R.W. Krpoun's Blog, page 5

Grog V has reached 68,000 words, and most importantly, is cruising confidently towards the finish line. I went through a modest dry patch, but the pieces are coming together.

Grog IV has reached 58,000 words rough draft, and I think I’ve patched the gap in my plot. Hopefully full writing will forge ahead!

I was down with the flu last week, but I am back at the keyboard now. Grog V has reached 54k words rough draft, and I have a possible fix to the story arc issue. I’ll know later this week.

Grog V has reached 51k, but is still basically stalled, although I have an idea that may get things moving again. In the meantime, I hunt inspiration.

Still having problems with the story arc, but I have pushed the count to 50k words of rough draft, out of a target of 80k. I am planning a trip to a renfaire for inspiration in April.

Grog V has reached 48,000 words of rough draft, but I have run into plot issues, and work has stalled. I will post weekly updates until I get the issue fixed.

Grog just embarked upon an Amazon promotion, and sales are looking rather good.

Meanwhile, central Texas is paralyzed under a quarter inch of sleet, which amuses an old snow-bird like me to no end.

Grog V has passed 38,000 words, not rapid progress, but steady, and the plot is holding together.

I just re-watched JFK, which is a entertaining drama, if not very accurate.

Conspiracies are a good topic for a writer to study, as they are excellent idea-fodder, and I find them to be great fun.

But as someone who spent virtually his entire working life in government service, I would like to share a few points:
1) Government agencies do not cooperate all that well at the best of times.
2) Groups do not keep secrets for long, be it the government, the Mafia, or anyone else. No matter what the threat for breaking silence. For a conspiracy to succeed, the number of people who know the truth must be kept to a very bare minimum. The Hell’s Angels, who have done better than most organized criminals (but not all that great), believe that a secret will not survive when four or more know it, and is not truly safe with three.

If you are going to employ a patsy (ala JFK), you need it done in one of two ways: have him killed in glaring evidence of the crime (Oswald shot down in the book repository), or keep him alive.

That was the largest plot hole in JFK, other than the fact that Garrison conspiracy involved enough registered voters to have crippled Kennedy’s chance at re-election: Oswald spent over 72 hours in police custody, and spent a large part of that time talking. He talked to Texas Rangers, Dallas PD officers, police administrative people, reporters, and even spoke to a TV crew. For all that endless chatter, he said nothing of interest. He did not speak of FBI handlers, or trying to warn anyone about a potential assassination; instead, he simply, and endlessly, said he was being mistreated, wrongly charged, and persecuted because he was a Marxist-Leninist.

Oswald alive would be worth far more to a cabal than Oswald shot down by Jack Ruby. If there was a conspiracy, they clearly planned for Oswald’s capture, and made sure he knew nothing.

Another glaring plot hole in Garrison’s case/theories is the choice of weapon. Garrison believes that three rifle teams triangulated the motorcade, and there is the rub: he has seven people directly involved in the assassination (three two-man teams, plus a controller). Besides being too far many, all three shooters had to use the exact model and caliber of Oswald’s rifle to avoid embarrassing questions.

Now. 6.5x52mm is an accurate round out to 250 yards, and a effective battlefield round with a propensity to tumble on impact (much like 5.56mm), creating spectacular wounds. The Carcano Model 1891 was a well-made weapon whose performance before and during WW2 was hampered by poor quality ammunition, and the strange policy of mixing cartridges of different power and bullet weight together, which when combined with fixed sights. did not work well. However, the commercial ammunition used in the assassination had none of those issues.

The problem with the rifle was that it had a internal magazine with a capacity of six. That meant that no matter how many shooters you had, they could not fire more than six rounds in total without being exposed. A reasonable planner, picking from weapons available in 1963 in Dallas, TX, had much better choices; for example the M-1 carbine with a 30 round detachable magazine.

One good point was that the assassination had to succeed at any cost, for treason will not prosper. So why not employ a Browning Automatic Rifle, in the potent .30-06, loaded in twenty-round magazines? Oswald had been trained on the weapon in the USMC, and in 1963 in Dallas such weapons were easily obtained from a variety of sources. A single competent shooter could have riddled Kennedy from Oswald’s position with ease. Kennedy’s killing was not a sniper’s job: it was a slow-moving target at 85 yards, not a challenging shot for a rifle.

I personally can consistently hit a man-sized target at 50 yards with a handgun; 80 yards is likely beyond my skill with a handgun (but not with a rifle), but there are plenty of people who could make that shot with a handgun.

For a situation where a killing shot MUST be achieved using no more bullets than a specific weapons holds, the historical choice seems unlikely. A planner engaged in treason would want, I believe, a wider margin for error.

For my personal opinion, the investigation of Kennedy’s murder reads like exactly what it was: a massive cluster. A high-profile murder immediately draws endless numbers of strap-hangers who accomplish nothing but creating confusion. I have seen this far too often: the Chief of Police charges out to the scene, despite a career spent glad-handing and politics, and starts wandering around striking poses and barking orders. Meanwhile, the rest of the chain of command immediately follows suit so as not to appear unmotivated.

Meanwhile, patrolmen, detectives, and first-line supervisors are trying to mobilize resources and put procedures into place while said brass are tramping all over demanding updates and issuing orders based on half-remembered training they received twenty years ago. Soon the City Manager and other bureaucrats show up out of curiosity, and immediately the Chief, who is their toady, will rush over for an opportunity to kiss the ring and put on a dog and pony show.

Now, multiply that by a thousand because the victims include the POTUS and the Governor, and you get exactly what occurred in Dallas: an entire police department running around like madmen.

After I made command rank, it was a constant bone of contention between me and my last two Chiefs, because I generally refused to respond to murder scenes. I would call the scene commander, find out if he needed anything, and then go about my business. The last thing the SC needed was people looking over his shoulder, and if the SC wasn’t prepared to handle a murder scene, then it was certainly too late to fix it. But the Chief invariably felt stupid being out at the scene while his subordinate commanders weren’t, and tension would ensue. Were it not for Civil Service, my career would have been much shorter; however, when you are the highest Civil Service rank, there is little an appointed Chief can do to you, threaten you with, or promise you.

Anyway, just my two cents.

Well, 2023 is upon us, with its usual volle of resolutions and hopes, changes and developments.

Grog V has reached 29,000 words of rough draft, rather good for five week’s writing. The plot is holding up well, but I won’t relax until I get further into the book. Still, with a goal of at least 80,000 words to publish, progress has been excellent.

Here’s hoping 2023 serves my readers well.

Grog V has reached 18,000+ words of rough draft, and the plot arcs are holding steady.

I would like to wish a Merry Christmas or a Happy Hanukah to all my readers!

I wish I had a holiday release this year, but no such luck.