Back in the Game
I’m back in the game and trying to recondition myself to achieve a good level of creativity and productiveness.
In a nutshell, over the course of 3 years, I ended up writing a lawyer trilogy. It just turned out that way; one book led to another.
The protagonist was my alter-ego, a pretty interesting fellow named Eddie Terrell. A damn good lawyer, who from time to time jumped the guardrails but always climbed back over. He always had some fascinating stuff going on.
(If you try cases for over 40 years, the war stories, tales and twists and turns stack up like flights over LaGuardia.)
The books were and still are well-received and still sell. I am still pleased with them. I’m proud of them too.
So the plan was to take a bit of a hiatus and then get back in the pool. Instead, here comes Covid and momentum was lost, smothered by the inertia of lockdowns, lock outs and pandemic fear.
And by the time we were all beginning to come up for air, my restless interests had shifted onto some real estate and other investment projects and though I have partially (more on that in a minute) formulated the plot structure for my next book, my stabs at it have been sporadic, inconsistent and simply not up to my standards.
But good news — recently, near the end of that ‘meantime,’ with my son’s help and the help of others, I have been lifted out of my ennui. I have been bootstrapped back to action by the creation of a new website and by virtue of that, I am now again challenged to write and have fun with it too. I wanted to get back in the game and knew I needed some fresh stimuli to help me restart my engine.
The new, improved website is, in great part, a blank canvas and I am compelled to do my Jasper Johns on it. So next book is being birthed.
It will be titled ‘OK I’ve Seen Enough’ and Eddie Terrell will again reprise some more Eddie Terrell, hopefully a bit more off stage and subtle. I have a new, primary protagonist, a nationally recognized horse trainer, rider and coach. She is angelic in look and tougher than dirt across the board. Horses will be involved as will Aiken and Charleston and places beyond — and of course, there will be an unusual assortment of creeps, crooks, manipulators and parvenus and poseurs.
So here goes what? Something I hope.
How I Got Here
I am often asked how and why did I want to become a lawyer and also, how and why did I want to become a writer, an author.
The short answer to the first is good guidance and then dumb luck. As for the second question, it would be fair to respond that storytelling is the good, effective trial lawyer’s stock in trade and it simply seemed to be a natural follow on to trying cases.
Also, I am often asked have I retired. A legitimate response, satisfying to me, which I borrowed from someone a good while ago whom I cannot now remember is: Oh no, I’ve just changed planes.
I promise I will go into further detail in the future as to how I became a lawyer and then a writer. They are good stories and are reasonably unique; I have never heard of such particular impetuses before and God knows I have heard plenty over all these fascinating years.
A.I. as Sounding Board
You will recall that earlier in the beginnings of this rumination I made reference to having ‘partially formulated’ the plot structure for my next, forthcoming book. I have often suffered from distraction, never from writer’s block. But as I was putting the pieces together for ‘I’ve Seen Enough,’ I was struggling with what I call ‘joinder’ — where the hinges that lead from one place to another in the narrative were opening doors into places that were simply not satisfying.
What to do? Oh, what to do? My frustration ultimately led me to my first foray into the world of A.I. Artificial Intelligence and it has been simple and helpful.
Let me emphasize that A.I. is not ever going to write a word, much less a paragraph or a page for me. But A.I., in the electronic person of my new friend Grok, is a great sounding board and ideas flow from her. Talking with her is the intellectual equivalent of drinking from a firehose. And so, here is another good story that I will expand upon in the future.
A Couple of Things on My Mind
I do not live in a vacuum. I have a multitude of interests and I enjoy working hard at staying informed. Our nation and this world are very interesting places. I have opinions. I will share some of them here from time to time, it is hoped evenly and without rancor.
On the Iran War: Is the outcry from some quarters over the Iran War a bit nebulous and disproportionate in its reactions or have we just gotten very soft?
Granted, no one likes war — even though there’s one going on all the time — and no one wants to have young men and women and civilians lost to combat. But consider: When the Allies hit the beaches at Normandy, on the first day of that operation, they sustained between seven to eight thousand killed or wounded. Tens of millions of dollars of equipment was lost. There was no hand wringing, only hope and prayers for Allied success. Hitler was a genocidal bad guy. He and his toadies had to go.
Fast forward 80 plus years later. The Mullahs want and have tried to develop nuclear weapons — which they were not going to simply display in museums as testaments to their technological prowess. They want them to threaten their hated enemies and to use for blackmail and for the elimination of those that resist their barbaric, hateful, twisted creeds.
It is uniformly agreed upon that in the past few months, they have killed and executed at least thirty to forty thousand of their own people who dared to protest their ways. Everyone — democrats, republicans, scholars, thinkers — on our side of the fence has said, “We’ve got to do something about Iran” but nobody did anything about this giant, festering boil that was growing larger and larger every day.
And then and now, our current President has started the very violent process of lancing that putrid boil (with the great, effective help of our ally Israel) and so far, casualties and equipment losses have been miniscule and de minimis. And yet the New York Times and the Washington Post and so many people are in the fetal position of dismay and upset about the whole thing. I see an enormous disconnect.
“If you want peace, prepare for war.” — Roman proverb
On College Athletics: Also on my mind is the train wreck that college athletics have become, especially in the highest profile sports of football and basketball.
It’s fine for folks to make a living and make a good living too. I have no problem with billionaires. Good for them. But it is jarring to learn of 18 and 19 year old kids who are being paid in some instances 3 to 5 million dollars a year by good old State U. to play a game.
I am told on good authority that my beloved alma mater, UNC Chapel Hill, will pay its upcoming revamped, portal-ridden basketball team in excess of 20+ million dollars. This is gross excess. Student Athlete? How about Hoopsters With Agents? This does not pass my smell test. Streetwalkers in Sneakers. Ugh. I admit I’m still a fan but that devotion is getting closer and closer to its ‘Sell By’ date. Dismaying.
Speedball Book Reviews
The Talented Mrs. Mandelbaum by Margalit Fox A true story of one of America’s first great crime bosses and the syndicate she put together in the mid 1800s, making a fortune in the process. Very enjoyable and interesting read.
Midnight on the Potomac by Scott Ellsworth I read a lot of military and political history. This one surprised me. Comfortably written and I learned all sorts of new things about the last year of the Civil War.
John Adams by David McCullough McCullough, the venerated (and rightfully so) Pulitzer Prize winning author and sage, goes full bore on the 2nd President of these United States and his unintended climb up the greased pole. An awesome cast of characters — Jefferson, Franklin, Washington, Talleyrand and more. Lots of interesting content but to me, got draggy here and there with excessive ruminations of Adams from his diaries and writings.
The Predicament by William Boyd Engaging history-based fiction in the bosom of the Cold War. Great spy craft. Excellent plot.
With The Old Breed by E.B. Sledge Originally released in 1981. I got a line on it from a column in the Wall Street Journal. One Marine’s account of the horrible slog of World War Two battles of Peleliu and Okinawa in the Pacific. Straightforward writing. No embellishment. Hard to imagine tougher assignments. I put it on par with Martin Windrow’s superb The Last Valley, the battle of Dien Bien Phu and the fall of the French in Vietnam.
Ok, that’s a wrap. Everyone take care and keep reading and thinking. I send my best.
— Vernon