Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Let us savor the impending downfall of lawless scoundrels who richly deserve the trouble barreling their way.

Optimism opens the door to great things.

Proof that we need a blogger ethics panel.

rich, arrogant assholes who equate luck with genius

Republican obstruction dressed up as bipartisanship. Again.

Seems like a complicated subject, have you tried yelling at it?

They think we are photo bombing their nice little lives.

The next time the wall street journal editorial board speaks the truth will be the first.

An almost top 10,000 blog!

Speaking of republicans, is there a way for a political party to declare intellectual bankruptcy?

Give the craziest people you know everything they want and hope they don’t ask for more? Great plan.

If you’re pissed about Biden’s speech, he was talking about you.

A last alliance of elves and men. also pet photos.

Nancy smash is sick of your bullshit.

You can’t attract Republican voters. You can only out organize them.

But frankly mr. cole, I’ll be happier when you get back to telling us to go fuck ourselves.

fuckem (in honor of the late great efgoldman)

I’ve spoken to my cat about this, but it doesn’t seem to do any good.

There are consequences to being an arrogant, sullen prick.

Impressively dumb. Congratulations.

When do the post office & the dmv weigh in on the wuhan virus?

Yeah, with this crowd one never knows.

Battle won, war still ongoing.

Hot air and ill-informed banter

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Was just chatting on twitter with Tom Watson, and told him that I’ve avoided discussing the barbaric sociopaths that call themselves ISIS because basically thinking about them brings out the worst in me. Just thinking about them murdering all those people and then slaughtering journalists makes me revert to 2001-2003 post-9/11 kill them, kill their families, kill their friends and bomb their homes into rubble and plow the earth with salt John Cole. I’m getting pissed just thinking about them.

So here is a baby pic. Gabriel, my godson’s brother:

gabriel

I feel better already.

Reader Interactions

157Comments

  5. 5.

    lamh36

    I’ve got 3 godkids myself.

    Kenneth, the oldest is 17 years old.

    Dorian, the middle is 14 years old.

    And last but NOT least Maddie is my baby and she 3 1/2 years old and glad to tell ya so.

    I’m that rare female who has NO BIOLOGICAL CLOCK. I made a decision a long time ago in regards to children of my own and I haven’t strayed since.

    But boy, I do love seeing baby pics…cute baby.

  7. 7.

    kindness

    What a cute baby. Yea.

    Seriously John, don’t fall into the rage trap. That’s how Fox gets & keeps their viewers. Keep ’em angry and who needs reason & logic?

  12. 12.

    Dave

    I get that. I’ve been in and know people in a good number of the villages. I do support the action taken to this point, tactical airstrikes, still don’t think it’s a good idea to get involved on the ground. And while I understand the general hesitation on the well sane Americans not to be involved after the cockup of the Bush/Cheney years I’ve seen some dismissive commentary that pisses me off. And yes it’s immediate to me because I’ve had direct interaction with the people that are suffering and yes this is what happens from the more immediate causes of our little Iraq cluster the cluster in Syria and the ratcheting forces of at least the last 100 years that need to unwind but it’s hard to take. No decisive comments here and I’ve mostly taking to avoiding the media as a result of this.

  13. 13.

    Little Boots

    we do not know what to do with crazed fanatics, either at home or abroad. it’s a thing. a thing we do not know what to do about.

  14. 14.

    srv

    Well, you better chill, because ISIS is going to be around for a long time. They’re going to be the Sunni Hezbollah.

  17. 17.

    Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)

    I have an aunt who is a member of a group of knitters that knit and donate those little baby hats. Every kid’s hat is slightly different.

  25. 25.

    KS in MA

    As far as I can figure, the only solution is to stash ISIS wherever you stash all the other people/sadists/barbarians you feel like killing but aren’t going to for logistical or other reasons.

    That’s not very original, but it’s all I got.

  26. 26.

    Suzanne

    What a little cutie-pants! Baby burritos are just the best. They look all calm, but then they do that first giant black tar shit. Nothing calm about them then.

  27. 27.

    PurpleGirl

    Awww, cute baby. Wishing him, his brother and his parents long life and health. And Joy, lots and lots of joy.

  31. 31.

    p.a.

    @srv: Isn’t Hamas the Sunni Hezbollah? Can’t tell the blood-drenched god botherers without a scorecard. All religions are demented. Some are more demented than others. Hell, even Buddhists are dabbling in oppression now, in Myanmar and maybe Thailand. Why in hell can’t there be a worldwide Great Awakening in Ba’hai or Quakers? (I only know 1 Quaker, and he uses that term, but it was originally an insult, wasn’t it? Is it offensive? Should I use Society of Friends?)

  35. 35.

    Funkula

    Here’s the thing about the “kill the fuckers” impulse: being a liberal doesn’t mean purging it from your mind. It means recognizing that it shouldn’t be enacted as policy. You’re doing just fine, John. It’s your ability for introspection and self-examination that drove you out of the Republican Party (only a few years after me) and as long as you retain that ability you’re in no danger of being recaptured by your base instincts.

  37. 37.

    Little Boots

    I wonder if john will ever just let me post, without the delay?

    seriously, not that I blame him, and the fact that I’m still here is kind of a tribute to his tolerance. but I just wonder.

    he’s kind of put up with a lot, but still.

  39. 39.

    lamh36

    At first I thought the sumabitches had unsealed Mike Brown’s juvie records, but I’m still pissed that the St Louis County Family Court felt the need to do this…bastards.

    St. Louis County Family Court: Michael Brown had no convictions or active cases for serious felonies when he died.
    http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2014/09/03/michael-brown-was-not-convicted-of-any-class-a-or-class-b-felonies-in-juvenile-court/ …

    @WesleyLowery · 6h
    (Debunks claim of at least 1 conservative blog, which cites unnamed sources alleging Brown had juvenile felony case)

  40. 40.

    beltane

    @p.a.: I’m not sure that violent young men of any nationality would be attracted to the Society of Friends. It would be great to be proven wrong though.

  44. 44.

    Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN)

    I’m sitting here looking at a blank Notepad page and trying to write a 1-2 paragraph blurb for my novel. I spent two hours at Barnes & Noble this afternoon just reading the back cover of novels to figure out how it’s done. It doesn’t seem to have helped.

  46. 46.

    amk

    2001-2003 post-9/11 kill them, kill their families, kill their friends and bomb their homes into rubble and plow the earth with salt

    So, how did that work out?

    Relax, isis/isil/is isn’t your existential threat. They are busy killing their own ‘non-believers’.

  47. 47.

    Roger Moore

    @Little Boots:

    we do not know what to do with crazed fanatics, either at home or abroad.

    Of course we know what to do with the crazed fanatics. If they’re here, we elect them. If they’re over there, we bomb them. Easy peasy pie.

  49. 49.

    Anne Laurie

    Congratulations, Cole, that kid is almost as adorable as his older brother!

    @DanR2:

    I generally recoil at the sight of a newborn baby, but that’s a righteously cute kid.

    It’s easier to admire them when you know there’s no chance the next words will be, “Here, you can hold him!” :)

    @lamh36: Yeah, it helps when you’ve helped raise the younger sibs & know just how much fun that is not, doesn’t it?

    My mom had triplets when I was nine, and I wasn’t nearly as much help as she needed/I might have been, but it permanently disabused me of the idea that babies were “fun”!

  50. 50.

    srv

    @p.a.: Hamas is Sunni, but not Celiphate focused and have never been effective that I know. Always seemed to be more professional terrorists than clown-car PLO, stuffed suit Fatah or a real army.

    Hezbollah demonstrated they could hold off Israel in Lebanon, ISIL/ISIS would appear to be their tactical peer.

    Someone following Syria could tell us who’s been winning between the two there. I suspect Iran and KSA have enough money to keep it going for decades.

    I hope Quaker isn’t an offensive term, have always thought highly of them.

  61. 61.

    danielx

    Mos def an antidote to bad thoughts.

    Cuter than MY godson the Marine lieutenant, although I imagine his wife would disagree.

  62. 62.

    Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN)

    @KG: Sort of. From my now in depth experience with back cover blurbs, it’s not just “what is your book about”. It’s almost its own narrative form and for the life of me I can’t boil it down to one paragraph in that form without it sounding stupid.

    Now, a large part of that is probably that I think 98%+ of all back cover blurbs sound stupid, even for books that I like. It’s a narrative form that I don’t get and I almost never choose a work of fiction based upon the blurb. (I use some combination of known authors; word-of-mouth recommendations; and reading a portion of the actual story, not the blurb.) I think the blurbs are almost invariably inane and make a book sound worse than it is.

    So I’m having trouble wrapping my head around writing one.

  63. 63.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @amk: I never thought the “solution” to 9/11 was to go over their and start slaughtering them.

    The real challenge is to do a bit of self examination and ask yourself “why do they hate us so much?”. Hint: it’s not that they’re “jealous” of our freedoms. Unless you define “freedom” as the right to meddle in their internal affairs in order to walk off with their natural resources.

  69. 69.

    Mnemosyne

    @lamh36:

    I wouldn’t be surprised if Michael Brown had some kind of ticket(s) and/or misdemeanors on his record, because that Balko article shows that EVERYONE in Ferguson is getting hit with petty bullshit charges and fines to keep the town running.

  73. 73.

    Belafon

    That’s weird. When I hear about ISIS, I want to figure out how to get as many people together as possible to deal with them.

  75. 75.

    El Caganer

    @Mnemosyne: And that’s one of the problems with the wingnut noise machine. It doesn’t matter that any offenses that are discovered are trivial; they’ll take a 3-year-old jaywalking ticket, pump it full of helium, and turn Michael Brown into Charles Manson.

  76. 76.

    Mnemosyne

    @JohnCole —

    I’m going to be a nag and remind you that (if you haven’t already) you need to get back into one-on-one therapy if you’re not going to be going to meetings. To paraphrase one of the things people love to say about other mental illnesses, not drinking is not going to teach you the life skills you need to keep moving forward. So do it.

  83. 83.

    Mike in NC

    Per the Republicans, we need to urgently start bombing China, Russia, Cuba, Venezuela, France, Syria, North Korea, and maybe 10 other random countries. What could possibly go wrong?

  84. 84.

    Little Boots

    @Mike in NC:

    for some weird reason, Jack Kemp came up today. I have no idea why, but it occurred to me, he was probably the last decent republican. not one since. weird.

  86. 86.

    JoyceH

    I’m not sure how Open this Open Thread is, as in – is it open to shameless self-promotion? If not, feel free to delete this post. If so, here goes:

    From now through Sunday, my Regency romance, A Feather To Fly With, is on sale for 99 cents. This deal won’t last! You can find it here:

    http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00IMMIUVY/ref=cm_cd_asin_lnk

    And to make this post more palatable, here is a picture of my sweet and beautiful dog:

    https://joyceharmon.files.wordpress.com/2014/08/jazzydogday.jpg

  87. 87.

    lamh36

    @Anne Laurie: yes ma’am. My two youngest sisters were born when I was between the ages of 14-16. The youngest being almost half my age, felt the same as being a teenage mother.

    Probably the BEST birth control EVER!

  88. 88.

    Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)

    @Little Boots: This song is associated with some very good memories. Like walking out of an overpriced nightclub in Davos and hear it blasting out of a ramshackle doorway on a back street – thus discovering the best dive bar in Davos. I prefer ski resort dive bars to overpriced nightclubs by a great margin (even in Switzerland).

    ETA: To be clear, the good memories are from the 80s and 90s.

    ETAA: I am also partial to that collection sold on TV. What was its name> It had some of cheesiest songs, but it was trashy fun.

  92. 92.

    WaterGirl

    Cole, what an adorable little human! So very cute. And sweet!

    For god’s sake, though, please rescue him for that straight jacket! Seeing him swaddled like that makes me antsy.

    Congratulations!

  93. 93.

    Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)

    @Little Boots: Okay, this. Swimming lessons 1973. Kid named Willy in my class. Instructor sang the song at him all the time. She was pretty in a ’70s swimming instructor sort of way – at least she was to someone who turned 9 that summer. The song brings her to mind.

  94. 94.

    Mart

    I try to temper my evil thoughts about ISIS by wearing the other guys shoes.

    USA, drone punching Muslim wedding parties since 1991. It ain’t barbaric head chopping, but if you are a young Muslim on youtube, it is barbaric bombing. Of Muslims, in what, 5 countries?

    Think the head choppers and the Cheney’s are both working the same grift. We gotta stop getting sucked in by these maggots. No good ever comes of it.

    Let the Saudis use some of that sweet USA arrmament; and take their own sweet videos of blowing up Arabs in Toyota pick-up trucks. Let them deal with the blowback.

  97. 97.

    WaterGirl

    @Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN): It does sound fun! If I had a kindle, I’d buy it.

    Maybe her blurb will inspire you. :-) Check out the blurb for the Don’t Tell My Parents I’m a Supervillian book that someone here authored. That blurb really pulled me in and I immediately bought it for my niece.

    In both blurbs, the main character is doing something unconventional, and I find myself rooting for both of them. Is there any angle like that in your book that you could use to pull the reader in with the blurb for your book?

    Both pulled me in immediately because they pulled me in emotionally. Is your girl a rebel in any way? Fighting against the odds? Anything like that?

    P.S. I suck. I should have worked on your resume today and I did something else entirely. I haven’t forgotten, though, so there’s that!

  100. 100.

    Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN)

    @WaterGirl: It’s okay. I’m consumed with the plans for getting this book published right now. It’s something I control.

  101. 101.

    Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN)

    Oh, look, after six hours I have two sentences done.

    18-year old Phoebe Rose must pit her dreams of playing hockey against the nightmares of her childhood. She arrives in Minnesota with little but her clothes, her skates, and the goal of joining one of the best collegiate women’s hockey teams in the world.

  105. 105.

    Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)

    @Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN): A thought… Does your protagonist have perceived contradictions? Girly girl off ice and fighting through injuries on ice, etc. If so, play to that. “No one who hadn’t seen her play would have ever suspected that tiny Phoebe Rose had garnered more penalty minutes than any high school hockey player in North Dakota history – male or female….”

  106. 106.

    WaterGirl

    @Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN): I like it! She has a cool name, a positive dream, a past that is intriguing, and it’s hopeful.

    For what it’s worth:

    I might think about finding a different word than “nightmare”, though. I read that word and think maybe sexual abuse. I want to know more about her childhood, but I’m not really up for reading about that in a novel I might be reading for fun. And if it is about sexual abuse, I think it might be best to say it more explicitly, so people have a warning.

    Why was her childhood a nightmare?

  110. 110.

    Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)

    @WaterGirl:

    I might think about finding a different word than “nightmare”, though

    “Demons from her childhood”

  111. 111.

    WaterGirl

    What about?

    18-year old Phoebe Rose must PURSUES her dreams of playing hockey against the BACKDROP OF THE nightmares of THAT WAS her childhood. She arrives in Minnesota with little but her clothes AND her skates, and the goal of joining DETERMINED TO JOIN one of the best collegiate women’s hockey teams in the world.

    Question: does she prevail? how graphic is what we learn about the nightmare of her childhood? is her childhood 1/10 of the book? half the book? just a few pages?

    I think that I would want to have a sense of that before I decided whether to buy the book.

    Edited to help Phoebe rose sound more powerful and not helpless.

  113. 113.

    Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN)

    @WaterGirl: The narrative starts right where the blurb does: with her arrival in Minnesota. Her childhood is told in flashback (less than 10% of the current word count) and the actual sexual abuse probably takes up less than a page. Direct mentions of it in the past are somewhat longer, but the focus is on recovery and building relationships in college and as an adult.

  115. 115.

    Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)

    @WaterGirl: I was a law review editor. I edited articles by outside authors (law professors and judges); you would not believe the tact required to reword something. And because of their status in the profession versus mine as a law student, I had a very light hand. I corrected grammatical errors and fixed some syntax. If you were at the top of Jimmy Carter’s short list for Supreme Court nominees, I gave you the benefit of the doubt.

  116. 116.

    WaterGirl

    @Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN):As I said, if I were looking for a fun novel to read, I might be wary of the topic. I think I would look for cues in the blurb that would let me know how much time was spent in the difficult past.

    The answers to these questions would give me cues about whether this book is for me or not. Maybe hearing the questions will give you some idea of where to go next with the blurb?

    Is she fierce? strong? happy? or is she mostly struggling, or is she overcoming her past?

    is the story inspirational?

    who is your audience? people who might have an interest in hockey or sports? anybody who likes an interesting story? is it more of a book to help people who might have a similar past?

    is it a really heavy book or a (mostly) upbeat or happy story?

    is it parts of her past interspersed with the present?

  117. 117.

    Tenar Darell

    @Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN): From lifelong reading, i think of a Blurb as the functional equivalent of an elevator pitch or cocktail party explanation of what your novel is about without giving away your intellectual property, or this case the ending.

    I think you really only need 3-5 sentences to intrigue readers, especially if you’re also providing a sample chapter or two. I’m already intrigued a bit from those first couple. I think you’re on the right track. You’re self publishing, so I’m guessing that since this is a significant sales tool you’re all nerves. If there are friends or a writers group who have read the novel and you would feel comfortable getting feedback from once you’ve got 3 plus sentences, that might help too. Best wishes!

  118. 118.

    WaterGirl

    @Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name): I’ll bet that was tricky! Yikes. Good way to learn to be diplomatic, if you weren’t already.

    You want what is published to present them in a good light, but you need a very light hand, indeed. I guess that’s why they paid you the big bucks. :-)

  119. 119.

    Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN)

    @WaterGirl:

    Is she fierce? strong? happy? or is she mostly struggling, or is she overcoming her past?

    At various times all of the above.

    is the story inspirational?

    I don’t know. People will have to decide that for themselves.

    who is your audience? people who might have an interest in hockey or sports? anybody who likes an interesting story? is it more of a book to help people who might have a similar past?

    I like to think that it’s for anyone who likes an interesting story. It isn’t intended as any sort of self help book.

    is it a really heavy book or a (mostly) upbeat or happy story?

    Again, people will have to decide that for themselves. This is what I hate about trying to boil it down to a blurb: it’s more complicated than these questions get at. It is, at various points, every single thing you mention. If it has to fit into these boxes I should just give up now.

    is it parts of her past interspersed with the present?

    The first half is her first two years of college with flashbacks to her past; the flashbacks are currently presented in reverse chronological order though I’m not entirely happy with that. The second half is the rest of her life in college interspersed with the first ten years of her adulthood.

  120. 120.

    Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)

    @WaterGirl: I got $350 a month and something to put on my resume. While I don’t always demonstrate it here, diplomacy is actually one my my primary skills. I have always been better at getting client what he/she.it wants through a settlement than though actual litigation. Also, during my army career, I almost always got tagged to be a VIP escort officer. Charm, an ability to bullshit a bit, and the capability of keeping people away from what we don’t want them to see. Chatting with some German Prince who trout fishes in the Tetons about my experiences climbing there with my dad. Stuff like that.

  121. 121.

    Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN)

    To expand on that last comment, these just are not the kinds of questions I ask when I’m trying to decide if I want to read a book. You seem to be coming at it from a direction that’s alien to me.

  124. 124.

    Mnemosyne

    @Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN):

    Speaking strictly as a reader, the one thing I would most want to know is if it has a hopeful (or at least neutral) tone or a sad one, which is usually determined by the ending. It can be disconcerting to be reading a book that suddenly switches tone partway through. It can work, artistically, but it’s really hard to pull off and can end up seeming like a cheap copout, either a contrived “Hollywood ending” or an even more contrived “downer ending.”

    I know it’s not really a sports book, but I’ll put it in sports movie terms: is it Rudy (optimistic hero ending), Tin Cup (neutral ending), or Brian’s Song (downer ending)?

  125. 125.

    Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN)

    @Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name): Not really. Even if you have someone else write the blurb (and I assume that most traditionally published books do have someone in marketing write what you see on the back cover) you still have to go through much the same process so that you have an answer you’re comfortable giving when someone asks you, “So what’s your book about?”

    One way or another, I need to be able to rattle that off, so I might as well write the blurb.

  126. 126.

    Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)

    @Mnemosyne: I have a Rom-Com screenplay concept where the couple go through the usual motions and then are hit by a bus right after they get together. I have been told that is is not commercially viable.

  127. 127.

    WaterGirl

    @Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN): no caps, kitty in lap, typing one handed.

    mostly asking those questions because of the sexual abuse storyline. some people might be drawn to a book because of that storyline, others will not. i don’t really want to read a book where someone has a terrible illness, either, so i would try to gauge how much the book would focus on that and whether i would likely be left with a sense of hope or despair.

    but since it sounds like my comments and questions aren’t helping, I’ll stop now. :-)

  129. 129.

    Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN)

    @Mnemosyne: I don’t know that it fits simply into any of those categories. I’d be inclined to say, “Neutral,” but I don’t think that really captures it. Some aspects of the ending are upbeat. Others aren’t. And some of it is going to be how the reader interprets it.

  130. 130.

    Mnemosyne

    @Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN):

    Also, since you’re a guy, I’m assuming you never read any of R.R. Knudson’s books when you were a kid. You may want to see if they have any at your local library and see what the blurbs are like. They’ll probably be a bit dated, but it may get you onto the right track as far as describing a story about a female athlete (Fox Running sounds like a somewhat similar story with a younger character, but the “Zan” books are probably easier to find.)

  131. 131.

    Mnemosyne

    @Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name):

    You could do a short film like that (see “Bambi vs. Godzilla”). But only Godard or someone equally willing to have audiences tear the seats out of the theater would be able to make a feature-length version.

    @Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN):

    Okay, I’ll put it in the bluntest terms possible: Does your main character die at the end? Is her life completely ruined by her experiences? Does she ruin the lives of everyone around her? (see The Godfather for an example)

    If not, then you don’t have an unhappy ending. Does that help?

  132. 132.

    Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN)

    @WaterGirl: Actually, it isn’t that your questions aren’t helping. They probably are in that these are all things I have to deal with. So it’s not that you’re being frustrating; it’s that the world is frustrating. I readily accept that the way that I approach stories isn’t a typical one. I simply don’t care whether a story is inspiring or a downer or any such thing when I’m deciding whether to read it. And I don’t ask whether I’m going to have fun reading something; fun isn’t really how I would describe the experience of reading. I care whether it’s interesting, well written, and is somehow different from things I’ve read before.

    But, as I said, I suspect this makes me the outlier. So it’s extremely frustrating to have to try to think the way other people do in terms of selling my own work. As a general rule, the questions you are asking are probably typical, but they’re also orthogonal to how I think about the story.

  133. 133.

    WaterGirl

    @Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name): hahaha. I laughed out loud.

    I was in the process of composing my reply to you at #120 when my kitty walked on my lap and somehow closed this tab and opened another BJ thread in its place. Then i had to figure out which thread I was missing in the open BJ tabs so I could come back to it.

    Shorter reply than my original work in progress; I figured the point of law review was the experience and the resume, but I’m pleasantly surprised that you got $350 a month for it. Much more than I would have expected, which was nothing. And diplomacy as an Omnes skill comes as no surprise to me.

    Curious though, about the order of things. So your timeline was high school, army, college, then law school?

  134. 134.

    Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN)

    @Mnemosyne: In those terms, no the ending is not at all unhappy. Phoebe is most definitely still alive at the end; saying that much doesn’t give anything away since it’s implied by the narrative device.

  138. 138.

    Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)

    @WaterGirl:

    So your timeline was high school, army, college, then law school?

    Correct. I went to a “good” college. We put people into PhDs, JDs, MDs, and large corporations. The music conservatory is a horse of a different color. i wanted to rebel and do something adventurous. It turns out that, after training, most of being a peacetime army officer is very similar to being a junior executive in a large corporation – with some camping and howitzer firing.

  139. 139.

    Mnemosyne

    D’oh! Since time is short, I’m going to repeat my moderated comment with the forbidden word fix’d:

    @Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN):

    Phoebe is most definitely still alive at the end; saying that much doesn’t give anything away since it’s implied by the narrative device.

    Haven’t read Harlan Ellison’s “I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream,” have you? Or seen Scorsese’s Ca$ino. First person narration is no guarantee of a happy ending, or even of survival.

  140. 140.

    Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN)

    Hmmn. How’s this?

    18-year old Phoebe Rose uses her dream of playing hockey to overcome the scars of sexual abuse and a childhood spent in foster homes. She arrives in Minnesota with little but her clothes and her skatesdetermined to join one of the best collegiate women’s hockey teams in the world. To make it she must learn how to make friends and trust them.

    “Finding Phoebe” is a story of the loyalty and security that comes from being a part of a team.

    Not sure about that last sentence.

  141. 141.

    Mnemosyne

    @Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN):

    Actually, I think the last sentence is the best part. You should start with that and see where it takes you.

    ETA: It’s the best part because the previous paragraph (foster homes, sexual abuse, etc.) is stuff we’ve all heard about a million times before. But finding yourself by becoming part of a team … that’s your theme right there.

  145. 145.

    Violet

    @Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN): If figuring out the tone of your book is frustrating for you, perhaps you could enlist a few people to read the book and give you some insight. You’d still write the blurb but they could help you categorize it.

    Sometimes we’re too close to our own work to see it properly. Outside eyes can help.

  147. 147.

    Mnemosyne

    @Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN):

    Not as uncommon as you’d think — I just peeked at the ending of Gone Girl (which is written in alternating first person) and, yeah, you can have an absolutely horrifying ending written in first person.

    But I don’t want to get too far off-track, because it feels like you’ve figured out how to articulate your theme. And though I don’t want to shove you into a box, what you have here is a classic “coming of age” story. That’s good — if you can craft your blurb in that direction, it will keep you away from being pigeonholed as “sports” or “chick lit.”

  148. 148.

    Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN)

    @Mnemosyne: And, to be honest, all I’m trying to do hear is craft the blurb that will go on the Kickstarter page to try to raise money. This isn’t even the blurb that will go on the book.

  149. 149.

    Violet

    @Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN): If you list her age in the blurb that will lead readers to think it’s mostly set in the college years–you also mention college hockey. I think you said it goes on into adulthood–was it ten years? If it spans quite a timeframe, that might be important info to have in the blurb. If it mostly focuses on the college years–with the flashbacks to her childhood–then it might be good to mention that too.

    I think Mnem is right–classic coming of age story.

  151. 151.

    Death Panel Truck

    @KG: A sect that advocates pacifism. Tricky Dick’s mother was a pacifist and wanted him to be also. He joined the Navy even so, knowing he was going to run for office afterward. Always the cynical, calculating bastard Dick was. Motherfucker was running for president since he was old enough to stump for Harding as a seven-year-old.

  152. 152.

    Bruce Webb

    @nellcote: ISIL vs ISIS is just a difference in how you translate al-Sham (I think). The Arabic ‘Sham’ is roughly equivalent to originally French ‘Levant’ which is kind of but not totally equivalent to British/Arab ‘Iraq and Syria’.

    At this point there is not much reason to worry about the distinction between ISIS and ISIL since its leadership has explicitly broken all geographic bounds implied by either by resurrecting the ‘Caliphate’. Which at its height not only controlled all of what is Saudi Arabia and the Gulf States but also North Africa and most of Spain. That is the ‘IS’ just left the ‘IS’ or ‘IL’ suffixes behind. And I suspect the Obama Administration just doesn’t want to flatter the whole conceit behind ‘IS’ and just picked ISIL as a convenient (and reasonably explicit) backup designation.

    As our Cheese Eating Surrender Monkey friends say: “N’importe”

  153. 153.

    am

    No need to get angry unless ISIL wasn’t being dealt with. They are being dealt with. Otherwise they wouldn’t be murdering defenseless hostages, which is a sign of impotence.

    Just want to point out that John McCain wanted to give these people state of the art weapons in Syria.

  155. 155.

    Someguy

    Yeah, let’s have a war. Fuck it! Get your war on everybody!

    We’ll be greeted as liberators.

    What could possibly go wrong?

  157. 157.

    Cervantes

    @Bruce Webb:

    I agree with most of what you say.

    “Sham” means “on the left” and “yamin” means “on the right.” The ancient Arabs who originally referred to Syria as the former and Yemen as the latter were standing in Mecca and facing east. That’s the origin of the two names.

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