Snow Day

[chris_gerrib]

Or rather, snow evening. I was going to go out for dinner last night, but when I went to my driveway around 6:30, I discovered that Old Man Winter had deposited a sheet of freezing rain, rendered even more slick by a layer of sleet. For variety's sake, he was following that up with a mixture of snow and sleet. I drive an SUV, and have since before they were cool. They say Mister Colt made all men equal. Well, ice makes all cars equal - equally likely to slide off the road.

So I decided to pop a bottle of wine, broil a steak and stay in. There being nothing of great interest on TV, I read my copy of SHOOT Only at the Red Airplane. I mentioned that Bill Coons, the book's author, had contacted me, and that I would post a review.

SHOOT Only at the Red Airplane is exactly the kind of book that should be self-published. If you're interested in obscure WWII history or aviation, this is something that will interest you. Bill spent his service in WWII working on a target drone squadron. During (and after) the war, various radio-controlled aircraft were used as flying targets for Army and Navy gunners, and Bill's well-researched book provides a lot of first-hand information as to how these craft were developed and used.

Bill's prose is merely serviceable, and the editing and layout is OK, but this is really what historians call a primary source - what you use to write the more formal history of an event.

In other news, Goeff Nelder, a fellow struggling SF writer based in England, gave me a plug on his blog. I shall have to look at some of his stuff.

Comments

[anothernathan.livejournal.com]

Not really precisely on topic, but, I developed a real interest in the Tuskeegee Airmen after seeing the movie and have been able to find only an extremely limited amount of books on the subject. Have you run across any you can recommend?

[chris-gerrib.livejournal.com]

Can't say that I have. I suspect that the number of titles is limited. There were only a few hundred airmen as I recall.