Eric Plume > Recent Status Updates

Posted elsewhere:

"Batman-style superheroes are basically mass-shooter personalities with a big budget that lets them buy a cool outfit.

"Let's be real here, Batman and Fifty Shades of Grey have a fact in common; its that if they had taken place in a trailer park they would have both ended up on an episode of Criminal Minds."

A therapist just read my first book and messaged me with a question about my heroine; turned out she was able to correctly diagnose the character's mental-health issues, even though what caused said issues wasn't in the book itself. The therapist figured it out through the character's behavior alone.

That was the compliment I needed today!

Well friends, 2020 is still showing us new ways in which the world can go off the rails...but you know what? I'm still surviving and thriving, and I am for one simple reason;

Mama didn't raise no fool.

I have to thank my mother for all the wisdom she gave me growing up. It has definitely proven useful in these trying times. Thanks mom! :D

I was conversing with my partner about various aspects of the so-called 'Manosphere' (you know; Redpill, incel, etc) and this conversation happened:

Her: "These guys are like the male version of Karens."

Me: "How so?"

Her: "A woman won't put out and they're all 'I WaNt tO SpeAk To yOuR MaNaGer".

Me: almost chokes on beverage

recovers

"That was fucking beautiful. The Internet must know."

Hey peeps, since its Mystery & Thriller month y'all should check out my first novel Margin Play. It's only 99 cents, so if you don't like it you're out less than the price of a candy bar.

Come on, that's a mistake you can afford to make.

Make that mistake here:

https://www.amazon.com/Margin-Play-Ec...

I just got word from my narrator; the audiobook version of Naming the Hangman is finished! I just listened to the sample; it sounds excellent, better than her work on Margin Play, and now that I've approved it the final product should be available within the week!

So excited! :D

Question for the writers/authors in my audience;

Have you ever had your writing take you to a dark place in your soul...but at the end of the day, you were glad you went there because you learned something about your own trauma?

Asking for a friend...

I just broke 7k on a brand-new entry in my Eckart Mysteries series, a novella tentatively titled "Friend or Foe".

Yes friends and fans, it is official...Amber Eckart is back on the case!

So happy to have broken through my writer's block and to be breaking ground on new content again! :D

My lady and I stumbled upon this recipe and decided to make it:

https://www.bonappetit.com/story/garl...

Combined with a cup of tomato soup it was da-bomb.com! The perfect antidote to a cold winter night!

I don't know what kind soul updated the covers on my two novels to the proper image, but thank you soooooo much! You are an awesome carbon-based lifeform, whoever you are. May all your reads be excellent! <3

Got my Jack & Coke and a good book (still deciding on which one). Gonna kick it Lemmy-style this New Year's Eve!

What are y'all up to tonight?

Q: How does a pirate look at forty?

A: Through reading glasses.

Yes, I just bought a pair today, after one too many situations with books where my arms weren't long enough and/or the text was too small.

I am officially an Auld Phart.

(BTW, if you can name the Q & A reference, you are cool in my book.)

Again I'm in love with how the smallest details end up affecting serious events...and it's fucking believable.

Older Me is starting to see both the reason Clancy's works were so successful and (much as I'm uncomfortable to admit it) his influence on my writing.

Strategically, Clancy's stories are very complicated - plotwise there's a lot going on. But tactically - like, when describing a scene between characters - he doesn't waste words.

Also, he's fond of dialogue to get his points across, something I also do.

I love how Clancy describes his Russian characters. They're competent, cynical about their government, nihilistic in a way but still loyal to the system they serve - even as they privately acknowledge that said system is totally broken.

I can imagine a 21st century US soldier/sailor in a similar position feeling about the same way.

Reading this 20 years later is definitely interesting.

Another observation; people like to say that Clancy is wordy...he's not. His stories are definitely complicated and detail-oriented, but from scene to scene he definitely gets to the point right quick.

Another fact Older Me is noticing; while Clancy is very fond of info-dumps and uses them regularly, he is very good at A: flowing from the story to the dump, B: making the dump interesting, and most importantly C: putting some good authorial connective tissue from the dump back to the story.

A lot of authors don't know how to do that and it shows.

Tom Clancy knows how to write a proper engineering disaster. Like, as someone who has watched one happen how he writes them are how they happen. I'm even more impressed than I once was.

Still as riveting as I remember.

I forgot how evocative Clancy's writing could be, especially when characters are ruminating on their lives and motivations.

The best part about doing cat-rescue is when owners send you pics of the cats you rescued, all happy and healthy in their forever-home.

Seriously, its the best feeling EVER.

If you own a rescue-cat, find a way to send pics of your kitty back to the rescuers. I guarantee they will love the shit out of 'em.

Also; prevent the need for rescue, SPAY AND NEUTER YOUR CATS!

Aaaaaaand now we're off in social-justice gobbeldygook land. Oy vey, I had high hopes for this one (and sometimes I was impressed) but things are not looking good on the rating end.

Really, author-person? You had to go there?

Oof. Again with the "so close, yet so far" vibe. I am so not sure on how I will end up rating this.

Wow, this book is so close and yet so far at the same time. I don't know how I will rate/review it.

Okay, now she's talking about "locker room talk" through the lens of men bonding by putting down women...but she's trying to pretend women don't do the same thing.

Sorry, but I have it on good authority that "Men, feh" type conversations happen all the time in female only spaces.

What the hell, author person? I was starting to like you.

Okay, now we're getting somewhere...

So far, not bad. A bit superficial, and I question some of the statistical data the author used to justify her points...but not bad.

Not great either though.

I was cleaning out a bunch of my old stuff and found a picture of 17 year old me in 1998.

God, I was so 90s it hurts...

The history of the bloodiest lawlessness of the American past shows continual repetitions. First, liberty is construed to mean license, and license un-rebuked leads on to insolence. Still left un-rebuked, license organizes against the law, taking the form of gangs, factions, bandit clans.

Continued in comments.

It is not likely that the graves will be visited again by anyone who knows their locality. Garrett looked at them in silence for a time, then, turning, went to the buckboard for a drink at the canteen. “Well,” said he, quietly, “here’s to the boys, anyway. If there is any other life, I hope they’ll make better use of it than they did of the one I put them out of.”

...wow.