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Jon and I had dinner with Michael Z. Williamson tonight.  Yes, the same one mentioned in the dedication of SWALLOWING DARKNESS.  Mike helped me with the research on the National Guard in that book.  I’ve had people help me with military and police scenes over the years, but this was the first time I had someone who was a member of the group I was writing about, and a published author.  It made the research questions even easier, because he got both the facts I was trying for, and what I was doing with those facts.  It was very cool.  Bear in mind, that Mike was deployed at the time, so I really appreciated him taking the time.  We had met years ago at MarCon, but not since, so when Mike e-mailed that he was going to be in the area, and what about dinner, it was a deal.

I think I didn’t realize how hard I’ve been working on the end of SKIN TRADE, or how much I needed the social break.  If Mike had not ended up being in the area, I’d have just worked until dinner, then gone back to work.  Instead, Jon and I got out of the house, had a nice dinner, with good company, and we finally got that dinner with Mike that we’d been trying to plan for months.  I feel more refreshed for having gotten away from my desk for awhile.  Dinner conversation covered writing, of course, military stuff, again, of course, and topics ranging from how to keep an air conditioning unit working in the desert, to strippers.  Jon has just chimed in, that was one you brought up, meaning me.  Mike was talking about research, and strangely the research in the strip clubs has some of the funniest stories attached to it.  Okay, they’re funny now, at the time they were a little . . . puzzling.  But when swapping stories with anyone who is military, or police, certain stories just come up.  I have stories involving firearms, and violence, but they aren’t funny.  But it was fun evening, and it was good to finally see Mike again.