Yes, from Cooper.  As before...keep the phrases that keep the focus.

Just discovered this on Sunday night. Stopped reading partway through and bought "Injured Reserve," which I appreciated a lot, and immediately recommended to three particular friends. I appreciate the nontraditional style -- the archaic format -- and the message and the plain language. I came back here and just finished reading through "The Soldier's Son," as far as it has gone.

I like Hemingway and I like Jim Harrison and Cormac McCarthy and therefore I like your use of language. I enjoy Clancy, too, when I'm not in the mood for a deep dive but craving action and technical depth. This has some of that, too. Plus, I like guns...

I do some writing -- mostly short-format narrative nonfiction. Your style is similar a little to my own style, probably because mine tends to mimic the style of what I tend to read; sort of a creative feedback loop. I struggle too with not enjoying the act of writing, yet enjoying having written. Keep thinking that that'll improve with more practice. I know too well how distractions in real life can sap creative juices, even if not actual writing time. Nothing worse than sitting stumped in front of a blinking cursor.

I'm envious of your persistence and product. I appreciate and thoroughly enjoy your use of language and timing -- lots of good stuff there. You are talented, driven, and well-read, obviously.

Mostly, though, I'm impressed by your characters and their actions, reactions, thoughts, plans. Very lifelike and convincing, and very, very hard to do well. I'm hooked -- was anxiously reading the date stamps on each post, lamenting as they approached today's date. But what I'm hooked on is not necessarily the plot itself, but the characters. I enjoy the shift from character to character, and lack of an omniscient narrator's voice. I'm sure there is a literary term for this but couldn't tell you what it is.

If I might add one technical point -- in an early segment, when Brian and Sylvia were seeing the trucks in storage in the Gehr facility. You called them "Chevy C-10s, four wheel drive." However I believe the model name regime for the pre-Silverado Chevys was "C" for 4X2s and "K" for 4X4s. So a C-10 would be two wheel drive, and a four wheel drive be a K-10. The C-10s are much more common in TX and the south, generally, while almost everything up here in snow country is a four wheel drive (and correspondingly rusted to shit). Nothing worse in snow than a RWD, especially an empty pickup. I am remembering this factoid from high school, when I drove a K-20 (four wheel drive 3/4 ton); miss that dumb thing to this day.

So I'm officially following along now. I'm not a vet or LEO or a former servicemember or anything like that. Just a history buff who likes to shoot stuff. Part Finn and collector of Finnish WWII militaria, including their wonderful modernization of the Mosin design. All those things re: accuracy that you're stating about the k98 et. al. can be restated about most Mosins that have been through Finn service, again, assuming good throat/bore.

Mongo7382, hope you see this -- I recognize your avatar pic as a young Finn soldier with a freshly "liberated"  Soviet 91/30. Hard to miss that M/36 field cap -- known at the time as the "blood bucket..."

Anyway, DCB, your story gives a man lots to think about. And that's a good thing. Will gladly pay full retail for it in Kindle format -- would love to be able to buy it on paper as well.  

That goes double for "Injured Reserve." Have you looked into On-Demand printing/publishing for IR?  How neat to have it in a booklet format, so guys like me could give it out to certain friends and family...

Comments and General Note: update/expansion on last scene proceeding, but

slow. I WILL NOT BE POSTING IT TONIGHT/WED./JULY 15.  Look for it, whatever

I have, on Friday night late/Sat. morning early.



GENERAL NOTE: the perpetual 'forty days until finished' with this story is....

compressing.   (Recall that this story is the 'set-up' for a world of many other

connected stories, so, this is a beginning, not an end. )



To the point, then: over the next month(s) I will be contacting

many/most of you through IM, and prompting here, for likely readers of finished

text, and a possible review.  VERY SIGNIFICANT: most/all of the reviews HAVE

ALREADY BEEN WRITTEN, BY YOU, HERE.  I will never ever get reviews from

general readers, equal to the comments here.  So I will very likely just copy/paste

YOUR past words in a message, and say, 'any chance you could post this as a review?'



GENERAL NOTE: the reviews serve two purposes, first, commerce, obviously,

in the sense of visibility and "this is better, not worse"--that is the obvious.

The not-so-obvious is in fact even more important: the positive reviews are

protection/armor against some pretty grim activity on other venues.  Injured

Reserves is a Kindle Single, editorially approved/selected by Amazon editor

David Blum ( ex editor Village Voice, etc., etc. ) which might suggest at least

some measure of competence.  And it has a striking number of one star "I FFFing

Hate This FFFing Story" reviews.  A one star review essentially says, "A story

cannot possibly be worse/more incompetent/ridiculous/loathsome."

"Wet or Dry" is so obscure as to be invisible,nevertheless it so enraged someone

that they posted a one star review.  

It is this person's only review, ever.  One stars are digital murder. Just a few

hate reviews can demolish a new writer.  It takes about forty five star reviews

to undue the damage.  Guess what:  Guaranteed.  This story is going to be

really, really, hated.  It is a considerable step beyond EMP/zombie/plague/

other fiction, in that it specifically addresses some very real 'why/who/how'

issues, of which we are all aware.  Like Injured Reserves, it is not, strictly

speaking, just entertainment. Please think about this.  I will survive, or not,

as a writer, largely through forces outside our control.  But on this issue,

we have a lot of control.  Two minutes to post a review?  Will be a really

big deal.  Nuff said at this time, more later.



--grywlf52, very pleased to see you, you've been here a long long time.



--Former/11b, likewise, very good to see you again. I recognize many/most

of you now, the early adapters, so a tap on the shoulder is enough.  Thanks.



--Designated/M, freaking killing me with that, I completely forget that anyone

has seen/read "Wet or Dry"--yes, the Lipizzaner cats--please youtube "Lipizzaner

stallions" if you have not done so, and imagine a mechanical cat, "a dust-licker"

performing that kind of dance, as a message of control.  For anyone interested,

DO NOT PAY/BUY "Wet or Dry"--download for FREE ( Amazon DCBourone The

Listening Room ) and that should suffice.  Wet/Dry was specifically left at

a high price to discourage 'drive-by' reviews--look how that worked out.



General Note: as this is a year-plus, and many comments may have been

skipped/forgotten, 'Listening Room/Wet/Dry" was my original writing 'goal'

very hard science fiction on the issue of A.I./end of work/etc.  This story

kept pressing closer, and had an identifiable 'genre' and frankly seemed

more appropriate to our times, and meshed perfectly as a subject with aspects

of my own life experience: in other words, was 'easier' to write, meaning

'faster' and therefore more likely to result in a 'career/job' as a writer.  If

this goes on as long as I would hope, the world of Wet/Dry was intended

to merge with the history/characters of Injured Reserves.  To those of you

who have read Injured, Billy Spears, Gretzky, and their men would have been

key players ( in other words, still alive, modded, rehabbed ) and also

"neural/ideological" templates for one branch of artificial intelligence.

The Gehr family would have emerged as key players in the balance/negotiation

with high function A.I., and so on.  In the meanwhile, if all goes well enough,

the Gehriverse should occupy at the very least, the next ten years of my life.



--StimpsonJ, "keep the phrases that keep the focus"--kill me, dude.  And

that, right there, is one of those phrases.  And on goblins: there is something

way back in these comments, unless I deleted it, on goblins and their code,

the software running the wet ware, and how alien it is to well-adjusted

empathetic civilized westerners/others.  Alien, as in 'not-possible'.  Except

is not only possible, but common, and was the rule for most of human

history, and still is, in many/most parts of the world.



--skywarp989, very pleased to see new voices here, and that is a long dense

rich post.  On Injured, "archaic format" exactly.  And much thanks on recommends,

and more on that below.  Hemingway's style of repetitive beats on essential

'markers' of human activity--food, key thoughts, drives, etc.--was completely

original, as far as I know.  Harrison, must look up.  McCarthy--brilliant, uneven.

Stepping lightly: The Road.  Absent the literati/cognoscenti approval, New York

Times one-hand-clapping, does not stand up, compared to let's say "No Country"

Your 'creative feedback loop' paragraph is a good summation of this task.  Language

/words both clumsy/imprecise and still the only tool which improves on pictures

to expose a character's mind.  This is just ffffing hard.  "Envious" well I respect

anyone who can admit same.  I am max envious of Thomas Harris, "Manhunter"

and M.C.Smith "Gorky Park"--there are none better, in my estimation.  So, you've

already figured this out: aim higher than yourself, and you might gain an inch,

or two. Persistence/product--persistence: I actually am arranging my life so I

"have no other choice"--that should be a compelling driver, yes?  Nevertheless,

until I can make a modest middle class living, this is pretty...risky.  Product:

I have one huge advantage/disadvantage--'writing' for me is an extension

of long acquired habits of 'pattern recognition'--so the tools, words, of fiction,

do not come easy, but the 'habit' of 'noticing/recording/imaging/remembering'

events, and their cause and effect, does.  Our job is to 1. Notice/See/Understand,

first. 2. Then we get to 'describe.'  That's the part that sucks.  On your characters:

choose 1. Characters that are exceptional 2. That which is exceptional about your

ordinary characters 3. Describe that which is specific, but not commonly noted

in fiction/your genre, about your ordinary characters.  Brian/ATF is pretty

ordinary.  He has perhaps an above average ability for self-awareness.  That

is my authorial intervention/tool: I am using my observations in his mind,

to describe what an ordinary man 'sees'.  This is a common/essential 'trick'

of anyone who does this job.



--Your c-10 comment/fix is dead on, and makes me wonder about the evolution

of crowd-sourced 'proofing'--I never would have caught it.  So first, thank you.

Second--I always see tech screw-ups even in high end fiction.  Maybe we are

kicking Madison Avenue editorial ass.  Heh.



--Mosins/K98 oh yes.  And the Swede 96's.  Just astounding.  My go-to if I ever

get to hunt again is a crusty scrubbed k98 with an fn Columbian contract 30-06

barrel, brand new plus maybe 500 rounds.  An old Burris 1-4 pistol scope in

a cheap forward mount.  I used to let it prove itself.  No way anyone would

believe it.  A real trash-can tool, that shoots better than the human eye can see.

I freely admit to a kind of reverse snobism.  I might have 250 dollars in it.



--On kindle version, yes guaranteed.  On paper version, yes guaranteed, perhaps

3-6 months after e-format.  I have to find a place/way to print them myself,

for a bunch of reason.  Injured the same--3-6 months. If I ever have the time,

Injured needs an 'annotated' version, which would be several hundred pages.

Might require approval from Amazon editor, although I can't see why would

be a problem.  Carry on, Skywarp, and look forward to your future comments.



GENERAL NOTE: whatever I have, on this next Friday, late night/early morning.

I do agree with some that the last installment felt a bit rushed but I
can't say I don't like the assurance that I will get my "fix" each
Friday or Monday (I mostly stay off of here on the weekends).
This story/lookingglass into the possible/very likely future just keeps
getting even more awesome with each posting.  I too did not catch what
the "cats dancing" meant until DM quoted "Wet or Dry".  As soon as I read the quote, I remembered the story and how much I liked it.  Please, when the appropriate time in the future of the Gehrverse comes, finish out "Wet or Dry"!  You should be able to afford a fleet of CNC Automatic Comma Hammers by then!

DCB, I spent a hot, sweaty 90 minutes yesterday in a voice booth with no air conditioning (the facility is under construction and they haven’t tweaked the sound enough to remove the a/c hum). I was auditioning to narrate e-books for a production company that provides audio books for Amazon.com.       The production company is moving their operations from NYC to DFW (perhaps the locus of control is shifting?). Anyway, It would be a very cool (irony intended) re-occurring gig to get, but I did have in mind how much fun it would be to narrate your works. Knowing my luck I will probably get a lot of soppy romance novels and a few dry, esoteric theorems.

   But, Wet and Dry, Injured Reserves, epic harbingers of “The Soldiers Son”, whomever gets to voice those (if you don’t do it yourself – which I urge you too*) will make or break the story to the listener. Personally I audibly “picture” a Sam Elliott type of voice to narrate your story.

  Just another thought to weigh you down as you come closer to your publishing date. (* The reason I urge you to voice it yourself is that you know the cadence, the original intent, leaving it to the talent and producers leaves it open to their “interpretation”). Perfect example is Eckhart Tolle’s “The Power of Now”. No one else can sound like it him, no one speaks like him; no one else conveys the essence of the ideas like him.

Hey it's update day. Hope you have had a good week DC.

 

Green Giant/Radio/zoe17/greyguy, I see you, the pressure is on.



Will put up whatever I have.  Should be able to 'resolve' this scene

by....late late tonight/early AM.



Don't expect anything before 11:50 PM.  (That's for you, Zoe17 )



My new task: lowering expectations.



See everyone later.



DCB

With the level of work you've put out so far, good luck lowering expectations.

DC,

If you aren't happy...wait until you are.

They'll live..."Heidi" once interrupted a superbowl...this too shall pass.

DC, you've posted a few times about having concerns with the financial side of committing to full-time writing.  I have no industry insight or grand wisdom to share, but Bracken seems to do ok for himself and he isn't half the writer/storyteller you are.

One way to up visibility/income would be a DCB blog/newsletter on current events, deep history and their relationship/cross-sections.  I would subscribe.

DCB  -  post when you're ready.  You can't miss fast enough to win.

We'll all be here.



"This is liberty hall.  You can spit on the mat and call the cat a bastard."

I"m on it.  Another few hours.  Won't crash til done.



Wish this were physical.  I'd crush it.



See whoever is up in a few hours.



DCB

Ok, better late than never.  Comments and comments on past comments next 24/48.

This is still pretty rough, but you will be able to see where I'm going with this.

You have a kind of skeleton here, basic structure and some tone notes.

And probably an obscene number of typos.

Ok, gotta crash.

----------TEXT REMOVED .RE EPUB TOS ETC.----------

GENERAL NOTE: much thanks to those of you who find search phrase:

'DCBourone Kindle Single Injured Reserves'


"Combat is the control of your adversary in the three dimensions of space,

across the fourth
dimension, of time...." search (Kindle Single Injured Reserves)

Thank you, DesignatedMarksman.

Ok, crash out time.

DCBourone

Thanks!

I used to field trial Brittany's with a gentleman named Wallace O. He said something in the lines of your Librarians that kind of shook my world one day.

He said do you want to know when y you are truly forgotten? It is when a Father and Son are standing looking at a picture and the Son turns to the Father and asked who is that and no one knows who it is,  that is when you are truly forgotten.

DC I think you should be truly happy about your readers finding mistakes and other errors.  To me this is telling me that people are reading every word and hanging on to everything you say rather than just going through the motions of reading. I found one for sure and one that could possibly written differently.

I like your writing style and do not wish to rush you.  But I not sure I will live long enough to read all of your books of it goes past 20 years of writing.

When Maria asked to see his hand.  He held her his left hand.

Should that possibly be( he handed her his left hand.)


Well, now we’re all the way into the deep strange.”


Lou didn’t bother to ask what she meant.

(He was already there)

He was already into the deep strange.

Awestruck ... thank you!

Great update.

Good stuff.
Thank you.

What is this spell you cast?

Again with the horse..and again it tears me to pieces.

This isn't this book...no, not some simple story...not fair...to tear at this scab...here you are here replicating Injured...and it hurts every bit as much as it did before.

Silence on some dock.  As loud as dushkas on some beach.

How many times can the same moment exist?

How many lessons can we learn from it?

Someone typed the word "awe"...yes, and then some.

fff

Some moments of power are seared into the fabric of existence, etched into time so they never really end. They stretch the length and breadth of our collective gestalt.  Ever walked into an ancient Cathedral, castle, old church or Monastery and felt the weight of god on your bones? All those centuries of pious prayers seeped into the stones and like a mystical miasma they swirl around you and through you. Just as all those ancestors have gone before, they still are present in your bloodline and you carry them with you in your genetic coding. Why should such things not resonate and disturb us?
DC is locked in to the frequency, the cadence of memories not our own quite yet. The veil is thinning, who knows what’s coming through the mist? DC is surprising even himself.

Thanks for the update.

"and it smashed into him then, as hard as anything he had ever known, just how much was lost."

This is my favorite sentence thus far. It keeps repeating itself in my mind.

Damn

Comments on comments:



Going back to GreenGiant on 7/15--



--GreenGiant, yep was 'rushed' and also did not resolve set-up/justification/

pay-off.  Hopefully the 'full scene' addresses this.  The 'cats dancing' comment

by Designated still blows me away.  Would love to have the time someday

to finish/expand Wet or Dry.  Am afraid by the time/if I have the time to finish,

the issues of A.I. and 'what it wants' will have been fully addressed, and common

topics, as they are becoming even today.  "Wet or Dry" was drafted in 1999,

in a few spare moments.  Fiddled with in 2004.  The future, and fiction, are

catching up to Wet or Dry....probably too fast for me.



--RadioHack, on voice, we will have conversation this subject, likely face to face,

next six/eight months, depending on how things go.  Have considered doing

it myself, particularly with Injured Reserves.  On intonation/timing/voice, yes

have a pretty good instrument, and considering difficulty of read/content, familiarity

would be very helpful.  Power of Now, will look up.  Good to see you Radio, and

a hand shake before a year has past, highly probable/certain.



--zoe17 sorry I was late, and very much have you in mind on timing.



--greyguy awesome appropriate gif.



--BigDam, on lowering expectations, I am pondering language for warnings/edification

on different stories in the world of the Gehriverse--this first story super important

for intro of primary characters/themes/etc.  Next two stories are 'satellite' stories--

characters who serve/are recruited by the Gehriverse, and are further attaching

themselves to Gehr Waffen and the Librarians.  I will have to be very careful to state

that Billy/Pop/Gehr Waffen are in the wings, a kind of 'home base' but the stories

do not directly involve those characters.  A number of reasons for this: first, briefly,

I have to let external world 'catch up' on the big themes of the U.S. in a kind of slow

default, and very much want to avoid the cliches/common tropes/themes of this genre.

We shall see.  The input here will be carefully considered, after story two: "Gretzky"



--stimpsonj, understood, and a handshake someday.  But pressure of timetable

a force to which I must adapt.  Pride alone will maintain a certain level of competence.

But I really can't indulge myself here.  This book really would be....ah, 1000 pages

if I did it the way I would prefer.  Time and the market just won't allow that kind

of indulgence.  Injured took about 1000 hours, or, 100 ten hour days for just 78

pages. No chance I will be able to do that again.  And net net, the consequent product

is pretty much inaccessible to 99 percent of the reading public.  Injured was a kind

of 'proof of concept' device.



--Field/MP good to see you.  On Bracken, I had a brief comm. with him a few years

ago on other matters.  He has my unqualified respect.  He established a long term

credibility on freerepublic.com, leveraged same through massive hard work and

industry into his present 'brand'--he was also very early, maybe even the first/one

of the first to identify/brand himself in this 'genre.'  I am pretty late, by 3-5 years.

We shall see.  On your other point: a blog/newsletter--I will definitely have a blog/

some other net presence at some point.  I would love to sell Gehr and Sohnes sterling

silver challenge coins, pound them out on dies myself, and so on.  We shall see.

Very much appreciate offer of support but

very/extremely unlikely I would charge for a newsletter.  Your additional point about,

let's call them "consequences"/cause and effect/historical relationships is a continuing

concern here.  I am doing what I can to address these issues here.  As much as I can.

Nuff said at this time.  If, on the very unlikely chance that I do well enough to build

some version of "Malcomb's Tower" I would probably extend this discussion/stories

to related critical subjects.  By the way "Confessions of an Economic ---man" is a

very interesting book, written by a very observant liberal.  Even here, where the self-

selection for like minds is profound, I am afraid I would have some very unpleasant/

threatening things to say.  Field/Mp we might arrange to discuss these issues at some

point in the future.  Good to see you.



--kermit, much thanks your patience, and comment.  I will be trying to split the difference

between 'perfect' and 'time' as long as I do this.  Still pretty early in learning curve.

Like, at the beginning!



OK CATCHING UP TO AFTER-UPDATE COMMENTS:



--Radiohack, and you're welcome, Radio!  More for you below...



--Trapshooter, on remembering, and Librarians, excellent analogy and particularly

meaningful when 'remembering' is now under attack from all possible quarters.

And yes I hope there is no misunderstanding about the value of everyone here

pointing out all mistakes/typos/tone errors/anything at all. A huge upside. 20 years,

stick around Trap.  Figure I'm about 1 percent into this process.  If some day this

forum post doesn't have 2-3 million looks and 20,000 comments I've been hit

by an asteroid.  Because that's what it will take.  And the next 20-30 years will make

or break us.  We will still be some version of ourselves, or a horrid hybrid of

George Orwell and Aldous Huxley's worst visions.



--Trapshooter, good eye on text.  Will fix.



--Currently, good to see you.



--airsix, likewise, and thanks for sticking with this you guys.



--HBruns, likewise.  More on Friday next.



--StimpsonJ, much thanks, and how many times can this moment...?  Quite a few

I'm afraid.  Spell cast...I hope so.  Docks--entrances, and exits, to another world.

Points of embarkation.  No oceans from this vantage in Texas, more's the pity.



--Radiohack, much like the concept/word/all ideas associated with 'frequency'--

what I try and tune.  On surprising myself, I wish it were so.  The story/themes/ideas

are long and well trod, I'm afraid. Now, finding the words to describe? Not so much.

And I've spent a lot of time in old, very old, places, and feel exactly the same.



--zoe17, much thanks your patience.  Will continue working on the 'timing.'



--PFunkk, yes those words.  As a close reader, you will see them kept and moved

on edit.  They belong at the end of that 'beat' between Maria/Lou, and set-up the

'beat' on Lou seeing that Billy is still alive and will continue his family traditions

at the end of the overall scene.  There is some technical design here.



Ok.  Good to see everyone.  More on Friday.



DCBourone

DCB,

I am stating the painfully obvious when I say that like a giant tuning fork, you have found the "frequency" that resonates with this audience.  And like a tuning fork, you are causing "sympathetic vibrations" amongst us!  Keep the PCH running at full speed, yet do not be afraid to get out the smallest jewelers mallet when needed to perfectly form a thought or idea before buffing to a mirror finish.



I asked my Dad once why I was polishing the bolts to re-assemble the transmission on a classic British car since nobody would ever see them again.  His response was "I will know that they were perfect" and that was enough justification for him.



Update at will, Good Sir!

I do not post but very seldom I created an amazon account just to get Injured Reserves.just to let you know how much I enjoy this tale of adventure and intrigue.Thank You. Scott

GENERAL NOTE: a very long difficult week.  Writing time very compromised.  In the interest of prompt

communication I am saying that Friday update may be delayed several days.  I will update progress/probabilities

by mid afternoon tomorrow, and again by 10 PM tomorrow night.



--GreenGiant, we are very fond of the word 'frequency' here.  Very.  I wish I had more time for the jeweller's

mallet, the files, the chisels.  Was just looking at a grand display of ancient coins tonight... the details in

relief can be stunning.  Iris of eyes. Coils of hair.  Nostrils.  A great sorrow is that only the coins survive,

I can find few/no examples of the dies themselves.  Having no value themselves, when a denomination

was changed, the dies were smelted down, the metal recut, for the next coin.  I would as much own the

dies, as the coins.  On your dad polishing the internals of a classic car, exactly.  He has to know.  Rolex

and the other finest watchmakers do the same thing: it is to the maker, and the owner, know how much

care went into the design.  Awesome stuff, Green/G.



--SAC1911, much thanks, and will continue.  Special thanks on Injured, which is pretty non-accessible

compared to this story.  If you are comfortable writing a brief review on Injured, please do.  The reviews

are much more important than one might think.  They are particularly important for a future age of less

perceptive/less friendly scrutiny.



--To those of you who have found Injured Reserves, thank you.



Ok, back to work.  The Witching Hour, which is mine and mine alone.



DCBourone

I saw your post and thought sweet, update time, DC you tease!!

--zoe17, fellow Night Owl, believe me I think of you every time on the posting/timing issue.

Believe me, am not happy about this.  Just basically zero time to concentrate this week.  

Some time tonight, this morning, maybe tomorrow.  Writing is what I want to do...but not there yet.



Ok, back to work.



DCB

No worries. Thanks for keeping us updated. And I wish I was home in bed with the family instead of work.

Bocephalus and Ferdinand know,,, all animals know of a good heart that beats within, young children as well. They wait for the best 2 legged friend they've ever known. I'm worried about Lou, is he past the point of making it thru this ? A drifter I see. Marie Elizabeth, somewhere in all this she needs to find a good man. That she deserves.

GENERAL NOTE: on timing/update--Ok, this week pretty much burned.  Will see what

I can do tonight.  Best case scenario would be short update by 7AM CST tomorrow

morning.  Probability: 30%.



--zoe17, understood.



--BLG good to see you, and yes animals know stuff at a level we do not.  Love that

word "frequencies"--and don't worry about Lou--he will be a constant.  Another window

through a good man's mind on the Gehriverse, like Brian.  On Maria--err, well, let's just

say she needs somebody, someday.  I have an arrangement in mind.

I'm sure small minutiae of the story are continually re-directed as you write. I still feel obligated to point out a discrepancy:

In the beginning of the story, Billy slaughtered the cartel soldiers four days after his 14th birthday.
In a later chapter, the event occurs on his birthday.
That's it, keep on.

Pretty sure that it was implied or stated that Maria wasn't really attracted to men. ( about the time she was DPS  assigned guide to Sylvia!??)

That's about as PC as an old guy like me can be!

Delorted cause in hind-sight it wasn't as funny as it was just...cheap.

Nothing to add except -

A system of morality which is based on relative emotional values is a mere illusion, a thoroughly vulgar conception which has nothing sound in it and nothing true.
Socrates

There are a terrible lot of lies going about the world, and the worst of it is that half of them are true.
Winston Churchill


There's always the hyena of morality at the garden gate, and the real wolf at the end of the street.
D. H. Lawrence


Let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion. Reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle.
George Washington



Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak; courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen.
Winston Churchill

GENERAL NOTE: background--another significant project in entirely different

domain has been requiring more time than I originally thought.  And some

normal personal stuff.  Been hammering away.  Progress slow but steady.

Writing time has suffered a bit.  Nevertheless we are still at 120,000 words,

and the ending is noted/blocked/scenarioed and has been for some time.

Very likely I will muster update by Friday/early Sat. morning, barring

exogenous events.  "Scenarioed"--I made that up.  Do not use it.  No such

word exists!



--zoe17, crack me up with that gif/icon.



--PFfunk, great eye and memory/details.  Timing on this thing gives me fits.

On edit ( next two weeks I hope ) there will be a 'timing' pass, where all

events/flashbacks/memories must be justified on a calendar/clock/across

all characters.  In a non-linear story with multiple characters, that is a huge

task.  PF you caught a big one.  I already know of a couple of others.

There will probably be a dozen or so...ouch.  Will fix.



--Piddler, your coin is on my desk. Once this is e-published, my time will

free up a bit.  I'm a perfectionist ( which is really just a measure of how

much fail I can tolerate ) so hopefully after e-pub I am going to print

hard copy locally, figure way to bind it/screw it together ( have some

bronze/brass screws/nuts in mind ) and attach your Morgan (screws?

wire? Glue...no, not glue--most likely screws and a pad/dab of sealing

wax) in the upper right corner as a kind of tab.

When this is done, I will post a pic of Piddler's "Book" here.  Piddler

do you have book space for something "non-standard" size?  For

instance, a book the size of typing/printing paper?  Ah, and on Maria...

ah that's fine.  "Maria is interested in many things, to varying degrees."

See the comment below.



BigDam, you rock.  Let's say that Piddler way above leaves some room

for interpretation.  That of the reader.  In context.



--stimpsonj, we know each other well now.  No harm no foul, St.

Damage...zero.



--Radiohack, there is nothing I loathe and consider more dangerous in

myself and others than...envy.  And I envy you your library.  Fortunately

my own is so large, and I am so forgetful, that I can re-read my classics

very often, as if for the first time.







GENERAL NOTE: much thanks to those of you who find search phrase:





'DCBourone Kindle Single Injured Reserves'





To those of you who are new here, or lurking, Injured Reserves is a kind


of moral bible of the Gehr Family, and a key reference between and amongst


all who live in the Gehriverse. Injured was written by a member of the Gehr


Family, who will make himself known in later books.





"Combat is the control of your adversary in the three dimensions of space,


across the fourth dimension, of time...." search (Kindle Single Injured Reserves)


Thank you, DesignatedMarksman.





Ok, back to work.





DCBourone

DCB... yes, my friend I have a place for such a book/coin but as I said before PLEASE feel no such obligation!

You have provided well over a year of free entertainment, thought provoking discussion,(maybe) inspiration, and something for all of us to look forward to in the form of your updates and comments.  I am continually amazed at the level of insight and wide range of knowledge and eloquence shown here by not only yourself but many others.

My big concern is that you get this published while it is STILL a work of fiction!

I'm pretty sure that we all share Piddler's concern.....every day it seems that we get closer to the time that this story changes from fiction to history.

The truly sad part is that this "story" is easier to believe than most of what passes for news today.


Take your time DCB.  Rushing the artist results in crappy art.



No lions were harmed during this post.

Friday is UPDATE DAY!!!  

GENERAL NOTE: you guys crack me up.  Very aware update day, and last weeks fail.

A good discipline for me to grind myself into some kind of schedule. Other stuff in life:

schedule.  This stuff, so far, not much.  Trying to make the translation now.

TO THE POINT: WORKING ON UPDATE TONIGHT. It will be short, raw, probably

the most unfinished so far.  But it will have a beginning, middle, and resolution.

It stars one of our favorite villains, as he observes the prep for the assault

on Gehr Waffenfabbrik No. 6.  Watch Tim closely: he has a lot of odd skills

which are translatable to many domains.  You will see some here.

THE UPDATE WILL APPEAR HERE AROUND 6 AM/Saturday morning at

the latest.  That's the best I can do.



--Piddler, the hard copy both an obligation and a pleasure.  Pretty pissed this

is taking so long, but I still don't know how to 'brute force' the actual writing,

as in tweezing grains of sand off the floor of an airplane hangar, and making

a mosaic.  I need the best possible light, the steadiest hands, and no breeze.

Hard to arrange all those factors in the same time.



--Kermit, very grateful and understood but I have to be more ruthless with

myself and this process.  If I am to succeed I must become considerably

more predictable.  It bugs the shit out of me to miss a Friday.  And we

all know that pain is good, within certain limits.



--highstepper, very pleased to see you and now I will get back to work on

our update.  Just made some coffee, sharpened a pencil, slapped a pig

back onto the porch.



Ok, back to work.



DCB



search "Kindle Single Injured Reserves"--"Combat is the control of your adversary in

the three dimensions of space, across the fourth dimension, of time...."  Thank you,

Designated Marksman

--zoe17, working now.  Max funny.  Having hard time.  Must adjust to schedule.  Wow.

BRIEF UPDATE FOLLOWS COMMENTS:

GENERAL NOTE: I've got more, tons more, but it needs a lot of massaging.  For

those with a forensic interest, you're looking at quite a few hours, scattered

across many days, massaging the last ten thousand words into place ( yes,

the story has been essentially 'done' for many months, it just needs a lot

of editing/justification/enhancement ) and this chunk has a 'beginning/middle/end.'

--zoe17 et al, wish I had more.  I will comment on comments, set up a time

line as soon as I can for next installment.  As a matter of discipline I should

stick with the "whatever I have" and aim, at the very least, for next Friday.

-----------TEXT REMOVED .RE EPUB TOS ETC.---

Hey DCB, nice to see you as well.  Thanks did the update.  Really enjoying the story.  It's scary to know that there's lots of Tim Bassingersa and Sylvia's out there.  

Keeps me thinking...

Have a good 'un!

Posted Via AR15.Com Mobile

Hey DCB, nice to see you as well.  Thanks did the update.  Really enjoying the story.  It's scary to know that there's lots of Tim Bassingersa and Sylvia Meyers out there.  

Keeps me thinking...

Have a good 'un!

Posted Via AR15.Com Mobile

"Sorry. And fuck you very much for asking,” Time said.

Tim said?

Looks like a typo to me.

I can not wait to read this in one piece, hopefully on paper some day.  

I'm also excited to check back in on our friend on the highway who just punched a hole in a bad dudes cheek with the  sharp crown of a revolver. (That sharp crown idea is great to me, and it's giving me an idea for a s&w 642)

Thanks for the update, and for the story in general