Paragraphs from the past

[eurydicebound]

I've been looking back over my files to find material for my website today. It gave me reason to look at some things I hadn't set eyes on in a while, and I'm pleased to find a lot of it stands up to time fairly well. Naturally, you want your samples to be recent, so I'm not putting anything old on there.

At the same time, I think one of my favorite pieces was from the first book I ever edited. I had to do a lot of rewriting and additional writing on this project, enough that it's my first actual writing credit. At the same time, I know almost no one ever saw this book. I enjoyed the hell out of it, though, even though it was incredibly frustrating. This is a very short piece, but I think it reads creditably (and faithfully to its inspiration) even now. I'm going to put it up here, just because I think it deserves a shot at what limited bits of limelight I can give it. It appeared in Pride of the Republic, published by FASA for Crimson Skies.

Will Rogers and the Pirate Gang

Of all the arguments made for the adoption of Oklahoma into the Republic of Texas, one of the best had to be that Will Rogers would officially become a Texan. I knew no comprehensive effort to depict Texas culture would be complete without his contribution, so I wrote to Mr. Rogers and asked for his help. He sent back the following anecdote.

"Back when I was first learning to fly, I took a ride with Wiley Post, with the idea of visiting Hollywood. We weren't but about halfway there when we got buzzed by some pirates and forced to land. They never fired a shot, though, as Wiley didn't have any weapons on his plane; he doesn't believe in shooting folks he doesn't know. I was a bit nervous at first, but all that buzzing around and blustering the pirates were doing reminded me of the politicians down in Austin, so I felt right at home then.

"Well, we landed safely enough, and a little man got out of a plane and headed right for us. I knew he was the leader because he looked the most hen-pecked of the bunch. He asked us if we'd kindly put up our hands, as this was a robbery. I was amazed at the politeness of the outlaw, so I asked him how he came to be in such a trade. He answered that his daddy had been a U.S. senator, so it just seemed natural to continue in the family business.

"Me, I was amused by his reply and chuckled. He recognized me then from the radio and Wiley from his eyepatch, and apologized for holding up our trip. I allowed as it was no great delay anyway, given that it proved my theory that the only difference between piracy and politics is that one takes place in the sky and the other on the ground, and that of the two, the common man has a better chance with the pirate."

Comments

[eynowd.livejournal.com]

I actually have that book at home, but I'll admit I've never read it. It came in a huge box of books from FASA several years ago, and most of them went on the shelf where they still sit.

At least your work actually showed up in a CS book. Mine got dropped just before the book went to press, when FASA closed up shop. Had some good plane designs in there too...

[anaka.livejournal.com]

Well, my work showed up in that book because it was dropped on my desk as a newbie editor with Sharon saying "Davidson and I have both gone over it until we're sick of it and it still sucks. See what you can do with it." And yea verily, it did suck like a hoover was attached to it, using the pages as a filter. Particularly riling was the idea (being from Oklahoma as I am) that Oklahoma would be pleased and proud to be part of the Republic, as it didn't count for much anyway. The rewriting was really just part and parcel of the recovery (note: if a book shows up with an editor receiving additional writing credit for a section or for the whole thing, that's code for "my god, this stunk so badly we had to basically rewrite the damned thing in-house").

These days, I don't know that I'd put as much into something, especially as a freelancer. When your only assignment is "make this good" and you're getting paid for your time no matter how much time you put into it or what you're working on, it's all well and good. When time is money as it is in the freelance world, though, it's an entirely different set of priorities. Back then, I felt like it was sink or swim, so I swam.

[eynowd.livejournal.com]

It probably did you the world of good too :) Sometimes you can learn a LOT from having to polish a turd. But you only tend to do it when you're new and still keen. Having had to polish my fair share of turds for DEMONGROUND over the years, I'm throughly over the whole things now, and far less forgiving than I used to be.

I haven't read PotR, and probably wouldn't be able to spot the politcal gaffs in it, knowing 4/5 of sod all about politics in the region (and to be honest, caring even less :)

I remember the guy who wrote it trumping it up in the CS forums, and talking about how good he was.

I don't feel so guilty for not reading it now :)