Rodger That: Loving Something To Death

There is a lot of negative commentary on the wealthy. My family knows where our next meal is coming from, but we would never be considered wealthy. 

As one who researches historical fiction novels, I’ve concluded that by and large people of great wealth do a lot for society, more than government would do if they stripped away that wealth through taxation. They fund arts and culture, libraries, medical research, education, and endow non-profit organizations that make this country a better place. The funds they provide are not eroded by the endless bureaucracy that government red tape demands.

There is one place that I could challenge the use of great wealth is in conspicuous consumption. It amazes me that some can invest literally tens or hundreds of millions of dollars in yachts and other “prizes” that they seldom use. But even in that case, the construction and staffing of such trophies creates jobs.

In Alaska, there is one example of the use of wealth that is damaging. Wealthy sportsmen love to come to Alaska to fish. They come and find trophy trout that, in other areas of the country, seem amazing. Years ago, several friends who lived in Georgia used to come to Alaska as my guests. They would get off the plane marveling that one or another had joined the “teen” club fishing at home. That meant that they had landed a trout that was thirteen inches or longer. In Alaska we generally don’t even take a picture of a fish unless it is twice that size. Which gets me to my beef with wealthy sportsmen.

Over and over, I’ve seen them marvel at our fishery and after a couple of years decide that they should be able to “write-off” their trips. They buy the lodges that they love and then, manage them as they would a growing business. If the lodge was built for eight guests, expanding to twelve allowed a return on the investment. The problem is that to make them pay, the number of tourist fishermen doubled and then doubled again. The result has been incredible overfishing. Even catch and release fishing kills as many as five percent of all fish hooked, so it didn’t take long for the additional fishing pressure to begin destroying the very resource that the wealthy love. 

Alaska is a cold, beautiful, difficult place where living things struggle to survive and grow slowly. Overfishing first hits the spawning fish populations, then the slightly smaller fish that would be spawners in a few years. In the case of the river I love best, the Illiamna, the fishery went from world class to a disaster in less than a decade as new owners took over lodges and increased the pressure. I’ve worked with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, encouraging them to close the river to all fishing to allow it to revive. But my efforts are bogged down in the bureaucracy.

Today, my effort to pursue ADF&G’s closure of the Iliamna River seems irrelevant. The fishery has collapsed to the point where neither Alaska citizens nor the lodges are even fishing it, or any other rivers in what once was, the Alaska Trophy Fish Area. It has been loved to death. 

Rodger Recommends: Re-Embrace The Values That Launched This Nation

I was away doing the endless annual maintenance that a decades old log cabin in the wilderness demands. I missed the recent Presidential debate. I hadn’t been back in town an hour when the radio in my truck informed me that the debate had been combative and revealing. The next day, I took the time to view it and came away saddened. It wasn’t the bravado of one candidate or the frailness of the other. The messages from each seemed to originate in different universes.

The political divide in the USA appears almost as great as it was in the mid 1800s which led to The Civil War. But today we are not battling over something as obscene or pervasive as slavery. There have always been areas in our society and culture that divide us. In most cases they revolve around some perceiving inequity or injustice where others see problems that have been with us a long time but are improving. 

Those who see improvement believe that the economy and society are the engines of that improvement. Those who only see problems believe that the economy and society are the causes of the problems. In a world of smartphones, and laptops, many have come to expect instant gratification. I come down on the side of progress.

The inequity and injustice today are crumbs compared to just a few decades ago. No person in America is owned by others. The grinding poverty of the 1930s and 40s has been replaced by arguments over the inequity of the quality of housing and the diet of people. That isn’t to say that there aren’t problems, there are. But today, many of society’s crises are driven by a collapse in personal responsibility and a belief that somehow the government must fix everything. A democracy is poorly designed to fix major societal ills. Unlike autocratic government models, a democracy cannot dictate and then enforce solutions. What it can do is provide data and exposure.

My recommendation is that we re-embrace the values that launched this nation. That we recognize that success is progress, and that perfection is a moving target. It might also serve us to accept that we have different views and that is a good thing. As the son of a struggling single mom, I can and have embraced the push for more equity in pay between men and women. But to some today, embracing more traditional women’s values, women whose focus is directed at home and family is not a bad thing. Making scholarships available to those in need is a good thing. The US has been working to overcome the use of race as a factor for employment or educational opportunities for more than a century. It is a lot better today. It will be better tomorrow if we don’t succumb to the mistaken belief that the economy and society are the cause. They offer us the tools to continue progress.

In my new book, Tempest North, the story takes the reader through early 1800’s Spanish, Russian, Native American, North American, and revolutionary cultures and economies. Perhaps you will marvel as I do, that as we mixed all that together, we survived at all. It worked because the earlier struggles just to provide food, clothing and shelter were largely common and we learned to work together. Most of our divide today is a function of becoming a wealthy society. Let’s embrace that. Wealth forces us to discuss the difference between equity and equality. We are a society based on equity. 

Rodger’s Two Cents: Am I Relieved, Or Just Pissed?

I find it interesting when your doctor has his nurse call and ask you to come in immediately for an appointment. This is especially true when you have just undergone several tests of your heart and circulatory system. When you ask why, you are then told that there is a stenosis problem. I immediately close the book I’m working on and look up the term, stenosis.

Stenosis is generally a problem with a malfunctioning heart valve. Most often it isn’t something that sends you running to the emergency room, but it can cause a host of medical problems, such as stroke, heart attack, fainting or dizzy spells. It can kill you and the cure is open heart surgery with a valve replacement. 

So, you go. In the exam room the deadly serious nurse takes your pulse and blood pressure, and then reviews your entire medical history, lifestyle, and medications. She solemnly asks you to wait for the doctor, like you worried over this appointment for days and you were about to bolt out of there. 

Then the doctor walks in, all smiles. “Hi, remember that procedure I did for you a couple of years ago? The one where I put a stent into your leg because of a clogged artery?”

“Yes.”

“Well, how is that working out? 

“Great, I’m hiking a couple of miles a day and have full use of the leg.”

“I never got around to scheduling the follow up visit we talked about, the one right after the procedure. So, after looking at those tests you took, I wanted to follow up on the earlier surgery.”

“What about the tests?”

“Nothing there to worry about.”

“What about stenosis?”

“Probably a poor choice in terms of the appointment call. Anyway, I’m happy the procedure is working out so well. Come back in a year or so and we can talk again.”

Anyway, I find it interesting. Am I relieved, or just pissed? I’ll take relieved.

Rodger's Top 5: Authors Who Have Influenced My Writing On Conflict

As my followers know, I write in two genres: historical adventure fiction and adventure thrillers. In my stories, the reader will also find a third plot string: romance. In the Gritt Series the stories follow one family over eight generations. Early on, even I could figure out that to follow multiple generations of one family there would have to be a little dalliance leading to something more lasting. In the Team Walker series, the stories revolve around a young Navy engineer and his mentor, a retired spook; both men have allowed the demands of their careers to stifle a personal life. Both feel the loss and for the first time in their lives have attracted like-minded partners. Great, if they can find the balance to make it work. In all these stories, one question emerges: Who saves the day? I like stories where even the hero may need saving. Which gets me to my top 5 for July. I read and reread five authors who have influenced my writing on conflict.

Alistair MacLean, who’s books like Where Eagles Dare and The Guns of Navarone emphasize how difficult it is to perform as a team when faced with nearly impossible odds.

Ken Follett, with books like Eye of the Needle, reflect how passion in times of war can warp into obsession, twisting even adversaries into lovers and then into enemies.

Ernest Hemingway, in For Whom the Bell Tolls, describes how all danger is shared, and often even the protagonist cannot save themselves.

Tom Clancy, in The Hunt for Red October and Red Storm Rising elevates the geeky analyst into the role of reluctant hero. 

Stephen Coonts, in Flight of the Intruder, explores the pain of loss that military people feel, especially when that loss seems pointless; with a special emphasis on how timid politicians, making cautious decisions turn men and women into cannon fodder.

In each of these novels, passion in times of crisis changes the characters, and ordinary people are pushed by extraordinary circumstances, into almost impossible deeds. I’ve learned from all of them.

Don’t misunderstand me, I love the superheroes of Lee Child, David Baldacci, and Dean Koontz. It’s just that the real heroes I’ve known over the years were ordinary people who did the unimaginable against all odds. Part of what drove them was protecting those they love and a desire to return to them. Few achieved victory on their own. 

Rodger’s Experience: “My Favorite Pain In The A**”

I have a fan who, once referred herself to me as, “my favorite pain in the a**.” While I never thought of her that way, I do acknowledge that as one of my targeted advance copy readers, she was brutally frank, and almost always right, whether correcting text as a copy editor, or offering precise feedback and advice on story content or characters. She’s helped me be a better writer and to present better books. 

I was quite surprised when she turned down the opportunity to show me the way on Tempest North, coming out in mid-July. So, I reached out to her and received a return email that shook me and reminded me of how fragile life can be. Elaine begged off reading Tempest North because her eyesight was deteriorating. She had lost most of the use of one eye and was trying to save the other through medical help and resting her good eye as much as possible.

As a writer, but even more as a voracious reader, I struggle to accept the pain of physically losing the ability to explore people, history, politics, passion, events, and the world, exploration only possible in books. As a cancer survivor who barely avoided losing a leg and getting a pacemaker after stepping on a stingray while snorkeling in Mexico, I’ve had my share of challenges. I’ve had to curtail some things and work around problems from my body failures. But eyesight would be a game changer. It is for Elaine, and her loss is also mine.

Our exchange of thoughts reminded me of how important it is to offer books in as many ways as possible. A couple of months ago, we agreed to participate in Amazon’s experiment to offer the books of Rodger Carlyle in audio format. We considered publishing audiobooks for the last couple of years, but the cost seemed exorbitant and would dramatically drive up the cost to my readers. But the Amazon Audible books are AI generated.

Many writers fear that AI replaces the author, and as a thriller writer who studies technology as part of most stories, there is a risk. But using AI to convert my own writing to audio at a cost that allows me to offer audio books for less than print is a positive. It’s not perfect, for example if you write about a Boeing 747, AI translates that as Boeing seven hundred forty-seven. It needs work and we need to devote more time to clean up, but it is a great tool and even the small blemishes do little to diminish the story, (about the same as a minor punctuation or grammatical error in a print book).

But most importantly, there are those who prefer audio; some for convenience, some because of learning processes and others because their ears open a world that is blurred by their eyes. MY FRIEND Elaine indicates that she retains better when reading than listening. But I am elated that I can at least offer the chance to open the world in my books to her. It will be a workaround, but one that only months ago I could never offer. My hope is that her eyesight recovers, but Elaine, until then, we will work to make our audiobooks the best they can be.

Rodger That: Visiting America’s Most Isolated School

As an author, one of my passions is encouraging young people to read, but even more fun is helping them develop a love of writing. Many larger schools offer classes in creative writing, but smaller schools do not. In some schools, Language Arts or English classes are sometimes complimented by visits from local or regional writers. But what about isolated rural schools? I believe that in these schools a writer can make the greatest impact.

Imagine my joy to be asked to present a writing workshop at the most isolated school in America. Carmen and I were invited to Diomede School on Little Diomede Island. (That’s the place that Sarah Palin was referring to when she said, ‘I can see Russia from my backyard.’)

The trip alone will work its way into a book someday: Anchorage, Alaska to Nome, then a helicopter flight for another hour and a half over the frozen ocean. You land on a tiny helipad. Just over a mile to the west is The International Dateline and one mile further is Russia’s Big Diomede Island. With winds at fifty miles an hour and temperatures below zero, the pilot can’t even shut down the engine while unloading passengers and freight. It’s only a hundred yards to the school, but that hike is over massive snow drifts and along icy walkways, and it’s damned cold. The help of two young high school men hauling our gear including books, and leading the way made the trek to the school enjoyable. 

Inside the classroom sat nine reserved, nervous Iñupiat youth. For the first hour, just getting them to say something was a challenge. But a couple of warm up exercises led by Carmen and an extraordinary local teacher finally broke the ice. We discussed the process of writing, and most importantly, rewriting, since the students’ first feedback revolved around a lack of confidence in their writing, and they felt strongly uncomfortable sharing their work. I loved the smiles when I shared how poor my first drafts are, and how, even after two or three rewrites, it was the feedback of beta readers that turned a draft book into a novel.

Our rural remote Alaska kids grow up in an environment that most Americans cannot imagine. Their home island is just a big rock sitting in the middle of the Bering Straits. On clear days, they wake up to the sun rising tomorrow in Russia, two miles away. Much of their life centers on a subsistence lifestyle, gathering and preserving a dozen different plants that grow in the four months that the island is snow free. They fish, through the ice in winter and in open boats in summer. Outside their front door, whales and walruses migrate. Seals provide red meat for meals. They hunt birds in the summer, after gathering wild bird eggs in the spring. One of the primary winter foods is king crab, caught through holes in the ice; a meal that they actually grow tired of.

Back in the classroom we finally got around to writing. Like almost everywhere, local life is taken for granted, boring. But for you reading this in Seattle, Cincinnati, or New York, the sport of racing up a 45 degree ice strewn slope on the mountain behind the village for fun, or wandering the frozen sea in front of the school is an adventure. Raising the alarm when a polar bear wanders into the village is exciting. The students began to write about those things, and the more they wrote, the more fun we were having. By the time we left, the kids were reading their work to each other and to us. The teacher had them keeping journals to inspire their writing inspiration.

One young lady in particular stood out. At the end of the first day, she handed me a three page note on why writing was so hard. Words can hurt. It’s a difficult life here. Everyone knows every other person’s business. I edited her work that evening. Reduced to two pages it was really revealing; great stuff. She was proud and should have been, and Carmen and I felt rewarded. 

At the end of the trip, we were invited back. We’re looking forward to it. 

Rodger's Top 5: Nonprofits

I am dedicating this post to nonprofits. A small amount of participation from a large number of people can work miracles, whether that support is financial, volunteering your time or other resources. Here are the reasons I support these five nonprofits.

THE RED TAIL SQUADRON:  This little-known organization is a spin-off of a larger nonprofit group that seeks to keep the sacrifices of American airmen from World War II alive. Red Tail is named after the famous Tuskegee Airmen, the first all-black fighter squadron in America. Their goal is to keep this extraordinary story of overcoming and success alive and to present and encourage participation in aviation by young people throughout this country.

DUCKS UNLIMITED:  This is one of America’s premier conservation organizations. Their mission is the conservation of wetlands and honoring America’s hunting traditions. Unlike many groups who profess conservation, DU does its work without criticizing lifestyle or being critical of other’s beliefs. Their mission is built on a century of American sportsmen taxing themselves and volunteering their time and money to protecting wild places.

NATIONAL RIFLE ASSOCIATION:  The NRA has allowed itself to become controversial. It’s primary mission is the preservation of THE SECOND AMMENDMENT of the CONSTITUTION, the right to keep and bear arms. That right is critical to sportsmen, to those who may need to defend themselves, and as a guarantee that the public can defend itself from government overreach. Much of the NRA’s bad press comes from those who fear firearms, an inanimate object, but much of it was self-inflicted by a governing administration that had become very self-serving. But there is new leadership at the NRA now, and I, like many, am pleased.

COMMUNITY FOUNDATIONS:  My wife and I are strong believers in the power of community centered foundations to make the country and the world a better place. These foundations help individuals, families, and corporations channel financial support into needed local non-profits, scholarships, and public works; almost all with far less bureaucracy and overhead expense than government, with the ability to act and react faster to needs.

THE AMERICAN RED CROSS:  This is my favorite non-profit, perhaps because it is so well vetted with decades of successful support, making the country a better place. They have the capacity to help even in the most catastrophic events, but also reach out to individuals in need. I must admit that another reason for my love of the RED CROSS, is that my mother was deeply involved with them and in fact died working for an institution she loved. 

Rodger’s Two Cents: Where I Keep My Crystal Ball

For much of my life people have asked me where I keep my crystal ball. I have an uncanny ability to sense the future. One manifestation of that are premonitions. I’ve dreamt of car wrecks before they’ve happened and can sometimes see what’s around a corner on a route I’ve never traveled before. As a kid, playing outfield in baseball, I would sometimes start running to where a ball would fly before the batter made contact.

In politics and international affairs, my writing sometimes predicts coming events. My book The Opposite of Trust, about US-Russia conflict in the Cold war and how it will manifest itself in the future came out just before Russia invaded Ukraine. The Eel and the Angel is built against the backdrop of US-Chinese high-tech competition and how dangerous it can become. The Shadow Game is a story of how unresolved conflict between the US and Iran can explode when a third party provokes and prods both sides. It came out just before Hamas launched the latest Middle East war.

For all but the premonition part of my life, I don’t rely on a crystal ball. Instead, I am a student of history and pay close attention to what is going on in the world. My book, Tempest North, coming out in July is set in the 1820s. It is a love story and an adventure set against the background of how the American Revolution upset the cultures and politics of a world dominated by European Powers. Many of the same conflicts are still with us today as the world goes through a new geo-political reset. 

My newest Team Walker book, due out in November, is set in one of my favorite countries, Mexico. I love the land and the people. The background for my book Two Civil Wars is Abraham Lincoln’s meddling in the Mexican Civil War that was raging at the same time the War Between the States was happening. But the November book is contemporary. Another conflict is brewing, but this one involves the US, Mexico and China. I hope that it isn’t a crystal ball thriller, but it won’t surprise me if those who read that book don’t ask once again, “Where do you keep your crystal ball?”

Rodger Recommends: Exploring The World Through Reading

Television changed forever when streaming came along. We went from three or four national networks and a handful of local independent stations to an almost limitless supply of content. Netflix, Hulu, Prime and Paramount now produce movies that rival major studios and award-winning television programming. Traditional networks have been hard pressed to offer programming that competes. 

One thing remains a challenge to all of these content producers; it is hard to be profitable. The broadcast and streaming movies are not the big screen productions they were only a couple of years ago. The televised series are now feeling the same pinch; witness the cancellation of Magnum PI and more recently NCIS Hawaii. Big setting shows, especially those with fixed expensive backdrops and locations are being cut, not because they didn’t attract an audience, but because they are expensive to produce. 

Am I the only one who isn’t looking forward to one more show set in the mean streets of Chicago or New York? I’m not saying they aren’t well done. It’s just that to me, a beautiful, expansive setting in a location where the weather can change how characters behave becomes almost another critical protagonist or antagonist, adding depth. I love stories that take me to places I might never see, or places that the masses will never visit.

At the rate that electronic media is changing, it might not be too long before the only wild or beautiful setting available to the public will be found in a book. I love to explore the world, especially places that are true getaway locations. They are front and center in my books. I like to take readers to new places they might not even know exist, or are difficult to get to.

So, if you like to explore the world through reading, writers can take you there. We will give you just enough detail to create a vision and spark your imagination. Come explore the world of Rodger Carlyle, or the other extraordinary writers who aren’t bound by the economics of production settings.

Rodger That: A Greater Power

I’m a Christian. Not a big believer in organized religion, just someone who believes that there is a greater power. By not a fan of organized religion, I mean that I have never been in a church that gave me anywhere close to the belief in a higher power than what I experience sitting on a rock watching a river run through unblemished mountains. I also struggle with how so many leaders in organized faith turn a blind eye, even cover up, excesses and abuses done in the name of their church. I sometimes wonder what regular church goers get from their attendance. 

I recently attended a prayer breakfast for the governor of my state. That event gave me an answer to that question. The keynote speaker was Phan Thi Kim Phuc, the person who will forever be known as Napalm Girl. Her picture, nude, terribly burned, running from her Vietnamese village after a napalm strike will always be with me. Not only did she have to deal with years of surgery, but she ran headlong into the Communist government of her country who was determined to redirect her dreams of being a doctor into being a anti-US propagandist for the regime. That is, until she picked up a Bible and read it for the first time. It changed her life.

Her anger and bitterness, her constant thoughts about how unfair life was, her desire to avenge the damage inflicted upon her took over her life until she accepted Jesus and his teachings of forgiveness. It’s freed Kim to have a family; to finally defect from where her minders demanded she live, Vietnam, then Russia, then Cuba. She founded a nonprofit that helps child victims of war from all over the world. She was one of the most joyous and inspirational people I’ve ever been around. She lit up the room with her faith. 

The more I listened to her, the more I observed the rest of the room. Every hymn sung was part of so many people’s lives. I watched them close their eyes, throw their hands into the air and sing from someplace deep inside of them. They weren’t there to proselytize, they were there simply to rejoice in their faith. They believe as I do that our lives are guided by a higher power, but their church experiences gave them a way to express it that was beautiful and powerful.

Which brings me to another question I have about faith. I cannot understand how so many non-believers castigate those who do believe; how they renounce people for their faith. The people at that breakfast are better people because of that faith, they lead better lives, they have less fear and anger. I struggle to understand how that is a bad thing.