#ROW80 Update from a #Warzone!

Everyone smile for the camera! 
Oh, wait, Marines don't smile...

A quiet week in some ways here, a very busy one in others!

Writing awards and orders, finishing up one International Relations class, and preparing to teach another, and taking a 3-day-a-week French class via online video-linked classroom (thanks, Special Operations Command!) so as is often the case, I’m struggling to make time to write, let alone publish or promote!

That said, I have gotten a little bit more done on Steven Pressfield’s “The Warrior Ethos”: One Marine Officer’s Critique & Counterpoint. Shooting for publication before the end of the month, so lots to do with that! And I have to finish the final proofs for my interview in Laurence Raw and Robert G. Dryden’s upcoming book Global Jane Austen: Pleasure, Passion, and Possessiveness in the Jane Austen Community.

So, I trust you’ll pardon the very brief goals update:

WRITING

- Posted Chapter 29 of The Perfidious Mister Wickham…

- Wrote 1500 words on my critique of Pressfield’s The Warrior Ethos.

PUBLISHING
- Put out the 16th issue of the Squadron newsletter – Mother’s Day edition!

FITNESS
- Added 10 lbs to my Bench Press…

- Bodyfat down to 13.4% - next stop, 12%

- Scored 284 (out of 300) on my latest Physical Fitness Test!

LANGUAGE
- Got in 5 solid hours of French study this week, 4 of those in a class taught all in French… Je suis un bien eleve!

NETWORKING
- Found a couple of people interested in my Core Group! Still looking for more, though – anyone joins will get free books and advance copies of new material in exchange for reviews and critique… Are you interested? If so, leave a note here, or drop me a line directly to ehcarpenter@gmail.com

So, that’s it for my goals! How did you do with yours?

I hope everyone has had a great weekend, and is all set for another productive week!

A la prochaine! 
Edward

A Death in the Family (Circle of Life, Part One)

5 September 1977 - 15 July 2012

Friends, followers, fellow readers and writers...

I know I haven't been very active online for the last couple of weeks, but my commitments in the real world have taken me away from the virtual world of blog posts, Tweets, Facebook posting, etc...

As you may or may not know, I recently returned from Indonesia to take over as the Executive Officer at a Marine Aviation Logistics Squadron in Beaufort, SC - the Number Two man in a unit mustering 600-plus Marines... Still single after all these years, my family is my squadron; my Marines are my sons and daughters, my brothers and sisters in arms.

Sadly, only a couple of weeks after I arrived, every officer's worst nightmare happened - we lost one of our Marines in a senseless, tragic accident. It happened on a lovely Sunday afternoon just after I'd sat down to do some writing - and since then, I've done a lot of writing, all the sadly necessary paperwork to document this tragic event and ensure that our fallen brother's relatives get all the support that they are due.

This event saddened me personally, and also gave me a renewed appreciation for how much life is, in the end, so much sound and fury. As important as you may think you are, if tomorrow you are no more, the world will still keep turning. So stay safe. Keep yourself healthy. Say "I love you" to the people that you care about. Hug your kids, your significant other. Do something nice for yourself that you've been putting off.

That's all for now... I'll get back to blogging about happy topics in the days and weeks to come, about new writing projects and great novels I've read, but for now, I'd just like to dedicate this one to the memory of Staff Sergeant Jerome H. Carter, USMC. You were well-loved by your community, you made a daily difference in your squadron, and you will be missed. Semper Fi, brother. See you on the other side.

Dedicated to the Memory of Staff Sergeant Jerome H. Carter, USMC