Feb 1 and winter keeps us in its icy grip. The temperature remained in the single digits at night and barely drifted into the teens and twenties during the day, here in West Virginia. A hardship to some, and not minimizing the trouble and pain the snowfall caused, but I find beauty and joy in winter’s harshness. Like a hurricane or a heatwave, Mother Nature’s way of reminding us who is in charge.
Up on the mountain yesterday, I found I wasn’t alone; it looks like Yogi woke from his nap midwinter and is searching for a pic-a-nic basket. That’s me in the picture, looking down on a frozen lake that I was swimming in just six months ago! It is a wonder of nature, and a gift to us, I think, to see such changes with the seasons. Spring is promiscuous and fecund, Summer lazy and fat, Autumn harried and hurried with winter preparations and family holidays. Winter is none of that: unhurried, austere, serene, and supreme. Think you’re going somewhere today? Look out the window, think again. Best curl up with a good book, next to the fire (or fires, I use two stoves to stay warm, a coal stove and a wood-fueled one). Needless to say, my favorite season.
January was busy:
An interview with Gary David on his podcast “Experience by design”. I have found that no two podcast interviews are the same, each one asks different questions and brings us somewhere else. This one delved into many aspects of leadership and is more academic than others I have done.
Started teaching at George Mason University, an adult extension class about submarines. 47 students, all retired and interested in history. The final class will be on a war game the USNI conducted two years ago, “War with China 2026”. Needless to say, submarines feature prominently in it, and everyone expressed great interest in that class. I will teach it again at the Fairfax campus this spring, and I may take it on the road and teach it at other libraries and museums if I get sufficient interest.
This month marks the 11th consecutive month that “Submerged” has been a bestseller on Amazon and shows no sign of slowing down! Thank you, everyone, who read it and reviewed it.
“Hotwire” sells about a book a day, not great but not awful. I keep hoping it will break out, but maybe it won’t.
I took a break from writing “Handicap” to study a book I picked up, which really changed my way of thinking about story structure, “Story Genius” by Lisa Cron. For all the writers out there, I can’t recommend it highly enough; it changed my way of thinking about plot.
I will leave you with an invite: On Feb 10 February at 8 PM EST, I will be defending the movie “K19: Widowmaker” (2002, Harrison Ford and Liam Neeson) on the podcast “Reels of Justice”. Strongly urge anyone interested in movies to listen to a few of their shows; they “presume a movie innocent of being a bad movie,” and a prosecutor and a defender (that will be me) must make their case to a judge and jury. Great fun and also educational if you like movies.
Thank you, everyone, for reading. Until next month,
Henry Rausch, (K19 defense attorney)