Hmm. He’s been writing a book about WWII for as long as I can remember, so I’m used to little notecards and legal pads with notes about characters littering his desk (for the past month at work there’s been a page printed out about arsenic sitting next to his computer. I keep meaning to ask him if he’s planning to do my mom in.) The other day, I went to use his computer, and saw he was looking at a google map of eastern Europe. Not so weird, spies could hang out in eastern Europe, right?
But today I see there’s a page printed out about Vlad the Impaler. And there’s a legal pad with notes scribbled on it about Vlad, castles, Hagia Sophia, all sorts of stuff. Dunno if this is a vampire book or what. I wonder if he’s given up on his spy novel.
Vlad may have been an utter psycho, but his terror kept Turkey from invading his homeland. Maybe your dad’s drawing comparisons to some WWII event, like the failed Nazi attempt to invade Russia. The Russians did some pretty heartless things to their own people to repel the Nazis, but that’s kind of a stretch.
Asserteth RedRosesForMe, “there’s been a page printed out about arsenic sitting next to his computer.”
Put the glass down and step away from the egg nog…
AIUI Vlad wasn’t even that - an autocrat,and a hard one, but he was also supported by the peasantry, AIUI, for his support of the Rule of Law, and keeping the nobility on a short leash. I wouldn’t call him humane, nor even nice. But, compared to his contemporaries, I’d rather lived under his rule than a bit to the west, living on the estates of Elizabeth Bathory. (Not quite contemporaneous, but only about 70 years difference. And I think it’s worth noting that when Bartholdi’s acts were discovered her servants were executed, but she was simply immured. And the record of the trial was suppressed. Not exactly what I’d call support for lawfulness, there.)
I remember reading about Bathory, quite gruesome.
It is possible that this is being worked into the other book, but from the look of the notes (which are quite detailed) I think it’s a totally different book. I’m not a snoop, so I’ll leave my knowledge of his books to what he leaves laying out on his desks, but I wish he’d just finish already so I could read them, you know?