A surprise for Faustina and rather than being pissed off she nearly gets pissed on. Time to beat a quick retreat to base… where her legates have been wondering where in bloody hell their General and Empress disappeared to… I’ll bet USD10 that Gibson spanks her.
Category: creative writing
Walkies
The young general is able to push her boys forward in the night but grows increasingly concerned that they are pressing further and further into the unknown. Once to a temporary laager, tired herself and not thinking too clearly, Faustina makes a foolish decision.
It was a dark and stormy night…
Not about to get her army trapped in place for a week or even for days, Faustina proves her earlier guess correct: her boys were going to pay for their days of easy marching. On the heels of a 45-mile day, they must cover another 25… and the rain from the hurricane is starting to fall…
Brewing storms
I like an episode arc that starts in sunshine and ends in clouds. It guarantees further action. Under the fold, the empress meets with a diplomatic embassage of rump Louisiana, trying to find out what is going on between them and the Gulf Short States, who she and her boys are on their way to visit. At the end, Ryland startles Faustina very badly… something I’m still seeing and will try to wrap up Thursday.
Soup and Juice
Faustina has a short meeting with her legates but makes time to be informal with her cousin, Ryland. For a kid genius, who usually are monomaniacs and burn out early, Ryland is surprisingly perceptive. I wonder if being a mutt is a factor? Or her mother’s close relationship with the machines of tribe Tohsaka? We’ll likely find out later or sooner.
I have written a little past this but have to go make an early dinner for my family. If not too drunk to write more, maybe I can get another update ready to later.
Flashback
In the published novel, this will be the start of chapter two of Part III. It hearkens back to what happened at the very end of Part II, where, as Arpad and Ryland were about to return to the Texas-controlled side of the Mississippi, he received a note of some kind. We know is was significant, otherwise, why is Faustina’s young cousin travelling with them into another battle zone?
I’ve seen what happens right after this memory and am writing it now. This is a very productive weekend!
Riding South
Now beginning Part III of “Empress’ Crusade.” Following Colonel Rigó getting news from Texas, Faustina has re-mobilized her army and is moving south. I’m not entirely sure why as yet, but am confident they’ll let me know soon. In the meantime, the two young cousins have a chance to talk.
Iter
This little addition will conclude what will be part two of “Empress’ Crusade.” As I mentioned last time, I need to collate and overhaul my notes before I write one more word. That is going to take a few days. Sorry.
In an interesting tangent to my works, yet another person today told me that “I like you ideas but have no time to read. Do you have audiobooks?” Once I finish “EC” I shall take a break from writing and bring myself fully up to speed on creating said audiobooks. It seems I’m missing out on more than have of my market. Time to fix that.
Upgrades: fort
In the five days that Faustina ran around former northern State of Mississippi with two legions, her boys from Fourth have not been idle.
I’ve DayJob this weekend and Monday so am not sure about another update. I’ve seen how she gets her army back to Vicksburg and did a little research about what comes next. But that “what comes next” will be another 15k word arc. Before I do that, I must sit down and make a complete re-assessment of the staff of the 4+1 legions she has at her disposal. My clutch of hand-written notes scattered over five pages just is not holding up anymore.
“Peace is just the temporary absence of war”
When I stumbled into DayJob at 1300 yesterday, half in Faustina’s world and half in this (notice how carefully I don’t define what’s real?), a young colleague asked what was wrong. Startling him, I described Fussy’s concern as to whether Gen’l Willis can keep control of his own left brigade. After a minute of pharmacists and techs looking at one another with uncomfortable looks that said, “this is Clayton we’re dealing with,” the young colleague said, “I think he can’t.”
He was wrong. Who knew?
Continue reading ““Peace is just the temporary absence of war””
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