All posts by David Todd

Politics

Praying for those in the Latest War

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I am heartbroken at the war in Israel and, by all appearances, soon to be an Israeli ground war in the Gaza Strip. I understand the origin of this, that Palestinian terrorist group(s) found a weak spot in Israeli defenses and launch an invasion.

It’s difficult to understand the hate that prompts one people to attack another. From my years living in the Middle East, I believe I have a reasonably good understanding of the positions of the two peoples, Israel and Palestine. They were close to peace in the days of prime minister Ehud Barak, yet by all accounts the Palestinians under Yassir Arafat walked away at the last minute when all was finished but the signing. I wasn’t there, of course, but this is what was reported at the time and since.

I’m now at a loss for words. I simply pray for peace in the region, for Israel and Palestine, for Jews and Arabs/Palestinians. Oh God, move upon people to not hate each other.

 

home improvements

Household Work Takes Over

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Dateline: Thursday, October 12, 2023

Hopefully the synthetic materials will take less maintenance than the old wood did.

It is a time of home improvements at the Todd household. After years of delaying, I finally pulled the trigger on replacing the flooring on our upper deck. It was 36 or more years old, and had lots of deterioration. The men have been working on it since last Thursday, and will finish tonight—except for some final clean-up tomorrow. It will be nice to have a truly usable deck.

Just before the last railing sections were complete and final cleanup.

But, as they tore old boards away, at the edges of the house, the found water damage. A gutter wasn’t installed properly and was dropping most of its water on the deck. Two doorways are damaged. I called a mold inspector, who came out today. He tested those areas, did some air samples, and tested a dark spot on an outside wall that Lynda noticed just a few days ago. He’s pretty sure that has active mold, but we won’t get the report until tomorrow. If we do have to make repairs, it will mean removing built-in bookcases. I’m not looking forward to that.

Then, in the master bathroom, one interior wall is finished at an angle, creating a dead air space between it and the two exterior walls that come to a right angle. We’ve had water come in there, apparently, and in the basement beneath the dead air space we can see the floor boards up above, and they are rotten. The mold guy tested that area as well. Whether there’s mold there or not, for sure we’ll have to do some remediation work. I’m not looking forward to that either.

Also, I’ve decided to replace the old gutters and downspouts. They either weren’t attached properly years ago, or the roofers did something back in 2020 to slightly detach them from the house. I am looking forward to that, though not to the money it will cost me.

Consequently, I’m not sure how much writing I’ll get to do while I’m overseeing these projects, as well as getting ready for Thanksgiving at home. But who knows? Maybe I’ll find a way to adjust my writing schedule and still get things written.

interviews

Author Interview: Donna May Hanson

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A friend and a colleague: Donna May Hanson

One author in Bella Vista I have come to know is Donna May Hanson. She and I were members of the Village Lake Writers and Poets, until recently a local writers organization. We’ve shared lots of thoughts on writing, on writing clubs, and keep in touch fairly regularly. She shared some of her book with the critique group I’m in. She also shared her book with me, and I had the opportunity to read and critique it before publication. I attest to the accuracy of the situations and dialog.

But enough from me. Let’s hear what Donna has to say.

Q. Donna, you have a diverse and impressive resume. Give us a short version of that, say, a couple of paragraphs.
Donna: I typically just tell people that I’m a retired systems engineer because when I look back over the years, I was the happiest and felt the most useful when I worked for United Technologies on the Strategic Defense Initiative (what they called the “Star Wars” project) in the late 70s and early 80s at White Sands Missile Range. The project was important to not only our country, but slowed the downward spiral that the US and Russia were traveling, and the technology developed lead to much of what we take for granted today both in infrastructure products and medical technology. And we got to blow stuff up with a big laser. For a young engineer, that’s hard to beat.
Donna’s book is a tribute to the men of the LST. She has had good reviews from military people.

Q. Your book is Heroes All. Tell us first why you wrote it.

Donna: When my father passed away in 2005, my brother and I found an old briefcase under a table on his patio. Inside were the Scrabble board he’d played with me throughout high school, an old Cribbage board, an address book containing all his business and personal contacts, pictures of my brothers and I and our respective mothers, and 63 photographs of his shipmates onboard the LST 374 during WW2. That briefcase contained the story of his life and those things he held most dear. I started researching his military service and the history of the LST 374 and was humbled by what I found. He never spoke of his time in the Navy and after reading the war diaries, muster rolls, and history of the battles he was in, I understood why. I wrote the book to honor him, his shipmates, and the LST 374. The proceeds from the sale of the book were donated to the LST 325 Museum in Evansville, Indiana and the LST Association: a veteran’s group. Admiral Andrew L Lewis, USN Retired, wrote the forward and joined me as the keynote speaker at last year’s LST Association’s reunion.
Q. Now, give us a synopsis of the book.
Donna: This is not a story about warfare; it’s a story about young men, most of whom are still in their teens, learning to work together, to help one another grow and survive under extraordinary circumstances, and in the end to understand that our friendships and families are born throughout our lives and travels. And that we’re never alone.
Q. Who is your target audience?
Donna: Those with a military background will appreciate the story. It’s written for them. Anyone who had a relative serve on a ship during WW2 would appreciate it. But the war is just a setting…the story is a coming of age tale, and as such will appeal to teenagers and the elderly alike.
Q. Do I understand you have a dramatization deal in the works? Tell us about that.
Donna: I wouldn’t call it a deal. I have two directors/producers interested in developing the book for a stage production in time for the 80th anniversary of D-day next June.
Q. What’s next in your writing plans—after Heroes All: The Movie, that is?
Donna: I don’t know about a movie…although, I can see Tom Hanks taking an interest in it. The role of “Charlie” would be perfect for Tom Holland. In answer to your question, I’m writing a second book to honor my mother. This one spans the Depression, the dust bowl and Black Sunday, the Italian and German POWs who worked the potato fields of central Missouri during the war. My hope is that this one will be picked up by a traditional publisher as I hope to donate the proceeds to establish a scholarship for high school seniors graduating from Orrick High School: the school where my mother, her mother, and her mother attended and where her family settled in 1830.

 

Check Donna’s book out at Amazon.

 

Bible study, Christianity, Documenting America, Writing

Switching Writing Gears

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As I mentioned in previous posts, not long ago I was hot and heavy into writing a new volume in my Documenting America series. It was an interesting project. I did the research on it back in 2020-21, but laid the project aside while other things occupied my attention. The writing was easier than I expected, and I finished writing it on September 22, eight days earlier than my goal. I’m now editing the chapters (2/3 done) and posting chapters to Kindle Vella twice a week. That process will play out slowly for the rest of 2023.

The next project I had planned to write was my Bible study, A Walk Through Holy Week. The plan for this, which I settled on late last year, was for it to be eight volumes, each between 30,000 and 50,000 words. As of right now, it’s half done.

Alas, I started the project two years ago with Volume 4, and moved on through Volumes 5, 6, and 7. In February-April next year, I’ll be co-teaching Volume 8 in adult Sunday school class and will write that volume simultaneously with the teaching. Thus, I have Volumes 1, 2, and 3 to go back and fill in.

I was tempted to go ahead and publish what I have done, meaning Volume 4, then follow rapidly with the other parts. But when I thought more about it, I decided no, it was better to publish the whole series beginning with Volume 1, and then consecutively thereafter. So as I saw my history book project drawing to a close, I knew I had to schedule AWTHW next.

This switching from political-history writing to Bible study had me concerned. What kind of progress would I make? Could I change course so dramatically and be effective?

I began working on the new project last week, while we were at our daughter and son-in-law’s house in Texas. All I completed was the Introduction. Then on Wednesday this week, back home in Bella Vista, I got to work in earnest in my regular writing routine—in the Dungeon, starting early in the morning.

Wednesday, I wrote the first section of Chapter 1 and a paragraph of section two. Each chapter will have seven sections, corresponding to seven daily readings in a week. Thursday, I wrote the next three sections of Ch 1. Thus, four sections are written. At that pace, or something close to it, I’ll finish Ch 1 this week and be ready for Ch 2 next week, and hopefully some of Ch 3.

That is a writing rate that will see my goal of November completion met.

Another thing I’m doing with it, as a trial. Is reading the prior one or two days of writing at the start of my writing section. In other words, edit as I go. I’m doing that for two reasons. First, it ought to make the final editing/proofreading less onerous at the end of the project. Second, it should help me better remember where I left off the prior writing session, which in turn ought to help propel me on the new day of writing.

So that’s the plan. I already have a mockup of the series cover, though early in the process.

So today I’m kind of excited. I’m working on a book I’m enjoying writing, and should have something to publish in January—with a plan of what to write next going out probably until next June. I like planning ahead.

American Colonial History, Bible study, Documenting America

September Progress, October Goals

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End of the month. Time to report what progress I made relative to the goals I set at the beginning of the month, and to set some goals for next month.

  • Blog twice a week, Mondays and Fridays. I suspect my readers are tired of seeing that goal each month. Did this. Only one day was a late and weak post, but I went back later in the day and fleshed it out.
  • Attend three writers meetings, plus the online social gathering. Did this. The meetings were good, though the online social gathering was poorly attended.
  • So far this has not found an audience on Kindle Vella. But I will stay the course and publish all 32 episodes there, the bring it out as a book at the appropriate time.

    Complete the first draft of Documenting America: Run-Up To Revolution. Did this, finishing it on September 22, eight days ahead of schedule. It felt good to have stuck with this, rarely missing a planned day of writing.

  • Decide on whether to post my new Documenting America book to Kindle Vella and, if I do, get the first chapter/episode published on Wednesday, September 6. I decided to do this, and put up the first chapter/episode on September 11 and to publish them on Mondays and Thursdays. That schedule puts the last one available for reading on December 28.
  • Tie down the new writing idea that came to me on August 28-30. Write all I can about the idea in manuscript. I did some of this. Actually, I blogged about the idea here. The book, should that’s what it winds up being, will be fairly complex. It will take a lot of research and planning. I’m not ready to commit to that yet, but I do want to get more of my ideas documented, just in case I ever do want to write it. So I call this goal only half completed.

Okay, not a bad month. Time now for setting some goals for October.

  • Blog twice a week, on Mondays and Fridays.
  • Attend three writers group meetings.
  • Attend the Ozark Writers League fall conference in Branson. This will be at the end of the month.
  • Finish all editing on Documenting America: Run-Up To Revolution, and schedule all episodes for publishing on Kindle Vella.
  • Begin work on A Walk Through Holy Week, Part 1. I have this pretty well planned out. My main problem will be in shifting mindset from history to Bible study, so I’m not setting a word goal. I will probably do so next month.
  • Continue to document the writing idea, The Artwork Of God. I’m not sure how much time I’ll spend on this. I think it will basically be putting somewhat random ideas in a document.
  • Begin reading a book on colonial America, dealing with essays from a newspaper debate in Boston in 1774-1775. I just found this book and saved it to Kindle. What I’m going to do with it I’m not sure.

That’s plenty. I’ll come back in a month and give a report and set new goals.

C.S. Lewis, Documenting America, family, The Forest Throne

Immersing in Reading

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Dateline: Thursday, 28 September 2023, 2:20 p.m.

It may not be selling, but at least my grandkids are reading it and seem to like it.

This will be somewhat of a short post. Lynda and I are currently on grandparent duty while our daughter and son-in-law are away at their annual ministers and spouses retreat. Four children, three cats, one dog, one bearded dragon, and five foster cats that will soon be going to the shelter (I hope I hope). Just for two days and two nights.

The last two days I went with my daughter on the school drop-off and pick-up run so that I could get a feel for routes and timing. Yesterday morning, I was quite stressed out about it, but after that, with some study of the map and two more times to run the route, I think I’ll be okay.

As I’m between writing projects, my free time is taken up with reading. I’m close to completing Darwin’s Century, having only 30 pages to go. I should finish it Sunday or Monday. I’m also reading a collection of C.S. Lewis’s essays on literature. These are not his real scholarly essays on medieval or renaissance literature, but rather shorter things he wrote for magazines: book reviews; criticism; stories on genres of literature; etc. They have been good, if not terribly inspiring. I imagine I’ll be another two weeks in that. I’m also going back and re-reading a book on “The Inklings,” Lewis’s and Tolkien’s literary group.

Last evening, grandson Ezra and I managed to read four chapters in Proverbs together as Ezra continues on his quest of reading the Bible through cover to cover. The previous two trips, we didn’t get in any reading time. But, then, he was gone parts of those trips and we only overlapped a day or two each time. I was also able to read with grandson Elijah in a Bible stories for children book. That was the one he picked out last evening. I’m hoping to read with granddaughter Elise a little. Yesterday, in their grandfather-imposed 30 minutes of reading time, she said she was reading in The Key To Time Travel. I didn’t see it so I’m taking her at her word. Maybe today I’ll get to observe her reading.

So far this has not found an audience on Kindle Vella. But I will stay the course and publish all 32 episodes there, the bring it out as a book at the appropriate time.

Possibly tomorrow I will begin putting a few words together on my next writing project. I’ve already created the file and the diary. That will be beating my goal by a couple of days. I don’t think that’s ever a bad thing. Meanwhile, episodes of Documenting America: Run-Up To Revolution continue to post to Kindle Vella on schedule. Episodes 1-6 are live and available for reading. Episodes 7-11 are scheduled for publication. Episodes 12-18 are edited and waiting to be scheduled. And Episodes 19-32 are written and waiting to be edited. It’s not selling either, but that’s somewhat true for everything I write.

Discoverablility is everything, and so far I ain’t got it.

environment, home improvements

I Guess I’m a Blackberry Farmer

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It takes a lot of picking to get enough blackberries for eating and baking. In order to pick enough, one must first farm.

Ever since early spring, I’ve been doing a good job of keeping up with yard work. Well, mostly a good job. With all the travel we did in February through May, I fell behind a little.

But I kept at it. Before the weather turned hot, I went out almost every weekday, weather permitting, and worked 30 to 60 minutes. Once the weather turned hot, I shifted my schedule to going out first thing upon rising in the morning and putting in the same amount of time. I had planned for blowing last year’s leaves out of the yard during the first week or two of September. But I found an efficient way to do it, and got it done in four days.

So I looked around at what I needed to do next. I looked at the blackberry vines at the front of our woodlot. Aha! The very thing that needs doing. After blackberry season, I allowed the vines to grow where they wanted to. I had two separate rows, plus a mass of vines behind the second row that had newly spring up. By early September, the first row (a shorty) was still separate, but all the rest was one big mass.

I had walked the area several times around the edges of the bushes/vines/whatever you call them. trying to figure out whether it would be better to cut rows either north-south or east-west. I finally decided to keep them north-south, as they were before. Around September 10 I got to work on them. I found it a little easier to do than I expected.

Until I got to the back. To make a long story short, I was able to trim the vines into five distinct rows. They aren’t as straight as I would have liked, and I’m not sure I’m done cutting them back. But I have five rows running north-south. The total length of the five rows combined in probably 80 feet or so. Further to the south is another mass of vines that I need to decide what to do with. I would have tackled them by now except for several days of rain preventing me from doing things where it’s wet, which these vines are.

So does 80 feet of vines cut into five rows make me a blackberry farmer, rather than a hobbyist who likes some free fruit? Perhaps. The proof will be in the harvest next year.

Harvest. Using that word, maybe I’ve answered my own question.

American Colonial History, Bible study, Documenting America, home improvements

Life Is Busy Right Now…

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Verly close to finishing the book. Individual chapters going up on Vella each week.

…so busy that I didn’t prepare a blog post for today. Yesterday I worked hot and heavy on Documenting America: Run-Up To Revolution, completing two chapters and doing a little restructuring. I had a number of phone calls and messages to make regarding work to be done at the house and upcoming travel.

Consequently, I didn’t prepare a blog post ahead of time. And you get this filler post. I may come back and say a little more later. Right now I’m preparing for a City inspection of some work and our quarterly pest control treatment. Also need to call about a car in the shop, accommodations for our next trip, and something else that’s escaping me right now. Oh, yes, find out what’s the hold up on getting an estimate on some work we want done.

Possibly I’ll get back later to add something to this.

ETA, 3:01 PM Friday 22 September 2023

Well, today I finished DA:RUTR. I wrote the last two chapters this morning. I also edited Chapter 17, putting me more than halfway through the editing process. In addition, ten episodes are uploaded to Kindle Vella and scheduled to be published on Mondays and Fridays. I think that, by this time next week, all episodes will be edited and scheduled to be published.

It’s always a good feeling when you say “I’m done” with the first draft of a book. Better even when it is fully edited, and then when it’s published. At least the first part is done.

Now to figure out what to write next. Most likely I’ll move on the A Walk Through Holy Week, Part 1.

book reviews, Carlyle, letters

Book Review: Carlyle Letters Online

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Regular readers of this blog (all two or three of you) know that I love letters. Not just to receive them, or write them, but to read them in historical collections. Some years ago, I acquired electronic files of Carlyle’s letters with Ralph Waldo Emerson. Somewhere I picked up a print copy of one of the two volumes, and then a print copy of other letters of his.

The Carlyle Letters Online is a project I’ve used frequently, with many hours of pleasurable reading and research.

From an internet search, I learned about the Carlyle Letters Online. This is a project to put all of the letters of Thomas and Jane Carlyle online in a searchable and highly usable database. This followed the print edition of the letters, which took place from 1970 to 2023, is composed of 50 volumes.

The online version began in 1999. By that time, many letters by the Carlyles that had escaped earlier detection and collection had been found. The number of letters in the online collection is over 9,000 in all, more by Thomas than by Jane.

This review is really only over the first ten volumes of the online collection. which cover the period from 1812 to 1838. I have no idea if I will ever get to the other 40 volumes. In fact, I confess to not having read every letter in Volumes 1, 2, and 3. At that time, I was trying to find letters about specific topics. Beginning with Volume 4, I have read every letter in each volume. It’s taken me a few years to do this, reading one or two letters many nights right before going to bed.

Many of the letters are to family members. Though Carlyle was a man of letters, in the volumes I’ve read, there weren’t many letters to literary men. There were some, of course. By 1838, Carlyle was just starting to gain a following. Soon his circle would expand and include more than Emerson, Mills, and Sterling. I’m anxious to get into those letters.

Thomas often writes in typical Victorian language: flowery, hard to understand, complicated sentences, many references that are now obscure. Sometimes the letters were hard to understand, at least beginning to end. He used a lot of private references we would call coterie speech.

A sample of how using the index works. Very useful and efficient.

Fortunately, the CLO has copious footnotes on many subject, making the obscure more understandable. It also has a good indexing system. A few years back the index showed on each letter—links to the items in the letter that were indexed. Type about anything Carlyle-related in the index and it brings up results with links to the letters you’ll find that item in. The illustration with this paragraph shows an example of references to one of Carlyle’s less well-known essays.

I don’t know how much time I’m going to put into reading these letters for a while. After finishing Vol. 10 I’m taking some time off from reading them. Oh, I still open the database from time to time and read a letter. I’ll get back to it in a bigger way, maybe next year some time.

While the collecting of the Carlyles’ letters took over a century, and is not over yet, it’s a massive project that has a very specialized audience. I don’t necessarily recommend people rush out and buy either the print letters or start perusing the online letters. For me, they are a source of pleasurable reading.

 

environment, miscellaneous, research, Writing

Nature: The Artwork Of God

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I love being out in nature. Too bad my knees and heart prevent me from going on long, woodland hikes.

I think, a few posts ago, I mentioned I had a new writing idea. Not sure if it will be a book or something else. Right now, it’s just an idea not yet fully developed.

I got this idea from the book I’m currently reading, Darwin’s Century. This is a book that talks about Darwin’s predecessors among naturalists, who came up with a piece of the evolutionary theory. Darwin put them all together. The part I’m at now is about Darwin’s voyage on the Beagle, and how this impacted his intellectual journey on his scientific road. Soon it will get into the theory itself, and talk about the people who helped to “sell” Darwin’s theory to the scientific community and the world. Right now, without having looked ahead or checked the Table of Contents, I’m not quite sure where the book is going—other than it’s pro-Darwin and pro-evolution.

This is the seventh book I’ve picked up about evolution. I find the story fascinating. I have only one more I plan to read (if I can find it at a reasonable price) and re-read one other. That should complete what I feel like I need to know to be well informed about the subject.

Oh, make that eight books. I forgot about the novel I read recently that dealt with some of these issues.

These have got me to thinking about the opposition that the theory of evolution has set between science and religion. Many people who believe in God think evolution is bunk. And many people who believe in evolution think God never existed but was a manmade concoction.

The crux of the matter falls into two categories, or maybe it’s three: God’s sovereignty, creation of humans, and old earth vs. young earth. I’ve been trying to put this into succinct, short paragraphs describing what I see as errors on both sides, but I haven’t yet been able to find the phrasing I want. I’m making progress, however.

I’m tempted to put the drafts of two paragraphs in this post, but will hold off. I need to learn to finish things before posting. Suffice to say I like how the two statements are shaping up.

So what about this book, or whatever this writing idea turns into? What’s the premise? It’s that God is seen in nature, that all that we see is His creation—however He set it in motion and however it continues. Also that science is an ever-changing thing, and we need to be careful about ever saying “The science is fixed,” and basing any type of beliefs about what science says at present.

Well, this post is unfocused today. Sorry about that. That tells you where I am with this writing idea: unfocused. Perhaps I’ll get some focus before long, as I put little thoughts on paper.