Month: November 2019

Declarations

I realized the timing is little off for these.  Instead of “two months prior” and “one month prior” it should be 2-4 weeks later in both cases as these events take place not only after Faustina’s march on Savannah, but also after Gary and Henge come to save her life.  That’s fine:  these very rough manuscript drafts are for that purpose:  for me to see that needs to be changed, revised, expanded, cut for a commercial novel release.

Below the fold Faustina makes her first public speech.  There is A LOT going on in my head about the politics of this that I simply did not want to be bothered with right now.  The important thing was answering the question of “chi l’oro?”  Which I think I did, in a surprising and funny way.

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A Question of fire

Part Two is all about Faustina’s crusade to take Savannah, the deep-water port of former Georgia, off the occupying Chinese and hand it on a platter to the resurgent city-states of the Tennessee River Valley.

Me being me, not doing “action” well, most of it will be about the people and their relationships.  In this case, we start off with the government of Knoxville defining their problem and facing up to the only solution:  the use of force.  The fact that a demi-human girl has a near monopoly on said force is another thing entirely.

As you can tell from my posting, I was lost for days about one simple question:  how is Faustina paying for all this?  No matter what they feel for her, troops expect to be paid and weapons cost money… a lot of money.  Until I had that answer given to me – and when it happened at DayJob on Monday and I burst out laughing (confirming their suspicions that I’m mental) – I could not write a word.  Here’s half of what I laid down.  More tonight or tomorrow!

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Crusade, Part 1, Sunset

I kinda/sorta knew where and how to wrap up part 1 but the details eluded me for a couple of days.  I was able to make some notes yesterday and had a final image early this morning to bring my “prologue” to an end.  My 13.8k prologue…

From first meeting her in “Worlds Without End” I knew Faustina was going to be a very interesting person and all this has confirmed my suspicions.  Part 2 will be about her Savannah campaign – what prompted it, how she got involved, the way south, and the battle and aftermath.

Little Aurelia in this installment just handed me the arc of part 3:  a campaign to the lower Mississippi:  not bringing nuclear power and civilization like the early Knoxville Society did in “Echoes of Family Lost,” but a straight-up neo-imperial effort to establish colonies and client-kingdoms between former eastern Tennessee and the Republic of Texas.

Depending on the length of all that, part 4 will either be an epilogue pointing to a sequel or it will make this one of my longest works as Faustina leads an army to St. Louis… and the massive political-military ramifications of such an act.  Yeah… that might best be its own book… The Black Muslim Brotherhood that controls that area; the remnants of central Canadians coming south, fleeing the advancing ice…  Complicated.

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Blowing Hot & Cold

It’s officially the winter season at the Barnett Residence:  with this recent cold snap I have un-mothballed our pellet stove in our basement.  It keeps things about 80F down there.  The ground floor is set around 65F and upstairs falls to 61F or lower when the wind howls.

Another busy DayJob week leading to no writing at all for nearly four days.  On the morning of the fourth day I texted my wife that I was becoming morbidly depressed.  She counselled me to hang on a bit longer.  Wisdom:  in the past day and a half I’ve written just over 3000 words about little Fussy and her first battle, the first part of which is just below the fold.

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Cat Naps

Yesterday was the county library’s Local Author Fair. of which I was a part.  There were less authors than last year and also less attendees; I warned them about scheduling this opposite an Ohio State football game, but librarians are stupid.

While I was there I made a page and half of notes on Faustina’s book.  Below the fold is merely the transition to the start of the notes I made.  This is going to be a very long novel.

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“Speak the word…the word is all of us”

For those who’ve not been following along, this is a continuation of yesterday’s post and the latest story of Faustina’s recollections about building her private army.  Many things going on… when this becomes a novel it will likely take two chapters to unpack.

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Tales from her Sickbed…

DayJob is nightmarish:  all the of the IV rooms are, politely, “in flux.”  “We’re all screwed” comes closer but we are all trying to KBO.

I was visited with Faustina’s next adventure last night.  What I found entertaining was that when I sat down in front of the computer, I saw this, first.  More Faustina and her legions next time.  I promise!

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