I'd heard somewhere that it had been suggested there be a pistol in the Nuclear Football, so before "pressing the red button" and killing millions, the President would have to look one man in the eye and kill him.
Well, turns out the original story is weirder. Roger Fisher, of Harvard Law School and a major thinker in Conflict Management, suggested in the March 1981 Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, that this be implemented -- in the form of an implanted capsule containing the launch codes, and a butcher knife. The President would have to gut one of his own aides in order to launch those weapons.
That is way too good not to be in the novel. Not because it is a strikingly weird tidbit of history, but because that tension between the remote-control deaths of millions and the twist of a knife up close is what drives the central conflict and resolution of the book.
Anyhow. My knee didn't reach football size, but I had an episode of cellulitis that got caught maybe twenty-four hours before the danger window. Spend two days in hospital getting antibiotics on an IV drip. That, and still being on oral antibiotics and a tight Ace bandage wrap, means I haven't been up for getting my place straightened up properly.
Now that I'm retired and all. Not that I've exactly stopped working. My old work has had me on the phone or coming down to drop off keys for at least a week, they still have me on the roster as a consultant, and I interviewed to light Earnest in July.
So I guess this blog is coming back into its name. I'll be doing theatre again. And I'll be on a more limited budget.
So I've been poking around at new writing projects, plans to go forwards, market analysis...and I'm finally ready to go hit the revisions on The Early Fox. Or The Drake Equation, which is a problem I'm looking at seeing if Fiverrr can help with. Should I re-stage? Probably. Should I extensively revise? Probably not. Should I re-name? I...don't know.
My confidence in Fiverrrrr is low at the moment. I started looking at the beta readers, and one that jumped out advertised: "I will a service of beta reading." Clicking on the details, she claims to be an English speaker, and goes on to inform that, "Over the years, Ive developed a sharp, detail-oriented eye..."
Ah, yes. Details other than apostrophes.
As usual, it is a futile project. What I want is someone to A) look at the series as currently presented at KDP, including reading sample chapters, B) confirm or disagree with my current understanding of the correct market, and C) give an opinion on changing the titles.
What I am looking at is people who want me to define genre and hand them all the operational keywords, at which point they will then as efficiently as possible (quite possibly using AI) throw into some boiler-plate blurbs and SEO. With this desire of theirs for maximum return and minimum variation strongly supported by a vendor (Fiverrrr) framework that wants to turn every transaction into a Set Menu.
At least one thing is solved. I have a basic idea for new covers for the whole series, and I've started hauling assets into Affinity Photo. I'll rough them up, then go out to a proper cover artist (possible Miblart again) for a package deal of taking my mock-up and doing their magic on it.
