rlfj: Blog

The camping scene that occurs in Chapter 112 actually occurred in real life. Every once in a while you need to kick their asses a little.

A word of warning about future chapters – there will be politics! Now, Carl is a fairly middle of the road kind of guy, what we used to call a business Republican. Socially liberal, deficit hawk, strong on defense. Most of them have been run out of Congress in the last ten years, but at the time when Carl gets into Congress there were still quite a few around.

However, there is no possible way to write a story where Carl goes into politics without writing about politics! It can’t be done! The important thing to look for is not what his positions are, but how he navigates the rapids and gets things accomplished. Whether you agree with his positions, or other members of his party, what does he accomplish and how does he accomplish it? That will prove the interesting part.

Quite a few of you commented on my use of the law firm Dewey, Cheatem, and Howe. It’s good to know the classics are still appreciated.

I got some very interesting info regarding booze in the Saudi compounds, and Dharan in particular. While one reader stated that booze was readily smuggled in via the diplomatic pouch, another reader reported that you had to be politically connected to get the good stuff that way, and another reported it was ridiculously expensive that way. A more detailed explanation is below and meshes with most of the info I was finding on the blogs.

“Re your questions regarding alcoholic beverages in Saudi Arabian compounds, I was in different expat compounds on the Persian Gulf side of Saudi in '74 (Abqaiq), '79 (Al Kobar), '85 (Daharan) and '02 (Al Jubail).

During the earlier times, alcohol was mostly home brewed from anything with sugar in it. The results ranged from good to paint remover and were universally called saddiqui (friend). In order to increase the alcohol content through distillation, the brew required a lot of heating, usually with propane burners. Heating 190 proof alcohol inside a closed house or garage with an open flame is downright dangerous. Enough compound homes were burned down during this process that fire insurance became almost unobtainable.

In the early '80's, outside entrepreneurs took over the brewing and the risk. It was possible to order lemonade (white wine), pink lemonade (rose'), red lemonade, fuzzy lemonade (beer) or siddiqui (hard liqueur) from local TCN's by a simple phone call. Delivery was to your door inside the compound in spite of the ever watchful Muttawa (religious police) at the gate.

In 1986, the King Fahd causeway opened, linking Daharan with Bahrain where all kinds of alcoholic beverages are readily available on the open market. It was easy and safe to have a weekend bender in Bahrain without the risk of having the forbidden alcohol in your home. This drastically reduced the profitability and need for both home brew and smuggling.

After the first Iraqi war in 1991, the US military was getting thousands of container shipments per month in Saudi. More than a few of them contained high quality booze and that became available on the open market, for a price. The difference between the quality of the imports versus the home brew put many siddiqui brewers out of business.”

Some of my editors and readers have asked if I was ever in the Scouts or a Scout leader. Much like Carl and his fictional son Parker, I was a Scout and a leader, and my real-life son was an Eagle Scout. I was in various leadership positions for about 15 years and did a lot of camping with the boys. I think the best job in Scouting is Cubmaster. You have one Pack meeting a month, one committee meeting a month, 2-3 short camping trips a year, and a few fundraisers. Very easy, much easier than the weekly Den meetings! I’m pretty lazy!

Of course, the very best job of all involves quality control and taste testing of Girl Scout cookies. Speaking of which, way back when, my daughters were in the Girl Scouts and had to sell cookies. Being the dutiful father, I took a list to the office, and posted a sign saying, “Happy employees eat Girl Scout cookies!” (I was the boss.) By the end of the day, the office joker had taken Wite-Out and eliminated the word ‘cookies’, necessitating the removal of the sign. I made him buy extras!

The reference in the last A Fresh Start blog post was to Lodge 26 of the Water Buffaloes, from The Flintstones. Extra bonus points were awarded to readers who got the correct number. Quadruple points went to a reader who reminded me of the Great Gazoo. Points were taken away from those who asked me if I remembered the Bensonhurst chapter of the International Order of the Friendly Sons of the Racoons. (Look it up!) Please, I remember! I really liked the question about whether Carl would become a Sith Lord.

My real family is nowhere near as nutty as Carl’s. I haven’t killed my brother; he still lives at home and helps take care of my 97-year-old mother, who hasn’t disowned me yet. My sister and her family live half an hour away, and I have several cousins and their families I see regularly.

I got several emails from various foreigners who are reading the story and were curious about my description of how Washington actually works. The general gist of the letters was that it sounded too bad to be true, but I was probably right. Now for the bad news – it’s actually worse! It would just take too long to write some of it.

The Reaper Saga ends with the last chapter and the epilogue. It’s been a long run, but it needs to end, and this seems like a good point to do it. From what I’ve been hearing, everybody seems to like the way it’s been going,

For the readers who want me to keep going, to tell Riley’s or Seamus’ stories, sorry, no. I was uncomfortable enough moving into the near future, 2020 to 2028. When I started writing nobody had ever heard of coronavirus, Black Lives Matter, or any of the other events we’ve seen. What strange events will happen in the future? And how can I even begin to wonder what will happen to the rest of the family in the next ten, twenty, forty years? What I wrote in the Epilogue pushes my imagination to the limits. I can imagine writing scifi set in the far future, but not in the immediate future.

Again, I can’t thank my editors enough. I’m nowhere near smart enough to do this stuff on my own, especially since I’ve never served or been a cop. RSC got a lot of assistance from grynslvr2, jjmcdonald7911, pdkrause, and Old Rotorhead. I could never have done this without their assistance.

In any case, the Grim Reaper saga is ended. We are back to Carl Buckman for a bit. Enjoy!