Year 5 of an Indie Writer: Week 15 AKA Dublin, Rockford, Prine, and Apollo 13

I'm willing to bet that my week went something close to yours. I spent every workday in my writing room doing the day job. I watched some news, but only about an hour a day. I watched a few TV shows. I spent lots of time with the family. And that was about it.

You?

I thought so.

Without much variety and few exterior stimulation, there's not a lot of change day to day. Now don't get me wrong: I am not bored. I do not have cabin fever. I am content to do what I can to flatten the curve. And, as I'm not a medical professional or a grocery store employee, that means staying home. I'm doing my part, as are so many of us. Frankly, it's inspiring to see everyday folks doing what they can to combat this virus. It should be a moment of pride for all of us.

Give yourself a round of applause. But I also have some crime fiction-related material.

Dublin Murders

My wife read all the books by Tana French and loved them. When she heard a television series was being made, she got very excited. When she learned said series was going to be on STARZ, she sighed. We subscribe to a few streaming services, and she was willing to wait to see Dublin Murders at some future date.

Well, STARZ came through. The network offered it's content for free for about a week, and we eagerly jumped on the eight-episode series which combines the first two French novels: INTO THE WOODS and THE LIKENESS.

Taking place in 2006, Rob Riley (Killian Scott) and Cassie Maddox (Sarah Greene) pick up a case about a murdered teenaged girl. They don't want another child murder case but Rob's driven to solve this one. Turns out, the dead girl was found in the same set of woods a notorious 1985 crime also occurred. The 1985 case involved three younger teenagers who went into the forest but only one came out. This story line corresponds

Rob was that boy, but he's hidden his identity. Now, as the lead detective in 2006, he strives to find the 2006 killer at the same time as he digs into the events of 1985, most of which he can't remember.

Cassie has her own issues stemming from the deaths of her parents when she was a child. Her own demons haunt her, and play directly into the B Mystery, which is the subject of THE LIKENESS. This one involves her going undercover to find who killed a young lady...who looks just like Cassie.

Okay, so the A Mystery plot is pretty good and I found it quite compelling. I enjoyed the camaraderie between Rob and Cassie...until they both started acted in a manner that seemed unlike themselves. And it really put me off. The B Mystery plot I almost didn't care for. The deeper into the B Mystery we got, the more irritated I became. I would've preferred just doing INTO THE WOODS.

And then there was the ending...

Have you seen Dublin Murders? What did you think of it.

John Prine

Up until the singer/songwriter got sick with Coronavirus, I wouldn't have been able to pick him out of a lineup. I don't think I've ever consciously listened to any of Prine's songs.

Unfortunately, Prine died from Covid 19 this week. And then I started reading the remembrances from all over, including Jason Isbell's piece in the New York Times and that of James Taylor. Seth Godin listed lots of song lyrics on his blog, and that got me to YouTube. I started listening to Prince's songs. I listened and then I kept listening. My wife, who knows Prine and his music, had me listen to multiple versions of "Angel from Montgomery."

I loved everything I heard, and he had a great way with lyrics and spinning his tales. I'll be listening to more of his music in the weeks ahead.

Do you have a favorite Prine song?

The Rockford Files

Yesterday, I had a day off and, after lunch and my daily games of backgammon and Yahtzee with the wife, I pulled out my DVD set of the first season of The Rockford Files. I watched the first two episodes, and boy did I enjoy them. The clothes. The cars. The rumpled coolness of James Garner. The big heart. That theme song.

What I really liked and appreciated is how Rockford would think his way out of every situation. He reminded me of Donald Lam from the Erle Stanley Gardner Cool and Lam novels. And the humor was at times subtle and obvious. Really enjoyed both episodes.

I have memories of the show being on back in my childhood, but I don't remember ever sitting down and watching the show. I was probably too young for it. Cut to my adulthood and I never sought out the show. Now that I have the complete first season, I'll be watching it...and then finding future seasons.

Apollo 13 at 50

Today marks the fiftieth anniversary of Apollo 13's launch. Monday marks the anniversary of the accident in space while next Friday is the date of splashdown. If you haven't done it in awhile, you should check out the movie. If not, there will be likely be articles published.

Take a moment and remember what the expertise of all those involved fifty years ago did to get those astronauts back home safe. Remarkable.

Apollo 11 (2019 documentary)

It really is just like you were there.

On Saturday, CNN broadcast the 2019 documentary "Apollo 11" by Todd Douglas Miller. This was the film I had heard about earlier this year, but never got around to seeing in the theater or on IMAX.

Big mistake.

Miller uses recently discovered archival footage, much of which is in color and 70 mm, and creates an immersive experience. With no modern voice over, the only dialogue comes from Walter Cronkite, but only when the astronauts on readying for their flight. Other than that, all the voices are contemporary to 1969.

One of the best things was the footage of all the folks who lined the roads and parking lots in Florida that July day to watch the Saturn V rocket blast off. Families eating and playing together, couples lying on the beach, folks crowding the balconies of a motel, all angling to get a good look. You really get the vibe of a day-in-the-life of the summer of 1969. The clothes, the cars. One of my favorite things during my graduate research via microfilm--and the thing that always sidetracked me--was the newspaper ads. You get a good glimpse into what people bought and sold. Same thing here. I especially loved all the folks watching the launch through their own individual camera lenses. Just like modern concerts and smart phones.

The space flight itself was also cool. There's the moment after Apollo 11 has left Earth orbit where the crew have to maneuver the command module around, dock with the lunar lander, then rotate again, and fire the rockets. The camera follows in real time as Michael Collins pilots the command module in the docking. Look, it happened fifty years ago. I know it was successful. But I still found myself breathless, hoping nothing would go wrong.

Yeah, it's that kind of film.

The actual walking on the moon footage is something special, too. It's not the typical black-and-white image from the side of the Eagle lander. It's from Buzz Aldrin's point of view. You get a top-down view of Neil Armstrong as he descends the ladder and steps foot on the moon.

Also exciting is the liftoff of the lander from the moon to re-dock with the command module. The filmmaker does a repeat of the docking sequence. What surprised me was NASA talking to Collins who orbited the moon while Armstrong and Aldrin walked the moon. Collins didn't see it live. He was on the far side when it happened.

The film started at 8 pm on Saturday. I watched it in a different room while my wife watched another program for an hour. She would then pick up Apollo 11 at 9 pm, watch to the end, then catch the first hour on the re-broadcast. I ended up watching the whole thing all the way through again.

Loved it.

If you haven't seen Apollo 11, the 2019 documentary, I highly recommend it. Now, I'm going on the hunt for Miller's other documentary about Apollo 17 called The Last Steps.

Year of an Indie Writer: Week 29

Another really slow week for me, creatively. Finished reviewing the new novel's opening chapters and planned for the next few scenes. After writing into the dark for the previous six novels, I'm doing a hybrid for this new one. Yes, writing into the dark, but there are scenes and guideposts I intend to hit.

There is another new project going on that I've been working on for about a month now, but I don't want to reveal what it is just yet. Why? Because what I'm doing is something I want to do without any or much feedback. Well, that's a bit crappy of a....what's the term when creatives say a thing but never reveal said thing? Can't remember, so let me a bit more direct.

There is a series of movies many in the world have watched and I've never seen. Just last month, I decided to watch them all in order and write reviews about them. I've now watched and reviewed six of the films. My reviews have added up to over 10,000 words so far, and I've still got a few movies left to go. The reason for my comment above about feedback is that these movies have passionate fans and I don't want to get some feedback before I actually watch the movies on my own.

Anyone care to guess?

The Moon Landing at 50

Today is the fiftieth anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing! It's been great living in Houston this week and just about every TV station has a special or two. Even the networks are getting in on it. On Tuesday, CBS moved Blood and Treasure up to 8 pm, making me miss it when I tuned in at nine. But there was an Apollo show so I was assuaged.

I finished AMERICAN MOONSHOT by Douglas Brinkley this week. It's a political history of the moon landing through the prism of John Kennedy's evolving philosophy about the validity of the moon shot. Good book. Here's my review.

For those of y'all old enough to remember, what was it like living through that momentous time? What was it like going through your daily life knowing Apollo 11 was flying to the moon? I'd love to hear your reminiscences.

Oh, and if you've not already discovered it, you can follow everything that transpired fifty years ago at https://apolloinrealtime.org/11/. It is exactly what you think it is. Everything that was said back and forth, photos, elapsed time, all in one great website. I joked with a co-worker earlier this week that if you were a space junkie and had some sort of recuperation that involved you laying in bed for days, this would have been a neat way to pass the time.

The actual landing was 20:17 UTC. You'll have to do the math to figure out what you're local time is. For us in Houston and the Central Time Zone, that will be 1:17 pm today. I've already set my alarm on my phone so I can return to the website listed above and scan some TV channels to see if anyone is doing a "live" broadcast. Hope so.

Enjoy the week, and enjoy the moon landing fifty years on.

American Moonshot: John F. Kennedy and the Great Space Race by Douglas Brinkley

I am a degreed historian with a knack for remembering dates of historical events. As 2019 dawned, I knew we'd hit the fiftieth anniversary of the moon landing this summer. Tomorrow. I also knew there'd be a slew of new historical accounts published to commemorate that momentous giant leap for mankind. Which one to read? When I saw noted historian Douglas Brinkley's name among the list, I made my decision.

American Moonshot: John F. Kennedy and the Great Space Race isn't necessarily a play-by-play of all the steps the United States took to land Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin on the moon fifty years ago. Instead, it is more a political biography of two men--John Kennedy and German Wernher von Braun--as they both came of age in Depression and war. Most of us know the basics of Kennedy's life history, but Brinkely zeroes in on space and the filter through which he described Kennedy's life. What did he think about Sputnik? Where was he when Yuri Gagarin was the first man in space? What did Kennedy really think about space?

Which made for a fascinating way to examine Kennedy's experiences and how he came around to seeing the moonshot as a Cold War technique to use against the Soviet Union. Late in the book, Brinkley wrote one of Kennedy's defenses of the massive amount of money spent to land men on the moon was worth it considering the alternative--a shooting war against the Soviets, if not nuclear war itself--was too horrible to contemplate.

Von Braun, on the other hand, was more of a mystery to me. I first read about him in James Michener's novel, Space (1982), and again earlier this year when I read Apollo 8: The Thrilling Story of the First Mission to the Moon by Jeffrey Kluge. His story was a troubled one. With eyes on the skies and dreams of sending rockets and men to the moon, von Braun, in Brinkley's words, made the Faustian bargain in World War II, to build the V-2 rockets with slave labor, the end results of which were the deaths of civilians when those rockets were launched against England. Sure, von Braun was a crucial member of the NASA team in the 1960s to engineer the Saturn V rocket and an constant cheerleader for the importance of the moonshot, but at what cost? Did it even out his activities in the war? Should it? Still, it was interesting to learn more about him and the relationship he and Kennedy formed.

Speaking of relationships, what I most enjoyed was the descriptions of the camaraderie Kennedy formed with the Mercury 7 astronauts. I had always seen photos of him with them, but never knew how close some of them became with the president. Which made his assassination much more personal. Brinkley described where each of the astronauts were when they learned of Kennedy's death. For most of them, it was the radio.

As a native of Space City, USA, I have always been keenly aware of the role Houston played in the history of NASA and space exploration. Some of my favorite parts of Brinkley's book was the discussion of Houston and the surrounding areas during the 1960s. If Armstrong took the one giant leap for mankind, then the manned space program was Houston's leap forward.

Brinkley went on to write the great irony of Kennedy's death helped NASA get the funding it needed to land Armstrong and Aldrin on the moon in 1969. President Lyndon Johnson felt no problem with using Kennedy's vision, as set forth in a pair of 1961 speeches, to get the money. Was it worth it? Johnson himself, as vice president, delivered a report which laid out all the ancillary benefits humankind could reap as a result of doing what it took to put men on the moon.

Think about this: the device you're using to read this review is likely a cell phone. That computer-in-your-palm is exponentially more powerful than the computers used to shepherd Apollo 11 to the moon. The GPS system we all use to get us to where we want to go is a result of the space race. Might we have eventually got to the moon and invented all this technology without the great race? Most likely, but the pace would have been much slower.

There are lots of books that discuss the engineering feats needed to land the Eagle in the Sea of Tranquility fifty years ago tomorrow, including all the intricate details of all the various Mercury, Gemini and Apollo missions. But if you want the political version of that story centered on one man who saw the potential of a victorious moon landing for us here on Earth, then American Moonshot by Douglas Brinkley is a good recommendation.