rlfj: Blog

One reader asked why I wrote the story as several books. During the writing process there are several natural breaks that occur in plot lines. In this case, it was getting out of school and then getting out of the Army. Each section is relatively easy to delineate and write about. By breaking it into sections or books, I can begin publishing even though I don’t have the whole thing written yet.

Welcome back! When last we saw the Grim Reaper, he was a hero, whole in body but damaged heart and soul. What will happen to him now? Now he has to go home, and maybe, somehow, rebuild his life and his spirit.

For those who want more of A Fresh Start, don’t worry. Carl Buckman will be coming back. Book 3 of AFS is the most important in the story, and when I finish TGR, I’ll go back to AFS.

I had a complaint that I don’t know the difference between psychology and psychiatry, and that I should be an expert in this if I’m going to write about it. Well, it’s true, I don’t know the difference. I’m not sure I care, either. Carl writes that he doesn’t know what’s wrong with Hamilton either. He’s not an expert either, it would seem. Hey guys, just go with the flow. Hamilton is seriously fucked up. It happens in real life, too. For every email I’ve gotten that says this would never happen in real life and I have mishandled the situation, I’ve gotten another email saying their brother/son/relative/friend is equally screwed up and they had similar problems with family members acting weird about it. The Hamilton character is drawn from a real situation, and I have only taken him and his mother about 10% beyond where they really are.

It’s time to throw a zinger into the system! Carl is going to join the Army! I was never in the military. I have numerous friends and family members who were, but for a variety of reasons, I never was. That being said, I have a lot of scholarly knowledge of the military, but not too much hands-on knowledge. I take a certain amount of pride in being realistic. I received a huge amount of expert military advice, which was extremely helpful.

A number of people have said that Carl should use his knowledge of the future to change history. Just how realistic would that be, however? Does he reveal himself to the world and say how he knows the future? Or does he find himself a phone booth and make an anonymous call to the government? The first gets him sent to the psycho ward (maybe he can share a room with Hamilton) while the second gets him ignored.

It is important to remember, that in all these cases, the government already knew what was going to happen! The failures were in the reaction, or lack of reaction, to the information they already had:

• Marine Barracks - The Marines in Lebanon knew they were targets and had been under sniper attack for weeks. Intelligence knew truck bombs were being built. The State Department overrode the Marine commander and ordered the Marines to assume a non-threatening posture. Ooops!

• Challenger - The engineers told the administrators the O-rings were too cold but were ordered to launch anyway. Ooops!

• 9/11 - The CIA and NSA knew that overseas terrorists were up to something. The FBI local field offices knew about the crazy Arabs talking flight lessons but ignoring the portion about landing the planes. Everybody buried it because headquarters in Washington didn’t want to know. Ooops!

• Hurricane Katrina - Everybody in America was watching the Weather Channel and NOAA plot the course of the storm for a week ahead of time, but nobody paid any attention in Washington. ‘Brownie’ did a heck of a job! Ooops!

I am not being partisan about these problems. These particular issues were under Republican Presidents, but there were just as many under the Democrats (Rwanda and Mogadishu come to mind, for starters.)

Chapter 22 is the end of Book 2. Book 3 will be coming soon; it is the pivotal heart of the story. Still, I plan to post some more of The Grim Reaper before returning to A Fresh Start.

I received a few criticisms about family relations revolved around the fact that Mom & Dad would never have allowed Carl to move out and would probably have punished him severely for his behavior as well as taken away his money, or they would have kicked him out completely. Personally, I think that would have been a little harsh, even for the more rigid family dynamics of the idealized nuclear family of the period. (One absolutely fascinating email claimed that Carl’s treatment of others is psychopathic, going back to his fight on the bus and his lawsuit - the miscreants should have been sentenced to tithing - and, oh, by the way, I’m probably a psychopath, too! Tithing? On my most creative day I couldn’t have dreamed up tithing!)

All dollars are given for the time they are written in, so in Chapter 17, we are using 1971 dollars. Is $6-7k per year a realistic figure for an apartment & living expenses at that time? I think so. In 1977 I graduated from college as the highest paid non-engineer in my frat house, at $14k per year. This was after the inflation of 1973 onward due to the quadrupling of energy costs. So $6-7k per annum apartment rent & expenses should be realistic.

Not a whole lot to blog about with Chapter 19. Hamilton makes a triumphal return, in all his amazingness. We’ve got some good times and some bad times. To those who commented about the danger of messing around with a girl with Italian ancestry, well, no guts, no glory! You might get killed, but what a way to go!

I am amazed at the fascination everyone has for the Hamilton character! I think I got more emails about him than anyone else in the story, maybe even more than Carl himself. Trust me, he will play an important part in the story for many years to come, but there will be vast stretches of the story where he won’t be mentioned.

As for what would somebody do about such an individual, remember that fifty years ago the options were quite limited. Most medical plans did not cover psychiatric treatment. Unless you were foaming at the mouth, you generally didn’t get treatment. The drugs available were quite limited compared to today. Furthermore, the social stigma was immense. My mother once claimed my brother had never seen a shrink, even though my father had told me he had. You lied to everyone about it, even immediate family.

By the way, as for the questions about Daisy, she goes on to live a long and happy doggy life with Suzie, her new master (mistress?)