Your present is one of my rare battle scenes. Although, given my notes, I think we’re going to see several more of them unfold in the near future. As confusing as a battle is by itself, I have made a concerted effort to not “head-hop,” that is, change who’s story this is. Used to be a very bad habit of mine when young as a writer and I am much better at catching it when it crops up. If I missed any, please let me know.
Below the fold, things go *pew*pew* and *boom*boom*.
I swear… I SWEAR that there is shooting in the next installment. I’ve already written it, so trust me. It’s just that I think it is so much more interesting to listen to them rather than *pew*pew* and *boom*boom*. It will be impressive once adapted into a visual series but it just takes up space in my mind and in my pages.
We get to know Ryland, a ‘normie’ but genius human, a little bit better. She’s not the self-centered shit I thought she was last week. That is one of the reasons I so love this job: discovery. Had I never on a whim written “The Fourth Law” five years ago, I’d not have met Lily. In the next book, her sister, Callie. Several books on, writing about Callie’s son and girlfriend, I met Faustina. And now her cousin. If this is not a miracle then tell me what is.
Which, for my overseas readers, is an actual river and city in the State of Mississippi. Faustina has to move fast: both to prove herself as a legionary commander and to show that she’s better than humans. In this segment, the first of two before the Battle of Winona (there will finally be shooting, I promise), she schools her distant relations on strategy and tactics in the former US as well as that attacking the enemy’s mind is always more effective than attacking their body.
I am also older that to write a campaign, you have to plan a campaign. A visual example of that is at the very end of this entry.
Sorry for the pause right before Faustina finally swings three legions into battle; kinda hard to get enthused about writing war when I’ve death pattering outside my home. And no, nothing to do with BatAIDS hysteria.
I’ll try more later in the week. Again, apologies.
My wife wafted through the dining room where I write. “When did your Breakup stories stop being fiction?” she asked.
I never wanted any of this. It was just to be a backdrop to the relationships I saw.
Anyway. Part Two of “Empress’ Crusade” begins! As is my wont, I skip forward almost three months and put Faustina at her destination: Vicksburg. But, as her father pointed out, and her uncle told her brother, “anyone can get into trouble; it’s the professionals who get out alive.” I think I’m about to see what that looks like.
A bit of a long-ish addition. I wanted to wrap up Part One of Empress’ Crusade, at about 18k words, and get on to the campaign itself. For the historically minded, it will be loosely based on Caesar’s Gallic Wars, always a good read. In the meantime, I have some research to do about the populations of former Alabama and Mississippi and how that extrapolates one generation on into the Breakup.
Below the fold is a family who loves one another but find it increasingly hard to like one another. That is probably an odd concept for my younger readers but is something we in our dotage just nod at. Thanks for everyone’s support!
Faustina, awash in emotion, does something stupid. On the heels of that, she takes a walk to murmur a song. We are both older for this transitional scene.
Taking time to make some notes, a page of which is in the image, below, helped immensely. I went so far as to ponder if Faustina puts on some kind of concert for recruiting but that seemed hokey. But I liked the song, so I think I’ll soft-pedal it and have her sing quietly while leaning on the legionary fort’s walls around midnight. Hoping for good work today!
Got the copyedit of “Princess’ Crusade” back with the typical thousand corrections. As always, a humbling experience. But this time, also a vital one.
After my little so-called vision as to where my current MS, “Empress’ Crusade” might be leading me, I was increasingly aware that I was having trouble keeping my future history dates in my head. When the PC edit came back and at three times pointed out and asked “is this date correct? is her age correct?” I realized that, even though I’ve been shown some very interesting things about Faustina and the young man who is the Mayor of Huntsville, I have to sit myself down and draw up a proper timeline of all primary and secondary characters, what has already happened, and what I think will happen. “EC” is going to unfold over two in-book years and I cannot have my readers jerked out of the story saying, “that makes no sense… the timing is all wrong!”
Below the fold is what I was able to get down following the triumph. A little politics, a little romance (maybe?), and a swim across the Tennessee River. Hope everyone who is sheltering in place has ordered copies of my books to keep them entertained!
Stephen Zimmer is one of the hosts of The Star Chamber Show as well as one of my copyeditors. Wednesday’s was a call-in free-for-all to which he invited me. I was pleased, one, that I was sober enough to be coherent at 2100 EST, and, two, that I was able to both contribute to the conversation and draw upon the experience of those who have been at the writer business far longer than I. Looks as if I’m getting into the audio-book biz!
Link is here. I make my appearance right around the 14:30 mark or so and keep an oar in the water all the way to the end. Enjoy!
machciv 