Lit City Blues

This big doorstopper of a book has been on my bookshelf since I don't know when. I'm pretty sure I inherited this one from my parents, so it probably sat on their bookshelf since I don't know when because I don't remember purchasing it despite the fact I have Pakenham's excellent book The Boer War (which I do remember purchasing.) And having made my way through all six hundred and eighty pages of it, I'm still not entirely sure what I think about this book. Let's start with the obvious: this was written in 1991 and it feels like it, too. I'm sure there have been more up-to-date assessments of the Scramble since then (at least I hope so) but when Pakenham pegs apartheid in South Africa as being the most poisonous legacy of the Scramble, it makes sense in the context of the immediate post-Cold War, pre-ending of Apartheid era in which he was writing. I, reading this in 2024, 33 years after Pakenham wrote the book would be more inclined to point the finge...

Day One: That's the thing about life. It goes on. Day Two: I was only ever convinced of one thing: someone was going to be very, very wrong. I just didn't expect to be this wrong. There's no fluke here. No antiquated bullshit like the electoral college to hang your hat on. This was a comprehensive thumpin' and people voted for this. It's nice on the one hand, because living in Iowa I've genuinely thought that people had lost their damn minds in this state for a few years now and now it turns out we weren't crazy, we were just early . I hated the black despair of Tuesday night. It took me most of Wednesday to drag myself out of it, but I did. I don't think politics or elections should impact my mental health that much so I'm not going to let them do that anymore. This post will probably be my last piece of political commentary for the foreseeable future. I want to do other things with my brain. I want to read more books. Study more history. Write more...

This book has been lurking on my shelves for years and I've taken a few runs at it now and again but I finally finished it. I've been thinking about this and I can't remember when I purchased this book, but if I could pinpoint a reason why, it was probably moving to Mankato for grad school. No, I didn't buy this for a class, but once I moved there, I decided to try and learn a little about my new place of residence and that's when I found out that the largest mass execution in US history took place in Mankato. That's when I found out about the Great Sioux Uprising that tore apart southern Minnesota in 1862 . I grew up, attended elementary school, high school, and four years of college about 200 miles away from where a lot of it happened and none of it ever came up in any history class I had ever taken, ever. For people of color in this country, that's probably not all that surprising- given how many people had to learn about the Greenwood Massacre thanks to...

PRESIDENT/VP: Harris/Walz: I keep meaning to respond to a tweet that floats up in our pre-election nausea/anxiety phase. It's something like, "Tell me why you're voting for Harris without using Trump as a reason." Well, okay, then random Twitter person, as the kids say: Bet. Leaving aside the fact that she's excellent on reproductive rights, and housing, has actual policies on her website, and doesn't just verbally diarrhea her way to half a dozen different policy positions a week, I have a couple of very simple reasons I'm back Harris/Walz this time around that have absolutely nothing to do with Trump.  First, it's a hammer blow to our current primary system. As currently constructed, the primary system rewards and encourages partisanship. To a certain degree, that's to be expected, but it's metastatized beyond the point of lunacy now. Candidates who run for either party's nomination are forced into positions that are wildly out of sync wi...

Almost forgot about this, but here's the Third Quarter Check-In: 10 For 2024 1. Book 4: Get this book into draft form (close to, if not ready to launch-- fingers crossed!) by the end of the year. I have some other writing goals as well, but this is going to be my big, main focus for the year. I'm still grinding with Book 4. (Currently on a draft of Chapter 7) after getting some eyes on what I have, I'm fairly sure that the final draft is going to be structured differently than the current story I have in mind, but for now, the big picture goal here is to get it all down on paper and then see what I've got to work with and go from there. In big, genuine, real-life news: Paid Posts are live on Substack. I don't think I did the best job with the first two rounds, but I'm getting better at this (always the goal) and should have them nicely packaged with free previews moving forward. Speaking of: my first novella launches over there today! (I'm planning on wide-r...

I have had this book lurking on my bookshelf for years and I've made an attempt or two at actually reading it, but have never made it all the way through- at least until now. It is, I will confess, an abridged version, which some purists may have an issue with, but I didn't.  The story begins with Edmond Dantes who is returning to the port of Marseilles after being at sea and his future is looking very bright indeed He is on the verge of becoming the master of his own ship. He has a young lady that he loves (Mercedes the Catalan) who accepts his offer of marriage. Good fortune, stable finances, and a prosperous life seem to be ahead of him.  However, not everyone is happy with Edmond Dantes. His crewmate, Danglars wants the job that Dantes is on the verge of getting. He's also got a rival for the affections of Mercedes: Fernand Mondego. Together, they plot to undo him and in this, they are helped by an unusual fact. On the way back home, at the behest of the Captain (now d...