Following close on yesterday, Faustina takes the PLA commander for a walk away from the secret police. This is a little short but a good bridge to the person who enters the next scene.
I’m not sure if I’ll get anything down before 2nd shift DayJob tomorrow but I’ve high hopes for this weekend!
Faustina returns to Savannah to find out all the little details of what’s going on and what needs her attention. A fly-by gives her an overview. Right after she receives something not heard on Earth for a very long time… and guaranteeing her triumph. But she understands her most important task: “take me to the wounded.”
That is one of my life-mottoes. It is derived from Calvin Coolidge saying “If you see ten troubles coming down the road, you can be sure that nine will run into the ditch before they reach you.”
Strangely, one of my other life-mottoes is from the US Marine Corps: “Doin’s better than thinkin’,” which I have used in one of my books. The gripping hand between the two is knowing when to act and when not to.
First Councilman MacRae’s proposal to Faustina was a bolt from the blue for her and me. Thankfully he gave her time. She takes a little of that time to place it before the brother she loves so much and her sister-in-law she thinks so mistaken. They come to the same conclusion: give it time. In a month or two, they could be in a hot-war with the PLA, or attacked on another front, or revolution at home, or… or… the horse just might learn to sing.
Tomorrow: back to Savannah!
This came completely out of left field. So much so that for yesterday and today, having come home from DayJob, I just stared at the screen. I know a little about what happens right after this and quite a bit about Faustina’s actions once back to Savannah…
But I never saw this.
Faustina gets out of the hospital at last. We see a little more of her odd cult as well as a demonstration as to why she’s so good at fostering it. She takes a ride with her sister-in-law. More politics next then – I hope – a flight with her brother back to Savannah. Busy, busy!
Time for a little politics, unfortunately. I agree with Faustina: I want to see her back to her legions so I find out what the heck happens next, too. But, honestly, she cannot go back empty-handed. She has to have concrete information for the PLA general, Zhou. The first steps of that are settled here. I suspect we’ll see more when she meets privately with the First Councilman in about ten of their days.
I’m off DayJob tomorrow and hoping to get at least 5k words down… or more!
I’ve actually put down about 2.5k words tonight… on a DayJob night! But the two parts are very distinct from each other. This is Faustina with her mother and niece. Next comes formal politics, domestic and foreign. Sometimes small updates are best updates.
Faustina gets some laps in the pool then a bit of shock about what she is turning into in the city of Knoxville… essentially, her image is outstripping who she really is. The question shall be: does she try to catch up, or go another direction entirely?
Either way, her dad thinks this is all a crock and is worried sick about his little girl.
After not formally writing for a week and half, I feel as if I should be entering rehab; I have (looks about) five pages of notes from downtime at DayJob and quiet times about my house but when I just didn’t the time to sit down in front of the laptop.
That came to an end today. Daughter #2 off on a cancer fun-raiser, wife doing something about the house somewhere… I’d no more excuses. I fired up the pellet stove in the basement and came down thirty minutes later to write. So far, it’s working. 3k words of Faustina’s recover in the Knoxville hospital flowed right out. There’s much there: her physical condition, the reaction of her family to her injuries, and her fervent desire to return to “her boys” as soon as she is able. It will be a balancing act for her, in, I think, three parts. Here’s part one.
The Kindle ebook version is now available. I hope to flog things together and get “Crosses and Doublecrosses” up on smashwords.com this weekend.
In the meantime, with about twenty minutes of downtime between making chemos, I saw why Thaad chose to interfere in human affairs, specifically when it came to the Chinese military dropping more rods onto Savannah. Made about a page of notes… perhaps I’ll try to write some tonight?
machciv 