Archive for April 2014
Milwaukee Brewers 9-Game Winning Streak Comes to an End
All good things must come to an end . . . something every baseball fan knows, most particularly a fan of the Milwaukee Brewers like yours truly.
You see, over the past two weeks, the Brewers had won nine games straight up until last night’s contest against the St. Louis Cardinals (which the Brewers lost by a score of 4-0). After my blog post bemoaning the Brewers’ lack of hitting in their opening series against the Atlanta Braves, the Brewers started to hit.
Better yet, Brewers pitchers kept pitching at the same high level as they had during that opening series.
And every baseball fan knows that when a single team has both good pitching and good hitting, that particular team is likely to win more games than it loses.
But a nine-game winning streak takes more than just good pitching and good hitting, welcome though those are. It also takes good defense — which, to the Brewers credit, they’ve mostly had — and a goodly bit of luck, besides. Without all of that, you don’t win nine games in a row.
So what will happen next to the 2014 Milwaukee Brewers, now that their first winning streak is over?
Well, there’s an old truism that states you’re never as good as you think you are (with the corollary, of course, that you’re also never as bad as you think you are, either). This is the main reason I don’t expect the Brewers to win ten out of every twelve games for the rest of the season — well, that, and the fact that the best team of the modern era, winning-percentage wise, won approximately seven games out of ten (that team, of course, being the 1954 Cleveland Indians and their gaudy 111-43 record in a 154-game season).
And in the past twenty years, only two teams have approached the level of the Indians’ past success — those two teams being the 2001 Seattle Mariners (116-46), and the 1998 New York Yankees (114-48).
So no, I don’t think the 2014 Milwaukee Brewers are likely to reach such dizzying heights.
But I do think they are likely to make the playoffs, providing Ryan Braun and Aramis Ramirez stay healthy.
Anyway, it’s been fun watching them play so well . . . and for the record, the main reason I didn’t talk too much about the Brewers during their nine-game winning streak was because as a true-blue diehard baseball fan, I really didn’t want to jinx my favorite team.
Realistically, I know that nothing I say matters. The Brewers are going to go out there and play the same way regardless. But I still didn’t want to jinx them . . . make of that what you will.
Guest Blog about the Virtues of Quiet Heroism is Up at Chris Nuttall’s “Chrishanger”
Folks, when writer Chris Nuttall agreed to allow me to write a guest blog for him on the virtues of quiet heroism, I was extremely happy.
You see, my late husband Michael’s character Joey Maverick is a quiet hero. He’s a military man who sees what needs to be done, and does it. (As I put it in the blog, “No muss, no fuss.”) And it seems to me that people don’t get to read nearly enough about characters like Joey, which is why I have done my best to keep Michael’s writing alive.
The third story about Joey Maverick (currently in progress, and as yet untitled) is set on the planet Bubastis. There’s a famine going on, caused by a terrible drought, and the people of that planet — which are both human and Kiral, a feline-derived race — are suffering. The rural Kiral, in particular, are in desperate shape because they will not use food synthesizers under any circumstances, and yet most of the relief supplies aren’t getting to them. People will die unless Joey and his team can put an end to it . . . but there’s a lot going on underneath the surface. I still have to rough out some characters among the rural Kiral, and have I mentioned the complexity of the black market that’s cropped up on Bubastis yet?
But I’m getting there. Truly. And it’s wonderful to know that Chris enjoyed Joey’s first two adventures (available here and here), because sometimes it just seems like I’m shouting into a wind tunnel for all the good my writing’s doing. (Maybe all writers feel this way?)
At any rate, I hope you’ll enjoy my take on “The Virtues of Quiet Heroism,” which includes more of the story about Michael’s premise behind the Joey Maverick stories and why I cannot let Michael’s work or universe die out.
And do, please, stop by Chris’s blog “The Chrishanger” often. He talks about his writing, world events, politics, has contests . . . it’s a fun site, and he always does his best to keep it lively. And goodness knows, with all of his books (the most recent being SCHOOLED IN MAGIC from Twilight Times Books and THE NELSON TOUCH, book two of the Ark Royal series, which was put out independently), there’s always something new for Chris to discuss.
Just Reviewed Veronica Roth’s “Divergent” and “Insurgent” at SBR
Folks, even though my novel AN ELFY ON THE LOOSE is just out, that doesn’t stop me from reading and reviewing other people’s books.
Though if the legions of fans who loved Veronica Roth’s DIVERGENT but hated book two of her trilogy, INSURGENT, happen upon my review of both books — which I posted not ten minutes ago over at Shiny Book Review (SBR for short, as always) — they may wish I’d refrained.
Why? Because, oddly enough, I truly enjoyed INSURGENT, but I just could not get past the initial implausibility of DIVERGENT. Ms. Roth’s setup of the five factions which rule near-future Chicago, much less the whole idea that someone who doesn’t truly fit into any of the five factions would be shunned or excluded from society, was too hard for me to get past. But I firmly bought into the five factions’ system coming apart, which is why I enjoyed INSURGENT so much.
This is not the prevailing wisdom on “the Internets.” To put it mildly.
For those of you going, “But Barb! DIVERGENT had some really good writing! Why didn’t you like it?,” the answer is simple: The plotline made little sense. And that was too hard for me to get past.
Yes, the writing in both books was good. I liked Ms. Roth’s heroine Beatrice “Tris” Prior and believed in her characterization, I also liked her boyfriend Four/Tobias, and I believed in what she was going through in both books — but only to a point.
And because it was far easier for me to believe that a near-future Chicago that had somehow been ruled by five and only five factions for some lengthy period of time was now starting to come apart at the seams because five factions just couldn’t do the job any more — and because I believed that when a society breaks down, there’s lots of mayhem, carnage, and graphic violence — it was far easier for me to buy into INSURGENT than DIVERGENT, most particularly because the stuff I liked about DIVERGENT was at the very end of the book.
Which was exactly the stuff I couldn’t discuss in my review without spoilers.
Anyway, there’s one other really good thing about the Divergent trilogy (of which I’ve now reviewed the first two books) — there was no unnecessary love triangle!
YAY! YAY! YAY! (I’d keep cheering, but I’m sure you get the point.)
At any rate, I plan to review ALLEGIANT, the concluding book of Ms. Roth’s trilogy about Tris Prior, in the next few weeks over at SBR. So if you can’t wait for the movies (must. have. movies!), please be sure to check out my forthcoming review . . . ’cause I never know exactly what I’m going to say next. (And that’s the beauty of it. Right?)
My novel, “An Elfy on the Loose,” Is Now Available
It’s been a long time in coming, but my first novel, AN ELFY ON THE LOOSE (now with a subtitle of “Book One of the ELFY duology”) is now available at Amazon.com and will be available soon at all major e-book retailers.
**Edited to add: AN ELFY ON THE LOOSE has also “gone live” at BN.com (Barnes and Noble’s website), as Paul Howard told me in the comments. If you have a Nook and want to read AN ELFY ON THE LOOSE, now’s your chance!
Now back to our regularly scheduled post.**
I’m very pleased that AN ELFY ON THE LOOSE is now out, even though I hadn’t expected it to “go live” on Amazon tonight, of all nights — but as it has, I figured I’d best skedaddle and get a blog post up, pronto.
For those of you who want a sample, please go here and read the first five chapters of AN ELFY ON THE LOOSE . . . then, I hope you’ll go to Amazon and get the e-book, as it’s on sale for a limited time at the low price of $3.99.
Because I’m a new author, and because I’m decidedly not well known, it is anyone’s guess as to whether or not AN ELFY ON THE LOOSE will do well enough to warrant an actual “dead tree” edition (that is, a paper edition).
For all I know, this e-book copy is all that we’re likely to get. So I hope you’ll enjoy it in the spirit intended.
In other words, if you want to read my novel because you’ve been intrigued about Bruno the Elfy and Sarah his human companion and want to know all about Sarah’s house (which is an Elfy trap of major proportions), or if you want to figure out why a Dark Elf would go to Northern California, or if you even want to know why Bruno’s mentor Roberto is worth saving despite being more than a bit of an butthead sometimes, now’s your chance.
I also hope that if you read and enjoy AN ELFY ON THE LOOSE, you won’t be averse to letting people know my book exists. Because I need all the help I can get . . . and I’m not shy about saying so.
Guest Blog About the Elements of Romance Is Up
Folks, I’m pleased to tell you about today’s guest blog over at Stephanie Osborn’s blogsite, Comet Tales. The subject I wrote on is the Elements of Romance in Modern Storytelling, which is part of an ongoing series that has featured writers Osborn, Aaron Paul Lazar, and Christine Amsden before me; other authors planning to write blogs for this series include Katharine Eliska Kimbriel and Dina von Lowenkraft, so there’s plenty more to read in this series if you are so inclined.
Because we were allowed to talk about anything regarding romance and what it means to us as storytellers, I decided to talk about it from a historical perspective. Here’s a brief sample of that:
So how did romance as a thing actually come to be? Well, feelings and hormones aside, the lot of women from early on was probably none too good in most societies. Being bartered in marriage was by far the least of these ancient women’s worries. But as our world matured and societies became more stable, there was more leisure time available – especially in the upper classes – and people started to think.
Why couldn’t marriages be made where both people respected and liked each other? Why, if everything else was equal, couldn’t a suitor actually romantically care about his proposed wife? Wouldn’t that be beneficial to all concerned?
Later in the guest blog, I talked a little bit about some of my favorite contemporary authors (including Osborn, Kimbriel, and Rosemary Edghill), and how they use romance — or don’t — in their writing.
So do go take a look at it . . . I promise you, it’s not like any other guest blog you’ve ever read, at least not on this subject.
And enjoy!
Odds and Ends, April 2014 Version
Well, folks, as usual, I’ve been so busy the past week that I have barely had enough time to turn around.
Whenever I get this busy, I don’t blog much, I don’t do much other than what must be done first — editing, in this case, and glad to have the work — and everything else basically takes a backseat.
This is why I didn’t review anything last week at Shiny Book Review (SBR).
This is why I didn’t write a follow-up blog regarding the two elections that the Koch Brothers-backed Americans for Prosperity group threw a lot of money into . . . and it’s also why, despite the Milwaukee Brewers’ impressive sweep of the Boston Red Sox, I didn’t get back here to write about that, either.
That being said, here’s a few quick hits regarding the odds and ends I left open last week:
- The elections in Iron County, WI, and in Kenosha County for the Kenosha Unified School Board seemed to be largely unaffected by the huge amount of money Americans for Prosperity threw into the races. The folks in Iron County basically said in a number of televised interviews that they disliked interference from people who didn’t live in Iron County — so the money that AFP threw into the election seems to have gone by the boards. And the people in Kenosha County didn’t change their minds regarding their candidates, either . . . so it does appear, as my late friend Jeff Wilson once put it, that there is a monetary ceiling to an election where a group (or groups) can spend whatever they like, but after a certain point, people just tune out.
- The Brewers going into Boston and sweeping the Red Sox was completely unanticipated, at least by me. After only scoring four runs in three games and losing two out of three at home in the Brewers’ own opening series, it was particularly impressive that the Brewers could go into Boston, win all three games (including an 11th inning thriller), and actually have some clutch hits in games that mattered.
- What a shame that Wisconsin lost to Kentucky in the NCAA Basketball Tournament. I’m glad the Badgers did so well and got to the Final Four — that’s the one thing I got right in my NCAA bracket — but I wish they’d have had just one more game in them. (C’est la vie.)
- Normally after turning in a really big edit — as I did on Saturday morning — I’d take a few days off. Right now, I can’t, because I’m looking over my master file for AN ELFY ON THE LOOSE. There is a reason for that: The e-book will be up on Amazon and most other major dealers on April 15 — so if you’ve ever wanted to find out what the deal is with regards to my Elfyverse or my character Bruno the Elfy, now’s your chance to set your clocks.
Later in the week, I should have at least a bit of time to get a review or two in over at SBR, and I hope to be able to talk more about baseball, or politics, or maybe even the recent decision by the NLRB arbitrator in Chicago who ruled that Northwestern University’s football players should be able to form a union, as they are employees like any other (as that last really intrigues me, but I haven’t had enough time to do justice to the subject as of yet).
But for now, all I can do is please ask you to let people know that AN ELFY ON THE LOOSE is coming soon . . . and if you think anyone will be interested (or even if they aren’t), tell them that my late husband Michael B. Caffrey’s two stories of military science fiction about his excellent character Joey Maverick, a quiet and responsible man who is nonetheless every bit a hero, are available now at Amazon (here and here).
Even with my own novel coming out, it still matters a great deal to me that Michael’s stories find their audience, especially as, years ago, Michael had hundreds of people who said they wanted to buy them as soon as he was willing to put them out. (I don’t know where these people went, mind you. But maybe at least a few of them are still alive, and if so, perhaps they’ll discover the stories one of these years. Hope springs eternal, and all that.)
Milwaukee Brewers Opening Series — Heartbreaking, in More Ways than One
The Milwaukee Brewers “Opening Series” has ended after the Brewers lost today, 1-0, against the Atlanta Braves. Today’s loss means the Braves take the series, 2-1, and that the Brewers scored only four runs in three games.
Yep. You read that right.
Four runs. In three games.
Terrible.
What’s sad about today’s game is that Brewers right-hander Matt Garza took a no-hitter into the seventh inning. Garza only lost it after giving up a home run to Atlanta Braves third baseman Chris Johnson at the 6 and 2/3 innings mark — but that was all the Braves needed due to the impressive performance of Aaron Harang (who took his own no-hit bid into the sixth also) and the relievers who followed him.
Now, could the Brewers have scored some runs today? Yes, they could have. But they had only two innings in which to do so — the third, where Lyle Overbay stood on second base and Carlos Gomez had a chance to drive him in (but didn’t), and the seventh, where Ryan Braun stood on third with Aramis Ramirez on first with only one out. Jonathan Lucroy, the Brewers best clutch hitter after Ramirez and Braun, couldn’t even hit the ball into the outfield for a sacrifice fly, instead popping it up weakly to the second baseman (infield fly rule) — then, with two outs, Ron Roenicke sent up Rickie Weeks as a pinch-hitter for Scooter Gennett, and Weeks promptly struck out.
What Roenicke needed to have the Brewers do in the seventh was this: Bunt. A suicide squeeze might’ve tied that game up, and the way the Brewers pitchers were going, we might be in extra innings right now. Gennett was the right guy to get that done, as he has speed and his bat control last year was excellent.
Instead, Roenicke sent up Weeks. The results were predictable. Weeks did what Weeks generally does: he struck out, albeit on seven pitches. (He nearly took a walk. But nearly doesn’t count.)
Mind you, if Roenicke had just made out his lineup card slightly differently, and had put Overbay sixth instead of eighth, Overbay would’ve been up instead of Gennett (or Weeks) in the seventh. And there was a good chance that Overbay, unlike Weeks or Gennett, would’ve been able to successfully take a walk and extend the inning. With the bases loaded, anything could’ve happened.
But that’s water under the bridge, considering Roenicke for whatever reason decided to use Gennett instead of Overbay in the six spot.
What’s frustrating to me as a Brewers fan is that just a few, small changes would’ve won today’s game.
Granted, it’s much easier to manage a team from an armchair — I will admit this freely — but I do not understand why anyone would put Weeks into a clutch situation. Weeks has clearly lost his speed, he can’t catch up to the fastball, and his situational hitting skills are atrocious. He’s the last guy you want up in a 1-0 game with two guys on and two outs.
In fact, I’d rather have had a pitcher come in to try for a suicide squeeze — someone like Kyle Lohse, last night’s starter (who pitched more than well enough to win, providing the Brewers had just managed to score a few more runs) — than sent Weeks up there to strike out.
One thing is clear. The Brewers are not hitting yet.
But if they don’t start hitting, and soon, it’s going to be a very, very long year. No matter how good the starting pitchers are.
Why Voting is Important — Especially in Local Elections
Folks, I voted today.
Why is this a big deal? Well, there were no truly contested races on the ballot, except for school board — and as I have no children, you might think I’d not care about that. (Of course, if you did think that way, you’d be wrong. But I digress.) Which is why some people sit small elections like today’s out.
But they shouldn’t.
It’s important to vote in local elections, no matter how small they may seem. People who get elected to the school board, or the county board of supervisors, or are elected as judges need to be held accountable — and need to be fully apprised of what’s going on in and around their own, particular area in order to make good decisions.
Local control is important.
I say all this because we had two elections today in Wisconsin that are highly unusual, because outside influences got heavily involved in them. The first was for the County Board of Supervisors in tiny Iron County, Wisconsin — which has as a population for the entire county around 6,000 (no misprint). And the second was for the Kenosha Unified School Board election, Kenosha being right on the Illinois border and having about 85,000 people within the city, perhaps as many as 170,000 in the county.
And the group that got involved in both cases was Americans for Prosperity, a group widely known to have been founded by the Koch Brothers.
Now, why should the Koch Brothers or AFP care about Iron County, WI? Well, according to this article from NorthlandNewscenter.com, it’s all because of a taconite mine. A billionaire named Chris Cline wants to open the mine according to the Daily Beast, but the Chippewa Indian tribe has objected, along with many environmentalists.
That’s why AFP and the Koch Brothers got involved, apparently — they want this taconite mine to go forward, and they have pumped well over $100,000 of advertising into the sleepy little county to get their own way.
They’ve also apparently recruited or helped to recruit ten candidates to challenge the fifteen incumbents on the Board of Supervisors, as usually the people on this particular supervisory board run unopposed — not because people don’t care, but because it can be hard to find fifteen civic-minded souls who want the job in little Iron County.
So there are fifteen seats, with ten being contested this time around, and a whole lot of misleading advertising thrown into the mix. There also appears to be a rather unusual connection to Governor Scott Walker and many of the Republicans currently sitting in the state Legislature that is accounting for at least some of the involvement by AFP (you need to read the Daily Beast article to find out why), which just screams that something strange is going on here.
As writer Dean Obeidallah says for the Daily Beast:
This all appears to be legal, but I doubt I’m the only one who feels something is horribly wrong. This is reminiscent of the “cooper kings” who in the early 1900’s controlled Montana politics with their mining money.
Rest assured, Mr. Obeidallah, that you are far from the only one who feels this is morally wrong, as well as more than a little bit underhanded.
But all of that, bad as it is, pales in some ways to what’s going on in Kenosha. (Kenosha, for those of you not from Southeastern Wisconsin or Northern Illinois, is Racine’s nearest neighbor to the south and is the first big city you drive through if you’re on I-94 driving into Wisconsin.)
Here in Southeastern Wisconsin, we’ve had a fight on our hands with regards to private charter schools versus public education. Racine was one of the first “pilot programs” in the state for private charter schools being funded by taxpayer dollars, and we didn’t exactly do very well — yet the program has been expanded, little by little, even though privately-owned charter schools have been proven thus far to actually be educating children even more poorly than the public schools.
Well, Kenosha Unified School District has been vocal in the past about the need for more funding for public schools. They do not want to see private schools expand into the Kenosha area whatsoever. And they have continued to be a staunch supporter of the teacher’s union.
All three of those things are apparently things AFP and the Koch Brothers do not support.
Let’s be honest here. The main reason the Rs in Wisconsin want private charter schools is to break the remains of the teacher’s union here in Wisconsin. So a pro-union district like Kenosha or Racine is a big, fat target to them.
That’s why AFP — a long-time supporter of both the national and Wisconsin Rs — got involved in, of all things, the Kenosha Unified School Board election.
So there you have it: AFP has inserted itself into not one, but two local elections because they apparently see their own interests in taconite mining and private charter schools at risk.
When the Republicans, in and out of Wisconsin, are all supposedly for “local control,” this sort of interference really seems hypocritical.
Anyway, it’ll be hours before all the results come in with regards to both elections, but I’ll try to write a follow-up blog tomorrow about whatever happened, and whatever lessons can be learned after the fact.
But for now, make no mistake about it — local elections are important.
And the Koch Brothers know it.
Barb Caffrey's Blog 