Fluency in writing has been elusive for me, while when it comes to coding I’ve had it for a long time. I define fluency as being able to translate something from my mind to screen as quickly as I can type. There may be a more scientific definition somewhere, but I don’t care right now. When I figure out I need a programmatic thingie that can do this or that, it’s usually written before I start typing.

It’s impossible for me to overstate how much I enjoy having this on in the background when I am working, whether it’s writing or coding. Pluto TV has a Slow TV channel, which I run on my Roku. It runs train rides 24×7 (as near as I can tell) with some fantastic cuts, such as seasonal transitions as the train moves and the occasional picture-in-picture, with drone footage, interviews, or historical footage.

National Novel Writing Month 2016 (NaNoWriMo) is almost here. If you’re not familiar with NaNoWriMo, it means what it says; write a novel in a month. “Writing a novel” means a 50,000-word first draft, but the criteria for success is up to the participant. I am participating for the first time this year. I’ve decided to set my ongoing project, the book about my grandfather, and work on a fantasy novel that’s been banging around in the back of my mind for a couple of years.

By the end of September 1918, the Germans were beaten. Earlier that year Chief-of-Staff Erich Ludendorff commanded the “Kaiserschlacht”  offensive that briefly seemed to turn the tide, but the Germans lacked the resources to support the effort. Ludendorff himself told the Kaiser and Germany’s Chancellor to ask for a ceasefire on September 29th. But the myth that Germany’s civilian leaders betrayed their military started to spread before the Treaty of Versailles was completed.

In case you’ve been under a rock for the past 36 hours or so, Donald Trump has won his second primary. This blog is not about politics. It’s supposed to be about my writing. But current events have taken an eerie, and actually quite frightening, parallel trajectory to my most important writing project. When I was very young my father told me a story about my grandfather. In the late 1920’s, before he brought his family to the United States, my grandfather opposed the NSDAP (the Nazi party) in an election.

Forty-two years later, I still haven’t gotten over the death of Gwen Stacy. Gwen Stacy died in Amazing Spider-Man #122, cover dated July 1973. In 1973 comics were dated 2 or 3 months in advance, so that issue hit the newsstands sometime in April or May 1973. The event actually spans issues #121 and #122, but it’s in the first few pages of #122 that we see she is really dead.

Writing my grandfather’s story is going to mean writing about the rise of the Nazi Party in Germany in the 1920’s. The word “Nazi” is loaded — for good reason. It’s what call the National Socialist German Workers Party (NSDAP.) The Nazis are responsible for the murder of over 6 million Jews, a war that killed another 50 to 80 million people, and shaped the world in ways that still affect us today.

As I continue to write more stories I am going to come to a point where I will need to kill a character. I’m posting this here so I can refer back to it in the future. Hat tip to Open Culture for sharing this.