Odds and Ends

There are times when I’ll see several things in the news or on the Web that make me have an urge to express opinions. On a number of other occasions I have used this forum to do exactly that. Another of those moments has arrived.

If you’ve read Red Stick Writer in the past, you’ll already know that I have not only an opinion but also an attitude about politicians telling us that we have to make some hard choices regarding Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. Though both parties comment in this regard, the donkey party seems to think increasing taxes and tinkering with these programs are the highest priority targets. The elephant party would rather go after other spending first. The donkeys say that just going after other spending isn’t adequate.

The money that went into these programs came out of our pockets for the purpose of being there for workers when they retire. The politicians are shysters. They stole that money for all of their wasteful pet projects and other spending in order to avoid having to openly raise taxes to fund their shenanigans. I say that they should not make one change in Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid until they have eliminated all the unnecessary crap they paid for with our money. I say they should not raise taxes until that is done, as well. And don’t even get me started on the estate tax heist they are bringing back. To force a farm family to sell off half of the farmland they’ve inherited in order to pay estate taxes is unconscionable.

I got a bit agitated yesterday when Harry Reid, poking back at President Obama about banning earmarks, said, “I think this is an issue that any president would like to have, that takes power away from the legislative branch of government. I think it’s the wrong thing to do. I don’t think it’s helpful. It’s a lot of pretty talk, but it only gives the president more power. He’s got enough power already.” Well I’ve got news for that old coot. A lot more people decided Obama should have power than decided it about Harry Reid. I wasn’t one of them, but I’m just saying. If the Senate was even remotely close to being a body of good stewards of our hard-earned money, he might have a point, but guess what. Personally, I think the only way any of this will ever have a chance of getting righted is to pass a line-item veto. Well, so much for that. I write fiction, but not fantasy.

Maybe you saw the article about the billionaire who donated a football complex at UConn. They hired a football coach he didn’t like, so he wants his family name taken off the stadium and wants his money back. Has he ever heard of public bribery? He doesn’t get to own the athletic department because he donated to it. I don’t care how much he gave. I wish they would eliminate putting corporate or family names on stadiums and bowl games and whatever else they’re doing it with.

Oh, and what about the big kerfuffle over Ricky Gervais’ jokes at the Golden Globes? Excuse me for remembering what names and adjectives these showbiz types used to describe George W. Bush. They never could get over the fact that he beat Gore in Florida in every recount that got completed. I’m sorry that the law of the land says we have an Electoral College and that’s how we pick ‘em. I remember how proud they were that John Kerry reported for duty, since he was so much smarter that Dubya. Then it came out that Dubya’s grades were better than the ones Kerry earned. They had no defense for that. Not one word of what Gervais said about them was false, yet they felt he was too mean spirited for their sensibilities.  If they are going to dish it out, they are going to have to man up and learn to take it when it gets dished at them.

Finally, I have to say that I get really angry when people start trying to tidy up history. I’ve got a problem with trying to erase the Stars and Bars from existence. Why is that flag any worse than the US flag? Okay, part of the cause of the Civil War was slavery. We know slavery was bad. Counting slaves as three-fifths of a person and letting their owners vote on the basis of that count was bad, too. Somewhere along the line, we have to recognize that history is what history is. They want to rewrite and say Truman was a bad guy for dropping the bomb. What about the fact that the Japanese did not surrender after one bomb? What about the fact that they started the hostilities between our nations? What if they had won the war in the Pacific? How would we like living under a guy who thinks he is God? That’s kinda what Japan had, right? What got me cranked on this? Well, new versions of Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer are being republished. In the former there are 219 occurrences of the N-word, and there are four in the latter. These will be replaced by the word “slave” in the new editions. What ever happened to “sticks and stones can break my bones, but words will never hurt me?” The African-American people have triumphed over that word. Everyone should accept that and move on.  Leave classic literature the way it is.  Mark Twain is famous for his books, warts and all.  The dogooders who want to mess with them should create their own classics instead of tinkering with his.

I hope that my comments here today will not cause liberals to decide not to read my novel. Their politics don’t stop me from loving the likes of Barbra Streisand, Martin Sheen, Susan Sarandon, Rob Reiner, and Whoopie Goldberg as artists even though I think they are way off the mark politically. Boy, do I feel better getting all that off my chest or what? You betcha. We really do live in the best nation on the planet. The best thing about us is that we continually strive to be better.

By the Light: A Novel of Serial Homicide is Now in the Kindle Store

The baby has been born.  Though it says the release date is January 10, 2011, at Amazon, it actually was first accessible for sale on 1/11/11.  I like the sound of that.  Being a Louisiana boy, I'm believing that there might be some good juju going on with that date.

I hope you'll skip lunch one day, save up $2.99, go to Amazon's Kindle Store, and buy my book.  A lot of love and sweat went into that story, and I'm hoping it will bring you some reading joy.  If you become one of my readers, please go back to the Kindle Store and leave a review when you're done.

At the top of this blog page, there's a link to transport you directly to my book's page at Amazon's Kindle Store.

Thanks for dropping by.  Here's wishing you happy reading.

A Note of Thanks

I'm getting excited about getting my baby born.  My novel is hungry for readers' eyes.  I am hungry for readers' comments through Amazon reviews.  Here's hoping you'll be on board.  What follows is the author note I placed at the back of the book.  It expresses my thanks, denials, and explanations.

Author Note

There are different flavors of thanks I must express on the occasion of sharing my first novel-length story with the public:

Some of my earliest memories are of my mom’s voice reading stories to me as a child. Apparently, I had some creative abilities back then. She tells me that I had two imaginary friends in my early youth, Lickie and Dabadoo. The latter must have been a really good friend, as he often took the fall for me. According to Mom, I often blamed Dabadoo when I got caught doing something wrong. Given that, she could have but didn’t mount a campaign to stifle my creativity.

A cousin, Richard, planted the seed when he was in or around the sixth grade and I was a couple of years behind. He was an extremely smart kid who went on to earn a doctoral degree, always with the highest marks. Back then, he showed me his work in progress, a sequel to Baum’s Oz series. From that moment, I wanted to write a book of fiction.

When I was writing this book, I sent an e-mail to Richard to thank him for the enjoyment I was experiencing from composing it and to see if he would do me the honor of being one of my readers. Before I heard back from him, Richard died in a house fire. His mom told me that he had mentioned being touched by hearing from me about my book. In my heart and mind he has been my traveling companion on this journey ever since.

In junior high, I proved I could work in the fiction realm by earning an A for a book report on a book that did not exist. My appreciation for that teacher’s evaluation of the work will be to allow her to remain nameless.

Another thank you is due to Dorothy Tooke, the tiny little lady who was my teacher for Senior English and Journalism in my senior year at Broadmoor High School in Baton Rouge. Beowulf and such did not ring my chime at the time, but I learned more about writing in her Journalism class than at any other time in my life. I think she might take me to task for becoming the wordy writer I am, as she was a stickler for journalistic economy. But hey, I no longer need to conserve space for ads. I think of Dottie often as I compose and polish and reword and hone my work to make it as interesting as she would demand.

Simply wanting to write a novel is one thing, but the joy of reading works from several Southern authors whose words carried the spirit of the South and a sense of place are what finally inspired me turn wanting into doing. The Firm by John Grisham was a tense story that occurred on turf I knew, from the Peabody in Memphis to the Florabama on the panhandle coast of Florida about six feet from Alabama. I fell in love with Natchez when I came close to getting a job there years ago. Greg Iles’ suspenseful The Quiet Game made you feel everything about Natchez that enamored me. If you really want to fall in love with the South, read Pat Conroy. The Lords of Discipline was his book that showed me how love for Dixie can be written so as to rise right off the page. Every one of his books, fiction and non-fiction, has done that for me, and his South of Broad sits alone at the top of my list of favorite books.

The thanks I expressed to my wife, Suzie, in the dedication should be expanded to include her service as one of my readers. The others who have earned a thank you in that capacity are Christine Harris, Charlene Guillory, Mary Dodson, Sarah Krantz, Stacey Gilio, Kathy Reynolds, and Stacy Ryal. They read my story, provided watchful eyes for typos and poor usage, and offered suggestions to make my work better. I am also appreciative for editorial advice from Hilary Ross, the highly respected former Penguin editor. You can rest assured that if something ain’t perfect here, it’s my fault and not theirs.

More than half of this book was written in the cozy loft overlooking the main floor of the City Market Coffeehouse. The proprietor, Courtney Bates, provided a homey environment that encourages creativity and the arts.

My hat is tipped to Nathan Bransford and Chris Orcutt from whose blogs I have derived enlightenment and sustenance. I cannot put this to bed without giving a nod to Charles Simic, U.S. Poet Laureate (2007-2008) for a quote to live by: “Inside my empty bottle I was constructing a lighthouse while all the others were making ships.” To me it is a creed that has the additional benefit of incorporating the use of lighthouses, a fetish of mine.

With the exception of a bunch of queries on the Web, I pretty much avoided hardcore research in the writing of this story. I recently was warmed by reading John Grisham’s note in The Confession in which he professed not liking and avoiding research. There are instances where I took some license with how things work or used establishments that no longer exist, but hey, it’s fiction. There are places where I have taken minor pokes at a few public figures, thinly veiled versions of people of celebrity, and institutions but only in terms of things that have already been publicly hashed and rehashed. I hope no one takes offense. These folks chose public lives, and I’m certain that what I have said from my small forum will not diminish any of them. Other than those, all characters are fictional.

Last of all, I appreciate that you took a chance on my book. Depending on whether you read author notes first or last, I hope you will enjoy or have enjoyed By the Light: A Novel of Serial Homicide and that you will keep an eye out for my future work.

Spank me, Dottie. I’ve assembled too many words once again.

Dick Peterson
December, 2010

This is Dedicated to the One I Love

It won't be long now.  By the Light:  A Novel of Serial Homicide is only days away from finding its home on the virtual shelves Amazon's Kindle Store.  Take a look below this copy of the cover to see the dedication.

Dedication

I moved from my Louisiana homeland to the Kansas City area on Uncle Sam’s nickel back in 1992. The song says, “They got some crazy little women there and I’m gonna get me one.” Well, I did find one, and I married her. There’s no doubt that she’s crazy because she married me back.

She reads voraciously. Being around her made me read more. Reading more made me finally act on my lifelong dream of writing a novel. Thanks to the Kindle she gave to me for my birthday last February, I have tripled my consumption of books. Becoming a Kindler opened my eyes to the immense possibilities of the e-book market.

For the toughness and courage she has exhibited while going through surgery and chemotherapy for colon cancer over the past year, I salute this wonderful person I get to call my wife. In a couple of years, I’ll be able to spend a lot more time writing instead of hiding out in a bank on weekdays. I’m looking forward to enjoying a long retirement full of the delights she brings to all my days.

In thanks for her love and for inspiring and enabling my greater enjoyment of reading and of writing, I dedicate this book to my Suzie.

Dick Peterson,
December, 2010

You Can Book It... Soon!

My serial killer novel, By the Light:  A Novel of Serial Homicide, is nearing availability in the Kindle Store at Amazon.com.  I'm hoping it will be out there in a week or less.

It is a suspense novel about a serial killer and a former profiler and a crime reporter and author who are in pursuit.  The pursuers have a long ago history and some in the moment romantic sparks.  I hope you'll give it a read.  You can buy it to read on your Kindle, or you can buy it and get free Kindle software to enable you to read it on your iPhone, iPad, Android, Blackberry, PC, or Mac.  I hope you'll go back to Amazon and leave a review when you're done.