TQR Confidential

Monday, January 11, 2016

Reality over ideology rare as Comstock ... let it ride

TQR: Good morning colonel,

Hey. I just found out you're a bronze star recipient and a combat surgeon! Thank you for the time and effort on my behalf. I did four in the Navy as a journalist during Desert Storm era. All of it was far from the action in Alameda, California.

I'm still waiting on that contract I sent a few days ago. I have edited BLOOD MONEY a bit. Took out the Texas sentence and the Laub as republican tag as well. I also changed the Pushto you had to the more commonly used Pashto derivation. I'm sure your version is the right one though, since you were over there. Just let me know how you want that handled. I can go back and change it. I cleaned up some typos and did end up changing a few sentences for clarity's sake. I can send you the edited version before it goes live. Just let me know. And send that contract back when you have a chance. Thank you.

PL: Alameda would have been great duty! I am attaching signed contract, I’m fine with your edits and feel free to use Pushto or Pashto.

TQR: Thank you, colonel. I hope the skiing was good! I just read your article in a 2014 edition of Cicero magazine. Very thoughtful stuff.

I love BLOOD MONEY for the fact it's not ideology over reality but exactly the opposite. You can have sympathy for a man revenging the death of his family because of the universality of the injustice, but still recognize it as absolute incompetence to allow this man into the country that took away his soul. Gee. I wonder what he's going to do once he gets here? Anyhow. That is what I took away from it. And like all good literature, I'm sure others will interpret it through their own lens and bias.

Thank you for allowing me to publish it. I realize $50 is a pittance, but you can let it ride on black and, if you're lucky, multiply it a few times over to make it worth your while! Best of luck.