Author’s Forward
AUTHOR’S FOREWARD>It has been said that there is no human problem that has not been solved by someone and written about. It is a matter of reading to finding it.
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SO YOU ARE A STORY TELLER, SO TELL ME A STORY. Here you go.
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Diamonds, highly prized for their qualities, undergo extreme heat and pressure to become diamonds. It seems that success in highly prized areas requires extreme conditions. Just the way this wild rodeo was set up.
I have read most of the classics because there are incredible things to learn therein. The reading may not be easy or fun, but if you want that diamond you have to pay the price and dig for it.
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One of the most astounding diamonds I have ever found is found in War and Peace. War and Peace is the world’s longest novel. Usually over 1,700 pages long. Leo Tolstoy, was a Russian aristocrat He wrote the book from 1865 to 1869, at first in serial books. There were no computers or typewriters back then. Just pen and paper.
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Leo would dictate his tales to his wife, and his wife would then write them down. Each chapter was revised about 7 times, That wonderful woman wrote a book that long, as Leo dictated to her to, and rewrote each chapter about seven times. That is a lot lot lot of writing. When he was finished with a version, he would put it in a wagon and take it to a publisher, All handwritten pages.
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It is an amazing and enjoyable read. It describes the aristocracy and peasants in Russia at that time in an extremely elegant way. There were the rich and the dirt poor. Nothing much in the middle.
The main text of War and Peace is Napoleon’s invasion of Russia.
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Napoleon Bonapart was a graduate of King Louis III military academy. During the French Revolution (1789 to 1799), he showed his genius at commanding armies.
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France was in rags and starving afterwards. It was a devastatingly painful revolution where many died, and the countries’ resource were totally exhausted. King Louis was disposed as a ruler, which was what the French Revolution was mainly about.
10. The French were desperate for anything to get them out of this hell hole they were living in. Napoleon came up with a plan. He was a Captain in the French Army, no longer King Lous III’s army. He hardly had any money. But he had grand ambitions to be a ruler. So here was the plan.
We are going to take over Europe. Europe was basically the world at that time. Parts of the Americas and Africa were ‘discovered’ and colonized mainly by the British, French and Portuguese. Asia was nothing at that time that mattered to the rest of the world. To Europeans, Europe was the world. So, this was his spill:
“We are going to take over Europe. We will have their wealth, and you will no longer be poor. You can rape and plunder all you want. Are you with me?”
That solved the how to pay for an army problem. It also sounded totally wonderful to the young struggling dirt poor men of France. So that’s how that began. He was also coronated Emperor of France. He did a great service to France. He modernized agriculture and developed much better roads. Commerce began to flourish for the first time.
Back to the war. He and his troops raped and plundered most countries in Europe. They also gained a lot of recruits during their conquests. I am sure, “This looks GREAT”.
With most of Europe conquered, there were two countries left. Russia and England.
England has always been hard to conquer. One of the main reasons is the English Channel He never succeeded in taking over Britian. This didn’t stop him from telling the pope to crown him Emperor of the World. That was a pope job during that age, I suppose it gave them “It is Gods wish” credentials. At the last moment he grabbed the crown out of the hands of the pope and placed it upon his head himself, just like Charlemagne had done one thousand years earlier. Napoleon was an avid battle and army historian.
But War and Peace was mainly about Frances invasion of Russian. Tolstoy was Russian and Russia was full of Russian people (imagine that!) that wee still flush with the stories that happened to them. But the book was written from 1865 to 1869, and Napoleons invasion of Russia was in 1812, 76 years earlier. However, the tales were still fresh enough on the population’s minds, especially the older ones, that accurate information was available. I say accurate. Every story is told with the teller’s prejudices, twists and lies to serve their purpose.
In those days, and now actually, history is not history when it is happening. No one writes it down because everyone knows about it, or at least their versions of it. So, it was mainly passed down verbally, because the main entertainment in those days was telling stories to their children and others, to compare tales. Today of course, it is much better chronicled by the press and historians.
When Tolstoy was describing the aristocracy and the peasants, you had a very clear vision of them, as if they were in the room with you. The rich glittered and the poor gruveled.
20 Leaders led in those days. They didn’t reside safely away from harm. Napoleon led his troops, literally.
In one telling of Napoleon charging over a hill with his troops following him straight at you. It was so real to me that I actually through the book and went and hid in the closet. My first wife, a dynamite small Philopena, which they mostly were, heard the noise and came in to investigate. There was a book on the floor, but no Lisa. Hering a noise in the closet she opened the closet doors. “What are you doing in the closet? …. “never mind.” Chuckled, closed the closet door and went about her business.
Napoleon invaded with about 500,000 men, with plenty of supplies, horses and wagons. The Russians burned their crops ahead of the invading army and burned their houses, which was devastating to the invasion. Many died along the way, mostly from diseases caused by lice. They were a lot less cleaner in those days, and the only bath they got was when they went through a river.
The supply route became increasingly longer and longer. The Russian people burned and destroyed everything in their path to hinder them as much as possible
Half of Russia is above the Artic Circle. The winters are extremely brutal there. The Russians were used to it. The French weren’t.
“What Russian winters?” They found out.
When they got to Moscow, the Capital City was burned to the ground and deserted. “I hate it when that happens.” So, what did he get from his invasion of Russia? Nothing much, just bragging rights to say he had conquered Russia. He entered Russia with 500,000 troops and returned with about 50,000. Again, most died from unsanitary conditions, lice, and diseased carried by lice.
During Tolstoy’s telling of Napoleon invading Russia, he developed a concept that is beyond amazing. That was the main diamond of War and Peace. The last 300 pages are his re-interations of this principle.
The telling of the lives of the people in Russia was amazing. But the principle he developed was, to me at least, the biggest diamond known to man. What was that diamond, read it and find out. It would be a lot smaller diamond if you didn’t have to work your ass off to get it.
The book you have in your hands contains many valuable diamonds. Humans are always wondering how to do something or another. Again, there are no human problems that someone hasn’t solved and presented to the rest of mankind. It is an extreme honor and pleasure that I introduce to you Mr. Alan Graham. Alan has developed many successful ways of doing things. I am sure that you will agree with me that they are diamonds. I have written thirteen books, of which five are in print, but this one is the most honorable and most interesting time of my life. It is an extreme honor to be a biographer of an amazing person.
So, look for chapters on “Here is what I learned about successfully doing this”, and his success in doing it speaks for itself. You will learn a lot from Alan Graham.
30 Writing is very laborious. To be considered a book, most publishers expect at least 55,000 words. I shoot for 65,00 and don’t stop until I get close. I have written and published five books, one being 93,000 words.
You can be more creative to hand write chapters and then type them. During that typing the chapters get their first revision. When typing like a bat out of hell (I didn’t know that bats could type, did you?) you are focused on typing, and there is not much thinking room left for being creative.
I use Stephen King’s formula for writing. Three hours a day because that is all the creativity and stamina you have in a day. 3,000 words a day. Black on white. Three months and you will have a book. This works well with fiction books.
If you write whenever you feel like it, the book will never get written. It is like only going to work only when you feel like it. Books that require extensive research like this one will take longer.
So, here you are writing and typing along. You are like, ok. 12,000 words. Type, type type. 13,000 words. Well, only 53,000 words more to go.
So, without further ado, or du du, please welcome the amazing and incredible Mr. Alan Graham.
Lisa gene Cox
December 21, 2024
Community First! Village
Austin, Texas