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!
A little more exposition of what Faustina seemed needed, so I brought an expert. They have things out pleasantly. Next, hopefully tomorrow, will be the formal celebration of the victory at Savannah. Why do I think my main character has some surprise in mind?
Wherein Faustina shows just a little of the iron in her otherwise sweet little girl persona. I know I mention a dinner and another meeting but I think those will happen in the background and be alluded to by her while she frantically recruits and trains another 12,000 men.
Also below the fold is a poor map of what her world looks like, right now. The red areas are the city-states that survived the Breakup or, in the case of Huntsville, were rebooted shortly after. The blue region is what Faustina conquered in “Princess Crusade” (available soon!) and is under her personal dominion. The blue arrows will probably be her main axis of attack toward Vicksburg. But there will be many, many marches and counter-marches to bring the locals of the old Deep South under her control.
Who doesn’t love a meeting? Besides, that is, every normal person on Earth? Still, no matter what form of government you have, consensus among those who actually run things is critical for longevity of the oligarchy. And all governments, everywhere, are oligarchy.
In this first part we find Faustina’s success in Savannah to already be destabilizing to the powers-that-be of Greater Knoxville. The issues here are internal. Part two, this weekend, will be external. I wasn’t sure where our main character was headed, but out of the mouths of babes, little Aurelia had it right back in the latter parts of “Princess’ Crusade.”
Looked over my notes for a-while this morning (another day off; work the next three) and saw PART 1: KEEP HUMAN circled. My handwriting so I guess I was drunk. Imagine. Still, per my Lenten oath to not only complete the MS for “Empress’ Crusade” but also to make it more Christian than its predecessor, I’m trying to keep the opening parts of this story in that vein.
My other, more coherent notes, speak to Faustina chatting with MacRae, (check) and Reina. As she’s the machine who will end up as Acting Prime Minister of the Russian Empire (should I have said *spoiler warning*? oops) that is not “keeping it human.” So, instead, I saw Fussy’s nurse drop in at the legionary fort to check up on her.
One of my other scrawled notes was “eugenics.” That plus Faustina is not something I want to think about right now.
The design contest for the cover of my short story collection, “Empire’s Agent” is complete. I hope to have a proof copy in my hands in less than a week and a commercial release days after that.
At 57k words I have passed the MS of “American Imperium: Princess’ Crusade” onto one of my new copyeditors. He’s a little spastic about “?!” punctuation but I like the cut of his jib. Once “Empire’s Agent” is loose in the wild I shall likely begin another cover design contest. Tricky: the main character, 18-year old Faustina, spends half the book in a hospital bed with 2nd degree burns and no hair. Not the stuff for an eye-catching cover, is it?
And… speaking of Faustina: if there’s a part one, there better be a part two. Below the fold is the opening scene of “American Imperium: Empress’ Crusade.” Faustina is utterly full of herself and as arrogant “af” – as the kids say. I wanted to start things slow and humble. I have tiny, faint glimpses of where she might be going, but I won’t know until she gets there. Enjoy the ride with me!
Faustina gives Wei a precis about ‘the machines home,’ the virtual world that dates back to the opening pages of my first novel, The Fourth Law. After that, Fussy’s relief is palpable when her godmother finally makes her appearance but as human minds are easily stressed in such an environment, it is soon time to go.
The little bit at the end, about Fuzhou, surprised me. I really do wonder if there’s a blood connexion between them. They’ll let me know if they want to, I guess.
After this – for my two days off this week – I’m going to try two big speeches: the first is Faustina to her senior centurions and the second to her assembled legions. I’m pretty sure about the former but the latter is still in fog. Praying for a clearer sky.
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!
machciv 