a reprieve from the hellish heat

Annie versus the cupcake


9:07


The heat finally broke. Yesterday was gorgeous. It's only 63 F degrees out with a high expected of 84. Tues, Wed, and Thurs. were the worst days of my life with a high of 104 F. It's cool. I am wearing a shirt inside my house and the fan is off. I slept under a blanket last night. Am i dead? Is this heaven? But i don't really believe in heaven. If this is a dream please don't wake me up. Please!


Everything is beautiful and nothing hurts
-Kurt Vonnegut


Yesterday i taught a class while having a beer with Miguel Angel on a terrace. Then i went to Carmencita for brunch and all hell broke lose. Ben, Dave, Miguel, Josh and Erica were all there for Dave's Bday. That turned into an all day bender and i got home at 22:30. 


I don't think i have any classes manana. Let me check. Nope. Maybe go to the pool and check out the hooters. 


The Mets keep hanging tough, staying close to the mighty Nationals. RA Dickey has been insane and Santana had another solid outing last night. 


The Nats are going to make the playoffs for the first time ever as i predicted in March. They should win a championship in the next few years. They are built for the long haul. However, pushing Strasburg past his prescribed 160 innings would be foolish. In the 90's, the Cubs destroyed Kerry Wood's arm to make the playoffs, one of the great wastes of all time. Those who don't know history are damned to repeat it. It's a theme that weaves throughout every novel i've ever written.


I miss baseball. Some of my best memories of summers past are watching the Yanks and the Mets with the Mum. 


39 days til i go home. Ack! 


I've already said good-bye to a few students and friends who are going back home to the UK or Ireland for the summer. It's been incredibly emotional. 


I am a very lucky man. I have so many good friends. Mum always says you have to be a good friend to have good friends. Undoubtedly this is true. But it's still an amazing thing. The truest wealth in this world is friends and family. I see your children, and i see my own children. Anything they need, i would do. Anything. I wouldn't even think once about it. I'd just fucking do it. And this feeling, the want to do that, is the greatest feeling in the world. My world is mess of grinding gears and moving parts - and the future is uncertain. But finally, after what seemed like the apocalypse 6 years ago, i am at peace. So fuck all that other shit.


Books i read in June


Brotherhood of the Rose - David Morrell
Divergent (Divergent 1) - Veronica Roth 
Insurgent (Divergent 2) -  Veronica Roth
Alas, Babylon - Pat Frank
Retribution Falls - Chris Wooding (a friend i met here in Madrid)
A World Undone (The Story of the Great War 1914 - 1918) - G.J Meyer


The Divergent Trilogy (dystopian) is awesome. I read Brotherhood of the Rose 20 years ago and loved it. I loved it all over again when i re-read it. Retribution Falls is steam punk and was very good. Alas Babylon is a post nuclear war novel, written around the time of On the Beach and was very good. And the WWI history book was astounding. It was thorough, addressed every front and gave a great deal of background. WWI is the most important event event of the 20th century. It shaped the entire century. It was the most horrible conflict in human history. 


The next novel, The Ever-Born, which Vicky is already geeked up about editing even though i haven't written a single word, will feature 5 timelines; 

1. Acts of Faith - Spain during the Inquisition, where a young Cathar is imprisoned and tortured
2. The Napoleonic Blues - Madrid under Napoleonic occupation and the events of May 2, 1808, the beginning of the Spanish uprising. The main character is a Lt. Colonel in the French army.
3. The Meat Grinder- WWI. A german soldier on the western front
4. The Harbinger of Truth - circa 2020 - A female Welsh University professor who warns of coming environmental and political crisis
5. I threw a BRIC- 2070 - The USA and Europe have lost a devastating war with the BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India, China) countries in which both nukes and biological warfare were employed. The main character is a female freedom fighter. Because of several devastating plagues, the BRIC countries harvest the remaining citizens of the USA for healthy organs.

The basic premise is that certain people, who happen to have six toes on their left foot, are Ever-Born. They remember their past lives as they are reborn through history. The novel is about Gustavo, the name of the protagonist in the 1st story and his subsequent lives and the lessons he learns. 

It's a massive project. But after going through the skeleton of the story with the Welsh Witch, she thinks it's poignant and a good story. So..., here we go again. I'll let you know in three years when it's done. Fuck me. Why can't i write short stories?

But i agree with Vicky, it's exciting. And this is my first dabble into truly sci-fi, futuristic stuff. I am obsessed with post-apocalyptic fiction. Always have been.

Listening to;


Clutching at Straws - Marillion
Oceania -  Smashing Pumpkins
Ghosts - Frequency Drift