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| Kong Kong Int Airpor, early morning. |
Traveling again. After a year of turmoil, not all of my
making (for a change), I’m headed on an extraordinary adventure, even by my
standards (not a brag). I’m headed to Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam with my old pals from Intrepid. This
isn’t your garden variety expedition. I’ll be backpacking it, with the only mod
cons my laptop and smartphone. I’ll be staying with a family in the Cambodian
jungle, traveling upriver on Halong Bay, traveling by overnight train, plane,
motorbike, and who knows the what the hell else. I expect the food and drink to be spectacular,
the people truly amazing , and the memories,
unreal. I’m old enough to recall the Vietnam war and I worked
side by side Vietnam vets in my early construction days. So it's a special trip. I'll also be collecting research material for a new Chase Baker novel. I’m writing this now at 1AM in the airport and looking forward to
passing out on the plane which is a good thing since the first leg is 15 hours
to Hong Kong.
Postscript: I've just landed in Kong Kong after the 15 hours flight. Three of the bathrooms were out of order, making it an especially grueling journey.
LIT WARNING: word up on the street is that publishers are now
hiring sensitivity editors. God help us if books are about to be judged based
on their political correctness. This is dangerous territory folks. Sensitivity
editors are just a kinder, fuzzier way of describing censors. These people want
to crush voices, not encourage creativity. Are we heading toward a Stalinesque
future for the written word? Be careful how left you're willing to go. The void of freedom will be replaced at tyranny.
These are dangerous times for free thought, free speech
(which is now officially being discouraged on college campuses), and free
creative expression. If an editor chooses not to publish a novel of mine
because it’s not sensitive to their particular political views, I should only
be too happy for the privilege.
I wish I could say I'm surprised by the warning, but it's about to get all Fahrenheit 451 up in here. I'm sick to death of political correctness and of negating past achievements of key historical figures because their time period-correct attitudes no longer jibe with today's PC attitudes. The Laura Ingalls Wilder thing really frosts me. Add to that the numerous statues being taken down, flags being banned, and this generation's attempt at rewriting history and we're on-track for disaster. God, I feel old.
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