut the hell up and move on.

The stories miss the point: the banks acted - and are STILL acting - irresponsibly. They operated AND ARE STILL operating as if they are above the law.

Which is why we are here in the first place.

So it DOES matter how these are unwound. More of the same leads to . . . more of the same.

(Even the NYT is starting to catch on. Story here on Burger King bankers.)


Bradley looks ancient in this newsreel - the war aged him about a decade for each year he was in/ I think it had more effect on him than Montgomery or Eisenhower.


In stores next month . . .
Now that they have all our jobs . . .

. . . what will they take next?

China, Angered by Peace Prize, Blocks Celebration

Story.
My five dollar seats . . .

So as a fan I have to say that it's great that the Yankees swept the division series on the one hand, but it does mean I don't get to use my five dollar playoff tickets to see Home Game 2 (ALDS Game 4).

Which is kind of a bummer, since it technically renders moot any possible bragging about getting into the playoffs for half the cost of a beer. (Actually even less than that, if you get a draft from the cute Beers of the World girl.)
They're not "flawed" . . .

As in this headline from AP . . .

Up to 40 states plan inquiry into foreclosure data


. . . the mainstream media doesn't really get it: the documents in question aren't "flawed," they're a fraud on the court. They're the equivalent of a witness perjuring himself at a trial.

If you can't get that straight, you really can't understand the depth of the problem.
If you want a good explanation . . .


. . . of what's behind the banks' mortgage foreclosure fraud, read this:


It's not just paperwork.
What I learned from the copy editor

Wiseass is one word.

You'd think I'd know that . . .
Iran's nuke program . . .

. . . making steady progress. Of a sort:


Ali Akbar Salehi blamed a leak in the pool now holding the fuel rods for the Bushehr nuclear power plant.

"A small leak was observed in a pool next to the reactor and was curbed," he said in comments over the weekend that were reported Monday by the official Islamic Republic News Agency. "This leak caused the activities to be delayed for a few days. The leak has been fixed and the core of the reactor is now working properly."

Translation: Not only are their computers riddled with bugs, but they're leaking waste all over the place.

If they keep going like this, the Israelis won't have to blow the reactors up . . . they'll do it themselves.

LA times story here.
What newspapers (used to be) all about

“All I ever wanted to do was to be a journalist, and I didn’t want to leave Ogdensburg,” he explained. . . .

He knows nearly everyone in the city, often introducing people by citing the names of their parents and grandparents. He regularly visits people at St. Joseph’s nursing home. And when people call on Sunday to complain about a missing paper, he often drives out to deliver it in person.

Not only are community newspapers and newspapermen like this a vanishing breed; so are the communities.

Story here.

Hard work

Spent all day working on a love scene . . .

A lot of research. Damn, I love this job.