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.
Tag: ideas
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!
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.
More Jaw-Jaw
I’d seen the middle of this scene, where Faustina and Willis are talking, over the weekend but had no idea how they came to be standing there. Even with a little trouble at my DayJob, I was able to come home and write down how this parley came to happen. I remain concerned about the forces on Willis’s left, at the north end of his line. Are his conscripts riotous or are the Chekists stirring things up? Will Fussy present a treaty in two hours or start shelling them? I have no idea and, having to go back to work 2nd shift today, won’t know until, I hope, sometime Thursday.
Letters and a bath
About a generation ago, when I was a regular reader of James Lilek’s The Bleat, something he said stuck with me (and I paraphrase from memory): “do you mind if I smoke? No one ever said no in the pre-WWII years, simply because daily baths were such a rarity. It was closer to the truth to reply ‘I’d rather smell tobacco than you.'”
Something lost in our ultra-hygienic world is what the past smelled like, especially each other. Beyond exposure to those curry-radiating Pajeets who make deliveries, the idea of smelling other people is a lost concept to modern, Western whites.
I honestly don’t know what prompted Faustina to realize that she stunk as much as the men about her, but I had to smile at her feminine, human, reaction. I think if someone had pointed out to her she was acting like a ‘normie,’ she would have bit their head off. Perhaps this is the story telling me that she might not ultimately be lost to us, after all?
Battle of Winona, second end
It’s been a big day for Faustina but there are thousands of details to resolve after a battle, as she is discovering. One thing she has learned from history is that speed is an army’s great strength: if you can appear where you opponents never expected you to be, you are inside their OODA and halfway home to winning.
Happy Easter
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*.
Bloodlines
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.
machciv 