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David A. Schwinghammer

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· Member Since: Dec, 2007

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Books
· Soldier's Gap

· Soldier's Gap

· Soldier's Gap

· Soldier's Gap

Short Stories
· Mengele's Double, Chapter 12

· Fisher of Men, Chapter 11

· Mengele's Double, Chapter 11

· Honest Thief, Tender Murderer, Chapter 11.

· Mengele's Double, Chapter 10

· Honest Thief, Tender Murderer, Chapter 10

· Fisher of Men, Chapter 10

· Mengele's Double, Chapter 9

· Seminary Boy, a memoir

· Fisher of Men, Chapter Nine

Articles
· The Jerk

· Bone-headed Supreme Court Decisions

· Republicans Work Hard at Creating Divisive Issues

· Pipestone: My Life in an Indian Boarding School, book review

· Auschwitz (Always Remember Your Name), book review

· Fahrenheit 2021-22

· Biden's Approval Rate Plummeting

· Mr. Trump, have you no sense of decency?

· Critical Race Theory

· Clueless Judge Compares AR-15's to Swiss Army Knives

Poetry
· Should I Take Ballet?

· Caboose

· The Girl Next Door

· Llama, Llama (dedicated to William Blake)

· The Terminal Booger

· Fashion

· Widow's Peak

· Myth

· Alumni Game

· Stradivarius

         More poetry...

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Blogs by David A. Schwinghammer

Winter Counts, book review
1/19/2021 1:00:00 PM

Virgil Wounded Horse sets out to find out who's bringing heroine onto The Rosebud reservation.

I ordered WINTER COUNTS because Virgil Wounded Horse sounded like an interesting protagonist. He’s an enforcer on the Lakota Rosebud Reservation in South Dakota.

The Tribal police aren’t allowed to handle felonies; the state police won’t do it either, and the FBI is also unresponsive. In that event, the only way for the Lakota to get justice in say a rape case is for somebody like Virgil to handle it. He’s lucky if he makes a few hundred bucks.

The plots starts with Nathan, Virgil’s nephew, almost dying from an overdose of heroin. Somebody on the reservation is giving away free samples. Virgil has a possible suspect who happens to be a kid who used to bully him in high school, before he grew muscles. Thing is the guy is a total loser who’s only into small stuff like weed.

Virgil also has a girlfriend, actually an ex-girlfriend; their relationship is rekindled. Virgil used to drink, and it ruined their romance. He’s reliably on the wagon now. Marie’s father is a tribal leader who never approved of Virgil. But suddenly Ben, Marie’s father, wants Virgil to investigate the heroine dealers, and he’ll pay a lot more than a couple of hundred bucks.

The plot progresses when somebody frames Nathan by putting Oxycontin and other pills in his locker. He’s arrested. When Virgil goes to Denver to try to ferret out the heroin dealers who are descending on the reservation, he is confronted by a cop who is willing to make a deal to get Nathan off the hook if Nathan will wear a wire when he makes a buy. Virgil will not risk Nathan’s life, but it’s either that or Nathan could go to jail for at least ten years.

When Nathan disappears Virgil suddenly finds Lakota religion. Virgil winds up participating in a Lakota ceremony; he dreams about the Wounded Knee massacre, and the dream directs him to where Nathan might be.

One of the reasons I was a big Tony Hillerman fan was because Jim Chee was studying to be a Navajo Shaman, and they had all these cool ceremonies like the Blessing Way. Author David Heska Wanbli Weiden waits too long to involve Virgil in his heritage. At first Virgil is way too cynical about Indian religion. Indians really respect nature for one thing. When an Indian killed a Buffalo he would say a prayer to the Buffalo spirit to thank it for giving up its life so he could live. We could learn a lot from them.

Marie is also learning how to cook using only traditional Lakota food and recipes. Apparently fry bread isn’t very good for you. Her parents want her to become a doctor, but she would have to practice in New Mexico for five years in order to get a half scholarship.

WINTER COUNTS is more of a traditional detective story early on. One of the ways Tony would hook you was to immerse his stories in the Navajo culture.

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More Blogs by David A. Schwinghammer
• The Sun Collective,, books review - Tuesday, February 2, 2021
• Winter Counts, book review - Tuesday, January 19, 2021
• American Gospel, book review - Friday, December 25, 2020
• Next to Last Stand - Sunday, December 13, 2020
• Anxious People - Saturday, November 14, 2020
• We Ride Upon Sticks - Saturday, September 26, 2020
• Camino Winds - Monday, August 10, 2020
• The Ice Cream Man and Other Stories - Monday, July 20, 2020
• Valentine, book review - Tuesday, July 7, 2020
• IF IT BLEEDS - Saturday, June 13, 2020
• Masked Prey - Monday, June 1, 2020
• Redhead by the Side of the Road - Friday, May 22, 2020
• The Mirror and the Light, book review - Sunday, May 17, 2020
• The Medal of Freedom - Monday, March 2, 2020
• The Topeka School - Monday, February 24, 2020
• Baby Trump - Tuesday, February 11, 2020
• Epstein - Thursday, July 11, 2019
• The Rapture - Friday, June 14, 2019
• The Trump Baby - Monday, June 3, 2019
• Tax cuts? - Monday, April 22, 2019
• Climate Change Deniers - Friday, March 15, 2019
• El Paso - Thursday, February 14, 2019
• Bill Maher and Comic Strip Characters - Tuesday, February 5, 2019
• Pence Letter - Saturday, January 12, 2019
• Trump Foundation to be Criminally Charged? - Friday, December 21, 2018
• LIES - Thursday, December 6, 2018
• Indicted Felons Elected to Congress - Sunday, November 11, 2018
• Jews, blacks and Mexicans are Individuals - Friday, November 2, 2018
• Demagogues Never Accept the Blame - Thursday, October 25, 2018
• Red Hats - Thursday, October 11, 2018
• Death Threats - Thursday, September 20, 2018
• Maria deaths and Trump's delusional response - Thursday, September 13, 2018
• Vote these Leeches out of office - Sunday, July 29, 2018
• The Red Hen Was Responding to Right Wing Provocation - Thursday, July 12, 2018
• Oprah's Focus Group - Thursday, March 1, 2018
• Human Wave Attack - Tuesday, May 30, 2017
• Trump's "advisers" - Wednesday, March 1, 2017
• Fake News - Tuesday, December 6, 2016
• No Judge Garland - Friday, December 2, 2016
• The Bill Hodges trilogy - Friday, November 18, 2016
• How About a Class on the Issues? - Sunday, November 13, 2016
• The FBI Director's Dubious E-mail Discovery - Saturday, October 29, 2016
• Don't Split the Ticket - Monday, October 24, 2016
• Why does the media keep Covering this Clown? - Sunday, October 16, 2016
• Household Income Up, By a Lot - Friday, September 16, 2016
• Let's All Grow Up - Monday, September 5, 2016
• What the Clinton Foundation Actually does. - Wednesday, August 24, 2016
• World Government - Thursday, August 18, 2016
• Elon Musk, Tesla Founder - Wednesday, June 29, 2016
• The Trump Charade - Thursday, March 24, 2016
• Why Don't Our Kids Know History and Geography? - Tuesday, February 23, 2016
• Our Irascible Congress - Monday, February 15, 2016
• Citizen Trump? - Monday, December 28, 2015
• Our Bloodiest War - Tuesday, March 17, 2015
• Greedheads - Monday, September 29, 2014
• Worst President Since WWII? - Monday, July 7, 2014
• Tenure for Teachers - Thursday, June 26, 2014
• Koch Brothers Interfere in Local Election - Thursday, May 8, 2014
• The Wolly Mammoth - Wednesday, April 23, 2014
• Fran Tarkenton's political ad - Friday, March 14, 2014
• Propaganda vs. Legitimate Commentary - Sunday, February 23, 2014
• Porn as a Political Issue - Tuesday, February 18, 2014
• Drive a Stake Through the Vampires' Hearts! - Thursday, February 6, 2014
• State of the Union Stem-winder - Wednesday, January 29, 2014
• Ted Cruz - Tuesday, November 19, 2013
• Here We Go Again. - Thursday, September 19, 2013
• Reality TV - Friday, August 9, 2013
• Common Sense - Tuesday, July 30, 2013
• Skunks Believe Everybody Else Stinks - Thursday, May 16, 2013
• The Morning After Pill - Friday, April 12, 2013
• What Would Thomas Jefferson Say? - Saturday, April 6, 2013
• Boneheads - Tuesday, March 12, 2013
• Why Benedict XVI Resigned - Sunday, February 17, 2013
• Gabby Giffords Testifies - Wednesday, January 30, 2013
• Newspaper Caters to Gun Owners - Wednesday, January 23, 2013
• Piers Morgan Deserves a Medal - Monday, December 24, 2012
• The Red Devil and the Blue Devil? - Tuesday, October 30, 2012
• Is the new TV show, REVOLUTION, fantasy? - Wednesday, September 26, 2012
• Fanatical Moslems Aren't That Different From Our Fanatics - Wednesday, September 12, 2012
• We Need the United Nations - Wednesday, July 18, 2012
• Stop Catering to People's Basest Instincts - Monday, July 9, 2012
• Concerned Women for America political ad - Saturday, June 23, 2012
• Independent Voters Need to Pick a Side - Monday, June 11, 2012
• Romney's Solyndra Appearance - Friday, June 1, 2012
• Single Issue Voters - Sunday, May 20, 2012
• Bully or Sociopath? - Saturday, May 12, 2012
• Tan-orexic Woman Poor Role Model - Friday, May 4, 2012
• So Far Right They're Almost Left - Sunday, April 22, 2012
• Dog Eat Dog - Sunday, April 15, 2012
• The Tea Party is Back! - Sunday, March 25, 2012
• Gas Prices - Tuesday, March 13, 2012
• "Doofus" - Tuesday, March 6, 2012
• Bon Iver Front Man Makes Important Statement - Thursday, February 16, 2012
• Contraception Blowback - Friday, February 10, 2012
• 800 vetoes! - Saturday, February 4, 2012
• Issa Hounding Holder over GOP program - Thursday, February 2, 2012
• Rick Santelli's Rant - Wednesday, January 18, 2012
• Corporate Raider President? - Thursday, December 1, 2011
• Is This the Best They Can Do? - Thursday, November 17, 2011
• Tea Party a non-violent Movement? - Sunday, October 30, 2011
• Wall Street Protests - Wednesday, October 5, 2011
• Three new stooges - Thursday, August 25, 2011
• Hypocrite enters the race - Friday, August 19, 2011
• Business Leaders Need to Speak Out - Saturday, July 30, 2011
• Rupert Murdoch and GOP Credibility - Monday, July 25, 2011
• Playing on the railroad tracks - Sunday, July 17, 2011
• Scapegoating - Sunday, June 19, 2011
• The Biggest Swindle in US history - Friday, June 3, 2011
• We're Still Here! - Saturday, May 21, 2011
• Improve education by improving teacher morale - Wednesday, May 4, 2011
• Tea Partiers Don't Know What They're Talking About - Thursday, April 28, 2011
• General Electric paid no corporate taxes - Tuesday, April 5, 2011
• The Flat Earth Society is at it again! - Thursday, March 17, 2011
• Crap fest - Thursday, March 3, 2011
• Egyptian Revolution - Tuesday, February 8, 2011
• Tucson - Wednesday, January 12, 2011
• Would you want a right-winger for a neighbor? - Friday, January 7, 2011
• Noah's Ark Museum - Monday, December 6, 2010
• Frick and Frack Shoot Off Their Mouths - Friday, November 5, 2010
• Enthusiam Gap - Wednesday, October 27, 2010
• Super Computer - Tuesday, October 19, 2010
• US Chamber of Commerce, conservative front group. - Wednesday, October 13, 2010
• 13 Reasons to vote the straight democratic ticket - Wednesday, September 1, 2010
• Breitbart Makes Segretti look like a choirboy - Wednesday, July 28, 2010
• House on Fire? - Thursday, June 17, 2010
• The Blame Game - Friday, May 28, 2010
• National Prayer Day - Tuesday, May 18, 2010
• Conservative psyche (continued) - Friday, May 14, 2010
• Conservative psyche - Wednesday, May 12, 2010
• Are you smarter than a half-term governor? - Wednesday, April 14, 2010
• Rewriting History - Monday, April 5, 2010
• Fred Phelps - Friday, April 2, 2010
• Combing the Daily Newspaper - Wednesday, March 17, 2010
• Noir - Friday, November 6, 2009
• Interview with SOLDIER'S GAP author continued - Tuesday, November 3, 2009
• More from SOLDIER'S GAP author - Thursday, October 29, 2009
• SOLDIER'S GAP author answers questions. - Thursday, October 22, 2009
• Everything you always wanted to know about writing a novel - Tuesday, October 20, 2009
• Manuscript conventions - Thursday, September 10, 2009
• Revision - Monday, September 7, 2009
• Dialogue - Thursday, September 3, 2009
• Scene cards - Tuesday, September 1, 2009
• Point of view - Thursday, August 27, 2009
• Plot - Tuesday, August 25, 2009
• Arnie's dream - Friday, August 21, 2009
• Rituals - Thursday, August 20, 2009
• Dressing Arnie Vogel - Tuesday, August 18, 2009
• Character sketch continued - Friday, August 14, 2009
• Character sketch - Thursday, August 13, 2009
• Characterization - Wednesday, August 12, 2009
• Scene outline - Tuesday, August 11, 2009
• Warm-up activity - Freewriting - Monday, August 10, 2009
• Warm-up activity - brainstorming - Sunday, August 9, 2009
• Warm-up techniques (clustering) - Saturday, August 8, 2009

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