All posts by David Todd

Danny Tompkins Short Stories, Life Group lessons, Writing

An Unexpected Guest

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Wednesday night after church I stopped by Braum’s to buy a half gallon of milk, then headed the truck toward Bella Vista, twelve miles distant. I was about two miles from the house when my cell phone rang–or vibrated, actually. I dug it out of my side pocket and answered without checking to see who it was, expecting it to be Lynda. I can’t really see the display well enough when I’m driving to see the name or number.

It wasn’t Lynda, it was an old friend, Richard. We met Richard and his family in church in the eastern province of Saudi Arabia in 1981 (yes, there are clandestine churches in the land of the house of Saud). He was in town, had just called the house, gotten my cell phone number from Lynda. I was to go to the McDonald’s where he was waiting and guide him back to our house, where he would eat supper and spend the night. I had already passed that place, five or six miles back, but I did a U-turn and went and fetched him in.

We had a great time visiting until midnight, when I had to turn in to be able to function the next day, and he had to do the same to be able to drive to Tulsa and Oklahoma City the next day. A brief time in the morning was all we had after that. He followed me to the place where Arkansas 279 meets Arkansas 72. I went left; he went west. I last saw him and his wife and son in 2003 at his son’s wedding, before that in 2001 at our daughter’s wedding, before that in the mid-90s when their older son died of leukemia. We talked about the need to get together more often and Richard asked, “How do we make that happen?”

I wish I knew. When we are in St. Louis (where he and his wife live), we are always on a forced drive, trying to make tracks to Chicago or parts east (as we will be late this month) or on the return trip and anxious to get home. We all have busy lives, and spend them with our closest family. Keeping in touch with friends from decades ago is tough enough, let alone getting together. Still, we can work on making it happen.

So I am a day behind in everything I hoped to do. Last night I finished my Federal income tax. Yeah! Subject, of course, to mathematical checking and a last review against the instruction book. I should have it copied and in the mail on Monday. My Arkansas taxes should go pretty quick. I might start working on them tonight and try to have them done Monday as well.

I completed reading the book I had committed to critiquing, and enjoyed that. I have put aside all the books I was surreptitiously reading that have never been added to my reading pile, and am concentrating on a Bible study. It looks as if our Life Group may have a two week gap between lesson series in May, so I’m trying to put together a two-week lesson on one of the kings of Judah. It’s a fascinating study for me, whether I have to teach the lesson of not, as the accounts in 1st Kings and 2nd Chronicles differ both in time line and details, and I’m studying to reconcile them.

This weekend, hopefully, I will be back to a few writing activities. Actually, last night I read once more through “Mom’s Letter” and did a few minor edits, and I finished my research into potential markets and made my decisions on where to send it. This weekend I intend to make the e-mail and snail mail submissions. Next week, who knows? Perhaps another angel will visit us, and my best laid plans will again go astray.

book reviews, Mark Twain

Book Review: Mark Twain’s "Letters From Hawaii"

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I found this book, Mark Twain’s Letters From Hawaii, (Edited by A. Grove Day, c. 1966, The University Press of Hawaii, Honolulu, ISBN 0-8248-0288-8, Pacific Classics Edition 3rd printing 1979), in a place where they sell used books, either a thrift store or a garage sale. I put it midway through the first half of the reading pile I put together last August, and came to it in mid-March. I read a little of it in February, on that business trip to Phoenix, but read it mostly over the last two weeks (when I wasn’t distracting myself with the letters of Tolkein and Lewis).

Mr. Day begins his Introduction with a question some of my readers may be asking: “Why should anyone today want to read the travel letters written by Mark Twain from the Hawaiian Islands more than a hundred years ago?” I chose the book because I want to read more of Mark Twain’s works. Why not this one? And of course it was cheap, an oldish paperback at a used book sale. It’s been decades since I read Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn, the only two things by Twain I’ve read. I downloaded a book from the Gutenberg Project, Letters of Mark Twain, Volume 1, but I haven’t done anything with it to date.

Why indeed would anyone want to read this? It’s history. It captures Hawaii in a snapshot in time, 1866. Twain was 31, before he achieved literary fame, and was working as a journalist in Nevada and California when he wrangled himself an assignment from the “Sacramento Union” to travel to Hawaii for several months and write a series of travelogue type letters for publication in the newspaper.

The letters he wrote are full of information and humor. He described the scenery, the people, the government, the missionaries, the agriculture, the inter-island travel, the volcanoes, the commerce. He created an imaginary travel companion, Brown, who became a foil for Twain’s epee thrusts.

While Twain was in the Sandwich Islands (as they were still mostly called at that time), two newsworthy events happened. The crown princess, who was to become sovereign queen upon the death of the king, herself died at age 27. Twain’s description of the month-long mourning and funeral rites tells much about the people. And, while he was there, survivors of the clipper ship “Hornet” arrived at the island after 43 days in lifeboats following the burning and sinking of the “Hornet”. Twain’s account is gripping (to use an over-used word, but it works in this case) as he tells how the men survived and made it across the miles to Hawaii. That one letter did much to begin Twain’s rise to fame in the States.

I could give many examples of how Twain’s humor comes through. I’ll just give this one, about his inter-island trip on a small, coastal ship. “The first night, as I lay in my coffin [how he described his berth], idly watching the dim lamp swinging to the rolling of the ship, and snuffing the nauseous odors of bilge water, I felt something gallop over me. Lazarus did not come out of his sepulcher with a more cheerful alacrity than I did out of mine. However, I turned in again when I found it was only a rat. Presently something galloped over me once more. I knew it was not a rat this time, and I thought it might be a centipede, because the captain had killed one on deck in the afternoon. I turned out. The first glance at the pillow showed me a repulsive sentinel perched upon each end of it–cockroaches as large as peach leaves-fellows with long, quivering antennae and fiery, malignant eyes. they were grating their teeth like tobacco worms, and appeared to be dissatisfied about something.”

With such colorful language and use of metaphor, Twain paints his pictures of the beautiful Sandwich Islands. The book is well worth the time to read, if you ever come across it. I don’t know about going out of your way to try and purchase it, however. Would it be worth full price at a bookstore, if you could even find it? Probably.

career, Writing

Only my journal

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This weekend I did almost nothing on writing, except as far as reading the works of others is to writing. I suppose the critique time I spent on the YA novel I’m a beta-reader for would count. I did about 40 pages, leaving me about 20 to go. I should finish it tonight.

I continued to read in Mark Twain’s Letters From Hawaii, which I may finish tonight and be able to review tomorrow. On Friday evening I read some in Tokein’s letters, and both Friday and Sunday evenings I read some in C.S. Lewis’ letters on spiritual development. I found them difficult to apply my mind to. I guess I should expect that with CSL.

Besides that, I read in my Bible to prepare to teach Life Group yesterday morning, and I prepared the lesson. In as much as any lesson I teach could find its way into a proposal for publishing a Bible study, I guess that could be considered writing related. And, since it looks as if we will have a couple of weeks to fill in between major lesson series, I read some other places in the Bible to begin preparing a lesson for late May. So maybe that is writing related.

But certainly my income taxes are not writing related, nor cooking a meal or two, nor clean up in the kitchen and elsewhere. Shopping at Wal-Mart wasn’t. I didn’t even go by the books and magazines. Didn’t monitor the writing blogs I follow (though most of them don’t post on the weekends). Didn’t write any new works.

Except a couple of pages in my journal, wherein I began a list of my current or completed writing projects. After making my April goals, I felt kind of scatter-brained in terms of writing. Too many things started; not enough things far enough along; nothing really new. So I began a list of my projects (I say began because after I wrote the list Friday night I realized I forgot a couple and have to work on the list some more), with annotations as to the status of each project. Maybe this will help me focus more, after I finish the taxes (which will probably be tonight or tomorrow). Maybe then I can get to a couple of submittals I should make.

I need to figure out how to generate a little income from writing, because today, having survived yet another corporate layoff last Friday but getting another pay cut (15 percent this time), I’m working for 31 percent less than I did a year ago.

goals

April Goals

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It’s difficult to set writing goals for this month, when I’m stuck in the morass of preparing my income taxes. They aren’t difficult; just time consuming, and difficult to stick to. Last night for example, after a late supper after church, I went to the Dungeon to work on them, but took one look at the papers and computer screen and decided I couldn’t that night. So I played mindless computer games, and did some other things before going back upstairs to read and to bed.

Still, I must set goals, and I can always come back later and edit them, after I finish the taxes and clarity of mind and intentions return. So here they are.

1. Market “Mom’s Letter” to at least five markets. Some of the markets I’ve selected close to submissions in May, so I have to get that done this month.

2. Begin work on “It’s Over Over Here”, my article on Dad’s work with The Stars and Stripes during World War 2. Even if I don’t get the assignment from the magazine, I’d like to write the article.

3. Complete the beta reading project I’ve committed to. I was doing good on this before my illness, and before tax diversion. I’m 2/3 of the way through this short, young adult novel. I can do this this month.

4. Write at least one chapter of In Front of Fifty Thousand Screaming People. I outlined seven chapters last month; surely I can get one of those written.

5. Blog 12 to 14 times. This seems to be the thing that is easiest for me, so I’ll bump up my goal a little this month.

6. Monitor five writing blogs/web sites. This is also easy, and I’m learning much from these sites.

7. Complete the political essay I started on the Baby Boomer generation, and post it to The Senescent Man blog. I’m almost halfway done with this.

8. Get back to writing, at least a little, on the notes and appendixes of the Harmony of the Gospels. I’d like to spend about an hour a week on this, which will give me continued progress by inches.

I’m not planning on attending writers critique group this month, for a number of reasons. I don’t know about my long term participation with this group.

goals

The March Report

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Ah, time for my monthly report. Naturally this would happen on a morning when I forgot to set my alarm the night before, got up more than an hour late, therefore got caught in the height of rush hour and my 25 minute commute took almost 40. So, I’m posting this on my employer’s time. I’ll make it up after hours. Here are the goals posted on March 1, and how I did on each.

1. Blog 10 to 12 times. This seems very achievable, based on the past three months. >>> Blogged 15 times, so achieved this.

2. Complete the few remaining tasks for A Harmony of the Gospels; print; put in the hands of two beta readers. >>> I sort of finished this. I completed the basic writing and typing of the Harmony itself, completed one appendix, started another, and worked on several of the passage notes. I gave it to one beta reader, my pastor, but not to a second.

3. Attend at least one writers critique group; present one of my Documenting America columns. >>> I attended critique group twice, each time sharing a Documenting America column. One they hated; the other they sort of liked. Of course, I am the only one in the group on my side of the political spectrum.

4. Monitor 5 writing blogs. As I mentioned in my last post, I may have to find a couple of new ones. >>> I monitored the blogs. Dropped one, as it hasn’t been updated since January. Found another, a writing coaching blog. So far so good.

5. Complete beta reading of a YA novel for someone at an on-line writers site. I received this late last week, and hope to begin tonight and finish before the end of the month. >>> I did not complete this. I got 2/3 of the way through, with, I think, good comments for that writer. Completing it in April, taxes allowing, should be no problem.

6. Write at least one chapter of In Front Of Fifty Thousand Screaming People. >>> Alas, I did not do this. Instead, I outlined the next seven chapters. I really wanted to get back to the writing of this, but my food poisoning episode happened just about at the time when my schedule would have allowed for it. Always an excuse.

7. Market Mom’s Letter to at least five markets. Did not get this done. I did manage to complete the marketing research, and narrowed the list down to about ten magazines, but didn’t get to the next step.

One other thing, a big thing, that I accomplished writing-wise that was not on my list was to submit a query about a World War 2 article. No response yet, but it’s only been a couple of business days since they got it, due to an e-mail glitch at home.

Fifty Thousand Screaming People, Health, letters, Writing

Well, not quite normal yet

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In my last post I reported that I was back to normal after the food poisoning the week of March 16th. I was wrong, though: I’m not really back to normal. Oh, physically I am, I guess. But mentally I’m not. All the good I was doing on weight loss is in danger of being reversed, as since the sickness I have no desire to eat right. The three days out of town, on conference fare, didn’t help. But at home I just haven’t felt like doing what I need to do to have the right kinds of foods for lunch or supper. Consequently, when I weighed in today, I was way, way up. I’m still a good amount ahead from where I started, but if I don’t get back at it today…. It probably hasn’t helped that Lynda is still away. No accountability partner.

This weekend I could not focus very well. I started Saturday with a couple of household things. We added a console TV to the living room, which hides the lower shelves of a corner cabinet. This cabinet (not a built-in) needed to be raised anyway, since it is 18 inches shorter than the built-ins on the other end of the wall. So Saturday morning, using some salvaged 2×6 boards, I “built” an 18 inch riser for it and installed it. Then I reloaded all the shelves with the nicknacks that had unceremoniously cluttered the hearth for a month. The console TV hides the riser very nicely. Oh, I also raised the console TV the thickness of two 2x6s, as it was a bit close to the floor for comfortable viewing. This all consumed the morning, much of the time working with the salvaged wood to back out nails and separate pieces prior to sawing.

After that, though, I had a very hard time tackling my next project: income taxes. I made a good start, but my concentration faded. As it was snowing outside, I didn’t particularly want to walk as a means of clearing my head. So I puttered on the taxes, got a little done, surfed the web, played mindless computer games, and watch a little NCAA basketball.

I also read in my recent book purchases (the Tolkien letters, the C.S. Lewis letters, and misc. C.S.L. writings), in the Mark Twain Hawaii letters, and in a writers mag. Even with those, I found my mind wandering, and I went from item to item with little comprehension. I gave that up and, as the snow had stopped, drove to Wal-Mart to pick up a few things urgently needed (peanut butter among them), then did laundry and dishes. That got me through 6:00 PM, and a PB&J sandwich through 6:30 PM. I tried the taxes again, and made a little more progress.

Saturday evening was better as far as concentration was concerned. I worked on my outline for In Front of Fifty Thousand Screaming People, and outlined the next seven chapters. That will get me about half way through the book. I was able to read with greater comprehension after that.

Sunday, at a church dinner, I thought my sickness was coming back. Fortunately, it was only one episode and I seem to be fine physically. Still, that gave me a too-easy excuse not to walk or exercise. The taxes again resisted the five hour concentrated effort needed to complete them. I outlined the rest of a political essay I started, then went back to my reading. I found some of C.S. Lewis’ letters on his spiritual life quite interesting, Tolkien’s letters to his son during WW2 less so.

So what will this week hold? I need to get back on the stick as far as exercise and diet are concerned, and get back in the form I was in two weeks ago. I need to have that concentrated time to complete our taxes. It looks as if we will get a nice refund, and I need to get that in the works. And I need to get back to writing, so that if I do get to go to a conference in May (hopefully the Blue Ridge one again), at least I’ll have something to present to editors/agents.

Tonight I get my wife back. Yeah!

Engineering, letters, Writing

Back, and Back to Normal

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Yes, following my sickness of last week (food poisoning), I’m back to normal. All body functions functioning as they should, the pounds rapidly lost are back on again–and then some, and my energy level is as it should be. This weekend I should be able to tackle some projects.

And I’m back home after a three day conference in Kansas City. This was Urban Water Management 09. I presented a technical paper on stormwater pumping, and chaired a technical session. The conference was somewhat poorly attended, especially on the first day (when I presented my paper). This is my third stormwater conference to attend, and I found few of the exhibitors had anything new to show me. I’ll need to sit out a year or two of going to these things.

And I’m back home to an empty house. Lynda is still in Oklahoma City, watching the grandson while our daughter has gone to Kansas City herself for a conference. I hope the old lady is up to the work for these four days. Ephraim’s dad is there, and his sister, so it’s not as if Lynda is alone and without help. It will be good to have her back, probably on Monday. I suppose that means I’ll have to do my own laundry this weekend, as the draws and closet are getting a bit empty.

I got back yesterday afternoon in time to do a little work at the office. After work I made my pilgrimage to Barnes and Noble where I drank a large house blend, researched in World War 2 magazines, and purchased, off the remainders table, a C.S. Lewis book I hadn’t seen before. I add this to two volumes I picked up in Kansas City at a discount bookstore. One was selected letters of J.R.R. Tolkein; many of them concern his literary life. The other was selected letters of C.S. Lewis; these are his letters to various correspondents wherein he gave spiritual advice. These three books will not go on the top of the reading pile, though I reads some in each of them over the last two days, reducing what had been good progress in Letters From Hawaii.

Last night I e-mailed a query to the target magazine for the story of my dad’s time with The Stars and Stripes. It’s a perfect story for that mag, so I’m hopeful. This is my first submittal of 2009.

Engineering, Writing

Nearing Normal

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I am at work today, feeling close to normal, the food poisoning having almost run its course.

That’s a good thing, because in a few hours I’m supposed drive to the Kansas City area to attend the Urban Water Management Conference. Tomorrow I present a technical paper, “The Problems With Pumped Detention”. Wednesday I moderate a session where other technical papers will be presented. The conference continues through noon on Thursday.

I’ll be trying to meet people on the trip, mainly potential clients, but also vendors and some fellow consultants. So I need to be close to full speed. I’m about there.

So writing will be shoved aside for a few days–unless schedule and contacts (or lack thereof) allow me to spend an evening in a bookstore up there, researching World War 2 magazines. One can hope. Maybe that will be what I do when I pull into Overland Park tonight, and again when I pull back into town on Thursday. One can hope.

book reviews, Dune

Book Review: Dune Messiah

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I completed reading Frank Herbert’s Dune Messiah last Sunday, and planned to write my review and post it here by Wednesday, but the food poisoning that laid me low this week put writing far from my mind. Today is the first day I’ve had any desire to write or energy to do so.

I’ll be honest from the start: I did not enjoy this book. The first book in the trilogy, Dune, was good, my main complaint about it being length not content. This one, however, failed to deliver the punch that its predecessor did.

The book starts out with the antagonists, a curious cabal of four galactic misfits: a steersman, who is a fish-ish, manish creature who lives in a mobile, see-through tank of orange gas; a reverend mother of the Bene Gessaret; a “face dancer” of the Tleilaxu (today we’d call him a shape-shifter) of unknown motives; and Princess Irulan, wife of emperor Paul Atreides, the object of the conspiracy. Yes, the death of the emperor, who then had reigned about 16 years, and in whose name jihad was being waged across the galaxy by the Fremen of Arrakis, the planet nicknamed Dune. The goal: kill the emperor and end the jihad.

Paul, also known as Muad’dib, seemed powerless to stop the jihad on his own. In Dune he foresaw that it would happen, and that he couldn’t stop it. In Dune Messiah, these four decide to take matters into their own hands. They plan to kill Muad’dib with a psychological poison–at least I think. The meeting was for the purpose of convincing the princess, the daughter of the emperor Paul deposed, a spouse yet not loved nor a mate, to join the plot. She does so.

Paul knows a plot is afoot, yet seems to do little to stop it. He can’t quite see who the plotters are, and suspects only the reverend mother. When the steersman and face dancer come to Dune as part of a diplomatic mission, Paul doesn’t show any suspicion towards them. He constantly allows them in his presence, often loosely guarded. They introduce two other characters, a dwarf and [I forget who the other was], and Paul lets them in too.

The issue of Paul’s heir, and of a mate and an heir for his sister, Alia, is a major theme. Paul’s concubine, Chani, finally gets pregnant and they plan to go to the desert caves of the Fremen to have the child.

That’s all I’ll reveal of the plot. The writing is good, as it was in the first book. But the writing is strange. Much of it centers around Paul’s powers of prescient memory, and around how he is troubled by his own reign. This sort of thing get tiring after a while, and I had to fight the urge to skip major portions of the text.

I didn’t, though I can’t say I’m better for not having skipped it. While I can recommend Dune, I cannot recommend Dune Messiah–unless you were just so taken by Dune that you feel you won’t be able to live if you don’t read the full trilogy.

Health

Functioning on Three Cylinders

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Tuesday I picked up a bug. Well, at least it was Tuesday evening I began feeling nauseated, with a tight and painful stomach. I lost my supper about 11 PM, went to bed, and was up at 2:15 AM for the big…well, I’ll spare you the details. I was up every 15 minutes through the rest of the night. Wednesday I just stayed in bed or in my reading chair, trying to find strength to function. Finally, at 6:00 PM I went to the nearby dollar store and bought some Gatorade to replensih fluids and electrolytes. I went to bed at 8:45M, and didn’t get up till 8:00 this morning. Haven’t eaten anything since Tuesday evening.

Consequently, I’m behind on everything I planned on doing. I finished Dune Messiah, and planned to blog a book review yesterday. Maybe tonight. I had hoped to send off “Mom’s Letter” to at least two markets by today, but have not been able to complete the last, little research needed.

Tonight is writing critique group. I was really hoping to go and present two Documenting America columns. I guess I’ll wait and see if I can finish the day at work and how I feel at 5:00 PM. I wouldn’t have come to work today except for needing to get some PowerPoint slides done for my presentation next week.