DrakeNews #120: May 11, 2021
Dear People,
Things are getting better! The catheter is out and I can pee normally. It took a while and I was doubtful to the end that shrinking my large prostate by embolization was going to work but it did at last. The whole business was beyond depressing and combined with everything else I really didn’t feel much hope.
We both have our vaccine shots with no side effects and can live normal lives. My wife continues to be home at most times. I had a plan to work anyway, but I wound up having a burst of medical appointments and didn’t really try it out. Since then I tried another experiment. I regularly get requests to collaborate with strangers. I regularly blow them off.
Recently however, I decided that because I wasn’t able to get anywhere with my own work I’d take a look at a plot by Ryan Aslesen. It was a good job. I have been at work modifying and expanding it. I’m feeling pleasure at working usefully again and a great deal of thanks to Mr Aslesen. I don’t know where this is going to go but I think we’ll actually have a book. (I told him I’d see what happened because I was by no means sure that I’d be able to work. If I could, he would pay me whatever my work had been worth to him.) I’m happy with what I’m getting so far.
Sean Hazlett edited Weird World War III for Baen. I did a story that turned out to be way better than I’d expected. He’s pitching another series to Baen, and I would very much like to do another story for him but I need a story I want to write. When I did the first time I was really happy with the result.
The Serpent, the third book in my Time of Heroes, series is out as an e-arc from Baen. These novels have the feel of fantasies though I suppose they’re technically SF. Basically I’m using the Arthurian Cycle (the Matter of Britain) as an armature for the story. In this particular case the climax is closely similar to the romance of Yvain by Chretian of Tours.
I was interviewed recently on Writers Drinking Coffee. (I was actually drinking tea, but they only recorded audio anyway.) There was nothing earth shattering, but especially recently I really like matters being quiet.
I think I do want to say something about the recent spate of attacks on Asians. This is remarkably stupid. It seems to have gotten started with a fellow shooting a bunch of (mainly) women in the Atlanta area. They were Korean and the media clanged on that fact without noticing the businesses targeted were massage parlors which happened to have Asian staffs. The shooter pretty quickly announced that he was a sex addict and the women he’d been hiring had been leading him into sin.
I said the business was remarkably stupid, even if you believe in sex addiction as a condition. I’ve known alcoholics, but none who thought they were justified in shooting up bars. The attacks on Asians have continued. Apparently Mr Trump made a point of referring to Covid-19 as the Chinese virus. That’s probably true; which makes it unusual for Mr Trump’s statements on the subject. It doesn’t make the attacks less stupid.
Don’t be stupid (or hostile) people. Work at making the world a better place
–Dave Drake
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