A-to-Z Challenge Day 22: The Letter V

Not to be confused with Victory, Vendetta, Visitor, or whatever else you might associate with this letter, including ventriloquists, vinyl records, villainy, etc.

Leonard Veitch

A Tremor of Bones

Space Corps Book 3

Veitch rhymes with "beach," just so you know.  Sometimes people try to confuse pronunciation on me, change the laws of physics, but that's how I've been pronouncing it for more than a decade, and recently I confirmed it for myself.  Leonard Veitch has increasingly become my surrogate.  He's a bit of a sad-sack case, hard-luck and constantly belittled, Craig Hudson's veteran partner (you met him on H Day).  By all accounts he's a more than capable officer in the covert operations Division of the Space Corps, and yet like Rodney Dangerfield he gets no respect.  He's the heart of A Tremor of Bones, even though there's a lot of moving parts around him and I've already identified Hudson as the classic initiate figure for the reader.  I sometimes view my entire life as bad breaks and diminishing returns.  Veitch is a way for me to keep in mind that no matter how pathetic it can seem, maybe there's some worth to it after all.

Vancouver

Yoshimi and the Assassins Guild

Yoshimi Trilogy Volume 2

Last reference to the whirlwind tour of the world, even though warrior orphan Yoshimi's stop in Vancouver technically begins before it.  This is her first international destination, the site of the second dojo, run under the auspices of Jim Nguyen (you were introduced on N Day), and it's in Canada.  I sometimes pretend that I'm Canadian, which is a quarter true, considering my ancestors came down from there, plus the fact that I grew up in Maine, which only pretends that it's part of the U.S.  Although don't expect a lot of touristy descriptions of city life.  This is the first instance where I blatantly refuse to do that on any stop of the tour.  It's more about the characters.  If you want more than that, there are plenty of travel books.

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The Red Sox won yesterday (which means the A's lost).  Clay Buchholz is pitching tonight, looking for his fifth victory.  He's officially our new ace, by the way.  The insanely early voting for the All Star Game, meanwhile, begins today.  Here's a look at where the Red Sox fall on the ballot this year.

The Angels lost again.  Still, they're featured on the ballot as well.  Albert Pujols missed being selected last year, which was a tad controversial, but he wasn't playing well, a rare instance of restraint in what can sometimes obviously be considered a popularity game (although as far as posterity goes, it can equally seem logical to put names on the field in this game that fans will recognize).  He's currently batting .267, while Mark Trumbo is at .313 and Mike Trout at .271.

The A's are of course on the ballot as well.  Naturally Coco Crisp is the face of this bid.  The team is also fuming about a questionable call from last night's game.  That goes with the territory, folks.

The Cardinals won last night.  It flopped them back to the top of their division.  They've also got players on the ballot, obviously.  Carlos Beltran leads this pack.