DrakeNews #125 for March 11, 2022
Dear people,
I’ve been taking Genaire ReBuilder for some while now. At this point I can endorse it. In combination with working out on machines with my son Jonathan, I am in better shape than I was a year ago.
My balance is off and I’m being driven places rather than riding motorcycle. This disturbs me but it’s livable.
My brain is still shrunken though. I’m not writing. I don’t know how much is the condition and how much is me being a lot less smart than I was and 76 years old.
I’ve got some stories out though which makes me feel good. The odd one for ROBOSOLDIERS, odd because the editor wanted a story set in my own military occupational specialty (MOS). I was an interrogator. I couldn’t think of a believable way I could postulate a robot human enough to achieve empathy with a subject
I then decided to have robots do the necessary support work for the interrogation–the grunt work so to speak. This made both interrogator and subject completely human.
The story supposes that Mr. Trump won the 2016 election. I was glad he didn’t though my wife said “Trump’s a liar and you’re a liar, so I don’t see why you don’t support him?” I didn’t, however.
The story is a story not a political tract. If I had set it in first century AD Rome, a
reader would not assume I was making a reasoned judgment about the merits of Tiberius as emperor, nor should anyone assume my use of a more modern setting means I’m delivering my judgment on today’s politics.
A few years ago a stranger wanting me to collaborate on an alternate history novel sent an outline to my son’s address in Guilford county thirty miles away. The proposal postulated that the US in a crisis turns to the greatest leader available (Douglas Macarthur) who saves the day. I have a very low opinion of Macarthur as a strategist, so the wannabe’s attempt to find my home address through the tax rolls didn’t harm his chances of getting me to help him.
In the course of reading Astronomy magazine I saw mention of an 1888 book of popular astronomy by Garrett P Serviss. Serviss wrote other popular science works and some science fiction, including Edison’s Conquest of Mars. This was reprinted in 1947 by Carcosa House, put together by four fans. Karl really wanted to use Carcosa (not house) for our publishing venture so he contacted them (including Ted Dikty). They were all fine with our using the name.
That was my experience of being a publisher. The honor and status were important to Karl. Jim Groce (the third partner) and I didn’t lose more than we could afford. In all, I guess, a good thing to have done.
Go put a positive spin on whatever you’re doing.
–Dave Drake
Please use the contact form to send email to Dave